but I'll have to pick this up with you another day Hovis. I've got work to do.
I'm driving to western Illinois tomorrow and then over to Chicago for the night. I will cover an area probably greater than half of England, but golly I wish I could be worldly like you....

Unfortunately, your suspicion about the percentage of US nationals with passports was way off the mark, Mark.
'Google' and 'common sense' are your friends.


Well, IF that is the literal truth, then, without the use of Google, I am forced to conclude Web has only one friend.
And, FWIW, I am having a genuine good time watching someone else have a go at it.

I would like to thank WebsterMark and HovisPresley for the amusing chitchat and congratulate them because I haven't had such a good time since my last go at Monty Python.

Mayflower... ancient history...

1. The Mayflower never existed. She was the "Fleur de Mai" (Mayflower in English), a french cargo which had just neen bought by the Florentine Medicis (of Lorenzo de Medici fame) to sail the merchant ports of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, and the ship's Captain was due to report in Livorno (Leghorn to you) only the following spring. So he thought it was a good idea to accept a contract to sail a bunch of Puritans confined to the pier of Plymouth port to the New World.

(The truth of the matter is the Puritans had fled England and settled down in Amsterdam; their lifestyle, however, was so rock-rigid puritan they were eventually "encouraged to leave" (Christian Talibans of the 17th Century?) and the only place they could go was... England. They were denied entry, however, and were confined to living "in the open" on a pier of Plymouth Port, until they could find a ship to ferry them elsewhere. THIS is the story told in England - and THEY have the historical records to prove it, not just legendary storytelling)

As for the issue of "Mayflower - Fleur de Mai", here is an excerpt from an interesting essay:

"Mary Antin is right when she looks upon our foreign- born as the people who missed the Mayflower and came over on the first boat they could find. But she forgets that when they did come it was not upon other Mayflower but upon a 'Fleur,' a 'Fleur de Mai,' a 'Fleur di Maggio,' a 'Majblomst.' "

Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1916/07/trans-national-america/30...

Where, incidentally, it PROVES the early colonists had no intention whatsoever to melt into the existing culture and adopt their ways.
Else you guys would all be American Indians...

You may also read a funny (humorous) rendition of the origins of Thanksgiving by Art Buchwald here:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=932&dat=19911128&id=5JY0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=0...

2. What WebsterMark seems to omit is that these fierce, blood-curdling ISIS terrorists are actually preying on... fellow Muslims.
Yes, they have slit Christian throats and sold their daughters into slavery (and I, for one, am livid that European political leaders and the Pope himself all seem to be sitting on their hands on this one) but the truth of the matter is the Iraqi Army (equipped and traned by you guys) is next to helpless, the Syrian Army (equipped and trained by the Russians) is only marginally more effective (motivaiton?) the Turkish Army (equipped and trained by you guys) have had their ass kicked and the only ones who seem capable of getting the job done are... [drum roll, please] Navy SEALS?  
NO, it was the Iranians
Like it or not, when it's time for boots on the ground, the only ones who kicked any ISIS ass in mass (not precision strike and flee ops) were the Iranians.

Oh, and, by the way... Given that the BUSH Dynasty is so hand in hand with the Saudi Royal Family... why on earth is Saudi Arabia not doing anything with ISIS tearing down Muslim Holy Sites ?
 
Kuwait is looking the other way, and the UAE and Bahrein are too busy celebrating their umpteenth ... luxury ... whatever ?
 
I see disaster coming from below the horizon, I can already smell it, and it smells rancid...
 
Oh, but should WM worry, with Sen. John McCain photographed having talks with ISIS officials...

Watch it, Webstermark, lest "the enemy of my enemy has defeated my enemy and is now turning on me..." if you understand my words of warning...

3. Social Security and free handouts to young (juvenile) unwed mothers.
Yes, those who condemn "the system" for giving a "paycheck" to unwed mothers are right. In some Countries, to the eyes of a high school dropout, having more and more babies can become a fulltime job, the more babies, the more monies.
Actually, in other Countries (i.e. Italy) the baby is the direct beneficient of the SS treatment, not the mother, and once an unwed, jobless mother graduates to "baby #2" she is right in the sights of Social Assistants.
The law says that  baby #3 had better come with a full time Daddy, else the Juvenile Copurt kicks in and has the authority to take one (or more) babies to a "home" - either a foster home or an orphanage.

So you won't see unwed Mother Goose over here.

WebsterMark wrote on 05/26/15 at 05:04:28:


That's exactly what ISIS is all about... that's how they fund themselves, somebody (hmmm, I wonder who...) is buying the oil they sell on the black market.

Of course, it could bever be YOU !

Once : http://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/01/25/sotu-smerconsih-white-house-denis...

Then : http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2014/06/05/why-we-dont-negotiate-with-t...

Now : http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/06/03/the-u-s-does-negotiate-with-terrorists/

Now : http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jun/01/ted-cruz/ted-c...

And : http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/whos-negotiating-with-the-taliban-anyway/

And : http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-to-relaunch-peace-ta...



Is THIS your Agenda, now ?

Unfortunately, your suspicion about the percentage of US nationals with passports was way off the mark, Mark.
'Google' and 'common sense' are your friends.


Well, IF that is the literal truth, then, without the use of Google, I am forced to conclude Web has only one friend.
And, FWIW, I am having a genuine good time watching someone else have a go at it.

I'm confused by this Jog....? I would have no idea what the % of US citizens holding a passport without looking it up. Would you? I didn't want to guess and I don't happen to know anyone working in the State Department. I looked it up and the numbers were between 30 and 35%. And yes, I suspect that's higher than many countries. If EU citizens don't need passports to travel between countries anymore than we need one traveling between states, it's seems likely it's a higher percentage than many EU citizens. Even if it's not, I don't see the significance of pu$$yified Hovis bringing it up except out of some sense of inadequacy, which if I were in his shoes, I'd understand.

Quote WM;
"pussified excuse for a man like you"
"pu$$yified Hovis"

Can I suggest that throwing insults doesn't strengthen your argument?

As for the passport issue, if WM doesn't "see the significance", then I'm sure that there are many who do.

Muslim rape gangs in England;
Sadly, very true, evil and despicable.
It's coverage in the mainstream news has been overshadowed by the systematic child-abuse over 40 years by (mainly celebrity) employees of the BBC. Of these evil perverts, none of them (as far as I am aware) are muslim, but Christian.
Despite these events being heinous crimes that make me sick, one has to remember the word 'perspective'  :'(

London bombings;
My first cousin, Leigh, was fortunately unhurt. I know first-hand of the grief and anxiety that my family went through at the time. The phone-lines to the emergency services were all overwhelmed and so there was no news for a while until my auntie received that magic phone call home from her daughter.
WM, tell me of your experience of terrorist bombings, because I know hers. She now commutes daily to her job in Birmingham, which as your Fox News described recently as a no-go area for non-Muslims. (She was born, and I believe still is, a practicing Christian, btw)

Mpescatori, again, what an excellent and well-informed post your wrote

PS. Mark, how was the trip?

yeah, the personal insults are not at all helpful

Let us not forget about the tanks and ammo we abandoned and didn't destroy..

I thought military protocol was destroy anything the enemy could use if you have to retreat.

If you were in a tank and it was time to retreat, would You just get out and Walk?
I thought our tanks ran 45mph...

Believe what you will.