turnone

Iraq war is the greatest blunder of American Government in my life time only challenged by the War on Drugs. I was born in 1972 for reference. I try not to think about it much anymore, but it astounds me that so many still believe it was the right thing to do. But many less today than before as we look back upon it. America acted like a bully who got a black eye and just had to kick someone's ass to prove how tough we are. Iraq had nothing to do with 911. 19 of the 21 hijackers were Saudi. A friend so we did nothing. Most of the 'hawks' in politics never spent a day in service of any branch of military, but happily send others to die and to get physically and mentally fucked up to serve a political purpose. And while there at it, many of their friends and associates make millions of dollars for war profiteering. So, I will try to be calm and talk in a manner that isn't too offensive. But forgive me if I fail at that. For the record, I served 6 years in the Navy on a Trident Submarine. Not once have I questioned whether SH used chemical weapons. This usage was merely an excuse to go to war. It was well known he was using chemical weapons when Rumsfiled went to meet with him. They seem friendly enough in this video. How many he had or if he had them is part of the question. After the first Iraq war, many were destroyed. Maybe he kept some or made more, or maybe not. All we know for sure is he had them in the 80's and none were found despite huge effort in the early 2000's. Anything else is just guessing and I don't quite think guessing is worth a 2 Trillion dollars, do you? Regardless if he had them or not, going to war over them was just and EXCUSE. Former Generals said a lot of shit that turned out to be false. The truth is they didn't know what SH really had. All they kept saying is that the 'other' people were in charge. It was in SH's best interest to lead people to believe he had a large amount of them. No evidence of them was presented. Writing shit in a book doesn't make it true. AKA, the bible. If you were about to be overrun, wouldn't you want to use all your weapons? It's seems more plausible that he didn't have any to use that's why none were used when defending against the USA. Regardless, we don't know for sure. All we know is none were found. I haven't claimed he knowingly lied. I 100% believe Bush thought SH had them and the ends would justify the means. What he did was only believe the evidence that supported the theory and discredit the evidence that pointed against it. There was plenty of information on both sides of the argument. But since Bush believed they were there, we went in and looked hard. None were found. Regardless, whether they were there or not, is not the argument I am making. The war was unnecessary because there was NO IMMINENT THREAT!!!! WMD or not, we went to war because we wanted to. The drum beat to war was thumping hard and we couldn't let doubt or facts get in the way. The mind was made up and Bush was no pussy. While we were at war with Iraq, Pakistan who hates ACTUALLY have and had Nuclear weapons. Sold the tech to N. Korea who developed Nuclear weapons. Iran has chemical weapons and are developing nuclear war heads. All of this shit was going on while we went to war with Iraq on the CHANCE that they still had them. Please provide evidence that SH was using such weapons or threatening others with them. Regarding you assertion that Bush could have had WMD's planted in Iraq is just crazy. There is no way that could happen. Way too many people would have to be involved and some one would have leaked the info. It's crazy if you think the government can pull something like that off. Just no way. Too many people from all walks of life would have to be involved. Plenty of news leaks made it seem that many WMD's were found during the war. Polls bear this out and large portions of the American public believed that WMD's had been found. It is convenient for those hanging on to the justification of war in Iraq to think that there were and we just didn't find them. That somehow SH would let his country be over run and just hide the weapons. Yes, the USA interferes a lot. Some of it is righteous, especially when we live up to the ideals that we espouse. What pisses me off is the great cost of such incorrect assertions. Our political leaders made a strong argument that there was NO DOUBT that SH had WMD and it was a threat to us. Well it turns out, it wasn't that big of a threat and maybe he didnt' have them at all. Meanwhile, those that did, just got stronger. The war in Iraq made Iran stronger as an example. Costs of the mistake: 190,000 people were killed. Of those almost 4500 were US military and another 3,400 civilian contractors. Over 2 Trillion dollars. (Funny how the same people hate when we spend money on health care or education). Tens of thousands of war vets came home with deep physical and mental scars. Compare Iraq today to the year 2000 and tell me it was worth a tiny fraction of that. I don't think so. So all of the above because we 'thought' he had WMD and that was enough to invade. If you think this is just police work for the world, let's take for a moment that the local police had the 'bush doctrine' power. If you have a weapon (gun or otherwise) they could invade your house, kill the head of house hold and anyone who got in the way just to ensure you don't use your gun in a harmful, no self defense way. I stand by my assertion that this is fucking stupid and no one should believe this whether at the local lever or the international border level.

Convenient rumors so people can hold onto that WMD belief in Iraq. Regardless SH never threatened the USA with them so we didn't need a trillion dollar war to prevent something that was super fucking unlikely. In addition, Syria is still lead by Assad and the chemical weapons are being destroyed as we speak. Russia is involved to save Assad's ass. It's fairly easy for a country to create their own chemical weapons which is much more likely than Syria just having those missing ones from Iraq. It's not about blaming Bush. It's about stupid unnecessary wars under false pretenses and stupid shit like the Bush Doctrine. Wanna guess how many countries have chemical weapons and compare to those we invaded over them? Remember the use of chemical weapons by SH was in the early 80's and Rumsfield was still going to Iraq on behalf of Reagan.

How hard is it to print a fake cashiers check? Not very. Don't take cashiers checks ever! Only exception is if you get it while at the issuing bank and you see the transaction take place. But why, just take cash.

Rumsfeld publically declared the Iraq war would cost 2-3 Billion. Boy, time has changed, it's likely to exceed a Trillion before it's all said and done. He was also part of the circular arguments for war. Leaking info to the media that was false so they could later claim their leaked info as source material. Totally a war of choice. And our troops were unprepared. A national shame really. There was no magnificent invasion as stated earlier. It was just a matter or a $500 billion war machine invading a vastly inferior military. There was no resistance to speak of that I recall. We overwhelmed them and that was that UNTIL we realized that we didn't PLAN accordingly for the aftermath. Apparently a war of choice was a bad choice. There was never a need to invade Iraq. Don't give me the bad guy argument. Dozens of bad or worse guys around the world we are friendly with or aloof to. Not hard to dig up the picture of rumsfield shaking the hand of SH when he was business friendly. Hypocritical Bull Shit. And for those who still hold on to the 'hidden' WMD argument, YOU are part of the problem. Stop being so damn gullible. The war was a huge fucking mistake and there isn't any reasonable argument for it now. If you think a country has the right to invade another country because it 'might' have weapons that would harm you (Bush Doctrine), then please tell me exactly how that stops us from invading just about every country on the map?? Or other countries from doing the same? Let me simplify it for you. I can invade and kill my neighbor just because he has guns that he might use to kill me. Makes sense???? No, it's fucking stupid. You can't just invade anyone. Saddam Hussein showed no real aggression towards America. Iran on the other hand, chants death to America as a national slogan. Pakistanis say this by the millions and we give them $6-7 Billion annually and they gave away 'nuclear warhead info'. North Korea developed the bomb during the Bush years and we didn't do shit about that. How do you morons sleep at night believing this Iraq and WMD shit?

If you are serious about buying, call every dealer around and tell them you will buy in next X amount of days and looking for a 'fair' deal. If you are a 'cash' buyer used can score a much better deal. Watch CL and make low ball offers to those that come up that you would care to own. Sometimes a drive is worth it.

It will be 125cc of pure 2T power. Should be on the way from Miama tomorrow morning. 2006 euro spec Aprilia RS125. Like the other one without a teenager and a girlfriend to crash it all up.

Trying to make arrangements for a replacement Gap bike. We shall see.

Progressive was very high when I checked. I'm all for the pot smoking owner but can't support with high rates. State Farm is very competitive on sport bikes especially if you bundle. I have home, cars, bikes, life all with SF. Sure shopping around and swapping companies very few years can save you money but there may be hidden costs to that approach.

That makes perfect sense. If he needs to avoid crashing, he will need to avoid biking, riding, skating, and every other thing. Hope he is okay. I think his prices are great and if I had bigger hands I would have snatched those Racer gloves right up. Stands are also a good price. If I didn't have so many, I would buy them too. Chris

What's to rethink? Slower is safer. Not 100% safe. No one said that. I know nothing of his injuries or if he even likes minis. However, nothing was said out of line with RK suggesting it as an option. Chris

By the same token, most mini racing wrecks don't happen at top speed either. Most would be 15-30 mph. I crashed my CRF250R 4 times and only replaced one brake lever TOTAL after all of them. And this is on a bike much larger than the XR100 mentioned by RK. The expenses aren't anywhere close to big bikes, whether we are talking about crashing, race fees, transponder rental, etc. So I stand by my conclusion that mini is safer and cheaper.

I'd say there is a drastic difference in serious injury risk when racing at under 60 mph vs under 185 mph. Don't have to be a genius to figure that out. I think RK is gung-ho about the minis and sharing his passion. As one who races in OMRL, I like big grids and I am thankful he is pushing to get more involved. I think his comments were spot on trying to provide a good alternative to the OP's concerns. Nothing out of line. Biggie

Very good prices. Those gloves are awesome. I would buy if they fit me.

I'm real curious about the upcoming Mazda 6 diesel.

The diesels are coming but the benefit of them is reduced by the significant gains the gassers have made. It's getting more common to get 35+ hwy on gas with the diesels being 40+. But the $3-5K price difference in initial purchase price plus the per gallon price means long pay back ROI. Having said that, my next sedan may be a TDI.

Don't buy a bike that drinks 110 octane fuel unless you are SERIOUS about winning. Fuel costs can take the fun out of track time. At least for me. My bike gets about 15mpg on 93 and it makes cringe a little.

Easy. You drive straight after the event and go to work on a few hours sleep. Biggie

April 5-6 at MGKT in GA. A few OMRLers are planning to go down for this. They have stock XR and Super Moto classes. Hope we get some OH riders down there to join in the fun. https://www.facebook.com/MGKTsupermoto/info They have a newly installed dirt section too. Chris

Something to consider is that used cars have been priced pretty high these past few years due to a number of factors ranging from the lack of new sales for a few years and down economy. Interest rates on new cars can be 4% or many time as low as 0-2%. Combine that with the vast fuel efficiency gains (damn asshole government) you could be better off buying a new Civic, Elentra, etc. Plus a warranty, less hassle, generally more reliable, more features like Bluetooth, etc can make the ownership experience much nicer. Hyundai leases cars for 18K/year if you ask. That's almost enough right there. For your needs. I ended up buying the Sonata after 3 year 18K/year lease. You may consider the Sonata as well. Tows up to 2K easily of you get the base with manual tranny.

Thanks for the advice. Would this still hold true if it were cleaned every two weeks? Not sure how moving the drain line is easy. I'm not a fan of digging up concrete. Thanks for the link. Chris

I just ripped out a crappy old cheap shower from my cement basement. It was a corner neo-angle type. Drain pipe location is VERY limited to the location it is now due to concrete. I wouldn't mind a nicer shower with tile floors and walls since I'm having a hard time finding a drop in with same drain position. Anyone do this? I'm not looking for high end. Hoping for some clearance tile. Current shower is 38" x 38". Bathroom width is 59" drywall to drywall. Possible make the shower full width. A built in seat would be nice. I'm open to idea including a tub/shower combo or ? Chris 513 317 3351 cell Text me I live in Lebanon, 10 minutes North of Kings Island. I pay in cash.

Soon as it gets warm! I will post up as I'd love to hear that screamer.

Can we get back to the topic at hand....... Me and my Minions!

I have a not so secret admirer.

Intermediate is the wost group to be in. Stay away. Ride advanced/expert or novice. If forced into I group, give the doucebags plenty of clearance. A good way to do this is to go slow in the straights and let then go clear. Duc riders suck.