Free Republic

You're misinformed. Kobe beef is raised in many parts of the world and here in California for most of the cows' life. They ship the cattle back to Kobe Japan for the last year in order for it to be legally labeled Kobe beef.

My thoughts exactly. These hypocrites were staging demonstrations against the US when the US delegation had the temerity to suggest that something was amiss with the Roy Jones Jr. decision. Subsequent investigations have shown that judges were bribed to favor Korean athletes yet Jones still doesn't have his gold.

Even if a mistake in judging was made so what? What other mistakes were made and that haven't been examined? Some mistakes in judging may have hurt Hamm and benefitted the Koreans and haven't been examined; who knows? Unless some sort of fix was actually altered the decision, allow game time judgements to stand.

>>You ever read the Indian or Paki press?

Some. Not impressed with either. Both are nominally free but all I've seen is that they're free to be inaccurate, partisan and anti-American. Doesn't make both of their repression of the Kashmir topic of discussion any less an act of censorship.

>>Stop shilling for MS; if their stupidity and ignorance leads to them making mistakes, then it's their fault. Simple.

How did you jump to the assumption that I'm shilling for MS? I'm only bashing uninformed detractors. The only thing I'm defending is their right to sell a product. As for mistakes: Taiwan isn't it's own country? Is that MS's mistake or China's delusion? You think that Kashmir belongs to India. So is it MS's mistake when Pakistan claims otherwise? Hagia Sophia didn't used to be a church? Hembra doesn't mean woman in Spanish despite some Central American country's bastardization of the word? Christians don't get offended when Gregorian chants are used in all sorts of non pious situations. Was MS making a mistake in using a Koranic chant for a game or are the Islamists being too sensitive? It's not as simple as you think.

>>If they put out a product, it's incumbent upon them to be accurate.

Yes and you have the right not to buy it. All I'm saying to other countries is to stop being such sensitive pansies about every little mistake.

It doesn't sound like many, if any, of those gaffes are Microsoft's fault. It seems to me that those offended countries are either in denial, way too sensitive, or are the ones being pricks. If China wants to continue to deny reality and continue to think Taiwan is theirs, how is that the fault of MS? How many Nicaraguans know that 'cracker' is an offensive term to some whites? (Hell, the article even notes that MS made the changes.) And the fact is that churches were converted to mosques.

None of the problems stem from a lack of basic geography. They stem from the geopolitical unstability of those complaining nations. No MS employee would be arrested here or in Puerto Rico for referring to Puerto Rico as a state like they would be in India or Pakistan for going one way or the other with Kashmir. (Ain't MS's fault that those countries want to stifle free speech.) In the one instance where Muslims were offended by Koranic chants being included in a game, that was the fault of Japanese developers.

This article is yet another anti-American hit piece by the Guardian. There are a lot of cultures in the world. You're going to know your culture better than an outsider. The US is the most prominent culture and is akin to a celebrity. More people are going to know about us than we do about them. So in reality, it's other countries who are being culturally insensitive when they won't allow for some leeway in these mistakes in cultural interaction. The fact is that Americans are way more tolerant (often too tolerant) of other cultures than they are of us. They should STFU. If Microsoft wants to bend over in the name of cultural sensitivity, that's their business.

So it's the US's fault that you can't raise mature kids to think for themselves? Now who's not thinking beyond slogans? If the things that make Australian culture unique isn't strong enough to survive on its own, maybe it deserves to be replaced.

Don't fall into that kind of lazy thinking. No one is forcing them to buy anything. If they don't like rap music, Hollywood movies, Starbucks, etc... they don't have to buy it. They also shouldn't confuse what we consume with our culture. They shouldn't blame us for their choices. (For all of France's complaints, the McDonald's in France are most profitable in Europe.) The US has no problems with appropriating other cultures these days.

Considering the number of police station bombings, I would suppose that they are somewhat fearful.

In any event, not finishing off Sadr is turning into a bigger mistake by the day. It's still not too late to kill this SOB.

What don't they blame Jews for?

Cloudy day? Israeli plot to destroy your crops.

Lost your keys? Mossad stole them.

Your country is a mess? Jew's fault.

This is just stupid. I doubt anyone cares about his personal finances unless he was making his money selling drugs, children or arms to terrorists. Plenty of people own stocks in foreing companies. It just good risk diversification.

It sounds like you were working for the French even though you don't sound French yourself.

The article didn't say that they found drugs on her. The border agent stomped her when she tried to take pictures of an arrest of a male suspect.

"She and two other women were crossing the Rainbow Bridge over Niagara Falls on the US-Canada border late last Wednesday when Customs and Border Protection officers confiscated marijuana from a male pedestrian.

The three were trying to take pictures when the officers inside a house nearby called and then rushed out of the building."

I hope the judge limits the award to actual damages rather than some 'send a message' type amount.

Those leftist democracies would've voted to keep the US out of that UDN because Al Gore 'won'.

Arabs in the Middle East have the highest rate of 1st cousin marriage anywhere. In most parts of Saudi Arabia, 60% of marriages are to 1st cousins. In Iraq it was about 30% IIRC. And while geneticists have shown that the absolute rate of defects only increases to 3%, that's still double what it would normally be. That 3% also has had a lot of time to compound. Now, I'm not eugenics proponent but I think some of this explains why the Middle East is as screwed-up as it is.

Yup. She's not robbing the cradle. He's robbing the grave.

Hate to break it to y'all but a lot of this drop can be explained by the fact that kids are doing a lot of sexual activities that won't result in pregnancies.

My sister and an old girlfriend had panic attacks. It is absolutely a horrific experience. They can happen for no reason at the most random times. I've gotten phone calls at work, at 3 in the morning to go comfort them.

If that drug caused the panic attack, I can understand.

"Are these not the new slaves?" asks Olivier Besanconneau, leader of the French Trotskyites. "Is it not natural that they should unite with the working class to destroy the capitalist system?"

1. You're not a slave if you get paid and can quit.

2. I suppose it is natural for Muslims to try and destroy capitalism given their prohibition against charging interest and penchant for violent jihad.

3. If they do destroy that capitalist system they're going to be out of a job real quick.

I forgot to add that during the Clinton reign of terror, that number was a ridiculous average of 145,000 a year.

The US approves more political asylum and Convention Against Torture claimants than the rest of the world combined every year. In 2002, the US admitted 70,000 asylum and CAT cases. In 2003 it dropped to 50,000 because of 9-11 and we were called racist, xenophoic, unilateral, etc. even though that lower number was still more than all other countries combined. Go figure.

My church has a lot of services for asylum and Convention Against Torture (CAT) refugee seekers. We've a lot of practice helping Chrisitians fleeing persecution from China. I've worked several cases pro bono. It would make sense that those Muslims try to get help from those who know how to help. I can understand why they would want to live in the US but I've seen a lot of false asylum and CAT claims from the Mid East.