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Reply to I'm Proud Of Spain And Their Use Of Real Democracy in Politics JoeUser Forums

Sorry this is going back a bit: "whatever baby but you can't spin real democracy. 90% said no, they did it anyway = not democracy" I dont agree with this. I'm happy that Spain now has an anti-war government, this is a very positive development. However governments can act against the majority wishes without being undemocratic. Once a government is elected it's supposed to implement its manifesto. Obviously, the whole Iraq situation wo

Reply to Arguing on Joeuser in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Thanks Dan. Oops! Yeah I meant "woe", bit tired at that point.

Reply to Arguing on Joeuser in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Thanks a lot MadPoet, I'll go check out your site. One thing though, I didn't write that article as a "whoa is me" thing. The unfair criticism and lies have to be countered because I want to defend myself and my beliefs. But it doesn't hurt. I have to respect someone before I can be hurt by their disapproval. I don't respect either of the two bloggers I mentioned.

Reply to Arguing on Joeuser in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Absolutely, getting personal is not confined to the right. I do it myself. My examples are conservative because they are the people who disagree with me.

Arguing on Joeuser in Blogging JoeUser Forums

I've never blogged about blogging before but the behaviour of certain Joeusers over the past few weeks leaves me feeling like I have no choice but to respond. Such has been the venom directed at me by certain other people that I want to write a blog about debting etiquette on this website. I'm not going to name names, but those about whom I'm about to write

Reply to Bush Tells The Truth in International JoeUser Forums

Captain, Yes, I have a job. Do you have a blog? I checked yesterday, you've managed the grand total of ZERO articles so far. Very impressive. If you want to go to my blog you'll see that I write about many different things, not just Bush. Even if I did only write articles about one subject that would still be one more subject than you. It's all very well going to other people's blogs leaving abusive posts but what have you

Reply to Bush Tells The Truth in International JoeUser Forums

Jesse, thanks for the idea, you're very kind. I'm happy enough here for the time being.

Bush Tells The Truth in International JoeUser Forums

Well it had to happen eventually! The American president and the truth are not exactly good friends, in fact sometimes they're not even on speaking terms. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear Dubya at his press conference with Ariel Sharon yesterday saying the following on Israeli settlements in the occupied territories: "In light of new realities o

Reply to We All Do It, Don't We? in International JoeUser Forums

Link If I was a famous comedian, that's what this blog would have looked like :)

Reply to The West Bank and Gaza in International JoeUser Forums

Larry, how can Arafat make a counter-offer? Sharon's plan is unilateral, it's not an offer. Any settlement which is dismantled is welcome but Sharon is portraying this explicitly as a tactical move. There are no good settlements or bad settlements, they're all illegal under international law. The problem is that most Israelis don't accept this argument.

Reply to The West Bank and Gaza in International JoeUser Forums

Shades, Andrew, Larry, thanks for your commments, good discussion. One thing I'd like to expand on: "the West Bank and Gaza have been designated, at once understandably and ludicrously, as the future site of a Palestinian state." I've always believed in the two-state solution but, as time goes by, I've started to reconsider. The fairest solution would be a bi-national state in Palestine. It's not viable at the moment but the

The West Bank and Gaza in International JoeUser Forums

The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are so closely linked in the consciousness that it’s easy to forget that these two parts of Palestine are very different. They are not adjacent to each other geographically. They are different religiously, topographically and socially. Their fates are linked through an accident of history which left them as the only parts of Mandate Pa

Reply to Why we fight in Iraq in Politics JoeUser Forums

island dog, You're getting lost. First of all, it was, as shades points out, blatantly an attempt to be a smart-ass. Secondly and more interestingly, you made the pro-terrorist quip back at reply 23. At that stage my only comment on Israel/Palestine was the following in reply 21: "They wanted to install a pro-US, pro-Israel state in the heart of the Middle East " But now you claim that the pro-terrorist quip was mad

Reply to Why we fight in Iraq in Politics JoeUser Forums

island dog, Again, it's NOT a conspiracy, it's not a secret. How many times do I have to write that before you stop accusing me of being a conspiracy theorist? The PNAC pushed for armed action against Iraq since 1997. Several of their founder members went on to become members of the Bush administration. The people who pushed hardest for the invasion of Iraq - Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld - were PNAC members. "So are you saying violence in t

Reply to Sharon's Withdrawal Plan in International JoeUser Forums

The Bulldozer speaks: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1081767667005&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037

Reply to Why we fight in Iraq in Politics JoeUser Forums

"I'm sure you are against it because you are pro-terrorist, sorry, I mean pro-palestinian." Ah! Foiled by your cunning wit! Why don't you go read some history? How do you think the Zionists got their own state in the first place? By asking nicely? Ever heard of the King David Hotel? The Stern Gang? Count Bernadotte? "Here we go again with the oil and imperialist conspiracy theories again. Watch oout, the black helicopters are coming

Reply to Why we fight in Iraq in Politics JoeUser Forums

"Other than Turkey, most of these nations are cranking out terrorists one way or the other." Cranking out? Terorists aren't produced on an assembly line. They're human beings who react to political and economic conditions by using violence. They are politically motivated. The war in Iraq has not made America one iota safer. It has actually made the US a lot less safe. It is now a runnning sore in relations between the Islamic world a

Reply to Why we fight in Iraq in Politics JoeUser Forums

"Saddam's plan was pretty straight forward: Be a reasonably good boy until sanctions were lifted and the world looked the other way and then arm to the teeth with WMD so that 1991 could never happen again to him again. The next time he invaded someone he would have nuclear weapons to keep the allies at bay. That was the plan. Terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda worked very well into that strategy -- Al Qaeda would be the ultimate delivery system

Reply to We All Do It, Don't We? in International JoeUser Forums

Thanks very much everyone. Jimbo, I used "their" in its singular form to refer to an individual without distinguishing their gender.

Reply to Bush's War, Bush's Fault in International JoeUser Forums

Are you accusing me of plaigarism? Perhaps you could re-phrase your criticism of my blog in a way which leaves no doubt that my work is original.

Reply to Bush's War, Bush's Fault in International JoeUser Forums

Captain Ghanja, that was an extraordinary paragraph. Inaccurate recollection of recent American history, childish nicknames for Iraqi dictators, bizzare accusations (how exactly am I "right-wing"?), misplaced criticism (I'm not American and I wasn't even born in the Sixties) and a litany of insults - your comment had the lot! Very enjoyable reading. Now that you've let off some steam, are you capable of engaging in a proper debate?

We All Do It, Don't We? in International JoeUser Forums

I use the first person plural very promiscuously in my blogs. In fact, I write the word “we” so often that it’s really starting to grate. Sometimes I use it to speak about humanity in general: “we all know…” and sometimes to talk more specifically about my own civilisation “we in the West…” I’m annoyed with myself for using the word so often because I know

Reply to Six Good Fridays Ago in International JoeUser Forums

I meant peace in the limited definition. We're still a long way from being "normal". Things are better, much better, than they once were. It's easy to get complacent about how far we've come, we forget very easily.

Reply to Bush's War, Bush's Fault in International JoeUser Forums

Very interesting video, Wahkonta. As you say in your blog, this could be a hoax. Still it's food for thought. I feel that you're right, everything will come out in the wash eventually. Time is not Bush's friend.

Reply to Bush's War, Bush's Fault in International JoeUser Forums

Thanks all for your kind words, much appreciated. Aaron, my point would be that the handover is a sham, that America will maintain control behind the facade of Iraqi sovereignty. Their new embassy is going to have 4 000 staff. What do you need 4 000 staff for? The whole issue of US withdrawal is very tricky for us doves. On the one hand it's what we want but on the other hand, if the US left overnight, there would be chaos and proba