these three men have managed to say so little about what Midgley actually wrote. — Banno

Haven’t read it. Maybe they’re thinking of the freon guy.

You have to be for or against!!! — ssu

What a stupid way of characterizing things. It’s like being in middle school. Embarrassing.

Chomsky and others see as their role to criticize the US while to critique other countries "isn't their role". — ssu

Nope. Not what was said.

It’s very simple: criticize countries all you like. Iran citizens can criticize Israel, etc. But that’s not what we admire dissents for— we admire them for speaking truth to power in their own country, where they can have an impact. Did you even watch the video?

That such a simple point is confusing just shows how clouded one’s judgement must be with projection. At least try hearing what’s being said first and THEN find a way to distort it.

totally silent on everything else — ssu

:lol:

Yeah, that definitely describes Noam Chomsky. Totally silent about “everything else” for the last 70 years. A world renowned genius like you — some internet dude — is surely the man for the job of setting him straight.

But yes, keep portraying yourself as the one person who truly “gets it” about international relations in its true complexity.

Okay— sorry for the hostility. I feel it often leads people away from meditating rather than encourages them, that’s why I get annoyed. I’m sure that wasn’t your intention.

If it's so powerful, why does it feel that Israel is calling the shots and the US simply follows? — ssu

You know very well why that is: the Israeli lobby and Israel’s strategic position in the Middle East.

Who is saying that the US is “all powerful”? Why must every statement be caricatured?

And that's simply my point. US one actor, the largest, and Russia is another, China another and the local countries are also. — ssu

They’re of differing power and influence. So “ one actor” is true, but not “Just” one actor.

Yet many indeed think it's very bad, like Noam Chomsky. — ssu

Often very bad, yes.

you don't have to be a dissident, you can support your country when it does something good. — ssu

Do you really think being a dissent means never supporting something your country does that’s good?

What is going on with you? What’s with these odd strawmen?

Not saying, I am breathing, not counting breaths or focusing on the breathing. These too are the story. — ENOAH

No it isn’t. No more a story than “being breathing,” which is just a hokey phrase. Just look at whatever you feel or think, try to sustain that awareness with equanimity. That’s all.

I really dislike when people sentimentalize meditation.

Does anyone even listen to this Trump cultist anymore? Lol.

Eh, whatever. Carry on; you’re doing God’s work changing everyone’s minds about the degenerate, pornstar-fucking con man. :up:

It’s just free market principles at play. :wink:

Is this a joke or are you really just incapable of understanding the fairly simple idea?
— Mikie
All those interventions, including the theoretical ones aren't fairly simple. — ssu

That’s not the idea I’m referring to.

Secondly, it's not a world where first the US acts and then everybody else responds. The US is just one player among others, even if it is a big player. — ssu

You really have no idea how the world works, in that case.

Yeah, it’s nice to pretend to have special knowledge about international affairs, that everybody is being too “simplistic” and you alone see the true complexity — but leaving stupid bullshit aside for a moment: the United States is by far the world’s superpower and has been for decades, beginning only now to be rivaled by China. Their influence militarily, economically, and politically (in the UN and otherwise) is enormous. Any scholar worth a damn will know this.

So yes, the US is one player, and a major one, shaping world affairs. That’s not being “US-centric,” it’s being realistic. Moreover, nearly any country in the world — including Russia and China — know this to be true, and their leaders have said so.

Is the US a “bully”? If this fails under “a narrative” in your mind, then you can be easily ignored.

I just realized Ethel Kennedy is still alive. How is that possible? Wow…

RFK got killed in 1968 and they already had 11 kids.

Don Poorleone

Haha— never heard that one before. Made me chuckle a little, especially after just watching the Godfather.

strategic interest — RogueAI

Exactly.

:rofl:

Yes yes, whatever you say. Now please continue using your “extensive” historical knowledge to justify genocide. :up:

I can guarantee I know history in this region better than you. — BitconnectCarlos

:rofl: Wow! Good job!

Keep the jokes comin’, please.

Read. Your. History. — BitconnectCarlos

:rofl:

Zionism is decolonization. — BitconnectCarlos

:grin: Okay buddy.

Since I notice no people at all falling down stairs, I have to ask: Does Mikie live or work in a building with exceptionally perilous stairwells? — Vera Mont

:lol:

Touché.

That is the point: without US support, Ukraine, Korea, Vietnam, the Iraqi government, Israel, etc., wouldn’t have lasted too long. US support is crucial. Okay, then we ask: so what? Given this fact, the further question is: Why Korea and Ukraine and Israel or Nicaragua, but not Sudan or East Timor or Nigeria or Haiti?
— Mikie

So what?
What do you have against K-Pop? Of having South Korean electronic gadgets and cars? Of them being wealthy and not on the verge of famine? — ssu

Is this a joke or are you really just incapable of understanding the fairly simple idea?

Here is a large report that explains some of the tipping points and what we might expect and what we ought to be doing about it politically. It's fairly up to date, and well researched. Seems mightily optimistic to me about the ability/possibility for human society to find its own transformative positive tipping points in terms of world governance and mitigating technologies and lifestyle adaptation. But hope springs 'til the last minute. — unenlightened

Thanks for the reference. Very interesting.

And they have here the agency. We are just giving them support. What's so wrong with that. — ssu

Nothing wrong with supporting people against aggression. The question is: why these people and not others?

So what's your point? — ssu

That is the point: without US support, Ukraine, Korea, Vietnam, the Iraqi government, Israel, etc., wouldn’t have lasted too long. US support is crucial. Okay, then we ask: so what? Given this fact, the further question is: Why Korea and Ukraine and Israel or Nicaragua, but not Sudan or East Timor or Nigeria or Haiti?

Because it’s somehow in the interest of the United States to intervene or militarily support some countries and not others.

Therefore determining exactly what those interests are is what’s essential. And when we look into that a little bit, it’s not pretty.

It's not just the US fighting a war through it's proxy. — ssu

I didn’t say “Just” meaning ONLY. That’s the big picture. On the ground, it seems much different— it’s Ukrainians fighting for their country against an illegal invasion. No one doubts that.

But do notice that Europe combined has actually given more than the US. — ssu

So Ukraine should be doing just fine without American weaponry. Even discounting training and the fact that NATO is essentially run by the US.

Come on— let’s at least admit that without US support, Ukraine wouldn’t have lasted too long. That doesn’t prove my contention about the causes of the war— just seems a basic fact.

Statement of opinion, no reason for your opinions given in this paragraph. — Sir2u

No, a descriptive statement based on experience. You know, an “observation.” But it’s hilarious you think it’s an “opinion” that needs “reasons.”

“I notice a lot of people are falling down stairs.”

“That’s your opinion! What are your REASONS for this opinion? Not an argument!”

Good lord.

About wankers that have taken an introduction to philosophy course in high school and thought that the 5 ideas they got from reading about ten philosophers were the only ones that counted and everyone else was dumb because they did not agree with them. — Sir2u

Cool.

If you did not have your head stuck so far up your arse that you can lick your own cerebellum you might have responded more reasonably when I posted this. — Sir2u

I did— I had a laugh, thinking it was a joke. When you started going on about it, I was quickly disabused of that notion.

Try to read the room a little better. This rant piece is me offering an observation and, yes, an argument. It’s very personal and not meant to be taken too seriously. Yes, of course not everyone uses the phrase wrong. Yes, the definition I offer for “argument” isn’t the final word on the matter. Yes, it doesn’t really annoy me as much as I let on — that’s just a little humor, you see. Etc.

Why anyone would choose to turn a goofy post (in the lounge) about people over-using a phrase into a “serious” academic discussion is beyond me. But you do you. I’ll give you the last word if you like— that’s all I have to say.

one cannot colonise the land to which one is indigenous to. — BitconnectCarlos

Yeah I’m sure every American will gladly give up their home and property if and when Native Americans declare it to be theirs. (Despite having a much more convincing claim than Zionists).

IOW, almost a genocide! — RogueAI

Yeah, we all get that you have no clue what genocide means. How hilarious that 10,000 dead children would be considered such. Everything must be genocide— or nothing must be.

Everything is genocide — BitconnectCarlos

obviously genocide — RogueAI

10,000 children murdered after decades of living in an Israeli-made concentration camp. But definitely not genocide, because — again — Israel doesn’t do that. :up:

That's the most compelling argument I've read today. — Vera Mont

That one was more of a statement. An encouragement, if you will. As in, “I encourage you to fuck off and to stick your nonsense up your ass.”

But I agree it’s compelling.

I asked because I read you as saying that the 2008 interpretation was finally the correct and original interpretation, which I disagree with. — tim wood

Okay— my wording was ambiguous. It should have read: many people think the 2nd amendment gives everyone the right to a gun, and that this is what it has always meant— but really it was only (re)-interpreted this way in 2008.

That's it? What the Ukrainians wanted has nothing to do with it? — jorndoe

Ukraine wouldn’t have lasted a month without US involvement.

If you seriously doubt this is a proxy war, you really don’t have a clue about what’s happening.

Of course what Ukrainians want is important. What the Sudanese want is important. I just don’t see the US caring much about the latter.

My invitation to you was for you to make the bridge, not to refer me to a video. — tim wood

Your question was poorly worded. What “bridge”? There is no bridge. What the fuck are you talking about?

And original intent is in itself absurd. — tim wood

No kidding. The Heller decision was awful. As was Bruen. What’s the point?

Yes, and I do deeply hate and blame the organization that is currently conducting a genocide and has said repeatedly it wants to ethnically cleanse Gaza.

And on and on we go. Maybe one day you’ll wake the fuck up.

Hamas — BitconnectCarlos

Exactly. Just blame Hamas.

We had to turn Gaza into a concentration camp and murder 10s of thousands of innocent people — because Hamas.

Iran launched a broad aerial attack on Israel from its territory on Saturday, in retaliation for a deadly Israeli airstrike in early April on the Iranian Embassy complex in Damascus, the Israeli military and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps said.

Just before 2 a.m. local time, air-raid sirens sounded across southern Israel. The government sent out dozens of warnings about possible missiles and aircraft arriving in the Negev Desert, where there are several military bases.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/13/world/israel-iran-gaza-war-news

This can’t be great. Another bonehead move by Israel.

Scalia's reading of the 2A as guaranteeing a right to guns for self-defense is simply a brutal misreading of the plain English of its 27 words - as well as the intentions of the founders. And one wonders why he did it. — tim wood

And why did the other four go along?

To insist on zero civilian deaths — BitconnectCarlos

Nope. Some is expected. 10,000 children? No.

Otherwise we have what the something like the OP is and claims to be against, just a bunch of statements. — Sir2u

So at first I thought you were joking— now I realize you’re exactly the kind of goofball I was talking about. You actually come here and say “saying that’s not an argument is annoying when it’s misused is not an argument.”

Actually, it is. Yes, it’s also a rant post, but there are reasons given: people improperly use the phrase for anything they don’t understand or don’t agree with, basically to sound smart. I’ve encountered it many times. When people do that, it’s annoying. That’s my “argument.” It’s not word salad, and it’s not ONLY “I hate when people say xyz.”

Not more complicated than that. You seem to be struggling with it, but it’s likely because you often employ the phrase yourself and take offense to the OP. Too bad. Don’t like it, feel free to fuck off.

There are 400 million+ guns in America. It's easy for criminals to get their hands on one. Law-abiding citizens should have access to guns to counter the threat and that requires gun manufacturers. — RogueAI

Was this copy-and-pasted from the NRA?

I invite you to be the very first to build the bridge that connects the 2A with any modern interpretation of it. — tim wood

This is interesting…

I think that's why Bibi's initial reaction to the attack was so extreme. This was certainly no blessing. — Tzeentch

A blessing for their long-sought desire. But the reality is clearly different, yes. Like making themselves a pariah.

Did you hear about the 14 year Israeli shepherd boy abducted and murdered in the West Bank yesterday? — BitconnectCarlos

Hey did you hear about the 10,000 children murdered the past few months? Oh yeah, you only care when it’s an Israeli kid. :up:

You have no good response to this one. — BitconnectCarlos

:lol: Delusional, as always. But great job plugging your ears along with your eyes.

Are you an American, Mikie? Would you be a fair target for a terrorist angry at America's actions? — BitconnectCarlos

No, see I’m the one against killing innocent civilians.

You’re in favor of it— provided, of course, it’s done with good intentions.

It's not a proxy war to them — ssu

I’m sure the Greek communists didn’t think so either. Or the Vietnamese. So what?