i broke up with trysts

Honestly it is no different living in the country or the big city. Either way, it takes hours to get anywhere.

Merle!

Evo, Hugo, and Mahmoud!

I missed alot of this thread. Cursed sleep. I'd join the tournament but as one of those "free members" I can only participate in 1 tournament, which I am currently doing right now. When it finishes I'll join

Mahmoud is a powerless tool of the military which has quitely taken control of the government in Iran and continues to impose an Islamic theocracy on the people despite the fact that 3/4 of them would rather have another form of government. I got no beef with Hugo.

It is a theocracy, for sure, and I am no believer in any religion. Mahmoud is only the president of that country, whereas the Ayatollah, is it's leader. But, your figure is horribly inaccurate, as Mahmoud had 3/4ths of the vote. I have been studying Iran for years now, because I fear for the 80 million people that are under constant threat, being surrounded and threatened by western powers for over 30 years. Prior to that, the Iranian people suffered through the rule of the Shah of Iran, a figurehead for western powers, placed there by the U.S. overthrow of their democratically elected leader in 1953. My esteem for Ahmadinejad, arises from his many speeches at the U.N., and the international conference on race, in Geneva, which continuously see western powers walk out as he speaks, lest they have to sit there and listen to this man tell the truth...

Why on earth would anyone want to join this tournament????? I guess if you live long enough, you'll see everything!

He's still a blowhard who has overseen the imprisonment and brutal treatment of dissidents, unionists, socialists etc.  There's a tendency among the left to support the opponents of the imperialist U.S. regardless of their actual credentials (see Chavez calling Ahmadinejad a great socialist leader), just as the fake left supports any Democrat no matter how right-wing they are.  It's a bad tendency.

But yeah, all the figures released support the conclusion that the Iranian election was called correctly.

Well as of current there are 4 players rated higher than me and it would be good experience to play against them. And the title is funny

Speaking of post-70s American movies, can anyone explain to me why I love Kicking and Screaming so much?

Indeed, it was called correctly. As far as "the brutal treatment" is concerned, I have read so many different accounts on the matter, and the complexity involved, that I find it to be difficult to make honest assessments, as Iran is a target of villification from the western propaganda machine. Islam, and Judeo-Christian thinking is a source of oppression for women, which makes me cringe. It's a religion thing. But, his speeches are a thing of beauty. Just sit back and watch his most recent speech at the U.N., as well as the typical 'walk-out' pattern, from the western delegates...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4phNuwx8Hs

The young people in Iran want Iran to be more like a western country. I can't dispute your figures on the election; the 3/4 figure I had was from before the election. I do wonder how many of the young people voted and how much of the opposition was scared away from the polls. Also, I have read that the military is taking control of the government in Iran.

Regardless of his rhetoric or the effectiveness of Cahvez's economic policies - which I'm in no position to evaluate - Hugo seems to be genuinely committed to the welfare or his people.

Wow, that's weird.

I especially like how he handled the recent flood in Venezuela! Here is a piece of an article by Mike Whitney about it:

"In late November, Venezuela was hammered by torrential rains and flooding that left 35 people dead and roughly 130,000 homeless. If George Bush had been president, instead of Hugo Chavez, the displaced people would have been shunted off at gunpoint to makeshift prison camps--like the Superdome--as they were following Hurricane Katrina. But that's not the way that Chavez works. The Venezuelan president quickly passed "enabling laws" which gave him special powers to provide emergency aid and housing to flood victims. Chavez then cleared out the presidential palace and turned it into living quarters for 60 people, which is the equivalent of turning the White House into a homeless shelter. The disaster victims are now being fed and taken care of by the state until they can get back on their feet and return to work."

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney01042011.html

Heh, I was just about to quote that Whitney piece...

Oh yah, the walk-outs are always hilarious.  My favourite was at that anti-intolerance (or whatever) convention, when all the delegates from the "free world" showed their allergy to facts, when they sprung up at Ahmadinejad's assertion that "Zionism is an ideology based on racism."  Uhh, well yeah, it is.  You can dispute the necessity of a Jewish homeland or whatever, but you can't deny that a state where only one religious group has full citizenship rights is fundamentally racist.

Hardly a phenomenom limited to Israel ... . How would the regimes of most of the Arab world, Pakistan and Iran itself fare, if held to this standard?

And I'll never understand how religion and race became aquainted

I didn't say it was limited, just that it was racist.  "The other kids did it first" is rarely an acceptable defense.

Agreed but when one group of kids cries foul about it, large parts of western society jump to their defence. When those kids' even worse record on the same matters is pointed out ... pointed silence. What's good for the goose etc