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How in the world can these people be tried in a civilian court under our current laws?

Somehow I doubt they were Mirandized when they were captured or had an attorney present during questioning and I don’t think this was the speedy trial the constitution requires.

Oh I forgot this administration rewrites the constitution anytime they think it’s prudent....

My original post was a little flippant, I just wanted to say that this stuff teacher/student affairs has been happening pretty much since somebody came up with the idea of a school. More of the creeps are getting caught, that’s a good thing. I think kids are getting better at reporting things that aren’t right. I also thing the idea of a double standard male/female predators exists. Dosn’t matter what the sex if you abuse children under your control you ought to be punished to the maximum limit of the law.

I think we agree on that.

Just out of curiosity where did the dope smoking bit come from?

I wasn’t necessarily saying it was right, just that it’s nothing new, not even the frequency of occurances. Just that the perps are being caught more often which is a good thing.

And I haven’t done any dope smoking in 30 or more years although when I was ducking bullets in Beirut I really thought hard about it.

Nothing new, just being reported more often. I can think of a couple of teachers I had in the good old days - early 70s who were more than a little over the top. One rather attractive lady would go commando, sit on her desk and get the quiet attention of every guy in class while another taught me to do the bump - of course I was an 18 year old senior and she was a new 22 year old teacher. I don’t think it scarred me for life. I could be wrong though :)

You won’t get an argument from me on that. I agree but it is very difficult to change a few thousand years of tradition.

Some of the tribes there have had blood fueds going on for almost that long.

It’s going to take a very charismatic Afgan leader to change the system and everytime someone like that appears they get assasinated.

50 years ago families were on average larger and it only took one working adult to support them.

Now families are smaller 1-2 kids and two adults working full-time or more to support them and most families are under a heavy debt crunch.

Afganistan will never have a strong central government and the people really resent large numbers of foreign troops in their country.

Russia pulled out all of the stops in the 80’s including the use of nerve gas, massive numbers of troops couldn’t prop up the communist regime. I’ve met a former Soviet Colonel who lost a leg there and heard some real horror stories.

I still think we’re better off with a fairly large number of special ops, target Taliban commanders and any of the warlords supporting them. Make a few examples. After the Daniel Berg beheading one of the warlords on our side had something like a hundred Taliban executed and had thier heads set on poles to set an example.

Afgans are a proud people and their loyalties are to the clan/tribe etc before any central government.

I’m not an economist but I am a bit of a history buff. FDR and the “New Deal” didn’t end the Great Depression, WWII didn’t end the Great Depression. What ended it was that at the end of the war we were basically the only major country with factories that weren’t bombed flat.

Anywhere in the world if you wanted to buy manufactured goods they almost had to be purchased from American factories.

We got spoiled, wages and profits increased and as the world was slowly catching up we acted as if the situation would last forever. The world caught up. To keep our standard of living we started living on credit. The bills have finally come due I don’t see a pretty picture from here.

I can see the American standard of living collasping as we find ourselves taxed to death just to maintain infrastucture that was put in place when we could afford it.

Don’t hammer me on this but Afganistan really reminds me of Viet Namn. The bad guys can go hide and resupply in no-go zones in Pakistan and Iran and we can’t go after them. As long as they can resupply there and pick up recruits in both border areas we’re going to have problems.

Too many boots on the ground with their hands tied and you risk losing the Afgan people. Too few and you lose. A tough road to hoe no matter what.

If this happens and the (un)Fairness doctrine is passed we need to respond by making complaints against EVERY unanswered leftist comment made by ANY media - Oprah, CNN, MSNBC, NY Times, etc. Use their own law against them.

This is pretty scary - but if Obama wins I could see it as our last really “free” election. With the mainstream media already in his pocket, the fairness doctrine, the provisions under the Patriot Act and whatever else the rat congress gives him he would shut down any opposition - he's shown that he's ready to use any means to shut down his opponents - that's what scares me.

Is this the dog?

I guess I should have said officially recognize. And I don't think it's the government's business to poke into peoples bedrooms.

Gay marriage is not a private matter it would have a huge negative impact on us all.

I could care less what two (or more) consenting adults do in their bedroom. But once you legitimize/legalize the relationship you are opening the door to all kinds of problems. Something as simple as a Christian family operating a bed and breakfast - for now they can deny rooms to unmarried couples. If gay marriage is legal and they denied rooms to a married gay couple they'd be shut down for descrimination. This has been done in Scotland. Catholic Social Services is getting out of the adoption business in the Peoples Republic of Mass. because they will not grant adoptions to gay couples, in the past they got around "descrimination" laws by not granting adoptions to nonmarried couples - with the status of gay marriage in Mass they would be guilty of descrimination for practicing their Christian principles.

I wonder if this means you can get an insurance discount if you have implants????

Need I say more....

You've never been in Columbus Ohio on a Fall Saturday then?

Couldn't the creation of a Higgs-Boson Particle be really dangerous

Welcome to Free Republic - Keep coming back.

I'm a long time lurker and seldom post, but I couldn't resist commenting on this.

Name any country, nation or culture that has embraced redistribution of wealth and has continued to advance.

One thing well meaning socialists or communists always forget is that people will always be people. In a capitalist society greedy power hungry individuals tend to gravitate toward business as their way to power. In business you still have to satisfy your customers (sell a decent/needed product). In a government controlled society those greedy, power hungry people still exist - but government is their only road to power. Once in power there are no checks and balances.

One of the efforts to redistribute wealth here in the US is the estate tax - so called the millionaire tax. An estate valued at over 1 mil is subject to HEAVY taxes. Here in Ohio this is destroying family farms 260 acres, farm buildings, farm equipment may provide a reasonable income but if you try to leave it to your kids they are going to have to come up with a real hefty cash tax payment because of the value of the property.

This may sound odd but didn't the female POW from Gulf 1 also have two broken arms?