"We must never appease terrorists!!"

[Menard]

Hmmmm...

How many of us hotlink images from the originating websites, rather than upload them to an image host? Which, btw, really p**ses off the webmasters of said sites.

[AnubisVonMojo]

Well, sometimes I hotlink pics from sites... oh crap, could it be that my evil twin is behind all this?! 

Oh wait, no matter how evil he might be, my evil twin still wouldn't knock somebody for anti-Bush statements. I guess that absolves me! 

[Menard]

Well, sometimes I hotlink pics from sites... oh crap, could it be that my evil twin is behind all this?! 

Oh wait, no matter how evil he might be, my evil twin still wouldn't knock somebody for anti-Bush statements. I guess that absolves me! 

Interesting reply  , but I wasn't making a reference to you in my previous post.

Good luck to your evil twin.

[Allhallowsday]

Well, sometimes I hotlink pics from sites... oh crap, could it be that my evil twin is behind all this?! 

Oh wait, no matter how evil he might be, my evil twin still wouldn't knock somebody for anti-Bush statements. I guess that absolves me! 

Interesting reply  , but I wasn't making a reference to you in my previous post...

But you did ask a question...   

[Jack]

I lost 2 karma points.


sorry, i didn't realize there were a plurality of saudi arabians on this board.

raffine-  oil just shot up like a dollar

I gave you one negative karma.  I've given you at least 2 or possibly 3 positive lately, so I took one back.  I gave you a negative because I think your original post is utterly pointless.  I mean, it's just a smart aleck comment - the very definition of trolling.  I would never give anyone a negative for posting an honest, heartfelt opinion of an issue that concerns them, even if I disagreed strongly with it.  But this obviously doesn't qualify.  I'm certainly no "bushie", I think he's done an absolutely lousy job as president.  I'm just sick of all this political BS on the board.  Others have told you this as well.  We all have interests other than bad movies, yet when I want to talk about guitar playing, I go to Harmony Central.  When I want to talk about home theater, I go to AVS.  There are hundreds, if not thousands of political boards on the internet, why can't you do the same? 

[indianasmith]

Bush made a valid point, it being this:  the Saudi GOVERNMENT does not directly sponsor terrorism  - albeit many Saudi citizens do.  The Saudi GOVERNMENT has not recently expressed a wish to wipe Israel off the map, unlike certain other Middle Eastern countries whose nutjob leaders a certain Democratic candidate said that he would meet and talk with . . . and the Saudi government is the world's single largest producer of oil, a commodity whose shrinking supply and increasing demand have cause prices to surge.  Bottom line, until alternative energies are developed, with HAVE to deal with the Saudis, whether we like their mysoginistic, stone aged Arabic butts or not!!!!

I've dinged no one's karma today, but feel free to take a shot at mine if you disagree.

[Captain Tars Tarkas]

Hmmmm...

How many of us hotlink images from the originating websites, rather than upload them to an image host? Which, btw, really p**ses off the webmasters of said sites.

I was losing Gigs of bandwidth to myspace alone before I modified my htaccess file to block most hotlinking, that was two years ago and I can only imagine how many gigs I'd lose now if I was unblocked.  Even though I'm on a webhost where I could probably eat that bandwidth with little cost, it's the principle of the thing, and also the possibility I'll migrate hosts in the future.

[Menard]

Bush made a valid point, it being this:  the Saudi GOVERNMENT does not directly sponsor terrorism  - albeit many Saudi citizens do.  The Saudi GOVERNMENT has not recently expressed a wish to wipe Israel off the map, unlike certain other Middle Eastern countries whose nutjob leaders a certain Democratic candidate said that he would meet and talk with . . . and the Saudi government is the world's single largest producer of oil, a commodity whose shrinking supply and increasing demand have cause prices to surge.  Bottom line, until alternative energies are developed, with HAVE to deal with the Saudis, whether we like their mysoginistic, stone aged Arabic butts or not!!!!

I've dinged no one's karma today, but feel free to take a shot at mine if you disagree.

Please define 'not directly'.

[Allhallowsday]

Bush made a valid point, it being this:  the Saudi GOVERNMENT does not directly sponsor terrorism  - albeit many Saudi citizens do.  The Saudi GOVERNMENT has not recently expressed a wish to wipe Israel off the map, unlike certain other Middle Eastern countries whose nutjob leaders a certain Democratic candidate said that he would meet and talk with . . . and the Saudi government is the world's single largest producer of oil, a commodity whose shrinking supply and increasing demand have cause prices to surge.  Bottom line, until alternative energies are developed, with HAVE to deal with the Saudis, whether we like their mysoginistic, stone aged Arabic butts or not!!!!

I've dinged no one's karma today, but feel free to take a shot at mine if you disagree.

Please define 'not directly'.

Yeh really.          

[indianasmith]

The Saudi Government does not meet the criteria laid down by our State Department to be defined as a "state sponsor of terrorism,"  that's what I mean.
   Do I like them?  NO!!!  However, if the Saudi royals are ever overthrown, the general population of that country is so radicalized by Wahabi clerics that the resulting theocracy would make Iran look like the Swiss.  In short, the Saudi royals are the best thing we can hope for in that country.
   Frankly, Saudi Arabia is pretty much a poster child for the argument that Islam is an evil, repressive religion.  However, for the timebeing, we have to deal with them, and hope the House of Saud can stay in power until the poisoning of the minds of generations of Saudi schoolchildren can slowly be undone.
  Iran, however, is very much a wild card.  Ahmadenajad, or however he spells his name, is a nutjob.  What is interesting is that the general population of Iran is LESS radicalized than the government and military.  I keep hoping some pro-Western student will put a round in the head of that tyrant and save the rest of the world a lot of grief.

[Menard]

The Saudi Government does not meet the criteria laid down by our State Department to be defined as a "state sponsor of terrorism,"  that's what I mean.

The State Department...

...or the Bush Administration?

[indianasmith]

The State Department's guidelines have remained largely unchanged since the Reagan years, to the best of my knowledge.  They may have been tweaked after 9/11, which makes sense.  My larger point is, we have no real choice but to deal with the Saudis now, unless we choose to wage a war of total extermination against all radical Muslims everywhere.  Given the hard time we've had subduing them in one country, that's a bit too big a bite for the U.S. to chew.


Even if the baser part of me thinks it would be a good idea.

[lester1/2jr]

indiana-  the repression in saudi arabia puts iran to shame.  FORGET what anyones government says or does.  15 of the 19 hijackers came from saudi arabia. 

at least ahmedenajad was ELECTED.  the saudis are ROYALS. 

also, did you know there are 20,000 jews who live in Iran?  including an mp in parliament who is quite popular. 

[indianasmith]

I'm not gonna defend the Saudis.  I'm just saying that there is no viable alternative to dealing with their government right now.  In Iran, the people seem to be sick of the rule of the mullahs.  I wish they'd have a good old fashioned pro-Western Revolution.  But as my Iranian friend told me in college, "In my country, the crazies have all the guns."

[lester1/2jr]

well, most of the iranians I know are pretty conservative.  they share the same modern way of life we do but pretty much favor society more or less as the way it is there.  that's how ahmedenjad got elected,  appeealing to the "red staters". 

I suppose some allowences could be made for the saudis lack of participation in the usal empty threats thrown at israel and sunni v shia stuff, but they are most definately part of the problem and we are in bed with them not just "sitting down" the way some people say we can never do with iran.

and don't get me started on China.  Bush has hu jintao over at the rose garden for press conferences.  the guy has like an 80 foot statue of Mao, the greatest mass murderer in history, outside his office.

and what about "democratic" India?  ever heard the invisible ones?  there is a rigid class system in india where one group of people are treated like garbage for no good reason other than tradition and superstition.

so, if you train a microscope on one country, and look at another one through rose tinted glasses, sure you can make one despot look better than another.

we should look at all of them with the same scrutiny