Where the heck do they grow the tobacco for the smokes over there? I never thought about that aspect, but I know they smoke clove or something in some places. Maybe that's an underlying issue? I don't know at all.

When it's a difference between my husband coming home and me not being able to get near him til he changes his clothes cuz some smoke stack at the AL has been sitting by him and then proceeding to listen to him snore like a crazy person with a chainsaw (Amadeus!) vs. a smoke free place that still serves beer I'll choose the latter! I can not believe the difference. So that's my feelings on a personal level. Anyone that's ever come to my house for the past 30 years has gone on the porch or outside to smoke. And no one has ever bitched about it.

__________________

I smoke..i gotta say i would rather go outside and smoke instead of inside a building. The smoke can blow away easier leaving you with less of the cig smell...hate the shit but im addicted .

__________________

Try smoking outside in godamn sub-arctic weather.


Ha, you love it when your hands and face are long numb.

__________________

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5271117

We've all heard the reports that the FBI was conveniently not in the office on the day of the Oklahoma City Bombing. This is thought provoking. Terry Nichols has filed an affadivit claiming he knows of an FBI agent who oversaw the Oklahoma City Bombing. It's pretty interesting that documents he could use to back up his claims have been sealed. I'm wondering why in the hell he'd do something like this, if there isn't truth to it? It certainly isn't good for his own safety.

__________________

Haha cant argue with you there, thats gotta suck...but i mean like hear it never gets real cold...right now its 75 degress outside...

__________________

Stop being a pussy and quit.

__________________

75 degrees in late February. Christ! We only get that weather on a hot day in the summer. I love the cool air, except the cold air drys out my fucking skin. I have patches every winter on several sections of my legs from scratching itches. lol.

I can't wait to go to Mexico, mainly for a tan! haha, I'm a fucking pale face right now.


1,600 down!

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/m...uk.iraq.troops/

__________________

Word of advice man(dont know if you know or not) be REALLY careful in Mexico....hate to see you as a sex slave i hear canadian guys go for about 100 paco's.... . Na really you can get robbed real easily down there if you leave out the tourist spots especially by the police...

__________________

Especially since he'll be the only powder white guy there. hahah Blinding everybody and attacting all the attention possible.

__________________

No, you're right...there have actually been a few murders(fatal beatings, drive bys, throats slashed) recently in Mexico on Canadian tourists.


They were off the resorts though, well except for the couple that got their throats slashed. lol....

The Mexican authorities completely butchered solving those murders too, at first they blamed two Canadian women tourists..which had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever. The RCMP are still pissed about how Mexico fucked up the investigation...and had to down down to Mexico to try to help the case.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/20...ism-mexico.html

__________________

when we (my parents and younger brother) went to mexico city, we stayed at a us ambassadors house which had some very high walls and big locking gate. there were a couple guards..not sure how many hours of the day they were there.

we never ran into any trouble though. it was pretty fun and i'd go back for sure...though i'd much rather go back to europe.

Basically, if you are armed and ready, either with a weapon or knowledge, then people are less willing to do harm to you.

Know your risk, know your enemy, and prepare.

__________________

aka expect the unexpected and train for it as much as possible.

haha. The only thing I'm going to shoot is tequila.

__________________

In other words, 'Now you know - AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE!'

On the subject of Mexico: is anybody else amazed by the fact that, according to our best estimates, there may or may not be a population the size of New York City living in Mexico City - it's just been misplaced, so nobody's sure? Crazy.

I thought Mexico City's population was actually bigger than New York's, but if nobody knows for sure then it's hard saying. Is it based on total metropolitan population or city limits?

__________________

i thought mexico city was like nyc on uberduber powder power

__________________

NYC has a population of around ten million people. Mexico City has an estimated population of between 20 and 30 million people. So, there may or may not be a population the size of NYC living in Mexico City, but nobody can tell for sure.

I can not understand this slavery apology deal....Check this...

I mean who are we apologizing too far to fucking late to apologize to anyone who we actually put in slavery. Don't get me wrong i don't support it, but shit i feel its time to let the slavery deal die out. Mostly its the half ass lawyers who keep it up and the NAACP....i mean WTF? I remember one time they tried to shoot for restitution..now come the fuck on i could understand if hey we just put people in slavery 5 years ago then let you go and you went for restitution but ill be damn if ill give you restitution for the hard free work your ancestors did.

__________________

Yeah, this is some hokey bullshit. How can anyone feel bad for slavery, given the fact that no one alive was even around when it was abolished? Slavery was a terrible thing, but I am in no way sorry for it.

__________________

+1.


At my old high school, many if not all of the black students got paid to go..STOP GIVING THEM FUCKING HANDOUTS.

They don't have it bad because of "white society", they have it bad because their fathers are pimps/in jail/drug dealers/dead/etc.

I just feel bad for the intelligent black people out there.

__________________

Again why i think virginia is one of the dumbest states. That is the stupidest thing i've ever fucking read. But then again other countries do some of similar stupid stuff. Its all political bullshit that once they've done this they've now "cleansed" themselves from any negative look on them. It seems like a futile stunt to remove themseves from any "potshots" people like to take. (I.e. i've heard this shit before, oh america used to have slavery blah blah blah)But then again why is my state's legislaters wasting their time on bullshit like this when there are far better things out there to take their time on? I know its not just my state wasting their time on this kind of stuff.

__________________

O what make it all the better is most states "Will" have to follow now. I mean i doubt SC will be the first i know we were one of the last states to take down the Confederate flag like in 1999(damn thing should have been down ages ago). But now everyones gonna be like who's next and if no one throws the red carpet out and apologizes then there gonna boycott certain places. Goddamn i hate this country sometimes....why people are dieing in Iraq we are worried about apologizing to people who don't care or even think about what happened 200 years ago.....

__________________

Again another WTF?...Check This

How is it amazing to find out your black and your ancestors ones were slaves who belong to some rich white guys ancestors. I mean only the rich owned slaves anyway poor ass's like my self couldn't afford them. Fuck....Come on who cares? Shocking not in the least....

__________________

Well its nice to know your heritage but to make anything more out of it other than knowing your own heritage is worthless and trivial. Also it most definitely is not newsworthy but then again "celebrities" gain newsworthiness just by waking up in the morning and taking a shit.

__________________

Any of you guys know anything about the British troops? Something about they were caught in Iran's waters illegally. I'm doubting they will be released seems these fuckers want to push people to the edge. Wonder if the British will fuck them up or not...

__________________

Standard issue Iran bs. It would probably be in their best intrest to release them and just forget anything happened, hell the entire world is already getting beyond pissed off with their "Rogueness."

__________________

Why would the UK be interested in Iranian waters? Sounds like jockeying bullshit.

Incidentally, if I found out that somebody I'd met's family used to own members of my family, I'd be surprised. I guess nobody else here would be.

Do what?

__________________

i heard something here or there that made the suggestion that the british troops weren't kidnapped by the official iranian military, but a group of extremists or something of that sort. not sure if thats the case or not..but i guess we'll find out soon enough.

Thats not what the news is saying, and that wouldn't make any sense anyways if the Iranian government is the ones telling the brits they took them and are making the claims they were in their water.

It would be different if they attempted to sidestep the issue, but they're not. Obviously i was not there, but i would most definitely trust the brits than the Iranians, especially considering they're saying the geo coordinates recorded put them almost 2 miles to the boarders of the territorial waters.

This whole thing reminds me of the deal with China before. When THEY had that rogue pilot who intercepted a plane of ours outside of their territorial waters.

__________________

i actually heard them talking about that on bbc radio..but i was also working so i might've only caught a small part of what they were saying.

just found this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6503657.stm

iran releases footage of the uk navy captives. they seem alright..but haven't been released yet. i honestly don't know what they hope to accomplish by keeping them.

I have no idea. Increased tensions? Apparently thats what they fucking want.

This shit country has nothing going for them at all. By their highly aggressive statements and assumed intentions there is no fucking way this world would EVER trust them with nuclear capablities OR that their intentions are purely peaceful in nature.

This country obviously wants to do or say whatever they want to and expect no concequences. They are seriously like a 5 year old.

"We want nuclear power so we can power our plants, NOT for nuclear bombs!!!"
(same day)
"Soon israel will be wiped off the map completely"

__________________

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6506361.stm

so they aren't going to release the female captive like they said..because the uk has an "incorrect attitude" aka they still deny (with gps support) that the british ship was in iranian waters. they sure like to push their luck over there..

Iran is going to fuck with a country one day that will bitch slap them for shit like this. Lol, they are like a 5 year old kid

__________________

When that does happen which country are they going to "wah" to to bail their asses out?

__________________

the only people to offer help will be those in a worse situation that will gain from helping iran.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6507801.stm
an hour after bush said he'd veto such a decision, the senate voted to have all the troops out of iraq within a year.

OH KNOEZ. LOL.

__________________

the thing about iran is that the revolutionary guard acts independent from the government sometimes<especially in this instance when they captured some UK sailors>. the foriegn policy is in total confusion because elements of thier leadership want war, they aid the insurgency in iraq, they want armaggeddon or whatever........but most of the people want to defuse tensions, most of thier people dont like the mullahs, dont like the government and they dont buy into the anti-western sentiment because its been a tired gimmick to deflect any kind criticism for thier own faults and increased isolation.

basically there is a large disconnect between ambassadors, mullahs, military and thier leader. so the almost scitzophrenic rhetoric that comes from thier president is more for affirming sentiments that are largely conflicted within thier own country.



so yeah,they are just playing a dangerous PR game to save face with those british sailors and they have WAY more to lose than the US, UK or israel in any kind of scenerio.

been listening to alot of boston's NPR recently. really good political analysis

edit: saving face because their own agents were captured awhile ago

I would say so. Nice insight.

__________________

I was actually coming back to post a where the hell is Low-tech post and i saw you posted on here haha.

Yeah i definitely know what you're saying about the disconnect in the country. Pakastan is very similar in those aspects as well.

But as i see it if the leader of the country or those who are at the "top" aren't preventing or attempting to defuse tensions something is seriously wrong with that. If anything, they are attempting to make things worse and by the leader not immediately going "hmm maybe this is a shit idea" and giving back the uk sailors just brings only more problems from it. I mean it doesn't take intelligence past a 2 year old to see there is nothing they can possibly gain by withholding them or by throwing threats of "trial" within their country.

__________________

so i guess them brits are free. glad to hear this whole thing didn't turn into some drawn out shit show and that none of them were hurt. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6525905.stm

its a shame that nothing else seems to go as smooth over in that region.

Definitely. Maybe they realized the implications and actions that would happen as a result of continued withholding, where as in other conflicts it may not be so apparent or there might not be quite hte same implications.

__________________

It's getting that time again....

This will be my first year to vote.

Who are you guys voting for, if you're even voting?

Haha, politics in the US, what a joke

I'm voting for myself and Mayor Daley.

i've never heard of this guy..but i looked at his page really briefly and it seems he is either no affiliated with a party, or is trying to not mention which he is with...but i did find this quote.

Ron Paul's a Republican. Something of a Libertarian and an internet presidential candidate meme. Requiem likes him because he's from Texas and, if youtube and every available internet picture can be trusted, he don't have any horns, boy.

ha no wonder i saw no mention of his party. granted, i just skimmed a few sections..though it was mainly to see if he was in a party and which it was. not that it really matters i guess..those politicians are all shady bastards.



yet the world can't help but have all eyes on what happens next with our politics..as well as speculate how they will impact the global community.

No, after the re-election of Bush for a lot of people in Europe the American politics died right there. A lot of people were amazed. But ofcourse it was a difficult time, etc. The problem is, foreign affairs have been deteriorating since Bush is running the show, especially in Europe, there's a lot of bad blood.

Sure it's easy to say Clinton handled foreign affairs better then Bush but Clinton never had a 9/11 on his hands.

I've spoken to an American lady about this subject and American politics, she told me it's a joke, it's allways democrats and republicans fighting over a bone. That's why she voted liberal but she said most of the population is to ignorant to know what's right for them, they just watch debates and make up their mind like going to the mall.

I will probably look into the elections when the time comes, whatever the outcome may be, I hope the guy chosen can give a positive twist to the current situation.

I'de be especially interested in stuff they want to do in the US itself. And in special 'my own terrain' which is strategic human resource management, I heard unemployment is above 4,5% nationwide.
It's better then in 2004 (If I remember correctly it was above 6%) but over here those ratings would be staggering to say the least. I wonder if that's an issue over there or maybe even something they spend a lot of attention on in the campaigns??



Ofcourse, it's difficult to do everything right when you're the biggest kid in class and the world is allways watching you. But since the last few years it hasn't been made easier.

I don't even vote....its not like we truly elect the president anyway.

__________________

hahawhahahawhahahahahaha wow

yeah t3h cunspiracees are tr00 guys!

__________________

He could do great things for this nation. His politics for the war against drugs are astonishing. Actually, I love just about every one of his ideas except for his views on abortion. I'm an advocate for abortion.

It's a shame your mother thought otherwise.


Awwww, I kid, I kid.

__________________

He could do as much good for the nation as he has for that piece of shit part of Texas he represented. What he would do is fuck up by being an obstinate, hypocritical, borderline crazy asshole whose Manichean declarations seem much better in the theoretical world of a no-chance-in-hell candidate than they would if actually put into practice, with all their unconsidered implications coming out to bite the ass of the idiots, like you, who want to have a womb surgically implanted in order to have his babies. You just think whatever the internet tells you to think. Of course, he'd be an improvement over the obstinate, hypocritical, borderline crazy assholes we have now, but so would CtL.

While 9/11 certainly put us on the road to shitty foreign policy, and many of the early steps down along that road would have been taken by whoever was in office at the time, a lot of the worst decisions made since then really have nothing to do with it aside from being mentioned in the same sentences by a battery of the aforementioned assholes, and it certainly does nothing to justify them.

since 9/11, rudy always answers staged phone calls from his wife!!!

__________________

Stephen Colbert is running for president: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...ENT09/710170420

Hell yes.

__________________

ah I put that in the news article thread but you beat me to it here. COLBERT '08!! I think there are actually more people who watch his show than people who vote, hahah.

__________________

fred thompson for 08

anyone else?
romney is an oppurtunist
McCain is pretty good
Huckabee is nothin special
Keyes is a way too religious
everyone else on the republican side is worthless (yes requiem, that means ron paul)


i don't know what to think about the Left

I just hope to god hillary doesn't win
and kucinich is stupid too. banning handguns? wtf?


opinions?

__________________

You don't know what you're talking about.

Explain why Ron Paul is worthless. I'm should once you do research on him you'll change your stance.

i like his stances on domestic policy. He is, however, an isolationist.
In a time of political turmoil, i don't see isolationism as the best course of action
however, minarchism is the way to go right now

__________________

You're should, eh?

Ron Paul is a third party candidate. That pretty much defines 'worthless' in this country's political field. But, once again, he's also mostly talk and wouldn't be able to implement 1/150th of his plans if he came into office, not simply because he wouldn't get the support he'd need but because even if he had that support he wouldn't know how to put a lot of his blatantly unrealistic plans into action, because they were devised from an armchair without consideration of where we are in this world. Even if he's absolutely right about how to have avoided the situation we have, foreign and domestic, from the get-go, he's already almost a decade too late on implementing those prophylactic measures, and yet that's all he's come up with. So, doubly worthless. It's a sad state of affairs that he nevertheless looks a lot better than these other assholes, but, again, that's because he really doesn't have to be accountable for the ideas he proposes and how they might work if actually implemented right now.

There's a seriously good chance that Hilary could become president because the Right has done so much shitting the bed that whoever the dems run has a good chance of running. Which would suck. It seems like the other democrats don't know how to deal with her because they all just want to bash her rather than argue with her, and don't have the sophistication of, say, a Karl Rove, who knows that you bash indirectly rather than openly if you want to be effective.

What would be really effective is to refresh the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Not foreign tyrants. Though I wonder how effective an essentially impossible measure can be considered.

i think PST just advocated assassination on a mass level

__________________

Unfortunately, Iraq doesn't count.

__________________

I was going to create a new thread, but found this one already in existence so I brought it back. it seems like the political discussions were flowing pretty well in the youtube thread, so I figure it's a topic that deserves it's own thread. So, let those opinions fly!

__________________

I love reading all these rants and opinions. To be truthful, I've been walking the lines of the "Ignorant HS Senior/College Freshman".

I know that I can't be fully "aware" of all the candidates, as stated before, but more and more information is spilling that just makes it harder to make a decision.

Even though now we're not in the youtube thread, the videos are really helping peoples arguments. This is the most posts I've ever read on one topic!

I have a request: bash Obama for me. I've heard so much positive stuff because of my household, and I'm not hearing enough bad. I'll do research on my own as well, but I'd love to see some bullet-points on him.

last request: Support McCain for me! Of course since I mostly hear GOOD things about Obama, I only hear BAD things about McCain.

Thank You!

__________________

okay, i understand shit about american election....WHO'S GONNA WIN GOD DAMMIT? AND WHEN WILL IT BE DONE?

__________________

Joe, I'd so Obama smash for you.. but I've got to admit I like the guy. In fact, I think I'm going to vote for him. Obama 4 my mama 2008! TECHNOLOGY IS FAMOUS!

__________________

No, I think he advocated revolution - or hell, at least a little backbone in this country's people. Though I would like to know why he says it's essentially impossible.

"And what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson

__________________

Its not this country just everwhere. Its what happens when you have mass people who in my opinion are pretty much about as worthless as a box of rocks.

People and the masses are workers who don't need to be even considered "in control" of their country. There won't be revolution, society is becoming more decadent and the weak are becoming the mass. The evidence presents itself with "leftwing liberals" and their PC, "everybody is equal and everybody has feelings."

People bitch and complain about the rich of this country, but the one thing the rich aren't, is stupid, especially stupid enough to give their money to people who don't work have as hard as they have to get where they are. They are the strong, and the weak (by choice) are the others.

__________________

Ha, recognize that here too, but in some ways I think we've gone even further down the road... we have a government right now who is trying to conduct domestic policies from the standpoint that essentially healthy people should be able to carry their own weight and that you can demand that people leaving elementary school (and that's nine years in Sweden) should be able to read, write and know what a procent is. Tsk tsk.

Revolution, yea, I also think that was the point. How was it they put it in the declaration of independence? "When faced with tyranny, a people has not only the right but the obligation to resist" or something like that. Sigh. When people aren't even prepared to improve the world by taking two steps and throw their soda cans in a trash can, I think you're quite right tmfreak. Not much hope for it.

__________________

People bitch and complain so they can bitch and complain to be happy. People are much happier than they think. Bitching about things that don't involve them or things way out of their control is just people sitting around the watering hole making themselves feel important.

__________________

No, that's just the problem - they aren't happy. All the reasons for being happy is there, but the feeling that shit is fucked up is very real. It doesn't matter if the reason for you ending up in a mental emergency ward only was that your girlfriend dumped you - the actual physical scar in your brain is there anyway.
You could express your waterhole theory psychoanalytically and call it a defense mechanism - and the thing about those are that they are subconscious. People really think that they are important and that they have real problems.

__________________

I have no idea what you're talking about, but the majority of the people that bitch about stuff their government does, doesn't effect them in the slightest in their everyday lives.

I honestly can't remember the last time a change that effected me was made by local, state, or federal governments.

People enjoy bitching. Its just like the people who enjoy being miserable. Thats all they know so thats how they want it.

__________________

Exactly my point - people don't have what could from a reasonably objective standpoint be called real real problems. But instead of being happy about it and grateful to the accomplishments of earlier generations, they do, as you say, bitch about nonsens. However, to their minds it is real trouble they're bitching about and so it doesn't matter that it isn't - which make the whole thing so much more deadlocked, not to mention sad.

__________________

Ok, well we stand in agreement.

__________________