Free Republic

If the fix was on why didn't Gordon's team mates take advantage of it? How did NASCAR send the signal to the rent a wreck driver to go into crash mode? How did NASCAR insure the rent a wreck driver was still running at the critical time? How many seconds away from going a lap down was Gordon because of the pit stop and accident?

Seriously, Gordon was making a scheduled pit stop, within his window of opportunity to finish the race. He and his crew realized his car needed new tires and some adjustments. If the adjustments improved the car then Gordon would be better off than running an inferior set up and losing track position to other competitive cars. It's not like the other competitive cars would not have had to make pit stops in the next few laps. And since the caution was intentional, and would not have occurred otherwise according to you, they would have been green flag stops. So Gordon would have gotten back his track position anyway, adjusted for pit stop time.

Gordon's car, and cars with Hendrick engines, have been among the race leaders at practically every race this year. Why is anyone surprised that they win a race with some good luck. No one seems to feel sorry for them when they lose due to bad luck.

Somehow we can be critical of how our governmental units prioritize their spending. However, it is not acceptable to criticize citizens for how they prioritize their spending. How are people considered intelligent enough to vote but too stupid to be able to manage their money? When the media can explain that one to me, I'll begin to pay attention to their opinions.

"Truth be told, Habitat For Humanity shouldn't try to build in million dollar neighborhoods. The people who would live in these HFH homes probably can't afford to live in that area anyway."

I'd be willing to bet the HFH homes will appreciate in value, the lucky occupants will be inundated with offers from prospective buyers as soon as any resale restrictions lapse, and the homes will be sold for substantially more than they cost to build by the HFH chosen occupants who want to cash in their newfound wealth. The local residents might have more success challenging the restrictive clauses HFH puts in the contracts regarding proceeds from the sale of the homes and length of occupancy.

"An unarmed Muslim cleric..."

Well there's something you don't expect to read about. Seriously, what was the point of leading the story this way?

Suppose there was a 10% increase in the number of home runs hit, and the increase was pretty evenly distributed among all players. The simple solutions are that player performance changed significantly in one season or the physical characteristics of the equipment changed significantly to account for the increase in home runs. While player doping may have been widespread in 1998, it is doubtful that the distribution of the increase in home runs would be so uniform across all batters, and shouldn't the pitchers have shown some sort of improvement from doping to counteract the hitters? A juiced baseball is so much more likely the cause as it is the one constant used in all games by all players, and it is the easiest change to accomplish.

The commercial Randy Johnson made "Chicks dig the long ball" merely pointed out what everyone in baseball knew, home runs sell tickets. The owners who were willing to ignore the rampant cheating in the game would surely not be above tweaking the equipment to increase their revenue.

I wonder just how much of Saudi Arabia could be overrun by the 100,000+ soldiers currently in Iraq? Then the Saudis ability to support the Sunnis in Iraq would be reduced to near zero from oil revenue. The Saudis would be fools to issue any sort of ultimatum to the U.S. that involved the threat of military action as they could not possibly prevent the U.S. from an overwhelming victory against their forces.

"For Canada and others to punish the Palestinian people because they voted for their candidates of choice, I think is literally a crime."

If the election choice available to the Palestinians was Aid v. Hamas, and the Palestinians chose Hamas, where is the crime? The Palestinians knew the consequences, and they accepted them. Does Jimmy Carter have any concept of people being responsible for their own actions?

"Don't forget we still got 49 Senators."

Yes, but how many of them have have demonstrated the spine to stand up for principles in the past? Who do you think will provide the "leadership" to maintain party unity in the face of the favorable coverage the Democrats are sure to receive from the mainstream media?

I recently flew through London, and the British authorities have established a relatively small size limitation for carry-on baggage. Many briefcases designed to hold laptop computers exceed the size allowed as carry-on baggage due to their thickness. It is possible that Ms. Rowling's carry-on baggage exceeded the size restrictions imposed by her own government that the TSA workers were simply enforcing as a reciprocal courtesy.

There is no way MI-5 uncovered the plot to blow up any airliners. I know this for a fact because I was watching the morning show on NBC while eating my breakfast, and the male host was constantly talking about the terrorist plot that "we" recently uncovered. His use of the word we more than once left me with the impression that the media wanted some credit for preventing the plot from succeeding. So let's stop with this attempt to credit some foreign government with preventing attacks against innocent civilians and begin giving credit to NBC as their broadcasts implied.

Don't you realize that while it takes the average Cuban factory worker three months to earn enough to pay for an X-ray, and seven months for a pensioner to save the money necessary for an X-ray, the uninsured in America are denied medical care completely? So the Cubans are inconvenienced by having to save their money for X-rays, that's paradise compared to having no access to medical treatment whatsoever, just ask those in an American emergency room waiting to be turned away for having no insurance.

And when will the U.N. come out and recommend that the U.S. learn to respect the Nazi Party or even the Baath Party of Iraq? It's not like either of them are permitted to play any sort of role in the governance of Germany or Iraq, despite there being Germans and Iraqis who support the ideals of the respective parties. Why should the U.S. treat Hezbollah differently?

What kind of moron would broadcast that Hezbollah had a civilian presence, but lacked a military presence, in a village so close to the Israeli border when that same organization is bragging about its military successes in the vicinity? Does the idiot really think that if Israeli ground forces attempted to pass through the village that they would do so unopposed?

Just who claims the Muslims do not adopt new technology? This was probably the first underground mosque built of steel reinforced concrete in Lebanon that the Israelis attacked. How's that for coincidences?

"The Lebanese resistance is preparing a retaliation parallel to Israel's military actions. Hassan Nasrallah will address the people of Tel Aviv and warn them to evacuate the city within one hour. As soon as the delay ends, hundreds of heavy missiles will start landing in the city, which has been divided into squares in order to let damage reach every inch of the city. An estimated 500 missiles are expected to land in Tel Aviv in a short period of time."

First, this spokesperson refers to Nasrallah as speaking for the Lebanese resistance, not just Hezbollah. Whom should the world believe, this spokesperson or the Lebanese government spokespersons who claim zero responsibility?

Second, the claim to have in excess of 500 missiles targeted on Tel Aviv is pure posturing. The only weapons Hezbollah has in that number are Katyusha rockets. And 500 Katyushas have less destructive power than a single U.S. field artillery battery (8 cannons) can deliver in a few hours. Unless the Katyushas have been modified to carry chemicals rather than high explosives the disproportionate response will be Israel's counterbattery fire leveling as many launch sites as they can acquire.

I watched the Charlie Rose Show last night, and he interviewed the Syrian Minister of Expatriates. During her responses to one of Charlie's questions she claimed Hezbollah was not a terrorist organization, but that it was a political party that received the votes of over 50% of the Arabs living in Southern Lebanon. My immediate reaction was that the foolish woman just admitted that the Arabs of Southern Lebanon acting through their de facto government committed an act of war against Israel by crossing the border to kill and take hostage Israeli soldiers. So even Syria has come out and blamed Hezbollah for starting this conflict. Although, I doubt that was Syria's intention.

"As corporations and high- income Americans claim ever more of the economic pie..."

I didn't realize corporations were diners on the economic pie. I guess the New York Times' reporter must have had special economics lessons from Paul Krugman before he wrote this piece.

I think it is that most Mexican youths actually find work in the U.S., and then they go about trying to build a decent life for their family. They come to the United States and they see a country that is not governed in the corrupt manner that Mexico is, and they do not see a need for a reconquista, or they lose the desire for such. So they assimilate as best they can, and given the illegal status of so many the assimilation can never be complete.

Based on personal experiences, I would rather have a motivated, non-English speaking employee whom I will have to spend six-months training than many of the graduates of our public school systems who have no motivation, no skills and reject the training needed to become productive.

If Portugal puts on another display of the diving and injury faking against France, I'll hope France beats them soundly. The Portuguese are very skilled players, but they got away with way too many obvious dives and fake injuries to delay the match against England that they should be without several players who should have been carded. They really got a break from the referee in the England match who was hesitant to call obvious violations against Portugal, maybe it was due to the carryover cards from their Netherlands match.

And who'd have thought that the only country the U.S. played, and did not lose to, and actually outplayed for major portions of the match, would advance to the World Cup Final? I'm not sure what sort of perspective it puts on the U.S.'s performance or potential, but it does show that Group E was pretty tough.

I often argue with friends that the promoting and spreading ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence should be the United States' single overriding foreign policy objective. Our nation is based on those principles which contain universal rights. I always end up asking the question "Do the rights identified in the Declaration of Independence apply to all men, or just to those fortunate enough to be born in a limited geographic area?" I then provide the answer, "If they do not apply to all men, then the American Revolution was an unjust act."