I don’t agree with a lot of what you post, but when you get through all the hyperbole and exaggerated references, you make some interesting, logical, well thought out points. That especially applies to your last two posts.

Pakistan had a democratically elected government. Now it's a military dictatorship. Where's the progress? By free market reforms, are you talking about how the market found a way for Pakistani nuclear technology to end up in the hands of North Korea?

In fairness, I think he stole this line from Indhira Ghandi:

I think Pakistan is the greasy ooze that emerges when you first pop a zit.

Seventy percent of Pakistan is illiterate so they have to put symbols or logos on the voting ballots. As you can imagine the potential for fraud there is huge. Like India, Pakistan for many years rejected the free market. They saw capitalsim as a British Imperialistic tool to control them. The result is one of the poorest countrys in the world. Unlike India, they have also not been very good at holding onto democracy.

Mushariff has instituted many economic reforms and they have been working. The economy is growing. Incomes are rising across the board. - so yes - i would say that is progress.

Well, I was talking to Hank, not you. Be that as it may, one virtue of the Hussein regime was the relative stability it brought to the area, inc. as a counterweight to Iran. Another is that Hussein was not sympathetic to Islamists. While what comes will probably be an improvement as to human rights, it could be a big step backwards on both of those fronts.

Stability to the area? Are you kidding? Tell that to the Kuwaitis and Iranians. Counterweight to Iran - what the hell does that mean? That is an empty statment that sounds like diplomatic language but really has no meaning.

Saddam Hussein may not have liked Islamists in his country but he worked with them in other countrys. Just Like Assad's father did.

Improvement in Human rights. Don't you agree that such an improvement justifies many things. In other words, human rights might be a higher priority than some of this other stuff?

Ask your friends who worked for Reagan in the 1980s what that meant back then. I think it means "keep the Persians from exporting the Islamic Revolution to the rest of the oil, uh, I mean Mideast, in much the same way that the Poles of the 1920s under a dictatorial general kept the Bolshies out of Weimar Germany."

Are you talking about the West Bank? Our friends are doing that, too. And in Pakistan and sub-saharan Africa and Indonesia and . . . oh, but the House of Saud is much better than the alternative. (and I agree with you on that, not that that matters)

Yup. But, speaking of human rights, ask Iraqi women how they feel about the proposed changes in their status under the new constitution. Oh, that's right -- you won't be able to, because you won't be related to any of them, and therefore you can't talk to them.

So you're saying Pakistanis are not ready for democracy?

Thanks, but that one was pretty simple. I just looked at the map. Radical Islam's Miracle Mile is getting ringed and roadblocked into Africa. There are some who say it will take over the Netherlands and Germany, but I think thats bunk. Those people are already saying "enough." I think its only a matter of time until they thorw the Islamists out one their arses.

Africa, brother. Thats where the shitstorm lands. If you want to scare yourself sensless, read some foreign policy materials on the Egyptian street. Half of AQ's brain trust came from Egypt and Qutb, the author of bin Laden's Wahhabist ideology, was an Egyptian hanged by Nasser in the 60s.

I am heartened that we are finally seeing intellectuals all over the world coming out with studies saying "It ain't Palestine that's causing this shit. It's a mindset that believes the world must be monotheistically Islamic." I think thats the truth of it no one wants to acknowledge, because it means we are at war with a religion.

I think you can buy off the next generation with Westernized behaviors and materialism. But the cats already in the movement have to be killed. No other way.

So why don't we get to the business of it? Why is that fat Imam allowed to spew hate in London? Can't the fucking MI6 fix him up with a heart attack pill in his next kabob?

You know you can't convert these countries by letting them go freely democratic. They'll elect a bunch of woman-hating miscreant degenerates to protect their own little tribal interests. Musharaff is far better than anything millions of his illiterate, fundie Islamic subjects could elect.

You have to almost literally pummel these people with western influences and culture while killing their religious leaders to get anywhere. You can't just give them the wheel. They're like Mississippi in the 60s. You gotta drag these fuckers kicking and screaming. I see a one two punch. 1. Flood them with western goods and culture. Pump western television free via satellite to them. Get them fucking, screwing and getting drunk and high. Get them ambitious for expensive cars. Its creating a middle class in India. Why not Pakistan? 2. Kill the religious zealots. Make the Imams disappear. have all sorts of accidental fires take out the militant madrases and mosques. You can't cure the indcotrinated, so just get rid of them.

Those two steps should do it.

The Iranian revolution was a Shiite revolution, so that type of revolution was going nowhere in Arabia. The only
Arabian country with a significant Shiite population is Iraq. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE etc do not have enough Shiites for a Shiite revolution.


I don't know if the House of Saud is better than the alternative. Our State Department seems to think so. However, they also may be thinking that if the House of Saud falls, that even only a ten percent chance of fundamentalists taking over is to much of a chance with all that oil at stake.

My guess is that if took a poll of Iraqi women they would prefer the current system as imperfect as it is, to the old one.

70% of the democrats are literate (liberally speaking) and yet when push comes to chad they still have to resort to faux claims of voter fraud to try to prevent the duly elected President from taking office.

Yes, the unborn children, it takes a tribe.

It took 2 atom bombs to put Japan where it needed to be to go Democratic. All we're doing is delaying the inevitable.

Translation: When the ladies wear burkas you can't tell when to compliment their new hairstyles:(

Is that new veil in a darker shade of black, miss?
 

Fuckin' a, man. I'd never survive under Sharia.

[hi burger!] give us a thread title [/hi burger!]
 

Whoooooop! There it is!!!

Jesus wept.
 

Well done, old chap. I might have gone with "A member of the Fedralist Society? Moi?" but I applaud your choice.

Jesus wept.
 

That was from Burger?? Making baby jesus cry??

Jesus wept.
 

I thought penske gave up on waiting, and picked one. Hmm. If it was you, burger, well done.

Jesus wept.
 

Seeing as we're talking about both Hank and Penske, I concur.

Jesus wept.
 

Or medium-well. Mmmm, burgers.

egypt blasts
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/26/in...html?th&emc=th

follow up to the argument that they blew up Muslims, NYT story that the bombers were headed for Western areas but blew up early

Wurmer Dropped the Big One
 

You can't nuke anything. Its a losing proposition from every conceivable angle.

That said, I have no problem with dropping a tactical nuke or testing chemicals in the Afghan mountains and Pakistani provinces. The press doesn't go there and there's no reason not to poison the ground there forever. It'll work like Raid - keep the bugs out for good.

Jesus wept.
 

make it medium rare, please.

Thank you, thank you very much. I'm here until judgment day. Be sure to tip your waitress.

Jesus wept.
 

You are quite the risk-taker, aren't you? Medium rare??

Jesus wept.
 

Should we take this to teh mmmm, food, board?

If a restaurant gives me a choice, I assume they stand by their meat.

At home, I grind my own (ground) beef, so I have no worries.

Most of the e coli problems are in pre-formed patties anyway, since most reputable supermarkets grind meat on the premises, far away from the rest of the cow.

Jesus wept.
 

Really?

Unusual, but OTOH for your screenname and avatar this seems particularly appropriate.

Jesus wept.
 

You are no fun.

ETA and you grind your own meat? regularly? Do you own a paint mixer, too? So that you can adjust the tinting for how the light falls differently on different walls in a room? God.

Or they could elect a female Prime Minister, like they did in 1988 when they elected Benazir Bhutto, making her the first democratically elected female head of government in a Muslim country.

Jesus wept.
 

regularly. i buy a bunch of round and chuck, grind it, season it, form patties, and freeze it. means I know the quality of meat going in.

OTOH, I happily devour jimmy dean sausage. I just don't want to know.


my paint mixer is named Alberto. He does a bang-up job, and can get you his number.

Jesus wept.
 

How taut are his abs? Because my painters are always taut-abbed. In NFH's mind, at least.

Jesus wept.
 

Maybe she was referring to the Mad Cow. Its the next plague, according to that cheerleader reading the news on FNC.

Jesus wept.
 

Who the fuck owns a meat grinder? This is America, not Mexico.

Shape Shifter's mom was elected homecoming queen at our HS.

Yeah. I remember how mad you were that your mom fucked the football team for nothing.

Jesus wept.
 

You don't have a KitchenAid stand mixer, with assorted attachments?

Fuckin' rube.

Jesus wept.
 

Rube? No one has ever heard "Jeeves, fetch me that kielbasa I smoked yesterday," or "Here, try this magnificent headcheese I just ground. Its compliments a reisling perfectly."

Feed me!
 

You know, one lovely thing to do for a friend expecting a baby, even an imaginary internet one, is to make some dishes that can be frozen and reheated during those busy first weeks after the baby is born.

And tm's water just broke. So you can practice on her.

Jesus wept.
 

you've clearly hired the wrong help.