Amnesty International

GratefulFan wrote:
Hockey is the game all footballers secretly want to be playing. That's all the Irish need to know about hockey.

It doesn't help. I don't understand american football either. Here football is what americans call soccer, and we play rugby, which is kind of vaguely like american football, only they play in tshirts and shorts -- kinda rough :D
But idk what the purpose of american football is, or what the game really is, only that they wear big padded suits and play with a rugby ball!

GratefulFan wrote:

Panchgani wrote: Holly -I was considering omitting your comment from the list, but I focused on the word "villainy" and included your quote in the list anyway.

You should have left mine out too.  Saying Happy Birthday is nice.

exactly!

catqueen wrote: It doesn't help. I don't understand american football either. Here football is what americans call soccer, and we play rugby, which is kind of vaguely like american football, only they play in tshirts and shorts -- kinda rough :D
But idk what the purpose of american football is, or what the game really is, only that they wear big padded suits and play with a rugby ball!

I don't know what the purpose of American (or Canadian) football is either.  Terrible, silly game.  But I meant your football anyway.  :P

GratefulFan wrote:

Micrówave wrote:  F those guys!!!  They came in here and rolled all over us... since then Dallas has been the hottest team in the NHL.  Here's a pic from that game... no zoom used, this was taken on my iphone

You're killing me.  Killing me.  Hope you rolled up the blue line and took it home with you as a souvenir.  Those would be $400 seats in the Canadian market.

Ah, you're really gonna hate me... but I'll pass a little Scalping 101 on to you.  So I grab my daughter and head to the AAC and arrive at about 3 minutes til face-off.  Take my cash and stick most of it in my pocket but leave $49 in my wallet... in smaller bills.

Now I already spot my guy about a block away holding up his tickets.  But I know he's gotta dump em soon.  So I head to the ticket booth (after carefully making eye contact!).  He can't get to me quick enough!!!  I say something nice like "I don't want to insult your intellegence, man... I just have enough money for cheap seats".  Bottom line, I got these tickets BOTH for $49!!!!

GratefulFan wrote:

Panchgani wrote: Holly -

I was considering omitting your comment from the list, but I focused on the word "villainy" and included your quote in the list anyway.

You should have left mine out too. Saying Happy Birthday is nice.

Well, wishing him a happy 9th birthday is nicer than wishing him a happy 2nd birthday.

Amnesty International certainly qualifies as an enemy combatant. And given the latest developments in the military, maybe they should "waterboard" AI in urine.

If AI qualifies as an enemy combatant, Microwave is a complete terror-cell all of his own. I'll get me some tie-wraps and a good solid board to give him a taste of his own medicine, then.

Somehow, the thought of a nerd from Denmark tying me up seems a bit far-fetched...

You might want to start lifting weights and mixing in a protein shake now.

Micrówave wrote:  Ah, you're really gonna hate me... but I'll pass a little Scalping 101 on to you.  So I grab my daughter and head to the AAC and arrive at about 3 minutes til face-off.  Take my cash and stick most of it in my pocket but leave $49 in my wallet... in smaller bills.

Now I already spot my guy about a block away holding up his tickets.  But I know he's gotta dump em soon.  So I head to the ticket booth (after carefully making eye contact!).  He can't get to me quick enough!!!  I say something nice like "I don't want to insult your intellegence, man... I just have enough money for cheap seats".  Bottom line, I got these tickets BOTH for $49!!!!

Oh that's a great scalping story.  As the word's most transparent and terrible negotiator I would fail utterly at such a ruse.  The best I've ever done is show up for a recent car purchase with an Auto Trader magazine in my hands, flipping through it as the salesman is pitching me.  I'm pretty sure I looked like a complete knob. But anyway, here's scalping Canada 101:

You show up at the ACC in Toronto for a Stars-Yotes style division rivalry game 3 minutes before face-off.  You see your guy a block away and carefully make eye contact as you head to the ticket counter.  He scratches his ass and makes sure you see him messing with the tickets with the same hand.   The other guy sauntering towards the ticket counter beside you breaks first and makes a beeline for him, tossing his daughter into a nearby dumpster on the way because she's slowing him down.  You get there in a flying sweat 2.5 seconds after the other guy and just in time to hear him try to say something like "I don't want to insult your intelligence man...".  The scalper punches both of you in the face just for having pretended to saunter to the ticket counter in the same time/space continuum and tells the next three who have arrived to piss off and explains that it's your fault he's in a bad mood.  Customers six and seven are thrown into a sidewalk chalk ring and the one that is the least bloody when the scalper gets bored gets to give him $1500 for a pair of Row F tickets with a face value of $450 each.  Once you're inside you need another $200 for popcorn.

Panchgani wrote:  Well, wishing him a happy 9th birthday is nicer than wishing him a happy 2nd birthday.

Well not if he was two.  Duh!

catqueen wrote: And in fact, a simple google search revealed their financial audits as the first result. Here it is. I didn't search them for the exact numbers about how they raked in profit for and from executed prisoners, because i'm pretty sure they didn't. Here's the link.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/accountability/financial-reports

Just to clarify, you provided me a link to AI's financial reports.... prepared by AI...  published by AI...  Hmm...  I wonder if it looks legit?

Could you provide me a link to Irene Khan's financial report?  You remember her, since you're all AI experts.  She's the one who got £533,103 when she resigned last year, four times her annual salary.?

"The payments to outgoing secretary general Irene Khan shown in the accounts of AI (Amnesty International) Ltd for the year ending March 31st 2010 include payments made as part of a confidential agreement between AI Ltd and Irene Khan.  It is a term of this agreement that no further comment on it will be made by either party.

(http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/finance/news/content/8390/charity_commission_has_no_jurisdiction_over_board_members_payment_from_amnesty)

I am sure people making donations to Amnesty, in the belief they are alleviating poverty, never dreamed they were subsidizing a fat cat payout.

Microwave, if you are going to criticize AI for paying its head a lot of money, you may as well criticize most not-for-profit organizations. The fact is that major not-for-profits are run as businesses, and to criticize AI for doing something which plenty of other not-for-profits is absurd. I also suspect that it's just a pretext; you don't like them because they are left-wing.

Microwave, you made a response to catqueen which was, to be generous,  a massive revision of history:

"When I defended the Marines by simply stating (1) not all marines are like that"

Nobody said all marines are like that. We simply condemned a group of marines who acted in a disgusting manner. In your first post, you not only attempted to lessen it but brought things like how at least America allows this stuff to be reported, or something along those lines (who gives a damn?) before bringing up your father and WWII and rallying against things that nobody even said. You are so sensitive about people criticizing your beloved US (even though you are perfectly happy to criticise other nations) that you respond to things nobody even said!

" and (2) peeing on corpses is not the end of the world"

Yet another attempt to lessen it. I hate to break it to you, but nothing is the end of the world, short of the world ending.

What you are doing is attempting to dismiss a vile act, and you expect us to smile as if that is okay? I bet that if Taliban urinated on the corpse of an American soldier, you would not appreciate us saying 'it's not the end of the world'. But then intellectual & moral consistency is not one of your strengths. 

"they responded with a series of insults including towards a family member of mine."

I can only rember one other member doing so, for which an apology was quickly issued.

At the start of this post, you referred to these members as 'knuckleheads' so to play the victim card is absurd.

I agree with you that people on this site do gang up on other members (which is a problem with a non-moderated site) but, as a relatively new member, I've noticed that if you don't give, you generally don't take. I've been insulted by several members, but I'm not going to complain since I haven't been completely innocent. The point being don't complain about being insulted, when you do plenty of insulting yourself.

"I clearly stated my argument."

Are you serious? What argument?

BTW, when are you going to cut the crap and acknowledge that you support the death penalty? If you want to be taken seriously by anyone, at least acknowledge it and stop with this 'both sides of the argument' BS when not only is AI simply doing its job, but you clearly support the death penalty.

Amazon wrote:
Microwave, if you are going to criticize AI for paying its head a lot of money, you may as well criticize most not-for-profit organizations. The fact is that major not-for-profits are run as businesses, and to criticize AIfor doing something which plenty of other not-for-profits is absurd. I also suspect that it's just a pretext; you don't like them because they are left-wing.

We're not talking about other organizations here, we're talking about the shady Amnesty International.  The ones who list their assets at 7 Million Pounds, but gave a half million to the "General Secretary" when she resigned.  Why don't you talk about that?

We're talking about AI, the ones who paint up a one-sided picture and make the convict the victim, without even presenting one shed of light about the crime... and also give their "opinions" about rehabilitization of convicts they've never even met or interviewed!!  Why don't you talk about that?

We're talking about Amnesty International which told workers based outside the UK they will no longer have the right to remain members of the UK-based Unite union.  In response, Amnesty workers said they were stunned by the attack, which came without warning.  ‘Now every time I write or work on discrimination issues, I will think about how Amnesty workers outside London are being treated by the senior management in London,’ said one.  Why don't you talk about that?

This isn't about if I support the death penalty or not.  In fact... that may be part of the problem right there!!!!  Just like "a woman's right to chooose"...  it's really none of your business what I choose to support or not support.  Why are you making that such an issue?  Instead of the name-calling, insulting, and subject changes, why not address one of the valid points here?  It might get the topic back to what it's about:  Not the Death Penalty, peeing on marines, etc...

TWO POINTS:   (1)AI stating that Iran must be stopped, after two years ago stating that we need to stop being so critical of Iran.  (2) The death row inmate press kit, complete with medical diagnosis and legal analysis.

That's what I have a problem with.  Comprende?

GratefulFan wrote:
I don't know what the purpose of American (or Canadian) football is either.

You're not missing much. Football on our side of the Atlantic is basically a bastardized version of rugby.

Real football is the world's most cherished sport.

Amazon wrote:
you don't like them because they are left-wing.

I disagree with the suggestion that Amnesty International is left wing.

We need to try and break away from binary thinking. "Not right wing" does not equal "left wing." There is gray area - a wide span of possibilities beyond the cognitive closure and exclusionary mentality that is social conservatism. Most countries acknowledge this by having more than two political parties.