Justice

No offense, but that's your own stupidity, then. If you go into the military not expecting to ever fight, you are truly out there. If he defense is "I didn't read the fine print" then the judge should honestly smack him for being an ass. Not only that, I don't find the "He signed up for Afganistan" thing, either. If you signed up during the post 9/11 rush, you signed up to fight. Simple as that. You can't just say "Well, I'm only gonna be here until Afganistan and then I'm done." Sorry, when you sign up, it tends to be a bit longer, and you generally don't get to pick and choose where you go. That's just how it is, and I'd hope he'd understand that. Man, when you are asking asylum from the military authorities, it doesn't help your case. When you are releasing stories and creating headlines like this, making ripples in the wave pool, the military doesn't enjoy it. I think it was a self-serving move to try and appeal to the Canadian Government because he obviously wanted to get off scot-free. That's what I consider cowardly. And, to be honest, I'm sure he'd get a bunch more respect in prison for facing his sentence like a man rather than trying to run away to Canada and smear the military. You are right; he made his own bed, now time it's time to lie in it.

Yeah, let's back off a little bit here. RRR is sort of getting caught up in the Crossfire, though I don't agree with him at all in the situation. Well, actually, RRR, that was more directed at C-Bacon, most likely. That's what happens when you get a guy like him on your side. Why is he a coward? Because he won't take the punishment for abdicating his duties. Sorry, your appeals failed. Too bad. That doesn't give you the special right to be able to seek refuge in Canada. If you really want to stay out of combat that bad, take the trial and do the jail time. You know, if he did that, I'd have a LOT more respect for him. Cere does have a point where he says "If he didn't like the whole 'mentality' they were setting up for him, he could have left at basic. He stayed, he has an obligation now, and they are only trying to hold him to it." Good for him to go to Afganistan, but when it comes down to it, he's still abdicating his duty in a fashion that would more befit a coward than someone who is really standing up for his beliefs.

We're not? Isn't that the basis of this soldier going AWOL? No, we aren't. Whether or not you think the invasion was "ethical" doesn't null and void your contract. And even if I DID object to something like "bombing a small village" I'd go up into military court and defend myself and my actions there. I wouldn't try to flee the country. Ah great. Can't have a C-Bacon post without some mention of "Bombing the fuck out of Innocent civilians!" Now all I need to find is "Imperial Racist Hegemony" and I'll get a bingo on my leftist cliches scorecard. Actually, you dolt, what you are talking about is those asking for "Extended Leave" requests, not actual lawsuits. They aren't filing lawsuits because, well, they knew their contractual obligations. Sorry, bud, nice try. Yeah, seriously. Let's make conspiratorial claims about an overarching US plot to overthow the world through consumerism, toss out overly vague statements about American Imperialism in the region without giving any sort of feasible solution, hold hands and read CommonDreams.org to figure out where we stand on everything so that we know we aren't being brainwashed by the Media, currently in the iron grip of the Right. Hey, come on, he only killed 300,000 people. Didn't Pinochet kill more? Has anyone seen the great hypocracy in the Germany comparison in ANYTHING? I mean, seriously, when one uses it, it's just as bad as "With us or against us", because it's THE EXACT SAME MENTALITY. But anyways... When is it okay to say no? You can say it, but it doesn't mean that we'll suddenly obey. As far as I'm concerned, he can say he doesn't want to go over there as much as he wants and can disagree with it as much as he wants. But he still has a contract to uphold, and by breaking that contract it inflicts penalties. If he were as honest as he is in his convictions, he'd stay at home, go to trial and probably do his time. Last time I checked, there isn't an "opt out" clause in your military contract and he should have realized that there's always the possibility of a war when joining the army.

Uh, this guy hasn't been in Iraq yet. Frankly, skipping out of his duty, especially this way, is pretty damn cowardly.

It's not EXACTLY a Royal Rumble. When it gets down to 3 men it becomes a triple threat match. It's close, but don't want you to screw up the end of it.

They weren't actually suing the government, they were turning in requests to the higher-ups for extended stays due to things like being only parents and such. Nothing really out of the ordinary since it was done through completely official channels.

? He was developing a long range delivery system that could hit Cario. This isn't a threat? Iraq was bribing UN, French, Russian, and Chinese officials to get sanctions removed so they could restart their weapons programs. Saddam was completely abusing the Food-For-Oil to fund whatever illict programs he wanted. This is the actions of a peaceful nation? No offense, but saying Iraq wasn't an immediate threat is a shitty reasoning when you look at the larger scope of their actions and what they were planning on doing for the immediate future. Why? How much do you know of governmental politics? Our government isn't nearly a quagmire. As much as you can demonize the administration, but our political system is hardly a quagmire at the moment. Once again, Italy is so torn that nothing EVER gets done, and Germany is being held hostage by the Greens at the moment. France had to choose between a guy like Chirac, who has sent their economy down the hole, and a Neo-Facist who denies the Holocaust. And, um, Bush is the representative of America at the moment. No offense, but he's the President. He's just as representative of America as Schroeder is of Germany. He was elected by majority. By your reasoning, no countries leaders out side of dicatorships are representing their countries because people voted against them. It doesn't make sense. And? The dollar was doing fine for a while as the economy was in a slump. The dollar is a single indicator of the economy, but overall we still have a far, far stronger economy. We've been adding jobs since spring of last year and haven't stopped. Places like France and Germany (The most comparable European countries due to size) have unemployment rates of something like 8-10%. Is this the only support you have? Because you are looking pretty weak. This is hilarious. Seriously, Iran has broken a half-dozen deals with these missiles and their nuclear program. Europe has shown NO interest in actually shoving anyone back. You are talking completely out of your ass. Europe is well equiped to defend itself from invaders, maybe, but they have very little power to actually act. Britain is probably the biggest exception to this rule. ... ... Iran is pretty much on the way to creating nuclear missiles that can strike at Europe. They've broken many agreements and treaties to get this far. And you are convinced they are no threat because you've made another agreement with them? You are the one who has been brain-washed, not us. Seriously, you've had "War is never the answer" pushed down your throat so much that you are pretty much ignoring everything we've learned from dealing with these people in the first place. I mean, the people you sent in to check on their nuclear program didn't actually check them out, they just took their word for it. Wow, I really have faith in these guys. You are like a boot-leg version of C-Bacon. A very sad one, at that. God help you when someone invades Slovakia and the motion to defend it fails 4-6 because no one wants to commit their troops to some foreign war. Ahahahahaha... Dude, that's a joke. You do understand that Europe isn't producing enough food to sustain it's population, right? That's a pretty shitty comparison because you actually missed what Bush was trying to do. He wasn't trying to get people to buy US steel, he was just trying to gain the Steel worker vote to do better in places like Pennsylvania. You also misinterpret why Bush backed off. He was doing it as a campaign ploy. Had he really wanted to, he could have put higher tarriffs on all European products as well. Why try going into a prolonged trade war over a campaing ploy? Europe played hardball and Bush said "Well hell, I don't support this anyways?" (Since he's always been more free-trade. Once again, I haven't heard ANYTHING regarding a healthy economy from Europe. All I've heard is malaise. If you have any actual proof, then I'll gladly accept it. Maybe Popick can help us out here?

??? Proof of this? This sounds a lot like talking out your ass. *Shrugs* The dollar rises and falls. It happens. Now to say that Europe's economy is okay when half your countries have unemployment rates like 10% and such is idiotic. Again, you miss the fact that most of these countries are under 20 Million people. It's not that hard in comparison to a larger country to be an easier place to live in. Considering that America has around 230,000,000 more people and still is able make it into the top 15 is a bigger accomplishment than any of them making it into the top 10. It wasn't just Chirac, it was a few countries and the UN itself. But places like Germany and Italy are horrible when it comes to politics. The Greens have such a stranglehold on the Democratic Christians in Germany that you'd think THEY were the one in power and not the smallest part of the electorate. Italy's politics are the biggest joke ever. They have so many parties that coalitions don't last more than a few months or a year, and their governments are never able to get anything done due to so much infighting. ? That makes no sense. Bush can't go on anything other than what intelligence tells him. Muster up what else? Is he supposed to go out in the field himself and find this shit out? Germany is a nice little country, but their economy is not in the best of straits if I remember correctly. Plus, I find their political system to be a bit flawed, but that's just my own opinion. Well, as a rule they pay about 40% more in taxes each year. Sweden had to restructure after their income tax reached something in the area 70% at one point. Of course, smaller European cultures deal with smaller populations, which makes it easier to manage. For what the US has, the US does it best. People in America have interesting lives as well, I'd say. There's certainly a vast diversity in them all, that's for sure. I'll take your word for it.

You aren't the only one who can pump out an opinion article. I'm not a big fan of torture for the reasons cited before: It's very likely to be inaccurate when used too often, but there are certain cases where it is necessary. Just ask the Israelis, who've used it more than a few times to stop a terrorist attack before it happened.

Justice, please.

This would be a valid point... if we were a hardline theocracy that has serious links to Islamic Terrorism and extremism. Nice try, but to say that Iran is a more trustworthy government than the US when it comes to nuclear missiles is far from correct. Excuse me if I'm not. You mean like your fantastic work of diplomacy in Darfur? Yeah, for real. Why invade when we can throw empty threats for possible consideration for action against these brutes? Great benchmark there, bud. Actually, that was everyone's intelligence. Just so you know. Why is it that we've always taken their oil? Where the hell are we hiding it? Along with all the Jews that didn't die in the Holocaust and the Cambodians that didn't die under the Khymer Rouge? This is a joke, right? France nominated a Neo-facist for Prime Minister. Germany is so under the grip of a minority party in the Greens that they can't do anything without checking it out to make sure it appeals to the smallest part of the electorate. Italy is a political joke. No offense, but Europe is in a bigger political quagmire than the US is right now. Okay, this is a joke. The UK's military could be taken out, right now, but a 15 ship Carrier Group. No offense, but you don't have shit in comparision, and economically, we are still a bit more powerful than you all, especially considering the European Economy has been lackluster for years now. The second half of that sentence doesn't even make proper sense. I don't even know what sort of idiotic notion you are trying to put together, 'genius'. We took 13th. We were only beaten out by small European countries, and considering we have around 200 Million more people than ANY other country in Europe, I'd say we win. So, in conclusion, shut up and read a book.

Don't watch Aqua Teen, do ya? Nope. I don't care for most anime. Cowboy Bebop > the rest of the shows on Cartoon Network ... Aqua Teen isn't anime.

Don't watch Aqua Teen, do ya?

This emergency was basically "Stopping drunken people from urinating on my carpet and breaking stuff". Last night was tough. I didn't get a chance to read your match (I only got through Muzz's before the second wave hit and I realized it was hopeless), but I'll try to get comments up sometime today.

Red v. Blue is truly excellent. Their first season was GENIUS.

I'm the exact opposite: I've seen and LOVE Once Upon a Time in the West, yet sadly haven't caught OUaTinA yet. It's one of my top two or three favorite Westerns ever.

Point in case, there have been accusations of fraud that have any actual proof over here. And CronoT: This election was as legitimate as the Clinton/Dole election. Jesus, if there were ANY doubts that this election were stolen, the media would have seized on it. Hell, they refused to call Ohio for God knows how long, even though Bush won it by more votes than Kerry won Pennsylvania. Jeez, the Republicans only gained how many seats all around? I don't see how you can still doubt this.

It saddens me that INXS isn't up there once.

^ Gay

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Good story. I'd heard of good stuff being done with umbilical cord stem cells, and if this allows us a good out in that whole ethical debate, I'm all for it.

Oh God, this is gonna be hilarious...

Ah, fuck you. Eh, you were right on the whole "Hero Syndrome" thing, but now you should just go back to fucking and murdering whores like you always did.

Alright, alright... First off, I was a bit mad last night. Momentary rage fueled by a lack of sleep doesn't help much. I probably won't do anything, as much as I want to because, frankly, it won't do much to help if I'm not doing anything illegal, really. And I'm not really up for a 7 hour drive to get arrested for beating the shit out of some guy. Secondly, she's not actually as psycho as I might have made seem. I was sort of in the midsts of pulling an all-nighter last night, so I sort of missed some facts as I rushed these posts in my procrastination. She's not depressed all the time, she can just get severely depressed very quickly and has a habit of putting the blame on herself rather than others. He didn't make her cry every week and a half... anothe sort of late night thing. He did make her cry often enough, and for stupid enough reasons that she just felt dumb for thme. To address a few posts: 1) AoO: To be honest, she is a little guilible, but not as much as you'd think. He had most people fooled, just she was really in love with this guy. For the most part, she's over him now (I.E. After learning the real asshole behind the mask), but she's really, really depressed. She sees it as a failure on his part. Yeah, hacking is probably a dumb response, though. You are one jaded cynic, though. 2) Shutterspeed: Eh, it's actually my nickname for her :\ Otherwise, yeah. I'm probably just going to see her today and make sure she's doing better than she was. Thanks to the responses to this otherwise embarrassing thread.

Okay, lemme try to sum up the whole story: There's this girl, let's call her Kiddo. She's like a little sister to me, and ever since I've met her she's had some self-confidence problems. Enough to the point that she attempted suicide. She had to leave the college for the last few weeks of the semester and now she's going to another school. Kiddo has always been looking for someone to just love and love her, so she was pretty vunerable after the whole thing. Enter the Asshole. He pretty much sweet talks Kiddo for a little while and let's her believe that he really loves her and all that sort of stuff. Well, her emotional problems get worse. Most of us haven't met Mike, but she keeps getting this idea that he doesn't love her. It springs up about every week and a half or so. It generally boils down to him either saying "Jesus, get over your depression already" or his obsessive addiction to pot. And this isn't a normal addiction to pot, no no... apparently she asked him if he would drop pot for her and he almost blew up at her. Like, yelling match style. Every time she just wants to believe she's wrong and every time she basically begs him to come back, and he willingly does. Well, as of late, she's had worries that he's been cheating on her. So she confronts him about it, and lo-and-behold, he is. She's literally crushed. Apparently he's been doing this the entire time. So she just gets out of there as quickly as possible. Talks to him the next day online, and he says he's glad he doens't have to deal with her "psychotic bitching" and that she was just a "notch in the belt" to him and nothing more. Well, she is really in bad shape from that whole one. This is the one guy she really believed loved her; God knows I had to convince her multiple times that she wasn't causing all the problems in the relationship. I know Kiddo well. She isn't lying about this. This is the guy she absolutely adored while she was with him. He did shit to her that I will never forgive, and I want to get him back. And while I want to drive up there and confront him, it's a 6 hour drive from where I am. That's really not in the realm of possibility. 2Gold: I'd prefer the whole fucking around with his life thing. I don't need an assault charge right now. :\