OPINIONATED?

[Mark Bryan]

That would only be your opinion not a fact and since I'm only interested in facts like for instance the fact that Bush said they had no WMDs.

HELLO,I said they found 500 munitions of sarin and mustard gas which means WMDs WERE found!

[psychocat]

Hey, Psychocat. Off-subject question for a moment, but I want to ask you. Are you a chemist as in pharmacist? Or a research or lab chemist? I'm interested because I occasionally have biochemistry questions (I'm a first-year med student) and would love to find someone who's knowledgeable about medical biochem here in cyberspace. Just trying to find out if that's your area by any chance.

I am a lab chemist mixing up cocktails that are used as specialist coatings for all sorts of things from North Sea oilrigs to fighterplanes. Lots of nice chemicals to play with, lots of them extremely explosive , no smoking at work, last explosion ripped the safety doors off and blew them 40 feet into a wall, damn near demolished it.Lockdown antifire system that locks all the doors 30 seconds after the fire alarm sounds and pumps an inert gas into the building to kill any fire this is why there are loads of exits and oxygen supplies everywhere. Also a very secure terrain.

PS Bush said they weren't there Mark , are you calling George a liar ?

[birdgirl73]

Thanks for replying, Psychocat! Sounds like you play with higher stakes chemicals than a first-year med biochem student. Yikes. I'm sure you already are, but please continue to be very, very careful.

[birdgirl73]

OK, Mark and everyone else. Here's some interesting info that may make this disagreement easier for everyone to take.

The 500 munitions of mustard and sarin? Yep, they were indeed found.

And Bush's remark that there weren't any WMDs found since 2003? Yep, that happened too. The thing is the mustard and sarin munitions were recognized immediately by the inspectors and experts as old, rusty pre-1991 mustard and sarin canisters, precisely the type Saddam used on the Kurds and others Iraqi citizens his Ba'ath Party went after, but definitely not what the inspectors were looking for to indicate evidence of a continuing WMD program after the end of the first Gulf War. It was that last part there, the continuing program after 1991 or 92, that Bush II predicated the invasion of Iraq on. And that's why Bush willingly admitted they didn't find what they were looking for. The old canisters they did find still prove that Saddam was both a liar (he said there weren't any weapons at all) and a brutal killer of his own people, at least the ethnic minorites he didn't like.

Here are two reasonably objective pieces about these two different parts of the story in case you're interested:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200499,00.html
http://www.csm.ornl.gov/PR/PR2004/NS-07-12-04.html

[graymatter]

Nice, Birdgirl. How the heck do you have time for this stuff?

I still disagree with "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" argument. If Saddam built viable WMD, the last thing he would do is ship them to Syria... OR Iran. He wasn't the brightest bulb on the dictator planet, and he always assumed we wouldn't go directly after him.

If that's the case why strengthen your regional enemies?

[birdgirl73]

Hey, Gray, my friend. I only have time for it because I can write and type as fast as I can think. And I can research facts just slightly less quickly. All those many years of speechwriting for a living. Otherwise, I'd be hosed. Completely relegated to being a science bookworm-nerd. And nothing else.

Also today's my 45th birthday, and so I'm rebelling against the "establishment" of my current priorities and researching and writing about what I want to. . . .After a big dinner and a glass and a half of wine, politics here seems more compelling.

How're you? And please tell me candidly if you or any of your late-40s contemporaries truly do find women in their mid-40s attractive? I want to know if my husband and our neighbors have been lying to me this evening. If I've been lying to myself. . . .

[graymatter]

How're you? And please tell me candidly if you or any of your late-40s contemporaries truly do find women in their mid-40s attractive? I want to know if my husband and our neighbors have been lying to me this evening. If I've been lying to myself. . . .

Hey, thanks, I've been working my ass off lately.

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I find women with gray (not borrowed from my pen, and not assuming you are) extremely sexy. In any event, please don't cover it up when it comes.

[birdgirl73]

That's reassuring to me. Thank you. Thank you for saying that.

Yes, I've got some gray. I let just a tad show through at the temples. It fortunately looks somewhat like highlights where it is. I confess I do pay money to have it disguised in other places, like on top of my head.

[graymatter]

My girlfriend does that, too.

Quick story.

My ex-wife "admired" my best friends brother because of his full and long gray hair. He was 25, we were nearly 40 (age discrepency only, nothing happened there).

[Mark Bryan]

PS Bush said they weren't there Mark , are you calling George a liar ?

NO! BOTH sides said there WERE,but then didn't find any until recently through intel sources. I heard it on Boortz radio and the Sean Hannity show! That's what I'm updatin' YOU on!