Free Republic

It could be rugby, its pretty popular among some college-aged fellows. And if it is rugby, those bastards need to be courtmartialed. Football. Football. Football.

Servicemen play rugby on board U.S. Navy (news - web sites) aircraft carrier USS Constellation as the battle group visits Hong Kong November 22, 2002.

Rugby? Lol. Any US Servicemember caught playing rugby should be courtmartialed. American games only, please. What's next? Cricket on the White House lawn? I've had enough sticky wickets, thank you.

Certainly glad Hannity's taking the high road. Wouldn't want anybody to resort to attacking taste in fashion, liberals' line of last resort (c.f. what they did with Katherine Harris).

< /sarcasm>

Rooney's liberal on some issues, conservative on others, but regardless, he's an idiot. His commentary is simply wrong, most of the time. Not just his opinions, but his facts. Don't fact checkers exist any more? Or is Rooney exempt as long as he promises to embarass himself?

Wasn't Boadicea one of the Page3.com birds?

Quite possibly. I didn't realize you were a fan of the Goth-Iron Age look.

No, no, no.

Boadicea for best Briton.

Churchill for best American. His mother was American, and he himself was awarded honorary American citizenship at a time when the British couldn't care less for him.

I also think Bernard L Montgomery was under-rated by history.

Its impossible to underrate Monty. I think Operation Market-Garden proved that rather well.

The reason I think he was great is because his opponents rated him so highly.

His biggest opponents were in the Combined Joint Chiefs of Staff. But I assume you're towing the line, "if the Wehrmacht says so, it must be true!"

One of the things I really don't understand is why Erwin Rommel is rated so high in the English-speaking world. The English created his reputation as a demi-God as an excuse for why he kept handing their asses to them, until he ran out of supplies. Of course, they boosted it further still when Monty started winning. But the British victories had nothing to do with Monty's skill as a commander, and everything to do with who had the supplies.

Shall we ask about his crossing the aisle from Tory to Labour to Tory?

Churchill was a liberal, for a while, never a labourite.

Yep Brits loved the liberals until Hitler went on a rampage So they voted in Sir Winston to save them . Soon as the war in Europe was won ( still raging in the Pacific), BACK came the liberals and adios Sir Winston

Huh? The Tories came into power starting in 1935, well before hostilities began, unless you're speaking from a Sino-centric point of view.

Yeah, sure you are.

I am.

When since it was formed has Israel ever been our enemy? Who would Israel ever side with against us considering the whole world is out to get them?

You're not very bright, are you? I never once said we shouldn't support Israel or that conflict between the two countries is terribly likely in the immediate (say, 50 years) future. I posed and refuted (succesfully, I hope) a hypothetical question favored by anti-Semites, in an attempt to draw a parallel between them and the silly knee-jerk Muslim haters on this board.

Your response is only a step above "some of my best friends are fill-in-the-blank."

Huh? What are you trying to say? It would seem you're accusing me of being anti-Semitic. But I'm Jewish. And I don't hate myself. Ergo, I'm not an anti-Semite, QED. This really does not require the application of vast powers of logic.

If you mean that American Jews have divided sympathies, that is almost certainly correct, but only among a minority of them.

Agreed. If you read my original post, you'll see that's exactly the point I was trying to make.

You are making an elaborate and oblique argument that rests on American Jews being directly comparable to American Moslems. If you can't tell the differnce, what can you be told?

No, honestly, I cannot tell the difference, and I don't think the comparison is terribly oblique. Ethnic and religious groups in the United States certainly have ties to other places, but time and time again, when they've been forced to choose between supporting their origins and supporting the United States, the overwhelming majority has chosen the US. I don't think its an accident, and I don't think American Muslims are exceptions to that rule. Regardless of their race or religion, the people who emigrate to the US do so because they want to become Americans. That's true with Muslims too.

How are you going to prevent it from evolving into something else dangerous?

But, but, Gore3000 told me that evolution was impossible.

Okay, I see your deal. Never mind. Have a nice day.

Bwahahahahaha. Why don't you take one of my quotes out of context, will you? I'm the Jewish son of a Holocaust survivor, much of my family is in Israel, and my point was to counter a frequent argument of American anti-Semites, you dolt.

Yeah, you see my deal...

I also don't remember Catholics killing thousands of Americans yelling "For the Pope!"

No, but Germans did for the Kaiser and for Hitler, and the Japanese did so for the Emperor. There were millions of German and Japanese Americans, and virtually none of them sided with their home countries against their adopted nation. Folks come to America for a reason, and its usually because they believe they'll find a better life here, not because they hate us.

And Israel is our ally.

Yes. This week. And if the geopolitical situation changed and Israel were alligned with a different faction, what then? Do you really believe that American Jews would side against the United States? If so, you're living in la la land.

s for the Japanese, after Pearl Harbor, I think such questions were quite justified.

Why? Time and time again, throughout history, immigrant groups have sided with the United States against their home countries when hostilities commenced. Why didn't we inter Dwight David Eisenhower for possible German sympathies, instead of running a risk by putting him in the somewhat-sensitive position of Supreme Commander of Allied Forces?

do you really believe these "loyal American Muslims," will stand against their religion and their religious leaders?"

If you had a little historical knowledge, you would scoff at the irony of your post. You pose the exact same questions the 19th century Know-Nothing Party asked about Catholics, namely would they owe primary allegiance to the Pope or to America. The same question has been asked about American Jews and our supposed loyalties to Israel, and Japanese Americans to Japan.

There will always be a few exceptions, but in every case, the overwhelming majority of folks who have come to the United States do so because they want to become Americans. Will a few Muslim Americans back the Mullahs against us? Yes. Do a few American Jews spy for Israel? Sure. But the overwhelming majority of all these groups are loyal Americans, and are at least as loyal to the nation as you are.

There have only been two polls released to the public. Wilson Research Strategies, a Republican firm, found Terrell leading 48-40, while Southeastern Louisiana State U. had Landrieu leading 51-36. Neither poll seems credible on its own - you're going to have to wait longer for confirmation.

Quoting the bible......please don't let Bill Moyers know....he thinks it's only republicans who believe!

Bill Moyers is an ordained minister, I believe. He has a Masters of Divinity from some Baptist bible college in Texas. Go figure.

That's ok.

I couldn't report the news nude after 9/11 either.

What's the point? Roughly the same point as in the US from 1933 to 1971; the government will honour its EXTERNAL financial commitments in gold or gold-equivalent, but citizens cannot demand gold in exchange for currency.

So you're saying it was convertible, or it wasn't? Because from the point of view of all of us non-Swiss, if they'll convert their money into gold, you got a convertible currency. And that opens them up to all sorts of vulnerabilities to well-financed currency speculators.

Rotting prison hulks were banned around the turn of the 19th century in Britain, for good and sufficient reason (they were death traps). Instead of anchoring them offshore, simply ship them off to found a penal (or homeless) colony in New South Wales.