The force of WILL displayed is incredible. The belief that Bush is bad-evil-theworstever existed before he ever took the oath of office. The sore feelings that Bush was better at stealing an election than Gore was taken up by people who are professionals when it comes to the ultimate moral authority… outrage. Gore started out by displaying a petulant attitude and it’s never let up.

And this was in 2000. When there was a limit to the damage that any president could do. The difference between a Dem status quo and a Rep status quo resembled the libertarian refrain “The Democrats and their clones the Republicans.”

Before 9-11. Before the invasion of Afghanistan. Before the build up to the invasion of Iraq. Before any cowboy manners could offend any sophisticated Euro. Before all that.

When it comes to the belief that Bush (and anyone close to him) is the WORST PRESIDENT EVER, cause and effect are backwards. Since the belief existed before any possibility of evidence… I have to, logically, rationally, MUST question the belief.

And here’s a clue… popularity != reputation.

Getting to be prom queen of the world is lame if everyone knows you’re a slut.

Vaclav Havel
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Fr. Maximilian Kolbe
Oscar Schindler

People of conscience who did the right thing in difficult times. And yes, sometimes had to go to war to do it. It remains to be seen what our latest crop of politicians will wind up as, but I’m betting that history will show GWB as something a little more than a “freezer rat.” (Interesting analogy, by the way.) He won’t be remembered as a “hero”, but certainly won’t be categorized as poorly as you seem to think. And the years definitely won’t be kind at all to Kerry, Clinton, Murtha and their ilk…scumbags all.

…and YOUR heroes would be, who, exactly? The corrupt Kofi Annan? Sheik Nasrallah? The dear departed Yassir? George Galloway? Cindy (I never had a child I couldn’t pimp politcally) Sheehan?

_Absolutely. It’s what we baby-killing redneck bloodthirsty neocon Zionists do for fun. Don’t like it? Please be bored and bothered somewhere else._

Oh well, whatever bakes your cake I guess. It beats the hell out of having a reality based argument or a position that can be defended in some quarters.

That’s what I get for posing questions that don’t make your heros look like intellectual giants I guess.

The search continues….

Sure, just like they were “seen as illegitimate” in Germany, Italy and Japan after WW2, right? It would be nice if the anti-war crowd would crack a history text every once in awhile, then they could more accurately regale us sweeping statements.
 

_______ * 11 July 2006 – 200 die and 700 injured in the bombing of rush-hour trains in Mumbai (Bombay), India.
_______ * 2 May 2006 – 35 Hindus die in attacks by Pakistan based Islamic rebels in Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
______* 7 March 2006 – 15 Hindus were killed in Hindu holy city of Varanasi attack by Islamic terrorists.
_______* 9 November 2005 – 2005 Amman bombings, over 60 killed and 115 injured, in a series of coordinated suicide attacks on Hotels in Amman, Jordan. Four attackers including a husband and wife team were involved.
_______* 23 July 2005 – Bomb attacks at Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort city, kill at least 64 people.
_______* 7 July 2005 – Multiple bombings in London Underground, 53 dead killed by four suicide bombers, 200 injured.
_______* 4 February 2005 – Muslim militants attacked the Christian community in Demsa, Nigeria, killing 36 people, destroying property and displacing an additional 3000 people.
_______* 11 March 2004 – Multiple bombings on trains near Madrid, Spain. 191 killed, 1460 injured. (alleged link to Al-Qaeda)
_______* 16 May 2004- Casablanca Attacks – 4 simultaneous attacks in Casablanca killing 33 civilians (mostly Moroccans) carried by Salafaia Jihadia.
_______ * 12 October 2002 – Bombing in Bali nightclub. 202 killed, 300 injured.
_______ * 24 September 2002 – Machine Gun attack on Hindu temple in Ahmedabad, India. 31 dead, 86 injured.
_______* 7 May 2002 – Bombing in al-Arbaa, Algeria. 49 dead, 117 injured
_______* 9 March 2002 – Café suicide bombing in Jerusalem; 11 killed, 54 injured
_______* 3 March 2002 – Suicide bomb attack on a Passover Seder in a Hotel in Netanya, Israel. 29 dead, 133 injured
_______* 11 September 2001 – 4 planes hijacked and crashed into World Trade Center and The Pentagon by 19 hijackers. Nearly 3000 dead.
_______* 13 October 2000 – USS Cole bombing from a small boat by suicide bombers. Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 were injured.
_______* 7 August 1998 – Embassy bombing in Tanzania and Kenya. 225 dead. 4000+ injured
_______* 25 June 1996 – Khobar Towers bombing, 20 killed, 372 wounded.
_______* 26 February 1993 – First World Trade Center bombing. 6 killed.
_______* 18 April 1983 – Embassy in Lebanon bombed. 63 killed.

Victims of a “religion” that glorifies hatred and death, internecine violence down to the clan and family level is standard practice and has been for centuries.

On the whole, it is preferable that they kill each other, directing their aggression inwardly.

Left to their own devices, Muslims will never evolve a civil society recognizable to westerners. Order in Islamic societies has always had to be imposed and has never bubbled up from institutions such as “town hall meetings”. It is an inevitable product of male dominated, “honor” based cultures.

Given enough time, the only answer is a radical culling of the more virulent carriers of what appears to be more a disease than anything else.

Trying to instill democracy in these societies is futile and would require that the amoral familial origins of the “honor” based family/clan structure be eradicated as was done in the northern British Isles. The Middle East is a rather more daunting task than that was.

I say this as a member by lineage of those UK cultures and someone at odds with a tradition that views the Battle of Culloden as a “tragedy” rather than a necessary step in the inevitable process of making modern citizens.

It is ironic that the echoes of the values of those extinct Anglo-Celt cultures now provide the US with its spine stiffening core resolve. It is also ironic that those values have been embraced by so many American Citizens leading to such seeming anomalies as a friend of mine, a self described Viet-American Redneck.

BTW, the term “Redneck” comes from the Scots border and is a very old descriptive usage.