Do you FEEL safer?
 

Last night's Frontline aired "Rumsfeld's War" on PBS. When Rumsfeld could not get his invasion of Iraq with only 50,000 men, then he eliminated those who represented the Army's best interests including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Sec of the Army and the JAG Corp. Back then, was a need for at least 230,000 men for at least two years. Rumsfeld would not concede to even that minimal amount.

Important was that the US would have a 'honeymoon' to get the country working again. If not accomplished in that honeymoon period, then only bad things would happen in-country. The George Jr administration refused to plan for the peace - so the war never ended. But then even Sze Tzu taught that in 500 BC.

Rumsfeld somehow felt that 50,000 troops all put in Baghdad would be sufficient to create peace in a 6,500,000 city. Somehow, with less men than the NYPD, he would secure all of Iraq (his logic was that obviously flawed). Somehow if 50,000 US troops occupied only Baghdad, then peace and prosperity would break out all over Iraq. As for looting nationwide, Rumsfeld complains that one boy repeatedly shown looting a vase does not constitute nationwide looting. He was that much removed from reality because his political agenda was more important.

So out of touch were the neo-cons that they disbanded the Iraqi Army and Police even as nationwide disorder continued. Even in the Cellar, many outrightly denied it was that bad - the press must be liars. Extremist rhetoric remains despite reality. Did he really think 50,000 would maintain law and order?

Well understood: the military is overstretched, with 20 of 33 combat brigades deployed at any time. Not sustainable which is why troops are even under stop-loss orders. Even when their tour is up, they still must remain in the service (in part because recruitment is now at an all time low). Just like in Nam, an unjustified war without a smoking gun undermines the military.

Well understood was that miles of munition dumps and sophisticated equipment remained unguarded for a year+. Numerous buildings containing sophisticated equipment to make nuclear weapons were simply removed during this period. Where is that nuclear bomb making equipment? No one knows. The UN was not permitted back into Iraq after the US invasion - under orders of this administration. US military ignored UN warnings about that equipment. Now that equipment is in the hands of what new nuclear power? Do you feel safer knowing this is how the George Jr administration makes decisions? Could any other president be more incompetant? Not likely.

Another facility contained 380 tons of various high explosives for making nuclear bombs. Is this material in hands of a new nuclear power or are these materials killing Americans daily? Having not provided sufficient troops, the honeymoon is long over. Eighty insurgent attacks occur every day. And still many munition dumps remain unguarded.

But the US denies this material was there. George Jr administration claimed the material was not there when the 101st arrived. Today, the NY Times exposes another lie from this administration:Even more appalling than the missing explosives and missing nuclear bomb making machines - this administration openly lies but again. They claimed the material was not there - ignoring that they would not even let the UN inspectors verify the site. Tonight, the Russians are again demanding the UN Inspectors be permitted back in Iraq because, obviously, the US cannot be trusted. The US is making the world easier for terrorists?

Let's see. Who in the world is promoting nuclear proliferation? Was it Iraq? Is it the Muslim Brotherhood? No. Those on the suspect list of promoting nuclear proliferation include Pakistan (no mystery there), India (probably has helped Iran build a bomb), and Brazil. Notice every one is suppose to be a US ally. Also on the list are North Korea and Iran because both expect unilateral invasion by the US. Can we blame them if George Jr is president? Why does the US turn a blind eye to real potential threats - which again begs the question what happened to that nuclear bomb making equipment?

Do you feel safer now that such equipment and 300+ tons of high explosives - once in secure facilities - is now distributed somewhere in a black market? Dangerous material out there because George Jr invades Iraq AND refused to provide sufficient troops to win the peace. All this directly traceable to a sitting president who says Kerry is a danger? How much more dangerous could George Jr have made the world?

As if that were not enough, the Frontline report repeats another major fact. On 13 September 2001 in a principles meeting in Camp David, George Jr asked for a vote to invade Iraq in retaliation. If anyone still believes George Jr is an honest man, then stand up to be counted as naive. Even back then, the administration was seeking an excuse to attack Iraq - facts and reality be damned.

Back then, Colin Powell still had enough influence to argue for attacking the real enemy - Afghanistan. However today, Colin Powell has been so marginalized by the neo-cons that he probably will be leaving in months. In an administration that makes decisions based upon ideology rather than facts; that uses lies to justify their agenda; that even tried to get us into a shooting war with China over a silly spy plane; obviously Powell has no future with the George Jr administration. If you thought Rumsfeld, Rove, and Cheney were extremists tempered by centrists, then worry. The centrists have been driven out. They even rewrote the rules so that torture would be justified - intentionally hiding that fact from both Powell and Rice until after the fact. Torture at Abu Ghraid is based upon procedures pioneered and in use for years in Guantanamo. But these are honest men who can be trusted to even protect our civil rights?

The George Jr administration is nothing but extremists with an agenda that calls for Pearl Harbor style attacks on Iran and North Korea. Who would even lie again about missing munitions so that we blame anyone but them. Who would even go to war with China over a silly spy plane. Do you really feel safe? See that Frontline report on the internet.

I don't really feel any more or less safe than before in my current location. Well, I guess, you could say a little less safe because the threat is real. But, if I ever wanted to feel completely safe again, I'd just move to Montana.

Yeah, don't let the 200 or so missle silos up there worry you any. No one would bother with THEM, right? Right. http://montanakids.com/db_engine/pre...ntana+Missiles

I can't tell you how pleased I am to hear that Brazil is promoting nuclear proliferation. They may be our allies on paper, but, in reality, they hate our guts. See, there's this litle problem with the thing called the Amazon rain forest which they blame us for - they feel like we have unduely interfered with Brazilian internal policies on that one plus a few zillion other things. Me, I feel VERY safe living near NORAD. I'll never even know what hit me - as easy an out as any.

Good post, TW (as always!). Do I feel safer? No way. I'm generally not the pessimistic type, but it's only a matter of time before something really, really bad happens. Very scary.

tw is insane.

As usual Belmont Club is essential reading.

Actually I feel a growing, and more realistic, fear of my own government as opposed to any other.

I will feel safer when everyone in the whole world no longer wishes to kill me. Because I'm an American. Even Marisa Tomei travels under her Italian passport and who the hell is Marisa Tomei?

I can live far enough from those silos. Or maybe I'll just move to the Northwest Territory....good ol' Northwest Territory.

Defects (also called spin) in that Belmont article. The 3rd ID arrived at that location, fought a small battle with Iraqi forces, and then moved on. Pentagon had a UN list of locations that required special protection. This location appears six times on this list for various reasons - it was that dangerous. But the 3rd ID was moving to Baghdad - never told what was in that facility. 3rd ID never even tried to verify what was in that facility. They had no orders to look so they did not look. A week later, the 101st also was camped overnight at that facility. They too were never told what was in those bunkers. They intentionally made no attempt to learn.

The Pentagon was informed well before the Iraq invasion where critical equipment and materials were stored. Contrary to what many right wing extremists say, the UN really did know where most everything was stored. UN had placed seals on these bunkers. UN told the Pentagon six reasons why this facility was dangerous. The Pentagon did not protect this and apparently did not protect most facilities on that list. Looting resulted. Again - Pentagon had no plans for the peace - as even stated by former Lt Colonel Macgregor (who advocated the fast 50,000 man attack). Even this Colonel is quite critical of how the administration planned for the peace. Administration completely ignoring principles that would make a small attack force successful. Briana - read MacGregor's long interview so that George Jr cannot keep lying to you. The devil is in the details. But you must read them.

Where are the high explosives so necessary to make nuclear bombs? And where are the machines for constructing nukes? When Saddam was under UN inspection, then none of those materials were a threat to the world. America may have made nuclear proliferation easier due to a Bush foreign policy called pre-emption verses the generations proven policy of containment.

Even worse, the administration knew of this problem 2 weeks ago. They are now hustling to spin a response. They had two weeks to interview 101st Airborne and 3rd ID - build a cover story. They did nothing to protect themselves, politically, for two weeks? Competence in the White House is again questioned . Did they really think this and missing nuclear manufacturing equipment would go unnoticed? Apparently, yes. George Jr campaign is not even trying to recruit swing voters to their campaign stops. They need those with an MTV attention span to vote. An MTV reader would be bored by the reality. The George Jr administration fears intelligent people would learn how poorly they ran a war that war.

Competence. The White House had two weeks to prepare spin. Where are facts that don't fall apart as soon as they are spun? For that matter, when do we go looking for bin Laden? Do you feel safer knowing the White House cannot even come up with a good lie after 2 weeks?

Safety changed when George Jr took the White House. Only right wing extremists believe the whole world was always trying to kill Americans. Noted by two engineers, who bicycle through foreign countries. Major change from only four years ago. It is now better to let others believe you are Canadian. Virtually the entire world hates George Jr. An Egyptian friend recently told me, he is having great difficulty explaining this to his friends and family back home: its not Americans who are the problem. It is George Jr. In that last four years, the world went from welcoming Americans most everywhere to disliking Americans. This completely traceable to an anti-humanity George Jr administration who even justifies torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghriad. The mental midget George Jr has made it that dangerous to be American.

Only five years ago, Americans could go most anywhere in the world and be welcome. Do you really feel saver knowing that this president even lies about authorizing torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraid? Please turn off MTV. Learn of a real world out there. BBC World Service is boring - because it reports long details about reality. Only five years ago, Americans could go safely even in most every Middle East country. Now, American soldiers in Korea cannot leave base alone. In four years, even once very friendly Korea became dangerous to Americans. George Jr has made the world that dangerous for all American citizens - because he lies. His supporters claim the world was always that dangerous. They lie out of ignorance and listening to too much Rush Limbaugh.

How to change world opinion? Step one. Eliminate the problem next week - George Jr. But it will take a long time. George Jr has done that much damage in so little time. He has even made it necessary from some countries to develop nuclear weapons.

Marisa Tomei - in the movie "My Cousin Vinny" with Joe Pesci and 'Herman Munster'.

I wonder if I can really answer this question as it's put. I'm more worried about local crime than I am about nutters wasting good cars making and using car bombs Over There. Gangs and their activities are on the rise here in DCland. Keeping things in perspective, that's much more threatening to me than Those Guys are. I personally never felt threatened by The Islamic Extremists et al. But I do feel threatened by some of the gang activity that seems to be spreading around here. I'll worry about the rattlesnake at my feet before the beast on the other end of the field.

I gotta agree with Cyber. It's the mundane things closer to home which are most to be feared. Thank God, I don't live in a town that has gang activities and very little, if any, violent crime. That leaves (1)car accidents, (2)Walmart, and (3)deer at the top of my realistic fear of personal injury list.

(1)Statisticly speaking, A person is far more likely to get killed or injured in a car accident than by a terrorist.

(2)My local Walmart is a hazardous place where stockers spill all kinds of things and neglect to clean up or post signs. Case in point: Last week the local Walmart was the scene of a massive hazardous icing spill. The stuff was apparently from a 20 gallon container of Sam's best donut glaze. Somehow this stuff got upended all down one grocery aisle, and it blended right in with the shiny linoleum surface of the floor. No one did anything about it or put up any of those "wet floor" signs, and I was rounding the corner of the aisle at a trot, in a hurry to be out of that place (I HATE Walmart) when I skidded into the icing and went down - HARD! I still have the bruise on my hip to remind me of the event, plus the accident report Walmart made me fill out.

(3)Deer are a real terror in my part of the world. After about 3:00 pm the highways belong to them, and they make sure you know it. Round every curve, there they are, sticking out their tongues and waggling their hooves in front of their antlers at you. They especially love to play chicken with motorists when the roads are wet or icey. I think it's their way of paying mankind back for hunting season. Last year one jumped out at me as I was rounding a curve at the suggested speed limit of 50 miles an hour. I hit my brakes, hit the deer which bounded off unfazed, and did a complete 180 on the two lane highway, placing me directly in the path of a speeding coal truck headed for the Tri-States Power Plant coming in the opposite direction. You remember little moments like this, even with a memory as bad as mine.

I might add that in both of the two incidents I cited above, Homeland Security was nowhere to be found.

Another embedded reporter weighs in on the Al Qaqaa explosives:

Snap of a bolt cutter sounds like the IAEA seals. I saw video of the seals and they are basically the kind of cable that secures laptops, with what looked like secure thingy that changes color if the cable is messed with. That wasn't very impressive as a secure seal and at first I was going to write a message that said so.

It's like they put a chain on the front door and said, OK, that stuff is "secure". Just ignore the ventilation shaft, we don't secure those. The fact that this stuff is prohibited to Hussein in the first place and located in a hidden bunker is not really relevant to our job.

But all that says is that the statement "once the doors were opened they weren't secured" is meaningless. If they could get in with a bolt cutter, they weren't secured BEFORE the US got there. Except by the rule of Hussein, which left a vacuum after he was disposed that was not filled by enough authority.

Explosive category 1.1D:

Secondary detonating explosive substance or black powder or article containing a secondary detonating explosive substance, in each case without means of initiation and without a propelling charge, or article containing a primary explosive substance and containing two or more effective protective features.

----
Detcord is in this category... but so are RDX and TNT.

I agree that this is a more immediate concern, but at least I can fight back against local, overt criminals.

The Administration(tm) is very much a long term concern though.

Attributed by Brainy Quote

Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington

It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.
George Washington

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
George Washington

The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good.
George Washington

That's not the point.That's the point.

The basic problem is: We knew where the stuff was. We had troops in the area, some of whom appear to have happened across it. They seem to have happened across it by accident, as they certainly don't seem to have had orders concerning it. As easy as it would have been to loot it, this ABC footage seems to say that it hadn't been looted at the time. So it could have been locked down, but it wasn't.

"once the doors were opened they weren't secured"

A bigger problem is: "Once the doors were opened, and the contents were revealed, they weren't secured."

Not THE point, I agree, but certainly A point. History doesn't begin with, and will go on after Nov. 2. If Mr. Kerry wins the election he will inherit a world where "secured by the UN" means they found prohibited explosives in an underground bunker and secured it with one of those bike locks that can be foiled by a Bic pen barrel, combined with a deep faith in a fascist regime to manage them.

Reminds one of the Team America scene where Blix confronts Kim Jong-Il and demands to inspect his weapons:

"Or else."
"Or else what?"
"Or else... we'll be very angry with you. And we will write you a letter to tell you just how angry we are."

Amen to that. I have more to worry about, IMO, here at home than overseas.

And yet it worked. The locks were there to detect tampering, not to present an impregnable barrier. Tamper detection is only a good strategy under an inspection regime. Once inspectors are pulled, and government is abolished, the bunkers must be immediately captured and guarded by people. No lock will keep people out if there aren't also human guards to detect lockpickers.

If Hussein had prohibited munitions, sanctions/inspections did not work.

That's only true if 1) they were created/purchased after the sanctions began, and 2) the explosives were actually prohibited, rather than restricted to emergency defense use. I don't know whether either of those are true.

The fact is, there were locked down munitions from before '91 all over Iraq, including nuclear materials. Nobody - including Bush - ever felt the need to actually remove the locked down materials from the country. The locks were successfully preventing access as long as Hussein knew inspectors would be back, and the latest evidence suggests they remained locked down until well after we could have taken custody.

Argh! Read this story and you will change your mind!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=204304&page=1

The paragraph before your bolded quote:So the inspectors saw the potential weakness, made note of it, checked the amounts, and found no discrepancy.

As for the missing RDX, I'll definitely keep an eye out for how that one pans out. The story's a bit skimpy - were there seals on the RDX? Were there vents? Was the RDX supposed to be controlled, or just the HMX? Was there any followup on the discrepancy?

According to this story

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...0037982.htm?1c

Lessee if I can re-write this story properly. Fuckin' AP writers...

-- In July 2002, the Iraqis told the IAEA they had 141 tons of RDX at Al-Qaqaa.

-- In January 2003, the IAEA visited al-Qaqaa and found only 3 tons.

-- The Iraqis told the IAEA they had used 10 tons of it for legitimate purposes, and moved the rest to al-Mahaweel.

-- So, the IAEA went to al-Mahaweel. They found the RDX. They weighed a few boxes and extrapolated that if the other boxes weighed similarly, there were about 125 tons there. Then they left it without sealing it. They intended to come back later and look at the boxes and extrapolate again, but it was not at the top of their list because the Iraqis had legitimate uses, such as mining and wiring bridges and oil fields for detonation.

They were not really concerned about the RDX, which was not controlled, but more about the HMX. Both RDX and HMX are components of plastic explosives. HMX however is also a nuclear bomb accelerant. So they were more concerned with the HMX.

Of the HMX there were not 377 tons, but 214 tons? The 377 number, then, is bogus, because it includes the RDX, which was apparently moved???

The HMX was "sealed" in January 2003 by IAEA, using Kryptonite bike locks. In March 2003 they visited the locks and found they were not opened with any Bic pen barrels, so they didn't check the actual stock.

Lastly, none of this really makes any sense compared to the other news items that have come across. Can anyone make any sense of it at all?

Yes. I can. Here goes:
The people in charge are no smarter than I am. I could do just as good a job as these bozos. But I don't feel like I'm qualified to run things.

This is indeed getting too complicated for the press to adequately cover at their customary grade level. But in the end, if the video footage from Minneapolis Channel 5 is to be believed, there was some significant number of tons of explosives still under seal when US troops passed through, and they are no longer there. If Bush is to be believed, the US has no idea when or how those explosives were removed. This site was on the IAEA list of sensitive sites, which was available to the administration. If the explosives were taken before we got there, then this story should have broken long ago. It shouldn't even be in question whether or not they were already gone, and the fact that it is in question is just as disturbing no matter the answer.

That is evidence of sanity right there.

But things won't get much better with attitudes like this, where intelligent people are considered too elitist, and people want a president "just like them". There should at least be a desire to elect someone smarter than oneself, even if there's disagreement on whether a particular person is.

Or, to rephrase in a more important way, there should be the desire to elect someone smarter than other national leaders.

The Channel 5 footage isn't necessarily of the same bunkers which the explosives are missing from.

One thing's certain; the Bush administration has no idea where the explosives are. They've come up with quite a few stories, including blaming the French.

and the Russians.

Back to a serious response (WHICH thread is this? Oh yeah, "do you feel safer?"). I feel that America is LESS safe from terrorist attack, given George Jr.'s bungling and fiasco's like the one discussed above. I bet Bin Laden is sitting on silk pillows in a palace in Saudi Arabia somewhere, plotting his next move and chuckling the whole time. He blows up the WTC and the first thing the US does is spirit out of the country all the members of his family who might have given away important imformation that could have led to his capture. Then the US goes and stirs things up briefly in Afganistan, recruiting more members to Bin Laden's cause. After that we have the debacle of Iraq which makes EVERYONE else in the world, not just the Arabs, feel pretty upset with America. In the middle of all this George Jr. is videotaped saying that Bin Laden is not really a concern to him, and he (Bush) hasn't heard anything from him lately. Tisk, tisk, Osami, your letter writing skills need polishing.

His terrorist skills still get an A+, however. Bin Laden has managed to get the US to throw away billions of dollars and over a thousand American lives (we won't even talk about Iraqi civilian lives, because they don't count) on a pointless exercise in the Middle East. The very freedoms this country stands for have been eroded by the patriot act, and the average American citizen is running like a cowed dog back to the master who beats him in the form of the voters who want to give Junior a second round of screwing things up royally. I cannot imagine the gratification Bin Laden must feel to see the results of his efforts, and he is as free as a bird to follow up his first performance with some resounding encore act. I think the US is in even more danger than it was before 9/11.

It's their way of paying mankind back for reducing the numbers of natural predators and limiting hunting season ...

Mari--you underestimate the average American voter. Don't do that. We're all pretty much as intelligent and informed as you and Catwoman are.

PS--I KNOW Catwoman is a Brit--but you'd never know that from her BuffaloStance.

Just think - every time you hit a deer with your car, you're evolving road-avoiding deer. Unless they survive - then you're evolving crash-proof deer.

Wolf! You and I are in COMPLETE agreement! (I know this news must be as unsettling for you as it is for me, but I imagine we will both recover in due time). I have distributed fliers on the West slope of Colorado with the headline, "BRING BACK THE COUGAR!" I ask people when was the last time they had to step on the brakes and skid out of control thanks to a group of cougars in the middle of the road? When did anyone ever have an accident where a cougar came flying through their windshield? NEVER! Cougars are useful animals which rid of the world of nuisances like deer on the road, yappy poodles and small children whose parents didn't want them, otherwise they'd never have told the kid to go play alone on a deserted mesa at twilight (prime cougar hunting time!). I was delighted to read an official notice from the the Forest Service which appeared some months after I'd papered the area with my fliers that a temporary ban on the hunting of cougars was being put into effect on the nearby Uncomphaghre Plateau. The FS is considering making the ban on cougar hunting permanent and wished for public response. They got a copy of one of my fliers by return mail! I adore wild predators (not human ones). We need more of them! Bring back the cougar! Bring back the wolf! Yes!

[off-topic]
Aroooooo, baby! :thumbsup:

[/off-topic]

:beer: I have this beyond cool recording of wolf howls. Think I'll go play it in honor of wolves (and cougars) everywhere - in the cyber world, as well as the real!

Reasons I don't feel safe:

1) Iraq is a mess. Dictatorships are wrong, but what we have now is a huge border open to terrorist movement, anarchaic sectors of the country where terrorists can gather and plot, and an entire country that is pissed off at us enough that it is willing to die if it can take a few of us down with it. It's worth noting that not only were none of the 9/11 hijackers Iraqi, but that every single one of them had lost a loved one to an American attack, or an Israeli (and, hence, American-funded) attack. With every mother we blow up, all of her sons become new potential terrorists.

2) Our borders are appallingly insecure. The vast majority of all shipborne freight still goes uninspected, and significant chunks of our coastline are still either unmanned or severely undermanned. If we really wanted to tighten up, instead of establishing "free-speech zones", we'd be patrolling our goddamned coastline. Which brings me to my next point...

3) Our government is turning against us. If the government doesn't like you or what you're saying or doing, they can take you away. They can hold you as long as they want, outside the country, without charge, due process, legal aid, or even letting you contact your loved ones to let them know why you disappeared. They can listen in on your communications without a court order, and if they don't like what they hear, then you're gone. Winston Smith never existed...

4) The biggest reason, and the t-shirt I'll be wearing to the polls, consists of two words: Where's Osama.

WTF? I'm outta here...must be something involving the moon.

Well, fine...but you have to look at the other side of that argument. When was the last time anyone was attacked and eaten by a hungry deer? :p

Well, there was that deer that ran through the window of a supermarket in St. Louis several years ago...

We had a deer crash through a window at my high school in Richmond VA a while ago.

Most preditors are environmentally responsible. They kill only for food. Deer (much like rats) kill just for the dumb of it. They even leave their kill to rot.

This is very true. I truely love animals and I cried when Bambi's mother got shot just like everyone else. Unfortunately, we have an ecosystem that's so out of whack in Western Colorado that the deer population has soared out of control without natural predators to keep it in check. What happens to many of these animals is that they starve during the winter. A death by starvation is far more cruel and drawn out than death by a hunter's gun or a predator's claw. The deer are attracted to the roadsides as a last resort because everything else has been grazed down to nothing. My encounter with a deer on the road last year was not my first. 15 years ago I was driving down the highway one evening outside of Durango, Colorado when a deer suddenly jumped in front of my car. I swerved to avoid it, hit a ditch running alongside the road and was in intensive care for 4 weeks afterwards. Many peope have had similar experiences and some have died as a result of them.

Plus, venison is so damned tasty...how could you not eat it? :)

I am deer's natural predator. Does that count?

Most certainly! I shall amend my sentence above to: "A death by starvation is far more cruel and drawn out than death by a hunter's gun or a predator's claw or a wolf's fang." I would love to see wolves re-introduced to Colorado. One of the most amazing experiences I ever had was the sighting of two wolves in one of Colorado's wilderness areas. I was with a man who worked for the forest service and had a degree in zoology and he confirmed my ID of "wolf" for the two canids we saw through binoculars about a quarter mile distant from where we were standing. ;)

Technically, I don't have fangs. I have a .308

That is why people buy Expeditions and Hummers. You also have to learn not to swerve. :)

100% un-natural :p

Says the CYBER wolf. You've probably got a fricken laser beam on your head or something.

Yeah, someone mentioned the not swerving thing to me when I was laying there in the hospital on a ventilator. It's hard to overcome the automatic response to steer out of the way of a sudden impediment in the road. I know of someone who DIDN'T swerve and the deer came right through her windshield - kicking hooves, antlers and all. Needless to say, she, too, was seriously injured. If anyone would like to make a donation to my "Buy Marichiko a Hummer" fund, please PM me and I'll let you know where to send the cash. ;)

Now what'd you have to go and tell everyone for? Geez! :rolleyes:

Well, it's either that, or you're not real...