Stonehead

Yes, I understand the goal of political-economic stability but at what price if imposed from without? A temporary stability imposed by a strongman (and his secret police) can often 'blowback'. The classic example of 'blowback' was the fall of the Shah of Iran. Our 'spooks' assisted in the Shah's ascendancy of power so we received the 'fallout' of his disposal.

Regarding establishment of democracy: ---The record is clear--most of the democratic transitions that have taken place in the world in the past two centuries have had nothing to do with foreign military intervention or military pressure, while most US military interventions abroad have left dictatorship, not democracy, in their wake. The two cases that neocons constantly return to, Germany and Japan, are among the few cases where democracy has been restored (not created ex nihilo) as the result of a US invasion. The Soviet bloc democratized itself from within in the 1990s, even though the United States did not bomb Moscow, impose a martial-law governor on the Poles or imprison former Hungarian Communist officials without charges in barbed-wire camps. In Latin America, Mexico became a multiparty democracy instead of a one-party dictatorship without US Marines posing for photos in the presidential mansion in Mexico City, and it was not necessary for American soldiers to kill tens of thousands of Argentines, Chileans and Brazilians for democracy to take root in those countries.--- Source Regarding deception in Bush administration to justify war: ---The cynical way in which the Bush Administration lied to Congress and the American people to justify an invasion of Iraq planned years before September 11, 2001, by Wolfowitz and many of his PNAC allies came as no surprise to me, a former neocon. In an anthology titled The Fettered Presidency published by the American Enterprise Institute in 1989, Irving Kristol wrote that "if the president goes to the American people and wraps himself in the American flag and lets Congress wrap itself in the white flag of surrender, the president will win.... The American people had never heard of Grenada. There was no reason why they should have. The reason we gave for the intervention--the risk to American medical students there--was phony but the reaction of the American people was absolutely and overwhelmingly favorable. They had no idea what was going on, but they backed the president. They always will."---

Ok, so do we see a pattern of deception surrounding the Bush administration's justifications for war? Take a look at a comparison of a previously classified version of reports on Iraq's weapons versus the public version of same. Note how in some cases, e.g, biological weapons, that the previously classified version of the reports indicates uncertainty, while the public version is hyped to reinforce a scenairo representing a more certain 'imminent' threat.

Rolling Thunder

Hey maybe Judge Laurence Silberman is behind this. web page web page

The decision is in! NASA says no to Hubble So, what does this mean? See next statement below. Shuttle astronauts would be just as safe going to the Hubble Space Telescope as they would be on a mission to the International Space Station, according to two leaked documents reportedly written by NASA engineers. Source And, here's more perspective on the story. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top NASA officials on Monday likened the expected demise of the Hubble Space Telescope to a death in the family and disagreed with agency engineers who wanted to keep the popular program alive. "There is life beyond Hubble, as much as I hate to admit that," said Ed Weiler, NASA's head of space science. Weiler -- along with Bill Readdy, head of space flight at NASA, and John Grunsfeld, the agency's chief scientist -- took issue with reports by NASA engineers that argued it was no riskier for astronauts to pay a service call on the orbiting telescope than it was for them to build the International Space Station. The reports, written by NASA engineers who declined to be named for fear of losing their jobs, dispute the Jan. 16 decision by NASA chief Sean O'Keefe to forgo a scheduled shuttle mission to repair and upgrade Hubble in 2005 or 2006.

Ah, pure ego. Pure ego stroking. The "I'm tougher than you, meaner than you, stronger than you, smarter than you, luckier than you, quicker than you--because I climb harder than you" attitude. All those things that separate the men from the boys, the elite from the riffraff. Not that everyone chestbeats about it as readily as some do but I have to laugh when I hear someone claim some lofty goal when deep inside is the little ego man struggling to assert his superiority by defining his image as a climber. But yeah, I like the simple pleasures of cold water, warm food and drink, and freedom to sleep under the stars by a mountain lake.

Ridiculous! That kind of Draconian action itself produces the mindset for future generations of terrorists. Political and economic reform would seem more effective.

Pictures! We need photo proof!

Oh. I was assuming that it crimps onto the nipple. That's hardcore. That site is weird. There's some phreaks out there. Like this one.

I don't know why I find this so funny. Gallery of girls who got their cars stuck! www.carstuckgirls.com

Ye? I believe it's about time for an albino snaffle photo. More here. And does this remind you of anything?

Dookie

Uh, wasn't her breast covered by some kind of starburst thingy?

Slow fucker

Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth staged a special concert that made Janet Jackson's breast-baring look like nursery school antics and left Catholic Poland outraged. A police investigation has begun after a show that included dozens of sheep heads on stakes, a literal blood bath and a naked, crucified woman, newspaper VG reports. "On stage there was blood everywhere. About ten decapitated sheep heads and naked people, alive, on large crosses. Everyone was painted with 100 liters of sheep blood. Also there were Satanist symbols everywhere. One of the hanging female models fainted and an ambulance had to be called," TVP director Andrzej Jeziorek told VG. Source

Nice work on hijacking this thread, 180 degrees from its original intent. Also nice work on the covert proselytizing. Can't pass up the chance to speak at the pulpit, eh?

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak... Seriously though, have you read the work of Elaine Pagels concerning the Gnostic Gospels found at Nag Hammadi? Radical but enlightening.

CBS, have you ever heard of the principle of parsimony and Occam's razor? Basically, no need to complicate explanations, use the simpliest answer that fits the evidence.

Will there be another race To come along and take over for us? Maybe martians could do Better than we've done We'll make great pets! Porno for Pyros

The earth rests on a turtle's back, ad infinitum

Spooning--Does it occur and, if so, how frequently? Discuss.

Scrambled Legs--All the answers to your questions revealed.

A Thai man was mauled when he drunkenly tried to sexually attack a dog that fiercely resisted his advances. Police in Samut Prakan province, on Bangkok's south-eastern fringes, told the Thai Rath newspaper that Toryip Rawang, 33, had been drinking heavily with friends before Monday's incident. The bloodied man was questioned by police after residents notified local authorities when they saw him walking along a road. He told police he noticed a brown female stray dog wagging its tail and "acting sexy" and pulled it into some tall grass by the roadside. But the dog resisted, biting him on his face, chest and arms before he gave up his attempt and tried to stagger home. Under further questioning he admitted to raping three dogs previously while he was under the influence of alcohol. He told police he always became aroused when he drank heavily but did not have enough money to pay a prostitute. Police said the man was given a rabies shot and was not charged with a crime, but he had fled his home in an apparent effort to avoid public ridicule.

So the premise is, that aliens could travel millions of light years across the universe successfully only to crash land on earth? Or that aliens would travel all those light years only to stick an anal probe up some hillybilly's ass?