Dan:

Some say that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity share the God of the Old Testament but they differ in the way they view the relationship between that God and Jesus, I think that is probably the most accurate description of the situation. They are technically the same being but they are not related in the same way which creates vast differences between the religion. The basic distinction between Christianity and Islam or Judaism is the role of Jesus.

That is more of a personal opinion than fact. Religion was not the basis for government in Japan. Japan had a parliament before WWII so the at least the beginnings of democracy were there. Islamic countries are different. Not to mention there are historic and idealistic differences between Islam and Buddhism. Islam being the more aggressive and forceful of the two. And to Muslims, Allah=God

I think it's important that we try to make better situations for people around the world and in this case, democracy would create a better situation for the oppressed people in Iraq. That being said, I agree with Jim, the Islamic world is very different from democracy. Their integration of religion into government is a very difficult cultural obstacle to democracy. You can never really have democracy if you allow their imams to rule the government; unfortunately that is exactly what their religion prescribes and of course they want to follow what their religion says because they think God will reward them if they do. This isn't just with Iraq either, there are similar limitations on human rights that result from the Islamic religion in many other countries around the world, specifically Iran and Saudi Arabia. I don't think they'll be able to fully acheive a functioning democracy unless they can get to a point where they realize they can exercise their religion in a accordance with their beliefs without having to build the government around religion.

I dunno about growing your own tobacco, but as for the wine, there are plenty of resources on the internet that will give you lots of tips and information about making homemade wine. Try a google search for "homemade wine" or something like that.

They aren't killing the snakeheads for no reasons, they are killing them in an attempt to keep them from spreading into other ecosystems and potentially killing thousands and thousands of other species. Whether or not that will happen we don't know, but I would rather not take the chance. I know a lot of the efforts taken in the Maryland/Virginia areas where they have been found has helped the problem from spreading. Also, as for the peacock bass comparison. It is my understanding that peacock bass need a very specific climate for survival and therefore can only survive in certain parts of Florida. It is different with the snakehead because they are not that climate sensitive and can therefore spread into and threaten more ecosystems.

The issue is not whether or not they are good to catch or what they have done in Florida, it is what they could potentially do to the ecosystems in Maryland and Virginia. There is no way to know what they might do, just like any case when new, foreign species are introduced into new ecosystems. It is therefore dangerous to allow them to establish a population in local waters, no matter how "fun" they are to catch...

They are good for their price (I got about 50 for $6 on sale one time) but I don't like them that much, it seems harder to set the hook with them, not sure if it's the angle or the sharpness.

The experience I have had with piers is that the fish around them are often very difficult to catch because of the fishing pressure the pier creates.

do you ever just catch em and use them as bait?

Whatever works for you man, but if you are thinking about changing to bitdefender, I've read good things about it. My friend has it and it seems pretty simple to use and I think it actually comes with a firewall. It's very highly rated. It sounds like you are doing your homework like I have, and that's the most important thing.

yeah, I would also get a good antispyware/adware program. I use Webroot's Spysweeper and it works very well.

Jim, I don't think you need all those anti-spyware programs. Spysweeper is ranked above all of those other spyware/adware scanners so you should be fine just running Spysweeper, it'll probably find the stuff that the others won't. Also, from what I've read, etrust is a terrible virus scanner. I would try something like PC-cillin or Kaspersky Anti-Virus or even Norton or McAfee. I use Kaspersky and Spysweeper which are regarded as some of the best programs for their categories.

macs are for graphic designers and nancy boys.

I didn't know you could imbed viruses into videos on youtube like that....but I guess it would be possible. Anyway, as for your conspiracy theory, i wouldn't be surprised at all if that is the case. I know that the record labels used to put corrupted versions of songs on file sharing networks like Limewire and iMesh. People would download these files, listen to 30 seconds of the song, then it would start playing loud, high pitched noises for the rest of the track. Now, that could have been the work of pranksters, but I and many others believe the record companies put them up there to deter people from downloading.

are you sure it came off of youtube? I wouldn't think a site owned by Google would have viruses in it...

I'm gonna try one of those BPS versions first, then I might get the terminator. It seems like they are designed to do pretty much the same thing

I've heard that dried eggs can damage the paint on a car, I don't know what might help you clean it, but I would hurry!

ok, I found a link for it: http://www.terminatorlures.com/06pdfs/Hybrid_Press_Release.pdf looks a lot like Shoestring Dubois' offered at BPS.

could it be something like this: http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=15387&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults

awesome fish! I wish I could catch some smallies that big in my home river (80% of the adult smallies were killed two years ago so there aren't any big ones left)

lol, those are quite the sunglasses! nice fish too!

that would be my first guess too. Take a picture of it and post it.

if I am looking for fish and the water is muddy or it's windy, I always start with a spinnerbait. I just wish they would make them in more realistic colors to see if they might work better in clear water

it's the trouble of capitalism. It has enormous rewards for many, but in those rewards, some fall through the cracks. It doesn't mean capitalism is bad, but it sure seems to work better than any other system.

Well, if you think about it, that's not really such a surprising feat, but those cranks do look good.