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12/25 |
2003/9/12-13 [Politics/Domestic/Immigration, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:10168 Activity:nil |
9/12 Interesting article in today's WSJ about legal/illegal Latino immigration to Europe. At least part of it is the result of tightened border security in the US, and Europe has a different take on it. Some welcome it as an alternative to help thwart illegal muslim immigration (potential terrorists). Other factors include a shortage of younger workers, workers know Spanish, etc. Spain allows citizenship after 24 mos. because of special relationship with latin america which is a lot better than the previous special relationship in the america's of taking your land and calling you a foreigner (or heathen, etc). \_ Oh? Taking the Spanish speaker's land in America? Excuse me, but that requires an immediate "fuck you". Who do you think the Spaniards stole it from along with a healthy dose of torture, murder, rape, slavery, theft, looting, and fire, to say nothing of intentionally and systematically obliterating the once highly advanced cultures that were here before the Spanish and their descendants. I have no pity or sympathy for anyone trying to use that "they stole our land from us!" line when right now they're still oppressing the Indians in southern Mexico and putting the final touches on wiping out the few remaining tribes hiding out in the deeper forests further south. Learn some history then you can come back here trolling about the poor oppressed Spanish speakers and how "their" land got "stolen". \_ hello, spittle-emitter, you totally missed his point. \_ Yeah, but what a great rant! \_ Perhaps the irony of the peoples of latin america immigrating to Europe caused a short-circuit in your neural synapses causing you to become a "spittle-emitter". \_ Aren't Mexicans Indians? \_ Mexicans are a mix of Aztecs and Spaniards. \_ Largely. Conquered by the Spaniards. (Of course, Bustamonte for example isn't--he's a pure-bred Spaniard.) \_ Aren't Spaniards just Arabs that converted to Christianity? \_ So they aren't really caucacians or "white"? \_ Emotional statement of fact. Mexico is run by an aristocracy involved in rural cleansing of the poor / troublemakers. Where do they send them - here for course. Although casting the Indians as the victims is a little far fetched. \_ How is casting Indians as victims in any way far fetched? Have you read or heard *anything* about what's going on in the southern states? Anything at all? |
2003/9/11 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:29532 Activity:high |
9/10 http://CNN.com story - "A UK-based Islamist group is planning a conference on September 11 hailing the suicide attackers who killed thousands in New York and Washington as "The Magnificent 19." http://csua.org/u/49e \_ The UK is a known haven for anti-Western Islamic forces. This 'conference' shouldn't surprise anyone. \_ let's fly a plane into their conference \_ that's a good idea. \_ the Islamist group's web site is down. doesn't respond to pings. why can't these arabs keep their websites up? |
2003/9/5 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:29521 Activity:nil |
9/5 Is Bush going to take back the "bring it on" comment he made? With the number of people dying everyday I'd say that the bad guys have really brought it on. I hope the french and the germans force bush to take back that statement before signing on to any UN resolution. \_ take back the one statement? I'm sure the french and germans prefer the $ talking. After all, $ is why the U.S. is asking for UN support. \_ "take it back"?!? what like apologise? 1) That would never happen 2) It would be a totally empty gesture. "I'm really sorry" is going to get the world what exactly? Bring people back to life? Restore US credibility? Maybe the French will say "it's all good, here's a few billion Euro" ??? \_ You're right. Resignation would be so much more appropriate. \_ You have just been trolled. Thank you, come again! \_ Oh my the casualties are staggering! Shows how young and naive you are. |
2003/8/29-2004/2/14 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:29518 Activity:high |
2/13 Is there a flush lever on those Green French toilet contraptions? \_ No, because the French think their shit doesn't stink. \_ RACIST! |
2003/8/29 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:29515 Activity:nil |
8/29 French Propose Their World Order "Using force is often tempting," he said, but "can only be justified if collective security or urgent humanitarian needs require it." Force must be "a last resort," and "only when the international community, through the Security Council, decides." http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/972919/posts |
2003/8/20 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel] UID:29399 Activity:high |
8/19 http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac10.htm I'm not a rabid Israel hater like some on the motd, but I think this is a pretty good reminder that Israel is a state that was born from terrorism. However because they are "good terrorists" no one ever talks about it. The line between terrorist and freedom fighter is a shakey one. \_ 'Born from terrorism.' Pretty strong statement there. Are you sure you aren't rabid? |
2003/7/25-26 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Recreation/Music] UID:29138 Activity:low |
7/25 Kraftwerk is releasing a new album: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1004937,00.html \_ Touch my monkey. \_ Monkey, monkey, monkey! \_ Did you say sandwich monkey? |
12/25 |
2003/7/24 [Politics/Domestic/911, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:29128 Activity:nil |
7/24 I'd like to add another item to Germany's list of problems: idiocy. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23109558.htm The idea that 911 was some sort of US Government ordered attack especially after numerous previous attempts and statements by known terrorists is well beyond stupid. That enough people in the government could get together and pull this off without a leak is sheer insanity. That 20-30% of Germans feel this says they're either genetically defective or there's something in the water. Send in a UN Eco Squad to test the water immediately! Save the Germans from their own bad water supply before it's too late! \_ They're not idiots. They're just very...assertive as a whole and once they latch onto some notion, that's obviously fact. No more than any other country. -John \_ They latched on to the notion despite a huge body of evidence and history to the contrary. Brilliant. Did all the smart ones get weeded out in WWII? \_ a lot of germany does have pretty bad water. but i think there is value in the idea that the whitehouse influenced the attacks by providing hints. if you look at the New American Century, it doesn't sound like it's beyond those guys to do something like that. \_ influenced? Nonono, it says they believe the US Government planned and executed. \_ So what; 20% of Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth. -tom \_ Even if so, this is harmless. Germans thinking 911 was a US government conspiracy is not. \_ one stupidity doesn't justify or excuse another. \_ my point being, "people are stupid" is not specifically a German problem. -tom \_ stupidity is not a specific german problem, but it is a problem. and this particular german stupidity is dangerous and egregious. \_ yeah people are stupid in many places so it's ok!!!! you must work for the government. \_ this response indicates which side of the line you belong on. -tom \_ was there an insult in there somewhere? you can try harder than that. after lunch of course. \_ In addition 30% of Americans can't find Iraq on the maps and %68.22 of all statistics are made up ;) \_ There are 3 types of people in this world - those that can count and those that can't. \_ Americans being unable to find anything on a map has no bearing on anything. Germans thinking 911 was some bizarre US government conspiracy despite tremendous evidence to the contrary is dangerous because they make policy decisions and elect their leaders based on that stupidity which hurts us all. And no it isn't 68.22%. There are studies that show that 85% of all people who say some percentage of statistics are made up are making that up when we all really know it's only 38% of all statistics that are made up. |
2003/7/23-24 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:29114 Activity:very high |
7/23 Time to unionize. \_ unionize what? you need a job before you have a union. maybe you missed the part where most unions are giving huge concessions and letting their members get laid off these days? \_ concessions are usually given when the business is in serious trouble (e.g. airlines, auto industry, etc). however, even in troubling times, union's can still negotiate pay scale, benefits, no outsourcing to india/china/russia, and basically keep americans employed. Given that there are still legions of computer-related workers gainfully employed, they could flex their clout and be a power to be reckoned with in the company board room and washington. when the economy is going good, most people buy the company line that no union is necessary, but now we are in bad times, and ideas like unionizing starts to gain some appeal. Imagine what could happen if workers organized at Microsoft, HP, Sun, and IBM. \_ the same thing that happened to all those organized auto and steel workers in Detroit and Pittsburgh. -tom \_ the same thing that happened to the organized auto and steel workers in Detroit and Pittsburgh. -tom \_ the job losses in Detroit could have been much worse without unions, and also protectionist measures brought on by both unions and the auto companies. \_ I imagine they'd send 90% of those jobs to India and the other 10% would take a pay cut to keep their jobs. That's what I imagine. Hello? Bad economy? Worker glut! The airlines, auto, etc industries have to put up with unions because they can't use Indian pilots and stewards or move auto production offshore (due to tariffs and protectionism). Your info job can be moved offshore quite easily because your physical location isn't meaningful for most IT jobs and since you're not dealing with the public directly (such as an airline steward) the public doesn't know or care if you or someone in Bombay wrote that line of code. And obviously the IT industry not only doesn't have protection like the auto industry but through the H1b and L programs the Feds are actually encouraging the use of non-citizens to destroy the local job base in IT. End the H1 and L programs and send the current H1/L people home and you'll have several job offers to choose from by the end of the same week. \_ Exactly! these programs won't end on their own because it directly benefits big business. The only way to change this is through organizations like unions. If companies continue to outsource their IP, they will lose in the end. These foreign companies will in essence take over since they have such low costs. The future Bill Gates of india/china/russia should be very happy about now. \_ Unions won't stop H1b/L programs. Only lobbying will. Unions are anti-corporation. Lobbying = change gov't policy. It's nice to see you understand the underlying issue if not the correct solution. \_ anybody have a copy of that picture of Bill Gates getting the red dot in the forehead in India? That epitomizes the future of the tech industry. \_ Wrong. A lot of Indian tech outfits are moving production to China/Vietnam. First, 'production' is the key word. The concept of an economic 'core' and 'periphery' assumes that production of goods/services which have matured (see steel and electronics) move to places that have better economies of scale. Note how production of TVs and toasters moved out of the US--did that kill the US electronics industry? Next, you'll never get rid of 'on-the-ground' services. Bad example, but still somehow fitting, is Mango, a Spanish clothing chain. They produce in Spain, which is pricier than, say, Malaysia, but lets them get new requirements to market quicker. The argument against this is that we're talking about information rather than goods, but face time will always be important. As for unions, look at Germany as a good case study for why unions in their current state (note my wording) are a dead duck. They kill the economy by refusal to adapt or provide up-to-date services to members, and are really only relevant to an ever-shrinking pool of 'grunt' workers. I realize this is an over- generalization, but suggesting unionization as a solution to the migration of tech jobs and mistreatment of tech workers is kind of a dead end. -John \_ The German worker is the most productive and highly paid in the world. He also works less than anyone but the French. This is hardly an argument against unionization. The German economy is not doing that well, but the German standard of living is high and there is almost no poverty. Germany's biggest problem is due to their unwillingness to admit enough immigants to overcome the demographic problem of the aging population. Re: unions, ask a carpenter, plumber, or electrician how unionization is working out for them. System administration is alot more like these skilled trades and would do well with a union. -ausman \_ "The German worker" includes white collar & service industry, which make up the majority of the German workforce. IGM and similar unions pushing for the 35-hour week represent a small, obsolete, and shrinking percentage of the German workforce. In addition, the German economy is one of the slowest growing in Europe, coasting on the success of the last 50 years. So no, my original point stands. -John \_ The American worker is the world's most productive by far, not the German. Germany's economy is deep in the shitter for many reasons such as population aging, overly generous benefits and pension plans, lack of immigration and excessively high taxes to pay for everything. It's a vicious cycle spiraling ever downwards. Their current batch of politicians understands this and is trying to do something about it without losing their own jobs. The people are screaming bloody murder of course. I don't think they'll recover until they've had a complete economic collapse and all government services simply cease. Then they can invade France. :-) \_ THe unemployment rate is 25% in parts of Germany. \_ They have also been saddled with the former East Germany situation. Anyway in my opinion, Europe's concern with standard of living is the way to go. What's wrong with tariffs and protectionism against slavedriver countries? \_ You are simply wrong. Productity (output per hour worked) is slightly higher all over Europe than in the US. Do a google search and you will see. Unemployment is high because of labor saving techniques and the use of things like robots, which Germany is #1 in the world. The only thing America excels at is in the total number of hours worked. To me, that is a good argument for unions, not against them. I sure wish I had six weeks of vacation a year. -ausman \_ Jim, once again you are basing your statement on a blanket definition of 'the German worker'. This does not apply to the (unionized) blue collar sector, and their unemployment cannot simply be chalked up to mechanization. A large part of it is employers balking at the pension burden imposed by government labor laws. In addition I should mention that compared to US or UK organizational culture, my experience with German white collar workers has shown a markedly lesser bent towards efficiency. -John \_ I bow to John's superior knowledge and personal experience at this point and simply say, "Yeah! What John said! That's right!" --other person \_ I was gonna let this thread die at that, but I came back from lunch and cannot resist it. Unemployment in West Germany is 8.1% and falling. Contrast that to the USA, which is at 6.4% and rising and has 1-2% of the labor pool in prison. I don't know what the problem with East Germany is. Got any urls to back up the blue collar vs. white collar productivity statement? I cannot find anything with casual googling and everything I have read in The Economist tends to indicate otherwise. -ausman \_The rate varies widely across the country. In Bavaria that may be the case, in Berlin its 25%+. Maybe the German's I know are lying - what is your source. http://www.arbeitsamt.de/hst/services statistik/english/s002e.pdf _/ I am pretty sure Berlin qualifies as "East Germany" -ausman \_ The problem isn't the unemployment. The problem is the doomed pension system, coupled with an incredible income tax rate (>50%) and an overly bureaucratic system hostile to innovation. -John and an overly bureaucratic system hostile to innovation. And yes I do know a lot about the German economy because I live next door and follow the situation fairly closely. Germany's economy is seriously broken, by their government's own tacit admission. And yes, they're too gutless to fix it (which would mean some serious pain all around.) -John \_ We can have a discussion about the effect of tax rates on long term economic growth another time. I think how government money is spent is more important than how much though. See Sweden vs US for an interesting case. All of the big economies have the pension problem and all will end up having to solve it the same way (raising the retirement ago) imo. Dunno about the bureaucracy, but in the past Germany has prided itself on its union/corporate co-operative culture. Now I really have to stop participating in this and get some work done! -ausman \_ Sweden? Are you trying to say they don't have economic problems similar to Germany (albeit on a smaller scale as they are a less populous country)? Sweden isn't exactly a hotbed of innovation or growing economic power. At least Germany has something to recover back to if/after their economy collapses. Sweden? Too small, no real industry, insufficient base of people in the labor pool, and on and on and on.... I'd bet 5 bucks on Germany doing better 20 years from now than Sweden. --other person |
2003/7/23 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:29110 Activity:nil |
7/22 Am I the only one, or does http://cnn.com's coverage of Uday/Qusay resemble the Starship Troopers patriotism commercials, especially when the soldiers find the Brain Bug, except this time it's U.S. troops surrounding the Hussein brothers and celebrating? \_ a lot of the propaganda for that film was inspired by nazi and italian fascist propaganda. -sax \_ Of course, that all really misses the point of Heinlein's vision of the United States in the book...but since I haven't seen my copy in months or years, what would I know? \_ yeah, patriotism is a bad thing, down with gov't! if u hate it so much, leave. I hear Canada is looking for people \_ You go first, take your menorah with you. We don't like dying for your kind in the desert. \_ Dude...nationalism != patriotism. Confusing the two is stupid and often destructive to the values this country was supposed to have been built upon. \_ What exactly is nationalism? \_ yes, mindless patriotism is a bad thing. every nation in the world has patriotism and nationalism. if being and American just means blind faith in the stars and stripes to you, it is you who should go move somewhere else. \_ "Remember: Service Guarantees Citizenship" |
2003/7/14-16 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:29025 Activity:low |
7/13 What are the hotel chains operating in Germany and scandinavian countries, similiar in comfort level to motels in the U.S. and Etap in europe?? Searching the web gives too many (bad) answers. (Yes, I know there are etaps in Germany but am looking for more choices.) \_ There are also some Formule 1 (French chain). Your best bet is probably some small pensions, though. -John \_ If you can afford a little bit more, there are Courtyard by Marriott hotels which is clearly an American chain as well. \_ Mercure is in Germany at least. |
2003/7/4-5 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Computer/SW/OS/Solaris] UID:28923 Activity:nil |
7/3 The BLOB: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3039102.stm New Solaris System found: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3041220.stm |
2003/7/3 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28908 Activity:nil |
7/2 LURD Performs Ritual To Hold Ganta -Buries Alive Girl, Cow http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/939538/posts \_ you read free republic. \_ we all know that it's ecchang posting all the free republic links. \_ wrong -op \_ wow, you are pathetic. you delete my freeper post and replace your own. |
2003/7/2 [Transportation/Car, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28904 Activity:high |
7/2 Europe is a strange place: http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,2763,989078,00.html \_ I think you mean, "Europe is a cool place." \_ Util you're hit by a guy having sex with a hitch hiker at road speed on the highway. \_ They're talking about the autobahn here. If a nation has already shown they're stupid enough to have no speed limit, why stop there? Besides, I don't think oral sex while driving is that bad, as long as the driver is the recipient. It's better than the asses who try to read in the car. \_ What was the name of the movie where Robin Williams rams his car into the back of his wife's car while she's going down on some kid? You're right. It's not that bad. \_ The World According to Garp Seriously though, if you can drive and not be distracted by a good solid dick sucking then either you're broken or you need a new lover. |
2003/7/1 [Politics/Domestic/Crime, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28880 Activity:nil |
7/01 http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,5500,987933,00.html Okay I have a UK report to share too. This one about lockdown and reprogramming of U.S. youths. I'm sure you'll all be most enthused. \_ US youths need re-education. They need to learn how not to be members of criminal gangs and how to read, write, do arithmetic, show up to work consistently, and not have kids during teen years. \_ RACIST! \_ So you probably didn't read the article, which depicts brainwashing techniques straight out of Red China. I agree with you regarding what kids should and shouldn't be doing, but this definitely isn't the way to acheive it. \_ Yup, all US youths are thugz and smooth criminals. Right. |
2003/7/1 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28876 Activity:high |
6/30 It's only war crime when someone else is doing it... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3035296.stm \_ Perhaps because it is not in our nation's best interest to defer to vague international bodies on this or any other matters? Also, while you're chewing over that consider that the US has a real court system, a culture that creates citizens opposed to any sort of war crime (in fact, the US invented the concept), and given that any body that lacks the power to enforce it's edicts is useless so is the ICC. The US is the only thing that gives the UN or any other similar entity any authority. If we withdrew and ignored all of these pesky little socialist clubs they'd all collapse. I'm not sure if you were trolling or you actually believe in all these silly little multinational oddities but they do not and in fact can not work as you might wish. There is no such thing as 'international law' outside the fantasies of certain anti-American Europeans (France, Belgium, Germany) and the Blame America First crowd in the US. -xyz \_ Of course it's not in the purity temple's interest to submit to foreign oversight. They're all terrorists. Probably have weapons of mass detruction too. Let's nuke them, because any nation that threatens another... \_ If you had a real response instead of knee jerking I'd be happy to discuss it with you. -xyz \_ bye bye "isolationism" -- being sold with the same rationale1 bravo doublespeak miracles from the new reich! \_ I'm not in favor of isolationism. Submitting to the will of Eurocrats and the third world is not the only way to participate in the world. -xyz \_ Most countries' citizens are opposed to war crimes, except that they tend to overlook the crimes when it's committed by their own country. It is the same for US. That's why we need UN. - fgh \_ It is in our nation's best interest to work through international bodies rather than act like a gung-ho cowboy. US is suffering from classic overextension, and its strength is overrated. Our military rules but it is resulting in huge budget deficit, and putting a huge drag on our tired economy. States are close to bankrupt, trade deficit is soaring, fed has no more room to cut interest rate. US economy is supported by asian nations buying US treasuries, stocks and US dollars. That should not be something we should count on forever. - abc |
2003/6/25-26 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28840 Activity:high |
6/25 http://csua.org/u/3dc The European Union crazies try to turn the world upside down! This is great stuff. It's so funny watching them destroy themselves. \_ Please shorten your url using http://csua.org/u \_ And surrender my god given right to motd anonymity? \_ then use tinyurl. It is faster and works better anyway. \_ That's simply infantile and self-destructive everyday stuff. The thing that's _really_ worrisome is the EU's fairly quick knuckling- under to US State Dept. rules "suggested" for non-US governments that require things like biometric identifiers in all forms of ID and passports, automatic handover of data on all airline passengers to the US the moment they leave the ground, and the placement of US customs agents in European ports. If you're just looking for the usual silly shit, search for regulations dealing with the curvature of bananas and the likes. -John \_ Biometrics? Nothing wrong with that. The current ID systems are so worthless that identify theft has become common place, destroying the lives of the victims. Automated handover of who is on a flight to the US? Uhm, hello? So what? And what's wrong with Americans screening visitors to America? Give up the Swiss passport and return home before you're completely brainwashed. \_ Wow, you're calling John brainwashed? Just wow. \_ Yes. I knew him when he was an American and didn't spend half his posts talking about his Swiss passport. \_ Don't you have to have a brain to be brainwashed? \_ there are no EU regulations concerning the curvature of bananas. -crebbs \_ http://www.quebecoislibre.org/020119-6.htm \_ That's great. My statement stands. The fact that some media (or in this case some interest group) reports \_ That's great. My statement stands. At the risk of having been trolled, I will attempt some education: That some media (or in this case some political group) reports something doesn't make it so. I notice that page refers to other specific EU regulation numbers when mentioning other (presumably real) silly Euro rules, but does not be that there are not regulations concerning the curvature of bananas? (surprise surprise) mention the regulation when referring to the banana thing. That would be (in case you missed it) because there aren't any. -crebbs \_ So I take it you are in favor of demeaning women and offending human dignity, is that it? \_ Hi troll! Yes, I am. I'm also in favor of more hot chicks on page 3 and eliminating actuarial tables so the insurance industry is destroyed and no one has any insurance anymore. Or maybe the government can insure all the citizens and pay for it with a tax increase. I'm guessing that raising taxes by 40% should do it. \_ Dona botta me mang, Imma onna da dole! 40% of nutin is nutin. \_ We can tax your unemployment. \_ Oh, that poor fragile highly profitable insurance industry! They'd never stoop to taking goverment handouts if they were about to lose money for a quarter! \_ You're an idiot. I don't know about Europe but in the US the insurance companies take a bath everytime there's an earthquake, flood, or hurricane. If it wasn't for Federal help, there'd be no insurance companies. \_ So I am a troll for responding to your troll... Uh huh. |
2003/6/22-23 [Recreation/Pets, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28806 Activity:low |
6/22 I *knew* it! I knew they were tapping my brain with electrical waves! http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1330758&nav=168XGVQf \_ protect yourself now: http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html |
2003/6/12 [Politics/Foreign, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28710 Activity:nil |
6/11 All Hail the UN Congo observers slaughtered after 6 days of unanswered pleas to U.N. for rescue http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/927398/posts \_ This is hardly news. It's the UN. Duh. \_ Those poor observers. Must be because they are not westerners, so no one cared about their lives. |
2003/6/4 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28626 Activity:high |
6/2 Any independent contractors out there? Are you finding work these days? \_ Yes. But I'm in Europe. There is a lot of international contract work for experienced specialists, but much of it is through UK agencies, which are slimier than most (and currently there's a far higher proportion of headhunters just harvesting resumes than I've elsewhere.) If that doesn't bother you, jobserve.co.uk is a good start. -John \_ How hard was it for you to get work authorization in Europe? \_ Very. The US is the easiest country in the world to get a permit as an alien. Europe and certain Asian countries are near impossible. They have their own job loss issues. What do they need you there for taking up a job of a local? |
2003/5/24 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28542 Activity:nil |
5/25 France was crying foul when Hitler occupied France. Yet after Ally's victory, France turned around continue its occupation of Algeria and so-called Indo-China. What justified French occupation of its "interest" while condemn the Nazi Germany for doing the same thing? What is the differences between Nazi dumping Jews to ghettoss versus USA dump its Japanese decents to concentration camp? Is the fact that USA and France is a democracy justify these policies? |
2003/5/24 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28540 Activity:very high |
5/25 More on US racist imperialism 20TH CENTURY DEMOCIDE http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM \_ this is a good site in terms of murder by government statistics, but like (it often seems) everyone, they just aren't too bright. I'm sick of hearing this drivel about how "democracies" don't fight one another. \_ what's the most destructive war you can think of in which both sides were democracies? \- how many democracies were there in the world between 1648 and 1945? --psb 1648 and 1945? how many democracies were there in the year 1812? --psb \_ world war II, Hitler was democratically elected as was mussolini. Finland was a democracy at the time they were fighting on the side of Germany et. al. The whole idea is just stupid. It is more true and slightly less meaningless to say "countries with mcdonald's in them don't go to war against each other." That is to say that countries with stong economic interdependencies and countries with similar cultures, are less likely to \- the interdependence theory [sic] is pretty iffy. in fact it isnt really a theory. does it apply to france and england since 1066? were the alliances of the peloponessian was explained by "cultural and econ ties"? how about the post 1945 relations between the US, Su and China? and of course the war of 1812 again. the main problem is like that with freudian theory ... it's hard to test because it is so vague. it's not so much right or wrong but either meaningless or more charitably an assertion not a theory. (see APSR Dec97,pp913-917) the %GDP in exports in 1900 was quite high ... that level wasnt equalled for almost 50yrs after ww2. remember states (should) seek security. interdependence (often) means vulnurability. do you think germany and japan liked being "interdependent" on other countries for oil in the 1930s? there is a huge lit on this since kohane and nye book. e.g. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/copeland.htm --psb go to war; but the idea of being a democracy somehow magically keeping you from making war on other democracies is just stupid. \_ They were elected but then took over and made them into 100% dictatorships. They were not democracies in any sense of the word by the time any shooting started. I'm so tired of know nothing smart asses like you spouting off like you know something. This isn't a dorm lounge chat at 3am about whether or not God exists. It's the motd and you can't get away with making up shit like that here. \_ dear moron, i notice you didn't address Finland. Also I can name a number of other examples of democracies \_ Finland was a semi-autocratic nation under Field Marshal Mannerheim at the time. Likewise, it was not a case of 'two democratic nations', as their alliance with the Germans was a logical continuation of being invaded by the USSR in 1939 and losing >10% of their territory. Your point about nukes is wrong, and your historical points are shaky. Likewise, your list of criteria about nations with residual totalitarianism below will find few applications in modern Europe. Plus, 'dear moron' is not a way to win arguments. Just some free advice. -John fighting one another, but you will just explain all of them away until you are left making some stupid statement which boils down to "Europe hasn't had any warfare since world war II". (btw, the reason for this is simple: NUKES). I was asked for the "most destructive" example and i gave it. It is not the best. It was the most destructive though. Asking to specify "the most destructive" is practically an admission of defeat already. If you don't accept democratically elected govenments that turn dict. then you prob. don't accept countries with nominal/residual monarchy or countries with slavery/without universal suffrage with makes the NUMBER of democracy/years in existence pretty damn small with which to be making sweeping generalizations like this. Of course, a complete lack of data points (or intelligence) has never been enough to stop Poly Sci folks from spouting nonsese. \_ aristotle hated democracies cos he felt it ruined athens. caused them the wwar. \-how is this relevant? i'm tempted to say this is wrong, but it is really more correct to say this is meaningless. --psb \_ Very well stated. who is this? -scotsman \_ Exactly. There may be some anecdotal evidence that \- it's not "anecdotal evidence". it's an issue of is it a "mere corrletation" or is there a causal explanation. and then is the data fudged on the correlation at all. --psb democracies don't go to war with one another, but if you consider why countries go to war, there is no reason a democracy wouldn't go to war with another democracy. \_ Ooo Yea baby! I've been waiting to hear this for some time. \_ And you're incapable of typing it yourself? \_ Too hard for me. \-Hello, YMWTS: ~psb/DemoWar.commentarii. --psb \_ How about adding another counfounding variable: the deep fear of war European nations (where a large number of the world's democracies are) had after WWI and WWII, which broke down the barriers for greater efforts at integration such as the EU. Or is that weak? \- What are you trying to explain? yes weak. "fear went down" is not an explanation; it is an assertion. why didnt the EC happen after the "fear went down" after napoleon was defeated? the concert of europe was a very different answer than the EC. how about "the frenchies stopped fearing someone capturing paris again aftger developing their "force de frappe". on the period between ww1/2 see EHCarr 20 yrs crisis. that is a damn good book and Keynes: Econ Conseq Peace. On the point of everything being warm and fuzzy among the euro-allies: what do you think is more likely: --brit/france turn over their nuke arsenals to a "EC joint nuke command" --"team player germany" builds its own nukes. now it is possible neither will happen in the next 20yrs, but if you were a betting man, which would you bet on? --psb \_ But but but, isn't it true that the nationalism and naitional rivalry among European nations as seen in the earlier half of the 20th century very much went away? Isn't that part of the reaction to the horrors of WWI and WWII? Or do you there a better theory for it? \_ To add to it, another coun |
2003/5/13-14 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28425 Activity:high |
5/13 http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/05/13/microsoft.hoax.ap/index.html \_ just another example of how microsoft announces a product they don't intend to finish, just to fuck people over. \_ fuck over who exactly? anyway, the truth is they put this out there to see how people would respond and everyone made fun of them so they dropped it and retracted. if the response had been positive they sure as hell would've done it. it wasn't a hoax. \_ Okay, now that's just weak. Why use a sexual reference when a scatalogical one would be so much better? \_ I'm devastated that i won't get to brows the net while I dump. \_ bring your own keyboard \_ womens restrooms have dual purpose mousepads \_ MS clarifies: Actually, it wasn't a hoax. link:www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/5852697.htm \_ Maybe it was originally a US idea. Then after it got laughed at so much, they blaimed it on the UK division. \_ Blame the French! |
2003/5/5-6 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28331 Activity:nil |
5/5 Has anyone noticed problems with getting parts through customs which were ordered from France or Germany? -waiting for parts \_ they're on the 'helping the terrorists' list. |
2003/4/30 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/Asia/India] UID:28270 Activity:kinda low |
4/30 http://nypress.com/16/18/news&columns/cage.cfm \_ Nice. In all fairness, description as follows: Scathing Op/Ed piece on NYTimes' lack of journalistic integrity. |
2003/4/29-30 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28258 Activity:very high |
4/28 "Remember, I am above Internation Law" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2983911.stm \_ I'm not sure that the reporter did all their homework here. I remember hearing about this being planned a few weeks ago, and that Belgium had changed their law to prevent exactly this from happening. I don't believe this is a credible new news story. \_ Ah, the gauntlet is thrown down. A Belgian suing a non-Belgian for doing stuff outside of Belgium, by Belgian law. Can't we just make that illegal, and the two bizarro-laws will cancel out? \_ how come you weren't bitching when Serbian leader were on trial? \_ The motd is not the only forum I participate in. Additionally, the court for Milosevic was convened by multiple countries, after massive attrocities were exposed and he was deposed. It wasn't a random person in country A suing him. \_ we don't participate in your other forums so it doesn't count for shit here. So you seem to think that as long as multiple countries want to try the leader of another country it's ok? Or only after he loses an election? \_ Um, Milo. was deposed by force. You remember the bombing campaign that Clinton authorized without the approval of anyone else? \_ He was voted out. \_ Given the precedent of s/France|French/Freedom/g, anyone want to guess what Belgium|Belgian will be replaced with? \_ haven't you read Douglas Adams? Belgium is the worst word there is. \_ Which book is this in? I've read most of the books, but I don't remember anything about this. \_ One of the original three HGttG books. \_ Bravery waffles! \_ chocolate floormat? \_ Nothing. Except for the random international burping like this no news comes out of Belgium. They only do shit like this so we don't forget they exist. They have no power so no one cares. \_ France has no power (except in gourmet and fashion circles), yet we do stupid shit like French = Freedom. \_ Wow, Mommy bred 'em pretty willing to shoot off their mouths without knowing a damn thing didn't she? Read up a little son. We all wish France was powerless but it just isn't so. They are simply less powerful than the US or the UK. They are every bit as sleazy. \_ The US/UK isn't at all sleazy. Both have plenty of problems but sleaze isn't one of them. |
2003/4/28-29 [Reference/BayArea, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28252 Activity:low |
4/28 Am I the only one who's noticed that if you compare the map of Middle Earth to the U.S. Mordor is right where Texas is? \_ It's New Zealand \_ And if you compare it to Europe, it's France. \_ No, it's more like ... Austria. \_ Yes, you are because it would take some serious drugs and a hard core blind hatred of a passing political figure to see that. If it was the bay area, it'd be San Jose. So what? \_ my hatred of Bush is not so blind, I have plenty of valid reasons. \_ passing political figure? you mean Bush? pah! I'd associate him as much with New England as with Texas. Texas just really really sucks. Try actually spending some time there, and you'll see that people don't hate texas because of some "passing political figure," they hate it because it's a fucking pit(except Austin). |
2003/4/22 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28184 Activity:insanely high |
4/21 Further evidence of how fucked up California, in particular SF, has become (a multicultural utopia). Bill would force hiring of cross-dressers http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32177 -ax \_ and the Klan has to hire them black people to do their organizing! \_ No bible shop is complete without a flaming queen cross dresser. \_ If you don't like California so much, why not move to a place more to your liking? I hear they kick some faggot ass up in Laramie, Wyoming. \_ Funny how when the other side says to folks, "America, love it or leave it", you lefties get upset but it's ok for you to blather out little lines like that. \_ Because "Love it or leave it" has an implicit threat. His question is formed as just that. A question. \_ good point! \_ I know you are but what am I? \_ A hypocrite if you're a "California, love it or leave it!" leftist. \_ I also love how you completely missed the reference to Matthew Shepard. \_ I didn't miss it. I ignored it because it was meaningless in this context. It may come as a shock to you but some people who don't share your politics read newspapers and watch cnn. \_ You don't know jack shit about what was here before 1960. Read a little history. This place has been a little different since the first tent went up in Yerba Buena. Of course straight idiots have decorated it from time to time. -- born here, been here. \_ actually that's not true. \_ You have no sense of history. Kerouac and the rest of the beatniks (a term coined by Herb Caen) were here in the 50's, and were attracted to the area by its alternative culture. -tom \_ Ding! Indeed. Also, read up on the suffrage movement, the hallucinigen researchers in the 30's and 40's, etc. My family has lived here since well before the turn of the century. California has always been "progressive", though I think a better term is "tolerant." --scotsman \_ Really? Tell that to the natives, the Spanish and the Mexicans. \_ Okay, granted, my use of the term "always" was ill-advised, but this comment is irrelevant to the current discussion. --scotsman \_ Not if you're a native, or Spanish or Mexican. The fact is this state has only been so-called 'progressive' if you're part of a big group that has votes, money, power, or some other form of control over the government and media. \_ California has been the land of the risk-takers and the eccentric since the gold rush in 1849. For example, Joshua Norton, a failed speculator on the rice market, flipped his lid in the 1850s and declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, becoming the first famous homeless person in San Francisco. Tourists from all over the country knew his name. He minted his own money, dissolved the union in the Civil War, and declared there should be a suspension bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco, at the time a ridiculous notion. He also was known for stopping a race riot, making him one of the earliest Bay Area activists. -brain \_ The gold-mad and profiteers are a big part of the story, but the Mormon settlement Brennan created amidst the Russian holdings can't be ignored when trying to understand how we found enough stability to keep the region from tearing itself apart. \_ What does some random insane guy from the 1800s have to do with modern politics in CA? \_ Not just any random insane guy. Over 10,000 people attended his funeral. \_ Yes, that still has nothing to do with anything regarding politics in CA in the last century. \_ HISTORY HAS NO EFFECT UPON THE PRESENT! NOTHING HAPPENED BEFORE 1900! HISTORY IS A LIE! \_ What's 1900? This is the year "03" and there aren't any non-positive years, right? \_ Idiot, don't put words in my mouth. I said no such thing and claiming it in ALL CAPS doesn't make it so. The funeral attendance for one insane guy from 150+ years ago has *nothing* to do with modern politics in this state. That is at best a minor footnote in the history of this state. Why do I respond to such infantile noise anyway? \_ They already have laws like this in much of Europe and somehow the sky hasn't fallen in there. -ausman \_ Really? Seen the unemployment rate in Germany and many other EU countries? Their economies are wrecked. Ours is doing fantastically well by comparison. Not only that but we have the additional burden of essentially being the EU military. Let's bring the troops home, let the EU defend themselves and see what happens. I bet the sky falls. \_ not discriminating against cross dressers leads to the economy falling apart? 4-6% are "discouraged" workers, which don't count in \_ Nice try. Go check the unemployment stats. I'll explain since you insist on being intentionally stupid: having an endless array of laws that restrict and over control the economy leads to inefficiencies which leads to a poor economy and high unemployment rates. See the Soviet Union for a great example of what should have been a power house economy collapsing in on itself due to over control and lack of incentive. \_ Hm, I suspect that you're neglecting to take into account that the Soviet Union was a massive military state. I'd be willing to bet that had more to do with it's complete collapse than 'over control'. -mice \_ The US was also a massive military state during the same period of time. Yet they collapsed and the US only grew stronger. \_ Not really. I can probably dredge up numbers if you care, but the soviet union was maintaining an active wartime economy for decades. Compare the relative sizes of the militaries for the US and Soviet Union in the late 80's. If my memory serves correctly (at least wrt to armor units) the Soviets had NATO outnumbered by a factor of 3-1 or something obscene like that. As a side note, I don't think the US has had a wartime economy since WWII, though I'm probably mistaken. You might also want to recall that the degree of corruption was obscene and certainly didn't help. \_ cross-dressing laws are like communism? go fucking read atlas shrugged five more tiems or something \_ I'm done responding to the intentionally stupid. If you don't have a real response, don't bother. I've been trolled enough by you and have given up trying to draw you into a real conversation on the topic. \_ I'll take that bet. \_ If you can get the troops home and get the EU to pay for their own defense I'd vote for you for President and happily concede the bet. \_ Don't kid yourself. GDP/hour worked has been increasing faster in Western Europe than in the US for over a generation. They also have more free time, longer, healthier lives and a more even income distribution. The US unemployment figures only look good because 2% of our working age population is in prison and another 2-6% are "discouraged" workers, which don't count in the official statistics. Germany and France are running favorable trade surpluses and have a smaller government deficit. I agree with you about bringing the troops in Europe home, though. We cannot afforde to subsidize European defence any longer. -ausman \_ Do you have figures for GDP/hour worked? Not the rate of increase but the raw value, like $x/1hour? What's x? Rates aren't that interesting if it'll take 50 years to catch up. \_ Unemployment in Germany in >25% in many areas (e.g. Berlin). The only commercially viable area is Bavaria. Most of Europe enforces a maximum work week of 35-40 hours to keep unemployment down - this is a sign of a strong economy? French and German pension liabilities are well in excess of their GDPs, and in France between 1/3 and 1/2 of all children under 10 are Muslim. Europe is economic powerhouse, indeed. Their are Muslim slums in France where the police do not ever go, they have lost complete control of these areas. |
2003/4/11 [Politics/Domestic/RepublicanMedia, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28092 Activity:high |
4/11 Saw a poll somewhere. U.S. people think our greatest threat is: 1) North Korea (~39%?) 2) Iraq (20 something percent) 3) France (7%) 4) China (5%) 5) Liechtenstein (17%) 6) Swaziland (pi%) \_ 5) Liechtenstein (17%) 6) Swaziland (pi%) \_ France? How did it get in this poll? \_ Dubya should end every speech with "And France must be destroyed". \_ Can you post the source please? \_ saw it as a news bulletin at the bottom of screen on fox news. \_ Threat may not be purely militaristic. |
2003/4/7 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:28019 Activity:very high |
4/5 French Football Signals http://www.jerhad.com/football.htm \_ I'm missing something about all this French-hating. France, Russia and China all threatened to veto the use of force in the UN security council. So why is everyone singling out the French? Because they are allies whos ass we saved in WWII? the same could be said for New Zealand, who is also opposed to the war. Perhaps you should boycott Return of the King when it comes out so you don't have to support kiwi-eating surrender monkeys. \_ I'm missing something about all this French-hating. France, Russia and China all threatened to veto the use of force in the UN security council. So why is everyone singling out the French? Because they are allies whos ass we saved in WWII? the same could be said for New Zealand, who is also opposed to the war. Perhaps you should boycott Return of the King when it comes out so you don't have to support kiwi-eating surrender monkeys. \_ Because the French not only spearheaded it but did really obnoxious and uniquely french things like saying they rejected a British compromise proposal to avert immediate war before the Iraqis had rejected it. If you'd been paying attention you would know "why the french?" \_ That's pretty funny \_ well, no. \_ Get a new sense of humor. It was fucking hilarious. \_ you're right! the french are cowardly and smelly! ha ha! \_ Hey, this is as funny as conservatives get, enjoy it while you can. \_ Silly boy, must everything with you be this bi polar conservative vs liberal nonsense? Maybe sometimes, just sometimes, something can be funny because it's just funny. This is one of those times. Laugh. The link is funny. -!op \_ Vote: funny . not funny .. \_ *laugh* a motd vote... ok, whatever. Did you run elections in Florida'00, too? |
2003/4/6-7 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/Asia/Others] UID:28007 Activity:insanely high |
4/5 What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is brought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy? - Gandhi \_ Gandhi was a British subject, disgruntled because he could not become an officer, who slept with preteen girls in the nude, was fixated on his own feces, gave tacit approval of the wholesale slaughter of Muslims after independence, advised the Jews of the Holocaust to go quietly, and was a supporter of the caste system. \_ Interesting; could you cite a few sources? \_ So what? Look up ad hominem. \- i imagine this is a troll, but in case it leaves some of with mistaken impressions: 1. he was a british subject as a consequence of birth. g. washington was also a british subject. 2. "couldnt not become an officer" ... "yes, g. washington also was disgruntled because he couldnt become archbishop of canterbury" 3. girls and feces ... feces not quite right. something possibly to the girl stuff. i dont think there was any accusation of molestation. YMWT(see) the play "gandhi vs. the mahatma". 4. muslim: the main reason i replied. that is 100% opposite to the actual state of affiars. 5. jews: dunno the answer there 6. caste system: more complicated than that People in india have much more complicated and diverse reactions and mpression of Gandhi in india. I dont think much of this particular quites but he has some others that much of this particular quote but he has some others that arent to be believed slavishly but worth thinking about. \_ You want a real answer? The answer is that it doesn't matter to the dead, but for millions of others who didn't get dead it matters a lot. It's a naive and childish but catchy little quote. \_ It matters to me, if I get a good paying job because the economy improves because market and consumer confience recovers because of a decisive military victory for whatever reason and because, in time, we will have virtually unlimited supply of fuel. \_ In time we will have a virtually unlimited supply of fuel, but not because of Iraq or the war. Rather the source will be our own waste coverted to fuel via a fast depolymerization process (see this month's discover for more info). \_ moron... in time, we will only be running out of fossil fuel. \_ The world has 2000-4000 years worth of coal, much of which is in the U.S. Probably a good 200 years of oil, also. I'm not advocating relying on fossil fuels, which is a bad idea for alot of reasons, but we're not running out any time soon. \_ on the contrary, estimates of oil reserves can vary widely. there are those who think oil will run out by the 2050's. I.e. well within your projected lifetime. \_ 2000+ years coal and 200 years oil!? Are you serious? URL for sources please? \_ I got those numbers from a UN report, which is available on the web, but I can't find it right now. if you're patient, I'll post it tomorrow, when I can ask the guy who showed it to me(I'll post it anyway.) |
2003/4/1-2 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27944 Activity:high |
4/1 Anyone have an english URL for Leslie Cheung today? \_ First result in Yahoo search: http://www.lesliecheung.com \_ http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2487595 (4/2) Yesterday I didn't realize why someone was asking for this until I watched the news last night. Sigh. \_ http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2487595 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2906999.stm others found by searching on http://news.google.com \_ It's on <DEAD>sjmercury.com<DEAD> \_ And http://www.sfgate.com |
2003/3/31-4/1 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27928 Activity:very high |
3/31 Apparently, having the Americans behind you is ever worse than having the French behind you: "Combat is what I've been trained for. I can command my vehicle. I can keep it from being attacked. What I have not been trained to do is look over my shoulder to see whether an American is shooting at me." "There was a boy of about 12 years old. He was no more than 20 metres (yards) away when the Yank opened up. There were all these civilians around." "After this I am quite pleased to be going home," one of the wounded, Lieutenant Alex MacEwen, told the paper. "'Blue-on-blue' has always been one of my biggest fears. It is something that my friends and family joked about. 'Don't worry about the Iraqis, it's the Americans you want to watch'. The proof is in the pudding really." (Times of London) \_ ...and the point is? That combat is dangerous? Than being on the front line with bombs falling, jets screaming over head, and incoming enemy fire is confusing? I think that ought to have been well established by now. \_ I think the point is, while the U.S. has spent a lot of time on U.S.-on-U.S. friendly fire, this hasn't translated to reduced U.S.-on-UK incidents. \_ Hmm, yeah I see what you mean -- but I don't care for the presentation. \_ Am still searching for a semantic thread ... \_ You misspelled 'semitic' \_ Who's ever had the French behind him? \_ You must've missed the putative Patton's remark about the French posted here the other day. \_ The US, or the American Colonies as they were known then. \_ Just from reading the news, it indeed seemed that the British casualties are disproportionally high, specially friendly-fire related. |
2003/3/31 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27923 Activity:high |
3/31 An old Iraqi woman shouted at an American invader in Nasiyria, "Go home, you have desecrated our land." She told him "Everybody will fight the invasion even our palm trees." Sources: reporter, Italian TV. What a stupid old hag! \_ you sure she wasn't yelling at the Italian reporter? |
2003/3/28 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27895 Activity:high |
3/28 "IF a coalition of French and Canadian forces invaded the United States with the intent to liberate Americans from the regime of George W. Bush, would you fight back?" -- Rob Morse in today's SF Chronicle \_ Hell no. Why would I fight to save Bush? \_ You want Chretien or Chriac instead? \_ Which Guy-in-Chair did they give the war? \_ Hell yes. The last thing this country or the world in general needs is the French running any more of it than they already do. \_ If this country was run by a nationalist socialist family run empire that holds power through death squads, torture and fear, then I'd welcome just about anyone. If it was the French, I'd make sure it was a short stay but they'd be welcome to shed their own blood for the duration. \_ Hah! No chance it would be the French. They'd leave you to twist, not in the wind, but in the pain of the grip of a family of torturers. |
2003/3/28 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27891 Activity:insanely high |
3/28 News of Foreign Sources: * Morale of US troops start to budge. Troops start to avoid certain color of candies as believed they bring bad luck * Some units of US troops' rations are reduced due to supply issue * 8 civilian death 33 injured in latest US bomb raid \_ Rather than posting from "Foreign Sources", how about you state where you got each bit of news, with a URL if it was from the web? Anyone can make shit up and post it on the motd. Also, I know anti-American propaganda and American defeatism isn't the only thing "Foreign Sources" are publishing yet I note that's the only thing you are posting. Sources would increase credibility. \_ Keep this up. Some (but by no means all) of this I haven't heard about, particularly after Al-Jazeera got shut down. Even the Guardian has been curiously monotonous about its coverage. -- ulysses \_ they will bring the 70,000 sunni kurds from the north. \_ Those damn green M&Ms. Gonna get laid? In this desert? Lying sacks of sugar. \_ That's funny. The army here ride these 40 year old 3-gear monsters that weigh a ton. Says something about how well they built them that they're still in use. -John \_ Did they report about those 40,000 gorillas from Brazil that Hitler is training to storm the Maginot Line, or the Gulf War Virus? \_ I hope the military equipped the soldiers with Linux. \_ I think you're joking but all of that equipment will need some sort of rudimentary operating system. Most of it is probably Wind River stuff but just imagine an army powered by M$ equipment....wait some recent news is starting to make sense... \_ "Windows: Famous for stranding billion-dollar battleships at sea." http://csua.org/u/bdc \_ They will all ride bike. \_ http://www.militarybikes.com/military.html \_ That's funny. The army here ride these 40 year old 3-gear monsters that weigh a ton. Says something about how well they built them that they're still in use. -John \_ Maybe they just can't afford new ones? Example, "It says something about the T-55 that it's still in use". \_ The paratroopers aren't as good as the old American and British bikes (I used to have a 35 yr old Raleigh) but they are still better than what passes for a "rugged" mtb these days. \_ Yes, keep posting. We want to know. |
2003/3/27 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27878 Activity:nil |
3/26 How are the US and UK troops integrating with each other? Namely, are British troops allowed to take orders from American officers, or vice-versa? \- yes \_ sure about that? I can't imagine US would allow its force under British command \_ There are some US marines in some odd ball 'report to the Brits but can go above their heads to an American if they don't like the orders' situation. And no, they don't like it. |
2003/3/27 [Recreation/Celebrity, Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27877 Activity:nil |
3/26 I am outside the US right now. Would you guys be interested in some other stuff I heard from non-US news media? \_ Sure, but what kind of motd poster asks before posting contriversial stuff? \_ a polite one? (a polite motd poster??) \_ Uhm, sure whatever but it's not like we don't have browsers and aren't reading the same stuff you're going to post. Us poor dumb provincials just don't know what's really going on and could use the help of European and Arab media to educatin' us! \_ Thanks. BTW we can also get non-US news media on Channels 26 and 32. |
2003/3/26 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27846 Activity:very high |
3/25 The difference between France and the US: The French "take" decisions, as in "they take it up the ass". Americans "make" decisions, as in "we make the dull rusty knife jammed up the French ass". \_ That's the stupidist thing I've ever heard. That's the kind of joke you'd expect from a kid in Junior High. Nice try, troll. \_ Junior High French covers the difference between "prendre une decision" and "faire une decision"? \_ Translated: Je suis un Americain stupide qui pense que le monde est simple et que les gens d'autres pays ne sont pas interessant penser environ. Tuez-moi, svp. \_ Yep, we Americans are a simple people. But at least we don't roll over and we keep faith with our friends. \_ Like Saddam Hussein, to whom we gave approval to invade Kuwait? \_ Uh, this is bullshit \_ Okay, then, like the Iraqis who rose up against Saddam after GW1 because we told them we'd support them militarily? \_ "I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me." - General George S. Patton \_ The french-germans-russians are responsible for every major conflict since Napoleon. Together, they have killed tens of millions. France was once a great nation, until all of soldiers and able bodied men were killed. Eventually, the only men left to repopulate were the queers and effet expresso sippers of Paris who were afraid to fight. We now see the result. Much of europe is dying, both economically and demographically. They will go the way of South America. There is a reason American ancestors left Europe. \_ Yes, we went east looking for better hunting grounds. Then we crossed a large icebridge and went south. Imagine our surprise when you bastards came over in your ships. \_ It should be French-Germans-Russians-Japanese. \_ France has usually been governed by prostitutes. - Mark Twain, Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879 French are the connecting link between man & the monkey. - Mark Twain, Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879 \_ The only time the French didn't fight well is during WWII. The French fought decently in WWI. Uncle Ho did kick their arse at DBP, but he also kicked our arse, so that's a draw. \_ Wrong.. South Vietnam was free for 2 years until the North invaded and Democrats refused any foreign intervention. |
2003/3/25-26 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27845 Activity:high |
3/25 Now that european countries are boycotting American products, when are we going to start bombing them to protect our corporate profits?? \_ I don't think this war is primarily about oil, but it certainly doesn't hurt. \_ This war in Iraq is not primarily about corporate profits or oil. \_ yeah, keep telling yourself that. and why are france and russia so against the war? billions of trade and loans. we're all bastards on this bus. \_ I thought it was more about no preemptive wars when inspections were keeping Saddam boxed in, and if he kicks them out, then the U.S. could pass a resolution for force. \_ If you thought that, you're a moron. Inspections did little until Bush raised the gun to Saddam's head. \_ And I bet you still believe in Santa Claus too. \_ I don't see what's wrong with saying "inspections were keeping Saddam boxed in", "no preemptive wars", and "if he kicks them out ... pass a resolution for force". \_ What inspectors? The ones there from 1998 to last October? \_ The ones headed by Mr. Blix \_ As if Europe mattered , they can't even agree on a common language \_ sure they can; it's english. \_ You might want to check with the French about that. \_ I work with several French scientists, all educated at french schools through the phd level, and they have always, even in france, written all their papers and even their phd theses in english. scientists are perhaps more willing than most to adopt international standards, but *all* european scientists with any ineternational influence speak english. \_ 1) "Several French scientists" is representative of, well, several French scientists. 2) That they can speak English does not necessarily imply that they are willing to accept English as the de jure European common language. \_ 1) I know what I'm talking about, and 2) you don't. |
2003/3/24 [Science/GlobalWarming, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27830 Activity:nil |
3/24 This crazy world, from http://www.petting-zoo.net/~deadbeef/archive/5318.html : "You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Europe doesn't want to go to war." |
2003/3/24 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27826 Activity:very high |
3/24 THE WAR THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/71309.htm \_ The New York Post is a tabloid with about as much credability as as the weekly world news. Please don't post NYP articles, it just makes you look like a moron. \_ oh, as opposed to freerepublic \_ is there a list of 'motd acceptable' news sources? I should we should only allow NPR quotes and Salon. \_ This is a serious question. What makes you think that our attempts to create a democracy by force in Iraq will be any more successful than our attempts in Afghanistan, Panama, Haiti, etc? \_ We never attempted in Afghanistan, it seem to be going as well as expected thus far. It worked in Japan, South Korea, Europe, Taiwan, Chile, and was working in Iran. What is the alternative? I propose there are only two: 1) kill the Arabs ala colonial Europe or Rome. 2) make it more attractive economically to lay down arms and live and prosper with a non-belligerent society. \_ Taiwan? South Korea? Europe? What the heck are you talking about? \_ history? \_ History? US invaded Taiwan to bring about democracy while it is under dictator CKS? \_ You do not build weak, nascent democracies to counterbalance the Soviets. You align with stable dictatorships with capitalistic tendencies in order to transition to liberal styles of government. This was the essence of US Cold War policy, I'm actually expected to explain this? \_ Sure, but how is this relevant? We are talking about the feasibility of a direct US invasion and regime change here. This is not analogous to any of the countries you mentioned except Japan and Germany. Vietnam, for example, blew up in our face because while we were thinking of fighting against communists and the soviets, we miscalculated vietnamese nationalism. \_ "except Japan and Germany" is the point. thanks. \_ I would grant you that, but I would also point out that Japan and Germany were actually occupying nations they invaded when we decided to topple their regimes. Perhaps there are better ways to change / mellow out the regime in Iraq under scenarios similar to what happened in places like Taiwan and South Korea, given that there is limited evidence that we would be successful in building a democracy in Iraq. How much effort and resources are we willing to devote to this enterprise, or would we just get another puppet dictator, someone like Ferdinand Marcos or the Saudi sheiks, who constantly steal from their people? |
2003/3/22 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27802 Activity:nil |
3/21 http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110003234 "Jacques Chirac says France will not authorize a U.N. resolution allowing the United States and Britain to administer postwar Iraq." \_ France also threatned to veto a resolution that authorized the use of force against Iraq. \_ "Authorize" a UN resolution? How arrogant. \_ The U.S. has to come back showing respect to the UN after having defied it. \_ Too late. Another international institution ruined by Bush. \_ Let's return the Statue of Liberty. She's an ugly biotch anyways. |
2003/3/17 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27727 Activity:nil 50%like:27711 |
3/17 Vive La France! <DEAD>216.239.39.120/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://fr.news.yahoo.com/030312/5/33csk.html<DEAD> |
2003/3/17 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27719 Activity:high |
3/16 the History Channel special about Saddam's French nuclear reactor getting distroyed by the Israeli air force is on tonight at 7pm. \_ ohh give me a break, *WE* provided Iraq with the atomic bomb's know-how right after War War 2. \_ "after WW2". Uhm, yeah. whatever. \_ And the USS Stark hit with two (French) exocet missiles launched \_ You mean the reactor provided by Chirac. \_ No, Miterrand. This was the reactor in Osirak which they were about a week away from taking into operation. -John \_ Yes. Curiously, the only person killed in the attack was a french scientist that was working late that sunday evening. \_ Huh. I wasn't aware France *had* scientists. \_ Are you really this ignorant, or are you just jumping on the France-bashing bandwagon? \_ let me guess.. when someone says "it's raining cats and dogs", you're outside looking for falling animals. \_ They do but they're on strike all the time in support of the Parisian trash haulers and long haul truckers. \_ And the USS Stark hit with two (French) Exocet missiles launched from a (French) Mirage fighter. \_ Did you know that the reacter was named the Ochirac Reactor? \_ Did you know you need to re-read your source? \_ It was a joke. I know it was named oshirak. |
2003/3/16 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27711 Activity:high 50%like:27727 |
3/15 Vive la France French connections http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/67450p-62790c.html \_ jewish drivel |
2003/3/14 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27693 Activity:very high |
3/13 Why do something intelligent about a situation, when you can do something incredibly stupid? (CNN article behind url shortener) http://tinyurl.com/7fta \_ no big deal. it's just political posturing. you'll see a lot of this from every party in this country and all others as you grow up. \_ dear god. \_ All these people wanting to change french fries to freedom fries and all this other non-sense. I guess we need to change the name for croissant, because it's french. This is stupid, counterproductive, and immature. \_ That's exactly how I would characterize the French. Of course, I felt this way long before all this blather about Iraq. \_ The most pathetic part of the whole thing is that the one thing the French hate more than Americans is American food. If we really want to annoy them, we should be naming MORE of our food after the French, not less. \_ French fries aren't American. \_ I think that was the point. \_ We didn't name "our" food after the French, which is mine. \_ I dare you to Freedom Kiss your sweetheart. \_ So you view the French as victims? \_ Yes. Yes I do. I think the French would make splendid victims. When do we invade France? \- we should take france before we have to "take it back" --psb \_ I wonder how much it would cost to ship back the Statue of Liberty and when Congress will propose this. \_ It isn't the French Statue, it's already the Freedom Statue (by a similar name) so we cna keep it. Same thing for Louisiana. |
2003/3/11 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27657 Activity:nil |
3/11 Portugese lose it and declare their anti-European philosophy: http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030310-081013-9767r |
2003/3/4 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27596 Activity:very high |
3/4 Umberto Eco on the US, France, and Iraq: http://csua.org/u/a2c (from http://Haaretz.com) \_ I like that. "We should let evil assert itself fully before we do anything about it." Apparently nobody informed the UN that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. \_ you're an idiot. \_ I admire your intellectual prowess and quick wit! You've completely won me over to your point of view with a clever sense of the moment intertwined with a rich philosophy of the state of mankind. \_ How 'bout this. The sentiment expressed above is exactly what Mr. Eco is talking about. And if you weren't blinded (deafened?) by sabre rattling, you might be able to see that. A first-strike aggression is not "an ounce of prevention." --scotsman \_ First strike is prevention. Waiting them to strike is like waiting for Hilter to invade Poland before taking him out. \_ Just because Umberto Eco wrote it, it's true? Besides, he was saying that it is prevention, he was just saying that prevention is not necessarily prudent. And his main point had nothing to do with that anyways. -mlee \_ Mike, you're talking over yourself. (pronoun trouble) What comments are you disputing? --scotsman \_ The first line was a rhetorical question so "it" clearly refers to anything that Eco may write. The "it" in the second line refers to first-strike aggression. Eco was writing more to the effect of how improper emotional responses can be--especially in these times--regardless of whether they are emotional pro-war or anti-war sentiments, much like the sentiment you wrote in response to the op. -mlee \_ I was actually referring to the plethora of "he"'s, but I see what you're getting at. Mine was less of an emotional response than the "op"'s [sic]. His is a fear based response. I believe calling for measured response based on a multilateral platform is far less emotional than saying "bomb them before they bomb us" --scotsman \_ True. op was emotional. But we should bomb them--so that our bombs don't rust. -mlee \_ why isn't this 'intellectual' protesting the invasion of Ivory Coast by France? Coast by France? And he states 'as the Western democracies eventually managed to eliminate the Soviet dictatorship without launching atomic weapons.' Sorry Eco, you are wrong- it was overwhelmingly the UNITED STATES, with the help of Koreans, Vietnamese, etc. that defeated the Soviets. The US taxpayer payed for it and the US soldier died for it. France tried to play the Soviets against the US, all the while secure under the US nuclear umbrella. All of Europe treaded towards massive socialist behemoths, all subsidized by Uncle Sam. Exactly how are France and Germany able to conduct billions of dollars of business in Iraq with 17 UN sanctions in place. Sorry, this article is trash. \_ You should learn history before spouting. Korea? Vietnam? Chinese supplied. They're still around. How many left-wing terrorists were there in the US during the Cold War? Europe took the brunt of that. And the US has companies that have bypassed the sanctions too. See Dick Cheney? He partnered up with Haliburton and helped Iraq out. There are 6000 pages of the report given by Iraq about who supplied them with their suspected WoMD. US, France, Germany, Britain, and Russia have had the UN censor them out so the companies listed aren't exposed. Viva Capitalism! Viva Free Market! \_ Umm yea, a country who finished one civil war, and in which 10-20 million died in the Cultural Revolution, provided the material support for the Cold War - please. My point was both the Koreans and the Vietnamese suffered large casualties. The same can not be said of any European country. France turned tail and ran after Bien Dien Phu. I did not deny US businesses have operated in Iraq - however this activity is not a full-scale blatant ignoring UN sanctions as is for Germany and France. this activity is not a full-scale, government sanctioned flagrant disregard for the UN sanctions in place, as is for Germany and France. The point is thugs need to be removed once they exhaust their usefulness. Also, I'd be very interested in what 'brunt' Europe endured - it would be very enlightining. \_ So it was the Soviets that fought in Korea and Vietnam? And those 30+ million who died in the Soviet Union during WWII made them helpless? And if the US didn't give the okay to ship stuff from US to Iraq who did? During the Cold War, Europe endured ongoing assasinations, terrorist bombings and actual invasion threats by the USSR. \_ Regardless of who footed the bill, "the Western Democracies eventually managed to eliminate the Soviet dictatorship without launching atomic weapons." His argument stands. \_ I find your cavalier attitude about 100,000 + dead US troops and several trillion US taxpayer dollars pathetic. |
2003/3/3 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27584 Activity:nil |
3/2 From the Congressional Record: Liberation of France in Violation of Covenant of League of Nations http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/855027/posts \_ ohh give me a break. League of Nations was dissolved after American's ally, Japanese Empire, invaded Northeastern region of the old Chinese Republic. France didn't fell into German's hand until 4-5 years after that. |
2003/2/28 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27559 Activity:high |
2/27 Editorial defending Washinton Post's pro-war stance: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8531-2003Feb26.html \_ The huge problem with this editorial is "[Saddam] unquestionably possessing and pursuing biological and chemical weapons". It's still a question. If a group of smart people can't get this right, what can you say? \_ What smart people? The French? Or the Germans who sold them all of it between '91 and now? \_ The Washington Post editorial staff, of course. If you can do a good job convincing people of your assertions please contact Colin Powell. \_ hmm... theory of evolution... |
2003/2/26 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27529 Activity:nil |
2/25 At a party attended by Congressman Tom Delay to a French diplomat, after discussing Iraq: Delay: "Do you speak German?" Diplomat: "No" Delay: "You're welcome" Delay walks away. \_ Boy, that'll show em! Those Frog Eaters!!! How dare they disagree with us about anything after all we did for them 55 years ago! \_ Not to mention trying to draw a parellel between Iraq and Nazi germany is just plain silly. |
2003/2/21-22 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Japan, Politics/Domestic, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27478 Activity:nil |
2/20 Do BNO passport holders need a visa to visit Japan for short-term? The web site only says British passport holders are exempted. I tried called the Consulate but it's closed. Thanks. (Yeah I can wait till tomorrow.) \_ yes. \_ BNO officially means second class. It is all insult no benefit. \_ Just curious, what is "BNO"? \_ British National Overseas \_ Thanks. \_ I called the consulate: (415) 777-3533. The answer is yes. |
2003/2/15 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27421 Activity:nil |
2/14 http://www.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/08/30/ilo.study American's work longer hours to make up for being less productive per hour. |
2003/2/14 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27417 Activity:nil |
2/13 The Boomerang Effect http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson021403.asp Spot on commentary except that about Kosovo. |
2003/2/14 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27414 Activity:insanely high |
2/13 The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq: A Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html \_ We Should Go to War With France for Fucking up Capitalization in the English Language After 1066. \_ interesting. this whole war thing stinks of Henry Kissinger. \_ his writing style gives him away as an alarmist. take this with several grains of salt. \_ Interesting article. Not long ago, the WSJ has an article saying that the US dollars used to be propped up by both european and east asian buyers, but the european buyers had pretty much dried up, so the US dollars is now all propped up by asians. They are the only ones left supporting the US budget deficit and trade deficit. Once that stop, what will US government do? Increase interest rate? Nah. Probably start printing money. Need to keep the economy going even if it makes us poorer. \_ Except there is no substitute for the dollar. European countries are far worse off then the U.S. and Japan is not large enough. All other oil transactions are denominated in dollars, so until that changes... \_ Nah, many well respected economists, fund managers, etc. are betting on Europe. The fruits of economic integration is yet to be realized and profited from. \_ You have to be kidding me. Both Germany's and Frances pension liabilities exceed 110% of their GDP, unemployment 15%+, they created zero jobs during 90's. their own citizens not foreigners so it won't affect currency. Bad 90s doesn't mean bad 00s. Remember 80s and 90s for Japan and US. \_ Pension liabilities will not by itself affect currency. We are in 00s not 90s. Remember 80s and 90s and Japan and US. Rewards of EU integration are just waiting to be reaped. Eastern Europe is up and coming. Euro has already appreciated quite a bit. I am gonna buy some european or far east mutual funds, ones without dollar hedging. \_ So government debt has no effect on exchange rates... in your dreams. Its not even worth debating if you believe this. \_ If the financing is within the euro area, then it won't. Foreigners don't own massive amounts of the euro. They do own massive amounts of the dollar. About 1 trillion in east asia alone. And that's just forex owned by the asian governments. \_ 15%??? Where did you get this figure. The real statistic is more like half that. Remember that the US figure is kept artificially low by the 2M in prison and out of the labor pool. If you add them back in, the rates are about the same. US social security has the same underfunded problems as European pensions. Europe doesn't need to create jobs, since their employment pools are not growing. Europe has been focusing on productivity growth, and it is paying off. German workers are the most productive on the planet. The US is in trouble with its huge imbalance of trade and growing deficits. The dollar is going to deflate much more before long. |
2003/2/13 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27392 Activity:nil |
2/12 "As Berman reported, Mr. Fischer (German Foreign Minister), you rose in public life as an important figure in the anti-American, anti-liberal, neo-Marxist, revolution-minded German radical left of the generation of 1968." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59725-2003Feb11.html |
2003/2/6 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27323 Activity:very high |
2/6 Yesterday at the UN: UN French Ambassador: "this whole issue could be solved if Iraq would pass a law banning the production of WMD." \_ HAHHAAHHAHA! I haven't had such a good laugh in a while. \_ No worse than the US's "let us invade and we'll show you the WMD after we find them. Really." \_ France has already acknowledged Iraq has WMD. \_ the u.s., uk, russia, china, france all believe iraq is hiding their wmd. russia, china, france think, for good reason, that a u.s. attack now would be destabilizing. the argument has been and will always be, 'why look like the world is submitting to u.s. hegemony? saddam can't do anything while inspectors are there. the longer the inspectors are there, the better chance they'll find something damning, which can be leveraged.' \_ They are hoping for a reach around. \_ Nonsense. While the inspectors waste time, he's doing shit in other parts of his very large country. And then what are you going to say when he kicks out the inspectors and announces he has a nuke in 6-9 months? More inspections? Sanctions? Or just welcome him to the nuclear club as the nice guy that he is? Join this world, please. \_ france is asking for more inspectors \_ Then Iraq joins like Pakistan, India, Israel, and South Korea did. So what? Saddam is a meglomaniac, not suicidal. Power is his kick. And the 6-9 month guess is crap. \_ Everytime the inspectors get close to something, Iraqis with guns tell them: "You can't go there." They had to get led to the empty warheads by their nose, otherwise they wouldn't have found those either. \_ I think you should check your facts about this ... \_ France and Russia have oil deals with Saddam, if the sanctions are ever lifted. They want Saddam to behave and stay in power. Unfortunately neither of those will happen. \_ And don't forget how much business France and Germany have there in non-oil deals and how much WMD related shit the Germans have been illegally selling them since '91. All that is going to come out and make the Germans look exceptionally bad after Saddam's Iraq is crushed. |
2003/1/30 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27244 Activity:very high |
1/30 "Canada 'Inspectors' to Hunt for Deadly U.S. Weapons" http://csua.org/u/8a5 (news.yahoo.com) The Canadians don't realize they're also under our blanket of protection. \_ The 51st State needs a reminder here and there. So does Germany, France, and the rest of Europe that forgets they owe their very existence to the US. \_ Doing one good deed is not an excuse to commit a crime. Likewise, you could say that Bush owes his presidency to those that voted for him into office and he should honor their wishes. Of course, if the Supreme Court's wishes are to go to war, then he's certainly doing that. \_ Oh jesus f. christ. get over it already. your own leftist media went over the whole thing for months and came up with zippo. you're on the edge of rationality. \_ Why do France, Germany and the rest of Europe owe their very existence to the US? \_ Without US intervention in WW2, Europe would now be called Germany. Large parts of Africa and the Middle East would be German as well. Asia would be part of the Japanese Empire. \_ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH \_ Uhm yeah. Try a history book, son. Whatever. \_ that is total bullshit. only part of poland and maybe part of czech republic. \_ Do you really think that the French would have liberated themselves? How do you think that the UK survived the Battle of Britian? HINT: it was US naval support in the North Atlantic and US crypt-analysts working in the UK. In North Africa it was US troops that assisted Montgomery. In the Pacific, it was MacArthur and Nimitz that stopped the Japanese advance. \_ What do you think Germany would have done with its European conquests? As it was, it merely set up a puppet state. \_ Given time Germany would really have messed things up. \_ So you think the German controlled puppet France was a real country? And after 60+ more years there'd be anything left of the old France? They'd ever free themselves? Madness. It took *millions* of dead soldiers from the US, Britain, and Russia (more Russian dead by far, gotta give credit where it's due) to conquer Germany. You're insane or stupid or ignorant if you think any of the Conquered nations would ever see freedom again in 50 lifetimes. \_ Okay, truth time. UK survived because of US material support (merchant ships, not Navy), the UK broke Enigma (cypto), the US got it's ass kicked in Africa (it was nearly done by the time the US showed up). And Japan was fighting the US in the Pacific, not Austrailia. But the Aussies, Indians, and Chinese kept Japan from shifting full efforts vs. the US. \_ Nah, the cold war would have been between the US and Germany, instead of the US vs USSR. \_ You're right on Asia, but military historians credit the Soviets with preventing the German takeover of Europe, not us. E.g.,(search for "Russians"): http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/fallows/jf2003-01-08/vandergriff2.htm \_ but the Soviets took over Europe themselves, from east germany onwards. \_ Hitler would have beaten Stalin if not for the two other fronts opened by the US. \_ Oh yeah. D-day was totally a turning point for the Russians. Seeing as how it happened in 1944, AFTER Stalingrad and Kursk. Yeah. Go Yankies go! \_ The western front involves more than D-day. The battles of the north atlantic were far more critical. \_ Uh, no they weren't. How did the few U-boats the blundering anti-submarine program managed to sink before 1944 really help the russians? The north atlantic battle was won, to be sure, but too late to make a difference. Only trucks and spam really helped the russians, they did all the actual work themselves. \_ Look at it this way, without US involvement in WW2, who would have opened the Western and Southern fronts? Neither France nor the UK had sufficient resources. Even if they did, how would they have kept up their industrial production to sustain a prolonged conflict? Without the US Europe would have been lost. \_ Let's remember that France fell in an eye blink very early. There was *no* France for most of WW2. \_ Only part of France fell, some of it was still free from German occupation, but you are right. \_ The reason the US intervened in Europe was that Germany declared war and allied with Japan. It is doubtful the US public would have gone to war vs. Hitler if not for that. \_ Fortunately, the US public doesn't declare wars. |
2003/1/18 [Recreation/Dating, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27144 Activity:high |
1/17 How hard is it to have sex in an airplane lavatory without getting caught? What do they do if they catch you? \_ Why do you ask? \_ Any law against that? Why would they try to catch you? \_ well, that's what I was wondering. so i asked the motd. \- legal unless you disable the smoke detector although that might be ok on air france --psb \_ The *French* (snicker) \_ "do you smoke after sex?" "I'm not sure, I never checked" |
2003/1/15 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Recreation/Media] UID:27102 Activity:high |
1/15 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2661409.stm \_ Harry potter drivel. |
2003/1/14-15 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27093 Activity:insanely high |
1/14 Related question to the French question below. Why do Americans continuously kiss up to the french? French fashion, french food, are always "in". And paris is like the #1 tourist city in Europe for americans. Even the language. Americans who speak french think they're superior than americans who speak spanish. \_ You are a barely literate moron. --aaron \_ Marquis de Lafayette. Also most people who speak french also know how to READ french and perhaps have read the works of men like Dumas, Moliere, hack, about the level of _/ sydney sheldon. (ref. star trek) Voltaire, Hugo, Rousseau, Decartes etc. \_ btw proust is likely the greatest argument for being able to read french. not to mention baudelaire, apollinaire, etc. As far as french fashion is concerned, have you ever been to a Hermes shop? \_ so your claim is that the spanish literature tradition is inferior to the french one? by extension, if there is a perception that people who speak language x is less cultured than those who speak french, then the french must also have a superior literary and cultural tradition than speakers of language x? fools rush in where angels fear to tread indeed. \_French was the language of science during the Age of Reason. It's had one of the greatest affects on the English language because of that, and the fact that after the Norman conquest French was the language of nobility in England for quite a while. Although Spain and Latin America have a huge, brilliant tradition, some of the major building blocks of western philosophy have come out of France. Does that mean that France is the best? Maybe not. Does that mean you should shut the fuck up? Yes. \_ hey, will you be calling me a nazi and comparing me to hitler soon? \_ so your argument now is that french is politically and philosophically superior? and this argument is better than the french cultural and literary superiority argument how? (remember, you included dumas, moliere, and hugo on your list, so you were hardly arguing philosophy or politics. but i'll ignore that thorny issue.) \_ I'm superior to you because I can speak English. --aaron \_ Same reason there's Japanophiles and other Whatever-ophiles. It is just different than what they know and therefore must be better in the "grass is always greener" kind of way. I was highly unimpressed by Paris when I was there. Italy was very cool however. Paris was just like NY or any other large American city except they don't speak English and they don't shower. Most American cities are cleaner. \_ How about french women? Any comments on french women? Are the stories of menage a trois true? Or just more american men kissing up to french women and making up fantasies. \- they dress better and carry themselves differently but that is true in nyc as well. \_ Stories of threesome? What are those? \_ As if huge numbers of people aren't do 3somes here. \_ They smoke a lot, if you like chicks that smell like ash trays try french chicks. \_ dude, there's dog shit everywhere. literally. most of my parisian coworkers thought it was disgusting too. i repeat. what dope are you smoking? \_ I was there in May, perhaps it is cleaner then. There was a lot more dogshit on the street in Amsterdam. I didn't even notice it in Paris. I have heard from locals that you are safe if you stay on the main streets. \_ Have you ever been to Paris? It is, no joke, the most beautiful and nicest city in the world. I have not been to all of them yet, but I have been to many. \_ nicest? can i have some of what you're smoking? parisians are rude and annoying, probably even in comparison to residents of other cities of comparable size. residents of large cities in latin countries are probably the nicest. dubliners or londoners are probably the nicest in europe. fyi, i've lived in paris for about 4 months, so i do speak from some experience. and, yes, i even speak french, so don't pull the "oh they're nice if you tried to speak french". \_ I don't mean nice in that way. I mean the streets are clean, the transit system works well, food is good and there is \_ This is like saying "seattle is beautiful when it's sunny" You must have missed the nigh-continuous transit strikes. plenty to do and see. I even found the people to be reasonably pleasant. I went to Paris expecting to not like it, but I ended up being charmed. \_ i will give you credit for the food though; it's certainly well past acceptable, and i don't mean just the grand vefours/tour l'argent axis. regular grub at normal restaurants are of a pretty high standard, and i've been having a yearn for a good frisee aux lardons. as for the dog shit, if you stayed in the touristy areas it's not too bad, but you should see what they're like before the cleaning crew got to them before ~8am. \_ i have bad impression of paris. dog feces on the street, rude drivers, and being cheated on subway station. :( \_ All dogs should be banned from public places. If you want a dog go and live in the woods with it. \- i thought most of the people in paris were quite nice ... and my french is really lousy. maybe some of you people are just barbarians? physically and historically there is something really cool about a city with such a long history and depth [nyc has some of this is in the usa]. while i am glad i dont work in retail, there is something pleasing about retail-heavy cultures ... e.g. the small shops every where, If you don't think nob hill is charming, you are a clod. The weather is great, too. If you like LA so much, you should move there. Most people who live in LA hate it. a street culture. not filled with bitter cockroaches likes telegraph ave. and there is something just amazing about tuning a corner at dusk and seeing the notre dame ... i still remember that jaw dropping "holy shit" moment. --psb \_ yeah we all know you're a bloody francophile. too much exposure to cabanne (sp?) at a young age. \- as i country i think the french need a beating. --psb \- so what is so great about SF other than restaurants? yes the sunset over mt. tam is nice ... but people dont get credit for that. the newspapers is for illiterates by illiterates. "even la" has better museums. etc etc etc SF has one of the biggest reputation gaps. --psb \_ SF has the GGB. That's about it, I think. \_ SF has a lot of beauty, most of it physical beauty: Every neighborhood has a hill with a great view. If you don't think nob hill is charming, you are a clod. The weather is great, too. \- well i acknowledged SF has reasonable physical beauty. but la has some nice areas too. i'm talking about the kinds of things people can claim credit for. --psb \_ Preserving your city's history is something people can claim credit for. Ever been to Las Vegas? Almost nothing there is more than 20 years old. If you took away all of the strippers and lights, much of the new world worth visiting. ok, except vegas. there's not much left. \_ liberace museum. hoover damn. valley of fire. gambler's book store. lake mead. \_ The crestfallen looks of those who have lost their life savings... \_ SF has Berkeley, one of the most fascinating places in the world. \_ hahaHAHHAHHhaHAHHAhhah \_ If you're a crack whore. \_ Weather, restaurants, physical beauty, historical presence, metropolitan, shopping, multicultural, liberal attitude (appeals more to tourists), past reputation, and it can showcase it's high points very well. SF looks good from a distance. \_ Can't you ask this of pretty much any (north?) american city except new york? if you discount restaurants, amusement parks and non-world-class museums, there's not many cities in the new world worth visiting. ok, except vegas. \_ Boston? Chicago? \_ so? unless you have people there, they're both not more than a 1 to 2 day sort of destination. \_ As for French vs. Spanish, I guess Americans don't associate Spanish with Spain, but rather Latin America. When you hear someone with a French accent, you think "Wow! He's (Western) European." But when you hear someone with a Spanish accent, you think "Gee, another border crosser." \_ If you're an asshole, maybe. \_ So when your maid and gardeners are speaking Spanish you don't think, "Thank God I'm never running for office", you think, "How fascinating! We have so many Spaniards here doing menial labor at below minimum wage! The European economy must be hurting to come all this way for these jobs!" Italian lingerie makes Victoria's Secret look like the crap that \_ If you hear a Spanish accent and think it's a Mexican accent, you're not just an asshole. You're a fucking idiot. \_ There's a distinction between Spanish accent and Mexican accent? I have a Chinese friend who was born and grew up in Spain, whose first language is Spanish and second language English, The accent in his English sounds just like those Mexicans here. \_ When I hear you trying to talk to your maid in really loud simple English, I think "what a fucking worthless moron who has never worked a day of real work in his life." \_ there is a difference actually. Spanish spoken by Europeans sounds differently than Spanish spoken by central americans, supposedly because a king of Spain had a slight lisp and mandated the lisp become part of the pronounciation of the Spanish language, it's also what is taught in American schools, I don't know how true the story of the Spanish king is. \_ ok i just googled for "lisp" and "spanish" and "monarch" and found a linguistics paper discounting the mysterious lisping spanish monarch theory, but a better explanation is that the version of Spanish inflicted on Central America by raping conquistadores has diverged slightly from the Spanish spoken by non raped villagers in Spain. \_ You linguistic neophytes. \_ It's all because we've feeding our kids with French Fries all these years! :-) \_ Paris is one of the best cities in the world. The food and wine are fantastic. The architecture is amazing. There is so much to see and do and so much history. Overall, I think France is a rather dirty country compared to the rest of Europe. The people are not my favorite either. There's a lot to dislike about France and the French. However, when it comes to food, wine, fashion and the other things France does well it's pretty clear why everyone "kisses up" to them for those. As for the women, it comes down to their clothes, especially lingerie. French and Italian lingerie make Victoria's Secret look like the crap that it is. --dim \_ Let's conquer Paris and make it into the 58th state of the USAE. Then we can claim that we have a nice city too! \_ Just re-elect Bush! \_ The third entry in today's IDIOT CLUB! Congratulations! |
2003/1/5-6 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:26997 Activity:very high |
1/5 Good analysis of America, its empire, and the role it should play in the middle east: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/05/magazine/05EMPIRE.html \_ Fuck the NYSlimes - the article couches arguments in the context of a republic but the whole paper is full of nothing but leftist statists. The Slime's politics are anithetical to a Republic. Take this pithy quote for example - '...America backed stability over democracy, propping up the autocratic rule of the shah, only to reap the whirlwind of an Islamic fundamentalist revolution in 1979...". Well no fucking shit, this was the U.S. paradigm of foreign policy throughout the cold war to contain Soviet influence. You can't build a democracy in civilizations a 1000 years behind the West. But wait a minute, wasn't it the left's Messiah Jimmy Carter who reversed U.S. support of the Shah only to embolden Khomeini. This was militant Islam's first success, a success that ignited the situation we face today - all thanks to the fucking moron Jimmy 'moral foreign policy' Carter. The man who brought us Stansfield Turner and ethics to the CIA. So much for 'Good analysis' eh? \- hello, you may wish to read the "Living with a superpower" article in the "Mr. Kim" issue of the E'ist. International Security is very good on for more technical discussions, although you may unknowingly miss some things because the authors take some shortcuts because they assume some familiarity with IR literature. e.g. take a look at: http://csua.org/u/763 [IS is better than FA, FP, WP etc.] n.b. JSTOR may give you better access. --psb \- oh this article may also make you feel better: http://www.policyreview.org/JUN02/kagan.html i dont agree with all of it but it is more interesting that the article by that communist from the TLS the asp walled about. --psb that the article by that communist from the TLS or LRB the asp walled about. --psb \_ Kagan's article is very long and extremely boring, to the point that his points become irrelevant. BTW, \- the kagan article is a little repetitive but he raises an interesting "large issue" and the reset of the world (where American power while the only interesting thing in the article the asp mentions is the democrats' "manhattan problem". i am unable to respond at greater length to these comments via wall. by the way, if you want to acquire some culture, if you havent read it, read the Melian Dialog at the end of BookV should it pursue for the rest of the world? in the History of the Peloponnesian War. it's a fantastic read. (i'm not suggesting it's immediate relevance, but this is a good thing to have in your pocket) --psb communist or not, that article from LRB was at least entertaining and the view could represent any "conservative realist" of another country. To people who know what that word means, Bush and his troops sound very much like the Bolsheviks. \_ Hi. I know what the word 'Bolshevik' means. You do not. You are likely the same moron who was comparing US under Bush to USSR. You have no sense of scale. Go kill yourself now before you get smacked again like last time. \_ There is no disagreement between Kagan's article and the NYT article. They deal with different realms of the world, Kantian vs Hobbesian, Europe (where American power is needed only for external threats) and the rest of the world (where American power is needed to impose internal order). The NYT article deals with what US should do in the rest of the world. Should US act entirely out of its self-interest or should there be a 'moral foreign policy'? If it is entirely for self-interest, how is it different in essence from the Europen empires of the 19th century and earlier? It could not be, so what other options should it pursue for the rest of the world? When Kagan argued that "Americans ought to be the first to understand that a threat to one's beliefs can be as frightening as a threat to one's physical security", he is referring to post-WWII Europe's belief in solving problems between nations through international laws, negotiations, diplomacy and forging of economic ties which is the essence of the European Union, which many Europeans feel is being threatened by America's unilateralism. The same, however, can also be said of the third world's experience of throwing off colonialism to attain self-determination and self-rule, after significant hardship and sacrifice. For many people these beliefs are similarly threatened by American unilateralism, which is why many nations outside of Europe also feel uneasy about US's unilateral exercise of power. |
2002/12/12-13 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:26797 Activity:nil |
12/11 http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=1511364 Whacky Germans at it again! \_ the word is "wacky". now, don't you feel like an imbecile? \_ If you read the article you'd get it. Since you didn't, it's your loss for missing it. So, uhm, no. I don't Do you? |
2002/11/8-9 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:26482 Activity:very high |
11/7 http://uk.news.yahoo.com/021108/80/de8zy.html Bush has learned well from Sharon. If there is anyone you don't like, don't bother with arrest, don't bother with a trial, just execute 'em from the air. A US citizen murdered, too. \_ Not murder. Proactive attack against terrorist elements. \_ Not murder. Assassination. Prohibited by Exec. Order, and therefore illegal. Arrest the CIA. \_ It isn't assassination unless you figure that every random fuck towel head with a bomb is a foreign leader. \_ http://dictionary.com says: assassination: a killing by treacherous violence. http://www.cia.gov/cia/information/eo12333.html#2.11 says: 2.11 Prohibition on Assassination. No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination. 2.12 Indirect Participation. No agency of the Intelligence Community shall participate in or request any person to undertake activities forbidden by this Order. Read carefully, tool: nowhere does it say "foreign leader." \_ US abolished slavery at the cost of a civil war. Sweden sat on its ass like a coward until someone else did the dirty work. Being humane entails knowing when to fight for what you believe in. \_ Be thankful the US isn't lining the roads with crosses like the Romans. They could, and I bet they would actually be successful in stopping attacks that way (as Romans were). \_ So has Genghis Khan. Yes, I am thankful that the US is not like Genghis Khan. \_ Romans are too close to home, eh? Had to come up with a big bad asian example, right? That the US occasionally fires rockets at cars loaded with dynamite (which I consider a good thing) does not change the fact that it has produced the most humane society the world has ever seen. \_ Have you ever been to The Netherlands? Sweden? Canada? \_ What was Sweden's stance on the Nazis again? \_ What was USA's stance on slavery again? Sweden merely maintained independence. \_ The US got rid of slavery at the cost of a civil war. US citizens lost lives trying to oust Hitler when it became obvious he was a threat. Sweden just sat on its collective ass and waited for Nazis to take over the world. Being humane is knowing when to fight for what you believe in. \_ Why did they ignore Stalin then hm? You know, it's just silly to say Hitler would really be able to "take over the world". At most, possibly some of the eastern european nations that Stalin ended up ruling for the next 50 years anyway. \_ If there wasn't a Western Front the Nazis would have taken out the Russians and then Britain was next. After that, the US would stand alone for freedom in the world against the Nazi controlled Euro/ Asian continent (as well as the oil in the middle east and the more valuable parts of Africa). \_ A Russian friend of mine said Russia has always won wars that others launched against it, and has always lost wars that it launched against others. \_ Your russian friend is wrong. Russia lost the war against the Golden Horde. -- russian \_ Yes, we can take that historical fluke as divine providence that it is fated that no one can invade and conquer Russia. Thanks. \_ The Civil War was over state's rights, not over slavery. \_ Wow... welcome to Oversimplification Of History 101. \_ Why did you erase my question? US sat back on the same haunches as Sweden while the nazis were sweeping through europe. We would have let england be taken before we did anything if it weren't for pearl harbor. we had business dealings with the nazis that couldn't be disturbed. \_ Uh oh.. *this* assertion definitely needs some URL backing. \_ major IBM contracts for Nazi Germany. \_ dont be a git. we didn't avoid war with the Nazis for IBM's sake. Duh. \_ and what did sweden contribute to the effort? \_ Those cool knives? Oh no wait that was the swiss, the Nazi collaborators. \_ That the Romans had a little civilization going does not change the fact that cruxifixing people is barbaric. Do not confuse "inspite of" and "because of". \_ You know, you would pull off that lecturing tone much better if you knew how to spell 'crucify.' \_ You know, you need to brush up your grammar a little. \_ Um.. to what grammar are you referring? --scotsman \_ "would have pulled" \------"still [christians] others were burned alive as living torches to light Nero's garden at his Golden House." ... that's a funny story but untrue ... probably some exaggeration of suetonius. why are you focusing on rome? look at the decree on megara or the melian dialog. that is more appropriate. well i suppose you can look at the destruction of corinth in 146 by L. Mummius: Cary \& Schullard describe the aftermath as follows: ``In other Greek towns they restored the rule of the wealthier classes, and they made Corinth safe against social revolution by razing it to the ground and selling its inhabitants into slavery.'' This was the hard edge to the vaunted {\it Pax Romana\/}. See also famous speech of calgacus in the Agricola: A rich enemy excites their cupidity; a poor one, their lust for power. East and West alike have failed to satisfy them. They are the only people on earth to whose covetousness both riches and poverty are equally tempting. To robbery, butchery and rapine, they give the lying name of 'government'; they create a desolation and call it peace. --psb \_ You're confused. You kill the enemy, you arrest criminals. They were the enemy. As far as one of them being a US citizen, I'm not shedding any tears since our insanely open borders make the concept of US citizenship almost entirely meaningless. \_ Especially when some politicians are trying to give residency to illegal immigrants in order to buy votes from certain ethnic groups. \_ The Republicans are guilty of 'excusing' illegal aliens and making them magically into citizens (1986) while the Democrats prefer to not bother with the citizenship thing and just have endless numbers of people come over so they can raise taxes on the citizenry in order to 'solve' a social problem they helped create. Fuck them both. \_ Reagan 's amnesty was a political compromise with the Dems. He later stated it was the biggest mistake of his Presidency. Unfortunately, today there are many RINOs in Congress beholden to business. \_ Saying, "I'm sorry" afterwards is too fucking late. |
2002/11/4 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:26402 Activity:very high 80%like:26397 |
11/4 http://www.fairvote.org End the 2 party system. \_ Yes it's a much better system. Now if I could see something indicating how to do it. Changes to the Constitution are ...difficult. San Francisco enacting the instant runoff system was a hopeful thing to see, though. \_ Fuck that noise. The two party system has given us a stable and functional government for 200+ years. What? You want something like what Italy has? Get stuffed. \_ They done brain-washed you real good. \_ Ad hominen is a waste of bits. Go to Italy. The last thing this country needs is extremists in office that PR allows to happen. Government and voting is about getting a functional stable government, not about letting every little 2 bit crack pot group that can garner 3% of the vote a say in governing the 97% of the normal people. \_ The cutoff wouldn't have to be 3%, and if it was, that wouldn't affect you because 3% of congress can't force the rest to do anything. \_ You mean like how if some crackpot group had only 3 Senators right now that would be ok with you? Nutty. \_ I want something like The Netherland, Belgium or Germany has. \_ I don't know about the first two but German government is in the shitter. \_ Strangely enough, most reasonably stable democracies I can think of tend towards a two party system, both of which tend to gravitate very close towards each other, except in times of economic crisis (take Turkey), at which point they get replaced by...another two parties. France, Germany, the UK, Russia, Italy, Spain, Israel... there's usually a rightist and a leftist party, with some smaller ones sniping from the sidelines. The only difference being that the countries with parliamentary as opposed to three-branch systems of government tend to see coalitions with a whole bunch of smaller parties... -John \_ You are right, and the two parties "gravitate" as close together as possible. Just like gas stations. -crebbs \_ Does parliamentary necessarily equal proportional representation by party? i.e. by "parliamentary systems" do you mean those Where if a party gets 10% of the vote it gets 10% of the reps? And is that a common understanding of "parliamentary" versus US-style democracy?? \_ no. \_ No. Parliamentary in this case meaning a system lacking separation between legislative and executive branch (i.e. the prime minister is chosen by the legislative, with no or only a weak president to balance it out--Germany, the UK, and Israel are examples. As for proportional representation, I think most major democracies require at that at least an initial hurdle in terms of vote percentage be cleared for a person to obtain a seat. Whether this is done on a per candidate or per party basis differs. -John \_ That's fine that there are two major parties, but that's a lot different than ONLY two parties. This country gets lowest-common denominator politics, whereas in for example Germany small parties like the Greens can and do get representatives in the gov't. Essentially there's 0.01% chance of another party getting any power, and this directly lends itself to corruption and special interest politics. \_ Many people see it as a good thing that an extremist minority party like the Greens don't have any power in this country. If you and enough others like the Greens so much they'll get some power. But they won't because they don't represent enough nutcases to allow them to ruin anything for the rest of the country. I laughed my ass off when the German Green party got into power. It was the end of Germany's chances at \_ Shhh! He hadn't figured that part out yet! recovering and becoming a great nation anytime soon. \_ It's not about extremist minorities you buffoon. Look at California; with PR you would see more conservative representation. \_ I don't want to see more of any representation. I want to see a functional and stable government which is still responsible to the people. PR fails the first and part of the second. Idiotic response from clueless third party purged from motd. \_ This is cool. Don't mathematicians study voting systems? Can anyone recommend a mathematics text on voting? \_ http://www.ctl.ua.edu/math103 \_ Yeah, yeah, we all read slashdot. Troll harder. |
2002/10/30 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel] UID:26358 Activity:nil |
10/29 Break out your wallet... 'Haitians coming ashore in Key Biscayne, FL' By some estimates there are 13 million illegals in this country. http://csua.org/u/48c \_ Freeper Guy - I thought something bad had happend to you. I love you, man! |
2002/10/12-13 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel] UID:26165 Activity:very high |
10/12 You'd figure a pacifist country like this wouldn't be a target, but: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2322275.stm \_ "According to a government spokesman Mikko Norros, a foreign terrorist organisation is not believed to have been responsible for the bomb - rather a deranged individual or an organised crime group. " personaly, I believe him. they're finns. what motivation do they have to lie? as to pacifism, finland has mandatory military service for all men. no cookie. \_ more like swiss "armed neutrality" \_ well, I think it's more just "hey, let's not get fucked over by russia like all the other countries nearby" \_ *laugh* You're so naive. Yeah, the first time in history that the mob has used a suicide bomber. That makes a lot of sense. Duh, by definition anyone who blows themselves up in a mall is deranged so that's a meaningless statement as well. It was your standard PLO/Hamas style suicide bombing in a public shopping center. Just like the French trying to claim the tanker wasn't an act of terror, also. A five year old could see this govn't spokesman's statement is ridiculous. They haven't even collected all the body parts and he's already claiming it wasn't an act of middle-east style terror. Nonsense. \_ The person jumping to conclusion is the person who said: "You'd figure a pacifist country like this wouldn't be a target, but ..." \_ This is a silly response. The motd isn't a public forum and I doubt the OP is an official government spokesman feeding propoganda to the public. You're ducking the issue. I stand by what I said before: they haven't even collected the body parts and know almost nothing about what happened when this mouthpiece puts out official word that it wasn't an act of middle eastern style terrorism, but was instead some garbage about the world's first suicidal mafia hit (on a mini mall, no less). For now, I'm willing to grant them benefit of the doubt on not releasing identifying details about the bomber beyond his age and gender, but they don't get that benefit forever. \_ i'll keep being naive and you keep being paranoid, and we'll see who has a better life. \_ This is why we need a regime change in Iraq. Terrorist attacks will continue while Saddam is in power. -G.W. Bush |
2002/10/6-7 [Politics/Domestic/911, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:26117 Activity:moderate |
10/6 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2303363.stm Just because you're French and cut deals with terrorists on a daily basis doesn't mean they won't attack you too. \_ which deals are those? \_ You live on Earth, circa 2002AD, right? The French have a looong history of cutting deals and _trying_ to placate terrorists. It never works but they keep trying. \_ well, they're french. what alternatives do that have? it's cut deals or just surrender and let the terrorists goose step down the champs elysees. \_ hey that worked out well last time. |
2002/9/20 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:25960 Activity:very high |
9/19 ""The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for 'Entrepreneur'"-GW Bush" \_ ETOOMANYQUOTES \_ But they have 1000 words for 'surrender'. --dim \_ And snow. They have hundreds of words for "snow". \_ excellent delivery. \_ they eat very well... and have lots of vacations. I'd like to live there. except that they hate jews. \_ Don't forget they only work 30 hrs a week. \_ Only in weeks when the trash collector's union isn't on strike again bringing the entire country to a smelly halt. \_ French seem pretty arrogant. I once met a French who has a strong accent. When I saw him reading out some French signs, I ask him if he's French, and he replied "Yes I am French. I'm proud to be French." \_ Wow, that's a great story. would I? Actually he did swear (I think) in French when he got stuck behind slow drivers or people crossing the street slowly. \_ Nice try troll boi, but no self respecting frenchman would say "Yes I am French. I'm proud to be French." No, a true frenchmen would say, "Oui, je suis francais, mon pauvre amie de l'etats unis." \_ But if he said that in French I wouldn't understand that, would I? I quoted that verbatim. Actually he did swear (I think) in long French sentences when he got stuck behind slow drivers or people crossing the street slowly even though I was the only passenger and I don't speak French. \_ Tout le monde sait le francias, excepte des sauvages et des hommes anglais. \_ The above responders are all dense. The joke is that "entrepreneur" comes from French. Haha. \_ Wow. humour runs shallow on the soda... \_ That'd make GW Bush on par with Quayle. \_ Wow, you figured that one out all on your own? The rest of us already heard the joke and didn't think much of it the first time around so we ignored it and went on about more interesting things related to the smelly French. Where have you been? \_ like banging yermom? talk about smelly. \_ Alas, Bush never said it: http://www.snopes.com/quotes/bush.htm \_ Good job. |
2002/9/19 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:25945 Activity:high |
9/19 Any chance that a military coup happens here in the US? Nobody seems to worry things like this. \_ Citizen army of volunteers. Also, notice that there hasn't been a military coup in England for well over 300 years. \_ The money in this coutry already has both the government and the armed forces at their beck and call, so there's no need for a military coup. \_ None. That's why no one seems to worry about things like this. \_ What is being done here to prevent this altogether while other countries have to worry about such thing? All I know is that the US military is not supposed to talk about politics, but not talking about it doesn't mean they can't quietly have a view. \_ basically, we prevent it by giving the military everything they want. -tom \_ typical useless agenda driven reply. \_ snide uninformed counter troll. \_ None of those things. Correct, precise, accurate. \_ Random yermom double entendre. \_ Double entry on yermom? how...interesting. \_ DVDADO. \_ Dude. Is that even possible? \_ Modern and civil countries do not have to worry about such a thing. Most of western europe, the US, Canada, and Australia have no reason to fear a military coup. Compare those to the rest of the world such as Africa and Central America where coups are a relatively common occurence. Rule of law and civilian control of the military as well as functional electoral systems and a tradition of respect for civil authority keeps modern nations safe from their own militaries. \_ Read the 2nd Amendment. \_ right. you and your gun-nut friends are the "well regulated militia" the second amendment refers to. i'm not a proponent of gun control for other reasons, but the idea that the US milinary is afraid of a bunch of citizens armed with legal weaponery is laughable. the iraqi army is better armed than you and your local gun buddies, and we will soon see them get slaughtered--again. \_ Well regulated? It's all about fiber, son. \_ I'm a big 2nd amendment supporter but that's not what keeps western nations safe from their own militaries. You might note that the other western nations have very strict gun control laws compared to the US but no greater odds of a military coup. \_ What do you think happened in December of 2000? \_ What do you mean? The election? |
2002/9/15-16 [Politics/Domestic/911, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:25897 Activity:nil |
9/14 'You have to kill in the name of Allah until you are killed' http://www.observer.co.uk/islam/story/0,1442,640288,00.html |
2002/8/11 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Japan, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:25538 Activity:moderate |
8/10 what is the second most wired country in the world? a western european country, like France, or a tech-savvy one like Japan? or neither? \_ Korea and Finland are very high up there. -John \_ Singapore, maybe? \_ i think in order: US, Japan, Hong Kong. \_ I'd say, Japan, Hong Kong, US.... \_ Wired? Wired with what? Phones, cable, dsl, what? What does 'most' mean? Most feet of cable, most people, largest percentage of population, what? \_ percentage of population, and wired for internet. \_ there are charts and maps with this info everywhere... google it. Wired Mag for ex, had something a while back. |
2002/7/2-3 [Transportation/Airplane, Reference/Military, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:25266 Activity:high |
7/2 Anyone reading the Yahoo news on the plane crash in Germany? How come tens of photos are about the wreckage of the Tupolev? Where's the wreckage of the 757? \_ Maybe cuz the 757 is a cargo plane and there weren't any children on board and no one died 'cept for the crew? |
2002/6/23-24 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China, Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel] UID:25176 Activity:insanely high |
6/23 CNN finally admits bias in reporting and promises to not be such incredible fuckups in the future. <DEAD>library.northernlight.com/EC20020623270000029.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0<DEAD> \_ When US bombed China's embassy a while back, I don't recall there was ANY coverage on the victims neither. Join the club. \_ Yes there was. I recall names, body count, professions, and a bit about their families. \_ Hmm, I don't see any pro-Isarel US media being pressured to correct its bias. \_ Name em. \_ ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS \_ *laugh* They're all pro-Palestinian if anyone ever was. Anyway, no one who wants real news goes there anyway. That's bubblegum news for the masses. Why do you watch? \_ yeah they go to http://freerepublic.com instead! \_ Yawn. What a weak reply. Total strawman. There's only one conservative on the motd lame enough to use biased propaganda pseudo news like the free republic web site as a source and I'm beginning to think it's a lefty shill looking to create an artificial strawman. Get over it. \_ At the end of the article: "Jordan said the company was taking criticism from both sides, with Palestinian officials he met on Saturday accusing CNN of serving Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. ``They believe that CNN is the propaganda arm of the the other way round. Sharon government,'' he said." \_ Palestinian whining is not at all the same as CNN admitting they fucked up. The first is just a PR tactic. The second is about CNN's guilt and correcting that misbehavior in the future. I can honestly claim CNN doesn't run enough stories about my daily events (zero so far! shocking!) but that doesn't mean CNN is biased against me since I'm not newsworthy, nor am I a savage terrorist murderer who targets school buses. \_ What's wrong with targetting school buses? The goal of terrorism is terror after all. Get the fuck out of those settlements. \_ You mean the settlements in places like the capitol where buses and cafes are targets? Settlements my ass. They won't be happy until the jews resettle in Atlantis. \_ I thought the US media has always been accused of pro-Isarel, not the other side. \_ Spend less time listening to Berkeley-style "liberal" pseudointelligentsiya. \_ Uhm, no. And as the above points out, accused by who exactly? SF/Berkeley is not the center of the country. \_ Arab countries, Europe, Japan, China. Pretty much the whole world, except maybe India. \_ Arabs countries? Uhm ok whatever. European journalism is extreme left wing and Europe is the home to anti-Semitism. Japan is opposed to anything that might drag their economy even further down. It's easy to whine when someone else is covering your ass. And China is an enemy state which is opposed to the US and her allies on general principle. \_ and the principles are: complete disregards of international treaties of any sort, completely disregards of sovereignty of other nation, for the sole purpose of expand its economic interest and overwhelmingly dominance over the world... \_ This is what *all* countries do. Next! There was a time where Chinese were really look up toward Americans (through out the 80s). It's American themselves start to treat China as an enemy after TeinAnMen Square 13 yrs ago, after the collapse of Soviet Union, as China become the only country left has remote (and i mean REMOTE) chance to chanllenge American's dominance over the world. \_ You mean when the Chinese ran over peaceful pro-democracy protestors with tanks? With friends like that I'd rather have enemies. |
2002/6/20 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:25156 Activity:high |
6/19 What does the lowercase "e" on food packages from europe mean? \_ "edible". \_ Seriously? \_ erection \_ KOSHeR \_ this isn't the same thing as that described in sec. 5.1 of http://lindt.com/switzerland/german/chocomania/health/pdf/additive.pdf , is it? \_ No, that's a number prefixed by an uppercase "E". but thanks. This is a single large lowercase "e" after the net weight. "600g e" \_ No, that's a number prefixed by an uppercase "E". but thanks. This is a single large lowercase "e" after the net weight. "600 g e" \_ "Also, the amended rules define the term "e" mark -- a certification mark used in the European Community (EC) to establish that the package is appropriately filled in accordance with EC standards. Failure to allow the use of this mark could impede American companies selling in the EC." from http://www.ftc.gov/opa/predawn/F95/fairpackaging.htm \_ No fucking way! You trying to say they're creating artificial barriers to trade as a form of protectionism?! It's madness! \_ Except that they themselves have to follow those standards? \_ Except that they themselves helped create these barriers which simply codified their previous practices whereas a non-EC country will have to go through a compliance test and spend money changing their business methods to comply. Thanks for playing Trade Barrier 2002! |
2002/6/19 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/Asia/Others] UID:25152 Activity:nil |
6/19 Is this true or bogus or biased: \_ biased. ---------- Ah, Gandhi, the one that sat on his ass for months while the Indian National Army men(those former Indian soldiers under the Japanese) were campaigning for the release of their leaders and rioting on the streets even getting killed. When Gandhi began to see an opportunity opening he began a peace march which seem laughable to the Brits because all they had to do was wait until they go away. But the riots and mutiny was another matter. "In 1956 Lord Attlee(former Prime Minister of Great Britain) was asked a question about Britain's hurried withdrawal from India in 1947. The British statesman who presided over the transfer of power to the leaders of India and Pakistan was halting in Calcutta for two days during his passage through India...Attlee was as good as his reputation for plain speaking. Without caring about the official British propaganda line, he mentioned a number of reasons for Britain's momentous decision, the most important among which, he emphasized, was that "the loyalty of the men of the Indian Army to their British commanders had been UNDERMINED by Subhas Chandra Bose's (Leader of Indian National Army) actions..." Incidentally, Governor P.B. Chakaravarti asked Lord Attlee his opinion on an allied subject as well. "Toward the end of the discussion", he wrote, "I wanted to know to what extent Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent movement had influenced the British decision to leave India. There was the flicker of a cautious smile on Attlee's lips as he uttered with slow deliberation the word 'MI-NI-MAL'..." Who had brought the country(India) so near its goal? General Sinha's answer is: "The above facts confirm that the INA(Indian National Army, which Japan helped to create) had a great psychological and political impact even though its military impact was not so significant. They also bring out that the Indian Army played a silent but significant role toward bringing about the independence of India. (Pandit's "The Last Days of Netaji") ---------- |
2002/6/16-17 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:25109 Activity:kinda low |
6/16 What is/are the legal driving age(s) in western european countries like France, England, etc? \_ 18 is the norm. \_ Better question - when do girls become legal? \_ In Denmark girls in the teens are legal. Great country unless you're looking for a cute virgin. \_ Again with the virgins... why would you want a virgin... teaching is a turnoff. \_ Certain people perfer certain things. For example, some people love to be school teachers even though I can't stand kids these days. \_ As usual, the internet, is, once again, your friend. http://www.ageofconsent.com |
2002/6/7-8 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Recreation/Sports] UID:25024 Activity:moderate |
6/7 A female company manager makes an employee shave himself and skate through Southampton city centre in a pink bikini so he could watch England's next World Cup match: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_602658.html \_ This sort of misandry will NOT BE TOLERATED!!! \_ In Southampton, the guy raised 470 quid skating a circuit of the city center three times and it made the news. If he did this in Berkeley or, better, the city, I doubt anyone would even notice. \_ In Southampton, the guy raised 470 quid skating a circuit of the city center three times and it made the news. If he did this in Berkeley or, better, the city, I doubt anyone would even notice. [ reformatted - motdformatd ] \_ Sure they would. The headline would be, "Male employee sues female manager for sexual harrassment." \_ 1: this is from ananova. ananova is not a real news source. 2: if at all true: lawsuit, firing, etc and rightly so. \_ Sounds more like something that was said as a joke, and he took her up on it. |
2002/5/29 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24972 Activity:nil |
5/28 Poor Britain... sucked into the European quagmire. Maybe they'll "get it" someday soon. Pity them until then. http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200205\FOR20020528g.html |
2002/5/1 [Politics/Domestic/Crime, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24657 Activity:high |
5/1 Happy May Day! Woohoo! Let's celebrate the rise of communism and the oppression and murder of millions! \_ mayday predates communism. go away. \_ Yup, it's been around since the 13th century, according to Webster Dict. \_ http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/mayday.html has a \_ http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/mayday.html has a nice little ditty at the end plus some history. It's all communism. nice little ditty at the end plus some history. It's all communism. \_ I prefer to celebrate the 8 hour work day, fool. \_ Is this May Day the same "May Day" that a pilot calls out on the radio when the plane is in trouble? \_ No. The pilot is using a French phrase that literally means "Help Me". \_ How do you spell it? Why did it beat out "Help"? \_ Aidez-moi. \_ That's not pronounced "Mayday." Google is your friend. http://www.m-w.com/wftw/00may/050100.htm (and the version that's pronounced as "mayday" by english speakers is "m'aider") \_ Yes, but "m'aider" doesn't make sense as a French command for "help me." Unless you mean "Venez m'aider." |
2002/5/1 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24654 Activity:low |
5/1 http://www.theregus.com/content/3/24823.html 14 minutes and ticking... \_ I don't see a reason for the US version of the reg. It's just a shortened version of the original UK version. If I wanted to skip the UK stories, I'd just skip them. Some are worth reading. I have yet to see a story show on the US Reg but not the UK Reg. |
2002/4/29 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24634 Activity:high |
4/29 4th Amendment RIP: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=3936063&BRD=982&PAG=461&dept_id=467992&rfi=6 \_ It's only Michigan. How many can find Michigan on a map? \_ It's only Poland. How many can find Poland on a map? - N. Chamberlain \_ Peace with honor! Look ma! We got a piece of paper! \_ "An officer executing a search is not required to give a copy of the affidavit to the person or leave a copy at the place from which the property was taken" - so the cops can take your stuff and not tell you that they did? \_ yes. \_ Yeah this is obviously about giving cops the power to burglar your cd collection under the cloak of the law. Duh. Not. |
2002/4/29 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24630 Activity:kinda low |
4/28 Yugoslav massacre, Israeli massacre. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27423 \_ Umm, yeah. Poor Sharon, just like Milosevic. Vicims of an obvious European plot to frame them for genocide. \_ Maybe you didn't notice but Milosevic was doing quite well defending himself in court, eh? And on what do you base this oddly trusting warm fuzzy feeling about the Europeans? Are you trying to claim the stuff in this article is untrue? \_ Why no mention of Victor Drazen in this article? |
2002/4/27-28 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24614 Activity:high |
4/27 http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/04/26/germany.shooting/index.html Thank God they have strict gun control or who knows what might have happened! \_ clearly fewer would have died because the targets would have been able to protect themselves! NRA4EVA!!1! |
2002/4/25 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24582 Activity:kinda low |
4/24 What exactly is so special about French laundry methods? Why are alot of cleaners "Parisian"? I tried looking this up but kept finding references to the restaurant in Napa. \_ Since the French don't bathe regularly their wash has to be done extra well. That's all. \_ they might be using french kiss to clean them up. |
2002/4/24 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24558 Activity:insanely high |
4/23 Le Pen must be doing something right. Every 'group' in France is really pissed off. news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=288329 \_ yeah, every 'group', like immigrants and jews. some people might regard it as a bad thing that the far right is ridsing again in europe. go back to freeper, you fucking shithead. \_ bad troll! BAD! TROLL! \_ Ridsing? Oh, you mean rising. No, you're confused. Nazi-ism is the far left, not right. Read up on the philosophies and it will become plain that total state control of all industry, education and other aspects of daily life is the antithesis of what conservatism is about. Freeper? Never read it. Fucking shithead? Resorting to very weak and 6th grade level personal attack only shows you have no real points or ideas. Anytime you'd like to try again without ranting like an ignorant 6th grader I'll be here to help you out. \_ Nazi'ism is on the far left? Hahahaha. And Orwell was a conservative, right? a conservative, right? And Buchanan is actually a closet liberal. You can make up your own definition for words, but don't expect to be able to talk to anyone else. \_ Le Pen is not a fascist. He's a reactionary bully, and he won because he picked up on topics that the traditional centrist parties were too complacent to deal with (have you read the socialist and RPR election platforms? Note any similarities or slightly bland statements?) He's also had a lot of support from Jews in France, interestingly enough, because of a lot of the anti-semitic vandalism from north African immigrants. Also, he won 17% of the vote... ...out of the 28% of the electorate that actually bothered to go vote. Pay close attention to the parallels to US third-rate candidates, who won because not enough people went and voted. Whining after the fact is easy...can you say "serves you fucking right?" -John \_ http://slate.msn.com/?id=2064643 - danh \_ Why isn't anyone condeming the Palestinians (Muslims) for sending their early teen children strapped with TNT belts to blow themselves up. It is absolutely disgusting. Arafat and Muslims, together with Kofi Anan and the UN have completely twisted any sense of the morality in West vs Mideast relations. Where is the revulsion (from the media for example)? Impressionable children are indoctrinated to commit suicide, that is noble? \_ It all depends on whether you believe in the cause. \_ No, there is NO excuse period! It is evil in its purest form. Any practicers of that kind of barbarism deserve to be wiped from the face of the earth. Picture when you have a child preparing him to commit suicide- strapping on the belt, dressing him, assuaging his fear and trepidation, and finally sending him off. \_ So collective punishment is good? \_ "...deserve to be wiped from the face of the earth." Answering barbarism with barbarism is not the answer. \_ Firstly, from what I read, they are like "late teens", not "early teens". Have you seen the movie Spartacus? Kid was given weapon to fight against the Roman legions in the movie. Not many people objected to that, cause they were supposedly fighting for "FREEDOM"! \_ Many, many people, including Arafat, have condemned attacks on civilians. |
2002/4/20 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24502 Activity:kinda low |
4/19 Related to European post below: What are some ways for an american programmer (like me) with little spanish and less french, to find a job in a european country? How important is the language issue? (eg, are there places that operate in english?) Are tehre other obstacles (eg, work permit, citizenship, etc) (John, you seem to have alot of experience.) Thanks. \_ I had the impression that Europe hates having foreign workers except in the most menial of positions? --PeterM \_ Where "foreign" is defined as "anyone not from their village". |
2002/4/19 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24492 Activity:high |
4/18 How's the culture different at work between an american and european company in high tech industry? \_ European workers work hard AND play hard. American workers do only either one. Based on my obsrvation. YMMV. \_ what are your referring to with playing hard? Computer games? something else? \_ Drinking, dancing, (=) clubbing til 4am. \_ Europeans work hard? At what? I wouldn't call standing in line at the gov. office for your check from the state hard work. Perhaps you are referring to the grueling 35 hrs/wk plus 2 mos vacation/yr along hard work. \- in my experience a lot of europeans i have met [german and french] are a lot like stanfraud people: they are bright but are interested in working in "glamorous" roles like "making deals" and "architecture" rather than working in the trenches. Curiously the hardcore hackers from France I have met are not "ethnic french". but maybe some of this is a function of their having a telecom and finance orientation. --psb \_ I've worked for French, Swiss, German, and American companies in Switzerland and around Europe, as well as with loads of Brits. The work ethics and styles vary widely--i.e. I've seen the Germans as generally technically bright but aloof from menial shit, the Swiss tend to be great workhorses, but get up to leave at 5 pm sharp (unless in an American company culture), and the English are very punctilious and reliant on rules. It varies widely, what cultural environment someone is in (i.e. a Brit working in a Swiss company, where the hierarchy is pretty low-key, is far more useful than one in the UK, where there's a lot of backstabbing.) In general though I've found Europeans to be a lot less whiny than Americans in their work environments, but once again, this exludes American expats. Also, among all the managers I've worked for, the French have been by far the most agreeable, as they leave you alone if you make them look good. American and English managers in their native environments and corporate cultures are permanently in my shit list. However, with the employees t really depends on the situation. -John |
2002/4/18 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China, Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel] UID:24487 Activity:nil |
4/18 Toursists don't read the news! http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1936000/1936241.stm |
2002/4/18 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24482 Activity:nil |
4/18 American vs. British journalism. Compare & contrast. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7366-2002Apr18.html and more from the Chicago Sun Times: http://www.suntimes.com/output/commentary/cst-edt-edits18.html |
2002/4/11 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24421 Activity:high |
4/11 I love the use of the passive third person through out this whole news piece. As if the rocks just sort of attacked the school bus. Not a single mention of _who_ might be throwing rocks. I guess the reporters don't want to 'humiliate' anyone.... http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020410/ap_wo_en_ge/france_jewish_school_bus_1&printer=1 \_ The people are identified as "stone throwers". That the reporter didn't identify a group of people may have been because they got their information from second hand sources. What did you want them to say? Palestinean supporters? You can't just make stuff up if you don't know for sure. \_ C-. Back to e190 and Subject A. The reporter couldn't find one first hand witness with an entire bus load of victims? What a total crock. Also if it was Arabs then why does the What a total crock. Also if it was[n't] Arabs then why does the rest of the article talk about "tension" between Jews and Arabs in France? |
2002/3/27 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Japan, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24239 Activity:insanely high |
3/26 With regards to reparations, anyone who receives $$$ should be stripped of citizenship and forced to return to the country of most likely origin. These people have benefitted from coming here, despite the trials of their ancestors. If they take the money then they need to go back where they would've been as a condition. --dim \_ i learned everything i know about african history from the iron maiden album "number of the beast," so i disagree. \_ Did we send those Japenese-Americans who were paid reparations back to Japan? \_ The legal aspects of this case are vastly different. The reparations was compensation for violation of their 3rd amendment rights. These people were FULL CITIZENS at the time thier constitutional rights were abriged. They had a legitmate legal claim to be compensated for illegal search and seizure of thier property and possessions without due process. In the case of those asking for reparations for slavery, the plantifs have no case since they were not guarenteed any rights until the passage of the 13th amendment. (By the 3/5ths compromise slaves counted as people for census purposes but were not protected under the bill of rights). The reparations for slavery have already been paid, in the lives of the men and women who fought and died in the civil war, in the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments and in the end of segreation. That the original intent of the founders (all men are created equal) is present in modern america and is as prevasive nowhere else in the world should be enough for anyone of any race. A handout cheapens and renders impotent the Freedom and Liberty that has been gained and defended. - !OP \_ I'm undecided on the issue of reparations, but it's clearly ridiculous to claim that slaves have no right to reparations because slavery was legal at the time. Their claim is about moral rights. -tom \_ Moral rights? Property has no moral rights, no rights period. period. Yes slavery was a terrible thing, but it was positive for any of those inititally brought over... though you raise an interesting point... I'd be curious to see the statistics comparing the percentage of people killed in, or travelling to, the US, vs. the percentage killed in Africa during a comparable time frame. And it is only arguably positive for any ancestors when you consider the conditions that most legal when it happened. They have no claim to compensation because the there was no crime committed. I think that these people should get on with thier lives instead of sitting around pretending to be perpetual victims and childern of slaves. You are what you believe yourself to be, if you think that you are a victim, you will be. \_ There's no claim against a slave owner, who was within the law. There may be a claim against the government for enacting immoral laws. (The fact that the government says it's legal doesn't absolve it of its own moral responsibility). -tom \_ Legal precident is that the just compensation of the enactment of a immoral law is to repeal the law in question. As the laws in question have been repealed, there is no basis for this suit. \_ That's overly simplistic. It's not only that the law was immoral, it's that it caused damage, and a claim for damages certainly could have merit. A claim for damage 150 years after the fact, perhaps not. -tom \_ [ comment about holocaust reparations being paided dispite the holocaust being legal at the time time inadvertently deleted, sorry ] \_ Reparations paid by eurpoeans to other eurpoeans, is not sufficient legal precident in the US. I am talking about crimes commited in territory where the Consitution is valid. \_ Uhm, where does it say its a 3rd amendment issue? \_ Internment was a 3rd amendment issue. JAs had a legal claim. Slaves cannot make any legal claim under the law as it existed when they were wronged. \_ I misread the indenting. Nevermind. Makes sense. \_ maybe. but that was different, it was wartime. wartime rules are different than peacetime rules. \_ yeah, fucking people over because it's wartime is somehow a more outright offense then doing it peacetime. whatever. \_ Yes, at least there was some rationale in WWII, however cooked up, for locking up American citizens because they were of Japanese ancestry. --Jon and not the euro-boat-people. Think about if the same things were committed today and you'll see some of the flaws in your logic. \_ There wasn't any rationale in any other cases? I'm assuming that dim's ignorant original comment was in regards to slavery? Are you trying to say that there weren't countless "scientists" and philos- ophers making justifications for why it was ok to enslave brown people all around the globe? - rory \_ Excuse me, but I think that if you think about it you will find my comment enlightening. Has slavery helped or hurt the people in question? --dim \_ I have thought about it, and I never said your post wasn't enlightening... It is enlightening of the fact that you are ignorant and/or racist. Are you really trying to argue that slavery has had a net positive effect on Africans brought to America? - rory \_ It certainly was a net positive for their descendants (they live in a prosperous society vs whatever african shithole they originally came from), and it may have been a net positive for some of them (in a sense that they would have been executed as POWs in some tribal war otherwise, or perhaps died of malaria). \_ wow when did david horowitz get a CSUA account? - danh \_ It's a net negative - hundreds of years of slavery, crappy lives up till the the Civil Rights movement. And it is the black people themselves who stood up, fought for their rights, and made better lives for themselves. Incredible to see rightwing fuckheads talking out of the their arses and trying to give credit to the slave traders for what is good in the lives of today's African Americans. \_ Excuse me but the civil rights movement was a Republican agenda item. You still have sheet/hood wearing ex-KKK members in Congress right *now*. Thanks for adding your biased agenda driven bit of weak historical revisionism to the motd. \_ Yup, Abraham Lincoln was black. \_ That Abe was a good man doesn't negate the fact that it was a net negative. As for standing up for themselves, I am referring to the Civil Rights movement, not during the Civil War period. \_ Oops, sorry. \_ Are you kidding me?? It certainly *wasn't* positive for any of those inititally brought over... though you raise an interesting point... I'd be curious to see the statistics comparing the percentage of people killed in, or travelling to, the US, vs. the percentage killed in Africa during a comparable time frame. And it is only arguably positive for any ancestors when you consider the conditions that most blacks were living in for the larger part of the last century and a half... and the fact that I'm sure that almost all brought over were perfectly content, and that most tribal warfare was caused by colonizing countries anyway. \_ The evil Westerners made the poor africans fight each other? What, they have no free will? Do you have a source on this last point? People often forget that 'people of color' can be just as nasty as the blackest (whitest?) western imperialist pig-dog. \_ This is always the stupidest argument put forth. \_ People also often forget that European countries. If you disagree, feel free to go home. before colonization, and subsequent "development" by former colonizers, Africa did not consist of formal nation-states at all, but rather loose tribal nations. These coexisted in relative peace (compared to how things are now). Now you tell me what all this "tribal warfare" is about... - rory (Hint: details of the arbitrary borders imposed on the continent, and who gets to be the recipient of all the western development money.) \_ Talk to the British and their Euro allies about the fucked up borders created in Africa to intentionally cause chaos and worsen tribal warfare. This was not an American action. We were a bunch of total world nobodies when this all went down. The historical revisionism on the motd is sickening. If you can't make a point without the outright *lying* then you don't have a point and should go away and shut the fuck up. Thank you. \_ This whole subthread is pointless. That US is better than African nations is besides the point. US is also better than all the European and Asian countries. If you disagree, feel free to go home. \_ That argument assumes the slavers knew that the slaves would be better off in the new world. Since tens of thousands died enroute and tens of thousands died at the hands of their owners, this would be a very poor point to make. \_ We have benefited from them being here too. Should we therefore go back to wherever we came from? \_ Of course we have. That is why we are paying them. Then they need to leave. --dim \_ You shell out my $9m and I'm outta here! Be glad to go! \_ To, say, Nigeria? Doubt it. \_ have you any idea what $9m can buy in NIgeria??? \_ I'm off to the slums of eastern europe where my peoples came from... *with* my $9m bucks! Gladly. As soon as that money clears I'm soooo out of here. \_ No, I think dim should go back to where s/he came from, but dim's money stays here. That's more fair. \_ I totally agree that reparations are impractical when both the criminals and the victims are long dead. In the case of Japanese-American internees, it made some sense since the the reparations were paid to actual victims. Having said that, it's kind of funny when you see people so ready to draw a line between themselves and the crimes committed by their ancestors, and in the very next breadth, they want to send other people "home" because these people's ancestors came later then their ancestors, seemingly saying that they have more right to be here simply because their ancestors came earlier. \_ I only want to send the people home who want the money, not all of the "victims". Capiche? --dim \_ First their "home" is here. Second, then those who "benefited", the perpetrators/benefited should leave unless they pay. but you can argue that is all of us in some way, even those who just arrived yesterday. However you a very confused if you argue that their descendants are better off. You are mixing up your idea "of going home" with reparations. You are missing the big picture. If their ancestors were not exploited and perhaps let to live/work/immigrate freely they may have been the ones running the country today \_ hahahhahahahhah! yeah right! \_ michael jordan, oprah and not the euro-boat-people. In any case, you cannot put a condition onto people because Americans are free to live where they want to. Think about if the same things were committed today and you'll see some of the flaws in your logic. It does not follow. They are not related. That said, I agree reparations are not going to work. The only thing possibly more un-feasible is your plan! \_ thank you... \_ Even if both parties were alive, the claim would be on a poor legal footing. They're seeking reparations for something that was legal at the time. I suspect that such reparations would be deemed unconstitutional on an ex-post-facto basis. \_ Doesn't matter if it was "legal at the time". \_ Of course it does, duh. Go look up the "ex post facto" concept. Jesus Christ some people around here are so dumb. \_ You can argue it but ex post facto does not matter \_ It was legal to keep innocent men behind bars but after they are freed, they still sue. \_ WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN????!!??!??? \_ I FEEL YOUR PAIN! I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT WOMAN! I DID NOT INHALE! IT WAS NOT AN ASPIRIN FACTORY! \_ CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?!? \_ IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD! |
2002/3/15 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:24121 Activity:insanely high |
3/15 US aid paltry: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1034243 "Not only is the United States the stingiest of all rich-country aid donors (spending only 0.1% of its national income on foreign aid, compared with the European average of 0.3%), its aid is particularly inefficient." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/15/international/15PREX.html "President Bush today proposed a three- year, $5 billion increase in American foreign aid to poor nations that support human rights, adhere to strong systems of law and have open markets." \_ Whelp! That's that! Our TAX PAYER FUNDED AID is being wasted so we should just stop bothering and end all aid programs. Thanks for the link. \_ Get a f'ing clue. Who exactly footed the bill for all UN excursions around the world the past two decades? Who stations the 5th Fleet to guard the Saudi Arabian oil predominantly used by Europe? The US has been the de facto national defense of Europe the past 5 decades. \_ Stationing troops in the Middle East for the benefit \_ So in the glofified world of political virtue you live name me one country that would want us to leave. And then of (primarily) American owned oil companies can't be called foreign aid, by any stretch of the word or idea. Most people would consider it thinly veiled imperialism. \_ You're right. Let's pull out and let the whole area fall to shit and see exactly how this had no benefit to Europe who gets the bulk of their energy from the Middle East. It's funny how if we go somewhere it's imperialism and we're bad and if we don't then we're isolationist and we're bad. \_ Did Europe clamor for the US to come to the aid of Kuwait? Your knowledge is history is very rudimentary. Kuwait? The only people who cared were the Texas oil boys and their puppets in Kuwait. If you don't think American foreign and domestic policy is in the service of Big Oil, you should at least consider it. \_ how does middle eastern oil help texas? as an alaskan, i can tell you that poeple up there are more against our dependence on middle eastern oil than anyone. alsaska has a negative tax because of *alaskan* oil riches, not oil company profits in general. i don't see why texas would be any different. \_ you do know we get more oil from the US and Canada than we do from the middle east don't you? \_ Not Texans so much as Exxon, Mobile, Texaco, and Chevron executives and shareholders. \_ So in the glofified world of political virtue you live name me one country that would want us to leave. And then ask yourself why you don't live there? \_ South Korea. And I did. \_ South Korea wants the American military out of the DMZ? You're stupid and a liar. \_ He answered your inane question and you call him stupid and a liar. You are a dolt. \_ And what a complete disaster US involvement in South Korea has been. Great point! \_ the problem is not with the hard core figures. It has to do with perception and marketing. US should save that money and spend it on marketing (setup proxy radio+TV stations) which portrays that we're not all that greedy and evil. And it should do that in Muslim countries ASAP. \_ Why? Why do you care what "The Arab Street" thinks? That's not who the terrorists are. \_ Sympathy lends legitimacy. |
2002/2/23-24 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:23958 Activity:insanely high |
2/22 Just curious, when the Olympics was held in Berlin back in the 30s how many gold medals did Germans get? \_ ya gotta love google... Top winners G S B Total 1. Germany 33 26 30 89 2. USA 24 20 12 56 3. Italy 8 9 5 22 \_ wow those Nazis are really good... or not :) \_ wow, taking performance enhancing drugs even then, eh? \_ Keep in mind, that Germany before WW2 was the techincally most advanced nation in the world. Nazi party managed to pull Germany out of depression which lasted 10 years. Too bad, among other things, Hitler never been to Asia at the time, otherwise, he probably will not complain about lack of "living space" for the German people. \_ Max Schmeling and Jesse Owens would tell you otherwise. -John \_ Nah, Germany was really advanced pre-WWI. By pre-WWII, it has slipped a little relatively speaking. Also, Germany is crowded even by Asian standards. \_ Hitler not complain about bad engrish on motd not either! \_ Why does UK suck so bad in the Olympics relative to the other European nations? \_ because their wide success in rock music has encouraged more youth to pick up music as opposed to sports. \_ They don't have mountains. -tom \_ they have bad teeth \_ All the males died in WW I / II, leaving mostly effeminate noncombatants to repopulate. Plus they are socialists and their societies are dying, literally. \_ But UK is less socialist than Sweden and Norway! \_ Sweden and Norway don't have zillions of foreigners on welfare swamping their shores. \_ Is it "dying", too? \_ yeah that's it - blame the foreigners. \_ Blame goes where it belongs. shrug. \_ Canada is just as socialist, has just as many foreigners, and still did well at the Olympics. Your explanation is stupid. I like Tom's explanation better. But then UK also kind of sucks at Summer Olympics. The rock music explanation ain't bad either. \_ Hey genius, the topic moved beyond medal count. Try again. \_ Why do you insist on trying to explain your stupidity. I suggest the best way for you to cover it up is to delete this thread in its entirety. \_ No one was explaining anything. You were being corrected. So this makes two times you needed correcting on the same thread. You stick around, son, you'll get it one day. I suggest a basic reading comprehension course at a local community college for a good start. \_ The only time the topic changed was when it shifted from medal count to how stupid you are. \_ Maybe you're not ready for community college basic reading comp. courses. |
2002/2/22 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:23950 Activity:nil |
2/21 To the French/Sartre/existentialist buffs out there...is there an english translation of "Les Jeux Sont Faits" available? My French has completely degraded over the past few years so I can't read the original version. \_ Babelfish! \_ Run the motd archive through the french version of jive. Same effect. \_ OK let me rephrase the request. Is there a good or reputable translation of the book? -op \_ Why the f&%k are you asking the motd this (other than anonymously boasting about your erudite reading requirements)? \_ Because the motd is sometimes a good source of info. \_ Consider me duly slapped and carry on. (!sarcasm) |
2002/2/15-16 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:23880 Activity:very high |
2/15 This olympic figure skating contraversy brings out something that reminded people of the cold war. All the eastern block former communist countries still stick together. Yeah, they may be democracies now, but they still remember their communist roots. \_ a Deep Thought, by Jack Handy. \_ uh, yes, I'm sure you're the only one who noticed this. Are you next going to point out the French joined them and post the standard anti-French tirade about them, too? \_ Actually, I think the original post was cut and pasted from a SJ Merc article. Either that or http://ESPN.com. \_ That's not quite the situation. The fact that many of these countries were under the the thumbs of Soviet-backed military dictatorships complicates the "old buddies" theory. \_ Then the OP needs to get bashed for not providing a link or quoting ths source in addition to posting the obvious. I'm still trying to decide if the SF Comical is better or worse than the SJM but neither is a 'good' source of news. \_ Just like US and UK still sticking together after two and a quarter centuries of independence. \_ Uhm, more like since WWI or thereabouts. 1777 wasn't a good year for US/British relations. Also 1776 wasn't the US becoming magically independent. We "declared" it. That's why we call it the "Declaration of Inde" oh nevermind. Go read a book. Why do I bother? \_ Yeah I know we declared independence. What's your point? \_ 1812 wasn't so hot either. --dim |
2002/1/3 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:23438 Activity:very high |
1/2 Why the Euro conversion is a Good Thing (tm): http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020102/od/germany_dc_1.html \_ Let's see... 1 euro = $0.90... Damn that's nice. \_ CSUA-field-trip-to-Deutchland-P \_ nil -- russian jew \_ The idea was originally 1 euro = $1.00. \_ There's a better reason: it'll take the europeans years to recovere from entangling and mushing up their different economies, legal system, transport, etc, etc, etc, during which time we'll leave them in a far distant second place economically while we continue to ship more cigarettes, Coke, and McDonald's over there. There is more than one way to win a war. Conquering your enemy's culture without bloodshed is the best long term method of victory and it creates jobs along the way. I'm all for the Euro. \_ In 20 years we are going to be second to China anyway. \_ Laughable. \_ Yeah, the World Bank is a bunch of jokers. \_ do you know the real reason the american economy has been having problems? ever since the motd.public has been unreadable to those without csua accounts, allan greenspan has been unable to read it, and has been without it's wisdom for quite some time. the effects are obvious. \_ finger motd@soda.csua.berkeley.edu \_ When you subtract out all of the .com crap which was transient growth, Europe actually had better productivity growth than the US. They also work less than we do. \_ which why Germany test scores are so high |
2001/12/30-31 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:23405 Activity:moderate |
12/30 Can I use U.S. cordless phone (900MHZ, 2.4GHZ) outside U.S. (Europe, Asia)? Will I cause or receive inteference? Where can I find out more about this? \_ European cordless phones uses a standard called DECT. It runs in the 1.8-1.9ghz range. Plus, GSM in any place other than the U.S.A. runs in 900 or 1800 mhz, so you will most likely cause and receive interference if you're in the 900 mhz range. |
2001/12/28 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel] UID:23390 Activity:high 75%like:23392 |
12/27 "So what ties us together? We're tied together by our belief in political democracy. We're tied together by our belief in religious freedom. We're tied together by our belief in capitalism, a free economy where people make their own choices about the spending of their money. We're tied together because we respect human life. We're tied together because we respect the rule of law. Those are the group of ideas that make us Americans." ''12/28 Europe / Arabia vs. Isreal / U.S. ...from the Spectator, a read so awesome, I wet my pants: http://freerepublic.com/focus/fr/597547/posts \_ The kind of crap that sodans read is scary. And even scarier is that they read it on a regular basis. \_ Agreed - at least as concerns the nutty freerepublic guy. \_ reiffin \_ When are you going to learn to format properly? Let me guess, this is from George "What election law?" Bush. |
2001/12/22 [Politics/Domestic/RepublicanMedia, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:23343 Activity:nil |
12/21 Ann Coulter: Attack France! (It's at least worth reading before you delete) http://freerepublic.com/focus/fr/593954/posts \_ Is this supposed to be funny? \_yep. Not only supposed to be, but is. \_ Nope. Not funny. It is like a bad Saturday Night Live skit that never ends. Not one laugh in it. \_ How on earth does this woman stay syndicated? \_ because some people aren't dumb humorless liberals. \_ They are stupid shit-kicking half literate rednecks? \_ ... although I think Ann missed one very important point, France bought Iraq's war debt from Kuwait. - original poster |
2001/12/14 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:23244 Activity:high |
12/14 http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001571536,00.html I'm not sure if the first or the second article on this page is more scary. Either way, be glad if you're living somewhere else besides France or Britain. \_ be forwarned the UN wants to have this ability over Americans. they want to gut the 2nd amendment and take away our guns. \_ it was a good try until you forced the 2nd amendment thing in there and you really blew it with the "our guns" bit at the end. theres no need to whack people over the head with the bait. \_ Just because you don't hear about it on CNN Headline news doesn't mean its not true. \_ Yes I know the UN wants to take over the US. The UN = enemies of the US and the jealous third world. However, just because they want it doesn't mean they're going to get it. Just stop voting in anti-americans and it'll be ok. \_ Actually, the US benefits a great deal from the UN, without which US political clout would be vastly reduced. Don't be stupid. \_ As soon as the guns go, so does your freedom. What other deterent is there? \_ the smell? \_ Uh, hmmm... the military? \_ The greatest threat to this country is from within. Where have u been the past 10 years? \_ Your vote counts. Stop voting for enemies of this country. |
2001/12/7-9 [Computer/SW/Security, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:23179 Activity:high |
12/7 What is the best way to transfer funds between accounts in U.S. and another country (in Europe) without fee or getting riped off by special conversion rate? The amount is small and just to cover my expenses when I travel or order internationally, i.e. < $2000. \_ My dad has a US checking account at B of A. Every month I make a deposit to his account at a branch here, and he withdraws the money at a branch in Hong Kong. No transaction fee, but I don't know if the conversion rate is the same as the standard rate. \_ I asked at the Bank of America in Hong Kong whether one can access his US account in HK, the answwer I get is plain no, as Bank of America Asia supposedly cannot access account of its parent bank in US. If you are converting from USD to a foreign currency, you are bound to pay a conversion fee (3% I think in most banks). You can open an USD account in a more established financial houses (like SG), so you can withdraw funds outside of US much more easily. But for $2000, it's easier to get travel's checks. \_Tnx for the reply. However often the need to transfer money arises and the amount becomes known while I am outside U.S., not to mention carrying traveler's check is like carrying cash other than being much safer. \_ I've heard from a lot of people that ATMs are good, you get better (minimal but still significant) fees. Better than changing cash out. \_ but you cannot deposit foreign currency to your account from abroad. \_ Go back and read the stated objective, duud. \_ Use your credit card. You'll get the best exchange rate and if you pay it off, the fee will be minimal. No cash that you need to carry which should eliminate the cost of foreign->US. \_ Depends. While I was in Europe this past summer, it was cheapest for me to just withdraw cash from ATMs: BofA was tacking a "foreign currency conversion fee" to each of my CC transactions, while for the ATM withdrawals, I was getting the interbank exchange rate without any additional fees. When I lived in Germany, I had my paychecks direct-deposited to my credit union account in the US and paid for everything in cash: if my needs exceeded the daily transaction limit, I planned ahead and visited the ATM multiple days in a row. If you want an account at a bank that has a presence on both sides of the Atlantic, I've heard that Citibank and HSBC are good choices for US->Europe expatriates, although I have no experience with either. -- kahogan \_ which ever route you choose, make sure you don't go to the foreign currency exchange booth at traverler's spots. Their rate is horrible. (something like 8%) \_ That's strange. Maybe my dad makes his withdrawal by writing himself a check and then cash it at a B of A branch there? I've never asked him. \_ The more I think about it, this is a good way for money laundry. \_ Yes, this is exactly how my father got money at a BofA branch in Taiwan. |
2001/11/14 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Japan, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:23040 Activity:very high |
11/14 Is United States is the only country in the world that advertises "weight control" pet food? For pets that are too fat? You really have to have lived in an improverished country to realize just how absurdly rich this country is. And why so many people in the world hate us for it. \_ So you are saying envy is good and excusable? Maybe they should get off their asses, and invest, and create business and wealth. There is no such thing as absurdly rich. \_ It's not about envy or jealously. You're making that up. \_ Have you no sense of shame at all? \_ The only thing it means is that Americans and their pets are both fat. \_ They probably have it in Japan too... and maybe France or UK. \_ Ah yes. We should feel guilty for living in a country with enough fucking FOOD. And those poor bastards who keep having 5 kids when they can barely feed their own ignorant AIDS-ridden selves should hate us because we live in a civilized society. I'm not ashamed to be living above the level of animals. \_ What a fucking asshole! \_ you have never lived in an improverished country have you? Ever wonder why they have so many children? Because one or two of the kids will die. Also because children work and bring in income. I'd seen first hand children whose only purpose is to haul buckets of water up a hill because their shack has no running water. They do that whole day everyday until they die or, if they live, they can get a paying job. Paying job meaning shining shoes or collecting scrap. \_ If having more children really increase overall productivity, how come those countries haven't solved famine after people have had so many children? \_ Look, being poor does not necessitate such a crappy life. There are many other "poor" societies in history. These problems go deeper than just poverty. It's a breakdown of civilization. In some cases the religion makes them not even attempt to raise their living standards; they say the worse they live now, the better they'll have it in the afterlife. Look at how early western societies behaved...most of them didn't have running water either. Towns had a well in the middle. \_ What religion is this? Cite a passage out of some holy book instead of making shit up. You're almost as bad as Jon Katz. \_ In Islam, this (as in, RIGHT NOW, BEING ALIVE) life is not as vivid or important as the next life, the afterlife. \_ How about: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God." Or this: "They that will be rich fall into a tempatation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts... for the love of money is the root of all evil: O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." The Bible is full of this stuff. \_ The bible also extols us to work hard and not be lazy. Yes, the bible want us to trust in the Lord rather than trust in our money. The bible is not against wealth but against greed, wastefulness, and money obtained through improper means. \_ If anyone bothers to read the Bible they would quickly realize it is a awesome commentary on human existence, it is packed full with perfect wisdom, and a path to self-awareness. It's the best book you could ever read. \_ Read "All the trouble in the world", there is a chapter on famine. \_ If we all donate our old PCs and Linux software and DSL hubs + ethernet cards their standard of living will totally improve!!! |
2001/11/12 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:23013 Activity:nil |
11/12 In Saving Private Ryan there is this skinny tri-lingual guy who is always afraid of combat. Toward the end of the movie he walks up the stairway and meets this German guy. How come the German guy didn't kill him? Also what did he say to the Germans, and why did he shoot only one guy? \_Why is Darth Luke's father? Why is Barney pink? Who cares? |
2001/10/25-26 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Recreation/Food] UID:22833 Activity:very high |
10/25 Can anyone recommend a good Italian restaurant in SF? \_ Basta Pasta (if you like the whole mofia atmosphere). \_ http://www.pizzahut.com \_ Price range? How many? What's the occasion? More info please. \_ around $30 / person, romantic setting would be nice .. \_ Caffe Sport, Steps of Rome, Pasta Pomodoro (decreasing price) \_ Steps of Rome sucks. The food is so-so, they are overpriced, and if you actually speak Italian (or know Italians who pantomime a lot), you'd realize that the waiters usually insult you. \_ Reminds me of the movie National Lampoon - European Vacation where Chevy Chase and the family went to a restaurant in France and the waiter commented on his daughter's round ass in French. \_ the Americans rarely make fun of the Europeans. Why do they make fun of our big belly and Lewdwinsky round ass? \_ It's an American movie, so it's Americans trying to make fun of Europeans making fun of Americans. \_ The food is decent, and it is definitely NOT overpriced, but actually quite cheap (pasta < $10). It's all about the atmosphere. $2.50 for a cafe to sit in a loud restaurant watching people go by... go back to Denny's. \_ Agreed. Yeah, the waiters will hit on your girlfriend if she's cute, insult you on the sly, and the like, but the atmosphere is fun and the tiramisu is excellent. It's a \_ Go to a real Italian resaurant like Mangafuoco or Trattoria great place to go if you're mildly drunk. ? \_ I like Pasta Pomodoro. Another one that is good is Buca Di Beppo. You need make reservation. Otherwise it's 2+ hour wait. \_ Pasta Pomodoro is passable Italian. It's about on par with a Stouffer's frozen Italian Entree heated in the oven. Waits at Buca di Beppo are weird. Sometimes you wait a long time, and sometimes you get lucky. Plus, making reservations can be a pain because they only have half of the restaurant available for reservations so they tend to get booked up way in advance. If possible, try requesting the Kitchen table at Buca di Beppo. It's rad. \_ Buca di Beppo is the worst Italian food I've ever had. The atmosphere is tacky (think TGIFridays), the waiters are rude and the pasta is slathered with enough garlic to make it inedible. \_ Not to mention the ass tiramisu. \_ Agreed with the worst Italian comment -- do not go there \_ Go to a real Italian resaurant like Mangiafuoco or Trattoria Contadina. These losers are sending you to cheapo places with mediocre food. \_ Fuzio is a PastaPomodoro competitor. I prefer Pomodoro, but Fuzio is acceptable. \_ DiBeppo is not Italian, it is Eye-talian. \_ I've always like Pane e Vino. Casual and pretty tasty. The other places recommended tended to be more Americanized or touristy. \_ North Beach Restaurant _used_ to have incredible Italian. \_ Via Vai on Union & Cafe Pazzia on 3rd. Good but not cheap food. Both have reasonably priced(~$8) thincrust pizzas that are great. \_ Last time I went to Pazzia, my pizza was $13. \_ What about Joe's down by the Exit Theatre? \_ Figaro is terrible. Avoid the place. The Stinking Rose is also terrible. \_ Zagat says: Delfina, Scala's Bistro, Trattoria Contadina, Emma, and Antica Trattoria (in that order). Also, Mazzini Trattoria on Telegraph in Berkeley got good marks. Also in Berkeley is Venezia, which I like. Oh, and E'Angelo on Chestnut in SF makes great lasagna. --dim \_ Venezia is ass. \_ Uh. Okay. It's not on part with the others I mentioned, \_ Uh. Okay. It's not on par with the others I mentioned, but it's not Olive Garden. --dim \_ I like Milano on Pacific in SF. Top notch service, romantic (cozy, intimate) and in your price range. \_ Not bad for what it is, but if that's your idea of top-notch service you need to get out more. This is a good place for a a casual dinner when you don't want to spend a fortune, but it isn't upscale or top-notch in any way. --dim |
2001/10/10-11 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:22682 Activity:very high |
10/10 How was dynamite better than other explosives before its time? Why was it such a big invention? Thx. \_ it's stable? \_ Easy to make, cheap, powerful, detonates rather than conflagrates, safe to handle (i.e., stable.) i.e., yes. \_ Before, nitroglycerin was the explosive of choice. Nobel used to make it before TNT. Lost relatives, labs, and manufacturing facilities due to the explosive's unstable nature. Lots of mining and transport accidents too. Real ugly stuff. \_ What was that classic John Wayne film where they are transporting the nitro in a wagon. It was based on another classic (b&w) euro (french?) film... \_ The John Wayne movie is probably Rooster Cogburn. The French movie is probably Le Salaire de la Peur (The Wages of Fear), which was remade as The Sorcerer. - ok \_ Wrong on the Duke film. \_ Are you sure that's not it? See the synopsis at http://users.orac.net.au/~mhumphry/roosterc.html |
2001/9/23 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/India, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:22596 Activity:nil |
9/22 "Afghanistan Is Like Nothing You've Ever Seen, Soviet Vets Say" http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000075191sep19.story \_ Unlike the Russians and British, we're not trying to take over the country and rule the people. \_ Unlike the Russians, the British, while having Gen. Elphinstone lose a > 12,000 man army the first time around, actually whupped them something good, blew up their main mosque, then left, having made their point. They were not trying to take over, but rather to prop up a suitable puppet capable of keeping the Russians from moving in and threatening India in their desire for non-isolated warm-water port. As Afghanistan, under the English-installed kings was actually quite stable from 1847- 1965-ish, at which point the British were no longer in India, and with a government in place there which was friendly to the soviets, one might conclude that they were pretty successful. So none of this untameable tribal barbarian stuff, please. -John |
2001/9/19 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:36334 Activity:nil |
9/19 For those inclined to post articles from the Guardian. "... the extrapolation of your own adolescent rebellion into a cosmic political philosophy in which the most powerful country in the world personifies the domineering adult authority against which you pit yourself" http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3ba8322940da.htm |
2001/9/19 [Politics/Domestic/Crime, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:22524 Activity:very high |
9/19 For those inclined to post articles from the Guardian (undeleted) http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3ba8322940da.htm \_ Quite reactionary don't you think? It seems to me that this is an attempt to break down an argument that isn't being made by British left. Namely that mass murder is somehow acceptable in this case. |
2001/9/18-19 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:22514 Activity:high |
9/18 http://www.foreignaffairs.org/Search/document_briefings.asp?i=19981101facomment1428.xml&nb=0 \_ A link to Patton's speech: http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/patton_20010914.html Patton was already using terms like "He Man" and "superman". I thought those were first created as comic characters after WWII. |
2001/9/12 [ERROR, uid:36270, category id '18005#9.31' has no name! , , Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:36270 Activity:nil |
This, from a Canadian newspaper, is worth sharing. America: The Good Neighbor. Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record: "This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States. When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it. When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped. The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars! into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans. I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon -! not once, but several times - and safely home again. You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here. When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake. Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those," Stand proud, America! |
2001/9/10 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:22361 Activity:high |
9/10 Antimasturbation devices for csua members (no pun): Check out http://free.freespeech.org/shockingtruth/pittjohnson.html esp. the quotes at the bottom. These guys are serious... \_ It can't be real. How do you pay for something priced at 34.99 pound sterling in British currency? -- not from Britain \_ too bad it isn't true. \_ It can't be real. How do you pay for something at 34.99 pound sterling in British currency? \_ it's obviously not real |
2001/9/10 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:22360 Activity:very high 66%like:22353 |
9/9 Take the red pill: http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ArticleBin/374.html \_ i will save the rest of you the trouble: "capitalism bad, communism good". \_ If that is what you got from it, I question your reading comprehension skills. It is no way complimentary of comprehension skills. It is no way complementary of communism. \_ I love it when morons criticize people. "Duh, your reading comprehension sucks." Look up "complementary", it doesn't mean what you think it means. \_ Your vocabulary sucks too. "comlementary" != "complimentary". Look it up. He, unlike you, used the word correctly. \_ this is unfair. someone corrected the original post. \_ well, okay, maybe just "capitalism bad". not sure what other point the overlong drivel had. at some point i ceased caring. \_ I think either the article failed to point out that the USSR, being the biggest communist country, also did more or less the same things as mentioned in the article, or it purposely avoided that fact. \_ What does USSR have to do with it? \_ The article seems to blame warfare and imperialism on capitalism, while in fact those problems were common to both capitalism and communism. It's like when someone finds that a big percentage of students in every university cheats in their exams, he writes an article on the topic "a big percentage of students in University biased. X cheats in their exams". It's not incorrect, but it's unfair. \_ I guess that is one way to think about it. But I don't know anyone who seriously advocates a communist dictatorship as a response to the problems of limited democracy and corporate control of the media. both capitalism and communism. biased. \_ I guess that is one way to think about it. \_ sorry, i couldn't get past the stupid matrix analogy. "The propaganda lies of yesterday were recorded and became consensus history--the fabric of the matrix." I just can't make myself believe that anyone who could say this with a straight face has anything reasonable to say. \_ Donate all your belongings to PETA and go live in a cave deep in the forest. \_ DEEP in the forest. I don't want to run into you on a random hiking trip. \_ People for the Eating of Tasty Animals? |
2001/9/8 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:22353 Activity:high 66%like:22360 |
9/7 http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ArticleBin/374.html \_ "Escaping the Matrix. What if consensus reality is a fabricated illusion? Are you ready for the red pill?" |
2001/8/14-15 [Politics/Foreign, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:22112 Activity:high |
8/14 What's the purpose of an air show with military aircrafts? Why would a country want to let other countries know what their jet fighers can and cannot do? \_ intimidation \_ in this day and age, it can be an advertisement -- buy my MIGs! \_ it's a major recruiting tool, and PR stunt. Plus what they show at the shows is already known. The airshows held in the states are for the public and are quite frankly very boring compared to the ones at industry air shows held in UK and Paris. There the Russians come and show off their stuff and challenge others to do the same (certain Su-27 are more acrobatic than anything but the F-22). You get to see things like the An-225 Cossack, too. the baddest MF cargo plane on the planet \_ Isn't the Su-37 far more acrobatic than the F-22? \_ I think Pearl Harbor the recent movie gave away our biggest tactic of playing chicken with each other and making the enemy follow and crash \_ The air show is that industry's equivalent of a trade conference. All the stuff for public consumption is usually a side product. You're not seeing the 3rd worlders in th background writing checks. |
2001/7/20 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:21888 Activity:nil |
7/19 Cow filled with fireworks dropped from helicopter (picture included)! http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b582ff81eee.htm |
2001/7/20 [Computer/Rants, Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/Asia/Others] UID:21884 Activity:very high |
7/19 Yet more people with too much time on there hands: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010719/wl/india_bush_s_cat_1.html \_ Is India even called "India" in India? --PeterM \_ Sure, they all speak English anyway (there's no one "Indian" language.) The word comes from the Indus River, or Sindhu, also the word Hindu, and Hindustan. But it's irrelevant; they seem to think it's insulting on the principle, like if you named a pet dogshit France, even though the French don't call themselves France. \_ Bharath is the real name for "India". Hindu is also not a indian word, it is a arabic term invented by muslim invaders. \_ Are they suggesting that our pres should get a lion instead? \_ ^t a^t eaten by a |
2001/7/17 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:21826 Activity:nil |
7/17 Go Lance! \_ Tour de France? |
2001/6/21-7/20 [Science/GlobalWarming, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:21589 Activity:high |
6/21 Don't you ever wonder about what is going on in the world? 1. South Africa - Ya there was alittle news about how debeers is going private but not much else- they control a good deal of energy and recently Africa is coming into its own- why- rich people have finally realized that they can buy all the land- and they have. But again no one talks about it \_ the black man will just wake up and hack off both your arms, like in neighboring rwanda 2.http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/published/ESP_Lists/esp_udc.htm : They don't have commercials about this- Everyone assumes all those rate increase are mandatory---- well not really....... 3. Australia: There economy is based a lot of raw material production. In 9th or 10 grade had class where we played a game called simpolican or something like that- a pred of civilization. But you actually had to produce raw materials to produce everything else. So why is it that our press never talks about the foundation of our economy- commodity production. 4. What about going ons in france 5. What about changing demographics- US simply has to many people- if you look at like euro countries people don't work nearly as much- thus the need for employees is more- you can sustain higher employment if people lets say take off a month here and there. 6. What about families- US just wasted 5 years with no family economics- why because everyone was working instead. 7. I am still waiting for a good story in the news about Japan or the Tigers. It is like Taiwan, ah I forgot the 5 tigers and did a quick search and came up with http://www.theglobalist.com \_ A... WHAT WERE SMOKING WHEN YOU WROTE THIS? |
2001/6/12 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:21489 Activity:moderate |
6/12 An American in Europe: http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/06/12/itinerary/index.html \_ USA #1!!! \_ and you wonder why http://Salon.com is going bankrupt. |
2001/6/11 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:21476 Activity:high |
6/11 Anyone has experence moving from the U.S. to Europe? I am looking for a good shipping/freight company. \_ once your parcel gets to france, the french people piss on it. i'd say hand-deliver it, otherwise pay a courier like DHL./ FedEX. \_ But it's FRENCH piss! \_ yummy |
2001/5/23 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:21338 Activity:very high |
5/22 Vous etes l'homme maintenant chien! \_ qing bu shuo fa yu zai motd. Wo men zhi you shuo zhong wen. \_ Mandarin? \_ dang ran! duo shao ren zai CSUA hui shuo guang dong hua? \_ ni shi ge xiao ben dan. (you are a little idiot.) \_ Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble, tres bien ensemble. \_ Sean Connery is huge in france, doncha know \_ Je suis l'homme chien! - S Connery \_ Is this French? \_ Kimochi!Kimochi! chichirin ga hoshi \_ anta ga hentai. yameroo. -\- omanko mo hoshii |---- What no girl talk ?` |
2001/4/21-22 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:21049 Activity:high |
4/20 Stupid protesters. They should study history. Idiots don't understand globalization prevents war by making countries dependent on trade. \_ although the "interdependence theory" is one many people argue for [see e.g. Rise of the Tradin State by R. Rosencrance] the naive version is simply not true based of the evidence. You think Germany and the rest of Europe didnt have complicated trading relationships in the early 1900s? --psb [see e.g. Rise of the Tradin State by R. Rosencrance] the naive version is simply not true based of the evidence. You think Germany and the rest of Europe didnt have complicated trading relationships in the early 1900s? --psb \_ (Though if they don't play by the rules, we beat them up, like Iraq) So in the end they shouldn't be protesting the loss of jobs, it's better than the loss of lives. - ex-protestor/communist \_ And we declared war on Iraq because of our trade agreements with Kuwait... \_ because by disrupting the flow of oil to heavily dependent europe and japan, it would affect the global econ. |
2001/2/6-7 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China, Politics/Foreign/Europe, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:20517 Activity:moderate |
2/6 Patron Saint of the Internet (how dumb can the pope be?): http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/02/06/pope.internet.reut/index.html \_ not dumb, senile [moved by the motd mind reader] \_ Neither. Quite aware of the humour value. \_ Here in America we spell it "humor". \_ I see Brit spellings on motd all the time. Who is a well known Brit in CSUA? \_ Wouldn't anyone from Hong Kong use the british spelling? \_ yes, or from Australia, or (I would assume) from almost any other English-speaking nation, aside from the US. |
2000/11/16 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:19786 Activity:high |
11/15 Please read the text without ragging on the source. Dr. Laura had the easiest to read (in terms of fonts, etc) copy of this quote: http://drlaura.com/letters/index.html?mode=view&tile=1&id=115 Any opinions on this quote? Was Tyler full of shit? Where do you think we stand on Tyler's timeline if he had it right? \_ Tyler is full of B.S. True democracy in a country where the people are 100% educated won't vote for more money. That happens in the U.S., in Philipines, in Mexico, etc, where the average voter has no clue of what's happening. We haven't even progressed to true democracy yet, much less going on to bondage again. \_ unless by "100% educated" you mean 100% brainwashed into your or my particular ideology (and even the latter would be a high price to pay for what wouldn't really be a democracy), you, like most people, have an entirely irrational faith in education. -crebbs \_ You missed the point. "true democracies" dont last, you always degenerate into the haves and the havenots, which then accelerates like how the US is going now. \_ Its a moot point, since the US is not and has never been a true democracy. The US is a representative republic. A true democracy is not much different than mob rule. A simple majority often makes hasty and ill considered choises. The founding fathers knew this and created a system of government resistant to drastic changes that can plague a democracy. \- that quote does better on style than substance. the fall of athens has a lot to do with the peloponessian war. See Thucydides and Kagan IV: The Fall of the Athenian Empire. You know being invaded genreation, that men intheir prime could not be found or [by the macedonians] also didnt help. I dontthink we need to worry about invasion. The point about populism is interesting. See the rule on land reform legislation in Republic of Rome. --psb \_ It's not across from France anymore? Where did they move it to? \- here is an interesting quote from Kagan: "It is revealing of the state of Athenian politics that the Athenians believed they must seek such qualities ["prudent cautious, moderate leadership"] in an earlier genreation, that men in their prime could not be found or trusted to provide it.". --psb \_ The U.K. wasnt "invaded" either, but it is no longer where it once was \_ It's not across from France anymore? Where did they move it to? \_ Thanks to the liberals who turned it into a socialist welfare state. \_ The British Empire fell long before that. Unless you are calling Winston Churchill a liberal. \_ It was still an empire into the early 50's, well after Churchill was out of power. \_ The British EMPIRE is anti-democratic. That's why it fell. \_ Actually, it fell because it actually tried to be somewhat nice to the people it conquered, rather than ruling with an iron fist forever. The last straw was of course the massive draining of resources due to WWII. \_ Yeah sure, massive draining of resources from the colonies to the European front. When the Japanese Imperial Army came with 30000 soldiers, the 80000 Brits ran so fast down the Malayan peninsula, the Japanese soldiers had to grab bicycles from the locals to keep up with the retreating British (note that the terrain in Malaysia is unsuitable for armored vehicles). \_ They will face a problem 10x worse than what the French had when they persisted in their anti- democratic ways in Algeria and IndoChina. \_ Nice? Please explain in what ways the British were "nice" conquerers. Taken a history class anytime in this life? \_ yeah, thats a pretty fucking dumb thing for someone to say. it's always hard to tell on the motd who is a troll and who really is a moron. there are so many true morons and so many really devoted trolls who have honed there skills over the years and they both seem to like to post to the motd. -troller \_ The democracy/republic which is the United States will persist as long as most people feel that the U.S. is the best country to be a citizen of on this planet. It also persists on a common, nation-wide feeling of what is right and wrong, what is fair and not fair, and that honest, hard-working people can better their situation in a reasonable way, in the face of all that is wrong and not fair. Voting to give yourself money is generally accepted as corrupt and embarrassing, unless you have a good reason that other people will buy. For example, most people will vote to give veterans money, but most people will not vote to give only rich people tax breaks. People may want to abolish taxes, but most people understand this will upset the system and create a situation where the U.S. is no longer a great place to live. Anyways, the bottom line is that Tyler makes a lame, inflammatory college frosh argument that you'd hear in section and from your \_ Explain then, why every democracy in existence has a higher tax rate now than it did 50 years ago? And higher 50 years ago than it was 100 years ago, (obviously you can keep going with this). \_ Interesting trend. Explanation not available. Opinion unchanged. |
2000/11/12-13 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:19737 Activity:kinda low |
11/11 For those simple minded enough to want to abolish the EC, please read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60939-2000Nov1.html \_ so what? "The Electoral College has evolved, shaping and being shaped by the two-party system, which probably would not survive abandonment of winner-take-all allocation of electoral votes." = another good reason to scrap it. \_ Ever live in a country with a bunch of small parties? Selling support is big business. It *always* works against the interest of the people. \_ Like Italy, for example. Now there's a country with lots of little parties you don't want emulated here. Stability is more important than getting to pick from 1 of 50 tiny parties that screw up the country. Think *this* country is screwed up? Think the Demos and Repubs are bad? Go check out any of the counties that don't have entrenched two party systems. You'll be deeply awed at the wisdom of "The Founding Fathers". \_ you mean madison && co. Tommy J would have gatted Jimmy on the spot if he had found out about the EC. Anyway it's important to note that at one point in time there was the Democratic-Republican party - they weren't 2 parties until the Rad Repubs. |
2000/10/19 [Politics/Domestic/911, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:19519 Activity:very high |
10/18 Does US have jurisdiction in Yemen? Why is the FBI, a US law enforcement agency, conducting investigation on an attack occured in that country? \_ don't you know that the US has jurisdiction anywhere it wants? \_ Speak softly and carry a BIG stick (or an aircraft carrier) \_ Yeah, but I mean how do they justify it? \_ The aforementioned big stick. \_ Presumably, the excuse would be that terrorist attacks as an external threat may reflect tendencies that can easily become internal threats. I doubt the govt of Yemen gives them much leeway \_ A lot of governments "invite" the FBI in when US installations or large numbers of Americans get whacked. While this is probably mainly to avoid pissing off the US, it makes sense, as the FBI is probably the most technically advanced and experienced investigative outfit in the world, like it or not. -John \_ Scotland Yard. \_ oh yeah! when was the last time you heard they investigated something big without having to resort to the Big Brother/ national DNA database that the Brits have? Using a computer to match DNA samples is easy. Using tried and true investigation methods is not - like most things British it's past its time or is way overrated \_ Scotland Yard? The guys *still* haven't resolved the Lockerbie terrorism. Sherlock is dead. |
2000/10/9-10 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:19443 Activity:very high |
10/8 I HATE THE YANKEES \_ people who follow sports have A)too much time on their hands B)to be dumb to want to follow those overpriced/overpaid franchises/players C)to truly ignorant if any of it matters \_ He could be a RED CHINESE COMMIE PIG who hates americans, or he could be a EFFEETE INTELLECTUAL EXISTENTIAL PERSON OF FRENCH ORIGIN who feels that the inferior boorish yankees are diluting the pristine culture of that most favored of nations, France. \_ damn yengeese! \_ yank yank yank \_ I hate the metes too \_ you mean the NY Mets are not your favorite squadron? \_ I hate the Raiduhs! \_ I hate Arizona State. \_ I hate team sports and their fanatics. |
2000/9/24-25 [Science/GlobalWarming, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:19317 Activity:high |
9/21 The Czech Republic is not a third world nation. It is a \_ % webster "third world" [deletia] 3 : the aggregate of the underdeveloped nations of the world developing nation with $11700 per capita GDP, growth rate of -0.5% (1999), and an external debt of 24.3 billion. USA's per capita GDP is $33900. Malaysia's per capita GDP is $10700. international no-car day! see http://www.carbusters.ecn.cz \_ *.cz? Like they'd miss their cars for a day in the Czech republic. I'd like to see something like International Fix Your Fucked Up Third World Country Day coming from a place like that instead. \_ Do you know your geography? The Czech republic is a modern European nation. Just because it's considered Eastern Europe doesn't mean that it's a Third World country. \_ It's not a third world country. It's just a poor, decrepit ex-Soviet-bloc nation suffering from 40+ years of commie mismanagement. Otherwise, quite nice. -John \_ What's the definition of third world then? I thought "thrid world" is the PC term to describe poor countries. \_ "First" or "Old" World = Europe. Don't forget that Bohemia/western Czechoslovakia/Czech republic has historically been a political and cultural center. "New" World = Americas. "Third" World was some mid-20th-century play on that to describe all the second-rate backwaters discovered afterwards with economic problems. -John \_ % webster "first world" [deletia] Etymology: after third world Date: 1967 : the highly developed industrialized nations often considered the westernized countries of the world apart from getting the order of usage wrong (i.e. third world -> first world rather than the other way around) and being ignorantly eurocentric, you're correct. \_ At least I speak a FOREIGN LANGUAGE, am not INCORRIGIBLY FAT, and DON'T EVER WATCH JERRY SPRINGER. -John \_ perhaps. but at least i knew what "first world" meant. \_ No, you know how to have your mom read a dictionary to you, and you obviously have no clue about what countries are industrialized and developed. -John \_ you made ad hominem attacks, good. but you should throw in Hitler and the Nazis in there to distract from the fact that you had no idea what first and third world meant when you started shooting off your mouth on motd. \_ then it doesn't sound like he has a problem with geography, does it? it's more of an economics deficiency he has. \_ No deficiency. Have you seen it? I think you need to check on what the word "modern" means. CZ is a third world country. Just because they're vaguely white doesn't make it a modern western nation. They're little different from any South American banana republic. It isn't just blacks, hispanics and other non-whites that live in the Third World. Thank you both for trying though. \_ Have you ever travelled outside the Bay Area? -John \_ Nobody noticed. Some cities had even worse traffic. Barely anyone even knew it was happening until they heard on the news what a flop it was this evening. -John \_ Cars are here to stay (at least until transporters become generally available). \_ Chech know a thing or two about mechanical engineering and cars. Pop quiz: which Western car compay buy out entire Tatra design team, why they did it and what they are working on now? As far as being 'vaguely' white which I take as they don't quite fit a canonical definition of white, how to do explain disproporationate representation of Czech chicks among the ranks of 'supermodels'? -muchandr \_ Volkswagen, right? They bought Skoda too. -John \_ Volkswagen is a joke. In fact all european cars are jokes. The only car manufacturers that matter are American and Japanese. With Japanese you get quality, with American you get power. - Proud owner of a 260 HP Lincoln that routinely smokes the finest that Europe has to offer. \_ Bring it over here. By the time you get up to 10mph I'm halfway over the horizon, you coal-burning hairy tractor-driving barbarian. -John \_ I don't want your drool lowering the value of my car. Filthy commoners and thier COMMUNIST cars. \_ that proves they are 'vaguely'! Per the current fashion trend \_ When was the last time you bought a Czech car? I don't see many trambant dealers around. \_ Moron. Trabants were East German and they're a massive cult object (like VW bugs.) Tatra were/are a Russian truck design bureau. And Skoda (Czech) is about as big as Saturn in the US. -John \_ Czech supermodels are hot and slutty. |
2000/9/24 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Japan, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:19315 Activity:very high |
9/21 The Czech Republic is not a third world nation. It is a developing nation with $11700 per capita GDP, growth rate of -0.5% (1999), and an external debt of 24.3 billion. USA's per capita GDP is $33900. Malaysia's per capita GDP is $10700. international no-car day! see http://www.carbusters.ecn.cz \_ *.cz? Like they'd miss their cars for a day in the Czech republic. I'd like to see something like International Fix Your Fucked Up Third World Country Day coming from a place like that instead. \_ Do you know your geography? The Czech republic is a modern European nation. Just because it's considered Eastern Europe doesn't mean that it's a Third World country. \_ It's not a third world country. It's just a poor, decrepit ex-Soviet-bloc nation suffering from 40+ years of commie mismanagement. Otherwise, quite nice. -John \_ What's the definition of third world then? I thought "thrid world" is the PC term to describe poor countries. \_ "First" or "Old" World = Europe. Don't forget that Bohemia/western Czechoslovakia/Czech republic has historically been a political and cultural center. "New" World = Americas. "Third" World was some mid-20th-century play on that to describe all the second-rate backwaters discovered afterwards with economic problems. -John \_ % webster "first world" [deletia] Etymology: after third world Date: 1967 : the highly developed industrialized nations often considered the westernized countries of the world apart from getting the order of usage wrong (i.e. third world -> first world rather than the other way around) and being ignorantly eurocentric, you're correct. \_ then it doesn't sound like he has a problem with geography, does it? it's more of an economics deficiency he has. \_ No deficiency. Have you seen it? I think you need to check on what the word "modern" means. CZ is a third world country. Just because they're vaguely white doesn't make it a modern western nation. They're little different from any South American banana republic. It isn't just blacks, hispanics and other non-whites that live in the Third World. Thank you both for trying though. \_ Have you ever travelled outside the Bay Area? -John \_ Nobody noticed. Some cities had even worse traffic. Barely anyone even knew it was happening until they heard on the news what a flop it was this evening. -John \_ Cars are here to stay (at least until transporters become generally available). \_ Chech know a thing or two about mechanical engineering and cars. Pop quiz: which Western car compay buy out entire Tatra design team, why they did it and what they are working on now? As far as being 'vaguely' white which I take as they don't quite fit a canonical definition of white, how to do explain disproporationate representation of Czech chicks among the ranks of 'supermodels'? -muchandr \_ Volkswagen, right? They bought Skoda too. -John \_ Volkswagen is a joke. In fact all european cars are jokes. The only car manufacturers that matter are American and Japanese. With Japanese you get quality, with American you get power. - Proud owner of a 260 HP Lincoln that routinely smokes the finest that Europe has to offer. \_ that proves they are 'vaguely'! Per the current fashion trend \_ When was the last time you bought a Czech car? I don't see many trambant dealers around. \_ Moron. Trabants were East German and they're a massive cult object (like VW bugs.) Tatra were/are a Russian truck design bureau. And Skoda (Czech) is about as big as Saturn in the US. -John \_ Czech supermodels are hot and slutty. |
2000/9/21-24 [Science/GlobalWarming, Politics/Foreign/Asia/Japan, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:19303 Activity:high |
9/21 international no-car day! see http://www.carbusters.ecn.cz \_ *.cz? Like they'd miss their cars for a day in the Czech republic. I'd like to see something like International Fix Your Fucked Up Third World Country Day coming from a place like that instead. \_ Do you know your geography? The Czech republic is a modern European nation. Just because it's considered Eastern Europe doesn't mean that it's a Third World country. \_ It's not a third world country. It's just a poor, decrepit ex-Soviet-bloc nation suffering from 40+ years of commie mismanagement. Otherwise, quite nice. -John \_ What's the definition of third world then? I thought "thrid world" is the PC term to describe poor countries. \_ "First" or "Old" World = Europe. Don't forget that Bohemia/western Czechoslovakia/Czech republic has historically been a political and cultural center. "New" World = Americas. "Third" World was some \_ Will this finally make the LINUX! RIDE BIKE! people happy? \_ no but it will make lotus notes save the universe. mid-20th-century play on that to describe all the second-rate backwaters discovered afterwards with economic problems. -John \_ % webster "first world" [deletia] Etymology: after third world Date: 1967 : the highly developed industrialized nations often considered the westernized countries of the world apart from getting the order of usage wrong (i.e. third world -> first world rather than the other way around) and being ignorantly eurocentric, you're correct. \_ then it doesn't sound like he has a problem with geography, does it? it's more of an economics deficiency he has. \_ No deficiency. Have you seen it? I think you need to check on what the word "modern" means. CZ is a third world country. Just because they're vaguely white doesn't make it a modern western nation. They're little different from any South American banana republic. It isn't just blacks, hispanics and other non-whites that live in the Third World. Thank you both for trying though. \_ Have you ever travelled outside the Bay Area? -John \_ Nobody noticed. Some cities had even worse traffic. Barely anyone even knew it was happening until they heard on the news what a flop it was this evening. -John \_ Cars are here to stay (at least until transporters become generally available). \_ Chech know a thing or two about mechanical engineering and cars. Pop quiz: which Western car compay buy out entire Tatra design team, why they did it and what they are working on now? As far as being 'vaguely' white which I take as they don't quite fit a canonical definition of white, how to do explain disproporationate representation of Czech chicks among the ranks of 'supermodels'? -muchandr \_ Volkswagen, right? They bought Skoda too. -John \_ Volkswagen is a joke. In fact all european cars are jokes. The only car manufacturers that matter are American and Japanese. With Japanese you get quality, with American you get power. - Proud owner of a 260 HP Lincoln that routinely smokes the finest that Europe has to offer. \_ that proves they are 'vaguely'! Per the current fashion trend \_ When was the last time you bought a Czech car? I don't see many trambant dealers around. \_ Moron. Trabants were East German and they're a massive cult object (like VW bugs.) Tatra were/are a Russian truck design bureau. And Skoda (Czech) is about as big as Saturn in the US. -John |
2000/8/8-9 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:18924 Activity:high |
8/8 What's the rule in pronuciating Jewish names? For example, is Epstein pronouced as ep-stine or ep-steen? Is Feldsenstein pronouced as feldsen-stine or feldsen-steen? \_ MY NAME IS FRANKENSTEEN! \_ In original Yiddish, it's pronounced like English -stine or -shtine (the choice between the two depending on dialect/preference); however, many Americans with these names have long since forgotten what Yiddish is, and some will pronounce it as -steen as well. So use the former by default, unless you've heard the person in question pronounce it himself. AFAIK, the same goes for German surnames with the same suffix. -alexf \_ thats because "yiddish" basically IS german. aka "Hebrew with a german accent" \_ there are jews all over the world, speaking probably over 100 languages, including chinese. to attempt to find consistency accross aall these languages' names is impossible. \_ there are jews all over the world but they are mostly two kinds left these days, and of those two the eastern european jew is the most prominent, especially in America. Stop being such an ass. -jewboy \_ Racist. That's not funny. \_ http://www.icebox.com \_ SCHNELL! JUDEN! \_ Yay! Holocaust jokes! Fucking idiot. |
2000/7/22 [Recreation/Dating, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:18753 Activity:high |
7/21 What's the name of that sexy French looking CS girl who worked in Barbara Hightower's office back in 1995-1996? \_ Marie Paxton \_ define "French looking" please \_ Duh. Watch a movie or travel. Don't try to be PC. The idiotic correctness thing was dead before you were taking your PSATs. \_ Actually, PC wasn't in yet when i was taking my PSATs, I certainly wasn't trying to be PC with my question, and I've spent time in france and seen plenty of french movies. \_ Then you should know the answer. \_ Huh? There was a sexy TA for cs188 awhile back and cs170 last sem. \_ If this is in reference to Xuqing Tian, you are one sick mofo \_ 170? You must be talking about Tracy Riggs. \_ HI PAOLO! \_ I love 172, 174. I love to study. I love academia. -paolo |
2000/7/13-14 [Recreation/Travel, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:18659 Activity:moderate |
7/13 I'm looking for a good resource for finding decent and cheap hostels/dorms in Europe (spec. Italy). Any recommendations? \_ Hostel International? \_ You can find a lot of info on the Web: the world Hostelling International Web site has a link to each country's national hostelling organization at http://www.iyhf.org/ihyf/world.html. Searching on Yahoo for <city name>+"Hostels" works, too. Buy a copy of the _Let's Go Europe_ guidebook and use it to cross-check particular destinations you're interested in. I've used this technique for 6 months so far, and it hasn't killed me yet. (The _Let's Go_ guidebooks are for the "I'm a *really* cheap college student" crowd; Rick Steves and the Lonely Planet guidebooks are a step up, but still reasonably budget-oriented.) -- kahogan \_ I second the recommendation for Let's Go and Lonely Planet, they're both pretty high quality (I've used both very often.) Also, maybe you can get some info from AIESEC (http://www.aiesec.org If you spend the $15 or so for one of their cards (assuming you're a student) you can get a lot of discounts on lodging and transportation. -John \_ Oh yeah, the _Rough Guide_ books are also quite good. -John \_ At least in the US I've found that the non Hostel International hostels were much more interesting than the associated ones. But yah, you should go the hostel route. |
2000/3/21-22 [Politics/Foreign, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:17814 Activity:very high |
3/20 link:www.yale.edu/implicit/measure3.html I'm an Asian male with a strong automatic preference for blacks. Is there something wrong with me? \_ all that proved to me was I was incapable of remembering which key was associated with which keyword. \_ White male with weak auto pref. for blacks. I also associate men and women equally with science, apparently. \_ apparently your subconscious is not very bright. (not due to the weak auto pref. for blacks due to the = men/women). \_ I'm a White male with a strong automatic preference for Asians. Especially if they happen to be female and hot. Is there something wrong with me? something wrong with me? -aaron \_ me too! -nickkral \_ me three! - sky \_ Damn rice chaser! \_ is that you jj? \_ The test is hokey. Definitely not "science" in my book. All it shows is the speed of building cognitive relations not your "implicit attitudes".. Well what can you expect from a liberal arts school like Yale, they have nothing better to do than shit like this. \_ every school has idiots doing pseudo science. Yale just got 500 million dollars earmarked for expansion of the engineering and sciences and they are hiring like mad. do you think berkeley should be judged by the chicano studies or sociology departments? \_ Do you have a link to this? I'm thinking about going there for grad school in the fall. \_ Oh woe! An online test with no proctor determines we're all evil racists! What next? I don't think these guys understand that what they _think_ they're testing for is not what they're _really_ testing for. Even the lower div. Cal psych classes do better than this. \_ I'm betting that the first section always starts with "white+good". Which automatically biases ALL takers. \_ which association comes up first definitely primes the results. doesn't seem like this test says anything at all. \_ it doesn't. Not that the test isn't crap. -aspo who took a couple of tests several times and got way different results each time. \_ You can't take a test several times without 'ruining' the results. It also isn't appropriate to take a battery of similar memory tests like this and expect valid results. This is really basic psych/cogsci testing methodology and I find it sad that a school like Yale can't get it right. What does that say for the rest of the country's colleges? \_ thankfully, not a goddamn thing. \_ I hope you're right. \_ Your neurotic pseudo-pessimistic generalizations are annoying. Please stop. \_ right, trust a psych experiment conducted by yale over the advice of a bunch of anonymous motd posters! \_ point being that this isn't an experiment conducted by anyone. this isn't a valid test method. it isn't even bad science. this is something down there with the astrology section of the comics. \_ The story about this on Dateline pointed out that just as interesting as the results was people's reaction to them. \_ Woo hoo! Thus proving their test group consisted mostly of self-"correct"-ing guilty whites. I'm white and I'm damned proud of it. We built this country. Blacks are killing it from the inner cities outwards. \_ It's the chinks that built this country, so fuck you. Go back to Europe white barbarian. Long live Mao. \_ Shut up, white boy! \_ The Jews built this country. The Jews built every country. They are the God's CHOSEN people. AND they have all the gold. Again. \_ Not "again". "Still" is the word you're looking for. -Mark of Kings \_ What a load of crap! No slant ever did anything worth half a damn for this country! \_ What did you personally do to build this country besides mouthing off your racist trash? And by the way, stop using Yahoo. \_ I beat slants like you into place and what's Yahoo got to do with anything? \_ are all CSUA users like this? \_ No. Only about half the CSUA is slants. \_ What did you personally do to build this country besides mouthing off your racist trash? \_ Already told you, slant boy. Most whites felt guilty over preffering whites, but the blacks who preferred blacks attributed it to racial pride and overcoming the negative images of blacks that pervade american culture/media. \_ That's about political correctness. Sigh. \_ SUBTHREAD SUMMARY: Too many sodans have time on their hands to troll aimlessly. \_ You're an idiot. Your summary sucks. Stop 'summarizing' humorous subthreads with your inadequate summaries. |
1999/11/9 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:16854 Activity:high |
8/11 you konw, you americans are strange. why is the it the month first then the day? confusing since the month changes only 12 times, but the day everyday.. wouldn't it make more sense this way? \_ You French people are strange using military time rather than twelve hour clocks. \_ military time makes SO MUCH more sense. DST is also the dumbest thing this country has... that and GWB running for prez \_ MTF! The only thing wrong with DST is that we end it in OcT. We should be tacking on more hours until we can eat dinner at 10pm and still watch the sun set. You don't understand this because your freakish Euro sun doesn't set till 10pm in the summer already. BTW, I'd hate it if my files were dated by day and then month. \_ Military time makes sense if YOU'RE IN THE MILITARY! I'm not and quite happy with my AM/PM. Thanks for the chance to convert to a different yet still completely arbitrary 'standard' for marking time. If you knew anything about this country, you'd know why DST makes perfect sense. \_ I dunno about this one, but some of th US's bizarre habits date from right after the Revolution. Supposedly, we were trying to be different from the British. \_ No. We continued to follow British standards such as feet and pounds and which side of the road. The British changed later. Why do completely ignorant people try to answer simple questions on the motd? Oh yes, it's the motd. Silly of me. As far as the original question: We don't say "12th of November, 1999". We say, "November 12th, 1999". This turns into months first. So, no, you foreign fuck. It doesn't make more sense to use your ill conceived notions of what makes sense. I suppose you might think it makes sense to appease terrorists too. |
1999/9/28-30 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:16613 Activity:low |
9/28 If my passport is stolen while I am traveling in Europe what do I have to do besides reporting the incident to the local authorities and the US embassy in the country? And, will I be able to quickly (like in a day or two) to get a temporary passport to continue on with my travel around continent or will my trip be screwed over? \_ I had mine stolen in Poland. It took three weeks to get a new passport and visa. Just don't let anyone steal the thing. \_ my friend got her passport stolen in Paris. the experience will probably \_ My mom got hers stolen in China. Really messy situation. You should be worried about whether you can get back to the US sometime soon. The bureaucracy you have to deal is going to take a long time if you don't know the right people. \_ Crime?! In China?! This would never happen. |
1999/5/22-25 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:15858 Activity:low |
5/22 Are modem standards the same between US and UK? \_ Yes, but the phone plugs might be not. -muchandr ___ ___ ___ ___ __ __ ___ _______ _ _____ _ _ _ _ _ ___ / __|/ _ \| \ / _ \| \/ |_ _|_ / __| | |/ / __| || | /_\ | \| |/ __| \__ \ (_) | |) | (_) | |\/| || | / /| _| | ' < (__| __ |/ _ \| .` | (_ | |___/\___/|___/ \___/|_| |_|___/___|___| |_|\_\___|_||_/_/ \_\_|\_|\___| \_ The plugs in UK are wider. You can buy phone cords that have a US plug at one end and a UK plug at the other. I forgot where I got mine. -- yuen |
1999/5/20 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:15844 Activity:high |
5/19 Wow. At least _some_ legislators don't think that key escrow is a good thing. http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/sci/tech/newsid_347000/347550.stm \_ Meanwhile, US Senate passes bill against bomb-making info \_ Any info links on that? Also isn't that against 1st amendment or something? \_ Knee jerk over-reaction to the columbine hs shootings. Sure it's whittling away your rights, you don't really need them anyway. They just get in the way of the government protecting you from yourself. |
1999/5/13-14 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:15804 Activity:insanely high |
5/13 A Tomlinson published a list of MI6 agents' name on a US based web, according to AP. But I could not locate the site. \_ Richard Tomlinson \_ Isn't it down? http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/cybercrime/features/story/0,3700,2258075,00.html \_ http://jya.com/MI6dir.htm if Bond were real, he'd be pissing in his pants now \_ Ooops. I suspect some people are about to meet with accidents/suicide. Either that, or it's the end of the UK monarchy. But either way, tomlinson is a traitor for exposing the operatives who were not directly related to the assassination. \_ A traitor to the british, sure, but not to us directly. to police officers and armed forces personnels? Anyway, he'll soon have an accident and that'll be that. And oh yeah we need to censor the internet too. \_ This jerk is full of bullshit. How can he compare MI6 agents to police officers in general and armed forces personnels? Would he publish a "list of current undercover police officers"? Why didn't he identify himself "I'm an MI6 agent!" when he was still working there??? I think he just wants to get rich from publishing books later. I wish other MI6 agents kill him soon, very soon. \_ Why do you care? \_ I thought the British intelligence was called MI5. When did it become MI6? And what does "MI" stand for? \_ MI5 is like the FBI. MI6 is the like the CIA \_ Military Intelligence, dumbass. \_ Your mother taught you to speak that way? You're a foul mouthed child idiot. (Yes, my mother did teach _me_ to speak that way) \_ No, yermom taught me everything. \_ Do others actually find yermom jokes funny in any way or do they just use them out of habit. I never really saw any humor value in it beyond the obvious repetition. It's rather grade schoolish. Have I missed out on some vital bit of the High Art of Humor? I'm guessing not on this one. |
1999/4/1-2 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:15680 Activity:kinda low 50%like:15676 |
3/31 I am interested in learning german. does anyone know of any cheap \_ hook up with a German guy/gal ! \_ "Hi! You look Germanic and if you're a native fluent speaker who yearns to teach an eager younger computer scientist your father tongue and an active interest in getting laid on the side, I'd like to take you out! How about it? Next Thursday around 2am in the WEB?" \_ if you get more responses than you can handle, please let me know . . . I'd like to learn German too! \_ ah yes, the ins and outs of adult german... classes in the east bay or elsewhere for basic german? adult schools, jc, etc... |
1999/3/31-4/4 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:15676 Activity:high 50%like:15680 |
3/31 I am interested in learning german. does anyone know of any cheap \_ hook up with a German guy/gal ! classes in the east bay or elsewhere for basic german? adult schools, jc, etc... \_ hook up with a German guy/gal ! \_ "Hi! You look Germanic and if you're a native fluent speaker who yearns to teach an eager younger computer scientist your father tongue and an active interest in getting laid on the side, I'd like to take you out! How about it? Next Thursday around 2am in the WEB?" \_ if you get more responses than you can handle, please let me know . . . I'd like to learn German too! \_ ah yes, the ins and outs of adult german... \_ Learn from me, you can lose 20lbs in one week!!!! \_ JA! DAS VON INK DER UP HOPKERDINGEN! IST GUT SCHNITZEL! Dude, why would you want to speak German. It's a horrible language. In fact, it's not a language, it's a throat disease. Trust me, I'm a native speaker. When you argue with a German about this, they'll inevitably try to convince you of how beautiful and elegant it is by pointing to the same three or four books over and over again. It's ponderous, ugly- sounding, and overly complex. Learn a nice language, or something useful, like Spanish or French or even Italian. Maybe something cool like Russian or Chinese or Japanese. But don't put yourself through this trouble; German is awful, with the culture to go with it. Aside from that, I'd be glad to help out with anything. -John \_ I love to sodomize you in the WEB at 2am, John. - owner of http://www.mybigdick.com \_ Will you meet me in the WEB at 2am with some sex on the side? \_ you oldtimers are showing your age. there has been no WEB for the last 4 years or so. \- What happened to the WEB??? \_ They filled it with Macs and turned the OCF end into a Calculus-on-Computers lab for Math 1a/b. \_ I love John. He's the bomb. But I also love German. Es macht kuhl. Ja, stimmt Beavis! Feuer! Feuer! -space nazi \_ They're dubbing South Park into Kraut. -John \_ What about Rilke, dude? \_ Rainer Maria Rilke is about the epitome of hitleriffically funny, light-hearted teutonic literature. And no, you CAN'T sodomize me in the WEB, I'm immune to such things. I kicked Roy out of pure excitement while netsex-h0zing as a freshman at 2am; he was sleeping under the table, and I thought he was a backpack. You can't touch me. Nyah. -John |
1999/2/23 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:15465 Activity:kinda low |
2/22 This is not a troll. How do you say in French "This (that) is (a shitty) life"? and "pretentious" or "pseudo-cultured", say to describe somone who like to throw in a few french words in conversations. \_ literally, something like "c'est la vie de merde" \_ sounds about right. |
1999/1/28-29 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Japan, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:15307 Activity:kinda low |
1/27 I just turned on the radio to KCBS and I heard a sentense which apparently is the end of a piece of news: "Pluto might not be a planet, but it has been for a lot of time." What's going on? Is there some new space discovery that shows that Pluto is not a planet? Thx. -- yuen \_ http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9901/20/puny.pluto \_ It's all poltics. Disney didn't pay off the right astronomers. |
1999/1/21-23 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:15274 Activity:nil |
1/21 http://www.cnnfn.com/worldbiz/europe/wires/9901/21/lego_wg Lego loses moeny for the first time. \_ I hate losing moeny, there is so little of it as it is... |
1998/12/30 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:15149 Activity:nil |
12/28 Sorry for the length of the URL. This is what it is. Anyway, "German kills pitbull with his bare hands". Don't mess with those German dudes.... http://www.yahoo.com.sg/headlines/291298/entertainment/914867160-1228184645.entertainment.html |
1998/9/22-23 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:14651 Activity:high |
9/22 News headline: "Europe Fears For US Democracy After Clinton Videos" \_ Remember what I warned you about democracey? - a communist. \_ Like this country should give a flying fart's fuck what the European's think about democracy or anything else for that matter. Can anyone here possibly imagine how completely fucked up this country would be if we ran it the same way the Euroidiots _try_ to "run" their countries? \_ See, that's cause we put all of our stupid people into journalism and politics, then let them get in fights with the Americans, while we're busy driving good cars, having sex with gorgeous slutty European chicks (the miniskirts got better since they started shaving their legs; do _your_ women wear miniskirts?) and drinking better beer. -John \_ Let's have another Patriotism Flamewar! Fun for the whole family! |
1998/3/24 [Computer/Rants, Politics/Foreign/Europe, Politics/Foreign/Asia/Others] UID:13856 Activity:insanely high |
3/24 I know some Indian friends who are BIG AND BUFF like football players, and some even have blue/hazzle eyes. I sware they almost look white!!! \_ swear Why are a lot of Indians like that? (this is a serious question!) \_ Mutations as a result of the massive radiation and pollution released by British experiments on the fusion reactor from an alien starship that crash-landed in the Ganges River valley during the winter of 1945. \_ That's right. In fact, the reason that they decided to make India independent wasn't Gandhi . . . During the course of their experiments, they created a hole in the space-time continuum that threatened to SWALLOW THE ENTIRE BRITISH EMPIRE WHOLE! The only way to avoid this was to make sure that India was no longer a part of the British Empire. That way, if the hole expanded beyond their control, India would be lost, but the Empire would be safe. Hail Brittania! \_ is it just me or does the motd get dumber every day? -aspo \_Would you like to see Brittania rule again, my friend? All you have to do is follow the worms. \_ Brittania rules the waves! |
1998/1/28 [Politics/Domestic, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:13574 Activity:high |
1/27 whom is by no means a dead form. it's the indirect object form --aaron \_ Exactly. It's dead. \_ Sign, so we can mock you when you use an indirect object --pld \_ Indirect objects aren't dead in general. Just the overly haughty and elitist "whom" which sounds like a wannabe British Royal. This is America, speak American, God damn it! |
12/25 |