Trent

Did I not write clearly? I said that there should be a 100% embargo on NK... how'd that translate to Israel? OHHH... that's right, it's a subject change masked to look like an attempt to point out hypocrisy. Just to play along... EVERYONE, including NK's allies, told NK not to test nukes... they did anyway. When has EVERYONE (not JUST 14 or fewer members of the UNSC) told Israel not to do something? The rest of your post is similar to all the other, "I can't stand my own country" rants. I honestly hope that you ,and the rest of the world, don't have to find out what it would be like if someone else were the big kid on the block. Oh, hello again!

Yeah, let's give people like Berger a pass... he couldn't possibly have been doing anything THAT wrong... besides... he paid a fine. It's all good now. Oh, hello again!

Or we could start helping Taiwan (on the semi-downlow of course) start developing their own nukes. How would China like them apples? Turnabout should be fair, and since so many people think that it's actually a fair and good thing that everyone has nukes... we'd just be helping that happen! Yay!!! Oh, hello again!

Well, considering how the UN told NK not to do it, China and Russia (NK's biggest allies) told them not to do it, and pretty much the entire world thinks that wittle kim does not need to be playing with nukes... we should apply it to NK. It's nice you try to put this all on the US, but in this case "WE" is everyone BUT NK. 100% embargo... the world told them not to do it, they did. It has to be made clear that threatening cannot be a country's one natural resource. Oh, hello again!

I'll go ahead and take the conspiracy theory angle on this. China doesn't want to sanction NK because any potential collapse risks exposing chain directly from China to NK to Iran to the rest of the nutjobs in the ME. Why is it always China and Russia who are the only ones not wanting to do anything about Iran or NK?? What should be done about NK is simple. 100% embargo. Nothing in, nothing out. Not that they have a whole lot of exports besides arms to Iran... But not that China would abide by that anyway... nor would they let UN inspectors on their border to make sure the policy is enforced... my opinion. Oh, hello again!

Exactly, so it IS dishonest to say that people who are considering him innocent UNTIL he's proven guilty are defending him, right? Is it defending him to ask questions about the circumstances of the whole ordeal? Honestly... there's more people prematurely calling for his scalp than there could even be considered to be "defending" him... and that's based only on these allegations so far. You know what's going on. Don't be dishonest. Oh, hello again!

So would you correct someone who is screaming that he's a child molester or a pedophile by saying that none of that has been proven and we don't have enough information to spout particularly harmful things like that? Or would you be content to let it go on since you happen to fall on the opposite side of the political party system? Then, if you did choose to just smirk and let it happen... would you (incorrectly) label people who want "innocent until proven guilty" to stand as "defenders of the pedophile"? Would you then reference actions from others years ago, who you don't agree with anyway, as an excuse for your behavior? Oh, hello again!

I have 3 VISO's in stock. Just in case anyone has to have one... Oh, hello again!

I'll bet you think that post is pretty witty. There is a strong tendency to disingenuously use (misunderstood, purposely perhaps) arguments from one thread to make oneself look cool in another. Lame. EDIT: Because it's just annoying. Oh, hello again!

It is absolutely infuriating that we didn't vaporize that gaggle of chumps. Oh, hello again!

Depends on if you beleive that dictatorships who have "elections" don't stuff the boxes. I mean, plenty of people think that elections were stolen here while under SERIOUS scrutiny from all kinds of media and politicians... what can happen in a place where the dictator controls the media and cracks down on dissent? But, hey, Jimmy Carter said it was straight... sooo.... But don't take my word for it... talk to some folks from there. Or an oppressed minority. How many victims do you need before you consider an "invitation" to be legit? We should ask the UN to set up a "HELP HELP I'M BEING REPRESSED!" hotline, right? That'd work. Buying votes with food and rounding up people to bus them to polling stations as long as they vote for Chavez doesn't really mean they know what's up. He relies on the ignorance of many to show that he has some support. On another side, he does have many rich supporters as well, because through his cronyism... they get richer. Don't think for a second that Chavez is a man of the people... he's lining his pockets, his friends' pockets, and trying to make himself a nuevo Simon de Bolivar. No. What shows that is the fact that Chavez put his supporters in charge of all the companies he nationalized and the country slipped to the bottom of the economic rankings. Economic status aside, his rich and poor supporters have shown that they are fully capable of fucking up their country. If the majority of people voted for Bush and he was able to purge dissent in congress and the senate... would you be okay with him changing the Constitution to allow himself to stay in office pretty much indefinitely? Oh, hello again!

Sounds like a win-win situation for China! Kill their criminals (both real and the "thought" criminals), keep their populace really scared of big Mao, make a profit off their organs, make a profit off the rest of the corpse for the plastination guy or skeleton sales, then have a convenient place to dump ash one scoopful at a time. They should definitely be on the Human Rights Commission. Oh, hello again!

That was more a comment as to how bad the situation actually is. For all those that say we went into Iraq "uninvited"... well... if we have the need someday... we've been invited to Venezuela! And to the comment about letting the market sort itself out... That'd work if it weren't such a scarce good. Any oil we don't take will be gobbled up by the chinese most likely. We'd have to stop buying foreign oil altogether to make a dent in the whole market. That wouldn't exactly hurt Chavez ALL that much... I have a feeling demand from other countries would just grow because OPEC would respond by lowering prices to get the more people on the "crack". Oh, hello again!

What "actions" are we taking against Chavez? I'm sure that many Venezuelans will say that we're not doing ENOUGH to combat Chavez's brilliant stupidity and ridiculous behavior. Like I said before, all the Venezuelans I know actually WANT the US to invade Venezuela to kick his ass out. Contrary to what people seem to think about the US position on Chavez... it appears that our government does surprisingly little. There are no responses to his antics, only "expressions of concern" when he starts buying shitloads of Chinese weapons and letting Chinese military chill in his country. In fact, there aren't even sanctions against Venezuela. So where's this "targeting" of Chavez? What you're confusing here is that many PEOPLE hate the man and what he's done with what used to be the gem of Latin America. It is ignorant to claim that this is all about business for those who speak out against him. If becoming a pure propaganda state run by a delusional criminal isn't anything to worry about... what is? He cracked down on ALL opposition, including the media. He caters ONLY to the ignorant and poor because of the ease with which they can be manipulated into thinking that the middle class are evil and the US is to blame for everything. Everything he does is to aggrandize himself... I doubt he really has any concern for his country other than keeping it under his thumb as a means to stay in power. Spend some time talking with people who live(d) there and see. Popular disdain for Chavez is based in ANYTHING but oil. Venezuelans can only hope that the oil is a good enough reason to warrant the US's attention sometime in the near future, because up to now... we're not doing much. Oh, hello again!

Very few people here understand what has happened in Venezuela... that is pretty obvious by the amount of people who seem to think he's some kind of lefty hero. Pure ignorance. Some of my closest friends here are from Venezuela and they have hundreds of stories to tell you about Chavez and what Venezuela used to be before he slipped in and sunk his hooks in. The funny thing is... every single Venezuelan I know wants to know when we'll invade Venezuela to get rid of the bastard. So for those who think he might not be all that bad... Read up. Oh, hello again!

[sarcasm] Now THAT kind of behavior is just absolutely unheard of amongst all those manly men in the Arab world... right?[/sarcasm] I heard it said with my own 2 ears... "Women are for the home and babies and young men are for fun." ...not that there's anything wrong with that... Oh, hello again!

*chortle chortle* *snicker snick* ... it's funny 'cuz it's true! Oh, hello again!

[INSERT "MISLEADING" QUOTES FROM EVERYONE IN GOV'T ABOUT SADDAM'S THREAT AND WMD'S] Then blame Bush for personally starting the war in Iraq completely in a vacuum where everyone in the whole world just KNEW that Saddam wasn't a threat or didn't have the WMD's he claimed to. Oh, hello again!

I'll bet glasses for that kind of short-sightedness are REALLY thick. But whatever, I understand that people are so obsessed with hating the current government that it leads them to make ridiculous arguments. Like your very own here... Bush and the current Republican administration are to blame for all the mess, and nothing that anyone before them did (or DIDN'T do) lead up to it, no. And, NO, our own policies and lack of planning across MANY presidents didn't have anything to do with where we are today. You're right... it must be Bush's fault. So Bush screwed everything up and NONE of it had to do with people before him... BUT, he's so powerful that ONLY HE could influence the world that is left to the next president? Guaranteed that logic will be what the Dems use to make excuses for their failures if they win in 2008. Like I said, it'd almost be worth it to let your ilk have their way and just see what would happen... Oh, hello again!

The thing I can't figure out is whether it's ignorance or dishonesty that leads people to put all the blame for the state of affairs on the Bush administration. As if voting in some power hungry democrat is gonna make a lick of difference. I almost want liberals to win so that they can see the world of shit they'll make for themselves... then I realize I want to live here too and I'd rather have to put up with the bitching and moaning than the idiocracy that'd be in place. Oh, hello again!

You guys know what I mean... all managers with no one to manage... nothing will get done. We had "service" as our industry for a while since we let manufacturing go down the toilet, but now all that's being farmed out to India. There's nothing wrong with choosing a vocation and being good at it and happy with it over choosing a college degree. Like lawrocket said, the statistic might be misleading because some people are happy where they are. Oh, hello again!

IMO, a VERY overlooked reality down here. Sure, everyone needs a decent education... but not everyone has the need to jump into the rat-race and become the next big thing. I know plenty of people that are what people from the Northeast would consider poor and simple, but they are happy and have no desire to do anything differently. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone in the US was an MBA, JD, MD, or PHD? We'd get a lot of thinking done, but no one would want to do the dirty work of growing food, making the things the big-brained invented, or trucking things from coast to coast. We'd all be a bunch of managers who "deserved" a large income because we went to school. Oh, hello again!

Hey, I heard that whites are now fewer in number than other races in Houston. Does that mean we can be proud to be white? ... never mind, I've just been informed that racial/ethnic/religious pride is reserved for non-white/non-euro or non anglo/non-Christians. Sorry for the confusion. Oh, hello again!

Gotcha. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Oh, hello again!

If that's the way it works, the UN really IS useless. Who's talking about that? We're talking recent now and Russia and China STILL do it. OK? So Israel shouldn't feel ganged up on? Of the 188 countries, how many would you say are "supporters" of Israel? Honestly. How many are anti-Israel. How many just go along with whatever the US doesn't want? I said nothing like that. Who are you talking to? Oh, hello again!