crwtom

Many Arab states (esp Sunni ones) are worried about Iran getting too powerful in the region. Hamas is closely aligned with Iran. So if Hamas was victorious in some sense and firmly established in Gaza this would amount in the minds of many as a de-fact Iranian out-post at the Mediterranean coast. Something that would cut into the power-structure of the Arab/Sunni states surrounding Israel. These Arab states are not friends of Israel -- they rather have an enemy in common with Israel. Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

Yes, but Hamas doesn't deny launching rockets first. I find it hard to believe that they can cry victim with a straight face. IF the 300+ casualties were all Hamas activists --- it sounds more like the majority of the 300 are civilians who happened to live in the wrong neighborhood. ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

most predictable reply of the day -- Highly affluent, at 6Mio smaller than many US metro areas, notoriously subdued mentalities, and in uncountable ways an oddity from another time within the continent. Having lived in both countries for years I can tell you that trying to compare Switzerland and the US is an absurdity. Try some countries that are in size, social and economic build up far more similar to the US -- such as Germany, France or Britain. Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

What law would you propose that would have stopped this man from doing what he did? for example, the ones that are in place in countries with 10-20 times less gun homicides (most of Europe) ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

To me this is incorrect use of terminology: you might call it torture if there was someone saying "Give me the info and I will make it stop and all the pain go away". Torture is in essence a negotiation (even if it's a brutal and unfair one) and not based on prior verdicts for past crimes. If this is not the case, it is punishment - perhaps "cruel and unusual" -- but still punishment. Prisoners have no option of getting out of it by surrendering information or some other trade and what they endure has been determined at least implicitly by society. T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

it seems this is around bribes from people who want to fill Obama's Senate seat. C.T. Link . Looks like he is going to beat even Taft for worst governor. Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

there is no precedent to the way the Iraq war was justified and started. Plain and simple. ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

No, we would rather see the SOB impeached. No, we'd rather just let him ride out his term and disappear into the sunset. No -- this isn't quite over only because GWB leaves office. The pro-war camp is still hoping to rewrite history - make GWB a modern day Truman and retroactively vindicate the PNAC philosophy. As pathetic as it may sound at this time they still see a chance to turn the ideological fight around some time in the future. This would set precedence for future US foreign policy -- that preemptive war based on vague suspicion is afterall an acceptable MO -- with possibly significant impact on future administrations down the road. There is a quite bit more at stake when bashing GWB even after the dude has left office than an expression of discontent or a "told you so". Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

there's a fundamental mismatch between the title and what Bush really admits regretting. (the intelligence for the war vs. the war itself) Regretting the WMD intelligence can still mean an endorsement of the PNAC rationale - in fact, reinforce it. ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

To me that would be an atheist billboard -- I cannot really see anything "anti-religious" in there. Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

Quite likely the main reason -- however, there was a quite compelling case made by a US/Indian terror exert on the news through the night. He said that in fact the election of Obama is a significant factor ... Why? The moderate/civilized muslim was critical and turned-off by the US foreign policy of the past years. They would not condone of help the extremist terror attacks -- they have their own families to raise, businesses to run, schools to go to, etc. However, when it comes to going the extra mile (or sometime couple of steps) to openly condemn attacks, crack down on extremist groups, and pull any cover they may have many backed off. There was not much motivation to back US interests to begin with and, with opinion of US foreign policy being so low, it is even dangerous to be seen as siding with US policy. International expectations of the changes from Bush to Obama in terms of foreign policy are tremendous -- probably more than many people in the US realize right now. These expectation by themselves (even before Obama lifts a finger) ould be enough for large portions of the moderate muslim world to see a more proactive stance against extremists in their own interest (and without the repercussions as being seen as an enabler of an "imperialistic power"). Terrorist group start to realize that there may be major shift in the general muslim population on the horizon so that they would no longer have grudging tolerance and/or feet-dragging of muslim people and governments that they could count on in the past. The expert's analysis was that such attacks are attempts of these terror groups to fight this trend and get tear open cultural and religious confrontations again -- or simply a stance against being totally pushed out of and rejected by the muslim mainstream. If that is true we should see more of such attacks in the world in the coming year ... Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

more like thoroughly amused -- sounded like an SNL parody or something like that on first reading ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

Or a move to keep another Dem in the senate, even though he is right leaning, to be closer to the filibuster proof majority. I'd call it more "Smart" than "Classy". agreed with Smart - now he has someone who really owes him in a key position. BTW, I prefer "smart" over "classy" any time Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

Not all of the Alaska Turkeys Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

Much of gender equality in the 21 century industrialized countries has not so much to do with "culture" but with proactive support. IMO, the by far most dominant career -breaker for women is having children. There are not only the obvious physical constraints during pregnancy and the first few months, but also most mother tend to be the primary care giver in the first few years - even with a stay-home-dad the mother is still the natural focal point of infants. How much a society achieves gender equality has thus a lot to what sort-of support it provides to mothers. What are the legal protections in regard to maternity leaves, how long are and how well compensated, is low-expense/high-quality child care available, etc. In the end success in a career is proportional to time invested, and responsible children rearing requires crazy amounts of time. From that point of view it is no surprise that Scandinavian countries are doing well, which have extensive social support system. I did not see the stats but I'd think also former eastern countries should be doing well due to socialist traditions which left, despite all the other mismanagement, a thoroughly organized child care system. It is also not a surprise that the USA is at the bottom of industrialized nations. Americans would rather see their education and child support system go to crap than pay a dime more taxes. Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

The race designation has not disappeared from official records though. The US Census still asks for race and ethnicity and they allow mulitple answers. Similar for much federal funding in education and other areas considers race and ethnicity stats very seriously. In all cases race/ethnicity is de-facto defined as whatever someone checks-off on a form. Your identity is whatever you identify yourself with and what report as your identity. Obama was raised in a white environment in KS and chose to maintain his ties with his family. He later chose to live in a black community in Chicago and marry a black woman. In politics he chose not to make his race or race in general an issue. The combination of these choices is what defines him by that logic. IMO his race will be only mildly relevant for white America, especially the younger generation. It should, however, have a quite significant impact on black America - that is, how black people will understand their opportunities and responsibilities in society. This could be real opportunity to finally get over the heritage of slavery. Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

partying too hard last night ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

to me somewhat uncomprehensibly to looks like Stevens may keep his Senate seat for Alaska. Is there any other example in history where a convicted felon is voted into senate office after conviction but before serving punishment? Cheers, T PS: If he eventually has to go to prison Palin can finally still go to DC by appointing herself as replacement. Alaska politics ... ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

yeah - I was considering getting in right after the GOP convention when it was obvious the Palin hype was going to turn sour. It went from about 50:50 right after the convention to 83:17 now. (My wife is against any gambling though ...) Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

If they are capable of making rational decisions. Then Yes. The whole idea that we should get every warm body to cast a ballot is pure foolishness. There have always been requirements on that must be met in order to vote. Requiring REASONABLE proof that you meet those requirements should not be a problem. I'd say the lack of understanding that you display here what democracy is about should disqualify you from voting .... ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

no - parachutes are not designed for the purpose for killing ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

or "flash in the pan"? breaks with "the message" are rarely signs of strong and differing convictions - and more often because it's too much for her to keep the talking points straight in her head. will have disappeared from the national scene by Christmas. Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

be happy about this: Dow 10,510.09 -633.04 (-5.68%) Nasdaq 2,020.62 -162.72 (-7.45%) S&P 1,121.16 -92.11 (-7.59%) and the day is not over yet and there's more crap to come tomorrow. In a couple of hours my retirement funds were decreased by over $10,000 and there will be many in much worse condition. Thank you very much !!!!! Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

this is indeed puzzling me - unless you are on the committees (banking/commerce, etc) or a fiscal executive there is no reason to push one all-nighter after the other in the Capitol building to work out the fine print of the bill. The only reason for the candidate to step in is after the bill is crafted in order to rally votes, mitigate, and vote themselves. A candidate who cannot do that and have a one hour debate at the same time has some serious issues with multitasking/delegating -- which are imperative qualities for a president. Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

The discussion about McCains VP pick herself has essentially reached Inquirer level. Substance is thin both for the VP nominee as well as the discussion about her. The more interesting question is what does it say about the decision process the top of the ticket. The person who people effectively vote for and who, with this pick, gives an indication on how he will make appointments. The biggest appointments that are on the agenda for the next year are those for Supreme Court Justices that are expected to leave. This is what we can expect to be on the SCOTUS if McCain gets elected??? The mostly staunchly conservative on social issues, government intrusion into reproductive rights even in the most extreme cases, mixing religion with public process, etc. There was a time when I hoped he was saying this radical stuff just to please the religious right and was more sensible in reality. After his VP pick I have no such hope anymore. He's as narrow minded as the rest of them. Cheers, T ******************************************************************* Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true