@Allen: Er, I will attempt to pry some more information out of him, but considering I don’t even know his real name, this may be a tad difficult…

The public has been left to wonder for too long whether the mascot was born a pair of egg parents, or calls a chicken his mother.

Now, on to the serious stuff…

@Mascot: Bush is far too unpopular now for even that to make a difference.

@Wahrheit: First off, I had to look up weltanshauung. You’re channeling Derek there.

As uncomfortable as it is, your observation how much of our belief system is axiomatic is important. Probably many people go through life without realizing it. And unlike Euclidean geometry, we aren’t all starting with the same set of five axioms.

Interesting point about the idea of the individualist vs collective. I’ll have to roll that around my decreasing number of synapses. It makes sense to a degree, but there’s something about that generalization that seems uncomfortable. But I can’t think of a good counterexample.

@Annie: I’d agree that Bush really thought that Iraq was a threat. This was a preconceived notion in his mind, and he chose to believe the evidence that supported that notion and dismissed evidence that did not. This is human nature.

Your “uninformed uneducated opinion” is always welcome at Liquid Egg Product.

@l3rucewayne: Yes, depending on which news source(s) one gathers information from, your opinion of Bush may vary.

I do not blame you for not trusting Chavez. Anyone who tries to become prez for life should fall under suspicion, regardless of motif.

Besides, Venezuela’s throwing oil money around to try to make friends. Then again, the US does stuff like trying to pay Turkey to be able to invade Iraq from the north, so maybe we shouldn’t trust the Americans, either.

@Blunderprone: Rupert Murdock seems to be more interested in money than anything.

As far as the point of view we get from MSM, I think it’s less insidious and more that groups of people tend to think in a certain way.

This is why it’s important to gather news sources from around the world. Thinking CNN and Fox are diametric opposites and cover the spectrum of “liberal” and “conservative” is naive.

Checking world news sources like the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and even the ghastly KCNA will give people a more complete view of world events. (Additional note: For us Westerners, it is much easier to spot culture bias in non-Western sources, while failing to notice it in our own.)

The GOP knows invoking Jesus will get them some votes. Even the Democrats are starting to try to prove their religious boney-fides. It’s a dreadful thing when the presidential candidates feel the need to out-religion each other.

As noted above, I’m not so sure that Bush lied when he said he believed Iraq had WMD; he seems like the type of person who would hold fast to an opinion and require apocalyptic evidence to change it. “Stubborn” I think is the word for it.

@Tacticus: OK, so hundreds of thousands of people have died. But it wasn’t on purpose. Kinda.

It’s not out of bounds to ask whether the omelet will ever get made in this case. The eggs were mixed, put in the frying pan, but no one checked if the house even has electricity. (Iraqis seem to be getting 4-12 hours a day, depending.)

The Chavez pic is particularly unspectacular.

@Wahrheit: Sadly, you probably guessed correctly on two of them.

Bush: Ummmm…

Mugabe: I am a STRONGMAN, strong man, mumblemumble…

Chavez: Hey baby, you want a tough guy, here I AM…

bin Laden: Allah is merciful, now stop struggling and put your head right HERE…

(Seriously, I enjoyed reading your comments, but need some time to respond to them properly.)

Bush doesn’t kill civilians (at least not intentionally).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_conflict_in_Iraq_since_2003
Accidents will happen, I guess.

Bush … won’t be conducting any large-scale murder (preemptive strike: war is not the smae as murder)
What about occupation?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-invasion_Iraq,_2003%E2%80%932006

But I guess it is ok
if the greater good to be achieved is presumed to be great enough.

And isn’t that the point?

You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet (sorry Mascot). How one judges the value of the eggs lost versus the value of the omelet made (and whose eggs they were and who gets the omelet) is what leads to differences of opinion.