Iraq, anyone?

Can't help it, but I don't like discussions that just die out ;)

Just wondering why I don't see any Iraq discussion anymore...
Is Powell admitting that some of the information they used to start the war on Iraq was false not news anymore? Maybe I missed it in between a gazillion of stupid commercials on Fox, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and a dozen of local channels ("Welcome to the news... we'll be right back... [five minutes of commercials]... Hi, this is so and so with the news... we'll be right back... [five minutes of commercials]... Now, on to the first item: the winner of American Idol 2004!... After the break!...").

Anyways, Powell admitted that the mobile labs he used to justify a war in Iraq, don't exist. Welp, they do exist, but they've found to be harmless (before anyone comments: by Americans). Powell says he only used that argument because intelligence services told him, and he wants to find out why intelligence was wrong.

Try a Google News Search for this, and you'll see it come up a gazillion times... don't include "US" in your search terms, though, since no American source seems to carry this news (but then again, it might be just me... stupid commercials and all). Viva PBS!

BTW: America is a nice country :D

The commercials suck, though. There's too many of them, and they all suck.
And the social security system sucks even worse.
And that entire "credit" system blows. Can't even get a stupid cellphone here ("sorry sir, we need your credit score".... Ummm, I don't have one yet... "sorry, we don't like your customership then, sir")

While I'm at it:
America is the country of extremes. The weirdest of the weirdest, and the best of the best..
America, country of the world's smartest geniuses (although the genius of all geniuses was German) and the world's stupidest dumb-ass fools.
The country of "free religion", but they'll kill you with their eyes if you don't go to church every week. "Church", as in one of 5 gazillion religions who all think they have the word....

That's it for now... heh.

Greetings Negative, I hope this post finds you well, and happy in your married life. :D


I attempted to post about this topic on many occasions, as I am a combat vet. I think that the situation in our world is sad.....yet not without hope.

Please take the time to read the link.



http://www.antionline.com/showthread...349#post725349

Take care bro.

Nicolas

[QUOTE] Originally posted here by Negative

You are correct in your thoughts, and good in expressing them Neg. I am on your side.

The main reason for all the tension from the beginning of man, remains as simple as understanding and reckognition of other peoples cultural HABITS.

I have been to the following countries after my release from the Marine Corps. Including 3 of them last year.

- Egypt
-Turkey
-Israel
-Cypruss
-Greece

This list does not include "friendly destinations I have visited".


It amazed me how when you meet these ppl. they fear you as you fear them. And how after a few strong beers, or tea if they are Muslim, they are people just as we are! (damn some of the tea is stronger than Jack Daniels, no joke).


They feel the same sadness that a few haters amongst millions can spread hatred so quickly.

I for one will always try and understand the adversity.

:cool:

If only the UK/US administrations hadn't banged on so much about Weapons Of Mass Destruction they wouldn't have looked so stupid when they couldn't find them. Unfortunately, in hyping up the issue (along with the "45 minutes" dossier) they've given all these loony far-left extremists a big stick to beat them with, particularly in the media.

You think the American credit system is bad? Try ours - I've lived here for 19 years but I can't get a student account ("sorry, your credit score isn't good enough" - "you're offering student accounts and you want a *credit* score? how many students do you think have credit?!"). The crazy thing is that other companies will let me have a credit card, which is far more risky from their point of view.

As to America, I think my views on that country are well known - especially from this thread. All I will say is that any country that has 3 million of its citizens subscribed to the Presidential Prayer Team wants its collective head seeing to.

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damn some of the tea is stronger than Jack Daniels, no joke

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If I recall correctly, in certain parts of the world where alcohol is frowned upon by the dominant religion, beer is served in tea pots to disguise it from the authorities. At least, that was the case last time one of my relatives visited India.

Last I checked hawkings was british...or are you talking about that elegent univers guy with your geniuse comment?


well i guess mission wasn't acomplished in iraq yet...any one want t oexplain to me why we thaught a company of troops could take on 5000 equaly heavely armed men in house to house fighting over the weekend? 7 dead 23 wounded last count that is some serrious bad numbers.

Nah, I was talking about Von Goethe, the German poet and writer, who is thought to have had an IQ of 210, making him the smartest man ever. Other people in his category are Swedenborg (Swedish writer with an IQ of 205), von Leibniz (German philosopher/mathematician with an IQ of 205), John Stuart Mill (English economist, IQ of 200), Blaise Pascal (French philosopher with an IQ of 195). First American would be Bobby Fisher (the chessplayer) with an IQ of 187.

Here's a nice list with the explanation.

Stephen Hawking, using the same scale, would have an IQ of "only" 165, being surpassed by (amongst others) unbelievable but true Norman Schwarzkopf.

Most intelligent presidents of the last century areWoodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.

There's lots of interesting stuff on that site :)

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Anyways, Powell admitted that the mobile labs he used to justify a war in Iraq, don't exist. Welp, they do exist, but they've found to be harmless (before anyone comments: by Americans). Powell says he only used that argument because intelligence services told him, and he wants to find out why intelligence was wrong.

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Hmmm.... Check out "The Whole Truth about the Iraq War" from http://www.truthuncovered.com/

It has a response to the administrations "intelligence was wrong" claim from a lot of people in the Intelligence community and some of the weapons inspectors in Iraq.

The teas are strong because chances are there is opium in it. (or something else). ;)

Negative you hit the description of America with great precision. Although every country is similar in its extremes, it only here where they seem get a voice of influence. The country is diverse and the geography and political freedom harbor both extremes. It's all pretty crazy, but for some reason at certain times in our history we've been able to come together at the right moments and make great achievements in both government and science. Personally I love America and sometimes I hate her. She's like a passionate relationship. The good of her love outlives and outlasts the bad. :)

And even in her darker hours, a think the underlying goal, even when misguided, is solidifying peace for the planet.

Ah, when you mentioned the Genius of Geniuses I thought you were referring to Albert Einstein, another famous German. :)

BTW, I personally don't believe that IQ makes one jolt of different to people who are considered geniuses. Admittedly a lot of "geniuses" have had high IQs, but it does not necessarily make you a genius if you have a high IQ, nor does a low IQ mean you are an intellectual retard.

I have a huge amount of respect for Hawkings not just because of his contribution to science, but also the fact that he didn't let his disability get in the way and succeeded in becoming a respected scientist despite the fact that he has lost most of his mobility and the ability to speak.

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Originally posted here by CXGJarrod
Hmmm.... Check out "The Whole Truth about the Iraq War" from http://www.truthuncovered.com/

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The thing is that DVD was probably produced by people who were against the war in the first place, therefore it will be no more or less biased than the general American press and the Bush Administration.

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Originally posted here by pwaring
The thing is that DVD was probably produced by people who were against the war in the first place, therefore it will be no more or less biased than the general American press and the Bush Administration.

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True, most documentaries that are made about politics that have some sort of bias, but this one backs it up with peoples testimony who were out there doing something in Iraq or were in the intelligence community. I thought they did a decent job of proving their point.

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Originally posted here by Negative
Nah, I was talking about Von Goethe, the German poet and writer, who is thought to have had an IQ of 210, making him the smartest man ever. Other people in his category are Swedenborg (Swedish writer with an IQ of 205), von Leibniz (German philosopher/mathematician with an IQ of 205), John Stuart Mill (English economist, IQ of 200), Blaise Pascal (French philosopher with an IQ of 195). First American would be Bobby Fisher (the chessplayer) with an IQ of 187.

Here's a nice list with the explanation.

Stephen Hawking, using the same scale, would have an IQ of "only" 165, being surpassed by (amongst others) unbelievable but true Norman Schwarzkopf.

Most intelligent presidents of the last century areWoodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.

There's lots of interesting stuff on that site :)

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Ahh i see our discrpenacy then..i never put much stock into IQ's and consider most people who presue poetry or philospaphy prety low on the inteligence ladder. :)


Now for iraq...can any one tell us why we think srounding a masqe and the nassumaingly storming it while the defenders hold at least a 2 - 1 advantage in man power over us is a good idea? it looks like thats what we are preping to do...that will help win the harts and minds of the populace.......things are going to get much uglyer...popular revolt and general upriseing in other countries ugly if we do this insanity. Are the dopes who pulled offf mogadisu in command of felid ops for the army again, this is that level of military incompitance.

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Originally posted here by Negative
Nah, I was talking about Von Goethe, the German poet and writer, who is thought to have had an IQ of 210, making him the smartest man ever. Other people in his category are Swedenborg (Swedish writer with an IQ of 205), von Leibniz (German philosopher/mathematician with an IQ of 205), John Stuart Mill (English economist, IQ of 200), Blaise Pascal (French philosopher with an IQ of 195). First American would be Bobby Fisher (the chessplayer) with an IQ of 187.

Here's a nice list with the explanation.

Stephen Hawking, using the same scale, would have an IQ of "only" 165, being surpassed by (amongst others) unbelievable but true Norman Schwarzkopf.

Most intelligent presidents of the last century areWoodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.

There's lots of interesting stuff on that site :)

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Ahh i see our discrpenacy then..i never put much stock into IQ's and consider most people who presue poetry or philospaphy prety low on the inteligence ladder. :)


Now for iraq...can any one tell us why we think srounding a masqe and the nassumaingly storming it while the defenders hold at least a 2 - 1 advantage in man power over us is a good idea? it looks like thats what we are preping to do...that will help win the harts and minds of the populace.......things are going to get much uglyer...popular revolt and general upriseing in other countries ugly if we do this insanity. Are the dopes who pulled offf mogadisu in command of felid ops for the army again, this is that level of military incompitance.

I see neg is taking nicely to his new country - commercials and all! Soon those sound bites will get to you though and you'll pine for the old lands.

Try to watch something other than the networks if you want to keep your edge.

OK, I'm confused. I like the topic, I came to share my 2 cents and then I just noticed how we went from Iraq, to tv commercials, to credit scores and nobody mentioned Janet Jackson's boob. Who cares about them WMD? Did you see that boob? Holy crap, you'd think that with all the money that woman has, she could've gotten a boob lift.

BTW Neg, there are 2 credit card companies that you can start your credit history with, one of them is called providian , the other capital one ( this one charges annual fees). Basically, if you can breath, they 'll give you credit. So stablish a nice little account with them and watch you make history.

On another unrelated topic, did anyone see how Jennifer Lopez mom got 3 million dollars? I was so pissed. Why does money have to go to money? Couldn't it be me???

Do Capital One charge annual fees for their cards, even the lowest ones? You should have stayed in Belgium Neg - the European branch offers free cards starting with a £200 credit limit if I recall correctly. Basically you say how much you think you earn, they send you a letter, you send it back with your signature and they send you a card.

amnesiac: No, I didn't see that footage - but then we don't have the Superbowl over here (I guess you could say that Wimbledon/tennis is our big sporting event).

Amnesiac > I don't even have a social security number yet, so it's kinda hard to start a credit history right now ;)

Gee, that sucks. How long does it take to get a social? I don't mean to be intrusive, but how do you work w/o one?

We filed all the paperwork (and it's a bunch, trust me... not to mention the legal fees). The first thing they'll give me (didn't get it yet) is a taxpayer ID (figures... first the taxes, then the good stuff). Then in about a month or so I should get my social. Right now, I'm not allowed to leave the country (welp... I'm allowed to leave, but not to come back) - I'll need a travel permission for that (should have that in three months or so). And then in about a year, me and Melissa will have to go take an interview and prove that we got married out of love, and not because I'm a communist trying to infiltrate the American establishment. And then in like three years or so, I'll be an American citizen.

I wonder how they are going to rate my credit... does everybody start with the same credit rate?

Neg, yes (I worked in the loan dept at a bank for several years) everyone starts w/ a 450. If you get one or two little credit cards and pay them off in a timely manner, it won't take long for you to hit the 500's, and then when you get in the 650-700 range you start qualifying for really good rates on stuff. If you manage to break 700 (takes awhile of absolutely perfect credit, not even 1 day late on any credit payments and to prove that your credit rating isn't a 'fluke') you start qualifying for the 0% interest on cars ;) It isn't that hard to do, as long as you are extremely diligent with your payments.

Neg - It's wicked easy to get a social in this country. Ask just about any serious criminal and I bet they will be able to direct you to an appropriate ehrm... entreprenuer. Remember how often we see identity theft occur, where the identity stolen is from a dead person. Sick but true.

Neg: You should have come and lived in good old England! Five minutes and you would both have EU passports (although you probably had one anyway!), be on the NHS and have a National Insurance number (same as Social Security Number in the US). :)

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Originally posted here by Negative
We filed all the paperwork (and it's a bunch, trust me... not to mention the legal fees). The first thing they'll give me (didn't get it yet) is a taxpayer ID (figures... first the taxes, then the good stuff). Then in about a month or so I should get my social. Right now, I'm not allowed to leave the country (welp... I'm allowed to leave, but not to come back) - I'll need a travel permission for that (should have that in three months or so). And then in about a year, me and Melissa will have to go take an interview and prove that we got married out of love, and not because I'm a communist trying to infiltrate the American establishment. And then in like three years or so, I'll be an American citizen.

I wonder how they are going to rate my credit... does everybody start with the same credit rate?

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Neg: As far as I know you start with crappy credit. We have several h1b workers here in the company and they could not get credit cards for the longest time because they have no credit history. (Even when they could show that they had paid rent and other bills faithfully for over a year) One of my friends just got his first credit card. (After 3 years of having a pay first then buy credit card)

It's a good thing that we don't like credit cards, I guess :)
We put a lot of money down on our house (that was the only way to get it, since I don't have a credit score and can't get a loan), and we live by the principle of "only buy what you can pay in cash for".

There was an interesting article in 2600 a couple of issues ago about this guy who managed to get everything he wanted (utilities included) without ever giving out his social security number. I should dig it up again.

Pwaring:
Or I could have stayed in Belgium, where everybody gets free complete medical coverage, free education, 35-hour weeks with at least 4 weeks paid off per year, and you get to take up to five years paid off during your carreer (which I'm doing right now... it's not the full amount, but it's still good pay). Of course, income taxes are way higher (to cover all that free stuff), but property taxes are way lower.
I'm a little bored, so I decided to do an "income" comparison between the Belgian system (where income taxes are probably the highest in the world), and America, for comparable situations. I may have missed some stuff, so feel free to corect me :)

Belgium

$3,000 base pay
30% income taxes (included: retirement plan, social)
= $2,100 net pay = $25,200 per year.

In Belgium, everybody gets an extra paycheck in June or July, and an extra one in December. Add 2 times $2,100 to the $25,200, and you get a net pay of $29,400 (according to the CIA, the GDP per capita is around $29,200 per year, so I'm pretty close).

Cost of living is about the same (maybe a little higher).
For an average size property, you pay about $1,000 in taxes every year.
City taxes are around $200 per year.

$29,400 per year minus $1,000 minus $200 leaves $28,200 per year.
You'd have to work around 1,575 hours per year for that amount.
That makes $17.9 per hour.
The day you retire, you keep getting the same paycheck for the rest of your life.

America

$3,500 base pay
10% income taxes + 5% insurance (no retirement plan)
= $2,975 net pay = $35,700 per year (again, according to the CIA, the GDP per capita is around $36,300 per year).

For an average size property, you pay around $500 in taxes every month (property taxes, city taxes,...).

$35,700 per year minus $6,000 (12 times $500) leaves $29,700 per year.

Add to that that a lot of Americans have to pay off a ridiculous amount of student loans.

For that amount, you'd have to work at least 1,800 hours per year. Pay per hour: $16.5.


There, that's my answer to people who think Belgium has ridiculously high income taxes ;)

Nagative, I am an American naturalized citizen born into the family of a hard working, card carrying union member of a factory. But I understand the frustration to become a citizen, it was hard before 9/11 and I would guess extremely hard now. It was an issue even renewing my drivers license last time. The fact is there is big business in marrying Americans for citizenships. I don't think the government wants to prove you are not a communist. Lol, in fact these days communist ideals seem to be in vogue here.

Another thing you can do with low credit is get a stupid loan for a couple hundred for something, like a TV and then suck it up and make the payments and never be late. Then when that loan gets on the sheet, after a couple of month apply with one of the national cut throat cards, like Capitol One. They are rip offs but keep a decent and manageable balance on it and make payments until you get a decent score. You do realize that without a SSN getting credit is impossible, that is the basis for your file. This thing works both ways. I lived in the EU for years and could barely muster enough to get any kind of loan without being a member of the Union. I had perfect credit and always had to get cash advances off my Visa to work around it.

Depending on the state you may be entitled to a free credit report once a year from the major reporting bureaus. This reminds me, if you go the route and get a loan for a TV or DVD player make sure the company reports, otherwise you are wasting time. Not everyone reports. But Texas may have a law the requires bureaus to provide you a free credit report once a year and in some cases, EVERYTIME you get turned down for a loan. You have got to have a SSN though, it's required to my knowledge. Don't remember if anyone mentioned but those entities are Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.

Many people here have often stated opinion that ID theft is out of control and things should be done to stop it. Guess you are experiencing some of those side effects? Be leery of the sites trying to get money for credit reports, go directly to each one and not some 3rd party unless it’s reputable. Here are the numbers to each http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/recovering_idt.html#9 Well it looks like Texas may not be a free state. Colorado is. :)

Thanks for that info, RoadClosed.

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I don't think the government wants to prove you are not a communist. Lol, in fact these days communist ideals seem to be in vogue here.

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On one of the application papers, there was a statement saying "I hereby state that I have never been a member of the Communist Party". Maybe a remainder from the Cold War, but I still had to sign for it ;)

Negative: are you sure you pay $500 a month in property taxes and that isn't based on the entire year? I pay $850 a YEAR and I live in what around here is considered a very high tax. Poperty taxes also change and are reassesed every so often.

We pay a little over $400 in real estate taxes. And yups, that's monthly :)

WOW. I saw some unconfirmed figures in 1999 that place propery tax at $1.50 for every $100 assesed. I say unfonfirmed because that may have been and average over all different types of property, I am not sure. That would make your house worth well over half a million dollars? I am curious now. You realize your comparisson between Belgium and the USA is very loose. For instance my bro paid 110k for a huge 4000 sq. ft. house in Ohio a few years ago and paid hardly nothing in property taxes. That would toss your equation way off. :) But you have to make the comparisson comparable to your own life, and not mine or his. ;)

FYI the state tax code on property. http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinf...c02/index.html

It's not a half a million dollar house ;)

I guess property taxes differ from city/state to city/state. We pay 2.78% property taxes (.56% to the city, 1.87% to the school disctrict, .34% to the county).

So yups, I do realize that my little comparison is probably a little off, but I bet it's pretty close to the truth ;)

Whew, I am glad mine are much less. :D

Not that I ever wanted to move to Texas, been there many times just not my style, but that tax another reason to consider, it's pretty high in the populace areas. Move out of those and it drops significantly but then your out with the cows. I did some analysis, the ten yar average in Texas actually has property taxes down a little every year, but the value of the house exceeds the tax decrease so actual taxes paid have been going up 3-5 percent. I picked a county at random, this one is Denton County. In 2003 taxes were $0.24717 per $100 dollars assessed value. Your right on, I live in a city of about 450,000 and the taxes and home owner insurance only add up to 1/3rd of the cost in texas. I just found that interesting so I dug a little. Don't worry I only wasted about 10 minutes of work time. :cool: Thanks for the info, it's always fun to learn about other areas of the country. Oh the school board sucks about 70 percent of the taxes in that county. Hope they have some good schools for the kids.

500 $ a month. Wow.

Good luck on your paperwork - use good lawyers and you'll be fine.

That is painfuly high..I thaught cost of living was high here, but remember that every dime you pay in property tax is deductable from federal income tax...you all itomize your deductions don't you?

One thing you guys left off in property taxes is that you get that money back when you do your income tax. There are actually so many tax deductions for homeowners that I can't see it as an expense. You can even deduct your bbq grill. God bless America..lol!

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BTW: America is a nice country

The commercials suck, though. There's too many of them, and they all suck.

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I especially hate the new mcdonalds commercials. The "i'm lovin it" commercials.

Hey McDonalds, eat this
http://www.rawfood.com/mcdonalds.html

How about the Six Flags commercial w/that old man getting off the bus and dancing his a$$ off?

I find it most annoying.

This thread has really detracted from it's original point. :rolleyes:


Good luck NEG. look me up if you are in Atl. PM me if you want my opinion about the Iraq situation.


P: Man good luck :D