Frenchy68

Agreed. Insomnia or graveyard shift? "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

I wholeheartedly agree that the future of what we know as Iraq goes through at least a federated state, if not some kind of partition into sovereign states (which I don't see happening, at least not in the near future). Whether democracy is the best regime for them though, is still to be determined. And yes, bailing out would not make things go any better in the short term. But it may be a good idea to learn from this event, so as not to step into the exact same situation when the next opportunity to screw up arises. "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Based on this post, I now assume the last 2 initials have to do with Dave's screen name, while the first 2 would refer to the infamous "in before", I reckon. Am I right? Did I win anything? I certainly miss seeing any humor in it, but I'm kinda slow anyway... "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

When advisors give terrible advice, wise men tend to replace such advisors with more competent ones. "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

I truly hope you are right, but am a lot less optimistic. I would tend to believe that in the case of Iraq, democracy is not feasible as a viable political system, and that forcing it upon them is not helping the case. There are too many minorities with conflicting agendas, and establishing a democracy would be a typical case of the dictatorship of the dominant group. Iraq is a country, but hardly a nation. It was drawn on a flat map, encompassing different ethnies which never had much intention to associate themselves with others. The intervention in Iraq, in my opinion, was a typical case of mis-diagnosis by some. Trying to cure a disease by using the wrongs means. Much like trying to treat herpes with chemotherapy. Sometimes, containment is more fruitful than surgery. "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Well, at least in his neck of the world, I'd think his opinion was echoed by tens of millions of people... I'd say a majority of my friends and co-workers back then (2003) agreed with his speech. But hey, we're liberals from SoCal, what do we know...

I know of at least one... "Ten days ago, the U.S. secretary of state, Mr. Powell, reported alleged links between al-Qaida and the Baghdad regime. Given the present state of our research and intelligence in liaison with our allies, nothing allows us to establish such links. But we must assess the impact that disputed military action would have on this level. Would such intervention today not be liable to exacerbate divisions between societies, cultures, peoples; divisions that nurture terrorism? ..." Full transcript of the speech "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

ohhh.... so sad.... *Sniffle... Im sure your the one believeing that the reason my good freinds are over there dieing is to stop that from ever happening again. I mean, im sure they believe that as well. the man can be kinda convincing savvy?.\ i mean, do you want revenge? thats cool. revenge is good. i like revenge. But, new idea, How about YOU go put on some greens, grab a big gun, fly over there and exterminate the Heathans! do me a favor and tag out a few of the guys i went to highschool with, the ones that are still alive, so they can come home to there moms and pops and girlfreinds. Maybe the only people who should be out there dieing are the ones that are really into dieing 'for their country'. seriously, I dont need revenge when i put my freinds ashes away when they are killed in a plane crash. but when guys like you send my freinds to do the mans dirty work? then i need revenge. If your post is indeed aimed at BillVon, I suggest you read his post again. You're confusing me... "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

What does that make Batman? "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

I'd like to add that most of the time, publicists are the ones publishing press releases. Madonna may decide to do something, and her publicist may decide to make it public. It does not mean that M had any intention to make a big fuss out of it. Knowing her, she is actually more likely to try to protect her kids' privacy than expose them to the limelight, and has done a faily good job so far, which is not easy when the whole world population, including us SC regulars, feed on this kind of news. On a slight tangent, when Magic went public with his testing positive for HIV, it turned out to be a brilliant PR move. It also happened to shed the light on an epidemic that can be easily contained, yet was growing thanks to lack of understanding and education of the disease. Public figures tend to have quite a big audience, and if anything good comes out of their actions, then take it to the bank. "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

I don't know about Russia, but China will certainly not tolerate a force such as the US being at its border. No more than the US would have a woody seeing Chinese forces across the Rio Grande. Therefore, there will not be a US invasion, as all parties are going to hammer out a deal. It is still, in my opinion, about positioning to gain leverage in the upcoming negotiations... "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Wiping out "People who batter women", which would probably terminate most of the fine members of the other categories, and being lazy as I am, I'd rather wipe out once. "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Hypothetical question: he falls for her, she falls for him. Is it better she pretends nothing is happening, and plays the part with her BF, although she'd rather be with someone else? "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Not posting one's prepubescent genitals in the "naked guy post whore glory" thread is definitely a pre-requirement. I will talk to my agent regarding any other contingencies, and shall get back to you shortly.

According to Keith's post, it has more to do with a frontal blow than a rear kiss. However, it seems such requirement can be waived should blowee and blower not be currently on the same continent. I wonder if there is a cool off clause though... "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

As seen tonight on soccernet.com! Kazakhstan to blame for Brits' mishaps! "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Define "boot" "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Great debate you guys.

The Camp David agreements between Saddat and Begin was no small accomplishment. "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

You are right in that the Chinese would be possed off. Taiwan is considered as a renegade province in China, as it was part of China for many centuries until 1949 (with episodes of occupation by the Japanese since the end of the 19th Century). Hence China's claim and desire to retrieve it. Something somewhat similar happened in the US in the 1860's. The man who supervised the reclaiming of the renegade territories ended up with his face on the local currency. Considering that one same party ruled from 1949 until few years ago, I would hardly call Taiwan a functioning democracy. It is getting there, but since 1949 was as much a democracy as Iraq was pre-2003. "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Um, maybe because Russia and China oppose sanctions on DPRK?? The article goes on to say that progress is still being made, but they are showing themselves to be obstacles in the wrealm of dealing with Iran and DPRK. Sanctions is a good way to make a stance, but in some instances, can be highly counter productive. The DPRK is an extremely poor country. Applying sanctions greatly affects the "little" people of the DPRK (essentially 90% of the population), while not doing a great deal to destabilize the regime. Most successful dictatorship are made of a repressive regime (with its cronies), a small percentage of the population making profit off the regime, and a huge percentage of poor people finding themselves lucky enough if the can have enough to eat every day. Spontaneous revolutions rarely occur under these circumstances, and when they do, they tend to be replaced with a different form of oppression. Only when a majority of the population is wealthy enough to want more than a bowl of rice a day do democracy driven revolutions occur. The DPRK has per se no middle class, so such events are highly unlikely to happen. Making it poorer only reinforces the regime's control over the general population, and feeds the propaganda machine with the "us against them" rethoric. So what to do? Doing nothing is not an option. Military intervention will not happen for many different reasons, and the regime knows that (regardless of whether North Korea has nuclear capability or not). Cutting the DPRK off from any aid will only make things worse. I believe this is what China is vetoing. Unfortunately, carrot and stick, which means conditional aid, may be the only viable option for lack of a better one. Much like a bad illness that can't be cured, you should at least try to contain it until you find means to induce remission... "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Good idea!

No one can "disallow" Japan from doing anything. But the US, China, Russia, etc... can certainly convey to Japan that developping a nuclear force would be bad juju. Japan will listen, as long as there is also an active move towards negotiating with the DPNK. Besides the fact that I doubt the US would sanction Japan getting a nuclear arsenal, I actually think Japan resents heading that way right now. Knowing full well how bad things could get... "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Unless it was the building itself which was out of control and slammed into the otherwise peaceful plane. This has to stop. Buildings should be banned in NYC and other big US cities. "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

I don't see what your post has to do with the situation in Asia. All I am saying is that the US government (ANY US government) today will not allow Japan to build nuclear capability, as it would make a bad situation greatly worse. The "anything bad to say about Japan is racist" is simply comical when preceded by "as far as China and Korea, fuck them". There is still lots of animosity between China/Korea and Japan, steming from the rapes and genocides commited by the Japanese in the first half of the 20th century. It's a fact, that's all. Japan refuses to do what Germany did towards the Jewish community and the nations it abused, which is a simple apology, and Japanese history books do not reflect ANY of the Japanese occupation chapters. "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."