Highluc

Bubba, don't forget to read my reply on your message, I'm afraid it got lost as the last message on previous page and you might not read it if only checking the last page. No hard feelings, just another opinion.

Sounds like Big Brother is going to smash the little brother against the wall a few times just because the little one pinched him in his ankles. Being the strongest means you also should be able to be reasonable and only use your strength when really needed and against equally strong opponents. The last 50 years we had a form of peace in the world thanks to a balanced deterrence between a few strong nations. This led most nations to diminish defence spending and army sizes and sign disarmament treaties. The money could then be used into boosting the economy, increase development aid to reduce the potential North South conflicts and avoid massive economical immigration etc…During more than a decade this worked fine and military power was mostly used after UN consent to smother local conflicts or push back invading armies. After the cold war we saw slow but successful results reuniting populations that had been split generations ago, mostly thanks to never ending political negotiations from United Nations ambassadors and officials. Free economic markets blossomed throughout the world, most world nations agreed in Kioto something had to be done to preserve our atmosphere from further decay. The USA had been a forerunner of all these peacetalks (SALT agreements), ratification of the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty, supporting the German unification, providing STOL aircraft to deliver food help throughout Africa etc… Only the last years we note the USA refuses to participate in the world program to minimise exhaust of gasses and heath into the atmosphere, instores unrealistic import duties on such products as steel etc, unilaterally pulls out from the ABM treaty and starts to develop a new ABM systems, continuously reduced its UN contributions and negates the forum’s resolutions (ie against Israel), believes they are entitled to police the world by enforcing no fly zones over sovereign territories, refuses to recognise the neutral aspect of the International tribunal of The Hague, etc No wonder some of the strongest pro USA believers from the past (like me) start to have doubts about this hegemony trend of one nation versus the world. Not being pro does not mean being against (as you suggest), but allow people to at least be neutral and think about the long term advantages and disadvantages of some drastic unilateral decisions. With the global economy and multicultural society we now live in it is potential long term suicide to start unilaterally declared actions. Of course you can try to pursue the Far West mentality and only think short term for the benefits of your economy but be ready for some furious response from others who feel neglected or threatened.

In the meantime I bought some additional classy winter boots, please have a look at my website to see them.

Are you sure you mean ABM? Or would an ICBM do the trick?

Nobody mentionned ABM so far, we only referred to the standard atomic bomb, without even mentionning a delivery vector.

I am confused about how you use the word informer. Are you talking about the Prime Minister (Head of Government) who is appointed by your hereditary/non-elected monarch (King ALBERT II) who then upon appointment has to be approved by Parliament ?

With the multitude of parties coalitions have to be formed after elections in order to get a comfortable majority. The informer acts as an independant person for this matters and talks individually to the parties in order to see if compromises can be found in their programmes so they can come up with a government able to attain common goals even if they had different accents in their progrm. The informer (which for this job is neutral and may or may not be part of the government) reports to the King who then can appoint a "formateur", the guy responsible to negociate all the different aspects of the compromises in a "government declaration", the joint paper that stipulates the common program of this mixed party government, and he also bargains with the parties as to who will assume what minister title during that legislation. If he finds a solution he then reports to the King who then "formally" accepts the composition of the new government and work can begin for four years. Often but not always the "formateur" becomes the Prime Minister.

For the moment we have a coalition of Liberals, Socialists and Ecologists running the country.

The point I was trying to make about removing Saddam with an ADM is that the lost of life would be somewhere in the area of 5,000 people due to direct result of blast and immediate posioning by radiation

I don't know how you come to that figure. In your earlier messages you were talking about a 250kt ADM, that's more than 10 times the Hiroshima bomb. IMHO ADM's use should be limited to deterrence only. Any nation using even the smallest one would produce (political) results that cannot be overseen. A conventional War is already terrible, lets hope we will never see a develloped NBC variant of it.

In Belgium we also have a King, but his power has been limited in practice to ceremonial and representative duties except after elections where he appoints an informer to form a new governemnt, not a sinecure with more than 10 parties in 3 semi autonomous regions with different official languages. In Belgium voting is no choice, you get a fine or go to jail if you had no valid reason not to show up. As from this year we have new rules and parties have to get at least 5% of the votes to be able to contend. Our lists are quite huge and allow to bring out either party votes or name votes. While the ministers are still appointed from within the parties, for the first time we will be able to choose our local mairs directly as a person, without interference of the parties sharing the available seats in the town councils. With so many parties, we almost always end up with coalitions which makes it a little more difficult to conduct sound and steady policies and much negotiations have to be done to find acceptable compromises. In Belgium everybody is used to sit around a table and add lots of water to their wine instead of loadly proclaiming their personal convictions.

power

Hi Micha, to post a text in the box, just select the portion of the text in a previous mail, copy that part, open a new reply, push the quote button, paste the text, push the same quote button (which now is the unquote) et voilà, good luck

I hope to see you back soon in all your glory on this board.

azraelle wrote

It never attacked us, no, but it did have nuclear missiles aimed at us in 1962

I remember the US having thousands of nuclear vectors pointing at the USSR and stationned in other neigbouring counties. Again this is a case of the USA being allowed what is unacceptable to them if they are at the receiving end.

Are you going to intimate that the Cuban people have been better off since Castro took power?? You could compare Castro quite favorably to Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Josef Stalin...you get the idea.

I spent a 2 week holiday in Cuba a few months ago and talked freely to the population throughout the island, not only in the tourist centres and while they don't make much money, they were quite happy. Instead of having a few people get very rich by working from dusk to dawn without a family life, everybody worked a little at a relaxed rhytm and they happily chatted all day. Without the economic bloccade they could have had better hospital services but at least it was designed for the whole population. I'm not advocating the communist system is the best, but who are we to impose our capitalist system and friendly leaders to a sovereign nation with sufficient freedom to organise themselves to overthrow their leader for another one.

I believe God put us on this earth to do what good we can do--do we sit idly by watching fellow human beings suffer needlessly, or do we try to do something about it besides chaining ourselves between a couple of trees to stop traffic in the name of "Give Peace a Chance"? Which has about the same net effect as straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic as it is capsizing

Please leave God out of the equation, we don't all have the same god to start with and the Crusades have done nothing for peace in the past. For the sake of peace let's replace God by the United Nations council. It sure is far from perfect but presently the only available forum to protect mankind from unnecessary violance.

Then we have accusations of aggressiveness towards Cuba (!) and Grenada.

Are you going to deny trying invading Cuba by the unsuccessfull landing of mercenary troops in Pigs Bay in the 60's? (and still maintaining an economic embargo on that country that never attacked you).

Maybe we could all sing this appropriate song together Sung to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it" If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq. If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq. If the terrorists are frisky, Pakistan is looking shifty, North Korea is too risky, Bomb Iraq. If we have no allies with us, bomb Iraq. If we think someone has dissed us, bomb Iraq. So to hell with the inspections, Let's look tough for the elections, Close your mind and take directions, Bomb Iraq. It's "pre-emptive non-aggression", bomb Iraq. Let's prevent this mass destruction, bomb Iraq. They've got weapons we can't see, And that's good enough for me 'Cos it'all the proof I need Bomb Iraq. If you never were elected, bomb Iraq. If your mood is quite dejected, bomb Iraq. If you think Saddam's gone mad, With the weapons that he had, (And he tried to kill your dad), Bomb Iraq. If your corporate fraud is growin', bomb Iraq. If your ties to it are showin', bomb Iraq. If your politics are sleazy, And hiding that ain't easy, And your manhood's getting queasy, Bomb Iraq. Fall in line and follow orders, bomb Iraq. For our might knows not our borders, bomb Iraq. Disagree? We'll call it treason, Let's make war not love this season, Even if we have no reason, Bomb Iraq.

I do not believe that the US should be going into Iraq until they have done something directly against us. If and when this happens then as far as I'm concerned a small ADM, say 250kt in size, would take care of the present leadership with a minimum loss of life.

Are you mad??? Arent you the evil you are trying to destroy? This sure would start the 3th world war. If you think an appointed (by judge) president can start a war against anybody just because they have mass destruction weapons and have used it in the past, then we all should be entitled to ask the USA to disarm because they already used nuclear (against Japan) and biological (agent orange stuff) weapons in the past. Their agressiveness also has been proven by attacks against Cuba, Grenada etc. The United Nations just have been created to prevent nations that think they are right in what they do (Germany in the 30's), to overpower others and rule the world. Maybe if the USA would have paid its dues to the UN a little better they could have done a better job. Lots of sound decissions were vetoed away by the US not to interfere with their economic disadvantages. In this global economy we cannot have one nation dictating the rest of the world what to do. The rules of the Far West don't count anymore, all neighbors throughout the world are involved in all kind of matters (like the Kioto agreements the USA refuses to underwrite). Let's all be civilised and govern the world sensibly instead of threatening to use 250kt madness.

Attacking Iraq 10 years ago was correct because they had invaded Koeweit and had to be expulsed. In order to attack now you need a better reason and clear proof. Your intelligence agencies have been fooling us for decades overestimating enemy capabilities (former soviet union) in order to keep your war machine going and your forces deployed abroad. This time we want to see prove, and not just pictures of outdated rusty misiles that never had any chemicals ever fitted.

So let me be the first one from our well heeled people to wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Cheminée

There is a Yahoo club catering for that on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/menwantingbreasts/

but sometimes it diverges from the subject quite a bit.

Try walking up a very steep, very icy pathway in 5 inch pumps with VERY smooth soles! You cannot get more slippery than that!

This is a typical statement for somebody who has never worn heels in normal life, because walking down a slope in heels is much more difficult as walking up.

Actually the Bubba is a model of a thick platform sneaker marketed since a few years by Steve Madden. Of course Lauri never heard about it because she never was interested in platforms. Take a look at that page http://www.stevemadden.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/STORE/Sneakers1.htm?L+sm+whlo8993

Now who will find a shoe called Highluc?

One problem with with finding a solution to the Kurdish problem is that they’re holding out for an autonomous homeland

That's also the eternal problem with the Palestinians.

In Belgium we also face something similar, while some want to merge all those countries into a kind of United Europe, Flamish separatists want their autonomy from the Walloons and want to split up Belgium. I'm happy we don't have any oil so I don't expect anybody will "help" us resolve that problem...LOL

The guy got a surgeon to pay for the breasts for free, by winning a game of back gammon

Who wants to learn me how to play back gammon well?

Hi Jezebel, please clarify what car that is, I just checked the 70's Cadilac models and am unable to find anything called like that. If I remember SS was used by Chevy on its Camaro and Chevelle models, and Victoria was a name used by Ford in the 50's.

I think the Kurd problem is a little more complex and also involves the Turks a lot. Turkey now is an Islamic governed counrty that gets support from the USA (for it's strategic position and permanent use of airbases?), but already has claimed parts of Northern Irak in the past (to better control or suppress the Kurds?) and already has announced to do the same after this (probable) war. Whatever happens, the Kurds are on the losing end because nobody cares about their fate.

A truce, hurrah!!

Now let's hope some national leaders will be as sensible and hopefully we'll be able to avoid a terrible war.

ticket

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