sauromatian wrote:That's very good example. There were enough cute girls at the protest marches during Gulf War I to lure me in, but by the end of the war I had to admit that Bush Sr. had done a good job. He moved the Army through empty desert rather than civilian areas, let the Kuwaitis do most of the work in clearing the cities, & avoided a lengthy occupation. Bad things happen in war, but he seemed to be minimizing them, & wasn't shy about taking credit for banishing the ghosts of Vietnam.

Flash forward to the present, & all of that has been lost. Clinton bombed Iraq endlessly, while Bush's ne'er-do-well son has left us with the ghost of Ho Chi Minh sitting on our collective sternum, laughing maniacally.

Another good point. Have we improved the lives of Iraqis by our actions? I expect a reply (from someone if not you) along the lines of "they're Iraqis, who cares?" When I hear someone say with one breath that they want to liberate the poor suffering peasants under dictators, then in the next breath demonstrate contempt for said peasants, there is no plausibility.

Bush Sr. did a great job because he listened to his advisors, when they said that continuing into Bagdad would errupt into street-by-street fighting and would cause a significant loss of troops. In and out in 100 days. Neat and Clean.

Ironically, and I know that hindsight is the best foresight when I say this, but he should have finished what he started, instead of dragging it out 20 years later...

But politically, he did the right thing back then.

Tharizdun wrote:...lesser of two... I don't think there's really such a thing. It just sounds good imo. If something has a quality then it exists... evil is or it isn't.

Maybe a given person could be defined as evil/not evil, but we're talking about entire nations. Out of the millions of people in a society, some are very evil, others less so. The issue of whether a war is justified thus becomes very complex. Genesis 18:

"20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.
23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
26 And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.
27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
28 Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.
29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake.
30 And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.
31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake.
32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake."


So there we have it. If only we could program Predator drones to scan for the presence of 10 righteous men at a given target, the war would be very different.

On the topic of wars, what the hell is going over there in Australia?! Looks like live action Bunnies and Burrows!!!

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/02/ ... latestnews

benjoshua wrote:
King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild.  Wow!  What an amazing read.  If you thought Hitler was the leading mass murderer of European leaders, think again.  Leopold gave him a run for his money and got away with it, as most people have no clue how bad it was.  Simply amazing and very sad.

I lived there for three years when I was growing up.

Stalin was the leading mass murderer of Europeans.

Ah, French intellectual-philosophers.  Is there anything better than watching them screw up?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100211/wl_time/08599196333800

Mike B.

I heard that Dallas had snow today.
Was there enough that you had to shovel your walk?

I have just watched part 3 (still on iplayer) of the BBC4 series: Games Britannia, which goes from D&D to electronic games.  The first eight minutes is a brilliant section on D&D in the 1970s including an interview with the founders of Games Workshop talking about their trip to the US in '76 and the opening of the first shop in London. They proudly show off their signed (Gygax and Arneson) white box set as well.  

Climate change my friend! Dallas is merely one data point in a large world. You have to look at the big worldwide picture.

Our last snowfall came shortly after a quick freezing rain shower. In the morning it looked like everything had been dusted with icing sugar. (I should have taken photos but I was getting ready to go to work).

Looks like the dogs are having a great time!

The last storm that we had of any size was a few weeks ago.

There was only about 8 inches but the drifting was bad.

The snow in my driveway when I got home from work was chest deep and it took nearly an hour to shovel a space large enough to get my car off the road. That was caused by the accumulation of snow from previous storms forming large mounds (five feet or so deep) on either side of the driveway.

Edit: Hey! Where did your post go? I just saw a bunch of photos of your dogs in your yard and when I posted this reply it was gone?