bin Laden Tapes

LarryC

Gee, is Osama Lama Ding Dong losing his touch? Now all we get are these lousy, grainy videotapes. The least that Finius T. Bluster (sorry Howdy)could do is upgrade to DVD and, maybe, hire a decent studio to do his productions.

This whole scene is starting to remind me of the The Cold War and how we feared Nikita Kruschev and his "awesome" Red Army and his stockpile of nukes. But now, upon further review (to coin a phrase), we discover that it was all a charade. The "awesome" army was an underfed, undertrained, chaotic shamble of an outfit. The nukes were real but lacked two minor details: Launch reliability and accuracy. After all that cowering underneath our desks at grade school during nuke drills, it comes out that the only real object of our fear was Nikita Kruschev's shoe. Today, we fear bin Laden videotapes.

ray a

In 1776 the British looked at our underfed, undertrained and chaotic shamble of an army and laughed. They laughed so hard, that ragtag army beat them. (I know it was much more complicated than that). The Soviet Union built a perception that they could annihilate us which caused us to fear them. Bin Laden has been building a perception that he can strike us any time and inflict serious damage - Twin Towers - causing us to fear him. Britain could have easily defeated the revolutionaries in 1776, but they in essence beat themselves. Reagan stood up to Gorby - "tear down this wall" - and the Soviet Union crumbled. Today, in the face of Bin Laden and his ragtag band, will we follow the British pattern of 1776 or the Reagan pattern of 1989?

Don D

Raymond: It was in 1775 that the British underestimated us. It was in 1776 that they acted on that underestimation.

ray a

Well Don, if you are going to be so specific, the underestimation began long before 1775 when the British began imposing taxes and laws and restrictions on the colonies not believing they would actually have the audacity to revolt. The underestimation continued through the end of the 18th century into the beginning of the 19th century manifesting itself in several ways including the impressment of our sailors into their navy and concluding with the signing of the treaty in 1814 concluding the War of 1812. How's that?

zen

I heard on the news yesterday that bin Laden is asking his supporters in Iraq to boycott the upcoming elections. That's probably the best advice he's given the people of Iraq if they follow it. Imagine...only those who wish to pursue a peacful and independant government voluntarily voting in the election...

safety

pssst, zen, I don't think that's his motive, I think it's a scare tactic and a threat that there may be violent terrost acts at the polls on election day so he doesn't want his group in the line of fire so to speak. I do like your logic though . . .

zen

Oh, I agree that it's probably, no.. not probably..it is a threat on his part - he's one sick son-of-b!, I would just like to see it actually work against him - call me an optimist.

Don D

Ray: When you have time, would you please comment on the vertical perpendicularity reconfiguration assessment handed down in the Neutron Pages, Volume II, and why you feel the theorum was debunked, and if you don't believe that, which approach you feel most confident in as relates to the concept of odd and even integers in random sets of numbers less than sixteen.

ray a

Well Don, it just so happens that Ritaanz and I had a recent discussion concerning vertical perpendicularity, and with her expert elucidation stemming from her vertical/horizontal erudition, I feel somewhat qualified to respond to your request. It's like this, horizontal perpendicularity has become a passe theory being supplanted by the more contemporary theory of vertical perpendicularity. This paradigm shift is the end result of our further devolvement into a post modern philosophy culminating in the belief that odd and even integers have actually swapped places in the mathematical continuum. A developing theory is that negative and positive no longer have meaning - at least in the state of MA, CA, and OR; other states have not yet ruled on this concept yet. The conundrum is if you have 3 integers and I have 2 integers and we attempt to combine our integers and share equally, are the shared assets still integers or a mere mathematical abberation?

ritaanz

Aberation? The only abnormality in your statement is concerning your confusion with our "discussion". At that time, if I remember correctly, you were in the process of trying to bamboozle me with your logical elucidation of vertical versus horizontal. After all is said and done, I still do not consider your clarification credible.

Don D

I would not go so far as to say that Ray has offered up credible information. Perhaps INcredible is more appropriate. I am still confused, though, Ritaanz, as to whether you view yourself as being more horizontal or vertical or perpindicular or some combination of the three and at what point the three do interract and why. If you still drive a Jeep, don't answer.





**When we do for others what they should do for themselves, we disempower them.**

ray a

What is more incredible is that Don and I both mispelled a word in our two previous posts.

Parabeagle

I was going to be polite and not point that out, but since you opened the door... x;-)

ray a

And upon further review... Ritaanz also mispelled a word. Three in a row - that is a true aberration.