irish anthony wrote:
so if you have anything else to add craig why dont you come to west virgina and ill pull your teeth out with a pliers......bring your little lady ill show her what shes been missing.
That's your character right there. That says plenty.
Bear in mind, I have NEVER disrespected your country, or your family. Not once. What is the biggest charge you have against me? I called you a hypocrite. Wow... biting. I hope your ego recovers from such a vicious assault.
I play Southern Rock. Grew up with it, because I am from the same city, even lived in the same neighborhood, as Lynyrd Skynyrd. Jacksonville, Florida. They are a part of my history. I love the "feel good" groove of Southern Rock. I am far from a Redneck. I don't have a southern accent. I grew up in a city with a million people, I lived in Washington DC over 8 years. Lived in New York and Connecticut for a while as well. In fact, because my wife is a southern girl from a small town, it is the FIRST time in my life, I have spent any amount of time in a small southern city.
If you had read my other posts, you would know that I converse in Spanish as well as English and was learning Korean and Italian for awhile, having had friends from all over the world.
Interestingly enough, ALL my life I have had friends from other countries, which is why I have said on these boards that America is not a "good" country, that we have done wrong in the world. I know very well, what the CIA does in other countries, because I have had MANY friends from such countries, who, long before the internet, told me exactly how it was. These friends have always praised me for NOT being like most Americans, who were fairly clueless about Geography itself, let alone understanding the political history of many other nations.
I love other countries, and the citizens and culture of other countries throughout the world. I have spent time in Amsterdam, Peru and South Korea. My best man in my first marriage was a straight off the boat (well plane) Italian. We became best friends, and he was my best man. He worked as a chef here, and went back to Italy to open a restaurant. When he left, I gave him a very expensive electric guitar to take with him. It was the only guitar I had at the time, but he played it better than I did, and I wanted to show him my appreciation of his friendship, and give him something special to take home with him. When I did, he asked me "Craig, do you know why we became best friends?" I joked "Cause we like each other?" and he laughed and said "Of course, but what struck me, is that, in 8 years in this country, you were the FIRST American that tried to pronounce my name correctly." That struck me like a ton of bricks. When I met Maurizio, I had heard a few people say his name differently, and one of the most important parts of a person's identity is the name they have had all their lives. I felt that everyone, no matter where they were from or hard it might be, deserved for you to at least try, and pronounce their name as closely as possible. It was simply respect. I had never realized, until that moment, how this simple act, let him know alot about what kind of person I was. It is the kind of person I STILL am.
So, your labeling of me is completely inaccurate.
But when you feel you have to talk about f*cking an opponents wife, because it's not enough to settle the argument on it's own merits, then I am not surprised you are clueless, when it comes to looking into another person's soul and correctly assessing their heart and values.
Unlike you, I would NEVER go to Ireland, and accept the benefits of what they have to offer, only to rail against, virtually their entire society and culture. And YOU talk about bad manners?
I realize, because several people have said so, that I come across too forcefully in some discussions. They are things I believe in, and I enjoy debating vigorously, as it helps me refine my own beliefs, when people have meaningful arguments I am forced to consider. It expands my mind, and my understanding, of this thing we call life.
I apologize to you, with all sincerity, as well as anyone else who felt offended by any past comments I have made. I am quite sure, that the venomous and personal assaults you have made on me, my country and my family, are completely disproportionate to the offensive comments I may have uttered about your hypocrisy, or Europeans being pussies, which is a long running joke here, particularly about France, but it matters not, how much more personal and demeaning your insults were. I have always believed, that it doesn't matter what other people do. Your own character is your own responsibility, and people mistreating you, is not an excuse to lower your own standards. I've lowered my own standards on occasion, and I apologize for it.
I really suspect, it is the strong feelings about the war, more than any occasions I have called someone a hypocrite though, which is the real source of much of the anger towards me, by some here.
England once tried to negotiate with Hitler, even as he was gobbling up their neighbors, and even with a signed agreement, Hitler of course, broke the agreement, and in very short order, the English were sleeping in tunnels under the city every night, fearing for their lives and their children's lives.
Iran's president made a statement just yesterday, proclaiming that their enemies "cannot do a damned thing" about their nuclear program, which includes uranium enrichment. We all know what they are looking for. If Iraq is left as-is, and we abandon it, then Iran will surely fill the vacuum and not only continue to pursue it's agenda of becoming a nuclear power, but now have influence over even more of the world's oil supply, helping it further along in their quest for nuclear weapons.
Some Americans still remember a smiling Jane Fonda straddling the barrel of a North Vietnamese tank, calling them "the peaceful people of Vietnam". Those peaceful people murdered between 1 and 2 million people, once America did pull out of Vietnam.
That was the naivety back then, of peace protesters, and they are ready for the "glory days" and inevitably the same results, once more, only this time in Iraq.
I was alive in the decades after Vietnam, and personally, I am not anxious for a return to them.
As to fighting and age...
It can be irrelevant, as Holyfield proved when he defeated Mike Tyson.
My wife's ex-husband has always believed that since he is 10 years younger than me, he could beat me too. But he will never throw that first punch at me to find out. He lifts weights all day long, and I will kick his ass if he ever does throw a punch.
He's pissed, cause when he asks his own children who they think would win, they tell him it is me. he tried to arm wrestle me once, but I find this sh*t pathetic, and I told him "Why do you keep dicking around with all this. You want to fight, then do it. Or how about we trade hits to the head, and see how long it takes for someone to go down? I'll let you go first."
He refused.
He wants to show off, without putting it on the line.
No one yet, has knocked me out in a fight. I've had a cop handcuff me behind my back, so he could knock my block off, without any retribution. He also called two other squad cars though, to watch his back, when he drove me around to the back of deserted business, where it was pitch black and no one around to witness it. He swung so f*cking hard at my head, that it literally spun me around 360 degrees. But I didn't fall down and I wasn't knocked out. I'm sure his cop buddies had a laugh over that later, but they don't realize he just had the wrong guy. I can take a hit. I can take lots of hits. And just as importantly, I can return them.
Fighting is retarded.
I tell my my step kids, who know I am not afraid of anyone, and won't back down from anyone, that fighting is foolish. What does it prove? That you are a better man than someone? There is always someone who can beat you, and if they can't beat you, they can just kill you some other time. Strength, or fighting ability, I tell them, will NEVER mean you are "right", that you are a good person, or have a better idea than someone else.
Nevertheless, I told them that defending yourself is sometimes necessary and they should be prepared. So I taught them some tricks, and techniques, both from boxing and martial arts, and I also showed them how to hit very hard, through physics, how to get the most force from your body, entirely focused all into a few square inches of the first two knuckles and fingers of your fist.
They practiced what I showed them for a few weeks or a month.
We later went to a bowling alley as a family outing, and it happened that there was a boxing game there, where you hit a bag, and it measures the force of it. My step sons are 14 and 12, and they not only beat the other kids there, but developed a small crowd, when they dismissed adult males as well, one by one. They must have beat 7 or 8 men from 20 to 30 years old, with those guy's friends all laughing their asses off about it, cause a couple of skinny kids, 12 and 14, could punch harder than they could.
I just smiled, cause, even though these kids know that I NEVER lie to them, and never will, still, it is always satisfying, when in a real world scenario, they prove to themselves, that the "old" man really does know what he is talking about.
Boys boys! Does anyone not see the irony here? This thread was posted to request some hippie musicians to play for a peace rally and a World War breaks out?!?! 
OY! Maybe we should all just pass a joint around 
Anyone got the music for Kumbaya? 
