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Uuuhhh Raaaahhh! Semper Fi!
HOO-AH!!!!
Epic fail. That’s army. Marines are oo-rah.
I don’t think it really matters…
Precisely. As long as they yell, it’s all cool.
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BTW I’ve heard it said that the HOOAH thing is actually H-eard U-nderstood A-cknowledged. Is there any truth to that?
Apparently it’s a backronym…”hooah” gets used for pretty much everything except “no”.
And for “no” in unison they chant “Do Not Want!!”
*dons her captain’s hat and camo bikini*
DO NOT WANT to go to class.
Would much rather sit on my ass
*starts PK cadence*
Like to sit on the ‘Net all day…
(okay, who’s next?)
But that sh*t sure don’t pay
(C’mon people. Join in)
Like to taunt the right wing trolls…
(keep it going!)
Rando is a son of a b&tch!
Gave me VD and the 7 year itch!!!
I don’t know but I’ve been told,
Republicans hearts are mighty cold.
I don’t know but it’s been said,
Liberal pu$$ies wet their bed.
That’s not true! I am NOT the son of a b, and ampersand or a tch!
Oggles the camo bikini.
*joins the Steve*
*holds up a bottle of SPF 15*
Can anyone help me out here?
-grabs up the bottle and smiles- bitter troll help!
I’d help, but I’m too busy fainting right now. *thud*
*brak is old, but he can still fight-trips BT (sorry old man, no hard feelings….besides, I’m saving you from the Wrath of Charro)) and grabs bottle out of the air*
Now then, dear…let me show you what I learned in the Orient all those years ago.
*cracks knuckles*
Shall we begin?
brak, I don’t think the techniques you learned on Thai lady-boys are quite applicable here…
*repeats himself on purpose*
What the Klingon says is unimportant and we do not hear him.
*winks at Dhoti as he gently closes door in his face*
Now then…where were we……
Hoo-ah is a deviated form of HUA, which stands for “heard, understood, acknowledged”.
Oorah is a Marine Corps battlecry, often used to raise moral, can be also used as a way to acknowledge an order.
The former isn’t really a battlecry.
dude, those are marines, the army was on the other side.
and if anyone has proof to prove me wrong, then i’ll ignore it.
this is a win.
And every solder deserves props.
hoo-rah.
you fail because this is WWII. Marines did not say oo-rah untill the Korean War
There’s a corpsman in that photo, so ya gotta give some props to the USN.
Next we put up a McDonalds
lol!
For those of you who don’t know, this is the 2nd flag to be hoisted. The original was “too small” and replaced with this one. That is why there is so much contraversy over the photographer winning a Pulitzer, many contend it was a staged event.
This is the staged photo. This was taken to help sell war bonds.
Yeah certainly had nothing to do with raising morale on the homefront or celebrating a hard earned victory over a determined foe.
No, I’m pretty sure it was to sell war bonds.
No, I’m pretty sure it was to raise morale. Also the flag rasing was also a morale booster to the men (original flag too small to see) busy still fighting the pockets of resistance. Why not take a picture of something of minimal historic signifigance (note sarcasm).
At the time the photo was taken it was to raise morale. The battle was brutal and they wanted this symbol to be extremely visible. Not far from the thoughts of raising morale was “hey we can raise more money to help fund this important war”. That is not a bad thing and not what made this controversial. What made it controversial is because it was a “take-2″ on the original shot…so a staged re-enactment of the original.
People need to get over it – the battle was hard and bloody and they can take as many shots as they want to set it up.
The recent movies about this part of history – spanning from the ones focusing on the guys coming home and not coping with the celebrity status and guilt of lying – well yea they were just crappy movies made to create a bigger controversy then there actually is.
Yeah. You shouldn’t be too upset. Our country still stages photo opts to sell morale. If there is one thing you can bet on, anything that we invole ourselves in will have an epic photo showing how all the evils are defeated with the ol red white and blue.
No job is too big. No fee is too big.
We came. We saw. We KICKED ITS ASS!!
Rando. I got to say this. You have been -on it- like the last week. I bet our video collections are very similiar.
Your movie refs have been bigger epic wins than the LOL here.
Oh, hell yes!
SET
Where do these stairs go?
They go up.
I don’t find the picture any more upsetting than any other war propaganda picture. i am more concenred with the inability of those who are targets of the propaganda to recognise it for what it is, even today.
By targets are you refering to the many people who what the news, read the papers, watch commercials. There is not much in the real world that does not have some sort of slant or “propoganda” associated with it. Gonna go turn up the heat. This global warming is freezing my azz off.
I mean exactly those (or exactly us, as it probably were). I am horrified on a daily basis (not really true, but almost) about how many people seem to lack any sense of necessity for … ummm … Sorry, can’t think of the English term, but directly translated from “källkritik” would be “source criticism” or “source critique”or similar.
don’t worry about it, you get used to teh stupid after a while, or more likely, just numb to it. there is an amazing lack of critical thinking among the non-elitist right (and the non-thinking left too), but if you let it get to you, it’ll short out the synapses in your brain and once they’re gone, that’s it. then you get to be like me, brain damaged
I doubt I will get used. (And I am not talking about PK, I am talking about all people, right or left.)
actually, the men on the island could see the original flag fine. this one was raised for three reasons:
A. so that the news photographers could get a picture,
B. so that a historically significant flag could be raised in it’s place (the second one was taken from the flagpole of one of the ships sunk at pearl harbor), and
C. so that one of the officers (I don’t remember his name) could take the original.
It’s true that this was the staged photo, but there’s no problem with that, the real problem is that the men in this photo were not the same soldiers who raised the flag during the battle, and were fresh soldiers arriving whilst those who took part in the battle rested. The soldiers in THIS photo were all awarded the MOH, whilst the soldiers who fought the fight never recieved any award. Read all this in an obituary for one of the vets last year, who tried to get his buddies recognised his whole life following the war
They were Marines, with the exception of the Corps man. And they all died except Ira Hayes, the Navajo radio man, so i would bet they never saw those medals…
also, this photograph only got to be more famous than the one taken during the first raising because it was a newsperson rather than an army photographer, so it got to the presses much faster.
Obvious photoshop…
Obvious failure of knowledge of history.
Obvious failure of understanding that nobody gives a shit about american history.
Obvious failure of realizing that you are no better than anyone else, nor is your country, all people are equal, all countries are equal.
Doesn’t it qualify as world history, seeing as it was WORLD War Two?
That too
Failure to understand the concept of ‘Equal’
Obvious failure of understanding that you’d be speaking either Japanese or German if it hadn’t been for these guys right here.
Please tell me you’re being sarcastic. Or else you really need to get a refund on your education.
WOW! yes that was sarcasm…what about that photo could have been photoshopped? what is in it that was so outlandish…i am sorry next time i will end with
/sarcasm
wow…just wow
There is a certain military fanboy crowd around here that doesn’t know how to take jokes when it comes to military pictures. You either talk about how great it is or say nothing. I think all the sane folk would know you are kidding.
Hell, I am insane, and I thought you comment was funnier than the ‘lol’.
I thought it was obvious as well that is was making a humorous comment about an epic fail LOL…
Yeah Victory we can’t take a joke about the military. Also don’t people ride conservatives when we make sarcastic remarks and don’t say *sarcasm*. I believe I gave him benefit of the doubt with asking if he was being sarcastic.
So if I were to say some racist sexist remark sarcastically or generalization sarcastically I don’t need to say sarcastic, b/c the “sane” folks should know I’m sarcastic.
Also with the education of today’s folks you never know what they were taught. So if he had said *note sarcasm* I would have lol’d.
I hope you are joking. If you are not you are uneducated. You know, you could probably write a book on how to win friends and influence people. I mean, I felt the warm embrace of understanding in your post. In hindsight, I don’t even know what I wrote what i wrote.
:-/
Point taken.. Penaut Butter I understand your the point you are making. and yes i will better indicate sarcasm noted. However i will continue to make fun of blind followers of any political party. Hardline conserativices and liberals have ruined our goverment. Much like peoples views on WWII its not about good vs. evil its about differences there is ALWAYS another side of the story.
Hey I make fun of hardliners both sides as well. However I’m sorry WWII was Good vs Evil, other wars not so much.
And that’s another “lulz” for the butter jar !
I see what you are saying Peanut Butter and can understand why it seems more black and white than some wars. However there was another war that was based on Good vs Evil and that was the Crusades, but we forget about that part of history
Hence the not so much other wars. WWII is really only the clear war of true Good vs. Evil (possibly the 1st Gulf War as well). Most other wars you can see from other point of views. And where did I ever say the Crusades was G vs E, you might have me confused with a right wing christian. I’m just a moderate conservative.
Honestly, I was kinda wondering why the crusades were being brought into this myself.
Rando: I think it was a poke at religion.
Conservatives poke at health care/ global warming
Liberals tend to poke at religion.
Sorry i am at work and cannot always make all my thoughts super clear. My apologies. I was simply stating that even in seamingly clear cut views or g v.e their are other points of view that the other side does not see. Our preceptions and society as made us see what is good and what is evil, just becuase we see it as bad becuase that is what we have been taught does not mean someone doesnt. I am speaking in gernalities, that i understand, sorry for the confusion.
To follow…yes i believe we were good and they were evil. However i am saying that i can see that is only what we preceive, not all people may feel that way
Harvest: I think that’s what we were saying. However in WWII there really is too much to the other sides perception. Killing millions of people b/c of their religion, sexual preference, mental capacity, etc is pretty evil regardless.
well actually, if you think about it, “killing millions of people b/c of their religion…” is pretty much what happened in the crusades. Personally, I side with the allies, but during WWII, plenty of people sided with the axis (otherwise, how could there be a war?). It’s always “good VS evil,” and your side is always (in your opinion) the “good”. In reality, there really is no war between “good” and “evil,” only wars between two sides that both think of themselves as “good” and the other side as “evil”.
As much as I hate war, and as much as I know there are definitely some gray areas in there, I agree that WWII comes down to good vs. evil, and this time we WERE the good guys, hands down.
We = British, French, Belgians, Polish, Soviets, Chinese, Phillipinos, Canadians, Australians, Irish, South Africans, and lots more.
Which is about the oddest group of allies you could ever see. It’s funny how many of them we ended up enemies with after WWII. Not really a ha ha funny either.
I lean towards Joker funny.
Glaring omission I can totally undertand b/c I too lived through the cold war, amigo. U.S.S.R.!
He said the Soviets.
Rando to the rescue!!! Ta Ta Ta Ta!!!
Can he stop a speeding bullet? Yes, once!
More powerful than a locomotive? Sure! Wait, does Thomas the Tank Engine count?
There’s an ‘lol’?
Photochop, I hear. It’s the new term. You’re uncool.
CHOP CHOP CHOP.
Not even remotely new. But +1 internet for effort.
Grow a sense of humor.
I go away for a few days and miss all of this? From where are all of these new trolls coming? Where’s the Troll-Control spray? Some of them are horrible little pests, based on their sock-y posts.
Yes, like I’ve said once, I’m not sure if the one in question is really this batshit crazy, or is just a libtroll sock. I’m guessing the latter as this supposed “liberal” has attacked almost exclusively other known liberal regulars here.
Is the first marine John (Marion) Wayne? It looks like him from the back.
Link with the entire story. Including the first raising, and why it was done the second time.
{http://www.iwojima.com/raising/raisingb.htm}
Link with the entire story of the flag raising, including why it was done the second time.
iwojima.com/raising/raisingb.htm Add the ww’s, as the filter wont let it through with them.
carolinian –if you use elipses { } to bracket links the filter doesn’t catch them
English major attack. These brackets {} are not ellipses. An ellipsis is a three dot symbol like so… used to indicate an omission from a quote or, in written dialogue or discussions, to give the impression of a hesitation in speech.
Love ya!
doh! brain f@rt here
blame it on lack of scotch in the bloodstream.
on the other hand i was doing good to not refer to them as bob hope parenthesis, which is what one of my grade school teachers called them
and a question – if these {} are brackets, then what are these []? are they both brackets? and if so, how do you tell them apart without using them?
It’s my understanding that they are both brackets, although the straight ones [] are more common. The curvy ones {} are hardly ever used, so I’m honestly not sure if they have a name of their own. I tried googling them, but apparently no documents matched my search terms. {:P}
Curly brackets and square brackets, iirc.
John Wayne never served in the war.
because he was deemed vital to the war effort for the movies he made, also because of his age and old injuries he was classified as 4-f
I’m John Wayne at the first Thanksgiving, pilgrim.
Peter is always FTW. Always.
Hellz yes, he is!
Quick! How many Americans does it take to hoist up a flag?
accourding to Americas favorite hate group the Boy scouts of America…3. ONe to hold, one to hoist and one to stand their like a douche in green pants ans a hanky around his neck.
It takes a whole scout just to stand there and respect. You see, the flag feeds off of this, and the other two cannot produce enough. They are still children.
LOL that was awesome VnV!!! LOL But what if the one scout is really fat?! can he produce enough respect?
Only if he is -really- sweaty. I think it has something to do with the salt count. There hasn’t been enough scientific evidence to be sure.
Oh, and just to sort of cover my back so when the BSoA fanboys show up. I was in scouts when I was younger and for me it was a great community program as well as an excellent chance to learn some basic survival skills. I may not agree with all their politics, but I definitely think it is a better place for children to be besides in front of the TV.
I too was in scouts…and yes i too think it teaches some great skills…unfortunately those chlidren have to be Christian and non-gay.
Tho misguided they have done good things for many communities.
Yeah. As a gay, Jewish, black guy…. it was tough at first…. but after I got that ascot…. I could produce ‘respect’ with the best of them.
**none of the above is an accurate description of me. No offense to anyone gay, Jewish, or black**
ahhh, those were the good ol days…i remember ‘producing respect’ in the woods, in a hole behind a fallen tree. and then wipin that respect with leaves or newspaper. finally we buried that respect the next day and moved on..LOL
Your respect provided fertilizer for the fungi portion of the food system. Nice work.
Actually, it’s because of those politics that my son isn’t allowed to join the BSoA. That and the fact that he hates the outdoors.
I dont blame you. I would not allow my son to join either. We teach tolerance and respect for people in my household. I dont teach bigotry and hate.
As for the outdoors…have you tried introducing him to hunting? that worked for a couple of my buddies kids
No. My sons is a big fan of animals. He’s horrified by the thought of hunting. My wife’s grandpa showed us a couple racks from deer he’s killed in the past and I thought my son was gonna throw up. He’s an indoors nerd like his pa.
(Now, a totally different organization is Girl Scouts, which my daughter is in. Their politics are WAY different than Boy Scouts, plus they have cookies.)
Hey i wont diss the Girl Scouts!! They have great cookies!! No shame in being an indoor nerd, i just thought you were wanting him to go outside
LOL
Are they made from real Girl Scouts?
VnV no they are made from Nazi’s.
mmmmm… the official cookies of fascism!
YOU VILL EAT ZEESE COOKIES! YOU VILL ENJOY ZEM!!
Not really. I don’t like going outside either.
It takes about thirty Girl Scouts to raise a flag…
I remember growing up in Girl Scouts and working at a GS camp, and the counselors always had to teach the girls how to unfold and raise a flag. As in EVERY SINGLE TIME they went up the flag pole. We didn’t bother asking them to get it down, we did that ourselves.
i hated the girl scouts – we didn’t get to do anything fun outdoors or learn knots or nothing. i wanted to be a boy scout so bad (but i didn’t want to be a boy, just do the boy stuff)
now days i guess if you threaten to sue, they let girls in – so cool. not the suing part, but the random girl getting to be a boy scout & play in the woods and all
I know I would have enjoyed Boy Scouts a whole lot more if we had also had girls in the group….
Really, your son should be more horrified by eating food produced by the industrial food complex. Have you ever even contemplated the suffering inherent in the KFOs from which supermarket meat originates?
Just a thought. At least wild game actually lived a natural, wild and free life. I recommend “Omnivore’s Dilemma.”
Well, there are two issues with food.
1. I’m a lousy cook, so the easier it is to make (read: over-processed crap), the better.
2. As far as my son is concerned, he has major food sensory issues as well as Asperger’s so there are only so many things he is willing to eat, many of them again over-processed crap. In short, you’re right, supermarket meat (and food in general) is crap, but I’m just as much of a slave to it as everyone else. I’m not justifying it, but there you go.
Than I hereby revoke your liberal card.
It has to be good to eat, and good to think, in order to balance its place in the world re: consumption. I find it ironic that liberal ideology considers hunting barbaric, yet the Native American cultural ideology, with its focus on sustaining heritage through maximum utilisation of natural resources, theoretically worth celebrating and preserving re:diversity. Ironic, isn’t it?
Everyone isn’t a slave to the industrial food complex. Just those who refuse to acknowledge its presence and its detrimental effect for the human condition, as well as the world’s ecology. Sorry if that offends you.
“liberal ideology considers hunting barbaric”
Which liberal ideology?
Do you?
“Which liberal ideology?”
“Do you?”
Sorry, parse error.
You tell me. Is hunting barbaric? That’s the prevalent ideology portrayed EVERYWHERE through visceral response to the word “hunting” re: liberal ideology.
Stop playing semantics.
You can’t revoke my liberal card. shortright already took it. Apparently being a Christian automatically gets you kicked out of the club. Bah. And what exactly do you suggest I do to kick the industrial food complex? Ugh, I can’t even contemplate trying to make food that isn’t out of a box. I can’t do it. Everything I’ve ever tried has failed in that regard. Plus, once again, my son goes haywire if the mac & cheese isn’t Kraft, the spaghetti isn’t Chef Boyardee, and the Pop-Tarts aren’t Kelloggs. I would hope a good liberal like you would be sympathetic to a special needs child like my boy. And yes, I’m deliberately baiting you on that point.
Considering the way you appear to want to read hidden agendas into everything and ask questions that are not directly related to issues at hand, playing semantics pretty much is the only thing I’d be interested in with you.
Oh, blah blah. I’m all that’s bad, you’re all that’s good.
Whatev. Duck the point, Danbala. Pretend to be liberal and ignore what’s really going on by hiding behind the semantic curtain. Accuse me of being defensive, when the truth is I’m not. You are.
You’re only punishing yourself, and I’m sad for you.
QQ.
Whoa whoa whoa…Danbala is *pretending* to be liberal? This is getting rather bizarre. I wish I could stick around to see the end, but I gotta get up early tomorrow. Have fun, Danbala!
Sorry, Rando, you have to rectify your food consumption within yourself and your family. I’m not judging, I’m simply telling you the truth.
If your son thinks hunting is bad, for the love of god keep him away from the KFOs. They’re more horrific than you can ever even begin to imagine. The crap your meat eats would absolutely appall you. Mad cow disease came from cows being fed the fat of other cows to hurry them to slaughter. It’s repulsive.
I eat meat, but I raise it and hunt it myself. I worked in that industry briefly, and it turned me forever.
LOL! You’ve used that one. Next psuedo-insult?
pseudo
I’ll happily try to continue the discussion from the question you didn’t answer: Which liberal ideology?
Huntin’ fer yer own dadgum food is ’bout as conservative as ya can get, lil’ filly/bucko. Ranks up thar with shootin’ guns, and yellin’ at tha wife tae get ya another beer.
Every one, Danbala. Look it up.
@Counterpoint:
Thank you for answering my question.
Counterpoint is a hunter? And this person wants to revoke MY liberal card???
Of course I am. And I’m a native. Your problem would be, hypocritical liberal usurper?
Your problem would be looking down your nose at everyone who isn’t on the fringe like you. Or maybe being a sock. I don’t know if I believe you exist yet.
On the fringe? Says you.
OMIGOD! I DON’T EXIST!
Sad statement on society when liberals call those of us trying to leave the least possible imprint on the environment by attempting to hunt and gather our own food, and espousing that others do the same, as “fringe dwellers.” What does that make you? A corporate whore?
I most certainly am not a corporate whore. I’m a corporate slut. Whores get paid.
A scene from, probably, the 1960’s:
Some guy is in his kitchen, fixing hot chocolate. A package of Girl Scout chocolate mint cookies is on the counter.
Also on the counter is a bottle of peppermint schnapps.
He glances at the schnapps.
His brow knits.
He glances at the hot chocolate.
He glances again at the schnapps.
In the background, the opening notes of ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’ begin to play softly.
You can get the same effect by photographing the animals rather than slaughtering them. It is actually more difficult to get a good pic than to get a good shot. I’m anything but a bleeding heart but the idea of killing an animal for the sport of it is repellent to me. Always had been. I’m with your boy, Rando.
That being said, the outdoors is something every kid should experience.
But it just doesn’t taste as good jerkied. Phot jerkey kind of has a filmy after-taste!
I live in South jersey and when we were growing up we always used to hear the story of a legendary character who was supposedly the last of the Lelape men in the state. When deer season came around he would trip down and don a breech cloth, stick a knife in his teeth and sit in a tree waiting for a deer. When one would finally come along he would hurl himself out of the tree and bag that sucker with his own bare hands. Now THAT, my friend, is sport!
Oh….you have to sloooow cook the phot with lots of hickory. Takes that chemical edge off.
*snert* I used to live in central Jersey, and well, in the 1970’s, that chemical edge would make one feel at home!
—————–
—OK, that is a bit of an exaggeration, and things have greatly improved in NJ as well. But I couldn’t resist!
Brak: Whoa slow down. I dont kill for sport. I kill for meat. I also have a pretty large garden. What i kill and harvest sustains my family for a good part of the winter and saves money. I am not a trophy hunter and use as much as i can. I dont mind the non-hunting thing and respect you for it, as long as you can see that some of us hunters do it for what it is meant for.
I absolutely understand the difference. No worries dh. It’s a whole different mindset. I get that.
Do you eat meat? If you do, you’re a total hypocrite because you generalise and refuse to become one with nature by taking your sustenance through the natural world with your own hands. Sad, really, how distant and judgmental those such as you have become.
One with nature? Fvck that. Nature sucks, yo. I’m not that kind of liberal, y’all.
LOL!
Funny, but really kind of sad, considering we can’t continue to sustain our current rate of consumption re: industrial food supplies, Rando. We’re going to have to go pastoral to make it happen.
Funny, those of us in the south who grow gardens, raise a few cattle, hunt deer and small game and otherwise do our best to buy as little commercially produced items are considered to be the most backwards and ignorant people. Who knew they were on the leading edge?
(At the same time, plenty of lsughterhouses are closing here to make things more profitable, because it costs less to ship animals longer stretches than to have people employed at anything but the humongous industries. :/)
“lsughterhouses”? I swear my fingers are on backwards today. That should have been “slaughterhouses”, of course.
(In my best Clinton imitation) I fell your pain. I have had the most awful time typing since I switched from a desktop to a laptop. I think my particular laptop has a lousy keyboard, even though I bought a HP. It has been over 2 years, and I go back and correct more errors now than I have in my lifetime.
*arrrrrrgggh* feel……
QED, eh?
You, sir, get my point exactly. Good on you.
Oh, and read “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” sir. You are DEFINITELY on the cutting edge. The only sustainable agriculture is pastoral.
Ain’t no Kool-Aid about it. We’re fukkin up the animals we eat, the diversity of the crops we grow, and resultantly, the ecology of the earth and ultimately ourselves. It’s undeniable, re: the industrial food chain. Doesn’t matter which way you lean politically, we just are.
Yeah, that’s probably true, Counterpoint. The main problem is, though, that I really don’t care. *shrug* ::hands over liberal card::
Right. Let your children inherit the problmes, rather than teaching them, because you’re too lazy to care.
Wow.
*problems
What galls me is that out of the other side of your mouth you think conservatives are responsible for all that’s bad in the world, yet you profess to be a liberal yet turn a blind eye to an unsustainabie food system and scoff at me for refusing to do so.
Schizophrenic, much?
I’m British, but that is one of the most outstandingly epic win photos ever taken. Even if it was staged, it still stands for everything the allies fought for.
Yeh, Feb 1945, and about 5 months later, two nuclear weapons dropped on civilian targets in Japan finally ended the war in the Pacific, and extracted revenge for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
Hiroshima was a city of some industrial and military significance. A number of military camps were located nearby, including the headquarters of the Fifth Division and Field Marshal Shunroku Hata’s 2nd General Army Headquarters, which commanded the defense of all of southern Japan. Hiroshima was a minor supply and logistics base for the Japanese military. The city was a communications center, a storage point, and an assembly area for troops.
The city of Nagasaki had been one of the largest sea ports in southern Japan and was of great wartime importance because of its wide-ranging industrial activity, including the production of ordnance, ships, military equipment, and other war materials.
If you want to put it in US city terms think of Hiroshima as Rock Island, Illinois, and Nagasaki as Houston, Texas.
While the British did well holding/helping out in Europe, in Asia they where pretty much on their own. Also need I mention the Battle of Singapore?
In addition to what Bix Nood said the civilians for the empire of japan were also conscripted warriors. There are a few theories on why it was used. One is we wanted Russia to know we had the bomb and were willing to use it so they would back off. Second was to save american lives. If we went on a ground war with japan (who had some 6 million uniformed soldiers, and would conscript their local citizens which was a much bigger number) the war would have continued and more lives would have been lost (on both sides). Yes it was tragic, no it was not frivolous.
Sadly, this is an issue where I really hate to take sides. Frankly, I think using the bomb in WWII served a bigger purpose. Once we saw the devastation of nuclear weapons, we (as a planet) knew not to use them ever again. Many countries have them, but outside of the extreme nutjob dictators, I doubt anyone would ever use them. At this point it’s more of a defensive tactic than anything. “Don’t shoot your nukes at us or we’ll shoot our nukes at you.” If we hadn’t used the bomb in ‘45, maybe we would’ve used them later with even worse devastation. I dunno. That’s just another perspective I have on it.
Not to mention that they did not have the benefit of our hindsight. We will never see it through the eyes of a world exhausted by war, willing to do ANYTHING to end it. Talk to anyone who lived through that time. None of us really have any conception of what is was like.
that is an excellent point, Brak
and like Chris said, this is definitely one of the most Epic Wins out there ^_^
I agree with that too.
In my perspective they could have demonstrated its power in a far more ethical manner that dropping it on a populated civilian city. Other than that, I think the fact that the Japanese still fought on after that is enough to justify its use. Far less death and destruction in the long run.
Plus we showed those Ruskies who boss, and where to go to spy to get a BIG BANG!!
Though you weren’t overly island hopping in the Pacific, the British contributions in French Indo-China, China, and Korean penisula helped keep Japanese forces occupied on two fronts. I don’t know if the Marines/ Amry woulda had enough men to take Iwo Jima, Okinowa, or Solomon Islands if the Japanese had been able to take forces from mainland Asia and reinforce. You are right, this was a symbol to ALL the allies (vice USSR b/c we didn’t need their help in the Pacific) of what we lost and won during the Pacific Campaign.
Actually that was wrong. They had their own fight with the Japanese along the Manchurian border, and if the two atom bombs weren’t dropped then you would have needed their help. (As a prelimary invasion plan was created that would have lead to the Russians attacking from the north and the other allies attacking from the South.) However this could have lead to a more intense cold war as half of Japan would be in Russian hands, whilst the other half would be controlled by the other allies. This has been stated by many people to have actually been the reason why the Atom Bombs were used, i.e. to win the war against Japan quickly before the Russians decided to invade.
Actually we both are right. We didn’t need the USSR in the Pacific for the exact same reason you said. The Japanese never declared war on the Soviet Union, however there was high tension stand off at the Manchuran Border.
The Atom Bombs were three fold:
1) Invasion of mainland Japan would have been costly in both Allied Life and Japanese Civilians. (See Iwo Jima and Okinowa)
2) End the war prior to USSR involvement. As you stated.
3) Show the USSR we have a weapon that they don’t want to trifle with.
While a war between the Soviets, and Japan never was really declared (until the very end), every time the Japanese fought the Russians, the Japanese got their asses handed to them.
See Battle of Khalkhin Gol.
The atomic bombs had very little to do with Japan’s decision to surrender. The best that can be said for them is they provided a convenient excuse for the Emperor when he explained his decision for surrender to the Japanese people.
The most significant factor in Japan’s decision to surrender was the Soviet invasion. Japan and the USSR had a pact of nonaggression and Japan was attempting to persuade the Soviets to act as neutral mediators in negotiations to end the war. When Stalin violated the pact and invaded Manchuria, it became clear to the Japanese leadership that the only remaining option was surrender.
Although Stalin moved up the invasion date when he learned the atomic bombs had been dropped, he was already planning to invade in late August, a fact of which Truman was well aware. Months earlier, Roosevelt had persuaded Stalin to enter the war against Japan, in exchange for concessions.
Truman authorized use of the atomic bombs both as a show of strength to Stalin and as vengeance for Pearl Harbor. It is possible that concerns over the public response to expending a tremendous amount of money on a weapon that went unused was a factor as well.
As for Pearl Harbor, although Japan’s unintended failure to issue its declaration of war before the attack began was a propaganda victory for the US, the attack itself was simply an act of war. How it became a rallying cry for vengeance speaks to the effectiveness of US propaganda.
Some sources:
US Congressional Inquiry into Pearl Harbor
The Cause of Japan – Shigenori Togo
Yeah it did. The right to American Corporate Imperialism. Next time you drink a coke instead of a local beverage, thank this picture.
So WWII was about Corporate Imperialism? If you learned that at college you definitely need a full refund.
Depends on which part of WWII you are looking at. There are a great many things about this war where the lines are much more grey. Everyone would love to believe that it was simply good versus evil, but thats just not the case. I think I will hold onto my college education, thanks.
I am a little curious which college teaches so much American hate and tries to downplay everything America has done for the world. If I didn’t feel so sorry for you and what they’ve done to you, I’d actually try to explain how you are so far off the mark on about 90% of the comments you’ve made here.
No colleges teach “American hate”. They just try to teach a more whole picture. I am here to make sure things don’t get too one sided. I am sorry you think 90% of my comments are wrong. Its why I make sure to write them. Otherwise you and others may never have heard them. I have said about a million times I think America has grand potential, but as soon as we assume we are perfect and with no flaws, we have stopped growing as a multitude. And that is what will kill us all.
VNV: Seems to me you’re in the corwd that says “Questioning everything is patriotic”. Or “Desent is patriotic”. Instead of focussing on the good things this country has and still does you instead choose to focus on the negative. So you’re a pessimist. That’s ok, it’s your freedom to be that. The problem is with your presentation. You detracted from those “WE LOVE USA” attitude as a bad thing b/c in your eyes we fail to see the faults with the Red White and Blue, yet you are guilty of the same thing in the opposite light. You’re “I hate this country and what it stands for today” attitude is just as bad b/c you fail to see the good in this country.
In my eyes only a spoiled, self pretentious, unappreciative, brat would not look at this picture and want to thank these men and those that served (women as well) who sacraficed so much in WWII and not want to thank them. This is why I’m GLAD the Axis rose to power when it did, b/c today’s generations wouldn’t have the stones to stand up to the evil. No matter what anyone says, the Axis powers were unadulterated Evil.
You know, I feel extremely lucky to be born and live in a country like the USA, and not say, in North Korea, or someone starving in Africa. However, I feel loyalty towards myself and my family. I don’t understand feeling loyalty to a country. I appreciate everything great in the USA, but it doesn’t give me any particular sense of patriotism.
The USA is a great place to live, perhaps the best, but it isn’t perfect. The U.S. has a somewhat sordid past, especially where Japan is concerned. We’ve committed our fair share of international and local unpleasantries, but pointing that put doesn’t imply hate. To think any country is perfect is foolish, don’t think America is infallible just because it’s the “best” country in your opinion.
Any college that doesn’t teach pure pro-America propaganda teaches American hate, didn’t you get the memo? The United States’ intentions have always been pure and patriotic in every single endeavor ever. Duh.
Rando there’s something called an equilibrium, and from Victory’s posts he tends to be outside that equilibrium.
I was lucky enough to go to a somewhat Liberal HS that taught from the center. Here are the facts, make up your own mind. I wasn’t brainwashed about US history. I know Columbus was really not a great guy, but he did some cool things. I know that the founding fathers were hypocrites screaming of freedom while owning slaves. I know that our country was involved in some bad dealings with Native Americans. I know that in the 1960’s we supported some $hit governments in order to halt communism (pick your poison I guess). I also know that without the US of A, the assembly line wouldn’t have been perfected, Democracy would not be as prevalent in the world as it is today, Europe would be speaking German, Asia would be speaking Japanese, and Oil Trade would be with the doiche marc (sp).
Good. Because you guys are right. There *does* need to be a balance to history, both the good and the bad. The problem is, very often hyper patriotic fools who wake up under their red, white, and blue comforter set and go to take a shower with their red, white, and blue shower curtain before eating breakfast off their red, white, and blue plates tend to ignore the bad when it comes to America. I’m glad you can see through that. History should not be propaganda. And honestly, I doubt VNV really thinks everything in America is evil, and he’d probably crap himself if he was told he had to go live in North Korea with Li’l Kim.
But when I say balanced history, the bad parts *do* need to be in there too. And FTR, I went to a Catholic university (not Catholic myself) so I most certainly didn’t get a pro-hippie liberal education. LOL
Rando, Thanks for the seeing that I see. However, you do realize you just generalized heavily there. If I were to say they often hyper American hating traitors who wake up under their Cuban flag comforter, and go take a shower in their El Che shower curtain, before eating their tofu breakfast off their recyceld burned American flag plates only see the Evil America is.
Yeah, I know. I was going for dramatics there.
Would you call me out as a conservative had I gone for dramatics?
Its obvious you are a liberal ILPB. Noone has to call you on it. You are as pink as they come!
I have to call you out on being a conservative? I thought that was a given. Not really sure what you’re getting at.
As a conservative, if I did the dramatics, would you call me out on doing such? IE “Hey prick, nice generalization there.” etc…
hehe. you’re a prick. hehe.
See standard liberal, always making fun of a conservative, but not taking it in return. Wanker!!
I -knew- that was going to be your answer! Ha!
Of course I would! But I was totally expecting to be called out on it too. I speak fluent hyperbole.
VNV: You must be psycho, I mean psychic. (are we doing a friendly banter, I sure hope not I have a rep to protect)
Bando: Well then next time I’ll call out much louder and harder.
Actually, not only would I call you on dramatic generalizations, I think I did further down.
I do not think everything is evil. I like the internet. And if I -had- to chose a place to go live other than America it would -not- be North Korea. But I would have probably pooped myself at the idea of being offered a ticket out of America. I mean… thats like a hand out or something.
Hey I see that was sarcastic… playing on the fact that conservatives believe liberals love hand outs, I get it HA! HA! HA!
see? you are coming around!
That’s what she said…
Thats what Green Day said.
You were doing it with Green Day? Sick, dude!!
Over the last few days I have done with with Green Day and Honest Abe. I am really starting to get around! Its like those early college days all over again!
The same thing may also be said about all the axis powers too. Hitler was pure evil, but he did give Germany the Autobahn, brought the Volkswagen into being, gave Germany a sense of unity and self worth (albeit at the cost of anyone Hitler didn’t like), and rebuilt the army which after the miseries put upon Germany after the Versaies (spelling) treaty (no production of weapons, weapons to be basically kept at 1918 standards, and enormous sums of money to be given to Belgium and France even (and especially) after the Wall Street Crash)
Ignoring for a second that VNV took the “college” hook like a noob…
There’s a difference between intelligent, considered criticism and pseudo-intellectual, knee-jerk anti-Americanism (as in reflexively assuming the worst in order to appear to be considered). VNV certainly appears to trend towards the latter.
Not to get too sucked into the college thing, but let’s face it — academia is full of pseudo-intellectuals of all stripes. I’d argue that makes group polarization an even stronger force, because for your average associate professor, there’s no shortage of hungry, indistinguishable replacements gunning for his or her spot.
I think the noob move is to use college as bait. But go ahead lets see what you have to say…
I may appear toward the latter to you, but thats because you have decided to ignore any flaws. Without acknowledgement of them, they cannot be fixed.
Not just for professors, but any white collar job. There are only so many white collar positions to be filled and millions of people trying to get them. Not all will succeed. And then we will tell them to live within thier means, and look down on them for working in blue collar jobs. Its not the individual thats the problem. Its the institution and the culture we have created.
So, we should work toward socialism where nobody can get ahead except for the politicians, and they can look down on all of us. Sounds like Utopia to me. I mean, it worked so well everywhere else it has been tried.
I haven’t heard Sweden complaining too much.
actually, just thinking aloud here, aren’t most of the countries that are tanked in the top 10 best places to live in the world all socialist or socalist leaning? i’m just saying, if you break away from republican rehtoric, the concept doesn’t seem too bad. besides, america’s still an infant country compared to most – we’re not the first to come up with democracy, some of those countries have had a much longer time to work out the kinks in their society. i’d say we listen, that’s all.
“Best” is such a subjective metric that any attempt to use it to rank is going to be nearly useless. (It’s a great way to see how countries correspond to the preferences of those doing the ranking, though.)
Income inequality is usually included in these things, right? (Personally, I think the poverty line is a better indicator, but that’s neither here nor there.) Sweden has relatively low income inequality, but we know that’s at least partially skewed, because rich Swedes (like the Ikea guy) keep their wealth offshore. Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea have low income inequality too, but only because everyone’s miserably poor.
And technically, the US is what, the second or third oldest state in the world? We’re certainly one of the oldest democracies, and perhaps the oldest “true” democracy, in that there was never a monarch or a landed gentry or something to serve as a check on the decisions of elected officials.
dhoti – i’ll have to look and see what all the stats they used for the ranking are, income surely, i think healthcare, cost of living, education and what not were thrown in there but i’m not 100% sure.
as far as oldest state – it might have been better if i phrased it differently – the us may be the longest or among the longest of those unchanged since inception, but i was referring to evolution of society, how say Germany, for example, as a country has been there for a very long time but the governing body and method of governing has evolved (be it voluntarily or not) through the course of history to it’s current state.
going along that line – the us is bound to evolve and change and “grow up” so to say, just like other countries around the world, maybe sometimes not for the better (in my opinion the last decade or so and maybe the 80’s going solely by what they atrocities they turned some of the most beautiful cars from the 60’s and 70’s into (**cough** Iroc **cough cough**) but growth and change nonetheless.
anyway, hope that helped clarify what i meant.
i’m still looking but this summarizes some of the traits of a country used in establishing the rank of which is “best” to live in:
“Assuming that wealth is not a finite measure of human satisfaction, the survey is based on complex equations that give precedence to matters of health, well-being, political stability and security. Climate, job security, political freedom, gender equality, and “freedom, family, and community life” are also taken into account.”
from here: { http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6529893 }
still looking for a source that’s more recent (that article was dated 2004) but I need to get some work done so I’ll look more in a bit.
Mustang II. *snort*
Here’s a little tidbit from TNR on the same subject, about awards. It goes into why we can say that the US is a better place to live than, say, Uzbekistan, Portugal, or Honduras, but how it gets fuzzier when we start comparing Japan and Sweden and Australia.
I see where you’re coming from, though.
Politicians don’t really get ahead in socialism. They have desks jobs where they regulate the exchange of goods from places of excess to places of need. And they get paid about the same as any other middle clas job.
Ok, even better. Let’s get away from a society where you can get ahead of you work hard and go to a society where it really doesn’t matter what you do because the government will pay for you. Here’s the problem with that. Eventually, the government will run out of money. Oh wait, we have. And then, people will stop lending us money… Oh wait… So, if you don’t have the people working to get ahead and those on top, you don’t have anyone to pay for those on bottom. Yes, it’s tough for the people on bottom, but that’s part of life. They do have a chance to change their life. I know there are only so many positions, but if you strive to be the best, you won’t have to worry about it. On top of that, the society doesn’t get stagnant because there’s no reason to get better. If you have to get better and there can be a “best,” there will always be someone trying to reach for it, which leads to more innovations and a better society as a whole.
And here i was thinking I was the only one living in a fantasy world. Well, at least I’m not alone.
Ah, the classic “hard work always gets you ahead” line. It’s a crock is what it is. My grandpa worked his ass off as an engineer in a job he hated at a company he despised for decades to make sure he had a great pension for when he retired. About a year before retirement his company was bought out and his pension was wiped out with it. He and my grandma are doing okay thanks to the family trust and some stocks that haven’t completely bottomed out, but that was a major blow. The moral of the story is, we’re not all masters of our destinies.
@ backwardsthinking
You really do live in a fantasy world, don’t you? You can’t just go around making up new definitions for words you don’t like. Guess what? Life isn’t fair, it will never be fair, and no matter how much you want to deny it, some people just cannot get out of their current predicament without help. Will some people take advantage of the system? Of course, they always will, but I don’t see why we should leave so many people at an easily rectified economic pit just to prevent a few people from taking advantage of the system. What really bothers me is the enthusiasm with which you seem to embrace the social class ideology, are you a social darwinist or something?
So, when I talk about institutional bias, you use it as a springboard to go off on wage slavery? And you wonder how I get the impression that you’re a knee-jerk thinker?
Don’t say “we”. I don’t look down an anyone who’s willing to work for a living. I look down on those that want hand outs for doing nothing. You really are so full of negative generalizations it’s quite sickening. You need to get the bias out of your head and then take a re-look at everything.
Hey now — he’s just presenting a different point of view. If you can’t appreciate that, then you are uneducated.
Its true. You said it yourself.
Dhoti you really need to cut this shit out. You read FAR too much into what people post, stop putting words in others’ mouths.
No1, creepy forum stalking aside, we’ve talked about this. Read, think, *then* speak. Don’t just keep repeating the same snap judgment you made once when you were mad I was calling you a self-absorbed emo kid or something.
Go read everything VNV posted previously, and *then* maybe I’ll listen to what you have to say. Maybe.
Its all my fault!
I’m repeating it because it’s true. I’m not insulting you, I’m trying to prevent unnecessary flaming! You’re entitled to your opinion, but you really need to stop making these outrageous accusations.
*sigh* If you can’t be bothered to skim the thread, why would I expect you to take my advice?
Look, you mouth-breather, VNV used that exact phrase to weasel out of defending himself multiple times on this thread; if you’d read it, you’d know that. And if your little emo brain wasn’t already overflowing with slash fic about My Bloody Valentine, you’d recall that VNV tends to be an arrogant, posturing, fire-and-forget kind of troll.
That’s not what happened you dolt. Every time I was saying that it was making fun of I love peanut butter’s response to the “obvious photoshop” thread started by deadharvest. It was a running gag after that. And I am arrogant when it comes to dealing with you and those like you. Its too easy. And I hate that I am that kind of troll which disagrees with you, but seeing as how you don’t read the posts in order I guess you have no point in speaking to me then.
*grumble* Dhoti, this is my biggest pet peeve about you. Just because someone responds to your posts doesn’t make him or her a creepy forum stalker.
Spoken like a stalker.
I realize that, but No1’s cut-and-paste posts goes above and beyond. (Plus, it’s easy and fun to yank his chain.)
Ah, well that’s different then. Carry on.
Define “willing to work for a living”. What if 40 hours a week isn’t enough to make ends meet? Should that person get a second job? A third job? Is there a certain point where people have worked enough so that what they are asking for is human rights and not ‘hand outs’? I think people like to pretend that a majority of he poor are lazy or dumb, which is certainly not the case. In fact, its the exception to the rule. This is why “we” need to reevaluate where we stand on issues involving our social hierarchy.
That’s you thought. I know there are both in this country. I don’t necesarily agree that lazy poor people are the exception to the rule. And I don’t think we necesarily need to reevaluate the social hierarchy. I’m a firm believer if you take from the haves to give to the have nots, the haves stop spending. I support the working man by paying him to install my water heater, install my carpet, build my deck, etc…. It’s called capitalism, and it’s not as evil as Micheal Moore and you make it out to be.
I think the majority of people in general are either lazy, dumb, or both. That includes all classes. Me, I’m kinda lazy.
Ofcourse you don’t agree that its the exception. Thats how your side sleeps at night and continues to hurt millions of people!
VNV Elitist much? Hate to tell you but I probably contirbute more to the “poor” than you do.
I love it.
Hypocrite much?
“You are elite, but I do more!”
No it’s the fact that you said I hurt millions of people. Sorry to discount your “fact” I needed to throw out one of my own. Sorry you fail again.
Still not making any sense. I never said you personally hurt millions of people. Its just the way you think that perpetuates it. Sorry man. Change the way you think and you won’t have to be on that side. Say it with me “The lazy and dumb are the -exception- to the rule.”
I never said dumb. And I’m allowed not to agree with you, and it doesn’t mean I feed the machine that hurts millions a day. That statement is elitist, IMHO. Just b/c someone doesn’t agree with you, doesn’t mean that they are hurting millions.
Look, people ARE lazy and greedy by nature, so what? Why should they get punished for being human? We don’t need to enable them in helping those who are truly trapped at the bottom of the economic pyramid. The laziest people I’ve ever met are those at the top! “Why do anything yourself when you can pay others to do it for you” is their motto. Sure, they create jobs, but the jobs they create never pay enough to really be worth it! They take advantage of the naive and desperate to make their money, how does the factory worker who works 40 hours a week doing the same repetitive task deserve to be paid minimum wage while the big-wigs at the who do nothing themselves but kiss their shareholders’ asses once a month gat paid millions?! It doesn’t make sense! Just because anyone can do their job doesn’t make that individual’s contribution any less significant! Imagine if all the workers in the service and manufacturing industries just stopped working; society would crumble. So, why do you insist these people lazy and “replaceable”?! Collectively, these underpaid, unskilled, laborers grant the greatest contributions to our society. SHOW SOME DAMN RESPECT!
No one may have asked you, but I often love hearing you anyway!
You can hear me typing?! WHERE ARE YOU?
I am the ‘who’ when you call ‘Who’s there?’.
…Batman?
If only…. I have neither wealth nor ninja skill….
It was just a way for me to sneak in a Nightmare Before Christmas line. Halloween is a coming you know.
I spent 4 summers working at the 7-eleven, and it has made me respect those who don’t have the opportunities that I have had to get an education that allows for more options. Standing for hours, working a cash register STINKS. You have to stand the whole time, you can’t switch to a different sort of task for a while to take a break, you have to be at least vaguely polite to some serious jerks, and the pay? Pathetic at best. Minimum wage is really only of use to high school students who live with their parents–you can’t pay rent, utilities and food on that! Unless we bring back single-room-occupancy hotels, I think we need to re-think minimum wage.
No1 and VNV: Do you really think that CEOs don’t do any work? Do you think they take 2 hour lunches and do nothing? Actually a good CEO will usually work more hours than his employees (and most that I know do that).
I’m tired of everyone wanting me to apologize b/c I’m a “have” (upper middle class). I earned everything I got, I was lucky that I had a good education, and got my college paid for by the Federal Government, however I had to work extremely hard to get that education.
So you are only upper middle class and you are fighting so hard to defend the rich? Ha! You’re just a wage slave with a little bit more. I have no doubt you have worked hard for what you have gotten. You probably deserve every penny. But my beef never was with you and your rung of the social ladder. Why, I wouldn’t consider myself that many rungs down from where you are. So keep working hard and worrying about losing your money, but just know that you don’t have enough to make any difference through your tax contribution. And also, consider the gap between rich and poor has grown in this country over the past 50 years and ask yourself, what happens if that upper upper class decides that your rung is no longer viable?
Way to go, ILPB — you just validated his assumption that anyone who disagrees with him is above him on the social ladder, thereby reinforcing his sense of righteous prole solidarity and convincing him it’s okay to continue to condescend to us.
I do think you need to define what you mean by ‘have’ and ‘have nots’ in your social heirarchy. If you mean the top 1%, I have no argument with you. If you mean company owners, some of them are barely making even, keeping their store in operation.
I certainly agree that those who have more should contribute more, but use some precision rather than demonizing large groups.
I personally know 2 CEO’s, both of whom work late into the evening and on weekends. Neither is hurting for money, but neither is anywhere near the top 1%. One stayed on with a sucky corporation because he didn’t want to risk his employees losing their jobs if his branch folded. The other was very upset a couple years back because he was going to have to do layoffs to keep the company in operation (and keep the remaining 60 folks employed).
Viking, I am looking at the top 1-10% (it varies a lot so I don’t have an exact head count) of the world population. The cap and the bell curve for it is disgustingly amazing, as is the way the live by numbers and not people.
The sad part Dhotti is that many people disagree with me and they are doing far worse than I am. But then again they have also been brainwashed by generations of propaganda. I do however, have no problem pointing out flaws when I see them.
I was gonna come up with something insightful for this nest, but I’m just too lazy.
I think the knee-jerk reaction comes from a very pro-American hyper patriotic picture. Frankly, it makes my eyes roll, because as much as I like this country, I don’t feel all that patriotic. So as soon as I saw that pic, my guard was up. Essentially, I came onto comment section expecting to see at least one or two people screaming “you liberal pussies hate America!!!” So we’re kinda on the defensive.
If you showed up just to pick a fight with your stereotypical redneck (“red, white, and blue comforter set”, I think you said?), well, to be blunt, that’s your problem. Moreso if that’s how you trivialize “the other half” of the country.
hehe. rednecks…. lol!
red white and blue necks?
I don’t trivialize the “other half” of the country that way. In fact, the truly blind patriots are the minority, but they tend to scream the loudest. And I’m not here to pick a fight. There was already a fight, I just hopped in. And as for rednecks, I wouldn’t want to insult myself.
Rando being the high tech redneck. Its where Mayberry meets Star Trek. He’s a bumpkin, but he’s plugged in. As a high tech redneck.
Yup. I use this here high speed Interwebs to see if my local Wally World is on People of Wal-Mart. I rent a totally redneck house (converted from a duplex…and not very well) with a rotting deck that has a burned-up stove sitting on it (my landlord’s fault, not mine). I went to an expensive university, and try to keep my brains working somewhat, but I have embraced my redneck heritage.
It’s funny, I get the same feeling knowing that all the left will talk about is how evil America is. The funny part about it is, we both know that America has it’s good and bad parts. However, since your side doesn’t like to say what’s good, there has to be the other side that won’t say anything bad. In other words, we (you and me included) perpetuate the arguing we don’t like.
Whats good doesn’t need to be fixed. Whats wrong does.
It doesn’t need to be fixed, but it doesn’t need to be ignored or downplayed either.
I am not ignoring it or downplaying it. I think socially, we are in many ways ahead. But I am not going to shout about how good we are until we get it all right. And we still have a long ways to go yet.
You certainly are downplaying it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you say something nice about our soliders or country except “it has potential”. How is that a compliment. “She’s pretty and all, but that mole on her cheek is hairy” not really a compliment.
And what you think is wrong with the country, I might not think is wrong. I don’t want the Government to be a charity, I want charities to be charities. I’m happy oonly paying for two helath insurances, not three. It’s things like that people tend no to get. Just like some liberals don’t want God, some conservatives don’t want Government run everything. Different morals, each pushing theres on each other.
How did healthcare get brought into this? I have said it oh so many times, you do not make enough money to be paying for all this stuff you seem to think you money can pay for. In fact, why don’t you just assume that every dollar of taxes you pay for the rest of your life went solely to military purchases or flag purchases. I can pretend every dollar of taxes I pay goes to help people. There. Now you can support that which you like so much, and I can do the same! We both win!
VNV: Yeah but my “pretending” doesn’t violate the US Constitution.
I violated the US constitution? Damn! Which rule did I break?
The social programs instituted by the Federal Government that are directly related to defense technically are against the US Constitution.
Downplaying is saying, “The government never did us any good! We’d be better off without them!”. Exaggerating is saying, “We owe everything we have to the great and glorious government! They can do no wrong!” No one here is doing either. What I’m seeing is people disagreeing about the significance of individual contributions by the government. You’re just arguing your opinions, which in my opinion, is thoroughly pointless. State your opinions, be mindful of others’, and move along to a debate about something real!
Here’s how I see the difference between the right and the left complaining about the problems with America (gross generalization to come):
What the Left thinks is wrong with America: several issues regarding social, financial, and political corruption that destroy the lives of both Americans and people around the world.
What the Right thinks is wrong with America: liberals.
nail meet hammer!
I gotta admit, now that I’ve written it, I want it on a t-shirt.
Or THIS:
Left thinks is wrong with America: America
Right thinks is wrong with America: Power grab by the government, constant want to “spread the wealth”, terrorists are our friends attitude, let’s talk it out with those that want us dead.
Now, now. We liberals don’t think EVERYTHING is wrong with America. We just have a few things we want to see improved. *unravels list that rolls down the hall, out the front door, across the street…*
*sigh* This sort of thing is why I hate labeling people. Nothing good comes of it. We just do it because we’re lazy…
No1: Rando and I were having fun with each other. I have a feeling with both don’t feel that way.
The thing about the stereotypes that both ILPB and I just put out there is that these stereotypes come from fringe loonies that tend to scream louder than the normal people among the conservatives and the liberals. Are there conservatives who go on about how liberals are destroying this country? Absolutely. I’ve voted FAIL on LOLs suggesting exactly that (just for an example). Are there liberals who think America is pure evil and everything is wrong with it? Absolutely. And these are the people that make the most noise because they tend to get their lunacy out there the most and because their opinions are the most controversial.
Sort of like conservatives need to come into an anti-religious Lol with their defensive up against liberal attacks.
You’re generalizing there too, buddy. I’m a Christian liberal. I don’t take part in the attacks on religion (well, specific ones against specific issues perhaps, but I get riled up when people come in and attack religion in general). Religion LOLs are one of the few times you’ll see me come down squarely with the conservatives.
Rando, you are one of the few, the proud, oh sorry, wrong commercial.
It doesn’t seem as bad lately, but the disrespect shown to people of faith is usually pretty bad on here, and in the liberal world. Though I will admit there are some people who are blindly religious that are just as bad as the “I hate religion” atheist crowd.
I’ll agree. I’ve heard some extremely nasty things said on here about people of faith. Everything from “fairy tale” to “death cult.” Death cult is my favorite, though.
I wasn’t generalizing, I said liberal attacks on religion. I didn’t say all liberals, did I?
It was somewhat implied, whether or not you meant to do so. You should be more specific in your statements if you want to avoid misinterpretation.
Most of my liberal friends are religious (all flavors). My conservative friends are also religious. I’m agnostic, and not saying that as a brag–it is an uncomfortable place to be.
NoOne: how was it implied? I said specifically liberal attacks. I didn’t say ALL Liberals attack religion. Could it possibly be the self conscious nature that you anticipate conservatives to say all liberals attack religion?
First of all, not only liberals attack religion. I’ve seen a couple people that attack religion that weren’t liberal on here. Mostly trolls, so I don’t remember names. And since you didn’t specify that you meant only some liberals attack religion, I assumed you meant we all do. Like No1 said, whether you meant to or not, it came off as a generalization. I’m not questioning your intent. That’s just how it came off.
You must have been sleeping that day — any sentence with “American imperialism”, “corporate imperialism”, “oppression”, “enslavement”, etc. gets an automatic free pass. (It’s also how Michael Moore made his money — well, that and GWB.)
But remember, you can’t say anything in response, because VNV’s just “making sure things don’t get too one sided”. Of course, if you reply to him that way, his panties’ll get twisted.
My panties never get twisted. Its all in the brand you use. And I like it when people have arguements or thought to share. We have to have a good mix or else its no fun for anyone. Without people ignoring world problems in the favor of flag waving, how else could I find a place for myself in this world? You see, it takes closemindedness to make me fell better about the world I live in. Strange huh?
Well, yeah, especially not on Fridays. Friday is Commando Day, right?
Friday is thong day. Those are kinda hard to get twisted actually.
Not that I know. O_O
Is it the pink one today, Rando?
Well, it used to be pink.
So true. Not -thats- the true meaning of ‘freedom’.
That’s right. I like to set the boys free once and a while, they need a day off too!
“Corporate Imperialist” is the new “Jew.”
ILPB VNV is a corporations are bad, take the money from the rich and give it to the poor and make everyone middle class kind of guy. I will say that VNV is consistant though
)
Next time you drink a Fanta think of Nazi Germany.
Oh I will.
Yeah and the next time you buy a Fresca think of….LOL oh wait nobody actaully buys Fresca…sorry.. LOL
Next time you buy Faygo, think ICP
Don’t think I will be buying either of those any time soon. Both pretty gross.
Truthfully, I would say juggalos are the main people that buy Faygo. And, I doubt many of them actually drink it. lol
Yeah. I have a “juggalette” friend. Apparently, they just spray it all over the place. Sounds sort of liberating though.
anoher unfunny caption by *sigh* american
Another unappreciative response by *sigh* a Maroon.
Maroon….”huh” is purple? I though he was a moron.
Obviously not a loony tunes fan. Bugs Bunny called the overly simplistic Yosemeti Sam, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, or Marvin the Maritian Maroons when they did something stupid.
We come here for lols. If we want war pictures, we go looking for them. Yes, this is an epic picture, no, the comment is not funny.
Exactly!
I agree. Who is going to argue that the picture represents something bad? Nobody, I hope. BUT. It’s just. not. funny. I want teh funneh! Make me laugh, dammit! *kicks PK in the junk* Be more funny!!
But isn’t it our responibility to make the Lol funny if it ain’t. Like kicking PK in the nuts. That’s funny. Of course to most liberals I’m a raving hawk who loves violence. But they’re wrong I only love violence against defenseless creatures, when violence can occur back at me I abhor it. **joke (VNV)**
Violence is funny. And fun! But only in video games.
Or on America’s Funniest Home Videos, Jack Ass, South Park, Naked Gun movies, You Tube…………….
That’s true. But if I need to let off some steam, I enjoy shooting people up in Halo.
It’s entirely possible the captioner went to the U of C.
Yup, huh, I’m with ylu.
Iwo who? what?
Not relevant to anyone not US.
Of course, ylu is Aussie for you. Just checkin’
Really? Not relevant to anyone not from the US? You realize if not for these men you’d be speaking Japanese right now. Without American involvement, you realize that Australia was next, right?
I hope you were being sarcastic.
HA! That isn’t true for starters. And as far as American action in either of the world wars, both times they only joined in as a major factor after THEY got hurt. Before that, they didn’t give two hoots about it. Yea, they might have lent a few soldiers here and there but nothing significant until the enemy did something to them and now they take so much credit for being such a driving force to end the war. It’s total bull.
So I guess the Lend-Lease act just transported sugar, and bananas to United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, and other Allied nations?
Hell FDR once asked Stalin what it would take for them to win the war. His response? “Detroit” Soviet troops rode into Berlin wearing American boots, riding on American trucks, and eating canned American rations.
And losing more people than anyone else in the war! What a great deal for the US. We loan some boots and trucks, millions of Russians die. How people get to be sympathetic to the US over this is silly.
What do you expect when the Soviets had Order 227, and Order No. 270?
I expect people will one day open their eyes and give the Russian people some credit where credit is due. In the 1900s they were still under a Tzar and living as peasants in grass huts. By the 1940’s they were defeating the German army on the ground. Ofcourse… they were still living in huts in the collective farms. But wow…. what sacrifice.
so no one lived in the large russian cities in the 1900’s? I think you’re not giving the russian people credit where it’s due here by painting them all as ignorant farmers until 60 years ago.
I am not. I am saying that socially speaking, they made some -huge- leaps in a very short time. Both ways. Good and bad. The point is that they lost more people than anyone else. And they need a tip of the hat for it. Not just a “lucky you had US boots ((that will from now on be made in china))”
The reason they lost more people than anyone else was simply that was the only resource at their disposal at the time (except for the T-34 tank). When you outnumber your enemy about 10 to 1, and decide to use the “swarm” tactic it tends to work. Let’s not forget the use of Soviet machine guns to mow down their own troops who retreated vice actually using them to support the assault. The Soviets get a high blame for their high casualties, it was their tactics. So let’s tip our hats to people too stupid to come up with better tactics than run at the enemy b/c we out number them.
I like how you did that. Went from a horrible loss of life to “they were stupid.”. You are a fantastic debator.
Um, what? It *was* a horrible loss of life, precisely *because* the Soviet military leadership was so horrifically stupid.
I like how you went from ignoring the facts to going right into heavily implying I’m cold hearted. You are just as good at debating.
I didn’t ignore any facts. I said noone lost more people than Russia, and they get forgotten in the credits. And I am quite good, thank you.
OMG, VNV, for the last damn time, no one is two words. This is a massive spelling pet peeve of mine. You’re gonna give me a seizure!!
Look pal, cut me some slack. Me and you have typed a half of a thesis today. A thesis that after today no one will care about. Lemme skip a space bar every now and then!
Dammit, VNV, don’t you know our entire credibility is riding on perfect spelling and grammar? Not one space can be out of place! We’re ruined!!
You’re right your points are completely invalidated b/c of grammar and spelling. (Y’all must have gotten to me, damn liberal stink, off off off.)
Shaq is holding a panda. Your argument is invalid.
Actually most u.s. military equipment is either made by military prisoners or the blind. Not counting the vehicles or weapons but those however are made state side too. There’s a plant that produces the vehicles about 2 hours from where I live and the weapons are colt.
Why is it wrong that the U.S. waited until it was attacked but now it’s wrong when we go somewhere first?
Win.
Bullseye!
Yahtzee!
Uno! **looks for INS**
Well, we didn’t wait until we were attacked. Thats just when we sent troops. We were funding the war machine since near its beginning. And boy were some of the CEO’s getting rich! Oh yeah, and because at least Hitler and Japan were actively attacking other countries. While this time we did a “preemptive strike” which means we invaded them first.
Don’t forget that that “war machine” not only provided us with the tools needed for when the war finally reached our shores. But it also helped end the great depression and brought forth a new class of female workers. Wasn’t all about ceo’s getting rich.
Our shores? You man the islands we annexed?
Oh yeah. It ended the depression (which was caused by very similiar corporate speculation as our current issue) and it did bring forth a new class of female workers. (remmeber back in the day when you could make it by with only one person in the work force? Now all of our kids are raised in daycare!). Its -always- been about CEO’s getting rich. Always.
wow sexist and pessimistic all in one blow. you heard VNV girls. Get your butts back in the kitchen and make him a sandwich!
Yeah. Thats almost what I said. But I think it was more like “Poor girls. Now you are wage slaves just like the rest of us”
No. You’re statement proves you’re a sexist prig.
Every liberal assertion you’ve ever made is now totallly delegitimized. I’m implementing Poe’s law where you’re concerned.
You’re really rather pathetic.
*your statement.
“Poor girls?”
Sexist. Prig.
Care trolls care more about VNV than we do.
What makes me a care troll? This person professes to be the connsumate liberal and then calls women “girls” and accuses us dumping our children in daycares as a result of women joining the workforce, and you condone it? Seriously?
I dunno. I don’t think he meant it like that. I think he was playing around, but I don’t know.
Who is this “we” and why should I pay a lot of attention to others opinions?
And my response was a mock of the previous statement. I was implying the wage versus living situation. No mention of sex.
Bullcrap. True colors = “poor girls.”
From what I read, Care Troll used the term ‘girls’ first: “you heard VNV girls.” VNV responded using the same terminology. Not really sexist at all, what I think VNV was going for was a Marxism feminist stance, which sees the introduction of women in the workforce as them loosing power to the bourgeoise, where previously they had limited control over their family lives, and that even now women are a second class of worker, paid less and under-valued, and that as they are now allowed/expected to work, their valuable imput raising families and so forth is extremely undervalued and considered a non-job (and yup, I have a va-j-j).
Yeah. Damn everything that forced companies to start regarding us wimmin as people who might be able to do something similar to what the men did.
DAMN IT. THE EVERYTHING.
YAY AND MAKE BITTER TROLL ONE TOO!!
and some pie…bitter troll loves pie
also attacking one of our military outposts on a protectorate which will later become a state would count as our shores I think.
Yep. If we conquer it, its out shores!
yeah because we went into hawaii gun’s a blazin! That of course was right after we dropped the A bomb on Juno, Alaska.
There are multiple ways to conquer a peoples. Not all require an A bomb.
If anything we bribed them into joining us.
That’s just the same argument — in a war in which a country is officially neutral, Americans are held to a different standard than, say, the Swiss. (Putting aside the moral repugnance of the Axis regime for a second.)
Are you upset that we deal with both the ChiComms and the Taiwanese?
Actually both sides were dealt with mainly because it was expedient to do so. (Sort of a “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” scenario, that the Americans love hence the reasons why the US provided arms to many of the people who they later ended up fighting – Iraq, Vietnam etc.)
QQ
QQ?
Those are two crying eyes.
It’s just a more efficient way of saying “Well, boohoo, crybaby. Harden up, wanker.”.
(Or similar, depending on the situation. QQ gives a margin for free interpretation – which just adds to its efficiency.)
Ooooh, okay. I learned something new today. As hard as I tried not to, I did anyway.
Oh, feck. PK won’t let me post another QQ comment – it complains about “it looks like you already said that”.
I know I did.
It requires saying a lot here, lately.
(Where did all the wanky whiners lately come from, anyway?)
Well, when everyone doesn’t worship the patriotic or military LOLs, the hyper patriotic care trolls come out in droves. (Yes, ILPB, I’m generalizing again. Whatcha gonna do?)
Probably not speaking Japanese. Hawaii would be in Japanese hands, but a land invasion would have failed. Yamamoto once said “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
But saying the Japanese crushed America in the Pacific, and Germany defeated Russia, and gotten the bomb. Then the US would probably be forced into negotiations. What those negotiations could have been is anyone’s guess.
We’re in agreement here. Look at following post “ylu is Aussie for you”. So I might have made a bad assumption that he/she was from Australia. I said Australian invasion, I don’t think main land USA is Australia, but let me check my maps again. Yup Iraq is in California.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but ILPB is right. Australia was more or less abandoned by the UK during WW2 and they are still angry that the UK took so many of their troops. Aussies felt that they couldn’t defend their own country. The U.S. helped them so much more so than the UK.
Time Stamped and Archived. You can’t take it back now. I was RIGHT!! (_/_) (_l_) (_\_)
Damn, I might consider moving to Iraqifornia. I hear real estate is cheap and grass is almost legal.
huh is right however, the caption is unfunny
Hardly an epic win. Iwo Jima was a very costly battle, down the very last Japanese fighter, it took months to fully clear.
Who held the Island at the end of the day? The United States. Was it an Epic Battle, and marked the official unrecoverable end to the Japanese Empire, yes. So your comment = Fail (not quite Epic)
Wars do not make one great.
Let’s see: Alexander the Great, Ivan the Great…. yup they do.
Seriously though, you do realize there are people out there that don’t care about “diplomacy”, and would use uncontained violence. How do you propose we stop those individuals?
Kindness.
Peace in our time, and all that, right?
It should always be something to strive for.
Sometimes Peace is met with force. You sleep well at night knowing that there is no way for your country to be taken over by a dictatorship govenment b/c of the men and women you mock. It’s you perogative to feel that way, and it’s mine to tell you, I believe you’re wrong.
There has to be some medium, but to believe that peace can be met and maintained without some semblance of violence is naive. There will always be evil men who want to take from the percieved weak. Sometimes the weak need those to defend them with force. You can only be responsible for you ideals, not others.
Thats not why i sleep well at night. Diet and excercise and perhaps a little warm milk is why i sleep well at night.
I do agree that when the strong take advantage of the week they should be stopped. Its really my over arching theme of everything i post here. I am glad we are in agreement.
Not every war, but WWII is definitely an example of this. Though the ToV was a contributer, it was not the true reason for the war. Germany and Japan wanted to share the world.
Fascism is the only ism I can think of that is more dangerous than capitalism. Had i been around, I would have volunteered for the Spanish Civil War. And I really don’t care for violence.
But in todays world capitalism helps the strong take advantage of the weak. And I am equally ready to defend the weak.
VNV: I think you need an education on true capitalism. However for someone who says that they “love” America, you are in effect callin git’s core belief (capitalism) evil. So really you don’t care for America. America is not a socialistic country, never set up to be that way. America is for individual liberties, and really capitalism is the only ‘ism’ that supports that.
I wonder are you still in college? Or is your job associated with education? (No insult, just many people who have such beliefs fall into one of those two categories). Also actually in Capitalism the weak have the power. The power to shop where they want, and strengthen who they choose.
I have a very solid grasp of captialism. When I say I “love” America, I mean most of its people, and the landscape. As for the idea of what America is, not so much. I do not think that individual liberties would be any different in a socialist country or a capitalist one. Only in capitalist countries, few people get the majority of the profit, and a socialist one would be able to take that profit and reapply it to its people.
In this country, the weak have no power. It sounds rediculous to me that you would actually believe that.
ILPB–Do you really think America has “true capitalism?” No pure -isms are in practice in this world on a national level.
VNV: I think then you don’t beling in America. This is not the Love It or Leave It speech, but a your ideals are in sharp contrast to the American ideals. In order to reach your ideals you need to change the fundimentals of a country, and that I can not accept. This is truely one of those you probably belong in Europe times.
VNV maybe our definition of “weak” is different. B/C the weak have most of the power in this country, all they have to do is scream loud enough so that the politicians do a knee jerk reaction to “fix” the problem.
Bando: Oh I know, just like China, USSR, Korea, etc are not true communism, however America is the closest thing you have in this world.
I think my ideals are in sharpe contrast with your ideals. I think American ideals have been made up, switched around, politicized, reimagined, marketed, and straight bullsh*tted up to the point where there is no “american” ideal or a real “american” culture. I will admit, that I think that Europe has made some right choices and we have made some wrong ones. But lets face it, Europe is the place that was decimated by two world wars and had to rebuilt knowing its own mistakes. We just showed up for parts of them, waved our flag, and then went home. However, I cannot blame Americans for being fed false information. I cannot blame American’s for know having a clue because of generations of brain washing. But what I can do is talk to people, as I do here online, but in real life. I have opened a lot of eyes in my time, and I cannot stop.
As far as Europe is concerned, I would love to move there. However, it takes money to move, and lots of it. There are also citizenship requirements and tons of other paperwork. “Leaving it” is a lot harder than people make it seem. Just like a peasant, I am owned by this country. And at this time, I don’t think its willing to let me leave.
And finally, I think our definition of weak is very much the same. Your definition of weak seems to be the middle class. Those professionals who do vote, and do write thier senators. Those who can go vacation, and shop for wants and not needs. My definition of weak is those in ghettos and lost to trailer parks. Those who have been let go by factories going over seas, or through major corporate mergers. Those who go to impoverished city schools because the government subsidies do not come close to the the amount of property tax paid by the wealty, or the donations to private schools. I think our definitions are very different indeed.
@ILPB – “Oh I know, just like China, USSR, Korea, etc are not true communism, however America is the closest thing you have in this world”
Actually, somebody set me straight on that. China is more capitalist than the U.S. I know, I know, SHOCK N AWE! But their argument is completely valid. It’s the wild west in China. They are as close to true capitalism as Europe and the U.S. were during the the Industrial Revolution.
Someone tried to set me straight on China being Capitalistic, however what they forgot to mention was that since the government pretty much owned every business the Government got the profits. Since that is 100% against Capitalism, then I’m sorry China is NOT capitalistic (except for the Black Market dealings)
Actually, the government doesn’t own the businesses any more. It’s all private enterprise, mostly millions of smaller ones. So, hard to believe, but China is capitalist, even more so than the U.S.
Why is peace in our time something you’re mocking? Why is that such a horrible goal for ANY nation to have?
“Peace for our time” (oops) is a famous line from the speech British PM Neville Chamberlain gave after signing the Munich Agreement. I’m not mocking peace, I’m mocking appeasement in the face of aggression as a way of securing that peace.
I know where the line is from. Can you please stop lecturing to PK commentors? You’re not the only one that’s knowledgeable about history, politics, etc.
i thought his remark was quite appropriate for the post, it was obvious the other guy isn’t anti-peace, but he’s being realistic that you can be all happy flowers and good thoughts to solve all the problems, all the time.
if it was evident you knew this and weren’t just trying to start a nit-picky fight, then his following explanation would have just been lecturing… but it wasn’t
All right you go give Osama a nice big hug, and see where you end up.
That’s actually not a bad idea…you can reach around and yank out his dialysis tubes. Tough love, b!tch!
I would, but since the mighty US military can’t find him with all of their goodness…. i don’t think I would be able to either.
And I also love this type of arguement as well. “You believe in kindness, why don’t you go hug a terrorists.” Its the love it or leave it mentality. You know good and well I can’t go hug him. You think it makes you seem witty or like you placed a zinger. I hope you are joking, or else you are uneducated.
I think it was more to the point that while kindness would be a great alternative. Not all people respond to it. As far as love it or leave it. That’s what we tried in WW2. We left it. Then we were attacked. Same can be said about 9/11 we had the intelligence and didn’t think it was a credible threat and left it alone. You know what came next. Not all people hold to your high ideals and as you’re attempting to give a hug be sure someone has a knife in their hands and are waiting to stab you in the back.
I will be stabbed in the back doing what I feel is right. And I will die laughing.
And whose fault is it that we don’t all hold to high ideals? You can’t use others as an excuse for you not to have those ideals. You have to make sure you are the person you want to be and you can’t let outside souces change that.
So you have to ask yourself… what do you want?
None can change in me those things that I believe.
So you’re pretty much agreeing then. You can’t be kind to everyone without getting killed.
Nice try, but we’re talking about foreign policy, not individual philosophy. The real question is, while you’re doing what you feel is right, will you allow *others* to be stabbed in the back?
I do my best to keep others from being stabbed in the back. Doesn’t mean I would change my ideals. There are ways to prevent what you want to prevent without warfare. Its just easier to vilify something and then blow it up.
You dodged my question. If you had to compromise your ideals — not your morals, mind you, but your ideals — to protect others, would you?
Please enlighten me. What would have been the peaceful way to deal with the WW2 axis?
I can see myself getting set up for some strange hypothetical situation to where no answer is correct as long as it is me answering it. So with that in mind, I think many times one has to put ones ideals aside to deal with the moment, but that doesn’t mean the ideals go away. You look at each moment and simply do the best you can do. Violence, should always be a last resort and used only as defense.
What a prick. You can’t even answer a straightforward question without demeaning me and leaving yourself a way to weasel out.
That being said, I’m actually impressed that you answered honestly.
what hypothetical? It’s a question based on history. There is not going to be the sudden inclusion of aliens on the axis side. I just want to know if you were President in 1940. How would you have kept the U.S.A. out of world war 2 with out actually going to war? My point is that not everyone “gets villified”. Some people ARE villians. And the only thing they will respond to and respect is force.
Do I get to be president in the 30’s or does it have to be the 40s? I like this game!
and when you have no answer to support your claims, please begin acting like a fool. (this is like talking to a chimp)
I’m done wasting my time.
geez. all i asked is which decade i got to start taking care of the problem. You’re no fun!
VNV: Going back before Hitler turned to the Dark Side, and having him get some counseling so he knows his hooker mom loved him, so as not to go insane doesn’t work.
Also going back and rewriting the Treaty Of Versallies doesn’t count either, b/c it takes the premise of Hilter as an Evil person out of the equation. The task is to how you would handle Hitler in 1937-1939 to prevent WWII from occuring. It is kind of an unanswerable question b/c “IF”s suck, you can’t prove them. All we can say is appeasement did not work at the time.
There is a happy medium to the two extremes. This country just seems to go either all the way to one extreme or the other, and neither totally works. Even us pacifists know that you can’t reason with everyone…but if you’re gonna use force, you’d better be damn sure it’s your last resort.
Cuz the rat bastard is dead.
Caught him going through your garbage one time too many, huh, Rando?
Stupid moron actually ate the rat poison. It was still in the box even!
Epic unfunny lol.
Epic win for cute tushies everywhere.
OK. From now on no one should post anything that is even remotely pro-America. Obviously the United States is an evil empire, and nothing to be admired or respected. Therefore, the next time there is a Tsunami somewhere, you’re all on your own. The same thing when there’s an earthquake or landslide or when there is any sort of crisis. That includes genocide and tyrants (Darfur, I’m looking at you.) I mean, we suck huge, right? So no one would want or need our help…. we ugly Americans will keep our money and our aid to ourselves.
I, personally, love this LOL. It is indeed an Epic Win.
Well we do actively keep third world countries third world countries so we can get around labor laws to make cheap goods. We buy politicians so we can polute thier rivers and streams without penalty. Through America’s Eurpoean past we have invaded and through Imperialism enslaved them even before WWII. It just got worse after. Perhaps we would have owed them nothing had we not so devistatingly interferred with thier lives. Now, we do owe them something. And they desearve far more than our “money and aid”.
Stop saying ‘we’ you prick. You ain’t no american, and you ain’t fooling anyone.
Who wants to take guesses as to where this idiot is really from?
And kudos to CMS. I think you won the sarcasm award for the day!
Hehe. Yes! Please! Take guesses as to where I am am from! This will entertain me!
California? New York? Harvard? The mind boggles.
Read Jean-Francois Ravel’s “Anti-Americanism”. All questions will be answered.
Or not.
Groundless hatred is an incurable disease. Except, of course, through the kindly intervention of knowledge.
Wait. The London School of Economics? Patrice Lumumba U? The Sorbonne? The Columbia School of Journalism?
Or, for that matter, the community bulletin board at most any Whole Foods…
Definitely Berkley……
Ninth circle of hell trebled? The underside of Bill Clinton’s dick-cheezed taint? Zombie Nixon’s maggoty scrotal sack? The deepest recesses of Hillary’s rebellious and infectious snizz? The anal pustule of Rush Limbaugh’s tranny-midge?
No wait! I’ve got it! peopleofwalmart.com!
And then the name calling came in. At least we know YOU’RE American.
Yes b/c only Americans throw out names. Isn’t it the Britts who coined the term “Wanker” (which I love by the way).
Just b/c you implied only Americans name call I’ll see that stereotype and call you a Wanker.
Actually I was being provocative so you’ve only satisfied my urge.
Hey now. I wear my title of yank with honor.
Because only TRUE Americans are blindly patriotic and turn a blind eye to the really disgusting things that this country does because, you know, America is the greatest thing ever. Being lucky and born in this country automatically makes us all better people than the other 6+ billion people unlucky enough to be born in Africa, or India, or Canada even. Blind patriotism is what will destroy this country, not people like VNV.
i always thought it would be canada that would take down america… they’re just up there, all quiet and happy seeming.. silently plotting out destruction.
Why would they want to trouble themselves? With all of our problems?? They’re too busy having a good time. How could they not with all that legal pot.
I think Canada is trying for the Cultural Influence Victory ((for any of you Civ 4 fans out there)). Ofcourse… time is going to run out first… but I still think its their plan.
People like you give me hope for American.
I’m a European, lived in the USA for 4 years when I was a child, and had great memories of that country.
8 years of Bush have allowed some nutbags to show the rest of the world how crazy they are.
The “Support your president or you’re a traitor” philosophy, the “America is the best, foreigners are inferior to us, the world belongs to us” attitude, and the “the ends justify the means” theory have really shattered my once great opinion of the USA as a country.
It’s good to see there are still some wise people. I don’t think all Americans are nutbags (I actually think “only” half of them are), but sometimes I wonder where the wise ones have gone.
you count China as a third world country? And when has America Enslaved countries? Granted we have a bad history of enslaving people but entire countries. I think you’re thinking of England’s attempts at colonizing the world.
Or perhaps the USSR and Red China’s wholly successful conquering and enslavement of innumerable countries and provinces?
Oops, sorry, I forgot. We don’t talk about THAT…
I think you’re missing the point. Nobody wants to take away the glory: few doubt the contribution of the USA to the world, particularly in the USA.. It’s just that as I understand it LOL is an acronym for LAUGH OUT LOUD. These po-faced tub-thumping so-called lols are just asking for people to take the piss, just to try and salvage some scrap of humour.
Why do you love it? How is it actually funny? If you like “inspirational LOLs” then feel free to make your own site. Keep the hyperpatriotic propaganda out of mah funneh.
I think we all need a good laugh for Friday. So here’s a tv ad for Red House Furniture. Where we can all just get along.
And Golden Gate Funeral Home. “I’ve never looked this good before!”
I curse you, Diss! UTube is blocked on my network! No laughter for me today.
Sorry.
Can you see it when you get home?
Yes, I can take a little comfort in that.
This might be one of my favorite commercials of all time. “…and hispanic people too.”
Oh my. QQ again.
Yes, care troll cares waaaaaaay more about America than we do.
Hey, does anyone know of a site with funny captions on pictures with political tones? No? Oh well, just asking.
Apparently we’re now the “inspirational, America-is-better-than-you LOL site.” I didn’t get the memo either.
Didn’t you?? I did. That memo has been read, inwardly digested and has now been used for toilet paper (However it’s the John Wayne type of toilet paper – Rough, Tough and takes shit from nobody
)
How on earth can it wipe your ass if it takes shit from nobody?
This was just a picture to me before, but now that HungryHippo has placed “EPIC WIN” upon it it is a tear jerking image of past glory.
It does really put it into perspective doesn’t it? lol!
Oh, yay, let’s glorify war!
I come here for lols not propaganda, wtf is this.
Not FAILblog. Thats for sure!
If you want a quick lol, just look at your naked gay ass in a mirror.
Wow, that was clever.
holy shit, my sides are splitting…..christ, i could have sworn this site was meant for laughs. shame
Epic Stage.
Okay, from now on only people with fully rounded knowledge of history get to post historical lols. Deal?
Lest We Forget is the war-dead chant for a few countries. I say it’s Time to Forget, NOW. Time to start thinking of good stuff, like how I am going to win next week’s Powerball and buy a shack on the beach in Hawaii, instead of all those lousy wars. Anyway, my hero used to be Vlad The Impaler.
ha!, more like epic fail
Now finally, this *is* a fake, and no one calls it so in 216 comments? PK, you disappoint me.
Nothing America does is fake! Its as real as the red, white, and blue! Even if it did take multiple tries to stage it! And don’t you go coming around here with your ‘facts’ and your ‘knowledge’. There’s only one book you need to read, and thats the Holy Bible! And there is specifically states that the US is flawless in all of its endeavors, because we are god’s chosen people and we all have to bear the white man’s burden!
**the above statement is also a fake**
To be clear: This was the second flag that was raised, not the first one directly after capturing the hill. This is often presented falsely.
Maybe YOU should read the comments. That was already mentioned WAAAYYY before you did.
Yeah, that was my thought. “Wait, I’m pretty sure I did see that already…several times…”
didn’t read all the comments huh?
The third comment thread started by kkehoe5
I went to public school and even I knew that….
Nesting fail.
- directed at Cuddlee’s exceptionally late observation.
*sigh*
Why is this only a 3/5 rating? Is everyone here so anti-military?
Its because there is not a joke of any kind attached to this picture. “epic win” isn’t a punch line. And just a few soldiers with a flag isn’t a set up. I hope it got 3 out of 5 because people are smart enough to see “unfunny” when its posted.
Who ever said stuff posted on this website had to be funny? It can be epic, it can be inspirational, it can be offensive, etc.
It’s just nice if it is funny on top of another adjective.
These are called LOLs. Did you forget that LOL stand for Laugh Out Loud? Did this make you laugh out loud? I don’t give two shits if it’s right or wrong, or inspirational, or patriotic. This site is for the funny, and this picture has exactly 0 funny to it.
You are incorrect my good sir. This site is not exclusively for “lols”. It is for anything worth looking at.
This is most assuredly worth looking at.
How odd, I could have sworn the site has “LOL” all over it. But I suppose you’re right. The site is whatever you want it to be. That’s fine.
No. We’re anti-notreallyfunny, and where the military is concerned there is rarely anything to laugh aboot.
We’re here to see something funny, not see something inspirational, preachy, or blindly patriotic. Get over yourself.
Well I enjoyed it you anal fcuk.
Exactly.
If I’m an anal fvck, then I think you’d be much happier to see me considering that’s how you like it.
Response fail.
Fail? Nah. Juvenile, sure. But if you’re gonna go for stupid insults, why not me too?
YES! It is an eeebul conspiracy against all war propaganda! Bring ou the terrorist laws agains the basards who didn’t give it a 5/5 – they’re obviously not “with us”, so the must be “against us”! CHOP CHOP CHOP.
I call it a FAIL considering what the military did to these soldiers.
But WIN for military propaganda.
This wasn’t a football game. It was WWII. It sucked. Sucked all the way out and back.
I like your reference to the football game. Fu(k Nationalism. There is a time for games and flags and our planet isn’t one of them. Be a world citizen.
World citizens are extremely concerned that in the very near future, the US economy will collapse under hyperinflationery pressures, food prices will skyrocket, jobs disappear and so on, which will drag the rest of the world down with it all. Subprime started the steep downward progression, on top of vast spending on useless Bush wars, and then criminal bailouts and a flawed policy in bed with a Zionist-controlled Fed, and crippling,vast debt. There, that wasn’t too bad for one small paragraph, from a concerned World Citizen, was it? BTW, USA, how much do you owe China? The future is yellow, and not only in Gold.
Isn’t that the exciting part though? In a world where countries are divided by classes who makes everything? I for one can’t wait!
Who makes everything?… Where you been? China.
Exactly!
Go back there, then, and enjoy those human rights abuses.
It’s SO much better than your America.
Whinge on.
Are you seriously so mentally challenged that you’d equate nationalism as the primary impetus in a nation’s intervention in a “World War” neither on the shores of said nation or of said nation’s making?
God I hope you don’t teach.
Isn’t nationalism, or rather its child/parent patriotism) always one of the main tools to get people to actually jump in and join such a thing as a WW intervention?
I apologise for managing to substitute a parenthesis for a comma there. :/
Naturally, there’s an element of that.
Nationalism (i.e. nationalism via isolationism) also kept us OUT of the war effort for a substantial period of time.
So which was worse nationalism, pray tell?
Don’t pray me to tell!
I am not a fan of either nationalism, patriotism or war – so … I guess I’d say I don’t know. I am not sure which of all potential options had been the best.
So as a country America was damned if it did intervene and damned if it didn’t. Quite the quandry, don’t you think?
Is that what I said? Are you being rather agrressively defensive or something?
Aggressively. And no. It was a question.
Is it so difficult to answer?
If that really is the question, I have already answered it.
No, you haven’t. You’ve weasled, you’ve waffled, you’ve whiffled, but you haven’t committed to a RESPONSE.
Which is it? Go in and kick ass, or stand aside and watch the world burn? The Americans didn’t start the war, so you can’t “blame” them for the war. Were they wrong for intervening, or wrong for ignoring?
C’mon now, it’s not rocket surgery. It’s totally visceral.
Yes, I have given my response. Oh, sorry. A RESPONSE.
D, don’t you think you’re being rather aggressively defensive? Or something?
I am starting to feel rather agreesive and defensive by now. :p I have said “I don’t know” to a question which popped up seeming rather unrelated, but it is not enough. I think there is some expectation on me to carry on a conversation to allow the counterpart to reach some point or make some statement, and I am being waffly for not going along with it or something. :p
Funny – that’s my second typo of “aggressive” in as many attempts. :p
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
You’ve weazeled, you’ve waffled, schlemeel, schlemazel, hasenfeffer incorporated!
Hey, VNV, you’ve got a stalker troll! You’ve officially made it, dude!
Wow. That’s reductionist. Thank you for being a total jerk.
No problem. Anytime.
Oh, and you’re the one who popped on here out of nowhere and started post stalking VNV.
Right. I replied to two posts so I’m stalking.
I replied to two others, if you’d take note. You included.
Oh yeah, you’re right. You’re smarter than me, and you win.
Support the hypocrite, and poke fun at those who’d have the audacity to question a fellow liberal. That’s helpful.
Hey, look, if you’re not care trolling, then fine. You came in here guns a-blazing, and that was what it sounded like to me. If that’s not the case, then I’m sorry. VNV does have a tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time on here, but overall he’s all right. And if you’re a fellow liberal, then that’s cool, but I recommend loosening up a little. I don’t say that to be an ass, but this site will drive you mad if you take it too seriously.
Guns a-blazing because I am incredulous over hypocrisy? Seriously? You all are obviously hyper-sensitive.
Are you Americans?
Seriously, I don’t think I’m the hyper sensitive one. It’s a LOL site. Try to have some fun. Honestly, I don’t think VNV meant any harm, but I can definitely see how sexist his statements above appeared. I overlooked it because I thought he was kidding around, and wasn’t being serious. If he was seriously being that condescending to women (especially working women), I’d have a serious issue with it. Not only does my household feature a working woman, but she brings home roughly 2/3 of our income, so I have no problems with women working at all.
And yeah, I’m American. The STL in the house! Represent!
Kewl. You’re more than one.
I’m more than one what? What’d I miss? LOL
“You all are obviously hyper-sensitive.
Are you Americans?”,
directed at your post makes me think you’re probably legio. Which is kewl!
I did it! I did it! God I love being a turtle!
OMG, my kids watched that movie on TV the other night. How bizarre it is that movies I watched as a kid are now being watched by my kids. My son: “Raphael just said a bad word!”
that’s from that john wayne movie anyway
This is from the Marine Corps’ invasion and capture of the island of Iwo Jima. This is the actual photograph from just after the battle was concluded. The movie might have used this event but this is the original photo.
Side note: this is one of the most circulated photographs in the world.
The most circulated: Jojo taking an orange cone up the butt. Classic stuff.
This is one of the most circumcised photos in the world.
You can’t actually see that part without a high resolution zoom.
Right, I’ll give the circumcised photo a high-revolution boom. When I get one that is.
Hey Randy, something just struck me. I noticed this ‘comment’ thing often degenerates into a script from off a MASH rerun; with often you as Hawkeye. The whole gang is here: Frank, Hotlips, Klinger, BJ, Winchester, Radar, even Henry and Colonel Potter… Are you really Alan Alda?
No, but I’ll take that as a compliment.
Insult fail. Your desperation to insult me just makes you look more pathetic.
Not pathetic. Just annoyed with you.
I fail to see how this is epic win. Not only was the photo staged, but the victory itself was extremely bittersweet.
If you fail to see the epic win you need to delve back into the history books and find out why Iwo Jima was such a monumental victory for us.
Wow, and you called me an anal fvck. I think you need to settle down a bit, Jojo. I heard you left your home in Tucson, AZ for some California grass. Is that true?
Get back, anal wart. To where you once belonged.
Europe, I assume? lol
Anal wart? Hey now, that’s my phrase! I demand royalties!
I’m anal now because he claims this was not an important victory? Ok… I’ll play in your little fantasy world for now.
You will? Cool! Okay, I’m gonna be the white knight, and you get to be the scary dragon! I slay thee, evil dragon!!
More like epic staged photo. But whatever.
More like a photo op depicting epic intervention into a war that was decimating EurAsia and not directly affecting the Americas until they were attacked. But whatever.
488 posts, and nobody has been jailed or beaten yet. Photo WIN for Democracy in Action.
Yeah almost 500 posts and all you people should be ashamed of yourselves. Haven’t you got anything better to do, on the company’s time, computer and wages? How much an hour are you making, while typing your drivel?
It’s fcking Saturday you shitwad.
Daaaaamn, pitty has the claws out today!
*shreds*
Dammit! Not the couch! *squirts pitty with the water bottle*
No worries, mate. Just working off old unguis layers of the frontal protractiles, right here on your babyshit brown pleather sofas. It’s left me feeling a bit shagged and fagged and fashed, it being a night of no small expenditure.
Babyshit is many colors, but brown is not one of them.
O_O How’d you know my sofas is brown?
Sofas is brown? There’s that college edumacation coming out thar.
and here i thought you were typing in dialect
Godzilla cannot be defeated by fluffy bunnies.
I agree. Oooraaaah!!! Semper Fi!!
Hmmmm…. slow work day for a few of you, eh?
funny story about that pic. when people see it, they usually think of some hard battle they had to fight up the mountain and they put the flag up in the middle of a firefight or something. well, not true. in fact, they fought their way up the mountain once and put up a tiny flag. the guys in the picture came up Suribachi for the sole purpose of puttin up a bigger flag, and encountered no resistance whatsoever.
Your mental ignorance was their resistance.
They still fought a battle. It is still a monumental scene. The fact that they (wisely) chose a photo-op AFTER the gunfire ceased doesn’t cheapen the image whatsoever.
Actually the fire fight was still happening when the raised the second flag. There were Japanese soldiers in the tunnels under Suribachi. The Flag was riased on the 5th day of the battle and the battle lasted another 30 days. 3 of the 6 flag raisers would die on Iwo Jima.
So TJN, STFU.
This is open comment to anyone who thinks that the pic was a photo opt to sale war bonds or that the fighting was over when the flag was raised. The second flag was raised on the 5th day of fighting the fighting took 35 days to complete. It dose not matter if there was gun fire at the time the flag went up or not. Those five Marines and one Nave Corpsman stood tall in a hell you can’t even conceive of. You are not showing that you are smart or witty just your own stupidity.
My grandfather was at Iwo Jima. He won a Purple Heart.
Suck on that, Tojo.
/salute
but. the battle on iwo jima went on for 35 more days after this picture was taken
this is no win
so much fail in so few sentences (and a run-on at that), truly remarkable.
?
i gotta ask – which war do you think that picture is concerning?
I object. I do not see how war can ever be an epic win. In an epic win, there is a victory all the away around (we laugh, you laugh, people all over the world laugh). War, and Iwo Jima as an example of such, only separates and inevitably, someone loses. This is more like epic fail, especially in light of the wars America has fought after WII (where either there is disgrace or loss, on all sides).
So please, let us leave nationalisms aside when we enter this page. It only separates us more.
I know, I get the same sense of unease with over-hearty praise of war. To me there isn’t ever a true ‘winner’, just one side looses worse than the other. Both sides have horrible consequences.
Considering that the way WW2 ended led into the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Cold War, which then led to the war in Afghanistan and Iraq we see today, and WW2 having many of it’s routes in WW1, it does seem that war only begets more war, and evenutally we’ll have to, as a planet, find a more peaceful solution to actually stop the circle of violence.
i feel that doing stuff like this is taking the easy way out just by taking historical events or people of service and glorifying it just to try and get sympathy or support for a cheap submission
Very bad. USA never had an epic win in war. Every War is EPIC FAIL. Dead People = WIN?
o0
A solider from Slovakia is among them! Slovakia rules!
“Picture by dunno”?!? Really?!? The man’s name was Ernie Pyle, and he was a war correspondent during WWII. This photograph made him famous. Geez, people, crack a friggin’ history book once in a while!