| Author |
Message |
    
Carl Thompson
Citizen
Username: Topcat
Post Number: 5
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 11, 2003 - 10:43 pm: |     |
Aaron,
According to Peter Guralnick’s biography of Elvis, Last Train to Memphis, Elvis became a drug addict during his service with the U.S. Army in Germany. The amphetamines to which he first got addicted were military-issue pharmaceuticals. (This is how our troops in Europe would have repulsed the communist invasion -- staying awake on whites for extended periods of time.)
After he was discharged, Elvis began his steady decent into full dependency, eventually preferring sedatives of various kinds over stimulants. In his famous photo op with Nixon, supporting anti-drug awareness for youth, Elvis was so stoned he could hardly carry on a conversation. And, of course, Nixon was oblivious.
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ajc
Citizen
Username: Ajc
Post Number: 1579
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 2:36 pm: | |
"I think it is an insult to all Americans that have faced our enemies in battle that the naming of aircraft carriers has descended to the level of vanity license plates."
Tjohn,
If anything, I think your comments are an insult to all Americans, and especially our military, both past and present.
After watching a portion of the commissioning Ceremony of the USS Ronald Reagan, I find your negative political remarks most inappropriate. For a guy who is obviously intelligent, and knowledgably informed on a great many subjects, I think we would all stand to benefit if you can get yourself off this negative outlook on so many issues!
This great new ship is the best in the world, and it represents the greatest country in the world. I can’t think of a better name to give to this great new ship than to name it in honor of our former President, Ronald Reagan, who has done more than any president alive for providing for our national security. |
FOUR STAR STRAW
Citizen
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 915
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 4:21 pm: | |
well said Art.
"We have the money, we have the power, we have the population, and most importantly if we want, we can take you down as well."
-Strawberry/ Star Ledger, Sunday June 22, 2003
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tjohn
Citizen
Username: Tjohn
Post Number: 1583
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 5:16 pm: | |
Saratoga, Lexington, Yorktown, Hornet, Wasp, Enterprise. These are the great fighting ships that were the only thing standing between us and the Japanese fleet in the early days of of World War II. A great many common Americans died for our freedom on these ships and they should be honored by having our current active duty carriers bear the names of their ships.
I don't actually have any issue with naming a ship after Ronald Reagan in particular. My issue is with naming our capital ships after individuals as opposed to collective events in our nations history or after states in the manner of battleships.
The men who signed the Declaration of Independence took a tremendous risk in signing that document. Many paid with their lives or fortunes. Up through the 19th Century, it was not uncommon for an elected leader to pay significantly (personal ruin) for an unpopular position.
I don't see our political leaders running those sorts of risks since the end of WW II and for that reason, I have a real problem with honoring them by naming our most import surface warships after them. |
tuscano
Citizen
Username: Tuscano
Post Number: 67
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 6:36 pm: | |
Up until this point, Naval ships were not named after living individuals. Chevron did name a tanker the "Condoleeza Rice" however (the name was changed when old Condi became one of their many, many lobbyists within the present government). Perhaps Chveron could do Ronnie the same favor. Or perhaps one of those cheapo-o excursion lines (the one that does the "Cruise to Nowhere") could name one of their buckets the "Non-compos Mentis"...(While we're at it, maybe Roche Pharmaceuticals could name their new "Vailum Giftpak" the "Nancy"...) |
STRAWBERRY DELIGHT
Citizen
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 917
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 6:42 pm: | |
Tuscano must have a problem with successful African American women.
"The president has kept all of the promises he intended to keep."
-Clinton aide George Stephanopolous speaking on 'Larry King Live
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tuscano
Citizen
Username: Tuscano
Post Number: 68
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 10:58 pm: | |
Oh, you mean Brent Scowcroft in drag? I'm also amused by the suggestion that the party which ostracized William Cohen for marrying a black woman would ever consider running any African American female (even the S.S. Chevron/Rice) as their candidate...
__________________________________________________
"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill."
--G.W. Bush—Washington, D.C., May 19, 2003
(from "The Complete Bushisms"
http://slate.msn.com/id/76886/)
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Insite
Citizen
Username: Insite
Post Number: 81
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 6:56 am: | |
tuscano,
So in other words, "you're surprised" the Republicans would run an African American candidate. Why are you surprised? As a Republican, I'm not surprised, nor is just about anyone I know. We look for quality individuals capable of leading. If Powell evers decides he wants to become President he too will receive nothing but ringing endorsements. We as a party long ago gave up this black/white thing. You on the other hand, seem to have issue with it.
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tjohn
Citizen
Username: Tjohn
Post Number: 1585
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 8:37 am: | |
Dearest Strawberry,
I am disappointed that you failed to correct my incorrect reporting of the facts regarding Reagan's military service. In fact, he was either active or reserve status from 1935 or so until 1953 and, as BobK noted, was prevented from his desired overseas service by poor eyesight.
On the other hand, as you are a Bush supporter, you are probably less concerned with a correct presentation of the facts than am I, so perhaps that is why you let me get away without. However, as the man who knew that Reagan met General Stillwell shortly after WW II, you certainly knew of Reagan's military service. |
tuscano
Citizen
Username: Tuscano
Post Number: 69
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 5:28 pm: | |
I would not be "surprized" if the GOP ran an African American on a Presidential ticket--it will just never happen in our lifetimes. (A C. Rice vs. H. Clinton presidential race was just some pipe dream suggested by Murdoch amanuensis Bill O'Reilly and then repeated on this board by Boreberry...) Whoever the candidate would be, it would mean the certain loss of a significant portion of the southern votes they've relied upon since the Nixon wooed the Dixiecrats into the party after their "betrayal" by LBJ. That's it.
Oh, it was pleasant seeing the good ship Reagan dedicated by that other war hero, Dick ("I had other priorities") Cheney. |
ajc
Citizen
Username: Ajc
Post Number: 1583
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 7:04 pm: | |
I’m amazed by some of the comments I've seen on a few of these threads. And, what makes anyone think that just going to war makes you a hero?
There are other ways to serve our country, our state, our town, and mankind then just going to war... There are well over 200 million living Americans who never served in the military, and never will. I have, but personally don’t believe the measure of any person’s character, integrity, bravery, or loyalty to this nation can, or should be measured by whether or not they served in our armed forces…
Winston Churchill once said something about how so many are served by so few… maybe someone is willing to fill in the blanks for me? |
tjohn
Citizen
Username: Tjohn
Post Number: 1588
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 7:47 pm: | |
Churchill may have been talking of the relatively small number of RAF fighter pilots who stopped the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain and thus assured that a German invasion would never be attempted. Of course, these pilots were supported by thousands of other people, but it was the fighter pilots that Churchill singled out in his quote. |
tuscano
Citizen
Username: Tuscano
Post Number: 70
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 7:54 pm: | |
One of the blanks you've perhaps missed is that an uncommon number of the war-crazed politicians (and their TV proxies) of the present and recent past seem to have nonetheless had a rather personal aversion to armed conflict; these selfsame persons often call the loyalty of their opponants into question. I recall the Nixon gang painting anti-war candidate George McGovern as some doped-up pacifist. (McGovern of course served as a bomber pilot in WWII; Nixon, on the other hand, sat out most of the war on a pacific island, playing poker--in fact, he fiananced his first campaign with his vast poker winnings...) Reagan (Vanquisher of the Peaceniks and Conquistador of Grenada) spent the war years in the important defence-related work of making Jane Wyman appear (just slightly) less masculine. My favorite example of this sort of hypocracy comes courtesy of own "W"--when he recently spent a weekend epoxied to a pair of just-liberated POW's, I was reminded of his repeated inferences during the campaign for the nomination that John McCain was too mentally unstable to be President BECAUSE he'd been a POW. Another prince... |
tjohn
Citizen
Username: Tjohn
Post Number: 1589
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 8:06 pm: | |
In fairness to Nixon, I don't know that he chose to be a supply officer. A great many who served in WW II either served in combat or served in logistics at the direction of the War Department, not by any choice.
Reagan was simply denied overseas deployment on account of poor eye sight. |
anon
Citizen
Username: Anon
Post Number: 728
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 8:55 pm: | |
Well, once in a while I learn something on here. I didn't know that Wm. Cohen's wife was black. Now, tuscano, if you will please explain the word "amanuensis"
Thank you. |
lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1632
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 9:38 pm: | |
Gee, I thought the Republicans ostracized Cohen because he took a cabinet position in a Democratic administration. I must have been mistaken. |
woodstock
Citizen
Username: Woodstock
Post Number: 219
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 4:24 pm: | |
amanuensis
\A*man`u*en"sis, n.; pl. Amanuenses. [L., fr. a, ab + manus hand.] A person whose employment is to write what another dictates, or to copy what another has written.
I think we're all bozos on this bus. |
tuscano
Citizen
Username: Tuscano
Post Number: 71
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 9:09 pm: | |
The last Bush considered Cohen for a cabinet post, but passed on him for (as GHWB himself might have phrased it) "the black wife thing..." Clinton's opportunistic selection of Cohen gave him:
1. A Republican in his cabinet (which he needed)
2. A Republican in Defence (which he really needed)and
3. A chance to somewhat embarrass Bush the Elder (which I'm sure he couldn't resist)... |
lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1637
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 11:07 pm: | |
It's not like I know that story not to be true (logically difficult to prove), but I've never heard it before and it sounds like crap. Is he supposed to have said this in public? Or was it reported by Al Franken from an anonymous source? |
strawberry
Citizen
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 920
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 12:43 am: | |
tuscano,
Quit the racist crap please. No one buys it. It makes you seem even more foolish then you've already come off on this forum, if that's possible. Cohen was a Moderate Republican who spent years questioning Reagan and Bush policy. As a result, Clinton rewarded him. GWB went a different direction. End of story.
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tuscano
Citizen
Username: Tuscano
Post Number: 72
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 3:28 pm: | |
Bite me you jackass--it's your racist reactionary rants that cause scores to abandon this board. Oh btw, Straw old boy, re. your moniker-- my "Dictionary of Street Argot" defines a "strawberry" as: "A woman (or man dressed as a woman) who trades sex for crack cocaine--a de-facto prostitute..."
So baby, how you fixed for time? |
mem
Citizen
Username: Mem
Post Number: 1800
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 5:09 pm: | |
There goes Tuscano on the sex thing again. When he he/she/it used to harass me by asking me if "I wasn't getting any", I was afraid he/she/it was going to crawl in my bedroom window one night and make sure "I got some".
Yikes.
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Dave Ross
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 4864
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 6:05 pm: | |
I'm suspending so many people these days that I may forget who got suspended when... maybe it's the weather? |
ml1
Citizen
Username: Ml1
Post Number: 1109
Registered: 5-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 6:23 pm: | |
it's not the heat, it's the stupidity... |
Nohero
Citizen
Username: Nohero
Post Number: 1817
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 10:09 pm: | |
Dave, on the suspension thing, it's really very simple. To be blunt, it's your fault.
No, really, think about it. The CIA Director, George Tenet, took full responsibility for the fact the our President supported the current war using questionable intelligence. Mr. Tenet stepped forward to take the blame, saying (in effect): "I told them not to do it, and I should have done more."
So, this brings us back to MOL. Dave, you have told people time and time again not to engage in personal attacks. Yet, they do it anyway. Using the current standard for assigning blame, it is clear that the responsibility is yours, and yours alone, Mr. Ross. |
Dave Ross
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 4866
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 11:53 pm: | |
I knew it! And I thought I had darn good intelligence.... |
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