statsman

Don’t think there are any “just bad” guys here? I disagree. Iran is bad. They are funding Hamas and supplying weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah (and are allied with Syria and are supporting the Houthis). They are supporting bad actors all over the region and world (including the Americas). Iran is bad. Their removal from the scene would create room for all sorts of productive activity

I have seen another line in this thread, just as dumb. It goes like, “Why not allow the ‘right of return’? It doesn’t guarantee wiping out or expulsion of Jews in Israel. The nation can be a democracy, and allow multiple factions to co exist”. (The Palestinians and their supporters have, in fact, never in their entire history established a liberal democracy with protections for minority rights and establishment of the ‘rule of law’)

That is a sweet sentiment and I applaud it. Hearts and minds. Problems: Hamas militants don’t wear uniforms. They have the tactic of feigning being civilians when it suits them, and breaking out the weapons when it suits them. Hamas imbeds military centers and stores in civilian population centers and social service (hospitals) centers. Hamas builds tunnels, for militant use, under civilian population centers. Hamas uses civilians as human shields. Hamas uses suicide bomb vests under civilian clothing. So, you see the difficulty of fighting Hamas. The arithmetic the Israeli government has to solve- Gazan civilian lives vs. IDF soldier lives. (In WWII, wrt Japan, the U.S. decided 100k innocent Japanese civilians vs. 0 Army Air Corps KIA was an equation Uncle Sam could live with). Folks are trying to imagine some kind of “third way” where Israel can navigate this mess without significant loss of civilian life. I don’t think it exists. I think, after October 7, Israel sees two options: 1. Say, “OK, Hamas, you got us good! We’ll just rebuild those walls (maybe a little stronger), let less Gazans work here, inspect shipments more thoroughly and go on with our lives”. 2. Eradicate Hamas, at any cost to civilian life, and then figure out how to deal with what’s next. The calls for cease fire (always on Israel, never on Hamas) are calls for option 1. Problem is, October 7 was so horrific, and Israel is a democracy, and they are galvanized for option 2.

Thats the point! This has been a world of states for thousands of years, replacing world of tribes. Hamas’ is the government of Gaza, heavily in Iran’s sphere. I won’t honor the fiction of Hamas as a “legitimate” or elected government; that ship sailed 15 years ago. It is an authoritarian government. There are lots of authoritarian governments in this world; uniformly it sucks for the governed. Israel says that the October 7 attack was by Hamas and they declared war on Hamas. They are being coy; there is no functional difference between warring on Hamas and warring on Gaza. Israel does not accept responsibility for Gazan civilians. It does not accept them as citizens. Things will suck horrifically for Gazan civilians until Hamas is gone.

In 1945, the Japanese Empire was making plans to defend the main islands to the last man, woman and child. That is a matter of record. Okinawa was the trial run. The U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on civilian population centers. We absolutely killed over a hundred thousand innocent civilians. We did it because we absolutely wanted to end the empire and we didn’t want to have to invade those islands and fight man to man/woman/child. That display shocked the Japanese leadership to viewing things a new way. They believed they were harder than the Americans, more willing to accept the horrors and losses of war. The bombings showed them they were evaluating the equation with incorrect variables. The U.S. could visit horrors on them from afar, and not share in them. The Japanese leadership was ready to sacrifice their entire populace, and the bombings showed them that could happen and they would still not be able to visit any more harm on their enemy. They realized it was futile. This is an old debate, it will continue for decades, and never be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. I just want to revisit one facet of it: in the summer of 1945, which government cared more for the Japanese civilian population- the Japanese government or the U.S.’? I would argue that, although the U.S. government was only marginally concerned about Japanese civilians, the Imperial Japanese government was monstrously not concerned, viewing them as chattel in service to their credo of bushido Leading back to my original statement- I’d like to hear an argument that Hamas or Iran care more for the Gazan civilians than the U.S. or Israel (remember, Israel has tolerated a decades long barrage of rockets from Gaza). (I threw Fatah in the original statement in hopes of eliciting a real and substantive answer, because I think an argument could be made there).

If your brother were to do that, there is an overarching civil authority in place to investigate, prosecute and try him. That is how we avoid clan feuds. That said, if your brother sheltered with you, and was deemed a continuing threat, the best option for you and your family is to get out or try to turn him in. If the police come in, and your family is hurt, where does the blame lie? The police or your brother? (Note- your analogy is severely flawed. To torture it to make it work here, the police have to be from another state).

“Atrocity porn”. You keep using that phrase. Porn excites some, and offends others (and does both to some). Porn’s educational and informational qualities are usually lacking. What do you suppose should be done with the info about these atrocities? They are certainly shocking. Yet, there is an informational aspect of knowing thousands of Hamas fighters actually planned to break barriers to get into habitats so that they could rape women and then cut up their vaginas. It certainly seems to have educated a lot of Israelis. Somebody above, on this thread, posted that they want all of them hunted down and killed, and I can’t argue with that. Side note- the news articles about ancient Nazis brought out of their assisted living centers and delivered to prison are getting rarer. I still cheer, inside, when they are printed, even though the Nazis were just teens as the war was ending. These men lived long decades and maybe thought they had outlived their crimes. Maybe they thought their longer life spent crime free absolved them. Ha-ha-ha! Not so! Similarly, I look forward to decades of reading of random Palestinians, ex-Hamas fighters, living serene civilian lives in the future, pulled from their tranquil later lives and killed in punishment for their crimes of October 7.

Not at all. Let’s talk through it. The U.S. wants to see as few Palestinians killed as possible, while supporting Israel’s defense. Israel wants to kill as few Palestinians as possible (I believe, and their actions support this belief), while destroying Hamas. Iran is willing to spend every Palestinian life in support of its fight against Israel, and the U.S. Hamas is willing to use Palestinian civilians as human shields as it pursues its fight to kill Jews. Everyone is appealing to Israel and the U.S. for a ceasefire, and not Hamas and Iran, because everyone sees them as the best bet to stop fighting out of concern for loss of innocent life. Am I wrong?

Yeah, Hayduke has referred to “atrocity porn” a couple of times, as if pointing to what could be called “facts” or “evidence” is an unfair tactic. I was thinking the other day…who cares the most for Palestinian civilians? In terms of giving them time, or treasure, for their true benefit? Of Hamas, Fatah, the UN, Iran, the U.S., Israel,…who cares the most for their well being? I think it’s hard to argue against the idea that, of those groups, Israel and the U.S. are the most committed to the well being of the Palestinian civilians.

https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/ukraine-opens-inquiry-into-alleged-execution-of-pows-by-russian-troops-8d12d53b?st=zisn8eouyfwlmg9&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink I loathe Russia.

Buy one of these and tell him that if he doesn’t start flying right, it’s going in the port a potty

This is a tough one- An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza refugee camp in October killed the target, a Hamas commander. But it also cost scores of civilian lives. Why did it happen? https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israeli-airstrike-hamas-commander-civilian-deaths-3b6be664?st=y7rgftb6fxls0t2&reflink=share_mobilewebshare Yes, many innocent civilians (children, even) were killed. I blame Hamas. They started the war. Their commander (I’d like to hear a counter argument that he wasn’t planning to target more Israeli civilians, if anyone can make it) was sheltering near this population center. It sucks for the innocents, just as it sucks for innocent civilians in all wars where their nation started a fight against a more powerful foe.

Oh, and to clarify, I’m not upset about getting the soap dishes. Hell, we registered for them (because we knew we needed some cheaper items on the registry). I remember us opening the gift, seeing what it was and who it came from, and falling over laughing. And we still laugh.

Saw my Aunt Bev yesterday. Driving up, my 14 year old daughter says,”I hope I don’t have to hear a bunch of stories about how great her grand daughter is doing”. Me: “That’s too damned bad, because that’s what you’re getting”. (I was right) We had sent them a video of my daughter singing “Oh, Holy Night” in church, a performance that everyone enjoyed. My aunt’s only comment, as it was discussed in front of my wife and daughter, “Why are her shoulders so broad?” My aunt is my most prosperous relative, by a mile. I remember only two wedding gifts from our wedding over 30 years ago. My cousin, probably the least prosperous (at the time) relative, took the invitation and dressed it up with ribbons and shit and made a beautiful framed picture. Must have taken hours; she is an awesome person. And my rich aunt (and she is always ready to let us know she has money) gave us soap dishes, the cheapest items on the registry. Those are the only gifts I remember, and for different reasons.

I believe I coined the phrase, “Younreally need to graduate SWTSU in five years. Your liver can’t take six”.

In Isaiah 11, the prophet, his heart expressing utmost yearnings from God, speaks of the wolf laying down with the lamb. Yes, 2700 years ago, in that region, there were plenty of wolves and lambs. I scoffed when Hamas was called “sub-human”; what they did was all too human. Israel, Palestine, the Levant, the ME, whatever you wish to call it, has been a rough area for a long time. Isaiah, if you were to meet him, would resemble nothing more closely, in our modern world, than one of those scary clerics from the Afghan mountains. Dour, grim, and trained to worship by ritually slaughtering living animals and rendering them into pieces per a learned ancient ritual. That he could write and express himself in terms that would resonate for centuries was a bonus. This man, when communing with God, seeking out God’s utmost will, expressing humanity’s utmost desire, wrote a prophecy of peace, of the predators and prey coexisting. We have four advent candles- hope, peace, love and joy. We all need to hope for peace, so we can get to the other two.

It’s funny. I watched the2019 RRS at a Sooner friend’s house, 80% of the attendees were Sooners. After they got a little liquored up, the Sooners started explaining to me how the world worked. “OU is going to be in the SEC before long. On the SEC message boards, they say that’s where we belong” “The SEC doesn’t want Texas. No one does. That LHN is an albatross and nobody will put up with that”. That was a terrific move, by OU, to the SEC. They have managed to join a conference where every school has been willing to pay and enter bidding wars, for years. OU considers Texas as its recruiting territory, and will now only play 1 to 1 1/2 games in Texas each year (not appreciably more than any other SEC school besides Texas and TAMU). I’m sure that OU expects to prosper, because they just have more winning-ness and football-ery than the other SEC schools. Sooner magic! Bold move.

“I don’t agree with sandbagging the dad’s business” That’s all you had to say. “these guys are pro athletes now and the consequences are different.” We’re talking about the University of Oklahoma. The only thing that has changed since the last seven decades is that now, your competition is paying, too, and you’re struggling to keep up. (Can you imagine if there had been a transfer portal for Marcus DuPree? He almost certainly would have ended up at A&M).

Now that the major programs have their own in-house scouting staffs, do industry ranks really mean anything(other than their value as assemblers of consensus)? Aren’t they kind of like ESPN ratings of NFL drafts?

How did he “stiff” OU? Did he not honor a commitment? Does he owe them something? What do you mean? What did Green do wrong? Other than make a decision where he prioritized his personal self interest over Venables’?

Can Okies be both sports fans and mature adults at the same time?

As a close observer, it was pretty tough being one of two blue bloods in a ten team conference. So often, the majority of schools viewed things much differently, had vastly different priorities. How would it work out for FSU, who certainly view themselves as a blue blood, as the only one in a 16 team conference? Is that a good idea for anyone?

Does FSU have a landing spot lined up? Or, is this an Aggie plan?

What outcome does Mack desire? An insincere apology? A formal (but meaningless) reprimand of the NCSU coach (I can’t remember his name and I just read the article; he’s just a pissant). It would have been better for Mack to have said nothing at all, like Texas after Yormark mouthed off, or after the call out from the ISU OL.

They did have a plan. They had a coach lined up that would unify the base, excite the recruits, and “got” Aggy. They just didn’t make sure that Dan Campbell would take the job first, before they fired Fisher. They assumed he would, because they believe that bullshit Bear Bryant said about “mama called” when he bailed out of A&M. (Bryant was too smart to tell the truth- “Thank God I can get out of this shithole and away from these nutty assholes”)