This film always puts a smile on my face!

Yeah, I know houses like this.

We used to have one in our neighborhood and they would always put up a sign on their front door on Halloween night that stating something like, "Halloween is an evil day that invokes the devil to come into ones life. If you go trick-or-treating you are going to hell and blah blah blah."

Yeah, they got egged that night...

Here's why I think he hit the ramp: If you notice, it was around sunset. Before the streetlights are on, but the sunlight is fading. Things are often VERY hard to see at dawn and dusk because of these lighting conditions. Then factor in that the ramp was either made of wood (whose shade is similar to concrete at dusk) or a composite material, also whose shade is similar to concrete. It's a recipe for disaster.

This almost happened to me with the kids right across the street from me. They were always putting the damn bike ramp up, and then leaving it up after they were done with it. There's was a gray composite material that matched the concrete's color almost exactly.

Who knows, maybe this driver was yapping on a cell phone and therefore he or she might have seen it had he or she been paying better attention. Or maybe the driver was like me, except they weren't lucky like I was. Either way, these kids ain't off the hook by a long shot. If my son left a ramp in the street and that happened, you better believe he would be punished.

And that's why I almost always put clasps on my interim partial dentures - you just can't rely on interproximal retention during a heating divorce hearing.

"Though I'll disagree that the reasons for the Iraq war were intentionally dubious"

I merely stated that the reasons going into Iraq were wrong, mostly because the administration over sold the threat and under sold the actual cost of going into Iraq. I felt like it was fear mongering more then anything else, riding of the events of 9/11, with threats like "Don't let the smoking gun be a mushroom cloud". There was such flimsy connections drawn between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

But the greatest mistake was the lack of concrete planning for actions after the nation was conquered, that to me is the biggest mistake of the entire campaign in Iraq. ORHA was given a month to figure out how to run a nation, the CPA hired fresh grad students who brought technological know how to a country that could not afford the solutions they pushed forward. The dismantling of the Iraq military forces and de-Baathization. It all seems like dangerous adventurism.

Democratization of the Middle East

This is one factor I really supported with regards to going into Iraq, the region as a whole is full of autocratic and despotic rulers. However Bush's promises never materalized into anything concrete, mostly because they didn't understand the situation on the ground, when Palestine held elections Hamas ended up winning, the new president of Iran, Sadr in Iraq, polling results in Egypt and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The US supports democracy but only on its own terms.

All the talk behind democracy faded after that, and I ultimately believe it was Saudi Arabia and Egypt who killed it, both nations that do not want to see any kind of democracy occurring anytime soon because of the strangle hold they have on power and money withing their respective nations. One of them happens to be the worlds largest oil supplier as well. The largest failing point was when the US sold billion dollars worth of arms to states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and so on after concerns over Iran.

The following is a comment I left on Dag's profile a while back regarding Democracy struggles in the Middle East in relation to autocratic rule, citing Israel as democratic nation in the Middle East.

I don't know the issue is rather merky when it comes to autocratic rule and Middle Eastern states, I mean for example Kuwait has a parliamentary democracy, and all decisions taken by the Amir have to abide by rulings made by the parliament and the cabinet, all positions that are elected. Women's rights and voting power has been factored in since early 2002 or so.

However politically the country is stagnant, its full of nepotism and corruption, its democratic nature while loved by the populace as it gives me a semblance of influence and most of all free press has seen the country degrade to alot of political infighting and hand wringing when it comes to making decisions with regards to developing the nation and reaching that common cited goal of becoming a "business hub".

Now compare that with nations like UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Saudia Arabia, they all have varying degress of autocratic rule far and above those of Kuwait. However when it comes to economic development, Kuwait is lagging far behind especially when you look at a place like Dubai that doesn't nearly have the same kind of oil wealth that Kuwait has, yet it beating Kuwait year on year with rapid economic growth and development. This is all while at the same time both Dubai and Bahrain are shedding restrictive control over the population via religious doctrine.

This has lead many to ask whether democracy is right for the Middle East as a whole or is it better to be ruled by influential western educated heads of State, Emirs, and Princes? This is a NY Times article on that very issue. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/world/middleeast/06kuwait.html?n=Top/News/World/Countries%20and%20Territories/United%20Arab%20Emirates

I agree Israel's democracy is good, but I also feel that it runs too aggressive because of a cornered rat symptom. Let's not forget that their economic prosperity has alot to do with American economic assistance and leanancy with regards to weapons sales and investment. Its true that actions of the state get questioned but I feel its always after the fact, look at the US, how many statues has the administration broken and other then a change of faces will anything really change? The greatest damage done is not that it was committed but that it gives someone else afterwards more room to do more damage. There is little actual accountability.

My personal wish is for Middle Eastern states to unshackle themselves from religious control, which is not there because Islam wishes it so but because its a great political control apparatus, especially in Saudi Arabia. A secular state with respect to religious freedom like the one I saw in Turkey set up by Ahmed Kamal is very admirable to me, but in all I think the population as a whole in the Middle East is not educated enough on civic rights and responsibility, too reliant on age old tribal control and influence that still manifests itself in the political process.

Biological Weapons

I agree that not many would willing go down that path, the costs of development and more so actual deployment require a national industrial project to be effective enough.

I believe the threat is more based around acquired biological weapons from poorly secured sources like those in Russia. However even then we are looking at small contained actions like those in Japan Subway system by that cult.

With regards to Iraq possessing WMD and Bioweapons I find the case was always put forward not because they possibly existed, but because they had the knowledge. I think is the same reason people high up in the US fear Iran, because nuclear development and weaponization is within their grasp, even if they are not working towards that goal. Its the knowledge that scares them.

>> ^Farhad2000:
I used to take French and actually lived in Quebec, until I realized French/Quebecan people don't want other people speaking French.

>> ^Payback:
They don't even want people from other French-speaking countries speaking French. As do all the other French-speaking countries, especially France.
They all have run away from wars started over mispronunciation.


Come on guys. Quebec, although only a province, is one of the biggest supporter of the International French Community (la Francophonie), both in manpower and money. It's our only protection from the English Commonwealth of Nations since most of us detoxed from all the wine and bread of the Catholic Church in the 1960s. It helps to keep us sane in this cold and anglicized "North of North-America" climate. I'd guess the reason why Farhad felt unwelcomed though is because he's Uzbek as there are (too) many xenophobes in Quebec. It goes with the whole assimilation thing the English tried to pull on us. We are also not immune from islamophobia, so everyone that looks middle eastern is taken as a Muslim-potential-terrorist. There are many french-speaking Muslims from Northern Africa and it's not the fact that they speak French that's scaring the unwashed masses both in Quebec and France! On the other hand, most francophone countries agree to say that France and the Académie are too protective of "their" language. Ironically, France is one the worst offender when it comes to official usage of anglicism and English-loanwords-with-perfectly-acceptable-French-equivalents in mass media and governmental publications. They also have the most americanized Head of State the whole world 'round (except maybe North Korea).

As for me, I see myself as a citizen of the world. What would I be doing here otherwise? I speak French and English, Japanese, German, a little Esperanto and Mandarin. I read some Ancient Greek and Latin, as little as I can get away with really. Next I need to learn Spanish, Arabic and some Sanskrit. I'd also like to speak better Mathematics (yeah I consider that a language of its own). I have always been fascinated by all human languages, though I've not always put much effort into learning them fully.

Unbelievable, they always end these lists with Mario or some other side scroller. It's past time to let go of the nostalgia already. Or, include it in the list, but don't feel obliged to always put it at the top out of loyalty, said nostalgia, credit, or whatever other useless notion.

Anyway, number one should've been the recent Limbo of the Lost controversy. But then, I guess that wasn't a moment as much as an entire game full of back to back moments.

>> ^lucky760:
And why are there never any videos of a girl taking a painful nutshot? Sexist much?
There's even nary a vid of girls taking a smash into the breasticles. I guess guys got all the dumdum chromosomes as they're obviously the least sensible of the species, always putting their sensitives in precarious situations.


You clearly don't play enough *actionpack volleyball.

Good times.

I cringe while watching this though. YOUCH indeed.

And why are there never any videos of a girl taking a painful nutshot? Sexist much?

There's even nary a vid of girls taking a smash into the breasticles. I guess guys got all the dumdum chromosomes as they're obviously the least sensible of the species, always putting their sensitives in precarious situations.

I always put my lewd parts on display when I go to a job interview. Why hide them? They may help you land that job. Terrible analogy!

Best movie evaarrrr

Now I know why they always put in musical notes in animation movies. It just makes everything better.

On first impression, the one thing that came into my head was refrigerator magnets. That page looks like those little words that people who pretend to have talent use. Seems fitting. Because as far as talent is concerned, I think youd better stick with an art form stick with an art form that that people will recognize. Besides, the latter of the two is right up your alley.

And if all else fails, you could always put on that "I'm Retarded" sign the government gave you to wear and try to sell your crap. People are suckers for retards and will feel bad so they will buy your arts and crafts project which are comparable to a third graders. Retarded third graders. On drugs.

Anyways. as far as that blog goes, I noticed he likes to talk about unexpected boners. I won't even code the link so you can all see it. http://randomwood.blogspot.com/ Some one help him out with that? Poor little guy probably thinks theres something wrong with it and cries when it happens. Even if he knows that its supposed to do that, it probably gets hard from rigor mortis. That is, I'm almost sure it died from lack of use.

I have to stop now. Just talking about this pathetic, talentless, good for nothing, useless, unproductive, leech on the economy is depressing me. Excuse me while I go wipe my ass with a piece of his "art". See dotdude? The Government issued sign works!

always......always put salt in your eyes!

I love how he always put his hat back on.

Alot of administration officials and apologists of torture always put forward the ticking bomb concept, where something terrible will happen but if we torture this person we might all be safe. What they fail to mention is that the ticking bomb scenario never happened in all the annals of history.

In less then 6 years since that fateful date, the current administration has unraveled almost 250 years of judicial justice and staunch American concept of standing for right, of not succumbing to tactics used by barbaric monarchists, the Nazis and the Soviet Union.

All in the defense of the 'American Way of Life'.