Enjoy Vegas, Rick. It's a fun, goofy town.
Comment Posted By Barry Allen On 8.11.2007 @ 22:19
A bit off topic, but I was hoping you'd address the economy in an upcoming post, as related to its effect on the politics of the 2008 race for the Presidency, referring particularly to the tanking dollar, just under $100/barrel oil, the jittery volatile stock market, giant banks in a credit/financial crisis, etc.
Yeah ed, I'm all for proper screening and security as well, but as this bust in Britain shows, these guys were all British nationals. How do you keep track of guys that are Western European who may have radical terrorist tendencies? Sure, they were of Pakistani nationality, but what happens when Al-Qaeda starts recruiting blond haired blued eyed young men, if they're not already? I just don't know; it's a conundrum.
Comment Posted By Barry Allen On 10.08.2006 @ 20:34
Rick, I have an even bigger question for you: who will "disarm" the Mahdi Army and all the other Iraqi militias? The Maliki government sure as hell looks like it can't do it, all the while Iraq is becoming more and more of a basket case. I'm sure you heard about the bombing in the oil city of Kirkuk in the North. Three different ethnic groups are basically slugging it out for control of the oil. Doesn't look good--sort of like the buildup of what happened to the former Yugoslavia, aka partition.
Comment Posted By Barry Allen On 23.07.2006 @ 14:04
Rick,
Comment Posted By Barry Allen On 24.06.2006 @ 11:34
Not that I'm disagreeing that maybe the New York Times was irresponsible in publishing this story.
I'm just curious what actions (or lack of) would have been taken if a foreign paper, say Le Monde, the London Times, or Der Spiegel published this same story, or the story about the CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. The paper's editors would not be prosecutable under United States law for exposing a U.S. secret policy. Or would they? Just something I was pondering.
DEMOCRATS GO OUT WITH A WHIMPER ON IRAQ
Rick, though I don't consider myself a conservative and am not a registered Republican( in political beliefs I'm more along the lines of a 'Schwarzenneger Republican', liberal on social issues, conservative on fiscal), I'm not in disagreement with you about the Dems on the Iraq War.
Comment Posted By Barry Allen On 22.06.2006 @ 22:32
My only point of contention with the White House and the Republican Congress, and I guess with you and other conservative bloggers, is the lack of specificity of a stated specific goal for victory in Iraq.
I'm not being facetious. Honestly, could you state for me what America's goal is in Iraq?
And I don't mean: "As Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down", "Victory Over the Terrorists", "Freedom and Democracy in Iraq".
While they sound nice, it's just rhetoric and they don't essentially MEAN anything.
Think of WWII, where the goal was "the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers". It was an actual target, a goal, a bulls-eye to hit.
For example, is the goal in Iraq for the unconditional surrender of Al-Qaeda in Iraq? The unconditional surrender of all militias?
The surrender of all ex-Baathists, Iraqi mafia gangsters, etc?
What then?
IRAQI GOVERNMENT FIDDLES WHILE THE COUNTRY BURNS
Iraq now looks like a country packed full of two-bit, viciously violent Tony Sopranos, each with their own private army. It seems like complete anarchy. You're right Rick, it comes off like the new Iraqi government isn't willing or unable to establish law and order.
Comment Posted By Barry Allen On 5.06.2006 @ 12:20
It might fall to U.S. troops to take up the role of the police in Iraq for now.
THE MIND BLOGGLING CONSEQUENCES OF BUSH DERANGEMENT SYNDROME
I don't think it's a left/right issue. I just think we're in a moment in time where the public is more susceptible to over the top conspiracy theories in general. In a way, it is a sort of retreat into fantasy. A good example is the mind-boggling success of The Davinci Code. How could a trashy potboiler beach book, adapted into a goofy suspense thriller with a bad script and mediocre performances, generate such interest? It's just the public zeitgist.
Comment Posted By Barry Allen On 24.05.2006 @ 12:01
Notice also that a lot of movies released presently are, for the most part, comic-book based movies. Again, a sign of a public retreat into make-believe. Sometimes fantasy is more comforting than to believe that the world may just be chaotic.
WHY I WILL DRAG MY SORRY ASS TO THE POLLS ON NOVEMBER 6
Wow, what a great motivation: the guilt trip.
Comment Posted By Barry Allen On 18.05.2006 @ 14:49
It's equal to when you were a little kid and your parents scolded you for not finishing your dinner by informing you of the millions of starving children in Africa.
Did it make you eat your brussels sprouts even then?
I hereby declare November 6, the Brussel Sprout Election.
AHMADINEJAD AND HIS LIBERAL TALKING POINTS
But of course, I'm not Spidey. For a clue to who Barry Allen is, do a Google search. *Hint* there was a joke about it in Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can.
Comment Posted By Barry Allen On 10.05.2006 @ 16:28
Gravatar, I hope your list was satire or sarcasm, because if you really believe that a Democrat in office would 'force' you to do any of the things you mention, then----don't what to tell you.
Comment Posted By Barry Allen On 10.05.2006 @ 16:26
The only place where behavior is forced is in totalitarian regimes, like Stalin's, and I don't see even the most liberal Dem advocating for America to turn into a totalitarian state. Your list of items, including the one about homosexuals coupling on all public street corners, have as much chance of occuring as me growing organic web-shooters and swinging amongst the skyscrapers like Spidey.