UN authorizes `all necessary measures' in Libya

[Asher]

No ****ing way does Asher support them. The same Conservative Party led by Stephen Harper who appeared at an anti-gay marriage rally and told them "We can win this fight!"? The same Conservative Party that excluded funding for abortions?

No way. Asher supports gay marriage, gun control, pro-choice, etc. etc. No way is he a Conservative.

Or is he a Republican in the sense that Imran is (ie- not at all)?

I hate all of the parties, and I vote mostly on the strength of the leader.

The Liberals have some god-****ing-awful people running their party. The Conservatives do as well (Harper is an *******), but his ideas are far more practical than Stephane Dion or Ignatieff's is.

Harper isn't really anti-gay marriage, he just pretends to be for the token fringe vote from people like Ben. When he was elected, not long after gay marriage was legalized, he "fought" it by having a "free vote" in the house (not along party lines), which pretty much ensured it stayed legal. Then he said it was over, it was decided, and move on.

Harper's problem is his authoritative streak and control-freak nature. I'm liking him less and less the longer he's in office, but if I had to vote today (and I probably will within a couple months), I'd vote Conservative.

[Zevico]

Speaking of "good guys", lets recap "good guys" by the US standards:

Saddam Hussein


The US funded and trained Osama Bin Laden

The Gadhafi regime:


I'm sure I'm missing a lot, too.

The usual anti-American claptrap. Or is it a product of thoughtful analysis? I doubt it.

The Americans cooperated with Iraq to counter Iran. They saw Iran as the greater threat. Hardly an immoral decision, unless, of course, dirtying one's hands by making political decisions is intrinsically wrong. No informed observer is likely to infer that the United States viewed Hussein and his crew as good people; they were bastards but (to use the well known phrase)--they were our bastards, in that time, in that place and under those circumstances. Sometimes people who have to choose to work with immoral regimes to counter greater threats. This should be very basic and easy for you to understand, but it is easier not to.

As to Ghaddaffi--well, the man was always a dictator and no one disputed it. If you think no one should buy oil from dictators (and you don't) then welcome to your new, crippled economy. If not, then what on earth are you complaining about? A photo opportunity? Do you seriously think photo ops are the be-all-end-all of Western policy?

[Zevico]

How do you figure you were the only real winner of WW2?

Canada gained tremendously out of the world wars in terms of industrial capacity and fundamental nationhood. The US just kicked an enemy while he was down and ****ed up world politics for centuries t ocome.

Another morally obtuse and ignorant analysis.

Firstly, the US came out a superpower. The Europeans lost their (as Wilhelm put it) "place in the sun." The US was the world's banker for a time.
Secondly, the intervention of the Americans accelerated the Western advance into Western Europe, thereby preventing the fall of Europe to the Soviet Union.
Thereafter, American forces kept the peace and preserved the existence of western and democratic Europe.

[Al B. Sure!]

Thereafter, American forces kept the peace and preserved the existence of western and democratic Europe.

Asher has expressed his opinion on this in the US military budget thread... Asher thinks the Cold War was America's fault because without American arrogance, the Soviets would have been chill.

[Al B. Sure!]

By the way, when I was looking for world leaders shaking hands (or more, in the case of the Europeans) with Gaddafi, I didn't see any of Dubya and Gaddafi.

[Zevico]

Asher has expressed his opinion on this in the US military budget thread... Asher thinks the Cold War was America's fault because without American arrogance, the Soviets would have been chill.

Then it is plain that he has read and understood very little of the Soviet political structure or history. "Nomenklatura", by Michael Voslensky, is a very good start (assuming a background knowledge of the basic theory of Marxism/Marxism-Leninism).

[Al B. Sure!]

Gaddafi has a hell of an eccentric fashion sense. Not just all the Berber-inspired stuff. I mean look at how much he stands out in this picture of world leaders when he's in what I guess is a suit of some sort:



So long, Liberace of World Leaders

[Docfeelgood]

Gaddafi has a hell of an eccentric fashion sense. Not just all the Berber-inspired stuff. I mean look at how much he stands out in this picture of world leaders when he's in what I guess is a suit of some sort:



So long, Liberace of World Leaders

They look embarrassed.

Is he wearing a Darth Vader cape?

[Al B. Sure!]

they do. And Liberace is over there with a white suit, military ribbons, a badge in the shape of Africa, and, to top it all off, a long robe!

I mean if we didn't know better, I think everyone would just assume he's gay.

[Docfeelgood]

they do. And Liberace is over there with a white suit, military ribbons, a badge in the shape of Africa, and, to top it all off, a long robe!

I mean if we didn't know better, I think everyone would just assume he was gay.

lol

[Al B. Sure!]

Vanity Fair did a whole feature on him, calling him a "sartorial genius"

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/qaddafi-slideshow200908#slide=1

I can't resist posting some of these with the captions.


When the English writer and rake Jeffrey Bernard asked the painter Francis Bacon who in the world he would most like to bed, he replied, “I’d like to **** the pants off Colonel Qaddafi.” Maybe this 1984 picture of the colonel in his prime explains why.


Qaddafi’s cocktail ensemble at the summit—an embroidered kufi and an extraordinary combination of patterns and textures that seem to prompt U.S. president Barack Obama to move rapidly out of frame.


The Dear Leader arrives at Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2007 wearing a white Dr. Evil jacket, the ubiquitous clip-on military ribbons, and the very height in traveling chic, a sheer peach bisht. The ribbons are interesting because for years after the coup in which he took power Qaddafi was only ever seen with a few rows of decoration. Today, there are eight—indicating a score or more of awards. Who has conferred these medals to Qaddafi, and what for?


Qaddafi on a trip to Swaziland in 2002, with battered fishing hat placed at a jaunty angle and left hand placed nonchalantly in his trouser pocket, accompanied by the usual stout female killer-in-camouflage.


This, astonishingly, is Qaddafi’s idea of appropriate luncheonwear for a meeting with Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres at Cairo’s Sheraton Hotel, in April 2000. That, or his luggage got lost en route and he whipped up an outfit from his hotel room’s upholstery.

[Wezil]

No ****ing way does Asher support them. The same Conservative Party led by Stephen Harper who appeared at an anti-gay marriage rally and told them "We can win this fight!"? The same Conservative Party that excluded funding for abortions?

No way. Asher supports gay marriage, gun control, pro-choice, etc. etc. No way is he a Conservative.

Or is he a Republican in the sense that Imran is (ie- not at all)?

Asher is a closet authoritarian.

He supports this by claiming the other party leaders are terrible (they are).

[Docfeelgood]

Vanity Fair did a whole feature on him, calling him a "sartorial genius"

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/qaddafi-slideshow200908#slide=1

I can't resist posting some of these with the captions.


When the English writer and rake Jeffrey Bernard asked the painter Francis Bacon who in the world he would most like to bed, he replied, “I’d like to **** the pants off Colonel Qaddafi.” Maybe this 1984 picture of the colonel in his prime explains why.


Qaddafi’s cocktail ensemble at the summit—an embroidered kufi and an extraordinary combination of patterns and textures that seem to prompt U.S. president Barack Obama to move rapidly out of frame.


The Dear Leader arrives at Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2007 wearing a white Dr. Evil jacket, the ubiquitous clip-on military ribbons, and the very height in traveling chic, a sheer peach bisht. The ribbons are interesting because for years after the coup in which he took power Qaddafi was only ever seen with a few rows of decoration. Today, there are eight—indicating a score or more of awards. Who has conferred these medals to Qaddafi, and what for?


Qaddafi on a trip to Swaziland in 2002, with battered fishing hat placed at a jaunty angle and left hand placed nonchalantly in his trouser pocket, accompanied by the usual stout female killer-in-camouflage.


This, astonishingly, is Qaddafi’s idea of appropriate luncheonwear for a meeting with Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres at Cairo’s Sheraton Hotel, in April 2000. That, or his luggage got lost en route and he whipped up an outfit from his hotel room’s upholstery.

What a flake.

[notyoueither]

No ****ing way does Asher support them. The same Conservative Party led by Stephen Harper who appeared at an anti-gay marriage rally and told them "We can win this fight!"? The same Conservative Party that excluded funding for abortions?

No way. Asher supports gay marriage, gun control, pro-choice, etc. etc. No way is he a Conservative.

Or is he a Republican in the sense that Imran is (ie- not at all)?

It's complicated.

[SlowwHand]

Are we sure he's not Michael Jackson's father?