sealevel wrote:

"A lot of our political problems can be traced to our forign oil dependency. So far over 500 Americans have died because if it.

A Trillion dollar surplus is now a deficit. Corporations escape taxes with off shore incorporation. it goes on,,,,, and


Let's keep the number of deaths in Iraq in perpsective please. Each is tragic, no doubt. My nephew, a career Marine, shipped out last week for a 10 month hitch in Iraq.

That said, 30 million people were liberated. You are myopic, focusing on oil. You act like the rape rooms, torture houses, mass graves don't exist. Of course there is SOME truth re the oil motive, but you've stretched it to being THE truth, and frankly are quite misguided in your thinking. The terrorism since the main war, unfortunately is to be expected. Similar types of attacks occurred throughout Europe in the months and year after Germany's surrender after WWII. The killing of US soldiers did not end on VE day. Believe me, more than 500 were killed in various ways post WWII during the occupation of Germany.

Sense of perspective, for what it's worth...7000 American soldiers died in 20 MINTUES at Cold Harbor during the Civil War. 30,000 died in 2 DAYS during the first Manassas, also known as Bull Run. My citation is Ken Burns Book/Movie The Civil War, and Shelby Foote's trilogy masterpiece on the Civil War. There were 32 million people in the country in those days...the casualties in several individual battles were measureable percentages of the total population. You cannot say that about the 500 brave souls lost in Iraq in 10 months.

As for the corporations with the off shore holdings and jobs, take a look sometime at the Heinz Corporation's web site. As you know, Kerry's second wife, and sugar mamma/benefactor is the Heinz heiress. Heinz has more factories and jobs overseas than they do here in the US. What do you make of that?

Or you can vote for a tort lawyer who routinely took 40% of his clients 'winnings' in lawsuits. Seems to me he had no problem taxing the poor to enhance his wealth. Your choice if you're not happy with our current President.

Mighty...in another life I'm a fan of vintage slot cars, raced 'em as a kid. A slot car board I frequent has a separate forum that used to be called the Back Alley, now the Paddock, which was reserved for just this type of conversation. Maybe that's what we need, maybe not. Perhaps Off Topic will suffice, 'cause I've certainly taken this off topic.

Other than that....got my replacement tire in TWO days from Tire Rack for the bubble in the front tire problem!!!! Will be back on the road by the weekend, calling for 60 degrees plus in Maryland by Sunday. Sweet!

Note to bonsterbum, Rwright, WMichaels, and any other folks in the Mid Atlantic area...Tire Rack has a distribution center in Delaware, and if it's in stock, you'll have your order in just a couple days!

ROAD TRIP!!! Gonna burn some fossil fuel, and love every minute of it.

My motto is "Pollute, consume, and erode."