murraysovereign

I haven't tried to check the figures, but I wouldn't be surprised if 3 million was conservative. Remember, one of the reasons Truman dropped "The Bomb" on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was because FDR had already bombed most Japanese cities off the map. And they used a lot of incendiary bombs on all those "conventional" raids, causing a lot of firestorms. The cumulative death toll from a long series of Dresdens would be pretty high, and then you top it off with Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Like I said, 3 million might be conservative. Fairweather, I don't think FDR is a "darling of the left" due to his prosecution of the war effort. I think maybe it has more to do with the New Deal. His war effort I thought was pretty well regarded by people on both sides of the spectrum. Well, except maybe the Nazis, and the Japanese Imperialists, but other than them, most people seem pretty happy with the way he prosecuted the war.

Yep, that's the one. Doug and Tetley were talking about it the other day. I said they had to fly the river: what I should have said is they got to fly the river. Tetley in particular quite enjoys flying around in helicopters, especially when they're pretty sure they won't be finding a body. I suspect they have to fly the river (or get to, rather) even when a boat has been reported abandoned, just in case a boat they've come across is not the one that was reported abandoned. On any given weekend around here there could be a couple of boats that have been "strategically abandoned", and maybe one or two where the occupant is in genuine trouble further downstream. And SAR would have no way of being 100% certain which they were dealing with, so they search downstream no matter what.

Sounds like the one that got pulled out of Rubble Creek last week sometime. A couple of friends had to spend an hour or so flying up and down the Cheakamus looking for a body, just in case.

I've been carrying the 1:20K TRIM maps since last fall, and the Pick 4 sheets since early summer. The maps look great, and because of the relief shading the Pick 4s are almost like a scale model rather than a map sheet. I've got three Pick 4s dry-mounted in the store for display - they're beautiful. Clover Point are one of the easiest suppliers to deal with that I've come across in quite a while.

I didn't say "all religions are treated with equal respect here". You knocked that straw man down without even setting it up first. And I think it's worth pointing out that treating all religions with "equal respect" is not at all the same as treating them all with "reverence". In fact, it could manifest itself as treating them all with undisguised contempt (as is often the case here), as long as you're even-handed about it

I don't think most "self-proclaimed liberal secularists" would have any problem addressing the Dalai Lama as "His Holiness", nor the Pope, nor the Archbishop of Canterbury. Being a "liberal secularist" doesn't mean you renounce all forms of religious or spiritual belief - it just means you try to treat them all with equal respect, rather than giving preference to one above all the others. So there's no inconsistency in showing respect and deference to the spiritual head of any particular religious group. I come from a Christian background - two ministers in the family at present, and my grandfather was a Bishop - and I consider myself a "liberal secularist", and if the Dalai Lama walked into the room right now I would have no hesitation in addressing him as "Your Holiness". And I would show equal respect to the the Rabbi and the Imam and the Cardinal who accompanied him. On the other hand, if a "self-proclaimed atheist" referred to any of the above as "His Holiness" then you might have cause for scepticism.

My '87 Ranger P/U is on its last legs, and after considering what I really need in a vehicle for the majority of my driving, I bought myself a Smart a couple of weeks ago. I'm adding a tow hitch and buying a very light trailer that will act as a base for a set of Yakima bars, allowing me to tow light loads when I need extra cargo capacity (rarely) - just add a roof box to the trailer, or bike carrier, or canoe, or whatever would normally go on the roof rack if I had one. Most of the time driving my truck around for the last twelve years, it's been just me and some personal effects, plus a bunch of old junk and recycling in the back that I keep meaning to throw in the garbage but never get around to. So I don't really need a truck for buzzing around town, or up to Whistler, or trips into the Interior. The few days of the year that I actually need to use a truck, I can rent one for about $50 a day. The rest of the year, I'll be getting somewhere in the 70s MPG in a car that doesn't even need a parking spot 'cause I can damn near fold it up and put it in my pocket when I'm not using it. And besides - this thing is damned fun

If you were in Texas, you'd be able to shoot dead on sight anyone coming anywhere near your property, especially if you can prove they were walking away at the time of the shooting. But you're in the Northwest, so you'll be governed by all kinds of pussy liberal bleeding-heart laws that say you can't hardly shoot anyone for anything - not even for fun. Maybe you could get some action if you could produce photos of Spotted Owls nesting in the plants - other than that I think you're S.O.L.

So what should Israel's strategy be? Sit on their hands and watch the pretty rockets fly in from over the border? They're in an untenable position, with a terrorist organization using a neighbouring country as a base from which to terrorize Israeli citizens. What would any other country do? What did the US do, when faced with Al Quaeda operating out of Afghanistan? If the "host" state is unable or unwilling to eliminate the terrorists in their territory, you go in and do it yourself. But the more important questionis - what can be done to bring this particular cycle to an end? It seems to me the underlying problem is the inability of the Lebanese government to maintain military control of its own territory. If the government in Beirut had the wherewithal to provide policing and security in the countryside, then organizations like Hezbollah would find it much more difficult to operate there. As it is, they can pretty much do what they want throughout south Lebanon, and do so with impunity, because the central government can't do anything to stop them. So here's my suggestion: following some sort of resolution of the present hostilities - however that may come about is anyone's guess - the international community, including Israel, embarks on an assistance program to help the Beirut government develop a police structure and military force sufficient to maintain control over their own territory. It's in everyone's long-term interests (especially Israel's) to see Lebanon finally able to establish a lasting and effective security structure. The only ones who won't benefit are Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. So I say as soon as the dust and smoke clears "we" start working with Beirut to train and equip both a military and civilian police force, with the aim of finally allowing Beirut to enforce some stability, particularly in south Lebanon. That would force Hezbollah and their sponsors to find some other playground from which to operate.

In spite of my best efforts at scepticism, I'm in the "believer" camp on this one. As for the mechanics of it all, the hole in the side of the bridge in photo #3 is the point of impact where the leading end of the arm punched through, which would have caused the arm to drive upwards and slice through the deck. As the whole machine came screeching to a halt, the force would have caused the cab to swing up and forwards, slamming up into the deck from below and causing the damage to the underside of the bridge seen in pics 1 and 3. Seems pretty simple, really - the kind of thing I could do in my sleep.

And... I learned this weekend that rockfall hurts if you're unable to avoid it. Also, even little rocks, when flying toward you on the highway, aren't good for your windshield. But if it's the last road-trip for that vehicle before it finally gets junked, you don't really care.

They've got that down to an art. I spent over an hour crawling northbound through Seattle at parade speed, with the express bypass sitting empty next to four solid lanes of backed-up traffic. Turns out there was a crew working on the main highway about a hundred yeards or so before the bypass lane rejoins the main road. If they weren't so unbelievably stupid, they could have opened the bypass and let all that northbound traffic go right by the work site without slowing down. But I guess the rule book says that the bypass is closed at that time of day, so it stayed closed.

So I've got a trojan (downloader) in my laptop, and ran all the scans and removal thingies and got rid of all but one instance of it. So following I browsed to the folder address (Windows\system32\aclsys.dll)intending to remove it manually. But I can't delete it in either safe or normal modes, because it's "being used by another program". Anyone have any suggestion for how to identify what program is using it so I can shut that down and try deleting it again? Or any other suggestion for getting rid of this damned thing so I can get back to work.

What, are you nuts? Nothing is worse than lying about a blowjob. Ever. If presidents are allowed to lie about blowjobs, then the terrorists have won.

Whistler Guide is still available - we just got in another 6 copies When are you coming up?

Damn! So much for my perfect record. Oh, well - maybe now we'll get a France/Germany final, in honour of the 90th anniversary of the Somme And I'm at the Brew Pub all the time becaues I've learned the hard way that my own cooking is not fit for human consumption Besides, by the time I've gone grocery shopping, prepped, cooked, eaten, cleaned up, and thrown out all the mouldy leftovers and stuff I forgot at the back of the fridge, well, it's cheaper to pay someone else to do it all for me.

I'm 3 for 4. I can't remember the last time i was 75% right about anything Go Brazil!! <insert "I don't drink anymore, but if I still did, I would" graemlin here>

Cool, 'cos I wipe my with TP emblazoned with the flag of your crap-hole cunt-ry And you're legally entitled to do just that, if you want to. You see, up here, our legislators don't waste their time and our money proposing and debating legislation that would make it illegal. Up here, we believe the Constitution, and the rights that it guarantees, are far more important than any flag. So go ahead and wipe your ass with our flag. God knows you'd probably end up chained to the floor in Guantanamo if you tried using your own.

Another vote for "The Guns of August"- after a lifetime of only a vague, confused sense of how that war started, Barbara Tuchman's book gave a clear explanation that even my addled brain could comprehend. The war itself still doesn't make sense (how could it, really?), but the events leading up to it, and the first month of the fighting I now understand. I highly recommend that book to anyone who, like me, found the history classes in school/college more confusing than helpful.

Portugal Germany Brazil Italy Brazil and Germany in the final

I haven't seen it yet, but I taped it and was going to watch it "some time". But now I'm thinking maybe I'll watch it tonight.

Sorry - I've been busy doing other things for a few days. No, I didn't "make this up". I was at work at the time, so didn't have time to do a thorough search trying to find a seat-count for that Congress. In the process, though, I did come across a couple of sites that, taken together, strongly suggested that Newt was running the show at the time of that vote. Now, normally I would have instructed an intern to run off and spend a day or two researching this, or failing that would have at least phoned Newt to ask him to clarify. But I don't have interns, and I didn't have time to phone Newt. But the websites seemed to pretty clearly link Newt's speakership to the time of the SCSC vote, so I went with it. It was wrong. Mea Culpa. In my defence, I would like to point out that relying on faulty intelligence is held in the highest esteem among the current administration in Washington. Unless you're Dan Rather, of course, in which case relying on faulty intelligence is just about the worst thing any human being could ever possibly do - worse than, say, shooting someone in the face, or leaving thousands of people stranded and starving in a football stadium while you're dining out at fancy restaurants hundreds of miles away. But if I was a member of the Administration, and if my reliance on faulty intelligence had resulted in, say, tens of thousands of needless deaths and the waste of staggering amounts of tax-payers money in a counter-productive war based entirely on false pretenses, well, that would put me near the front of the line for a Presidential Medal of Freedom, wouldn't it?

We sell the 1:20,000 TRIM maps here, and can order them for any area in BC, then ship to you. Looks like Waddington proper would be sheet 92N 034, plus whatever surrounding area maps you would want. Nice maps - colour, relief topos with 20m contours. PM me if you want me to send some.

Canada will be closed for the next 2 1/2 hours, approximately. Regular service will resume after the game. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Let's see - I said it was the House that cancelled the project. You say it was Clinton. The article you cite says it was cancelled by the House, and that one of many factors behind the cancellation was Clinton's unwillingness to support it. There's a difference between being unwilling to support something, and actually voting to kill it. If you and I come across a drowning man, and I am unwilling to dive in and save him, that's one thing. But if you pull out a gun and shoot him dead, that's a different matter entirely. Sure, I didn't try to save him, but for you to put your gun away and then say that I killed him is a bit of a stretch.