j_b

huh? Accidents happen? What's Obama going to do about expanding offshore drilling? Do what corporations and Republicans want him to do again?

shouldn't the pope know?

and? I never made that claim. I made the claim that before the Iranian revolution and the 80's Afghan war, Islamic fundies didn't have anywhere close to the power they have had since. Then, I asked you to cite which regions were controled by fundies before that period and you still haven't answered ...

what about a week doing the malls in Dubai (JayB's paradise)?

No western involvement in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Iraq over the last 100 years? simply laughable. btw, Hussein is said to have been a cia asset at some point.

it wasn't unknown but it was not a very significant phenomenon before we enabled them. Prior to the Iranian revolution and the Afghan war of the 80's Islamic fundies had very little power. Can you cite which regions were in the control of Islamic fundies prior to that time? what drivel. Me, a post-modern relativist? you are just saying anything to look vaguely intelligent, and it's not working. as if anything that is occurring presently in oil producing nations of the Middle East could happen outside the framework laid out by post colonial partition of the land and a century of imperialism by western nations.

Hogwash! kleptocracy didn't wait for pan arab nationalism. It was born right out of the colonial partition of oil rich lands. Saudi Arabia and the gulf states being the prime representatives of the theft of natural resources by rich elites.

1979: Iranian revolution to overthrow a bloody US puppet installed in a coup against a democratic government that wanted to nationalize the oil resource. Eventually hijacked by the Islamic fundies. 1980-1987: Financing and arming of Muslim extremists and warloads in Afghanistan because they killed the commies. They would eventually return to other Islamic countries to spread the faith.

You have no idea? You can't tell whether the people who passed and promoted this law are the same who serenade us continuously about "small government"? Are you clueless, Bill?

SO, what happened to the Muslim world between 1978 and 1995?

By the looks of things in Cairo and everywhere else in the Muslim world, ground zero for "blowback" seems to be in the Middle East itself. because you call our involvement in perpetual war and the patriot act nothing?

"Oil from the spill had crept to within 12 miles of the coast, and it could reach shore as soon as Friday. A third leak was discovered, which government officials said is spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated – about 5,000 barrels a day coming from the blown-out well 40 miles offshore. Suttles had initially disputed the government's estimate, and that the company was unable to handle the operation to contain it. But early Thursday, he acknowledged on "Today" that the leak may be as bad as the government says. He said there was no way to measure the flow at the seabed and estimates have to come from how much oil makes it to the surface. If the well cannot be closed, almost 100,000 barrels of oil, or 4.2 million gallons, could spill into the Gulf before crews can drill a relief well to alleviate the pressure. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez, the worst oil spill in U.S. history, leaked 11 million gallons into Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/29/louisiana-oil-spill-gets_n_556444.html

It looks like a total disaster.

Why don't you ask your teacher about islamic fundamentalism and policy blowback?

are you telling us that the people behind this Arizona law aren't also "small government" types?

Whatever garb they wear, there are paradoxically many more women today.

4 days ago:

How is that working out for you?

Once again we can take the exact measure of the so-called "small government" crowd that want to insert a probe up your rectum. Freakin jack-booted hypocrites.

Now that we brought them democracy, I am confident they'll love free speech: After torture claims, Iraqi PM says prisoners ‘burned themselves’ with matches to fake abuse: "After a shocking report by Human Rights Watch accusing the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki with operating a secret Baghdad prison where detainees were hung upside down, whipped and suffocated, the embattled Iraqi leader accused his political opponents and foreign governments of staging faked torture to make him look bad."

History has shown that otherwise reasonable folks will believe anything when they feel attacked ...

You're confusing courtesy and cravenness. Big difference between accommodating a request and capitulating to a threat. As if most Muslims of developing nations believed a word you say by now. Not so long ago, you claimed you wanted them to accept democracy from the tips of bayonets. Do you really believe they are going to think your posturing is strictly to protect freedom of speech? I don't think I believe it myself ...

[video:youtube]SBZD_mmzfVM

Indeed, the taste of oysters and sea water is much too delicate for cocktail sauce.

That's quite ironic and revealing to see the name of Ron Paul, who routinely associates with anti-democratic bigots like the John Birchers, in the context of an appeal to tolerance and free speech.