knapplc

Except that Hamas is notorious for making ceasefire deals with Israel and then breaking them once the Israelis let their guard down. Believing that Hamas would adhere to a 10-year truce is a nice utopian view, but nobody anywhere trusts that. This conflict dates back to the Balfour Declaration (and of course before that, but we're talking the modern-day issue, not ancient issues) and the issue of dividing the Ottoman Turkish empire between various parties and ethnicities, including the Arabs and the Jews. The territories created by the British and the UN just after WWII were in jeopardy from the instant of their inception, mostly because neither side would compromise. Both hated the borders, and both wanted the whole without sharing. This made the 1948 war inevitable, from which the modern state of Israel was carved. Israel never stopped conspiring against her neighbors from that day, but then again, her neighbors never stopped conspiring against her, either. Both sides had spies, secret police, assassinations, etc. Neither sides' hands are clean, and neither is "more wrong" than the other.

I'm well-established on the record of not caring much about recruiting stars. But I ran across this article and in the spirit of being "fair and balanced" about things, I thought this was interesting information. I'm not espousing it, just presenting it as the other side of the argument. He goes on to break down recruiting classes retroactively to correlate good recruiting classes with wins.

Caught the tail-end of this one the other morning. That's an epic butt-whipping by Arsenal. I know Blackburn isn't very good, but 7-1? Watched the Thierry Henry goal, which was fun. Good steal/breakaway and good finish.

Yes Israel with the help of the US is the aggressor. I'm not saying groups like Hamas haven't done terrorism though. There is plenty of blame to go around. On all sides.

Cactus' assertion throughout this thread is that Israel is the aggressor. That's been pretty obvious since the OP. Thus, not a straw man.

Apparently some singer flipped off the camera during Madonna's half-time show last night. And the world is in an uproar over it. Couple of questions: Did you see this? If so, were you offended?

Why is Obama shoving his Christian principles down our throats? Where is the separation between church and state? Freakin' Christians!!!!11!!!!1!!1!!!1!

Sub I don't think you know what a straw man is. This is at least the second time that I've seen you use this term incorrectly.

Obama is such a Bible-thumper.

Where would you rate the Israeli occupation of Palestine on a list of current world atrocities?

Enough with everyone calling everyone a troll. johnnyrodgers is a troll, matthew_m_g is a troll, I'm a troll, everyone's a troll. Let's all go sit under the bridge together. Now that we've cleared that up, let's just talk. K?

Nominate: 308_Husker

It is simply not true that Israel is ONLY being the aggressor. Israel did not wake up one day and decide to piss off all of its neighbors for no reason.

Israel sould be allowed to exist peacefully within its pre-1967 borders, and be defended in doing so by the US/UN/NATO/GCC. However its continued occupation of land beyond that and frequent attacks upon the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria should be economically and militarily opposed by US/UN/NATO/GCC. Israel's explanation for all of that is that they are responding, self-defense, etc. I see their point, but I agree with you that they go too far at times.

My cause is only to have a conversation. I'm not "for" anything, nor am I "against" anything - as long as the things we're talking about aren't inherently harmful. Christianity (or Islam, or Buddhism, etc) aren't inherently harmful. They can be twisted to become harmful, but that's more the fault of the one doing the twisting than anything else. Puppies are pretty much harmless, but I suppose if I tried hard enough I could use one to kill someone. Doesn't mean anything other than that I am willing to misuse something for my own ends. I'm not Christian, but I'm not anti-Christian. Most of my friends are Christian and I love them dearly. I just believe different things.

Well....... people calling themselves Christians did. But genocide isn't exactly among Jesus' teachings, so it's pretty hard for the Nazis to support that argument. Even today I believe most neo-Nazis believe or espouse Christian basis for their beliefs. It's pretty weird if you ask me. My answer to this was always along the lines of, if I walk up to carlfense and punch him in the jaw and say, "I did this in the name of johnnyrodgers20," who is to blame? johnnyrodgers or me? Obviously me, but for some reason in the world of online debate the person (or entity) whose name the action was taken in receives the blame. Not sure why that happens, other than it reinforces a previously-held belief. I guess. Christians who do bad things don't do them because they are Christian. They do them because they ignore the teachings of their leader. It's opposite of what they are supposed to be. Kind of like watching an Oklahoma vs. Nebraska game and rooting for the Sooners. Wouldn't make me much of a Nebraska fan, would it?

What is everyone's thought on what should be done with Israel? Should it stay? Should the U.S. support them? If we should not support them, what would happen?

Can you give me the Cliff's Notes version of that definition? I don't want to wade through the entire Geneva Convention.

I don't go to church anymore and I really don't consider myself religious. I believe the teachings of Christ are meritorious and I generally treat people the way Jesus taught us to treat people. I also have almost exclusively good thoughts towards my Christian friends. I didn't just wake up one day thinking they were evil – on the contrary, I consider them to be wonderful, great people. I just got to a point in my life where the mounting evidence against the mythological aspect of religion became too great to ignore. There were some deeply personal things that happened in the last year that also very much changed my view of things. Despite that, I still see merit to The Church, the religious and religion in general. I guess what I'm saying is, there doesn't have to be a black-and-white separation. You can be non-religious and still be friends with, be married to, and respect the religious. I don't see any merit to a rancorous relationship with those who have different beliefs than me. Sorry if that's all pedantic. I'm sure it's nothing more than most everyone already knows.

I know how Husker fans love a good fashion discussion. Ran across these concept designs by Charles Sollars Concepts on BTN.com. How would everyone like this? Helmet 1 Helmet 2 Jersey 1 Jersey 2 Gallery EDIT - this guy apparently did this for pretty much every major team. Lots of time on his hands. LINK

The underlined seems to be echoing krill's comment in post #2 in this thread. Romney has so many skeletons in his closet. Republican partisans are going to have to weigh their distaste for Obama with electing a candidate that could do more harm to their party by winning than by losing. I stick to my earlier prediction - the closer this gets to election day, the more it's going to become apparent that Romney is not electable, and the Republican voters will simply stay home.

Do you believe that Obama would have invaded Afghanistan if Bush hadn't? That's the only way you can put it on Obama's plate. Once we're there we can't simply pull up stakes because the sitting president disagrees with the conflict. I believe the Republicans call that "cut and run." Basically what I'm seeing is that if Obama continues the mission he's damned because it's now "his war." If he pulls our troops out he's guilty of "cut and run."

Perhaps you should read the definition of Genocide. http://www.merriam-w...ionary/genocide We are not intent on destroying a culture. We are targeting specific persons whom we believe are our enemies. If we were engaging in genocide we would simply march through each valley, round up everyone we see, and shoot them. Dropping bombs from drones is not genocide. It is surgical warfare.

They're saying we ended up with just about 12" of snow. The ground was still warm enough that once you got it off your drive, it stayed clear. Sunday was in the mid-30s and today (Monday) is supposed to be in that area as well, so there should be some decent melting. It'll stick around for at least a week, but if there are no new storms (Tuesday is a possibility) then we should be just fine.