>> ^BillOreilly:
ths kid was obviously out past curfew, and generally being a terrorizer, the police used justifiable force, show me where I'm wrong

I don't upvote you because I agree with you, I upvote you for its genuine "wtf" value...

We get it. You're trying to be like quantumushroom. But you're bad at it. You're more like CaptainPlanet420. Either try harder or stop.

>> ^BillOreilly:
ths kid was obviously out past curfew, and generally being a terrorizer, the police used justifiable force, show me where I'm wrong

>> ^BillOreilly:
ths kid was obviously out past curfew, and generally being a terrorizer, the police used justifiable force, show me where I'm wrong

You suck. and you're not funny.

ths kid was obviously out past curfew, and generally being a terrorizer, the police used justifiable force, show me where I'm wrong

Article explaining this mayor vs. ACLU:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/sep/07/curfew-pits-mayor-vs-aclu-on-the-web/

>> ^jonny:
In regards to the claim that there is no evidence of god, do you discount the subjective spiritual experiences of billions of people?


As someone who had one of those subjective spiritual experiences I do indeed completely discount those accounts.

The story:

This happened when I was about 8-years old. I was over my best friend's house and it was about 3 in the afternoon. I suddenly had this strong "feeling" that I needed to go home. It's hard to explain what it felt like. It was simply like this voice in my head saying, "You need to go home NOW." My curfew wasn't until sundown, which in the summer wasn't until about 8PM or so. I just told my friend and his family that I needed to go home and left. They found it extremely odd, because we were actually right in the middle of eating a late lunch and having a good time when I suddenly stood up and left.

I got on my bike and peddled towards home. I rounded the corner just in time to see a police car with lights flashing and sirens blazing screech to a halt in front of my house. I can still remember what it felt like, peddling as hard as I could to get back to my house to find out what had happened.

It turned out that while starting to cook dinner my mom had collapsed without warning in the middle of the kitchen. My dad came home early from work and found her sprawled on the floor and called 911.

To this day, doctors can't explain why my mom collapsed. She was in the hospital for two days of testing--MRI's, cat scans, etc. but they couldn't find a thing wrong with her. And she never had it happen again.

Anyways, after things had settled down I told my parents the story about how I suddenly just had this urge to leave my friend's house. My family was very religious at the time and we all agreed that it must have been God telling me to go home and help my mother. How else could you explain that sudden inexplicable urge to go home at that precise moment?

There is, in fact, a much better explanation than God: coincidence. Years later, thinking about the whole incident, I realized how stupid the God explanation really was. My mom was in no danger--by the time I got the urge to go home my dad had already called 911 and the ambulance was on the way. My family knew I was at my friend's house and had I not come back home before the ambulance arrived they would have just called up my friend's family and asked them to look after me while they went to the hospital. Also, I realized there was a completely mundane and plausible explanation for my sudden urge to go back home--I was tired. I'd been at my friend's house since about 9 in the morning that day. Yeah, we'd had a lot of fun, but I distinctly remember on the bike ride back to my house (before I saw the police cruiser) how relieved I was to be going back home to relax.

However, for years I totally believed the "God" explanation. The story even came out at church and everyone agreed it had to be a miracle. Heck, I wanted it to be God talking to me, communicating with me. That would mean I was a worthy human being. God doesn't talk with just anybody right? And because of all the attention I was getting from my family and church-members, I totally wasn't interested in looking into any other explanations other than God for what I experienced.

So yes. I discount the subjective spiritual experiences of billions of people. I think to some degree we are all delusional--thinking the world revolves around us. I explain their experiences just like I explain mine--an attempt to inject the other-worldly into our mundane existence. We have this need to prove ourselves to be special. What could be more special than communicating with the divine? So to fill the need we imbue ordinary circumstances that we can't explain with the supernatural rather than try to find logical answers. But if we actually examine what happens with an open mind, we will eventually find a rationale answer that does not require a divine entity and that is in fact entirely more plausible.

>> ^Farhad2000:
Its pretty horrible what Hamas does with Al-Aqsa sometimes... but then what do you expect after 60 odd years of Isreal and most of the international community pissing down on the Palestinian rights and way of life? Gaza is a open air prision right now.
Am not at all surprised that its a Israeli affiliated group that is posting this on YouTube, just like MermiTV before it is completely slanted to support the Isreali side of the conflict.
What about showing how there was a collective punishment imposed on Gaza? The condition of check points? Curfews? Sniper towers? Random searches? Incursions? Segregation by roads and walls? New settlements in Palestinian territory... The Palestinian side of the conflict?
Or that after all the talk of pushing democracy in the Middle East, the rightfully elected government of the Palestinian people, Hamas was pushed aside in favor of pro-western, corrupt and politically inept Fatah? A stupid and unrealistic policy which did achieved nothing in the lauded Annapolis talks.
Even the former Mossad Chief Argues for Talks with Hamas:

"[B]y scorning politically active Islamic movements and denying their legitimacy, the United States is essentially signaling to the Middle Eastern public that electoral politics are a meaningless dead end—precisely the same message that this public hears from Al Qaeda. Last year, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, issued a video that attacked the [Egyptian] Muslim Brotherhood for participating in elections, saying it played into America’s “political game” of “exploit[ing] the masses and their love for Islam”; in another video he criticized Hamas, saying that armed jihad, not elections, was the only way to liberate Palestine. If America refuses to engage with Islamist movements, however foreign or flawed their ideas may seem, al-Zawahiri’s antidemocratic rhetoric may be increasingly well received."

Kosovo got an independent state in less then a decade of the Serbian war, it was also a religious conflict, but since its in Europe, US, NATO and the international community gave enough of a shit to give it its own state in less then a decade. What of the Palestinian people?


Wow. Much of the world refused to recognize or support Hamas because it's founding constitution is based around the destruction of Israel. Here's some choice quotes:

Hamas is one of the links in the Chain of Jihad in the confrontation with the Zionist invasion...
it further relates to another link of the Palestinian Jihad and the Jihad and efforts of the Muslim Brothers during the 1948 War...
The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!


You start your post asking what to expect after 60 years of Israel stepping on Palestinian rights. Do you know nothing about the region, or are you just an anti-semite lurker? 60 years goes back to Israel declaring it's independence in 1948, where it accepted the UN mandated borders for independent Israeli and Palestinian states. Instead of accepting two separate states, the surrounding Arab nations, trained and allied with the nazis a few short years earlier, immediately declared war on Israel with the intent of wiping them off the map. They so outnumbered the Israelis and where so confident that the Palestinian people were urged to leave their homes to return in a few short days and claim both regions. The plight of the Palestinian people is on the heads of the surrounding Arab nations every bit as much as on Israel. But what do you see in the region? Propaganda like this about killing the Jews FIRST because of what the Danish did! While Israel(not the more populace surrounding Arab countries) is the single largest provider of aid to the Palestinian people.

Should Palestine be it's own state? Hell yes, it should have been 60 years ago. But if you want to blame that on Israel and the West then your ill-informed or racist.

I'm sorry, but taking a video clip like this and using it to rant about how bad Israel is goes so far beyond bad taste it makes me sick.

SDGundamX, you do know all those procedures are of a OCCUPATIONAL force that has INVADED a SOVERIGN NATION under FALSE pretenses imposing CURFEWS, breaking into HOMES, arbitrarily ARRESTING and TORTURING people.

A taxi in the arab world is the most BASIC and the MOST POPULAR means of SURVIVAL. They just DESTROYED someones MEANS to LIVE.

See it from THEIR eyes for ONCE. Maybe then you will understand why they attack US forces still.

God the sheer hypocrisy of explaining any military action through safety procedure for the American troops without any regard to the civilians.

Umm, even if there are bullet holes in the windshield and the hood, does that mean that the vehicle should be totaled? Last I heard, windshields and hoods can be replaced. Besides, I'm sure there are many bullet-riddled vehicles in Iraq whose owners did absolutely nothing wrong.

"Was there a curfew on vehicle traffic imposed on that day?" you ask.
Is there a specifically ordained rule that says all cars out during curfew will be summarily crushed?

It's a senseless act of destruction. It's like when little boys stomp on ant hills. This is not the act of professional soldiers. It's the act of juvenile delinquents with a $60 million piece of hardware.

I have the utmost respect for our men and women in uniform who behave honorably in the course of duty. I'm all for giving the benefit of the doubt too. However the giddy behavior of these soldiers, combined with the fact that they backed over the vehicle after they had already crushed it, leads me to believe that they are behaving no better than hooligans.

If you watch the video closely, you can clearly see the bullet holes in the hood and windshield of this taxi. Don't know what the actual story is (car ran a checkpoint? abandoned by owner?) but obviously its not as simple as the "Evil army dudes run over some guy's car." When and where was this shot? Was there a curfew on vehicle traffic imposed on that day?

First, I'd like to take my hat off to the Iraqi student for being courageous enough to brave the American public. As with all things, there will be supporters and naysayers; it takes some balls to have to face the opposition, as deluded as they are in their thinking.

Secondly, great job by the 11-year-old. It's all too apparent that only the most intelligent of us still grasp some of the most valuable traits the human condition offers: toleration and humility. And she's eleven.

Lastly, it's obvious to everyone by now (aside from the aforementioned deluded) that this is nothing more than an occupation. First we were told it was about WMD's, then it was about getting Saddaam out of power and now it's about bestowing upon them the "freedom" that we all possess....by instituting curfews. What will be the next thing the spin doctors throw at us? We take 18-year-olds from middle, lower and poor America, who have no idea how to deal with other cultures with their mores and norms, rush them through classes that try to teach them these concepts, and them indoctrinate them into a bloody war. Then they see their best friends killed, which only perpetuates the hatred they already feel towards the people and the entire situation.

I can only hope that eventually, *somebody* will take the goddamn reigns and put an end to this. At this point, I could care less if it were a Democrat, a Republican or a fucking Martian. You can't change people's paradigms with force.

i put it under scifi as it was a graphic novel written in the 80s, set in a stark black-and-white dystopian science-ridden "future" in London. maybe *dark is a more accurate vord?

and seeing as how the filmmakers added topical references relevant to a 2006 audience, as per the L.A. Times, "with a wealth of new, real-life parallels to draw from in the areas of government surveillance, torture, fear-mongering and media manipulation, not to mention corporate corruption and religious hypocrisy," i think a waronterror tag is justified...

additionally, per wikipedia, there are "numerous references in the film to events surrounding the current American administration. These include the black bags worn by the prisoners in Larkhill that have been seen as a reference to the black bags worn by prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and in U.S.-administered Guantánamo Bay in Cuba."

also in the film, "London is under a yellow-coded curfew alert, similar to the US Government's colour-coded Homeland Security Advisory System, and there is even a brief scene (during the Valerie flashback) that contains real-life footage of an anti-Iraq war demonstration, with mention of President George W. Bush."

lastly, "the film contains references to 'America's war' and 'the war America started' as well as real footage from the Iraq War."

so yeah, *waronterror anyone?

Its pretty horrible what Hamas does with Al-Aqsa sometimes... but then what do you expect after 60 odd years of Isreal and most of the international community pissing down on the Palestinian rights and way of life? Gaza is a open air prision right now.

Am not at all surprised that its a Israeli affiliated group that is posting this on YouTube, just like MermiTV before it is completely slanted to support the Isreali side of the conflict.

What about showing how there was a collective punishment imposed on Gaza? The condition of check points? Curfews? Sniper towers? Random searches? Incursions? Segregation by roads and walls? New settlements in Palestinian territory... The Palestinian side of the conflict?

Or that after all the talk of pushing democracy in the Middle East, the rightfully elected government of the Palestinian people, Hamas was pushed aside in favor of pro-western, corrupt and politically inept Fatah? A stupid and unrealistic policy which did achieved nothing in the lauded Annapolis talks.

Even the former Mossad Chief Argues for Talks with Hamas:

"[B]y scorning politically active Islamic movements and denying their legitimacy, the United States is essentially signaling to the Middle Eastern public that electoral politics are a meaningless dead end—precisely the same message that this public hears from Al Qaeda. Last year, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, issued a video that attacked the [Egyptian] Muslim Brotherhood for participating in elections, saying it played into America’s “political game” of “exploit[ing] the masses and their love for Islam”; in another video he criticized Hamas, saying that armed jihad, not elections, was the only way to liberate Palestine. If America refuses to engage with Islamist movements, however foreign or flawed their ideas may seem, al-Zawahiri’s antidemocratic rhetoric may be increasingly well received."

Kosovo got an independent state in less then a decade of the Serbian war, it was also a religious conflict, but since its in Europe, US, NATO and the international community gave enough of a shit to give it its own state in less then a decade. What of the Palestinian people?

When I was in high school, I and a group of friends were playing soccer at a public park after curfew and after the park was closed. A cop drove up, told us the park was closed, and that if it applied to any of us, that it was past curfew. We told him we'd head out, and he told us to take our time. Not all cops are bad.

Informing parents of a child's activities is not guaranteed to be proactive, if anything, it will lead to a air of distrust between students and the health services people, thus undoing anything they have gained by offering access to birth control in the first place. You forget that not all kids come from loving homes... I knew a girl in high school who's super-fundie/alcoholic parents beat the shit out of her for coming home past curfew, imagine what people like that would do if the school nurse called and told them their daughter was on the pill.

Its sad, I know, but not everyone grows up in a loving home, nor feels comfortable discussing sex with their parents... and that can be true even in a normal family situation. I know in my family we ALMOST NEVER talked about it, especially since I just didn't date in high school, I guess they never worried about me, and any discussion was kind of like, "Don't be like your friend and fuck up, there are options", and I would say, "Duh Mom, I know, I'm not stupid" and we would leave it at that. Although even then I wasn't fully informed, as years later, in college when I finally did decide to go on the pill I was totally shocked that you had to take it everyday... I'd had no idea because the sex ed taught at my school was aimed mainly at preventing the spread of disease and otherwise, abstinence was the word, and the pill never even covered.

So, moral of my story, don't assume that a school system is run by douchebags just because they are trying a new way to combat an ever growing problem. I know it is shocking because its a MIDDLE SCHOOL, but studies show that more girls are menstruating earlier and earlier, some as soon as age 11, and for you boys who don't know what that means it equals ability to have babies, so therefore, the preventative education needs to start sooner than ever before.