O G San

Reply to Why I don’t like blacklisting in Blogging JoeUser Forums

" Yes, it’s quite often the liberals here, those staunch defenders of free speech and expression, often profusely reprimanding us conservatives for our repressive ways and our oppressive means, who employ the blacklist to deny their opponents the opportunity for unfettered expression and speech. " Care to name some names? I don't follow the whole Joeuser soap opera thing so I'm not sure to whom you are refering. I'm among the mo

Reply to Sink Or Swim in International JoeUser Forums

Again, I never called a specific person racist, I merely stated that those people would never have been left to rot if they were white. I'm blaming a hell of a lot of people for this, not just Bush. My comparison between 9-11 and Katrina was not about the efficiency of the response so much as the human attributes displayed during these disasters.

Reply to Sink Or Swim in International JoeUser Forums

Thanks for the comment. I read the link, very intersting. I stand corrected on the Superdome. But allow me to correct you - 9-11 took place in three states not one. Plus there were many things going on that day for which Guiliani had no responsibility, not least the grounding of all the other flights and the scrambling of fighter planes. "but are you really going to tell me that Mayor Nagin's failture to commandeer the buses to ev

That One Between Canada And Mexico in International JoeUser Forums

I never thought I would see the day that America would need aid from other countries to cope with a domestic disaster. Yet in the wake of hurricane Katrina relief has been offered by dozens of countries: three helicopters by Singapore, 1100 doctors by Cuba, a frigate by the Netherlands. Such was the immensity of the storm and the ineptitude of the response, that the w

Sink Or Swim in International JoeUser Forums

In times of crisis you get the measure of a person and perhaps, of a country. My overriding impression of the last great American disaster, 9-11, was how it showed up the innate goodness of so many Americans, from the fire fighters who put civic duty above their own survival to the passengers of flight 93 who sacrificed their own lives for the common good. Even the me

What The Carver Missed in International JoeUser Forums

As you enter through the grand brass gates of Stormont estate, you are confronted by the statue of Edward Carson. Portrayed in full flow, the father of unionism’s hand is thrust upwards to the heavens, as if imploring the Almighty to come to Ulster’s help. At the base of the statue are small carvi

No T-Shirts For Taiwan in International JoeUser Forums

"When I was twenty I spent the summer on a kibbutz" It takes a while to sink in. It is 2001 and myself and Bob, an ageing English communist, are standing in Bir Zeit, home of the finest university in the Occupied Territories. Given that the pair of us are on a Palestinia

Reply to A Tale Of Two Midterms in International JoeUser Forums

Make it five pounds and you're on. Let's at least bet in a real currency Fair enough point, those who voted for pro-war Dems should also be sickened. But, as I said, there is a difference between planning and executing this disaster and merely going along with it.

Reply to A Tale Of Two Midterms in International JoeUser Forums

Zena, "OG I'm surprised at you. Just because an obvious idiot such as Jones calls to pull out of Iraq does not prove that he's gotten more smart and sensible, it just proves that even obvious idiots are having doubts about ethics of the war." I don't imagine that he is having any doubts about the ethics of the war. I think he is having (well-founded) doubts about its popularity. As for your point about the Dems, I've

Reply to Thou Shalt Not Kill in International JoeUser Forums

Baker, once again, here's what you wrote: "People who differ with him have to flee" This is not a specific claim about Person X having to leave the country, it's a sweeping generalisation. "You feel free to tell people threatened with prison that they didn't 'have to' leave." I did nothing of the sort, you're jumping between the general and the specific all over the place. I haven't used the wor

A Tale Of Two Midterms in International JoeUser Forums

The film Fahrenheit 9-11 is overlong and lacks narrative drive in parts but it does contain some devastating passages of anti-Bush vitriol. One example is the series of clips showing how the US president tricked his country into war with a web of deception about Iraqi WMDs and links to Bin Laden. In a brilliantly edited section, Bush is shown on the stump in 20

Reply to Thou Shalt Not Kill in International JoeUser Forums

Baker, I raised two issues in my last comment: 1. Your use of the phrase "have to" was grossly inaccurate. 2. You lambast Chavez for some of the regimes he supports but you will not do the same to Bush. You have not admitted that, on point one, you were grossly inaccurate in your choice of language. You have not addressed point two. Who's the one doing the ignoring around here? I see on your thread that you'r

Reply to Thou Shalt Not Kill in International JoeUser Forums

Little Whip, In a way you are correct. I wrote this blog not to praise Chavez as such, but more to ridicule Robertson. I had expected that at least one of the many right-wingers on this site would be good enough to defend Pat so I could have an argument with them. But it seems that Robertson is too mad even for Joeuser. You live and learn.

Reply to Thou Shalt Not Kill in International JoeUser Forums

Baker, "People who differ with him have to flee to the US" They "have to"? They absolutely "have to" leave the country? Then who were all those people who took part in the strike in 2003? How come they didn't "have to" leave the country? Or the 42% of Venezuelans voters who voted against Chavez in last year's recall? Did they all "have to" leave? Just how many Venezuelans are there in Florida these days? It's a wonder

Reply to Thou Shalt Not Kill in International JoeUser Forums

Good article on this issue by a Venezuelan-American Link Evidence of the US government's support for anti-Chavez groups is coming to light thanks in no small part to the Freedom Of Information Act in the States. There is much more to be uncovered here I suspect. Time is the great revealer.

Reply to Thou Shalt Not Kill in International JoeUser Forums

"he is railing belligerantly" And how would you describe the American's government's behaviour towards him? I don't recall Chavez backing a coup against Bush. What do you expect him to do when the US government is trying to overthrow him? Say "thank-you"?

Reply to Thou Shalt Not Kill in International JoeUser Forums

"And yet they try to influence us with their oil" (italics added) Well, that's exactly the point, it's Venezuela's oil so it's up to them who they do and don't sell it to. At the minute Chavez is quite happy to sell oil to the US. So what's the problem? Why should the US be threatened by Chavez using his country's natural welath to create a higher standard of living for the poor? How does this threaten the US?

Reply to Thou Shalt Not Kill in International JoeUser Forums

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Thou Shalt Not Kill in International JoeUser Forums

I very rarely do these link based-blogs but I wanted to share this video with as many people as possible. This is American fundamentalist Pat Robertson calling for the murder of Venezualan president Hugo Chavez: Link Where does one even start with this extraordianry call to jihad against Chavez? Well,

Reply to Changing Times, Changing Minds, Changing States in International JoeUser Forums

Thankls once again for your comment Wasn't it Griffith who said in 1916 - Geography tried to make one island of Ireland - history has made it two? Ballymena and Ballybeg couldn't be further apart culturally I wouldn't deny that there are cultural differences in Ireland but let's keep a sense of proportion, Ballymena and Ballybeg are not so different in the global scale of things. Unionists know that the IRA is not

Reply to We were all settlers once in International JoeUser Forums

19th century? You blow-in As for Groomsport, I can assure you, the only paramilitaries getting plots of land there are loyalist drug-dealers (allegedly) On a more serious note, I have a theory that the reason that Prods/Boers/Israelis have a bad reputation is not because they were genocidal but because

Reply to Changing Times, Changing Minds, Changing States in International JoeUser Forums

Thank you very much for that comment, I think it's the longest I've ever seen. I will try to deal with some of the points raised. First you say that I discount emotion, I don't . The first bullet point deals with the emotional impact of the Troubles, as in: "it hardens Protestant hearts against unity" I considered this the most important piece of advice, that's why it's number one. But if you mean that I discount the

Reply to Evolution vs. Gravity in Biology JoeUser Forums

Excellent blog, Brad. Link

Changing Times, Changing Minds, Changing States in International JoeUser Forums

Gerry Adams is fond of predicting that Ireland will be reunited by the year 2016, in time for the centenary celebrations of the Easter Rising. One should be cautious of his words, since he uses the alleged imminence of the end of partition as justification for abandoning so much of his ideological baggage. In any case, the Provos have a rather poor record when it come

The Blood's The Same in International JoeUser Forums

The English press critic Roy Greenslade once coined the term “hierarchy of death” to describe the huge difference between British media coverage of different types of violence associated with the Troubles. There were he asserted four groups of victims as far as the media was concerned. Group 1 was made up of English people killed in England, i.e. victims of the IRA’s