John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:

I even got to talk to a real live AMERICAN!

Wow, how many of them are alive, by the way? :-D

toticow wrote: Anyway, do you think its right to feel ashamed when someone asks you what languages you know, and VB is one of them? No offence to VB.net guys(or girls, however you like it.) You don't seem to be ashamed of visiting CodeProject.com, though. Do you need someone telling you in what language the CodeProject website is written? ;P

Before this one gets out of hand, a 'smart' radar system told the ships captain that an ascending civilian Airbus was a descending military fighter aircraft. He was in a no win situation there, this wasn't a 'fire at them anyway' situation. I would hate to have to make that decision. Not long before this incident, there was a passionate editorial on "Voice Of America" denouncing the shutdown of a South Korean airplane by the Soviet Union. I was really moved by the editorial. When the USA shutdown the Iranian airplane, VOA said nothing, not a word. The difference between the two incidents is, the South korean Airplane invaded the air space of Soviet Union, while the Iranian airplane was no where near USA. Since that time I have learned many lessens, here are some of them: 1. Some life, especially the life of a US citizen, worths a lot more than a life from a "uncivilized" country. 2. Don't ever believe what the US government says about its foreign policy and world affairs.

Heard at dinner table: Bin Laden was dead long time ago, blew himself up before the US bombing started in Afghanistan. His followers do not want people to know his death for obvious reasons. However, GW also doesn't want people to know this, to keep the war going ...