homesick_american

But it's ok for public schools to teach secular humanism to our children and that's not child abuse? I'm not a debator and not interested in debating, arguing, or exchanging insults with anyone, but I had to ask that.

Schools don't teach secular humanism.

Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9.

Why Canada though? What did Canada ever do to them?

Doesn't it prove that they just want to kill people and couldn't care less about our foreign policy?

Like I said in another thread...they're azzholes.

Stephen Lawrence was way longer ago than 1999, but I see the point you're trying to make. I just think the police here need to focus more on law enforcement and less on groveling to groups of people who will NEVER get enough.

The murder was in '93 but the McPherson Report came out in 1999

The institutional racism that meant the people who murdered Stephen Lawrence got off was common knowledge before 1999, too.

why so many native english speakers have problems with words that have a's or e's.. like grammer-grammar, separate-seperate.. etc etc

Non-native speakers also have problems with them.

The English language is difficult to spell and there really are no universal rules. Spanish, OTOH, is piss-easy to spell.

lol, spelling ain't that easy according to friends who study it.. they have problems with the verbs.. how a verb is written way differently than the original form.. or some funny forms as subjunctive.. on the other hand, i don't find english spelling that hard.. dude, the verbs are the same, there aren't 4 or 5 different ways or writing a verb..

but.. anyhoo, in this forum i've seen more native english speakers do the a.e mistake than non-native

I minored in Spanish; I never had a problem spelling it. I studied it for six years.

Two words: NANNY STATE.

[quote name='erekose' date='Jun 18 2007, 06:03 PM' post='992211'

IMO that has more to do with the fallout from high-publicity cases like the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1999, and the result of the public inquiry that suggested that the Metropolitan police mishandling of that case was the result of "institutional racism".

Stephen Lawrence was way longer ago than 1999, but I see the point you're trying to make. I just think the police here need to focus more on law enforcement and less on groveling to groups of people who will NEVER get enough.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because they don't apologize to anybody else, and Lady Shami isn't asking them to apologize to everyone...just to the Muslims. I didn't hear a peep out of her when British Muslims took to the streets with signs saying things like "Behead those who insult the prophet." I think only one person was even prosecuted for that.

Well, I think if the police wrongfully accuse someone, Muslim or not, they should apologise.

British Muslims inciting violence with those signs should have been rounded up and arrested;

all of them, no exceptions.

There should also be a way to strip people of their citizenship if their loyalties lie with a foreign

(and hostile) power. At the very least, they should be prosecuted under the Treason Act 1351:

"if a man do levy war against our lord the King in his realm, or be adherent to the King’s

enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm, or elsewhere, and thereof

be probably attainted of open deed by the people of their condition"

The thing is, they weren't rounded up and arrested. That wouldn't have been politically correct. The order of the day seems to be to allow them to incite whatever sh!t they want, then wring their hands and ask "why do they hate us so much?" Well....have they ever considered that Islamic terrorists might just be azzholes?

Don't worry, I won't be drinking at all; I don't drink. Period. I don't have a moral objection to it, I just don't like it.

I'll let y'all know how it went. I told the GP that valium didn't work and asked for xanax or ativan. She didn't know what xanax was...I guess it goes by a different name in the UK...but was quite happy to give me only enough ativan to get through the flight, which is really all I need anyway.

She gave you 16 - how many does she want you to take!

Best of luck - I can empathize with the fear and the frustration and discomfort it causes. You're almost home though. I know nothing makes it okay to face that flight, but the pills should help just enough!

She's been my GP for years and knows me pretty well and she knows all about my fear of flying so she's pretty sympathetic. She says I can take up to four ativan tablets but I should not take more and I should start with a smaller dose, and I should not drink anything at all. She also warned me about the side effects; she did speak to me for a good straight five minutes about how strong the drug is.

She's a pretty good person; I'll sort of miss having her as my GP as she has a very good bedside manner, though she has shared her frustrations with the NHS with me; she doesn't like a great deal of it but she does all she can for her patients. She's just constrained by the NHS. I promised to send her a postcard when I got to Texas.

They're not to me! UK Milky Ways are fooooooooooooooooul...I can't even eat one bite without gagging, they're far too sweet. I can quite happily eat a Three Musketeers and I have no sweet tooth to speak of.

Darn it, I'll just have to eat your share then.

You're welcome to it; I'll just have pretzels and crisps.

Why shouldn't the police apologise if they investigate someone who's innocent?

Because they don't apologize to anybody else, and Lady Shami isn't asking them to apologize to everyone...just to the Muslims. I didn't hear a peep out of her when British Muslims took to the streets with signs saying things like "Behead those who insult the prophet." I think only one person was even prosecuted for that.

This country really disgusts me sometimes.

Perhaps. But I'd really have to seek that out for myself, rather than merely take someone's word for it. Accusations of that nature are 10 a penny these days - to the point where charity organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross have almost had their budgets cut by the US senate for airing views that they don't like.

Underneath it all of course, is a pretty serious issue.

I think there's a difference between the ICRC and Liberty, which to me is an extreme left organization that really gets on my nerves, and I consider myself to be left of center and a social liberal. I'm all for civil liberties, but I'm not in favor of the UK police groveling in apology to every British Muslim they investigate in connection with a terrorism plot.

Look what I found the other day, though (in a shop in Cincinnati)... I had to buy it, just for the name! (Oh... and are US Milky Ways really the same as UK Mars Bars? I didn't know that!)

No; they're similar but not identical.

Personally I can't tell the difference; an excellent substitution for the Mars bar, in my opinion. Three Musketeers is also a sweeter Milky Way; pretty close aswell.

I will go and find myself a Milky Way just to find out... and this is news to me, I must have somehow missed the fact that they don't have Mars Bars over here. I'm sure I've seen some around, and I suppose they must therefore be imported ones!

Not keen on Milky Ways (I want to eat sweets between meals AND ruin my appetite, damn it!), they're too sweet... so will give Three Musketeers a wide berth! This reminds me... I've been here seven weeks, and I've had precisely two small squares of chocolate in that time (some veryverynice veryverydark M&S stuff I bought the day before I left) - my diet definitely needs more chocolate in it!

I find British Milky Ways to be so sweet as to be inedible. I think Three Musketeers bars are much less sweet but that's my own personal opinion. British Milky Ways also have a weird honey-ish aftertaste that I really dislike. I don't like honey. If you've never tried a Three Musketeers bar then you don't know if you don't like it or not; give it a try.

They do have Mars bars in America, but they have nuts in. They're quite similar to a Snickers bar but not as dense and heavy. I don't like them because of the caramel; I don't really like caramel as it hurts my teeth.

Yeah, steer clear of the Three Musketeers then, they are even sweeter than the UK ones!

They're not to me! UK Milky Ways are fooooooooooooooooul...I can't even eat one bite without gagging, they're far too sweet. I can quite happily eat a Three Musketeers and I have no sweet tooth to speak of.

I've never read a Rushdie novel, so I can't judge whether the knighthood is justified for his literary efforts. The whole honours system is outdated anyway. It's meaningless and twice a year I'm surprised at a number of people I have previously respected who continue this farce by accepting these honours.

Is it a two-fingered gesture to the Muslim world? I doubt it. Not offering the gong could also be seen as capitulation. And Rushdie knows only too well that he is putting his head back above the parapet again. He could have refused it, and no one would be any the wiser. I get the impression he likes the notoriety.

Salman Rushdie is a self-important pompous tw@t. I've read more than one of his books and never understood what the fuss was about. In the Satanic Verses he was basically up his own #######.

I can't hear you guys over the sound of the bottom of the barrel being scraped.

The one that irritates me is Shami Chakrabati....she practically invented selective outrage. She sucks.

Who is she?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6758217.stm

Stands up for terrorists' rights.

Why can't she do the world a favor and blow herself up?

Careful before you condemn her out of hand. I'm not overly familiar with her - but the few quotes that I found would seem to suggest that if she supports terrorists rights, then so does every human rights charity; or indeed anyone who questions Bush administration policy regarding Guantanamo Bay, Secret "black hole" prisons, and the use of torture.

I think it would help to have lived here and listened to her bleating on the radio about terrorists' human rights for the last several years to appreciate her own special brand of selective indignation.

Update: My GP wrote me a prescription for 16 1mg tablets of Ativan...or however you spell it. Let's see if it actually works!

Excellent! I hope it helps.

Did he recomend you use it just on the plane or in the days leading up to it? I have a friend with a similar fear and she starts dosing a few days before had to quell the fears in the run up to the flight. I take one just when I'm on the plane.

In case it comes up - for anyone concerned about the mix of booze and pills, etc - my doctor friend says to think of Ativan as the equivalent of one drink. So don't push your limit! She also told me that it is safe to combine one ativan with one ambien - but anyone should, of course, always consult with his/her own physician before playing around with medication!!!!! Body types and personal medical issues can alter the ways drugs take effect, of course.

With the ativan, I didn't feel too loopy and wondered if it was even working. Though it must because I know on at least two flights the captain came on to apologize for the turbulence and I *wasn't* crying or panicking. So something was working!

Don't worry, I won't be drinking at all; I don't drink. Period. I don't have a moral objection to it, I just don't like it.

I'll let y'all know how it went. I told the GP that valium didn't work and asked for xanax or ativan. She didn't know what xanax was...I guess it goes by a different name in the UK...but was quite happy to give me only enough ativan to get through the flight, which is really all I need anyway.

Hmm. She's ugly, don't worry, no one takes an ugly broad seriously.

Obviously you never listen to BBC Radio 4. Or watch BBC News.

Update: My GP wrote me a prescription for 16 1mg tablets of Ativan...or however you spell it. Let's see if it actually works!

Good luck y'all.

I can't hear you guys over the sound of the bottom of the barrel being scraped.

The one that irritates me is Shami Chakrabati....she practically invented selective outrage. She sucks.

Who is she?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6758217.stm

Stands up for terrorists' rights.

Try boycotting oil if you don't like it. *snicker* Good luck with that.

why so many native english speakers have problems with words that have a's or e's.. like grammer-grammar, separate-seperate.. etc etc

Non-native speakers also have problems with them.

The English language is difficult to spell and there really are no universal rules. Spanish, OTOH, is piss-easy to spell.

I can't hear you guys over the sound of the bottom of the barrel being scraped.

The one that irritates me is Shami Chakrabati....she practically invented selective outrage. She sucks.

So you think the penalties are fair?

Caro

Yes.

Sorry for what you're going through, but ####### are you going on about "humanitarian rights"?

Our Attorney,

In the US suggested that we might have a chance fighting it as humanitarian groundsbecause when it he seen all the medical records to back up my case

Humanitarian rights was a bad choice of words

Medicinal marijuana...hell, ALL marijuana...is illegal at the federal level in the USA; I don't think you'll get any joy there. To the US government, drug use is drug use.

Ask in the waiver forum; I think there are at least a few people there with a drug conviction who got a waiver.