I think the police reaction shows guilt on their part. The Pittsburgh Police Department is wrong and they should be held accountable for their racist actions.

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So according to your pretzel logic, anyone who defends themselves is guilty? That’s asinine. I bet you still think the Duke lacrosse players were guility of rape. And regardless of what Rob Rogers may write, if the situation was reversed it wouldn’t have seen the light of his pen. (Reminds me ina way of what the teleprompter in chief said about the Cambridge police; yet he tells America to not jump to conclusions over the terror attack at Fort Hood. Go figure.) So to anyone out there who defends themselves when smeared wrongly, Terry Rowe writes you’re just proving your guilt by doing so. Amazing.

A 24 oz sirloin in a cracked pepper dry rub BBQ, ranch beans, mustard based potato salad, thick cut cole slaw, home made peach cobbler with an incredibly delicate crust and a cold Shiner Bock…

There are higher peaks, brigher colors and sweeter winds blowing at ‘Cooper’s’ in Llano, Texas.

Try it and LIVE! DAMMIT LIVE!

I’ve had Texas brisket, etc. It was good, but it wasn’t heaven.

For Ted:

http://minigiggles.com/2010/02/11/war-sucks/

You’d of thought I brought up the Iraq war or something.

Oops…

When were we debating BBQ?

Personally, I’m not much of a fan. Don’t care for ribs, prefer burgers on the stove.

And as long as America has enemy one (be it China, Russia,Liechtenstein, whomever) funding will always find it’s way to the Jihadists because they make great proxy warriors. They’re pretty amoral about where they get their cash, as long as it turns into stuff that butchers infidels.

I wasn’t in the military (my eyes kept me out, but I tried), so I won’t even try to sound like an expert. I do read a heck of a lot history (my favorite subject by far) and in my readng the only enemy I think we have ever fought that comes close to an approximation of these Islamic madmen were the Japanese in the Pacific in WWII. Read Iris Chang’s ‘Rape of Nanking’ to get an idea of the brutality the Imperial Army used and the carnage they created.

By and large, many Japanese were programmed to believe their race, religion and political system was superior and everyone else were subhuman dogs (especially Koreans and Phillipinos). These were killers that would run like berzerkers into machine gun fire suicidally just on principle.

No ethical military commander would ever give an order like that to his men, but the Japanese did, over and over. If we had stayed home and apologized for Commodore Perry and so forth, I doubt seriously the Japanese would have stayed home – they had plans for domination and control and the myths of western imperialism were only tools to get their own folks motivated for the kill. This is the same tactic used by Islamic radicals, just listen to the Mullahs in Iran. Hitler didn’t need the Jews as a boogeyman, but used them as one effectively. If it hadn’t been them, he’d of found someone (probably the Irish, that bastard).

Muslim extremists don’t want us to apologize, it doesn’t matter what we do. They need us to be their boogeyman so they can control their own uneducated masses. Even if we never did anything wrong, they’d invent ‘sins’ we commited and ‘prove’ we commited them. Negotiating with folks this extreme is like trying to train a pissed off pitbull that you love him by getting him to take a hunk of steak from between your lips…it’s a really, really bad idea.

My point is (finally, yeah I know) that these guys are going to keep boiling no matter what we do. It’s too late, the template over there with the radicals is cast in stone – we are the Great Satan. No president, no funding issues, no apologies are going to stop them.

Anyone who can saw the head of an innocent, handcuffed person and celebrate with joy is pretty freaking angry, whether we agree the anger is justified or not. Their hatred is on a full throttle cook off and the only thing we could do to appease it is to surrender.

And appeasement has been tried before, with decidedly unfortunate results.

Just my uber right wing opinion.
Can we debate BBQ again? That was more fun….

My take is exactly the opposite. Any examination of successful counterinsurgency strategy, aka fighting terrorists, aka fighting underground groups, shows that smashing them with a hammer only creates more of them. Imagine if you were an apolitical Palestinian. One day the Israelis bulldoze your neighbor’s house, and maybe yours too because it happened to be next door. You’re homeless. So is your family. You’re furious. Call 1-800-Jihad! The Israelis have played hardball with the PLO and Hezbollah for years, and where has it gotten them?

The best way to eradicate these movements is to suck the wind out of their sails. Imagine if an American president were to announce the immediate withdrawal of all US troops from all Muslim countries, especially those with corrupt or dictatorial rulers, apologize for all the drone strikes and the dead Afghan wedding parties, and promise to listen to Muslim concerns from now on. Would Al Qaeda still be around? Sure. But their funding would dry up. When the collection plate was passed around among moderate Muslims, the donations would slow to a trickle. Radicals thrive when radical thoughts become mainstream. Right now, the US has proven bin Laden’s argument that the US is aggressive, disrespectful and hateful of Muslims.

@Tom: You are not a leftist. By definition, leftists oppose imperialist wars of aggression against countries who have never done the slightest harm to us. The Hitchens “clash of civilizations” school belongs to neoconservatives, former liberals who have embraced militarism as a solution to all international problems.

No one finds radical Islam more alien than I do. But it’s not a problem for Americans. Radical Islam has no chance of coming to the United States. And until we solve our own problems–like 20% unemployment, systemic racism, police brutality, legalized torture, etc.–we have no business trying to cure ills overseas.

@Tom wrote: “There are a lot of volunteers in the military who are escaping a dead end life from small towns and bad neighborhoods. I know several people like that where high school was the end of the line for them as far as getting an education. They just want to do their time and get the education/income/experience benefits so they can build a better life. Nothing wrong with that. But they didn’t sign on *wanting* to fight a war that they or you might find unjustified. That might be the outcome but it’s a risk they have to take to get what they need.”

I find that argument absolutely repugnant and immoral. Cry me a river–being poor and needing a job does not give you any moral right to murder innocent people. I grew up in the Rust Belt. No jobs. Guess what? I moved. Working at McDonald’s is infinitely preferable, morally and from a safety standpoint, to joining the military.

Anyone who joins the military signs a contract granting the president a blank check to send him or her anywhere they want to kill whomever they want. Since the US hasn’t fought a legitimate war since 1945, it seems fairly obvious that anyone who signs up will likely be sent to fight an illegal war.

It is high time that people who join the military be shunned from polite society–like child pornographers. Enlisting is never acceptable–unless the US homeland has been invaded by a foreign power.

Now, I know there are folks who have serious, serious issues with Bush’s handling of the wars and reasons for entry into Iraq. I do too.

The real tragedy I think is it has distracted from the our most pressing national security issue, which is a bunch of 12th Century religious fanatics have access to 21st Century weaponry and are fueled by an ideology that executes other humans in the most graphic, brutal manner possible all to instill fear and compliance.

You right, call it a clash of civilizations , cultures or ideology, whatever. But if we don’t put these whackos down and hard, they’ll be back.

The Cherokee used to have a saying, “Never leave a wounded enemy on the ground alive…behind you.” We’ve doing that for 30 years in the Middle East and it’s long past time to beat these goons for good. If you’re gonna go to war GO TO WAR. If not, then don’t do it.

The sad thing is, we’re so deep in now, we can’t quit. We have to either win or submit to their demands. Winning is the only option her, but considering the cowardice flowing out of DC on a daily basis, I don’t have a lot of confidence in our ‘deciderers’.