More videos

Racist McDonald's Commercial


Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist


What makes these videos funny? Well simply put they deal with two of todays most major problems. One being that of the proliferation of terrorism as a means to an end as well as the fact that while racism is bad many words can't be used these days without fearing that you have offended someone.

PS:
Jeff Dunham And Achmed the Dead Terrorist On Amazon.com Thanking You For Buying Their DVD


Achmed The Dead Terrorist Carols

Facebook

I was bored out of my own mind and began to simply browse my shortcuts and landed on Facebook eventually after going through a few forums. Which I hadn't visited in...a long long time. So I landed on the website and couldn't get over the number of personal service ads that were supported as well as cars and 'We need Testers'.
But of course if you are bored sufficiently you will start borrowing deeper and deeper into the website and eventually given enough boredom you will start uploading pictures...or doing something else revealing more and more about yourself to the international Internet community.
Of course the beauty of doing so is it does keep you busy during those long boring evenings when nothing has to be done really and all you are doing is staring at the ceiling in utter boredom...or write on a blog, Forum or other online site.

We create terabytes of unique information per year...actually far more then that but how much of this information is generated by utter boredom. In all probability most of it and yet we still seem to think that the people who we meet online are relevant to us in our real life's we reveal our most private facts to them. Not that the necessarily care to know those things, it is most similar to a state of intoxication in which we open our secrets to some poor soul near us. Are we really that starved for person to person interaction these days that we need the online world or is it simply a product of us being so bored since we have nothing left to do for the rest of the day.
The reality of it is that we use Facebook and the number of friends on our friends-list as a status symbol. "I have 117 people on my friends-list!" But how many of those people do you know and how many of those do you actually want to talk to? Many times the friends-lists are nothing but a pile up of mutual friends or just names which over lap with people that you used to know once upon a time. The biggest argument for those social networks is that they help you to socialize in a time of stress and lack of time, not that e-mails would do the same or IM Services (Instant Messaging) aka MSN Messanger, ICQ (The old veteran), Skype etc.
How many people do we need in our lives to be happy since we don't need hundreds of friends but only a few close ones. Maybe then again its just another frenzy for something new and fancy which will die off eventually again and be replaced by owning a big collection of teddy bears and cars.

A bit more humor doesn't hurt.

Here are a couple funny videos.





A song to finish it off...

Review List

I will offer a continually updated list of the games Reviewed and their genres.

RPG
Mass Effect (PC) 31/07/08

RTS
Settlers 6 03/08/08

Settlers 6 Review

Settlers 6 is a Real Time Strategy game, which to be frank does not really reflect at all the Settlers series or rather the original title or its three good successors. It takes the macro management as well as the unlimited expansion of population completely away and leaves the player with a game that mostly plays itself. You still build the old buildings to gain the resources but then you can't do anything really all you can do once you have the complete basic economic base is sending streams of units to the enemy since you have no more population as space to expand further. You can't use you economic power expand further and thus build more units because simply there is not the cap limit all you can do is watch slowly the soldiers be trained and I mean slowly because it is a process that is even slower then in the originals. But in the original games it didn't matter because there was always some economic concern that would keep you busy even when you were waiting on the units to be trained. Basically Settlers 6 is a crippled version of the original series just like Settlers 5. If you are looking to play some old school settlers I suggest playing 2, 3 or 4 all three are good and all three can be played on XP and Vista.
The Graphics are ok and fully 3D but then again if you have nothing to do then even staring at pretty graphics seems awfully dull.
Atmosphere is lost completely and as for AI and Balance well those both don't really matter since you are basically playing a RTS with unit limit, which is slow paced but still C&C/Dawn of War style. So basically you send hordes of units against each other and then do that until one has build the wrong type of units/defenses and the other can actually begin damaging the opponents lair and which point the game is almost over.
The interface is very simple in fact it is so simple that you don't even have to think to do anything...since the little things that you can do are brightly advertised and all the player has to do is click the big button to which for some reason no arrows a pointing but bright colours do the trick just the same.
It is a lot like playing AOE3 utterly boring the game itself has nothing really to offer to the player. The pace is to slow to make the combat interesting and to uneventful to make it worth the wait. Basically you will end up staring at some town in the middle ages then to eventually only watch the soldiers fight in old settlers tradition.

The Score:
Gameplay 3/10 You click some bright buttons and the rest is on auto-pilot.
AI 1/10 AI...yeah well it has way to much control basically the game is a self contained AI.
Graphic 4/10 YAY 3D RTS...wait old news nothing really outstanding here either.
Storyline 4/10 OK Story...but how many players play RTS games only for the story?
Sound 2/10 Pretty uneventful and like the general game dull.
Balance 1/10 Yes it is so balanced that you can send troops against each other for hours...to no effect.
Atmosphere 2/10 Atmosphere...oh you mean that thing from the old settlers games? Yeah that is gone.
Interface 3/10 So simple that a four year old could play this game sleeping...and still win...
Design 5/10 Design is decent.
Overall:2.7/10

Final word
Settlers 6 is another proof that good preceding titles do not make a good successor, like settlers 5 it is not really a settlers game and very boring at the same time. If you feel like banging your head on your desk, staring paint dry or even at a blank screen...grass grow etc. then Settlers 6 might be an alternative but I' am sure you can find something better to do with your time then that. So overall Settlers 6 is definitely one of the worst RTS games I have ever played.

Want a review off something specific submit a Review request per e-mail or leave a response at the latest review.Review Rules

Mass Effect (PC) Review

Mass Effect is a third person shooter with a strong RPG component. It is a strong one track storyline it does allows for some variations along the way bot overall does not alot off deviation. The Gameplay is very direct, but the vehicle portion is very sluggish and at times uncomfortable. While you are playing with colleague AIs they do not really help for the most part it plays like a solo-game. The game does allow the user to change gear and modify the gear to some extent.
The AI is generally not as impressive as we have seen in titles like STALKER or Far Cry, but it does give you a decent run for your money. The friendly AI is close to useless because it has a severe waypoint sickness which often fails with the most basic tasks...like leaving an elevator.
There are a lot of videos to tell the story but those are all in-game sequences since the programmers seem to have had the wish that the costume gear could always be seen. Which is how the rendered videos were lost...
The Graphic is very unimpressive neither it nor the physics engine have big points that have to be mentioned. The game does not suffer under said graphic it is adequate and allows even a slower PC to run the game. I explain the lack of high level textures and physics with a Console release, I suspect that EA did not want to do two sets of graphics. So they set out to let the PC run with console graphic. This decision only stands out when the camera is zoomed in close to something in a video when you can see how low the textures are, and if you look at the faces of the characters.
The storyline is definitely one of Mass Effects major strong points, it is quite intriguing and allows for some immersion. A nice degree of detail is supplied and it does have a good means of telling, there are also several smaller side stories which provide background and sometimes just fun. However the overall storyline is very linear, we have seen some games trying on player directed endings in some games. But generally most games are still based on a strict storyline which does not deviate whatever you may want to do.
Sound effects in combat are adequate, all conversations are spoken and subtitles are rare considering the volume of speech that is a lot background chatter as well as every conversation that the character has. This makes the it far more interesting to play Mass Effect.
The game balance is acceptable, it often tends to lean on the player's side and makes it very easy to complete missions. However this guarantees progress for players and limits the time invested in running around without knowing what to do to move on or simply dying over and over again without finding away to complete some impossible mission. Mostly because there is nothing hard about completing these missions.
The Atmosphere in Mass Effect is good it emerges the player in the story and makes the game almost addicting while playing it through.
The interface is rather simple everything is provided in tips and information to the user you can always ask some AI what now? And they will tell you, the interface itself is mouse based. Conversations as well as combat and movement are mostly done via mouse the keyboard provides little help.
The General game design is quite good, while playing Mass Effect I was reminded off Tron 2.0 also a good game for Shooter/RPG marriages which had a good storyline and interesting characters as well as a intriguing universe.
Overall Mass Effect is a game worth playing.

The Score:
Gameplay 7/10 Generally decent gameplay but sometimes just odd. As well as bad control off vehicles.
AI 4/10 Enemy AI is decent but the allies are plain horrible.
Graphic 6/10 It looks a bit old but its EA so what do you expect they cut cost where they can.
Storyline 10/10 Great Story.
Sound 7/10 Voice for all characters, in combat the sounds seem a bit flat or miss a few shots here and there.
Balance 6/10 To easy most of the time.
Atmosphere 7/10 Pretty good, but suffers under graphic and sound as well as balance issues.
Interface 6/10 Generally good but there are somethings that are not ideal.
Design 8/10 Quite good design wise they did come up with some interesting things at this front.
Overall:6.7/10

Final word
I would say that Mass Effect is a good game providing around 12 hours off solid solo playing and fun. After that you will most likely be hunting achievements or have stopped playing the game. Mass Effect mostly gleams with its strong storyline. The learning curve is under an hour so it will take no time to pick it up.

Want a review off something specific submit a Review request per e-mail or leave a response at the latest review.Review Rules

Top Lan Games

All of the Games included are non-MMOs all of these games also support TCP-IP.

1. Battlefield 1942 and 2
2. Starcraft
3. Settlers 3 and 4
4. Diablo 2
5. 1701 A.D. (Anno 1701 as well as 1604)
6. AOE 2

Review Request Rules

It has to be a game which is already released. It should also be a PC-Game, I can review some Xbox/360 and Gamecube as well as N64-Games however beyond that I do not have access to more systems. I will also only review one game a day.

The reviews I will keep basic explaining weaknesses and strengths of a game as well as giving it a score. The criterias area: Gameplay, AI, Graphic, Storyline, Sound, Balance, Atomsphere, Interface, Design.

Vegatrainism an excercise...

Vegetarianism and Veganism seems to be really a futile exercise in ignorance and/or hypocrisy. Now let me explain, Vegans and Vegetarians say that it is bad to eat animals for reasons of how they are kept before being eaten and of course the eating itself. Now Vegans go so far as to not even eat animal products whats how ever without realizing that is nearly impossible.
Firstly the keeping, the keeping is not only to make the feeding/milking and subsequent slaughter easier but also it allows direct access to by-products for example cows provide a great deal of shit which is used to fertilize fields. This accounts for most animals of great seize which are kept in closed quarters.
Of course the Vegetarian extremists the Vegan is a contradiction on two legs, they don't eat anything stemming from animals, almost no sweets...well most of those apply to the Vegetarians to because many gummies as well as some chocolates are made with animal tissues. Now they don't eat honey, eggs or milk. How is that an issue? Well, honey comes from bees as is commonly known but they do not only produce honey they also pollinate fruit farms in the process allowing them to grow apples, oranges etc. As a matter of fact all farms that grow something that needs to pollinated need a great number of bees to insure quick pollination. The kind of numbers you could only achieve with the help of bee farms. So in keeping with not eating honey they also shouldn't eat any food pollinated by those bees in captivity. The same of course accounts for all farms which once or more a year fertilize with animal excrement's, but this would apply again to all Vegetarians.
Overall the fact is that in today's food production the elements are interdependent, and you can barely eat any food if you were really serious about not being cruel to animals or insects...this brings me to a last point. Almost all farms use barriers and several chemicals to protect their crops this harms animals nearby who get caught in the netting's of fruit farms or who simply inhale or eat food covered with the named chemicals which would mean that you can't eat good 99% of crops grown either...
So how does this track with being against animal cruelty, or protecting animals in the end all they do is not eating them harming or even killing them all the same though.

Alignment

Today what do we do as first order of the day? We align ourselves with something, a brand or idea maybe some stars/starlets on the way? We do not develop our own ideas we simply assimilate the ideas which we are confronted with since who would want to be different being different in a herd society is bad after all. We want to know what the stars do since our own lives are not exiting enough. We follow stars and starlets we want to know all their secrets today its almost normal to know everything about those whom you are a fan off. Then again the origin of the word Fan comes from Fanatic the Fanatic could also be called extremist. Now then why do we life in a world were extremism is all that we know? If religious, political, economic or simply listening to music. We consume not only the art we consume the artist we consume everything if alive or dead as long as it entertains and as long as it feeds that hunger that can never be satisfied the need to belong to a group. A group that consists only because of an obsession with something or other but why is that so? Why does the human need to create these extreme groups which inevitably cause friction with other groups. Soccer and music Fans are great examples and they often enough cause riots. They will fight with the other side's fans just because they do not share they view of which team is better. But why have things that trivial become that central to our world. Now of course some will say religion is more important then a sport but realistically they are on equal footing they respective fans are willing to fight and even kill those who do not share their view.
Could it be that today we are unable to actually see a true difference between people so we align ourselves along more and more artificial lines. Lines based on anything to create a new herd to belong to something to be with something to be part off if its the fan club for some star or that for some religion is entirely unimportant as long as we do so right? Why not fight each other on some other ridiculous ground? Since as long as our life focus on something on anything really as long as that is center is provided everything is alright...isn't?

The truths

Here are a three of Parodies regarding the fun side of some of the next generation of computing and gaming.

Soldiers

War, a most unpopular issue. We often complain about war but what do we do about it? I can remember the stories of Veterans returning from Vietnam and Iraq and many other wars or from North Korea and Afghanistan to include non-US armed forces. These stories often include that the people blamed the soldiers to for the war. Now that is a bit odd considering that soldiers join for many reasons however very few do so with the declared goal of killing people they never met before. Most want to defend they nation or don't see another way out of their situation be it social, educational or a career. Others want to be trained to respond and serve not just to defend the nation but also to respond in emergencies, since the armed forces are among the first to respond to catastrophies which exceed the regional capacities. (Bushfires excluded)
If anyone would be to blame for a War its the people who did not stop their government and the government which includes many people who never wore a uniform and don't really know what they send their soldiers into. While the Military/Intelligence complex prepares for contingencies it does not mean that they wish to fight wars but rather want to be prepared and ready. I have heard of many wars or military decisions which were made against the advise of the military leaders. Soldiers are the ones who are also wronged not only the people of an attacked nation, we have to remember that while soldiers swear to fight and defend for a country they also expect to be used for those purposes only.
If their trust is violated then are these soldiers not equally victims?
They however can not dissobey because of what they agreed to, which is them being soldiers it lies with the people of their respective countries to insure that soldiers are not used in any wrong manner which would violate their trust in their government and the people. Blaming a soldier for serving is not fair considering that they may want to protect their country but once they are soldiers then they have no choice but to obey.

Shopping?!

We by now buy extreme amounts of anything and everything. However how is that connected to some of the current world issues? For example Pirating is a reaction to this we are told to have the music, movies and games as well as books. However we are also limited financially, so if want everything does consumerism not encourage hacking and pirating because we simply 'WANT' if not even 'NEED' all these many things. Adds are everywhere and we are also taught as children that we 'WANT' or 'NEED' these things. Why not spend a christmas without spending obsene amounts of money. Simply spending time together as family? No instead its one of the shopping frenzy times. We associate products and objects with love and feelings which are not really existend.
Owning is something that we think we need today and to have movies and the stream off entertainment. You want to fit in and thus you watch the movies and shows also buy the 'IN' things.
Many people today are actually clinically addicted to buying things. Even though North America is one of the few areas without officially denying this clinical addiction. Objects and entertainment are dominating our daily lifes more and more overriding actual interpersonal relations and interaction.

WoW Patch release

Blizzard released the 2.4 Patch. This as always shows how popular and impacting WoW has been on the online community. Within hours the support websites which allow access to the add-ons we over stretched in terms of their bandwidth and collapsed. Players and small companies spent enormous amounts of energy in this virtual world. Add-Ons which make the game different allowing more access to more information at once, companies trying to make money with advertisement on their sides because supplying WoW add-ons will guarantee many hits. Other companies try the less legal but faster way of selling services in-game for real-world money such as 'power-leveling' of characters and their professions as well as selling virtual money to the players for real money.
But what does all of this mean for the real world and economy does this mean that we can create something completely artificial and people would buy it even if they could only benefit from it when using a specific game? There are by now many MMORPGs out there many of them use a interesting method which allows the player to buy a certain made up in-game currency for real money some others offer bazaars where game money can be exchanged for time cards with other players. The amount of money flowing through MMORPGs has grown to an enormous amount but what does this mean for our way of living? Are those people who play these games to such an extent people who are trying to make a living or attempting to escape from reality? Are our real lifes to boring to un-engaging that a virtual world seems so much more enticing? Over all many who never played these games wonder "What makes these games and any PC/Console games so attractive to so many people?" But ultimately one has to see these games in context, there are many games which we have created in the past and MMORPGs as well as other less engaging games are really nothing else but the next step of this. For example chess, there are chess champions in the world those are people who do nothing but train playing chess. Essentially playing games is the same as playing chess or playing a team-sport. It exercises and challenges the player in different way however it is a artificially created challenge which is to be over come. And this overcoming of the challenge is exactly what makes these games so interesting and in some cases addicting.

Are you ok?

I was asked by one of my professors recently 'Are you ok?'. I of course answered the standardized 'Yes'. I left his office a short time later and considered this what does actually mean to be 'OK'? Does it mean to have money is it a certain state of being; could it be that just being happy is this being 'OK'? I continued and wondered on if being ok is what we want. Then wouldn't everyone have to know what 'OK' in that case means? The challenge at this point of course would be the question of standards what is that elusive 'OK' standard? Could it simply be that it is a state of peace a state in which we do not question ourselves as strongly? The challenge most young adults face these days is the question 'What do I want to do?' We have all seen the news articles saying that todays youth has it hard because everything has already been done and discovered; but is that really true? I mean ultimately we face new set of challenges today we still have ignorance and prejudice doing damage everywhere we look. Today's challenges are the challenges of a modern age. We can still fight for freedom; just now we fight for freedom of information and thought. We can fight to protect the environment which seems to be tethering near the brink of collapse. We can discover ways to life in symbiosis and learn to understand the rest of the planet. We still know less about the sea life the we do about the nearest solar-bodies. But in all of this information flooding at us what does it mean to be 'OK'? In the modern world we are told that we should do this and that is that what allows to be 'OK'? Is being OK being in a good financial standing? Is it happiness? Is it being content? Is it a positive mixture of everything?
For me personally I would say that being 'OK' stands for being anywhere from content to happy. However instead of answering such questions in a state of trance why not consider what it means? Maybe think 'Am I really OK?' 'Are you OK?' is not a simple question as it seems but rather a very meaningful question which common use and conversation does not receive any or only little consideration.

What is our reality

The question came up when I was watching 'A Dinner with Andre', what is reality? We create such a great amount of our environment but is that good? We have certain odd standards which seem to distort our interaction with people, habit becoming a way off life. For example teachers and professors create this collection of information and repeat the course again and again after they did it once. They know when to make jokes and know already what to say at the beginning of the year. The average human in western society lifes in a dreamworld created by others we do not try to be within our environment but simply choose to enjoy while not even attempting to break out of this dreamworld. How many people break out of habits? How many people really attempt to see something they do not see? Most people today are filled with apathy and disinterest in actually taking actions. We might as well call the modern man who lifes in a dreamworld the sleeping man, they do not attempt to do something different. People use heating, and other tools to distance themselves from the environment and reality by doing so the times of the years become less and less impacting.
What causes the continuous boredom of people these days? Watching TV? The living after the rule of money? Talking about leaving a city or place but never doing so?
For example just ask yourself the question 'What actually affect me?'

Blizzard

Blizzard is seemingly working over time, Blizzard released a new Starcraft 2 Trailer which now reveals the Zerg with the help of a in-game trailer.
And here it is.


There is also a new Trailer for the 2.4 Patch which is going to come in the near future. Which shows the areas and dungeon.

Music Videos | Kapa’a-Wailua vacation rentals | mp3 music

And of course the already known but always popular LK Trailer.

Free Speech

Free Speech has been a hot topic ever since the first conflicts between religious groups mostly. Some joke or idea is brought forward which then offends the other side. The best recent example is still the incident with the Comic coming from the Danish newspapers criticizing the Muslim extremists. This has of course triggered a wave of attacks and threats against that newspaper originating from the Muslim camp, many of those threats probably came from that very extremist camp however there is one issue that is often silenced to death in that matter. Western culture is build on the believe that Free Speech is a fundamental right and as such we are free to say anything anywhere because that is the right we have and many of our ancestors have fought and died for it. Is there any reason to castrate such a right? If we limit Free Speech then its not really Free Speech any longer is it? It becomes Free Speech within these boundaries and if you happen to leave these boundaries then you are in a no-man's land and can be punished for venturing there. However what is more important is were the criticisms coming from both sides in the form of comics right or wrong? The Comics coming from Denmark dealt with the hypocrisy of these extremists who do these killings in the name of a religion and they points were valid and good. The same can be counted for the points made against Christianity by the counter comics coming from the Muslim newspapers a few days later. Neither of them were telling lies and I can't recall many Christians getting worked up over the Muslim comics depicting Christ in same questionable actions. And how do we know that it wasn't only the extremists, the ones doing the bombing and the ones criticized by the comics who screamed and threatened. They after all are the loudest but they do not represent more then a fraction of the people following the Muslim faith. If now you argue 'Well yes, but how do we know who?'. Well we don't but neither did we of those who were in IRA or the members of German terror groups or KKK, etc there have always been many extremist groups with different aims and goals however if we start prosecuting the people or the faith they come from then we are no better then they. We are doing them a favor by creating the new meat for their recruiting, Free Speech is not just a tool for criticism its also a tool to allow us to understand another side, and maybe see similarity instead of some small differences between people. After all isn't that what many things we do to day focus on? Free Speech is after all one of the core believes in Western culture and society.

Advanced Education

Advanced Education that what every 'proper' young adult should desire. Is somewhat questionable, this education mostly consists of reading certain pre-selected materials, then a professor most regularly explains to the students what they just read, of course that presumes that the student did not engage sufficiently with the material on their own or lacked the ability to understand it. So instead of allowing the student to engage with the material and work with it in a discussion the professor explains what they read and not more. There are of course exceptions from that rule however the overwhelming number of courses does indeed consist of this. I of course refer mostly to humanities related courses. The question in this finally then is if the student can read on their own and if the professor reiterates exactly what the students have read then can they not read on their own for what do they need the professor if the student can read the material on their own and comprehend its meaning. Then would it not mean that ultimately the professor serves a control function and not one of allowing free intellectual growth. Can such control and limitation as well as slowing down of the intellectual growth, wouldn't that lead to stunted growth and limitation of the intellectual independence.

Beating a dead horse

Beating a dead horse seems to be a fun activity people do it all the time everywhere. There is not a seconds hesitation to revive a discussion which has been long dead. For me personally I compare it to beating a Piñata for ten hours and still not being done, sure at first its new and fun you get to beat with a stick on this horse like (or other animal likeness) object thats hanging down, but after ten minutes you begin to wonder what really is in there yet you can't crack that darned shell, two hours later you begin cursing and just want that damned thing to open so that you can have those sweets that are supposed to be hidden in there. After five hours you are frustrated maybe a bit tired and have stopped cursing two hours ago, but you don't stop because now you don't want to waste those previous five hours, at ten you finally breach the Piñata's hard shell and find absolutly nothing because this Piñata had a very thick skin and thus no space for sweets.
All that the beating of the dead horse can bring is the same as this Piñata which would be a waste of time and energy as well as the often occurring frustration which appears at the end of such a futile act.
So why in god's name would you ever want to engage in something that you know will only result in those things and end up with the same or similar conclusion as the one previously available?

John Yoo...NARG

Now John Yoo is known to pretty much any person who reads the news and if you are not one of them Yoo bashing is in. Now of course I had traced that event to his book, but honestly considering the bashing I decided it wouldn't require me to join in. Well that was until one of my professors told us to read Yoo...I did not get past page 17. Now why was that? Simple really reading Yoo makes you feel as follows: You just came home to realize that your girlfriend/wife left you with your best friend, you house just burned down and your mother and brother(s)/sister(s) got hit by the bus all at the same time, your dog died while trying to eat a squeaky toy just seconds before your arrival and the house burned down as you arrived, the car was in the garage (thats what you get for walking) your friend chose your best friend and your girlfriend/wife over you and have excommunicated you and any other relative you might have had died in accidents as well. I would say that about sums up the negative effect of the first 17 pages. I would have insisted on a sticker stating 'Read this on your own discretion suicide may result out of reading this material.' But now instead of bashing the horse further I will bash the book, of course as always as I' am human in concept I might be mistaken, while that rarely occurs it does occur. And as such you can as always post and point out how horrifically wrong and lost I' am.
If I tell you to take a hike then don't take it personal its simply that I know that I' am right and you are not if I do that...well ok I like to believe that I consider the other sides points. But Yoo is pushing it and his book is something that should come with a nurse of the suicide ward just to make sure.
Now I will go down through those horrifying 17 first pages point by point and say what I think is wrong in them.

1. The title is completely wrong he called the book 'War by Other Means' now after those pages I would say it should be called 'War by Any Means' because that is what it promotes in those pages. (He might contradict everything he says in those pages in the rest of the book but honestly there is only so much I can take of that book.)

2. He claims in the introduction that Alexendar Hamilton, or rather uses a quote of Madison's to claim, that Hamilton was a Anti-Republic Pro-Democrat, but as far as I can recall Hamilton is a Pro-Republican through and through. I would base the quote on the falling out Madison and Hamilton had after writing the Federalist papers.
Considering that the US today is a warped form of the Republic, but yet it still is not a 'through and through' Democracy because that would make any Representation by elected officials unnecessary the people would make every choice directly by voting on any given issue.

3. Then on Page 2 he quotes Joyce Appleby '...Terrorism is a method, not an ideology; terrorists are criminals, nor warriors.' What he fails to address with this quote is why people revert to Terrorism. First Terrorism means that you attack your enemy not with conventional weapons but Terror to achieve your goal. What could Al-Quaeda want? Well they have stated repeatedly that they want those they consider 'Invaders' to leave the Middle East in other words us, the Westerners. Why would they want this? Because they want to handle their own affairs, many countries are not happy with the influence a military base of another country has on a region. For example Germans have often protested and wanted the US bases closed, the reason why that did not go through was because the government was afraid of what might happen economically when the business of those bases left the country. But overall those bases are causing many problems, the locals are boarded out and the Soldiers stationed there do not try to fit in and expect the locals to speak English instead of speaking the local language. The children those soldiers have are often angry at being put in this environment which they do not necessarily like because they want back to their home country. And that anger often is released in vandalism.
I would not be able to name any Terror group who did not have any aim because its a tool only desperate people use if they see no other way out any more. If those who command the soldiers will not listen to you what do you do?

4. Yoo claims that 'War is too important to be the subject of partisan politics.' I would have to answer that it is far to important to not be considered carefully, to not be analyzed by everyone involved to insure that the war is not fought over some pride issue. To attempt to see the other sides view maybe they are right and they are being pushed in a corner and they see no other way out anymore but lashing out at those they see to be the aggressors.

I would like to point out two things here, first the US projects the image of being democratic not a Republic, by doing so every citizen is to blamed as well for the actions of the country. In a democracy the people of the country are part of the decision making process and thus are to blame for any action taken by the government.
Second the US often acts only and purely on self interest ignoring the people who are living in the local area. This causes a certain dislike while at the same time bombarding the world with Hollywood movies showing how good the US citizens have it.

Seeing as I have already written so much I will retain the other points for responding to critics. I had intended to make 30 points and stop there but this is already long enough.

The lost Rebel

The lost Rebel is a pet concept of mine, it refers to the idea that we know that we are supposed to rebel against something just that we have no idea what it is we actually are rebelling against. In today's world we know that rebelling is good, but why and how do you rebel? By buying a product that claims to be rebellious? Well in reality we in this western world do not rebel any longer. It almost seems as if the western population is to old for that now, but not just that maybe to passive too. The trouble is that you are not a rebel by conforming to the system and buying goods, that is not what a rebel does a rebel rebells against the system against the products and tries to sabotage this with the goal to achieve a better environment. Does this mean that we do not have the option off achieving anything better then the system we have now? We have all the luxuries and doesn't that mean that we have the best way of life? We can drive cars instead of walking, we can watch movies and TV instead of thinking but is that really good or is it simply a self-propelling system that doesn't stop until a wrench is thrown in? The last wave of rebellious behavior dates to the hippies, which were the rebells they fought the system but ultimately became part of the system, mending their beliefs to what was needed to life comfortably again. Is a comfortable life all it takes to dissuade all the rebells that this society claims to have?