After all the instability that has occured in Iraq, including the assassination of the head of the governing council, there has been much speculation that Blair and Bush are going to pull out of the country. This is a mistake that we cannot afford to make. If we were to pull out, it would be a decision made in order to save political careers, a very stupid reason to abandon a country that we have an obligation to help rebuild. What happens in Iraq will decide what is going to determine the future of the Middle East for as far as the eye can see. If Iraq could become a flourishing country where citizens are given freedoms, the entire Middle East will progress towards greater liberalism as well. If the US and UK withdraw their troops, extremists will have won yet another victory and fundamentalism and totalitarianism will continue to reign over the Middle East. The United States will be dragged into the region time after time as the threat of international terrorism will continue to grow if something is not done in the Arab World. The United States must not waiver.
Beverly Hills Cop...
This movie is the pinnacle of awesome. I mean everything about this movie screams awesome. It has all the essentials...
Fast Cars, Beautiful Women, and a complete udder lack of weird al Yankovic, (on a side note the unusally low percentage of asian chicks may offend jesse)
The music....
I will for all of time and then some say the music of the 80's was awesome. I mean how many presidents can make life so depressing that a few hair bands were able to compensate with the help of crack to make everything a little more bearable and be responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer. Sorry folks, there is no music like 80's music.
aTari...
who knew a joystick and a button could change the world. On that note, asteroids shall forever remain the pinnacle of video game development.
Regan...
Despite all his shortcommings, Reagan still managed to keep the atmopshere shaky by saying "my friends we launch the missles in five minutes" and was able to joke about it. Good man that Reagan
A flock of seagulls...
what's not to love?
-paul
I've been having an ongoing argument with a moron on DA ((who out of respect for their dignity or whats left of it, shall remain nameless) who is uterly conviced that studios put out cd's that aren't forcused around for the most part two or three songs. I'm sorry, but buying one cd is one thing, but completely ignoring the fact that that 12 to 20 bucks you just spent on a disc will for the most part consist of two or three songs you love, and 9 or more you've probably never heard of and more likely than not can't stand. The music industry depends on people who dont realize how little music they're paying for.
-paul
To show you just what a tool John Kerry is, I don't care who wins the election. I think that the same policies are going to be carried out regardless. I can't think of any clear cut differences between the candidates, so as usual the status quo is going to be maintained.
Once again Americans are faced with a terribly interesting duo of candidates to the big chair. John Kerry is rapidly taking fire for not being democratic enough. Any democrats who feel they have the wrong guy running ought to take a long hard look at themselves and the beat bush frenzy that substatially boosted Kerry above Dean after Dean's not so important speech. While I still intend to vote for Bush, Im still less than thrilled about the upcoming election because it promises to have all the crap of 2000 and then some. If Kerry is to weather this storm, he's going to need to distance himself from Bush, because he stands to lose a substantial amount of his voter base to a third party candidate.
-paul
Alright I have to do some Catholic explaining. Paul you are correct in saying that Gibson is an uber Catholic, but I would say that he is so uber Catholic that he isn't really Catholic. The Catholic faith was reformed in Vatican 2, but Mel like some other freaks resisted and really aren't apart of the Catholic Church, but rather their own little pre-Vatican 2 Catholic Church. To put it into context when Mel went to Rome to shoot the movie, he had to fly in his own priest because all the other priests in Rome didn't suit his worship style.
I would also like to clear one thing up for you guys, the Hierarcy of the Church especially the Catholic Church in the United States, serves mostly a guidance/symbolic position, and that when the Pope or an archbishop says something, people don't drop everything so they can accomodate the words of that person. Basically on the Drudge Report I saw a thing critizicising Kerry for taking communion because he is pro-choice. Umm that is perfectly fine according to Catholic Dogma and just because some conservative Bishops and others are anti-Kerry doesn't meen that Catholics feel that way. What this further shows is the prejudice we have in our system against Catholics. There is a thin line Catholics have to walk when they run for office because they get critisized either way. If they are too religious people say they are controlled by the vatican, if they aren't religous enough, people accuse them of not being religous and not right for president.
Oh and lastly I would like to remind people that we can't refer to Catholics as a voting block, there are so many Catholics and there is no trend in their voting pattern (that is substantial) to refer to a "Catholic Vote." There is no such thing and Fox, Yahoo, CNN and the Drudge Report have to get it together.
I recently discovered that Mel Gibson is some kind of hard-core catholic instead of a scientologist like I though he was. I mean i gues this explains why he spent so much of his own money (I heard like 40 million) to make yet another rendition of Jesus and the cross. I mean i go to church and all that stuff, but i somehow i just dont feel the need to have Mel Gibsion indoctrinate me with his take. As for those who have had a "life changing experience" because of this movie i pity you. The bible's been around for quite some time and as far as i'm concerned the movies arent a great place to get your religion.
-paul.
What is the deal with The Passion anyways? Personally, I don't want to pay $7.00 to see a guy flogged for 2 hours, but I think that the ADL and Simon Weisenthal Center, organizations which I respect, should be spending their time fighting real anti-semitism, rather than a religious movie which most critics, including Conservative Judaism, agree is not anti-semetic. In Saudi Arabia, they ban Jewish people from getting Visas to enter the country. Now that is real anti-semitism. In Egypt, the state sponsored television ran a miniseries on "The Elders of Zion," a book which claims Jews conspire to conquer the world. That is anti-semitism. From what I've heard, "The Passion" bends backwards to shy away from blaming the Jews. I hope that now that it is out I hope the controversy is put to rest.
I am not going to give the movie a free pass on violence however. I do not necessarily blame the movie for being violent, but idiot audience members who think seeing it is part of their children's religious education. Roger Ebert, who has seen thousands of movies over the years, said that "The Passion" was the most violent and gory one he has ever seen. I see pictures on CNN of children waiting in line to see it. This is unacceptable. From what i've heard, the Movie is boarderline NC-17. Parents should know much better, especially since it has an R rating already.
After Howard Dean's blowup after Iowa, I think that he is getting some very unfair press. People are portraying him as a crazy man, but all that was was one incident where he got excited. He has been totally minimized now, and I think that it's unfair. I feel rather bad for him actually.
I understand there's still a lot of fear that we are just moments away from pulling out of Iraq but I can see no reason why Bush and Company will do so. Bush realizes his opponents have waiting for him to pull out when the going got tough. Everyone seems to have forgotten Afghanistan because of its failure to prove Bush unwillingness to see the fight though. We live in a world where the only kind of news that seems to have any staying power in the global media is the kind that proclaims America as the hopeless failure that a great deal of the world wants us to be. Afghanistan isn't the kind of news they want to see, so it's conveniently swept under the rug so no one might get the idea that we might actually know what we're doing. It took over 3 years of walking the hard road to get Afghanistan on its feet and we still have a lot of work to do. The US has not cut its losses and run and I seriously doubt it will until Iraq has a stable democracy in place, and it's clear that Iraq no-longer needs us to keep the peace. Iraq is in deed still very volatile, but Bush from the beginning of this said we would be there until this conflict is brought to an end, and I can think of nothing that will bring Bush to go back on that.
