Actually, this is one conspiracy theory that I don't think is a load of horse shit.

Draug, would you consider Gary Berntsen (the top CIA operative on the ground at Tora Bora) a "conspiracy asswipe fucktard"? He claims that bin Laden could've been captured if more US forces had been on the ground, but that his request for more forces was denied by Tommy Franks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4dsT7sSm-M

This documentary also has some interesting information/accusations about bin Laden's escape (see the last 10 minutes or so):

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3979568779414136481

So a decision not to deploy more troops = a deliberate decision to let OBL?

{Citation Needed}

But remember: never contradict your profressor. Stating that I thought a 110% income tax rate was excessive netted me a D in poli sci

When capturing OBL is purportedly your chief objective and you refuse to do what is necessary (and within your power) to accomplish it, yes, I think it is evidence of a deliberate decision to let him escape.

That, or incredible incompetence (which is even more disconcerting).

So you think the Bush team is error free? Fascinating...

OBL dead?

proof or it didnt happen

It never happened

OBL alive and not an android? Proof or it didn't happen

"But remember: never contradict your profressor. Stating that I thought a 110% income tax rate was excessive netted me a D in poli sci"

Oh you conservatives, attending Figment of Your Imagination U and wailing about how your views are suppressed by those evil professors.

More likely is that instructors are so paranoid about whiny rightwing students who say obnoxious things that they'll grade them higher just so they don't get complaints. Furthermore it is illegal for professors in Ohio to inject their own politics about anything, because that's how much rightwing students hate free speech and can't tolerate having their views challenged.

You think I'm exaggerating? His thesis was that people making above $300k were corrupt and finding other ways to screw the system, so anything they made above that was theft from Society

I'm highly amused you consider me conservative, but I assume anyone to the right of Marx is conservative in your eyes...

Wait...so its against the rules to have an opinion, therefore anyone whose opinion is suppressed is against the right wing? Even though you seem to feel the right wing dominates the state?

Let me compliment you, Putin. It is a rare man who is so certain about things they have zero information about. But of course your personal experiences are similar to everyone else, everyone but a few powerful zealots shares your views, and anyone who disagrees with you is either part of The Conspiracy or an imbecile.

Saying "we could have caught him if they would have given us more troops" is totally different than "they let him get away for nefarious reasons". False equivalency.

"His thesis was that people making above $300k were corrupt and finding other ways to screw the system, so anything they made above that was theft from Society"


well..... how much do you really need? really?

Back to the topic...

Your professor is an idiot. Even assuming the Administration would have considered doing something so reprehensible, there would be no need. Iraq could have been invaded even if bin Laden had been killed an captured right away, and we could have stayed in Afghanistan merely for the sake of maintaining stability (as we're doing now).

Your professor's a looney conspiracy theorist, and a lazy one at that.

So, if I invent a cure for cancer, or a cheap, abundant, pollution-free source of energy, or a cybernetic exosuit so Stephen Hawking can fight crime, I should just give it away, because if I try to profit from my ingenuity I'll be effectively bankrupt? An 80% tax rate on high earners has worked fine in history, a 110% rate basically says if you're the next Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos you're screwed.

In any case, my point wasn't "my teacher believed wacky things I disagree with", it was "my teacher didn't like me disagreeing with him, and I strongly suspect my final grade suffered as a result, as much of the final was subjective"

I've had the opposite happen, where I had the film professor in a blow-off class basically fall in love with me and give me A's on all the papers. I only saw a third of one movie and the guy new it since I wasn't in class, and STILL an A on the paper. Other people in the class did a lot worse so it wasn't just that the whole thing was easy.

This stuff happens. People are subjective.

"You think I'm exaggerating?"

Yes. I've this this crap from people like you over and over again. Now we have loyalty oaths for instructors because of people like you. Conservative student organizations, with generous funding from people like David Horowitz, have compiled blacklists for professors who are too liberal for their taste. Professors are terrified about saying anything because if a conservative student isn't a good student, he'll assume it's because he's conservative and not because he...didn't show up to class and didn't do the work.

It's the ultimate cop out for lazy rightwing students. If professors punished conservative students we wouldn't be having problems with grade inflation. The fact is high schoolers graduate barely literate, with their idea of research being plagiarizing from wikipedia.

"Wait...so its against the rules to have an opinion, therefore anyone whose opinion is suppressed is against the right wing? Even though you seem to feel the right wing dominates the state?"

This made absolutely no sense. It's against the rules for instructors to inject their own politics in a class room. They are supposed to be politically neutral, professors aren't allowed to have opinions. The law was made because the state government assumes all professors are liberal because conservative students have been whining about "liberal bias" since time immemorial.

Folks I've been charged with being biased, as in politically biased, in a Medieval History class. I don't know, i must have given the Guelphs more time than the Ghibellines. Kids make shit up all the time to improve their grades and/or try to punish the teacher that graded them down.

I had a professor in college who said that the earthquakes in Iran were being caused by the effects of bombing in iraq and afganistan. I filed it in the bullshit drawer in my brain rather than confront the teacher about it.

@Putin - Being politically neutral in class does not mean you can't have an opinion. It means you can't use the classroom as a place to preach that opinion as "fact". I know this is against your beliefs, but the classroom is about teaching the subject at hand, not indoctrinating and recruiting our nation's youth to your cause or to my cause. Educate, not indoctrinate. And to claim that orders to teach a subject and not politicized your classroom is suppressing your right of have an opinion is both disingenuous and a false equivalency.

Goddamned Guelphs... your student was right to complain!

My thought is that your teacher is a conspiracy nut and, while I'm not right-wing and didn't support Iraq after 2003--I'll admit I was and still am largely OK with invading to get Saddam out, deposing a dictator like that generally has a net gain, but we could have done it with others and cooperatively rather than go in ourselves, bullheaded, and lose lives and our economy over a long war--I have to say...

That's just nuts.

Sorry, I can't be mor eloquent, but...that's nuts.

how can you educate without incorporating your own beliefs, and if you aren't incorporating your own beliefs whos beliefs are you incorporating?

I can educate without expressing my *political* opinion and do so every time I hold a training session.

training session =/= history or poly sci

Historyvis like the news. Just the facts. Poly science profs have an obligation to teach all perspectives. And that wasn't the question. The question was how to teach. Period.