I think the disemvowelment policy is being pushed slightly too far here.

If we're going to make a pretty huge stretch and say that Seyo's or Tian's comments were off topic, then I reckon a massive vowel purge of at least 50% of all comments on all posts on BB is in order.

@kevink

"Please show me examples of how we trained them to kill innocent victims in terrorists attacks. You know, like the ones that has happened to us since the 70s."

jamesgyre mentioned Nicaragua, and that's a pretty good example. Specifically the CIA's "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare" manual for the Contras which details methods of how to provoke the killing of civilians and the best ways to assassinate various officials, judges and so on.

Beyond the more obvious examples like that, is there really a meaningful difference between training, funding and arming groups who blatantly engage in terrorism, and actually directly training or instructing them to carry out specific acts of terrorism? That sounds pretty similar to the whole issue of supplying 'dual-use' chemicals/weapons to the likes of Saddam while being fully aware of what he's doing with them.

"They attacked us because of our presence in the Middle East. Why were we there? Because Iraq attacked Kuwait."

The 'presence' in that part of the world goes back a lot longer than the last 20 years. Our countries have been installing/propping up nasty dictatorships and regimes and overthrowing/subverting democratic governments and movements in the Mideast for a helluva long time. I suppose in terms of an example which is massively relevant to today's situation, interference in Iran would be the obvious one. Decades of foreign policy have contributed to the 'blowback' being felt today.

@#26 - Ummm...Surely comments were disabled on that post because it was just one of Xeni's links to BBtv. Comments are always disabled on those. You really don't have to find some elitist, liberal 'groupthink' conspiracy everywhere on BB y'know.

@#7

Your ATM analogy doesn't really work...it's much, much more work to successfully counterfeit money than it is to walk over to a cash machine, pop your card in and make a withdrawal.

"most things are less onerous if done without regard for the law"

If we're sticking to the spirit of the original point about apple's movie rentals and assuming that the cost of something isn't a major issue, I can't think of many common situations in life where an illegal route is easier than the legit alternative.

It is indeed rather funny how the people who gush over Thatcher all tend to come from the US. Gadlaw's "Margaret Thatcher rocks thank you very much" isn't something you're likely to hear in the UK anytime soon. Bt hs ttmpt t tnsly t ths nt th whl rsl L Gn thng s prtty dd t.

Canadian? I'm sure she's British...