I heard an interesting thing on the radio the other day. The radio host was basically bashing Bush and Kerry both. One of the guests called in and started complaining about how we never should have gone to war with Iraq and that we should pull our troops out immediately.

Another guy called up and was literally fuming. He said his son was in Iraq right now defending our country and whatnot. He said something like, "How DARE you criticize the government and the military! How can you call yourself an American when you don't even support America?"

It seems like this guy really doesn't understand why his son is over there in Iraq. He doesn't understand why American soldiers have given their lives countless times over the past two-hundred-and-something years.

They give their lives to defend the very freedom that allows this other guy to call up and criticize everything.

One of my favorite quotes:

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EvilMagic.net: Brian's Web Log

Strange thing is. That i have two feelings about the Iraq war

1) Its good, the people can live without Saddam and his torturing, forbidding type of ruling the country

2)WHY DOES AL-QUIDA ATTACK THEM? its because the people in Iraq are and i get it. Bush comeing in. Saddam gone yeah... Bush to long... ... Saddam caught... yeah... Bush to long again... ... what is the next step?

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-thank you man, raly appriciate it

The man was obviously emotional because his son is in Iraq. I don't think he was out of line to say "How DARE you...". I mean, it's my constitutionally protected right, unless they pass an ammendment, to burn an American flag and I don't think some patriotic flag waiver would be out of line to ask me something along those lines.

And it is a good thing that people are willing to fight and die to protect all of our rights.

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former TACC outcast

need help, I need help. I don't understand the #2 in your post.

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former TACC outcast

It's our freedom of speech, particullarly when we're disagreeing, that makes us American, and patriotic. Personally, the War in Iraq was actually a sidetracke from the War on Terror, and most of the people studdying political issues agree with me here. It is critical to defend our nation, preserve our power, and ensure our freedoms remain unharmed, but invading Iraq was a bad idea. It hasn't really helped us at all, and has tied up much of the military. As it turned out, Sadaam's WMDs weren't there, he had no links to Al-Qaeda (which makes sense, since it would be like Catholics and Protestants agreeing on everything), and his demoralized army, which the vast majority of which surrendered quickly, obviously couldn't pose a threat to USA interests if they couldn't even slow the progress of the invasion.


He's saying that those attacking our forces have a legitimate reason to be steamed. After all, they're our opponent, and they just can't keep up in total.

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Nes digs around in the trash can.
Nes finds a hamburger!
Nes puts the hamburger in his backpack.

I still don't get it. He's talking about Al Qaeda and Saddam and someone attacking someone. I can't tell if he's talking about the terrorists that are attacking Iraqis now or the terrorists that attacked us before we went to Iraq.

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former TACC outcast

I'm going to guess that the anti-war guy was blidly anti-war and couldn't back up his position on the Iraq war if his life depended on it. Not saying all in the anti-war camp are like that, but the most vocal seem to be that way.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

It's because there is a republican in the White House, Avenger.

Sadly, I have found most people who yell and scream to be such because of a title. Most so called democrats would be making apologies for Bush and praising him as the greatest modern president if his title was Democrat instead of Republican, with all issues being equal. Of course, those that actually understand their party would still be opposed to him because Bush does run counter to Democratic ideals, but they would be a minority in that case, and drown out by the defenders.

It's actually true of both parties - I have found, proportionate to each political party, the majority just mindlessly chant tag lines from whatever their party says, be they republican or democrat. I think there are more "thinking" republicans than "thinking" democrats, if you consider that it takes one to form their own opinions in order to be a conservative in a liberal area, such as California, or the suburbs of Chicago, IL.

Anyway, my point is, most people are morons who feel that by repeating themselves over and over again, it somehow makes them right.

*shrugs*



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Fear is here, where's the beer?

Indeed they would, and if you go back to Clinton, there wasn't a lot of Republican fuming about much of anything, except for his "under the desk" activities.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

Clinton was a closet Republican, he couldn't get away with being a Democrat and making all sorts of Republican style decisions openly, so he just did them without really telling people. Ironically most of the sorts of things people yell at Bush for, Clinton did exactly the same, the difference being Bush is generally rather up-front abuot when he makes a policy or decision.

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[Blue Mink Bifocals !] [fsck -Rf /world/usr/] [<!-- kalimonster -->] [Capite Terram]
"You'll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality. The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die." -Happy Endings [Margeret Atwood]
NPC.Interact::PressButton($'Submit');

What's your point? Sure his son is defending the other guy's right to say that, but it still doesn't mean the guy in question can't call him out for it. His son is fighting for BOTH of them, therefore the first man has the right to criticize America, and the second man has the right to criticize the first.

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Do you have stairs in your house?

And the third man has the right to criticize the first two.. and the fourth.. and it's just turtles all the way down. And what is all this criticizing accomplishing aside from letting everyone know that some people gasp have different opinions than them. Political sniping isn't going to make any world problems go away or reach the ultimate betterment of humanity. I couldn't really say what will, but i would bet that more people getting actually educated and informed about their positions, and voting and acting in ways to make a difference might. But then again that would take work right?

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[Blue Mink Bifocals !] [fsck -Rf /world/usr/] [<!-- kalimonster -->] [Capite Terram]
"You'll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality. The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die." -Happy Endings [Margeret Atwood]
NPC.Interact::PressButton($'Submit');

Yeah so expressing your opinions on a radio show in an attempt to persuade people on air with thousands of people listening is STUPID! Those hicks should go to school and educate themselves!

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former TACC outcast

More or less
Expressing an opinion is one thing, sure that's great. It's good to be able to express opinions. Just so long as you don't expect those thousands of people listening to take you at face value and change their minds solely on what you've said instead of actually gasp learning about the discussed issue and [ ] making up their own minds.

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[Blue Mink Bifocals !] [fsck -Rf /world/usr/] [<!-- kalimonster -->] [Capite Terram]
"You'll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality. The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die." -Happy Endings [Margeret Atwood]
NPC.Interact::PressButton($'Submit');

This is one of my dilemmas. When I go into the military, there are certain people that I don't want to fight for their freedom of speech. Some fascist guy could come along and give a speech, blah, blah, blah. Okay, I'll defend him. But I really don't want to defend the guy that gets on his soapbox that is not only insulting([public figure] is a dumb*** and deserves to be flogged!) but also has no realistic value to what they say([public figure] is Satan incarnate and everything you say is wrong! I'm right, you're wrong, so shut up!).

basically those that slanderize and commit libel against public figures and those that say things so off the wall and are dicks about it.
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If you ever want to be hated by your peers, make them look bad. That's what America did.

[This message has been edited by Kieran Horn (edited March 17, 2004).]

You will be fighting to preserve the right to freedom of speech but don't confuse that with the right to be free from the repricussions of that speech. Whether the repricussions mean looking like an *** or being prosecuted for commiting slander, we all are ultimately responsible for how we choose to use that freedom. Plus, just because someone has the right to say something doesn't mean anyone will listen.

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former TACC outcast

You are confusing the freedom to talk with the freedoms granted by the first amendment. If the government can prosecute us based on our speech, than it is a violation of the first amendment right which is specifically having no law abridging freedom of speech.

I should have said sued. The government can't prosecute anyone for slander. An individual can file a lawsuit if he has been slandered upon. Please, pardon my mispeaking. People lie and slander the government and government officials everyday without prosecution. Of course we showed those rightwingers when Clinton was in there! IRS would routinely audit outspoken critics of the administration. Bush wouldn't dare do anything like that. Well, unless Rove told him to maybe.

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former TACC outcast

[This message has been edited by Wookie06 (edited March 17, 2004).]

Wookie, you are priceless

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

Well, I guess that depends on how much you're willing to pay. Oh, and for what, of course!

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former TACC outcast