~Di

A comparable military response would end in war and the North holds the population of Seoul hostage. The North boasts an estimated 13000 artillery pieces, the largest concentration anywhere in the world, already dug in and pointing at the South's cities. There is no effective counter against such a threat against the civilian population. The South would win with their American allies but the cost would be incalculable. This is where the North's supreme confidence comes from. They know that starting a war is unthinkable for the South since its leaders are obliged to actually care what happens to its citizens. I understand what you're saying. However, the South simply cannot allow its fleet to be destroyed without firing a shot. It must defend itself at some point.

Meanwhile, I suppose the South Koreans are supposed to suffer in silence while the North torpedos it's navy one ship at a time. Great plan!

His last post was May 6th but his profile says that he was last on yesterday. Even if he hasn't been posting, it looks like he's still logging in on occasion. He wasn't feeling well the last time he posted, and had scheduled a doctor's appointment. I'm concerned. I hope he checks in soon.

Yes. One analyst I heard on tv said that the changes will remove criticisms of McCarthy and assert instead that communism was indeed rampant during the McCarthy years... which would make him look like a shining hero saving the American way of life. Bah. Ridiculous revisionism.

Me too. He's been too quiet lately. Troublesome.

*shrug* Don't like the message, ridicule the source, even though the source is a nationally-respected newspaper. Common tactic. Cheap, but common. I'm not going to get into dueling sources when even the chair of the committee making the changes has proudly confessed that they are "eliminating the liberal slant" of their books.

True, but his philosophy was altered to omit his passionate support of the separation of church and state. Do you have any evidence for this? Sure. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0031700560.html ...The curriculum plays down the role of Thomas Jefferson among the founding fathers, questions the separation of church and state, and claims that the U.S. government was infiltrated by Communists during the Cold War...Discussions ranged from whether President Reagan should get more attention (yes), whether hip-hop should be included as part of lessons on American culture (no), and whether President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis's inaugural address should be studied alongside Abraham Lincoln's (yes). ...Also contentious were changes that asserted Christian faith of the founding fathers. Historians say the founding fathers had a variety of approaches to religion and faith; some, like Jefferson, were quite secular... For a secular nation, the founders sure used the word "God" a lot. And again, what evidence are you basing this on? Btw, the final curriculum hasn't been adopted yet, they're still holding public hearings. We were not a nation "forged under God" until the mid-1950's, during McCarthy's reign, when congress tossed away more than 150 years of history by removing "E Pluribus Unum" (from many one) from our currency and replacing it with "In God We Trust." Those same God-loving folk decided that our original Pledge of Alligiance wasn't Christian enough, so they added the "Under God" to it at that time. I doubt the kids in Texas will ever learn that in school, however. No, the changes haven't passed yet but they are expected to. The conservatives still have the majority vote.

True, but his philosophy was altered to omit his passionate support of the separation of church and state. The 100+ changes in the Texas version eliminate the secular point of this nation, and paint it as a Christian nation, forged under God. Which, btw, it was not. So that's a pretty significant historical "revision."

True, schools have the absolute right to ban certain clothing items. But the ban must be universally enforced. At any rate, this school had no such ban, students had been wearing USA flag and Mexican flag T-shirts thoughout the year with no problems. The fact that only one T-shirt was banned on this specific day, and other flag T-shirts were not is the problem. If USA flag T-shirts were not going to be allowed (apparently at least one of the boys wore his shirt a couple times a week), then the administration had the obligation to tell students in advance that the rule was going to be changed for that day. I'm not going to just brush aside terrible decisions by school administrators by labeling kids as baiting, when there isn't the slightest evidence that they were doing so, and significant evidence that they wore the apparel in question frequently. Two of the kids were hispanic themselves, for crying out loud.

There must be something in the water. Attacking very young children... damn. I can't wrap my brain around these horrific acts.

Two of the five kids wearing those USA T-shirts are half Mexican themselves, and proud of it. These boys were just sitting at a table before school started when the vice-principal... also hispanic, btw... told them that if they went to class wearing them they'd be suspended. Now lots of kids were wearing shirts with Mexican flags on them. That was okay. American flag, not okay. Both Mexican flag T's and American flag T's have been repeatedly worn at this school throughout the school year with no repercussions at all. It was a bad call. The school district immediately overruled the vice-principal, who has since apologized. Now for those who are busy calling 5 kids jerks for wearing their flag shirt, how about the 200 hispanic students who skipped classes the following day and marched to the school district building waving full-sized Mexican flags, demanding those five kids be suspended? What kind of punishment did the class-skipping, flag-waving marchers get? None. None at all. It's fine for schools to make rules, but if they do not enforce those rules evenly and fairly, then the schools themselves are teaching a pretty poor lesson in race relations. When things go bad, it isn't always the "white" kids (or in this case, the perceived "white" kids) who are at fault, and simply belonging to a "minority" race does not give one license break rules, then cry "racism" if they are called to task for it.

Horrible idea, absolutely horrible. First, IIRC there is no constitutional provision for stripping anyone of citizenship (except if fraudulently obtained) unless said citizen was convicted of treason. So right there, we have a constitutional challenge. Then there are the consequences. Say a natural-born citizen was tried and convicted of terrorism, then had his citizenship revoked. Let's also presume that eventually he gets out of prison. Then what? Is he officially an illegal "alien"? Do we deport him? Where to? Is he given "persona non-grata" status and forced to leave the country? Again, where to? On another forum a poster pointed out that this law could create "Mehran Nasseri's all over the US". (Nasseri was the guy who lived at DeGulle Airport for years; they made a movie about him.) Or when he leaves prison, do they now scoop up this non-citizen convicted terrorist and throw him into Gitmo. The potential for abuse and ramifications of this law would be disastrous, never mind the constitutional amendment that would be required.

"the Mexicans" what the **** is this? seriously tho what am i looking at. it looks like we have someone who doesn't like it when immigrants march for their rights and for the expansion of legal immigration, but just "loves" the "Mexican culture" that she (?) grew up "surrounded by." lmao @ the idea that the recent anti-SB1070 protests are about hispanic supremacism. wtf? To be honest, I don't think that's what she (?) was referring to. You're quite right, it's not what I was referring to. Thanks.

It doesn't matter if they were green and tentacled, they were intentionally baiting another group. I see. Let's compare those 5 boys wearing patriotic T-shirts with the 200 hispanic students that skipped classes the following day and marched to the school administrative offices carrying their Mexican flags and chanting "si se puede" and "we want respect". Would you consider that "baiting" another group? Because I sure as hell would.

No, I'd be calling for the administrators to call the cops and report the crime of assault & battery. The very idea that kids can be beaten up on their own campuses for wearing a flag on their clothes, any flag (a large contingent of hispanic students wore Mexican flags on their clothing with no repercussions, and no stipulation that they can't wear said clothes any time they liked) and then the victims be blamed is a symptom of a very large problem. As pointed out, one high school actually banned the American flag from its campus (permanently, I believe) because some of the hispanic students were offended by it. Offended by the American flag flying over an American high school on American soil. If the administrators of that school have so little control over their students that 5 kids were in danger of being beaten by hundreds of hispanic kids, then they're doing a piss-poor job. If there was enough racial tension in that school to evoke that fear, then Cinco de Maya should not have been celebrated on the school campus. Instead, it should have been celebrated by the community off-campus. There isn't another country on the planet that would ban their own national flag because a segment of their population was "offended" by it. Yet that is exactly what America is supposed to do in order to prevent violence by a bunch of people who are supposedly here because they choose to be although they want the flag of their country of origin to take precedence? I've been a parent for a good number of years, and I've learned one thing about human nature from raising my kids. If you give them what they want every time they throw a tantrum, they will eventually believe themselves entitled to everything they want, and will throw increasingly violent tantrums to get it. I love Mexican culture. I grew up surrounded by it. I love the people. But the warm, wonderful, joyful Mexican immigrants I grew up with did not resemble the hateful protesters we've seen over the past decade, people who seem to dispise the country they've adopted and treat it with disdain while demanding... demanding!... they their culture take precedence over all others. I believe it's a very small percentage of the hispanic community that feels this way, but that small percentage is very vocal, very entitled, and frankly is angering and frightening people who have never before given a second thought to the good people who comprise 45% of our minorities. There's a racial divisiveness now that I never saw growing up, never saw raising my own kids in the midst of a community filled with wonderful hispanic people (and wonderful VietNamese people!). I'm not liking what I see, and I'm not liking the shrieks of "racism" being flung far and wide every time a few extremist Mexican nationalists throw a public tantrum.

This should have been a non-issue, totally ignored by the school. Instead, they turned it into a race-baited pissing context, particularly since AZ's law which actually enforces the same immigration laws that the government has been bribed to ignore for decades has certain hispanic groups screaming from coast to coast about how persecuted hispanics are. These kids felt "disrespected" because 5 boys out of hundreds wore flag t-shirts? That's BS. Disrespect is ignoring all of America's immigration laws and pouring 20+million people into the country illegally, where they immediately steal somebody else's ID, take jobs, use taxpayer supported medical and welfare services, pay absolutely no income tax, and cause severe economic drains on the areas most heavily affected. Disrespect is flooding the streets with thousands of protestors waving Mexican flags because the guy selling stolen social security, credit card, and green card numbers out of his car trunk in a mall parking lot was arrested. Disrespect is those protestors chanting that illegal aliens have the right to be here illegally, and to buy all the forged and stolen documents they want without police interference. This is America. People live here who were born in hundreds of different countries and different cultures. We welcome all our immigrants, legal immigrants. We accept their different cultures, in fact embrace many of their cultures within our own, so long as they live by American laws. Coming to America, then protesting the American flag because it "offends" them on "their day"... now that's disrespect, my friends.

Those Gulf oil rigs have been operating for decades, going through 30-40 years (maybe more) of hurricanes, etc., and this is the first significant spill ever. But it's a doozy. A massive explosion actually sank the entire platform, which most likely fell to the bottom and blocked access to the spewing well. It's going to be a disaster worse than Katrina when all is said and done, and will probably foul coasts from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida in the worst ecological disaster the USA has ever seen. Fishing industries will be decimated, perhaps for years... or decades. The spill is larger than the state of Rhode Island and is tripling every day. I'm not usually one to get upset about something that hasn't actually occurred yet, but this scares the hell out of me. It's going to gut the economies of every affected state, take away the livelihood of thousands, if not tens of thousands of people, and destroy so much wildlife that I get ill just thinking about it. It makes me so damned sad.

Remember, I warned there would be good days and bad days, and the weight loss might vary. I suspect that much in a few days is excess fluids being drained. Also, your weight will vary by several pounds during every day, depending on when you last ate/drank/went pottie, etc. Unless you continue to drop weight excessively over a period of a couple weeks, I wouldn't worry. My marathon-running first husby lost 10-15 pounds during the course of a single race! Did you go to the doctor yet? You should, just so he can monitor your vitals as you continue to lose weight.

Oh, dear lord. Where's a decent *facepalm* icon when you really need one.

That's a good idea, actually. You really shouldn't attempt a major weight loss without having a doctor's supervision. You're proceeding very wisely.

He's doing so very well! It's difficult to change one's entire lifestyle, but it's doable and the results can be life-changing!

I agree! I'm proud of you. Just cutting out the junk food and exercising will yield major results in just a couple of months. Eating healtier will just increase that yield. By this time next year, you'll probably be at your ideal weight, or close to it! Don't let the bad days get you down. Your body is sulking. You've always given it what it wanted, and now it's rolling back and forth between being angry with you and saying, "hey, that feels kinda good!"

Oh, if you haven't played Gothic 1 or 2, then you won't have a clue about your history with all your main mates. The backstory of the first two games gives so much flavor and closure to this game. Golly, you don't even know how you got to Myrtanna or where your big boat came from! When you hit a gaming lag, you really should try to play at least Gothic 2. It's a fabulous, fun game (slightly better than Gothic 1) and you'll know all you need to know for Gothic 3 to be more personal, make sense and give closure. The entire trilogy is great fun, though.

It's been a while since I played, but IIRC you get the blueprint by doing a quest that goes back and forth from Varant to Myrtana. That's why I never liberate more than two cities, then visit every other town in all three countries first, so I don't end up killing questgivers or making them enemies before I even get to talk to them. Or maybe it's the ship blueprint I'm thinking about. Others may remember more vividly. There are a ton of quests in Varant, but if you make 'em hostile too soon, you won't get any of them. The same thing goes for Myrtanna and Nordmar. Absolutely talk to Xardas before you commit to one side, presuming you haven't already liberated the capital cities and killed off the king, ruler, etc. If you have, you have fewer options. I must replay this again soon. I always find something I missed!

Now that was just evil!