Giving the world a hand since February 3rd, 2002. "If you're gonna dine with them cannibals, sooner or later, darling, you're gonna get eaten."




Comments by YACCS

 
WE'RE NUMBER ONE--WAIT, WRONG FINGER...

The good Group Captain has a good discussion over at his blog about anti-American & anti-European feelings. He has posted a letter by a German friend in which she states that she's ticked off at Dubya for interfering in the German elections. He's got 42 comments as of 4:25pm CT, the vast majority of which show great displeasure with the Germans. Check it out.

I have noticed in the past few months a growing dissatisfaction on the part of Americans with the countries of the EU. In the space of one year, they have gone from being seen as close allies to backseat drivers. While Americans are used to harsh criticism from the likes of Russia & France, such talk from the UK & Germany has caused a deeping philosophical rift between "the old country" and "the colonies". The EU is seen as being all talk, no action. They are the nay-sayers, never offering an effective alternative to American proposals, only trying to diplomatically veto any actions with which they disagree. The voice of inaction. I think that this is one of the reasons that the UK is hesitant to join the EU.

We Americans are big on talk, too, but we're also big on doing something. Granted, sometimes our good intentions result in unintended consequences, but we'd rather make the attempt to rectify the situation than to sit back & wait for something to happen. We're busybodies. We hate not knowing what's going on.

We're the upstart new kid on the international block, impatient & impertinent. We didn't come of age until 1941, while the others in the EU have been around long enough to become stale & sendentary, set in their ways. They remember when they used to be like us, their finger in every pie, and they hate the fact that they've somehow lost that sense of empowerment. Even the UK seems to be this way, but to a lesser extent. At least the UK hasn't lost all of their willingness to try to make a difference; much like an old man in the morning, they're hard to get moving, but once moving will do what is necessary.

The U.S. is relatively young & vigorous, strong enough to make a difference & naive enough to try. That is why the EU dislikes us.
so wrote Leper around about 5:50 PM

 
UNNY-FAY

Via the Daily Probe:

Homeland Security Working to Crack Al-Qaeda "Ecret-Say" Code

WASHINGTON (DPI) - Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge announced that his department has nearly cracked the secret code used by Al- Qaeda operatives to communicate via e-mail. "Our guys are on the case and we feel we're nearing a breakthrough," he said. According to Ridge, Al-Qaeda's next attack will involve driving Cool Whip-laden go-carts into a Chuck E. Cheese pizza parlor in Paramus, N.J. "We just have to figure out the exact date -- and we're pretty sure we'll have that when we crack a few scattered phrases like 'ying- flay essons-lay,' 'uilding-bay,' 'icago-Chay' and 'in-Laden-Bay'."

I love this site!


so wrote Leper around about 4:08 PM

 
CARLIN WAS RIGHT

Has anyone heard about this?

Yep, it's a refrigerator. That plays MP3s.

And allows you to surf the web.

And watch tv.


For the love of God, WHY???

George Carlin was right. He once said "If you nail two things together that have never been nailed together before, some schmuck will buy it."
so wrote Leper around about 2:00 PM

 
WHAT'S NEXT? FAT PET LAWSUITS?

Some of you may remember my earlier rant (and the resulting brouhaha) on the subject of obese adults suing fast food chains for making them fat. Well, now we've got a lawsuit against some of the same defendants as the earlier suit, only this time it's on behalf of two obese teenage girls who have been eating at McDonald's several times a week for years. Says one of the lawyers:

"When we're suing on behalf of children, it's hard to argue that a 6, or 8 or 10-year-old child has to take full responsibility for their decisions when they're lured into McDonald's by the toys and the playground and happy meals and the birthday parties," said attorney John Banzhaf.

While I'd like to buy their altruistic motives, I just can't. This is simply another attempt by the same lawyers as the earlier lawsuit to score some easy cash by shamelessly using kids to bypass the main objection people had to the earlier suit.

The responsibility here may not be on the teens (although this report may shed some light). Who has been buying all of the McDonald's meals for them? I doubt that they can afford to eat there on their own. Who's job is it to oversee & nurture the growth (no pun intended) & development of the children? The kids aren't in school 24/7. Who is legally obligated to protect their children? They don't live with the police, do they?

The parents.

While the kids may not be old enough to make smart decisions on their own, the parents are obligated to provide for their welfare. If anyone should be under indictment, it should be the parents--for negligence. It is their responsibility to recognize that their child has a weight problem. It is their responsibility to get their child the help & support they need, whether it be moral support as they diet or more professional help.

Before these parents start counting the cash they hope to collect on behalf of their kids, maybe they should look at what they fed them.
so wrote Leper around about 12:05 AM

 
IS BILL CLINTON A WAR CRIMINAL?

It appears that former President Bill Clinton faces possible war crimes charges by the prosecutor's office at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague for the former Yugoslavia. It all boils down to this: in June 2001, Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina was indited by the prosecutor's office at The Hague on charges that he exercised "command responsibility" over a 1995 military operation that resulted in the expulsion of 150,000 ethnic Serbs from Croatia. Gen. Gotovina is not accused of committing or ordering war crimes, but simply of being in charge when alleged atrocities were committed. Since the U.S. gave tacid approval and technical and military support to the military offensive under which these crimes took place, some in the tribunal feel that Clinton & some of his staff are also responsible under the same principles.

This premise sounds more than a little flawed to me. If Clinton is guilty of war crimes as the President of a Croatian ally, then the Secretary General of the U.N. is potentially also guilty of war crimes. Follow: remember in Somalia, the 1993 torture and murder of a Somali teenager by Canadian airborne soldiers under U.N. control? What if something like that should happen in the future? The U.N. Sec Gen, being in charge when atrocities occur, is therefore just as guilty as those who actually commit the crime. Imagine the embarassment for the U.N. should the Sec Gen be indited by the ICC...

One small comfort is that U.S. troops will not be involved. Seeing as how the EU doesn't want to give immunity to peacekeeping troops (well, except for the French), the likely result will be that the U.S. will not join any future peacekeeping missions...
so wrote Leper around about 11:13 PM