I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

This is how he got his initial lawtalkers nickname: Social Cripple. He's moved to other boards from time to time to try to wash the stigma away. Sad, really.

I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

I don't even understand that.

Paigow, you should keep in mind that most people are acquainted with Spanky thru this board. Which explains our perhaps previously inexplicable-to-you dislike of him, as well as explaining the prior thread title.

I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

For the record, I think Spanky is neither a Social Cripple nor stupid.* I think he hasn't learned how to let go of a losing position on the PB gracefully.

*However, the idea that we should invade Cuba in 6 months is really, really stupid, unless he's got a long position in casino stocks.

I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

People can have different personalities on different boards. the Spanky board isn't the FB because of the very reasons that makes him seem different there. plus everyone there welcomes him and everyone here attacks him. Like on the FB I'm generally considering charming- sparkling really, but on Spank board I'm seem as tiresome to some.

I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

I found the "Now you're learning" to be an espeically offensive. It is frankly very un-Spanky. I didn't relaly read past that line bc reading the politiical arguments would be about as much fun as sitting at a table of drunken middle aged men loudly debating the relative merits of a ketch versus yawl, and just as pointless.
But I think if I was yawl side and some ketch guy sayid "Now your're learning", it would ruffle my feathers. Its just rude and doesnt count as an argumentative point. Its like calling a dog an asshole.

I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

Name a non-despot with polical prisoners.

I think that hardcore conservatives and liberals alike can agree that George W. Bush does not contradict Spanky's statement, albeit for completely different reasons.

I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

I, too, saw God through mud.
 

"Is Castro a threat to our national security? Last I checked, we were the ones that tried to invade Cuba, not the other way around. We were the ones who sought to assassinate Castro, not vice versa.* All he does is send Republicans to Florida which, however distasteful, is hardly cause for war. No serious national security argument can be made for invading Cuba.

You show appallingly bad judgment by proposing an unprovoked invasion of Cuba. Such an action would turn our country into a Rogue Nation. "

Did I read this wrong? Were you not saying that in order for us to be justified in invading Cuba that cuba would have to be a threat to our national secuirty? Human rights are not a justification. I think you said "that is "2" by "4" foreign policy." Did you also not say if we did invade them we would be a rogue nation?

My response was the Serbia was not a threat to our national security, so following your logic, we had no reason to bomb them, and bombing them made us a rogue nation. Did I get that wrong?

Then you adjusted your thesis to threat to national secuirty and genocide. And liked to point out that Castro is not committing genocide. And berated me for not seeing that distinction. So all of a sudden human rights can be used as an excuse. Well genocide anyway. But the problem is the Serbians were committing ethnic cleansing and not genocide. Most Kosovars were not killed, they were just ejected from the country.

So what is it? Is human rights a legitimate reason for military invasion? Then OK. Serbia was OK. But isn't Castro abusing human rights - political prisoners, etc. So I guess now it is military intervention is OK for certain human rights abuses but not others. And if you pick the wrong human rights abuses that makes you a rogue nation? So then did that make us a rogue nation to go into Somalia and Haiti?

But of course we had no justification for going into Iraq. But wait. Wasn't Saddam Hussein ethnically cleansing the Kurds?

Why don't you clear this up for me.

I, too, saw God through mud.
 

Well, F-15s & tanks don't run on batteries yet. I'm trying to think of a country or region in which we (act like we) have a real national security interest that is primarily economic but not military/political, and other than (arguably) post-soviet Europe I can't really think of one offhand. (Japan obviously doesn't meet that standard since it geopolitically key to the projection of US naval power in the Pacific.)

Spanky's question - whether European stability is in, or possibly even contrary to, our national interests - is actually an interesting one. Regardless of how one comes down on it, I don't think the post-cold-war answer is as obvious as most people assume.

I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

[The Cuba thing works well as part of his Unified Theory. what he forgot to mention, in order to tie it all up in a neat little package is that all hispanics Love Us(a). The Cubans have been sitting in line behind the Mexicans waiting for the results of the "next new US territory" lottery. They are cautiously optimistic. The baseball thing has been a real boon to their chances.]

I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

Actually I do not think he is a Social Cripple. And by the wya, that isnt very nice. He might be a bit of a Political Debater Not Fully Able to Walk, but he is quite socially skillled I would say. I do prefer his wideeyed doe, cat raising schtick.

I voted for Augusto Pinochet . . . uh, wait, I guess I didn't. My bad.
 

Like I said before, you don't intervene in democracys.

I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

He is the one who threw the term out there, not I. Would you like a link to the conversation?

I want a t-shirt that says "Free Gavrilo Princip"
 

This isn't about you Hank.

Damn Yanquis.
 

Castro was reportedly quite a pitcher back in the day -- if the scouts had seen him throw, we wouldn't be having this discussion, and he would still be up at Cooperstown today, boring Ryne Sandberg with a pedantic hours-long lecture on how he struck out Willie Mays four times in the '62 Series.