I read somewhere that part of it was the shame of being harassed by a female.

Here's hoping that kind of excitement for democracy is contagious. And, more selfishly, that it reinfects us.

And it worked, too. Almost immediately, he was no longer being harassed by the government.

And during that year, Obama voted "present".

Friskya: And it worked, too. Almost immediately, he was no longer being harassed by the government.

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

It's almost as if revolutions only succeed when they rise from the ground up, rather than being imposed from the top down. I wonder if America has anything to learn from this. Hmmmm....

And now it's the coolest new trend among teens.

Relatively Obscure: Here's hoping that kind of excitement for democracy is contagious. And, more selfishly, that it reinfects us.

You should probably feel a little shame for comparing the lack of human rights, and voting freedom in the rest of the world to the situation in the western world which is at worst democratic republics tainted by elite greed. Of course it should be noted that the greed of the top 10% ,which is the middle class anymore, directs the economic vigor of america(at least) into things like better private education and higher industrial technology. If you allowed the bottom 30% to determine the direction of our efforts it would likely result in comfy-er couches and a crack cigarette that provides a complete days nutrition.

RIP, Mohamed.

archichris: Relatively Obscure: Here's hoping that kind of excitement for democracy is contagious. And, more selfishly, that it reinfects us.

You should probably feel a little shame for comparing the lack of human rights, and voting freedom in the rest of the world to the situation in the western world which is at worst democratic republics tainted by elite greed. Of course it should be noted that the greed of the top 10% ,which is the middle class anymore, directs the economic vigor of america(at least) into things like better private education and higher industrial technology. If you allowed the bottom 30% to determine the direction of our efforts it would likely result in comfy-er couches and a crack cigarette that provides a complete days nutrition.

I might, if that's what I was talking about/doing at all, which I wasn't.

Rapmaster2000: EnviroDude: And during that year, Obama voted "present".

This! And I would like to add that these people were only inspired to achieve freedom from the vision of our last TRUE Commander in Chief George W Bush who deposed the Secret Iraqi Muslim Usurper Saddam HUSSEIN. Without the leadership of this brilliant Texan, those people would never have gotten the idea to achieve freedom.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I thought it was because Saddam was an asshole and it was about time someone had the balls to trash his pretty little army and the moral fortitude to be maligned at every step of the way. While giving the Iraqis people a gift of about a trillion dollars in economic improvements at the cost of a hundred thousand lives. Now that sounds terrible until you consider that if China wanted to economically improve a portion of countryside the size of Iraq, that the death toll would be about 300,000 people without a single bullet fired in combat. Heck, you cannot even build a dam or skyscraper without your insurance actuarial insisting that you insure against a minimum number of workplace deaths.

Every human endeavor has a real cost in human lives, both immediate and long term. Freedom of choice for women for instance has had a cost of 20 Million children per year since inception. The environmental movement is responsible at a minimum for 2 million deaths by malaria annually due to their efforts to block pesticides.

In light of those numbers, the total death toll from US sponsored military actions in the Bush presidency are barely a rounding error. So while you are computing the cost benefit of war versus the cost benefit of choice for women or a world free from pesticides, be sure to do it with an open mind for real numbers.

Rapmaster2000: archichris: a crack cigarette that provides a complete days nutrition.

That is a million dollar idea. You should patent that.

Im not an evil dictator.

I think that a bag of microwave popcorn that provides 1/3 of a days nutrition, distributed by free vending machines that pop it before dispensing it is a much more humane and inexpensive solution.

One year ago, it all started in Tunisia with a 26 year old setting himself on fire to protest Government harassment

Five years from now, it will have collapsed in upon itself in Egypt with a bunch of 60-year-old mullahs ordering the bulldozing of the Valley of the Kings to protest the existence of basic human dignity anywhere people don't stop what they're doing five times a day to prostrate themselves in the general direction of Mecca.

Hitchens is dead now, and somebody better pick up that torch of his.

Is the candle still lit? Probably has been put out.

I honestly hope the people get what they want.

/been to Tunisia

Flaming Tunisians are cool.