Season's Greetings/Merry Christmas EVC

The Iraqi people do not need help in bringing chaos and death, they do that to themselves quite savagely. If you consider the contributions of Iran and Syria towards the violence, you have a large segment of middle eastern peoples killing themselves.So, would you consider that portion of the current violence in Iraq caused by Muslims against other Muslims to be the “Muslim thing to do?”

Shame on you Monk for blaming anyone else other than than the Evil, Capitalist Empire better known as the United States of America. Don't you know that all the problems in the world is sole responsibility of the Jews and the Americans?For instance, just yesterday my shoelaces came untied. I had no qualms in blaming the obvious offenders: Jews and Americans. All abject terror resides with the Great and Little Satan.Now that I have educated you on how the world really works, I want you to pay reparations to every nation that you have wronged. You nasty flag waiving American Jew lover!Oh, and Happy Winter Solstice.

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"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis

First of all, Tal wished us all a Merry Christmas with a poke in the eye. I returned the favor. You don't like it? Tough. Cry me a river.Iraq was an artificial nation, a construct of post-colonial European powers. Only a ruthless dictator held it together: when we removed that glue, all hell was bound to break loose among the factions and their regional allies.Apparently, everybody knew that but the Bush administration. When the State Dept. tried to tell the White House of this fundamental fact of life, the Pentagon (and Rummie) succeeded in shutting them out of occupation planning.The top American command in Iraq (and the Brits) have agreed that the American presence is provoking the intense bloodletting we see there.Are you suggesting that the chaos, lack of security, and daily bloodshed in Iraq do not post-date the American invasion? Would you like to argue the position that the above is not a consequence of the remarkably amateurish and incompetent occupation policies laid down by Bush, Rummie, et al.? The only general who had the balls to tell them what was necessary to secure that occupied nation was drummed out of the service.This administration bills itself as one led by a "born again" Christian. Bush suggested that God was his chief advisor in making the decision to invade Iraq. From my reading of the Old Testament, it seems to me that God has mastery of both tactics and strategy superior to what we have seen offered by American forces in Iraq, so while it may be Christian, I doubt that it was divine. The invasion was devoutly supported by the evangelical hooker masseurs...uh... leadership in the U.S., and the rank and file of both real conservatives and neo-cons.The Christian right own the GOP; the GOP owns the Iraqi war: learn to live with it. You guys blew it.Colin Powell said it best: "If we break it, we own it." Sure our high tech military efficiently blew a third world pretense of an army off the map: unfortunately, we won the war and lost the peace.Iran and Syria favor chaos in Iraq? Sure they do. But they were not responsible as an occupying authority under international law and basic morality to maintain order and protect the people and institutions of Iraq: we were. We didn't, in large part because we have a "born again" nutjob in the White House who thinks that divine whispers in his ear are superior to the rare general staff with the backbone and the balls to tell him the truth.The Muslim thing to do is to resist the Christian invader. Duh.Edited by Omnivorous, : opyt

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Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love at any time, madam, is all that distinguishes us from the other animals.-Pierre De Beaumarchais (1732-1799) Save lives! Click here!
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Merry Christmas, all.

LiveScience carries an article today on The Science of Santa:

quote:

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[Santa expert Larry] Silverberg is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He believes that Santa -- whom experts say moved to his underground complex at the North Pole more than 500 years ago -- has spent the last five centuries researching better ways to deliver presents at light-speed to kids everywhere.

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In doing so, he and the elves have made scientific breakthroughs that the rest of humanity can only dream of, Silverberg said.

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First up: Santa's uncanny ability to understand children's wishes in the weeks leading up to Christmas [...] "up at the North Pole, you... have a lot of space to construct an underground antenna that can span miles," Silverberg said. "You collect incoming electromagnetic waves and filter them, finding out which thought-waves are coming from which kids."

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Sounds impossible, you say?

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"Remember, we have EEG technology now to measure brain waves," Silverberg said. "And when you're talking on your wireless cell phone, there's a very complicated process whereby signals coming from around the world get to you. All that seems like magic, too. Santa's just a bit more advanced."

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Of course, further filtering is done to divide children into the required naughty/nice categories, but technologies such as the polygraph lie-detector suggest that that's "probably one of the easier things to do," Silverberg said.

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The Delicate Matter of the Truth About Santa | Live Science___Edited by Archer Opterix, : HTML.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

Aside from the snide impication that no democrats are christians and that all republicans are christians, and the insult to all those of other faiths and beliefs,I trust you had a happy celebration of the Yule Solestice holiday Tal, complete with christian attempts to abrogate it for their religion in spite of no real relationship one to the other.Tree - yule
Wreath - yule
Mistletoe - yule
Time of year - yulechrist birth - late march or early april. Know anybody else who celebrates their birth some 3 to 4 months out of sync?other christian elements? Saint Nick? He was introduced to this country by the dutch trading colonies as Sinter Klaus - the ones based on enterprise instead of theology, and where we have a solid basis for the hyper commercialism of today's celebrations - but HIS "feast day" is Dec 6th, not the 25th, so that doesn't match either.The best you have is a religious mass to "celebrate" a birth where you have no record of year or day, tacked on to a pagan celebration that it has no relationship to, and a rather pathetic attempt by christians fundamentalists to claim rights to.So Tal, after you have your mass celebration, be sure to have a merry yule time celebration of trees and wreathes and mistletoe and feasts with all the trimmings.But don't try to con me that it - or your post - is christian.Enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand

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RebelAAmericanOZen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

As I am feeling a bit more mellow, Tal, let me add to my push-back a sincere "Merry Christmas."Whatever you think of my political beliefs, I can assure you of this: if the day ever comes when American Christians are genuinely a persecuted people, I will defend your rights as intently as I defend the rights of non-Christian Americans now.Happy friggin' New Year, too, soldier. Be careful out there.

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Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love at any time, madam, is all that distinguishes us from the other animals.-Pierre De Beaumarchais (1732-1799) Save lives! Click here!
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It's called humor, but read into it what you want.

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Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking.
--Ferdinand Foch-- at the Battle of the Marne

Thanks Omni!I'm in the 407th Brigade Support Battalion, 2d Brigade Combat Team, 82 Airbornde Division. We got our deployment order this morning. I'll be heading out shortly. If you want to know where we are going, just read/watch the news. We're gonna go do some dangerous, dirty work this go around (again).

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Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking.
--Ferdinand Foch-- at the Battle of the Marne

Just as John Kerry's comment about education, soldiers and Iraq was just a joke.Jokes never insult anyone eh? Thanks, I will. Anyone who thinks this is funny is a bigot because it discriminates against people and lumps them into {US} and {THEM} categories.I presume you found it funny, and this tells me just what kind of person you are at heart.It also shows that you value this bigoted view of the world more than the original values of this country, that were based on religious tolerance and the rights of people to be different.Makes me wonder whether you are fighting for the ideals of the USof(N)A, or are really at heart engaged in a christian crusade.Certainly these original ideals are not served by the war in Iraq.Enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand

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RebelAAmericanOZen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

But then aren't you a bigot for lumping the people who think its funny into a {THEM} category as well?

So have tolerance and respect my right to be different?

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Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking.
--Ferdinand Foch-- at the Battle of the Marne

Bigotry's discrimination implies that the {them} people are less value than the {us} people. The {us} crowd can feel smug superiority - which is the whole purpose behind this "joke" - when they come to the punch line.Calling people that steal "thieves" is not expressing discrimination against them but expressing the reality of the cultural value for behavior.Saying that all republicans are bigots would be bigotry, saying that people are bigots that find a joke funny when it is based solely on bigotry for the punch line is also expressing reality: it's like the remarks of Michael Richards ('Kramer') and Mel Gibson - once it's out there you can't conceal the real feelings that have been expressed.Now, I'm not claiming to be pure of heart and mind, as I have my bigotries too -- I don't like cultivated stupidity, or wallowing in ignorance, and find little virture in being undereducated -- and I'm sure there are some I'm not personally aware of.But it is really ludicrous, imh(ysa)o, when december has nothing to do with christianity, and it is "christians" that are complaining about their "holiday" being stolen.Enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand

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RebelAAmericanOZen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

If you break the law should I have "tolerance and respect" for your "right to be different?"You don't have any "right" to be a bigot.Respect is earned based on your behavior, your values, and is not automatic for any position you happen to chose.Tolerance is given to your right to free speech - the right to express whatever you want, including personaly bigotry - like Richards and Gibson, you have the right to express socially unnacceptable and innapropriate {topics\jokes\insults\etc} - but I do NOT have to be tolerant of what is said, nor am I in any way constrained from condemning what was said as being socially unnacceptable and innapropriate, as that is MY right to free speech.And for you to ask for tolerance and respect after posting something that is neither tolerant NOR respectful is hypocritical.Enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand

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RebelAAmericanOZen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

I enjoyed./yawn.

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Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking.
--Ferdinand Foch-- at the Battle of the Marne