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There’s got to be some reasonable middle ground between asking Hamas nicely, which won’t work the way a perfect world would like, and genociding Gazans out of existence, which won’t work the way Israel hopes it will.

Yeah, I don't know what else Israel could have done in response to a single terrorist attack other than bomb Gaza into rubble and kill some 30,000 people and displace a million others so far, mostly civilians, along the way. Sure, the offensive will create more Muslim radicals, but hey, that's not our problem since we didn't start the war and have no involvement in it, and besides, that just means Israel gets to kill the new ones, too.

Old, Canada!

Percentage of people living below poverty line in South Asia: I did not expect to see under 15% in India. Probably not an American definition of poverty.

Let's revive this. Forest coverage by state: Did you know this about Mississippi and Alabama? I didn't. Also, a quarter of Arizona is forest?

Here's something from today in CNN, just today. https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2024/02/middleeast/israel-bombing-family-gaza-investigation-intl-cmd/ Here's something from Amnesty International, a non-Palestinian organization, earlier this month: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/israel-opt-new-evidence-of-unlawful-israeli-attacks-in-gaza-causing-mass-civilian-casualties-amid-real-risk-of-genocide/ This is an opinion from an Israeli journalist published in a newspaper published in Israel in Hebrew and targeted to Israelis—you'll need to provide your email address to read the whole thing: https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-12-28/ty-article-opinion/.premium/sanctifying-the-indiscriminate-killing-in-gaza-is-israels-second-defeat/0000018c-ace3-d22d-a3dd-bdfbb0fe0000 Will this do?

Makes sense. Back then you had to be a soldier if you wanted to get laid! 😂

We had a Jack in the Box right near us when I was a kid, on Hoover just south of 13. And right around the corner, on 13 just east of Hoover, was a Hardee’s, then a Taco Bell went into that space sometime in the mid-seventies. I guess down Hoover just south of 11 Mile, there’s a Del Taco. I don’t know what it is about that stretch of road that attracts so many seemingly one-offs from west coast chains.

I know! 😅

I wonder how much of this is lifestage versus generation, i.e., kids across the eras coming into the workforce and doing the bare minimum, then straightening up as get older and they mature. I seem to remember most of my fellow young boomers being ****-arounds when we were all working at Dinos Pizzas and Burger Chefs and Perry Drugs and Chatham supermarkets, and back then, so was I.

This might be related to the idea that the louder it is in the bar or restaurant, the less customers talk because they can’t hear well so they fill the time by eating and drinking instead, so the more food and drink the establishment sells. Obviously it can be overdone, too. I remember a few years ago meeting my brother for dinner and he chose a ramen place. I walked in a little after six and the music was at inexplicably ear-splitting volume. My brother shows up a few minutes later. We shouted pleasantries at each other for maybe two minutes, then the waitress comes by and shouts something at us. I’m not totally sure what she said, but given the context of the moment, my guess is that she was asking us whether we wanted to order something. I shouted to my brother that this was too much, shouted an apology to the waitress, who shouted back “What!?”, so we left and went to a place across the street. We were the only customers in the ramen place when we departed.

This would’ve been even funnier if you had quoted the whole thing!

Fair point on GDP. Saudi Arabia is higher overall on GDP, about double, although less than half per capita of Israel. Qatar is higher per capita, but less than half of Israel overall. Israel is higher on both than the rest of them, including UAE. Source and source. What Israel has that none of the rest of them have is the full and mostly unquestioned backing of the government of the United States, which is willing to plow billions in resources into Israel to maintain their position in the Middle East. So, it's not as though they are the Little State That Could all on their own out there. It's also a fair point that Israel has to have the military it does, due to existential threats to them arising from the establishment of their state in a region in which they were unwelcome from the start, and undertaken due not to claims to the area recent at the time of its establishment, but apparently on a claim based on an ancient text of disputed provenance. The fact is, though, that regardless of how they got to this point, they are seen by the majority of the world as little bullies throwing their weight around with the biggest bully in the world egging them on. That's not how I personally or emotionally characterize them. That's how they are objectively seen. And given the way they are currently slaughtering Gazan civilians indiscriminately along with the fighters, and have been routinely running Palestinians off their land so they can put up exclusive settlements, I think it's a tall order to expect the rest of the world to root them on.

Maybe it's also because Israel is the wealthiest and most powerful nation with the greatest military might in the Middle East, a nation that has traditionally enjoyed the full and nearly unquestioned backing of the wealthiest and most powerful nation with the greatest military might on the planet. Of whom much has been given, much is expected. Of course Israel has a right to defend itself, and even to avenge the heinous terrorist act that precipitated all this. But remember, too, that a little more than two decades ago, when their benefactor was also the victim of a heinous terrorist attack, and then that nation went on a two-decade rampage slaughtering people, including civilians, all over the Middle East, very little of the rest of the world stood up and applauded for that as well. Very few people root for Goliath.

Given how much the Gaza War is succeeding in pulling people even further apart, I gotta wonder how many people sharing super strong and angrily partisan opinions—maybe this El-Kurd guy, for instance—are also getting paid in rubles.

How could you tell they were Muslim?

If it's economics you're talking about, then you are wildly underestimating the power of each and every state in the Union. There are 213 nations whose GDP is measured by entities such as the IMF, World Bank, and United Nations. If every state's economy were a nation unto itself, every single state, bar none, would be in the Top 100 worldwide. Even last-place Vermont would rank just ahead of #99 Estonia and just behind #98 Paraguay.

Technically, it’s catch it with one hand and then time the other to cup the ball and secure it in the first hand. It’s the lack of that timing that leads to most bare-handed drops.

If Chapman were fine with a shorter term higher per season deal, he’d of been signed in December.

The another thing I try to remember is that the primary process provides the luxury of casting a grandstanding vote within a forum in which the cost of doing so is so low as to be basically nonexistent, and where the benefit is social media fame. That’s not so true of the general election, and come November, I would expect that all these grandstanders will cast their vote in a serious manner, with the possible exception of one high-profile newsmaker in Congress.

Remember the old board? There were a high percentage of posters there who loudly and proudly copped to being Libertarian. It definitely seemed a lot cooler back before people came to understand exactly what a Libertarian system would entail. Libertarianism is great for people born on third base who believe their government’s sole job should be to prevent anyone from blocking the plate.

I heard him stumble across a word once …

In her defense, having an impactful vice president is not always, perhaps not even usually, a good thing. Ask me about a guy named Cheney some time.

This is why I’ve written in Michelle Obama the last few elections: Illinois is already in the bag for the Democrats because at the end of the day, the Constitution requires each state to throw out the votes of every citizen who showed up to cast them, then select as few as three people to replace them, and give these people the power—nay, the requirement—to cast 100% of the only votes in the entire state that count for a one candidate or the other. Stupid ****ing slavery.

Shoulda wrote: lol “literally”