Replying to a message of Wayne Chirnside to Roy J. Tellason:

 RJT>> The news did say that this has turned into a guerilla war,  which I
 RJT>> guess they figure has unpleasant associations with what happened
 RJT>> back in Vietnam...

Wonder if anybody besides me pointed out *before* Bush started the fracas. 
It was blatantly obvious that there was no way their military was going to
defeat ours head-to-head, and they didn't even try very hard.

 WC> Yes, as above. Everyone in that oil soaked nation is so terrified  of
 WC> Saddam's return it's only going to get worse unless we nail him. I
 WC> was against going to Iraq but now that we're there it's take out 
 WC> Saddam and take our chances we can get someone we can deal with at
 WC> least partially or it's back to square one. With the problems arising
 WC> in Iran and N. Korea Saddam should Saddam survive he just might pull
 WC> off a comeback if he outlasts the occupation.

 RJT>> Mostly I'd say it depends on how the economy goes,  I should get a
 RJT>> pretty good handle on it since I'm in the job market again...

 WC>> Ha, our current governor is stupider then your former governor, I
 WC>> believe it's genetic in our case.

 RJT>> He's gotta be better than Reno,  though.

 WC>> He is dumber then a box of rocks.

 RJT>> Still gotta be better then Reno,  though.

 WC> I don't know about that, a corpse might make a better govenor.
 WC> I've been down here since 1971 and I cannot recall the
 WC> legislature ever having to go into special overtime sessions
 WC> so many times for such protracted periods of time.
 WC> Last week, next week and for the foreseeable future it's
 WC> the cap on medical malpractice lawsuits.
 WC> JebCo wants a 250,000 dollar cap and the opposition near 10X's that
 WC> amount with no concesus in sight.

Two and a half mil isn't a lot of money any more.  One way to cap
malpractice and other lawsuits is to require that punitive damages go to
the state, not to the plaintiff (and plaintiff's lawyer).  The plaintiff is
(theoretically) made whole by the actual damages assessed, punitive damages
have become a bonus.

A case several years ago in this area points up the fact.  A kid was badly
injured at a ski area near Crescent, Iowa. north of here.  Kid's parents
filed civil charges in Nebraska (where they live), discovered that in
Nebraska the state gets any punitive damages, dropped the case and refiled
it in Iowa.  Tell me it wasn't about money.....

 WC>> It will piss you off enormously. I've gone out of my way to broaden
 WC>> my sources both here and abroad on the net and the consensus and
 WC>> insight into what's going on in the U.S. from the saner nations
 WC>> reflects reality instead of the _spin_ we have at home.

 RJT>> Nothing new about the actions of our government pissing me off...
 RJT>> :-)

 WC> Well me too but it's the more I learn about what's really going
 WC> on the worse it gets. I'm at least 3X's as ballistic in this
 WC> administration then any before.

 WC>> Looks like England's Tony Blair is getting into deep shit over his
 WC>> _mistatements_ regarding Iraq. Now Bush having lost credibility from
 WC>> Iraq is trying to gather international support to go after Iran
 WC>> while we've still got a HUGE mess in Afganistan and Iraq :-(

 RJT>> I'll be surprised if they go there before the current situation gets
 RJT>> rather more nailed down.  If they do that they'll really be
 RJT>> overextending themselves...

They're *already* overextended.

 WC>  It would NOT suprise me, Rumsfeld thinks God is on his shoulder
 WC>  and George is just tree stump stupid.

IMO Rumsfeld is certifiable and George *is* tree stump stupid.  It's
interesting the Rumsfeld and most of the other the high muckety-mucks in
this administration never served in the military - except Bush, of course,
and he was a reservist.

 RJT>> I know that Swiss male citizens are required to serve in the
 RJT>> military, and that when they go home they take their full-auto
 RJT>> firearm with them.  Never heard anything of the sort about Sweden, 
 RJT>> or any other country for that matter.

 WC>  Right, it was Switzerland. Being bedridden for the most part
 WC>  the brain does atrophy. Sometimes worse then others.

 RJT>> There was a bit about that in a recent issue of TLE,  and the
 RJT>> article mentioned that they were actively neutral,  but were in
 RJT>> fact _trading_ with both the Nazis and the Allies.

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