[mos6507]

When this happened in Baghdad everyone blamed the US rather than the people who did it. This time they've got nobody to blame but themselves.

[SeaGypsy]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/01/30/3124994.htm

2 hours ago in Cairo, the police have withdrawn, the army is effectively under popular control.
Cairo is in near gridlock. Buildings on fire all over the place. Nobody putting them out.
Leadership vacuum. How long will it last?

[Sixstrings]

Turns out some of the Tut treasures were smashed / stolen:

Devastating footage from Al Jazeera posted on Twitter and Flickr now shows significant damage and destruction in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Some of these images can be found at these sites. The footage appears to show wooden statues from the tomb of Tutankhamun with the gilded figure of the king ripped from the smashed bases. Images below show the statues in their original state, and their current condition:

It is an incredibly sad state of affairs as we await news of the full extent of this destruction of history.
UPDATE: I’ve now identified the smashed wooden boat as also belonging to the tomb of Meseti at Asyut (Cairo 4918). It’s one of the largest model boats in existence and it dates to approximately 2000BC, so over it’s 4000 years old. Very sad.
Here’s a photo of it from it’s original publication back in 1913, but you can also follow this link to see a photo of it as it looked in the museum.
http://www.eloquentpeasant.com/2011/01/29/statues-of-tutankhamun-damagedstolen-from-the-egyptian-museum/

This statue of Tut on a panther was smashed to bits, the upper portion apparently stolen:

[Cog]

If you are a Jew...

Why are you constantly trying to finger Jewish posters? Give it a rest.

Pretorian does serve at least one function. For the majority of the posters here, we will always have at least one person to be superior to.

[Pretorian]

If you are a Jew...

Why are you constantly trying to finger Jewish posters? Give it a rest.

Not constantly, but when somebody suggests that Israel problems are everyone else's problems , somebody just gotta grab his payots and pull him in the open.

[Cog]

Are you on any medication the rest of us should know about?

[SeaGypsy]

Pretorian is our resident Devil's advocate, the least PC of all. Medication unnecessary.

[Pretorian]

Actually, my wife said she thought I was the Anticrist himself shortly after we married. (Now, she knows.) Which is very flattering, considering how much slaughter and gore Christianity brought to this world. Considering that original Jesus Christ is boiled in feces at the moment, and will remain there for the rest of eternity (according to Talmud), I must be on a right way. According to Talmud, anyway.

[mos6507]

Not constantly, but when somebody suggests that Israel problems are everyone else's problems , somebody just gotta grab his payots and pull him in the open.

In other words, the only way anybody could possibly be pro-Israel is if they were Jewish? After all, everyone knows how evil they are, so you can't be on their side unless you are ONE OF THEM.

[rangerone314]

Not constantly, but when somebody suggests that Israel problems are everyone else's problems , somebody just gotta grab his payots and pull him in the open.

In other words, the only way anybody could possibly be pro-Israel is if they were Jewish? After all, everyone knows how evil they are, so you can't be on their side unless you are ONE OF THEM.

You always have the American right-wing fundies (the same people who's cousins were burning crosses on black lawns) who think they got their marching orders from God, and that God has ordained them to support Israel against those dirty Arabs who rip us off with oil.

Racism all around.

I don't think we should support the Arabs OR the Israelis. A pox on them all.

[vision-master]

The Hebrews are revealing themselves.

[rangerone314]

I think that we should give Israel enough military aid to conquer all the Middle East.

Then they can castrate the surviving Muslim men who they think would be useful harem-eunuchs, and each Israeli man could have a hundred Muslim female concubines/sex-slaves, be like King Solomon in the good old days.

Why not? After all, Israel's claims (and their Jesus-loving supporters) are based on the Biblical writings, so why not just go back to the morality of that time?

[americandream]

The US should support Mubarak and encourage him to use his military to crush the protests now before they get out of hand. Having a stable dictatorship is in the US's best interest rather than the unpredictable actions of a mob.

This is as stupid as the containment that drove apartheid policy. Eventually, YOU will be overwhelmed by sheer weight of those whom you seek to exploit for personal gain. What's left will hardly be worth bothering over.

[pedalling_faster]

i talked to an Egyptian American friend last night. she is a programmer in Silicon Valley. her family lives outside of Egypt, so they're in no immediate danger.

she says what's happening is a good thing, in general (not referring to the destruction of antiquities).

basically, Mubarak is an American & Israel-backed dictator, not unlike the Shah of Iran.

and ... the people want democracy.

of course, it might cost us. i don't think they will shut down the Suez canal forever, but Jesus, if they even shut it down for a month ...

[Pretorian]

Not constantly, but when somebody suggests that Israel problems are everyone else's problems , somebody just gotta grab his payots and pull him in the open.

In other words, the only way anybody could possibly be pro-Israel is if they were Jewish? After all, everyone knows how evil they are, so you can't be on their side unless you are ONE OF THEM.

Generally, worldwide, that is the case (I know that non-religious Jews and part-Jews dont want to consider themselves Jewish, but goys tend to disagree). In US and I guess Canada you can also find a few religious sects that support Israel as well, as rangerone noted above.
But obviously if you look deep enough , pro-Israel position is not that bad at all, as many should and would prefer to have your folks overthere, than overhere, no matter what they do with aborignes, and most of the usual Israel/Jew poking is for nothing but entertainment value.

[mos6507]

A little reading I know you won't do.

[Pretorian]

and ... the people want democracy.

yes, because sniveling liers are so much better

[vision-master]

A little reading I know you won't do.

lsol Journey to the Center of the Mind

[Revi]

I can't see how they could get a democratic election held in less than a month. That is if the present government walks away peacefully. Meanwhile chaos reigns. Or the present government reasserts itself at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. Whatever happens there will be at least a month of anarchy, and possible disruption of the Suez canal and the pipeline that carries over a million barrels a day to the Mediterranean. Either way it ain't gonna be pretty. There were protests in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and a hundred protesters were arrested, so it could spread to the oil countries.

[dorlomin]

I can't see how they could get a democratic election held in less than a month.

They already have a quasi democratic system with regular votes, the system is rigged by disqualifying people and vote tampering.

It is a relatively small step from there to a free election.

What the protesters want is for Mubarak to stand down as president and a transitional cabinet in place that includes people outside the ruling clique.

Or the present government reasserts itself at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

The army is a conscript army, there is likely to be a big push back from many units on a hard crackdown. This is part of the reason why whent he police could not act the government seemed powerless.

They have called in elite units, but the reading of the situation is even these are not willing to turn on the people yet.

Whatever happens there will be at least a month of anarchy, and possible disruption of the Suez canal and the pipeline that carries over a million barrels a day to the Mediterranean.

The Suez does not affect the US and is more about trinkets from China to Europe than the oil, but if the Suez is closed it simpley adds a week or so to the journey round the Cape.