"Soldiers dying in Iraq are dying to defend the US against terrorism as a victory in Iraq is a victory in the war on terror. They are dying to defend freedom and democracy in the US and to spread freedom and democracy to Iraq. They are dying for the interests of the US, her allies, and by extension, all Americans (whether they understand it or not). They are not dying for Haliburton, oil, or any other ridiculous shit / slant the anti-war types or conspiracy theorists want to spin. Haliburton is a company (among many others, both US and foreign) that seized a chance to profit in REBUILDING Iraq. There is a big difference between that and war-profiteering. Haliburton did not start the war, terrorists and those that support them did. Putting the chicken before the egg just won’t fly."
-polymath
"[B]efore you [Europeans] write us off as just a bunch of sweaty, hairy-chested, Bible-thumping morons who are more likely to break their fast by dipping a Krispy Kreme into a diet cola than a biscotti into an espresso - and who inexplicably have won more Nobel prizes than all other countries combined,
host 25 or 30 of the world's finest universities and five or six of the world's best symphonies, produce wines that win prizes at your own tasting competitions, have built the world's most vibrant economy, are the world's only military superpower and, so to speak in our spare time, have landed on
the moon and sent our robots to Mars - may I suggest you stop frothing at
the mouth long enough to consider just what are these ideas we hold that you find so silly and repugnant?"
- LynnKramer
"Democracy may have been invented in Greece, but cowardess was invented in France where it lives and thrives to this very day."
- RedTigress
"I'm referring to the Iraqi terrorist bastard fighters. The ones liberals insist are either not in Iraq, or are there by the thousands, depending on which liberal you listen to."
- noguru
"How is it that the Left can believe absolute crazy shit, like the Bush-Saudi Arabian money connection, or the even worse and totally false Bush-bin Laden connection (based on 100% lies) and look at you straight and say there was absolutely no way that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda had ties?"
- reducto
Jealous Kerry Fuming After Dems Jump Off His 2008 Bandwagon
April 23, 2005 -- WASHINGTON — A fuming John Kerry had "daggers in his eyes" after a fellow Democrat promoted Hillary Rodham Clinton for president — suggesting the 2004 loser is green with envy at a potential rival.
The flap was touched off two weeks ago when Clinton spoke at a Minneapolis Democratic dinner and Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) told the cheering crowd that he was introducing "the next great president of the United States."
Two days later, Kerry came over to Dayton on the Senate floor "with daggers in his eyes and said, 'What are you doing endorsing my 2008 presidential opponent?' . . . He was very serious," Dayton told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Clinton's office declined comment but a friend tut-tutted: "Boys will be boys, even when they are senators."
Kerry spokesman David Wade tried to make light of the story, claiming "some lines must have gotten crossed in his retelling of this particular conversation" — and insisted they were mostly "joshing" about hockey.
But Dayton's office says the "daggers in his eyes" report was accurate and Dayton has no quarrel with it.
At the April 9 Minnesota dinner, Dayton made it clear that touting Clinton for president was his own idea, saying it was an "unauthorized" introduction — but she did nothing to dispute it.
Dayton was also quoted as offering a blunt explanation — not very flattering to Kerry — about why he favors Clinton for 2008 after backing Kerry last year: "As Winston Churchill once said, I'd rather be right than consistent."
There's nothing I love more than a democratic party divided against itself. Unfortunately Kerry is too much of a loser to garner support from much of the party.
Okay all ye nonbelievers. No, I'm not talking about non-Christians, I'm talking about you St. Malachy's prophecy nonbelievers.
So let me set up the scene for you here. I get to my computer at about 8:00 p.m. EST and as usual I check my sitemeter stats. Ever since I switched over to sitemeter from extremetracker, I've had a steady stream of 15-20 hits a day. Back in the extremetracker day, my record was 373 unique hits on none other than election day. In the past few days I've seen a considerable increase in hits to about 30-80 due to google searches about the pope and Malachy. Soooo, you can imagine my suprise when I get home today to find almost 1,000 hits, probably more by the time you read this. My first instinct is that I've just hit another jackpot like I did with the "Military Hand Signals" post, however, something didn't seem right. Off to foxnews.com I went and sure enough.....
I told myself going into this that I was not going to believe in these prophecies unless the pope took the name Benedict. Sure enough, Benedict it was. As with any prophecy, I'm still skeptical, but it's getting a little creepy.
After writing this, I noticed that Wikipedia (Which, for those of you who don't use it, is probably the best resource for anything you'd ever need to research anywhere)&n bsp;had added a little more to the Prophecy of the Popes section:
The next motto is Gloria Olivae, the glory of the olive. Prior to the papal conclave, this motto led to speculation that the next pontiff would be from the Order of Saint Benedict, whose symbols include the olive branch. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, selected in April 2005, is not a Benedictine, but did pick Benedict XVI as his papal name, which might be regarded as a fulfillment of this prophecy.
Yet there can also be a different meaning. Pope Joseph had his birthday on the 16th April and on that day is celebrated the feast of Saint Benedict Joseph Labre` (26 March 1748 - 16 April 1783), also known as the Holy Pilgrim. His first name was already Joseph and together with Benedict, which he has now assumed, his Christian namesake is now complete. Moreover, the Order of St Benedict is also known as that of the Olivetans.
Alternatively, less specific interpreters have predicted that the next pope will promote world peace (as in an olive branch). Pope Benedict XVI has chosen "Pax" (peace) as his papal motto. The self-proclaimed Pope Clemente Domínguez y Gómez of the Palmarian Catholic Church claimed that he was the glory of the olive.
A part of me wants to believe that he took the name because of Malachy's predictions. He didn't want to screw up the chain. Not being "olive-skinned" or connected to Israel would really hurt the prophecy's case. For those of you wondering whether or not it's a forgery, you can check out LynneKramer's comment.
As Convinced said, we need to be paying close attention to this next pope. This Benedict guy is pretty old. At 75 years he's just about 10 years shy of the late John Paul II. So I'm not really seeing this papacy lasting too long. So when this guy goes, remember Malachy. Any Peter the Roman connection to that last pope and I am officially freaked out.
This isn't political, or at least not entirely. The following people happen to be pissing me off at the moment, and I've just got to let my millions of readers know about it.
[b]Paula Abdul[/b]
Paula Abdul sucks. Yes people, I watch American Idol. I don't know why, because it really is a horrible show, but I can't help it. Unless Bo and Carrie get voted off, I have to keep watching. But back on track, as the 10s of millions of people who watch the show know, Paula Abdul hasn't said anything negative or even constructive in the show's 4 seasons. Every time she says something I feel obligated to yell at the screen "WHY IS THIS WOMAN STILL ON THIS SHOW?!?" Then there's that clap, THAT HORRIBLE HORRIBLE CLAP SHE DOES!! ARGH!! For those of you who haven't seen it, I want you to stretch your arms all the way out in front of you and extend every finger on your hands as far upward as you can. Now bang your palms together. If a retarded penguin could clap, that's how it would do it, which makes me wonder if a retarded penguin would actually make a better judge than Paula Abdul.
[b]The People Running Fox News[/b]
Fox News and probably the rest of the media sucks. I say Fox News because that's usually the only news channel I watch, so I don't really know what CNN and MSNBC are going on about. About 70% of the news I see on FNC is about some trial. Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, Scott Peterson, Kobe Bryant, and I'm sick of it. Even if Michael Jackson molested all those little boys, does he really need hours and hours of television every day dedicated to that? We either need to get a jump start on the 2006 elections or declare war on another country because I don't know how much more of this I can take.
[b]Republicans who voted in favor of the Schiavo Bill[/b]
Okay, they don't suck, but they pissed me off. I didn't want Terri to die but what were you guys thinking? Did you actually think the country would approve of Congress intervening in personal matters? I guess this is what happens when the media (another reason they suck) gets all hyped up about a family's personal life. You know what ended all that talk about the death of the Democratic party? This. It all stopped after this.
[b]Every single current artist on the iTunes top songs list[/b]
Way to kill music. Yes, I like rock. I prefer heavy metal, but hard rock, alternative rock, grunge, and even punk rock will do. I'm watching Headbangers ball as I'm writing this. So maybe I'm out of the mainstream, but it's my list of people who suck, so I could care less. The reason I'm watching Headbangers ball is because there is ONE HOUR A WEEK on cable television that is dedicated to actual rock. It's all hip hop, pop, and this emo crap. I like some rap and some pop, but I don't like this much of it. I guess this is our decade's disco. Somebody please kill it.
Eh, that's enough for now. I'm tired of thinking of people who suck. If you disagree with me, it doesn't really matter. Now I'm off to read LynnKramer's comment.
Edit: Followed up on here, because as many of you by now know, the Pope's name is Benedict.
So sayeth the lord. Well, not really, but so sayeth Saint Malachy. This is the first time I've heard of this, but then again I don't usually look into this sort of thing.
A 10th Century Irish bishop - St. Malachy - predicted every pope that would preside over the Catholic Church.
Almost ten centuries ago, Malachy predicted this pope would be noted by an eclipse of the sun.
In an eerie coincidence, John Paul II was the only known pope to be born on the day of a solar eclipse.
But the prophetic link doesn't end there. Pope John Paul II will be buried this Friday during another solar eclipse.
Story Continues Below
Astronomers say that on Friday, the day of the Pope's funeral, a partial solar eclipse will blot out most of the sun and darken a wide area of the world, from the South Pacific to the Western Hemisphere.
Solar eclipses are not unusual. But what makes this coming Friday's eclipse notable is the fact that there was a near total eclipse of the sun seen across Europe on May 18, 1920, the very day that John Paul II was born in Poland.
Adding fuel to the arcane speculation about these events is the prophecy of St. Malachy.
Malachy was discovered to have left behind a prophetic list of all future popes beginning with Pope Celestine II, whose papacy began in 1143 A.D., up to and including the 112th. The list includes John Paul and just two more popes who will follow him.
In his list of popes, he uses a single line in Latin identifying a characteristic of each pope.
The description applied to the 110th pope on his list - John Paul II - is "De Labore Solis" (Of the Solar Eclipse), which seems to add great weight to the validity of St. Malachy’s chilling prophecy: that the next two popes chosen to succeed John Paul II will be the last popes.
After the reign of the last pope, "Peter the Roman," St. Malachy wrote, Rome will be destroyed.
So this should be fun. The guy's successfully predicted every Pope up until now. You can give me all that postdiction stuff you want, but just let me believe this for a while.
So I look up the next prediction on wikipedia and get this:
Following John Paul II, only two popes remain in the prophecy. The next motto is Gloria Olivae, the glory of the olive. This motto has led to speculation that the next pontiff will be from the Order of Saint Benedict or will at least choose Benedict as his papal name. Others think that "olive" may mean that the new pope is somehow connected to Israel, because St. Malachy is known to have used the name "Olive" for that region. Also, Our Lady of Guadaloupe is described as being "olive-skinned" as are the peoples of Central America; several papabili currently hail from that area. Alternatively, less specific interpreters have predicted that the next pope will promote world peace. The self-proclaimed Pope Clemente Domínguez y Gómez of the Palmarian Catholic Church claimed that he was the glory of the olive.
It's a little easier to see how these predictions can be interpreted in any number of ways lending less credibility to them. "Promotes peace"? Come on, he's da freakin' pope. Now this olive-skinned thing seem pretty likely. There's all that talk about a South American pope. I don't know if any of the Papal candidates are from the Order of Saint Benedict, but there's gotta be one. As for Israel, I have not heard of a single plausible candidate for Pope from Israel, so I'm wondering how loose the term "connections" is in this case.
So if we get a South American pope who takes the name Benedict who has connections to Israel, remember Saint Malachy.
TOMBSTONE, Ariz. — They call themselves patriots, but critics call them everything from gun-toting rednecks to racists.
Hundreds of people were converging on Arizona's Mexican border Friday to ready for a month-long campaign to urge federal lawmakers to do more to stem illegal immigration (search).
The events have been organized by the Minuteman Project (search), a group that organizes volunteer civilian patrols on the Arizona/Mexico border to report illegal immigrant crossings to the U.S. Border Patrol (search).
Participants on Friday were rallying in Tombstone, Ariz., and taking part in an orientation.
Rallies and protests were planned throughout the weekend to call for stricter border enforcement.
About 1,200 people, mainly from the Southwest, were expected to attend events including stationing people along the border 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the next 30 days in a type of massive neighborhood-watch program.
I realize that I'm not as well versed in the law as I could be, but I'm pretty sure that sitting on the border shooting Mexicans that try to cross is illegal. Then again, if you shoot a Mexican crossing the border and nobody sees or hears it, who's going to do anything? In Arizona silencers are legal, so in theory, I think the vigilantes could kill as many Mexicans as they wanted with no reprecussion, it's like hunting man can finally be realized without joining the army.
I'm as against illegal immigration as the next guy, but come on.
