Cherry Poppin' Daddy

Did Renaissance artists objectify women? Did the ancient Greeks or Romans? What's the difference between a naked classical statue and a PETA ad, besides 1000 years?

North Korea should have been invaded long ago, if simply on humanitarian grounds. Kim Jong Il's policies have led to what can only be termed a holocaust. Food goes to the military first, and the population gets what is left. North Korea no longer has the USSR to back it up, and China has moved to distance itself from it. How long should we let this kind of suffering continue? I don't believe North Korea has nuclear weapons. Until they test one, I consider this just another attempt to scare the west into giving concessions at the bargaining table.

The only location in North America that I know of a large number of people wanting gun control is eastern Canada. Everywhere else in North America (as far as I know), this is generally considered a pretty horrid idea. I'm in favour of only limited gun control. I don't believe people should be allowed to own military style weapons, nor carry concealed weapons in public, but rifles and handguns should defintely be legal for law abiding citizens to own. (I checked yes on that question, even though my position isn't black and white.)

That sucks, but the first amendment protects even the most vile people.

You are a Social Liberal (81% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (73% permissive) You are best described as a: Libertarian You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. (technically, I'm an economic liberal... damn website with its confusing little labels).

If I wanted water, I'd ask for water.

Pundits blow.

I don't know, guys. I read this story the day it happened. Maybe you aren't looking at the right sources.

So, just to wrap up this thread: Yeah, Canadians do have experience training police in Haiti and could be helpful in Iraq, but fuck America and their mess.

Who else thinks this sounds a lot like The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again?

Economic Left/Right: 4.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.82 Close to Milton Friedman. Interesting how the G7 leaders are all in the top right.

Actually, Sec of State Condoleeza Rice visited both leaders this week, and Sharon and Abbas are going to meet with Bush in Washington. So, it seems the US is going to help broker some kind of deal.

http://stopthewall.org/analysisandfeatures/726.shtml The great anti-racist fighter Malcolm X once said the problem with corporate owned media and capitalist politicians was that they always made the victim look like the aggressor and the aggressor look like the victim. He called this propaganda "tricknology)”. Today you'd be hard pressed to find a greater example of media tricknology than the depiction of the Palestinian struggle. If you based yourself exclusively on mainstream media reporting, you could be excused for believing that the Palestinians brought all their suffering and misery on themselves! Since its formation in 1948 Israel has worked hard to present itself as a besieged oasis of democracy in the Middle East - a tiny outpost of decency, constantly and incessantly threatened by hordes of bloodthirsty Arabs who are so blinded by their irrational anti-Semitism that they refuse to leave peace-loving Israel alone. The state of Israel is an apartheid state. In the same way apartheid South Africa was an attempt to build an anti-black, exclusively white-controlled country on African land, Israel is an attempt to build an anti-Arab, exclusively Jewish-controlled state on Arab land. This is the essence of Zionism the official ideology of the Israeli state. Zionism = Colonialism When Theodor Herzl, the ideological founder of the Zionist movement in the late 1890's, was asked what he proposed to do with the indigenous Palestinian population when his “state of the Jews” became a reality, he replied: “We will quietly spirit them across the border”. Herzl liked this idea because “For Europe, we (the Zionists) would constitute a bulwark against Asia down there [in Palestine]; we would be an advance post of civilisation against barbarism.” The state of Israel was founded on the basis of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine of its indigenous Arabic speaking inhabitants. Joesph Weitz, the head of the Jewish Agency's colonisation department, confirmed this in his 1940 diary. “It must be clear”, he wrote, “that there is no room for both people's together in this country… not one [Arab] village, not one tribe should be left.” The creation of Israel was only possible after the driving out of some 850,000 Palestinians by Israeli military units and terror gangs. Today the number of Palestinians living in refugee camps numbers over 3 million. While any Jew from around the world has the legal right to settle in Israel under the Law of Return, Israel refuses to even discuss allowing Palestinian refugees to return. Racist Apartheid State The key basis of the Israeli constitution and declaration of independence is that Israel is an exclusively “Jewish State”. That the state should be secular, meaning not tied to any religion, is a fundamental democratic demand. The Muslim and Christian Palestinians living in Israel's borders are denied the same rights as Israel's Jewish citizens. Under the 1948 United Nations enforced partition, Israel was granted 54% of Palestine. The Palestinians rejected the partition from the start on the grounds that setting up an exclusively Jewish state would result in the repression and expulsion of the local Arab population. By 1949 Israel had seized 78% of Palestinian land. By 1967, 90% of Palestine had been taken. The outright theft of Palestinian land has continued throughout this period. Before 1948 there were 475 Arab villages within the borders of what became the State of Israel. By 1973, 385 of these had been destroyed by the Israeli authorities. By 1981 one third of the occupied West Bank , conquered by Israel during the 1967 war, had been expropriated. Today over 60% of the land in the West Bank is owned by non-Arab Israeli settlers even though they constitute a tiny minority of the population. In Gaza, there are around 6000 Jewish settlers living among a population of one million Palestinians. Yet 42% of the land in Gaza is owned by Israeli Jews whilst 94% of land in historic Palestine is under the administration of the Jewish National Fund. This land can be leased only to Jewish people. Palestinians and other non-Jews are excluded from leasing this land without exception. The historic demand of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was to replace the apartheid state with a “democratic secular” state, in which Jewish, Christian and Muslim citizens would be equal. In the late ’80s the PLO made a major concessions and limited their demand to such a state based only on the West Bank and Gaza Strip territories, a tiny portion of historic Palestine. However, they have not even been granted this and these territories remain under military occupation with more and more illegal Israeli settlements being built there each year. The Palestinian people have a proud history of resistance against injustice and have not been defeated. They continue to struggle for justice and self determination in the face of the full might of the US equipped Israeli military. Their struggle should inspire us all to struggle in solidarity with the Palestinians and against the system that causes their oppression.

His blog is an extension of his art. If you don't like it, you are not a true fan.

Captain Janeway was a fox, though. I'm sure she made many a trekkie's pjs wet at night.

Nepal’s King, the only Hindu Monarch in the world seized power, broke out of the gilded cage that limited his powers under the democratic constitution and armed Nepali troops surrounded the homes of leading politicians putting them under house arrests. Nepal's nine-year-old conflict between the state and Maoist rebels is Asia's deadliest: around 11,000 people have been killed, including 800 last December. The country has among the world's highest rates of unexplained disappearances. India, US, UK and other countries have for a long time urged Nepal to maintain the Moarchy under the realm of the constitutional democracy. The elected officials in Nepal for a long time have shown incompetence and corruption. As a result the country has very little law and order with Maoists mostly in control of the vast countryside. India is up in the arms with King’s action. The Government of India urged King Gyanendra to restore democracy under the established Nepali constitution and release all political leaders. According to sources in Nepal, King is upset with the politician’s inability to negotiate and control the Maoist insurgency. The law and order has reached such a low point that Maoists are announcing the date and place where they will cause disruption and they are doing so. While democracy is always desired, according to the King, political leaders have to think for the people, the country and solve the Maoist problem. King Gyanendra finally decided to take the matter in his own hand, negotiate with Maoists and may be bring in United Nations if needed. It is a gamble by the King and definitely defiance against India to save Nepal from the Maoists. No one knows what will happen. The Maoists have fanned nationalist rumors that Indian military intervention is imminent. King Gyanendra plans to negotiate with the Maoists, bring them from terror camp to the Nepali mainstream and let all compete together in constitutional democracy. He may also let the Maoists know if they do not take this opportunity to discard terror, he will use brutal force as well as take help of international agencies like the UN to defeat the Maoists. While King’s action is deplorable only because he threw a democratically elected Nepali Government under the constitution out. But he may not have had a choice under the current circumstances. His point may be – at any cost, by any means he has to stop Nepal from getting destroyed by the leftists and Maoists. http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/02-02-05.asp

If you don't agree with Matt, then you obviously aren't a true fan.

;) :angry: :angry: :angry: (8) (8) (8) :blink: :unsure: Innocent people can go to trial. Better work on that logic. Canada's trade surplus is a good thing. Prices would sky rocket if we manufactured more here.