"Barack Obama seems determined to repeat every disastrous mistake of the 1930s, at home and abroad. He has already repeated Herbert Hoover's policy of raising taxes on high income earners, FDR's policy of trying to micro-manage the economy and Neville Chamberlain's policy of seeking dialogues with hostile nations while downplaying the dangers they represent."

SOMETIMES THE TRUTH HURTS. HA HA HA HA HA.

Barack Obama seems determined to repeat every disastrous mistake of the 1930s, at home and abroad. He has already repeated Herbert Hoover's policy of raising taxes on high income earners, FDR's policy of trying to micro-manage the economy and Neville Chamberlain's policy of seeking dialogues with hostile nations while downplaying the dangers they represent. --T.S.

1. My grandmother tried to convince my 17 year old mother to have me aborted, but failed.

2. I flew in a plane for the first time when I was two and remember the air steward taking my unfinished glass of juice, because it was almost time to land.

3. I have been in close contact with dozens of venomous snakes, but never been hurt.

4. I fell in love with Persephone and her story, listening to an audio cassette in my school library at the age of 9.

5. I wasn't satisfied with my parent's explanation for the word 'rape' when I heard it on the news at the age of 6. I could tell they were lying.

6. I was the cultural representative of my school in senior year.

7. I was the first in my family to go to University.

8. I was the first woman in my family to delay marrying until after the age of 17.

9. I climbed Uluru not long after Azaria Chamberlain was taken by a dingo.

10. I used to sail 12ft Thorpes on the Brisbane River. My crew was a beautiful transvestite called Alison.

11. I dreamed of being multi-lingual as a child.

12. I love foreign languages and wish I could have kept up my German and Spanish as well as I have my Japanese.

13. I was a hostess in a Yakuza bar in Osaka for one night only.

14. I love being pregnant, giving birth and being a mother.

15. I wish I had had a lesbian relationship at least once.

16. I let my art lecturer sleep with me once because I believed it was an honour to be in his bed.

17. I drove solo across Australia once, never getting a flat or hitting a roo.

18. I meditate and am learning Chi Gung.

19. I sometimes talk to the dead and they tell me helpful stuff only they and their relatives know.

20. I know that our limited perception of reality is the reason we experience fear, anger and hatred.

21. I keep dream journals for my children. I have recorded their dreams since they first learned to talk about them.

22. My daughter reads my mind and lets me know she can do it, by bringing up whatever subject I am silently thinking about at the time.

23. I know that people I encounter are really me in another form.

24. I don't read/listen to the news/t.v. any more.

25. I will walk across Australia next time.

>> ^imstellar28:
Keep in mind that in recent polls, Bush was ranked #7 in the list of "best presidents" . In 50 years he will probably be in the top 5. Funny how history is re-written.


In all honesty I think(and hope) he will be remembered better by history than figures like Kofi Anan, Reagan and maybe even Carter. As much as an angry public tried to blame it on Bush, the sale of weapons to and funding of jihadist's in Afghanistan was started by Carter. Reagan went on to expand that program and even helped out Saddam as well. At the very least, history will look more favorably on the guy that fought such elements over those that propped them up. Kofi Anan actively stopped any intervention in Rwanda, hopefully history hangs much of the blame for the 800,000 dead there on his shoulders. One difference between current views and historical views is that current times often over look the effects of inaction, history though looks at failure to act as well(see Chamberlain).

I admit that I had no idea Chamberlain gave half of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, and I'm a history major in college! However, I would not use the word "appeaser" without knowing this information, and if caught using it, I wouldn't try to deflect criticism as if I really knew what I was talking about. But I'm not a talking head, so...

Zor, I seriously doubt it. Chamberlain giving away half of Czechoslovakia, and then brandishing a signed agreement from Hitler and proclaiming that he had "secured peace for our time" is basic ninth grade history here in Ontario. It's the type of basic WWII fact all the grown-ups surrounding the young Chris Matthews would have been railing about incessantly at the dinner table for the twenty years following the war.

"We're talking with people with blank slates as far as history is concerned..." wow. We've always wondered what would happen if we fail to teach history and rhetoric. It is as serious as graduating engineers who don't know math.

I have to say, though, that I'm pretty sure as he was forming his argument, Matthews was looking off to the left probably at a teleprompter where a producer was likely pasting stuff from Wikipedia about Chamberlain. I hate to be that skeptical.

What Chamberlain did wrong?! He was an appeaser! HE WAS AN APPEASER!

Thanks, Issy. This is so great and reminded me of all the times I spun this record in high school, trying to understand what the world was like. There are many great songs on this album, but it also evokes the suburban world of Cheever for me. The writing is really well done. I think the first I heard of it was seeing Richard Chamberlain sing "Barcelona" on PBS when I was a kid. Thanks again.

I see people everyday from Dumfuckistan.....The ones from the Capital, Huskhaven seem to be the most influential-Nancy's from there-

This one was rich: Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid-Sentence: 2 cups anthrax bisque. "The Neville Chamberlain school of appeasement" HAHA!

Galloway is another Neville Chamberlain.

This same spinelessness was also evident during the Cold War, when 'useful idiots' in the West tried telling us the Soviets only wanted to "coexist peacefully".

You can only have peace when your enemies fear you. The Iranians don't have the proper fear of extinction they should at the moment.

War = failure. Every war. No exception. How can we make it worse? Just keep doing it.

People like to point to the US revolution and WWII as "good" wars. I still say no. WWII was the result of the failure of the "victors" of WWI to realize that a perpetually humiliated and insolvent Germany would grow desperate and crazy like a caged dog poked with sticks all day long. It took a whole extra war to realize that real victory requires a Marshall Plan, not pointier sticks. Blame Chamberlain? It was already too late no matter what that guy did.

And the American revolution? Did all that violence (which includes 1812) really leave us better off than the Canadians, Australians or New Zealanders are today? It did enable the US to keep slavery legal for much longer than in the commonwealth though.

And the "unmistakable legacy of Vietnam?" Please. Guess what, we lost in Vietnam and what difference did it make? None. The dominoes didn't fall and the world didn't end (but the Cold War did). You can now vacation in Ho Chi Minh City. How much better off would we be now if we had stuck with it long enough to "win"? None--probably less. Piles of dead civilians afterwards? Yes. But we killed many more civilians over the many years we were there (estimated at 5.1 million) than were killed in the aftermath of our exit. What produced those killing fields and boat people? The war itself. None of that would have happened if the US had never intervened on behalf of French colonialism.

Saddam is dead. Whatever. I, personally, am ready to declare Iraq a total victory and George W. Bush an unprecedented genius--exceeded only by the enormity of his own (not gay!) penis. Fine. Let's all go home.

Tags changed from "nba,wilt,chamberlain,kareem,abdul-jabbar" to "nba,wilt chamberlain,kareem abdul-jabbar" by gold star member michie.

The Thorn Birds is a 1977 best-selling novel by Colleen McCullough, an Australian author. In 1983 it was adapted as a television mini-series that, during its television run became the United States' second highest rating mini-series of all time behind Roots; both series were produced by television veteran David L. Wolper.

The mini-series starred Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Barbara Stanwyck, Christopher Plummer, Bryan Brown, Mare Winningham, Philip Anglim and Jean Simmons. It was directed by Daryl Duke.

Set primarily on Drogheda, a fictional sheep station in the Australian outback, the story focuses on the Cleary family and spans the years 1908 to 1962.

Song is from the self-titled "Heart" album, 1985

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player. Considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time, he became the most effectively marketed athlete of his generation and was instrumental in spreading the appeal of the National Basketball Association around the world in the 1980s and 1990s. He is currently a part-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.

A remarkable force at both ends of the floor, "M.J." ended his 15 NBA seasons with a regular-season scoring average of 30.12 points per game, the highest in NBA history (marginally ahead of Wilt Chamberlain's 30.06). He won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls (during which he won all six NBA Finals MVP awards), won 10 scoring titles, and was league MVP five times. He was named to the All-NBA First Team 10 times, All-Defensive First Team nine times, and led the league in steals three times.

Since 1983, he has appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated a record 49 times, and was named the magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" in 1991. He has appeared on the cover of SLAM Magazine a record nine times, including the magazine's 50th and 100th issues. In 1999, he was named "the greatest athlete of the 20th century" by ESPN, and was second only to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press list of top athletes of the century. His leaping ability, vividly illustrated by dunking from the foul line and other feats, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness."