Casurf1978

I respect your post and you made a good point as to the value of human life. But please you are from Spain. Spain's losses in WWII are aprox 12K military and 10K civilian. In April and May 1944, the Allied air forces lost nearly 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft in operations which paved the way for D-Day. We lost more men in two months than you did in the entire war The following is from the DDay museum: "Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces. Of the Allied casualties, 83,045 were from 21st Army Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces), 125,847 from the US ground forces. The losses of the German forces during the Battle of Normandy can only be estimated. Roughly 200,000 German troops were killed or wounded. The Allies also captured 200,000 prisoners of war (not included in the 425,000 total, above). During the fighting around the Falaise Pocket (August 1944) alone, the Germans suffered losses of around 90,000, including prisoners. " I'm not picking on your country. My point is that by the summer of 1945 we were sick and f-ing tired of the war. The allies lost more men in Normandy than Spain did in its civil war. We were faced with an advisary in the Pacific that had never been successfully invaded in its ENTIRE history. We didn't have the Allied powers to help us out. We had a choice. End the war in a matter of days or weeks or launch a full blown land invasion that would've cost both sides dearly. It was a horrific choice, but it ended the war in days and saved countless of lives on both sides.

IMO the whole image of the average surfer (men and women) being in tip top shape with sun kissed skin and a beautiful six pack is BS. Surfers come in all shapes and sizes. I'm talking about the regular guy or gal. Now if you want to talk about pros, well thats a different story. Yeah surfing can be hard and it is a bit more demand than skydiving and other sports. But its not like we are out there battling mother nature every single second we are in the water. Big wave surfers are another breed all together. Comparing regular surfers to big waves ones is like comparing myself to someone who has thousands of jumps and swoops. There is no comparison.

Even AFTER we dropped the second bomb the Japanese War Council was still divided 50/50. The military side of the council wanted to fight on and head a guerrilla war with the Emperor close to their side. The only thing that brought the Japanese to their knees was the two bombs. Did you know that PM Suzuki was almost assissinated after the Emperor told the council that Japan was going to surrender. One of Generals on the council committed suicide rather than face the disgrace of surrender. After knowing this do you still think negotiations would've worked.

It worked for the Israelis back in the late 1940s with the bombing of the King David Hotel, then the Jerusalem Railway Station, followed by the bombing of the The British Officers' Club in Jerusalem. All terrorist acts. The first one being the handy work of Menahem Begin. The end goal, get the Brits out and it worked. Interesting thing that Begin, a terrorist in his youth, became the 6th Israeli PM. He even admitted in an interview that he would bomb the hotel again.

Cool pic. Glad you didn't kill it. I was in Sedona and came across a tiny scorpian in our cabin. Cute critter in his own way. Caught him in a plastic cup and released him in the back yard.

There is a book called Japan's Longest Day published in 1965 by a group of scholars who spent several years interviewing people who were involved with the final decision. Read this book if you want an insight in Japan during the summer of 1945. I found a cliff notes version of it online. http://www.warbirdforum.com/end.htm It's not as easy as you make it seem. We could've invaded and Japan's 2 million strong land army would've made us pay dearly for every inch of land. Just look at the way they fought throughout the island campaign.

Look up Operation Downfall. It was the plan for the invasion of Japan. Studies were done and our casualties for the entire campaign would be around 1.7-4M, with aprox 5-10M Japanese civilians. So was it worth it. Hell yeah. We ended the war in days, not months. You can take those figures and slash them n half and still it makes sense. FYI. Both Fermi and Oppenheimer agreed to drop the bomb in order to end the war.

It was the war council that kept the war going. You really, really need to read up on Japanese history. I could write pages and pages on the war council. FYI the council was evenly divided as to surrender or keep on fighting. This was even AFTER the second bomb. Also remember we gave Japan and out and they didnt even reply. Again please read up on Japanese history. The Emperor WAS GOD to them. We take out the Emperor and the head of the Gov, who wouldve stopped the war? DUDE please. What American is proud of the A-bomb?Have you ANY idea as to how many people died fighting the war in Europe. Have you any idea how many more wouldve died in the Pacific if we prolonged the war. Read up on the battles of the Pacific, mainly the island fights and you will see what I'm talking about. FYI Oppenheimer and Fermi both said to Truman that they agreed with the decision to drop the bomb. For some reason I think you would be crucifying us even if we didnt drop the bomb and we launched a land invasion that some say wouldve cost us 500K soldiers and hundred of thousands maybe close to a million Japanese civilians. Damned if we do, damned if we dont. If you are so against the decision what would you have done to end the war.

No need to be pissed, they filmed a movie musical with Lane and Broderick in May 05. Susan Stroman, director from Broadway also directed this one. Should be out by the end of the year. Oh yeah. Only Mel Brooks could get away with that. A close second was 'little old lady land'.

Agreed. How about Broadway shows, are they musicals. For me it would be The Producers by Mel Brooks.

I would also put a lot of the blame on the mother. I saw in the news this morning that the baby had cocaine in her system and it was not ingested the day she died. According to the coroner it either entered her system via breast feeding (mother was using coke) or being exposed to secondary cocaine smoke. In either case the mother knew what was going on and exposed her child to it.

There's proof on intelligent design. Look at the Platypus. A mammal that lays eggs. I mean come on. That's pure genius.

As do other world leaders. Look who attended the King's funeral. What amazes me is that Saudi Arabia has one of the worst records on human and women rights, yet all these World leaders turn a blind eye. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we had a women Prez. How well would she be received by the Royals in SA.

I've had to work the last few weekends. I got a mid year promotion and we are launching a new product in Sept, so really havent had a life. No work for me this weekend, so I'm jumping

Science is not philosphy. Science trys to explain a phenomena through observation and experimental investigation. The problem is you want science to have a hard core definition of a phenomena that applies to every situation. That aint gonna happen. Take Newton's theory of Gravity. It has some flaws to it, Einstein refined it. Now does this many their theories work every single time on every single object. No. When you apply their theories on the sub atomic level it goes out the window. Does this mean Netwon and Einstein are wrong. No. It just means that on the sub atomic level different forces are at work. I'm sure Kallend and Billvon have a better grasp than I do since Physics was hell for me in college. Do you have any links to these scientific studies.

Pena was coked up, drunk and threatening his wife and older daughter. The LAPD did not fuck up, this man shot at cops. What were they supposed to do. Let Pena go off on a rampage and kill a few cops and innocent civilians just in order to protect his baby. Did you ever think that maybe if the cops did not act up Pena would've killed his entire family. People do stupid shit when they're coked up. This is a horrible tragedy and most if not all the blame is on Pena. Also a little info on how fucked up this family is. After this tragedy the older daughter, one who called the cops, had to stay with foster parents since her family was threatening her and blamed her for calling the cops and the babys death.

Which Prince are you talking about? If its Abdullah he's been running the show since 1995 and in that time strenghted ties with America. Remember the Bush clan and the royals go back a while. Not bashing Bush with that last statement.

What happened to Susie is tragic. Most of the blame rests on Pena. This guy was no saint. Illegal alien from El Salvador with a long rap sheet. He was deported in 1995 on cocaine and weapons charges and reentered the USA shortly thereafter. In Feb 05 he was caught brandeshing a gun. Why he wasnt deported or incarcerated amazes me. This man should've been in jail. The LAPD is taking a lot of heat from this especially from the hispanic community. Again I say Pena is no saint like some in the community make him out to be. Here's a little tid bit of info on the LADP and SWAT team: (from USA Today) "In November, police shot a gunman who held a pregnant woman by the neck outside the Mexican Consulate. Officers pulled the woman away unharmed and the man later died. The following month, an officer shot and killed a carjacking suspect who burst into a crowded card club and took two people hostage at gunpoint. No one else was injured. The three shootings are the only since 1998 in which Los Angeles police officers have fired on hostage-takers, according to data from the city's civilian police commission. The final one was the only in which a hostage was hurt or died."

LOL. Only if the Senator knew what our founding father were doing in the free time. Especially Jefferson and Franklin. Im sure he would approve of their extracurricular activities.

I hope this a hole gets what he deserves. Also hows the cat doing?

Too early for beer, I'll join you with a Bloody Mary though.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1440391/posts Pretty good article from the UK Sunday times. Addresses the subject about young radicals. Hope you enjoy it.

You want a solution, man how much time do you have. I agree we need the help of the Muslim population, not only the general pop but foreign goverments too. The latter being much more important. For example in the case of one or two London bombers they attended extremely religious schools in Pakistan. What do these school teach and are they recruiting grounds for terrorist. If they are what is Pakistan doing about it. What are other nations doing about extreme Islamist movements. For example the CIA said that it has over 4000 extemist Islamist websites that it keeps track off. Why dont we pressure host nations to take them down. I'm just giving you a few examples. Yes I did, my apologies.

Thats the problem. You want a silver bullet, there is none. You want to boil down this type of terrorism to a simple equation x+y=z. Take out x and you got no z. It aint that simple. I'm almost 100% sure that most moderate Muslims would turn in a radical, just like most Christians would turn in someone that wanted to bomb any clinic. It's a whole different thing to say that 95% of xyz religion protects the extreme fringes of its population.

Many would disagree with you and I am one of them. Samual Adams best summed it up: "The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." If we start giving up some of our civil liberties, the ones these terrorist despise, then they have already won.