You must have an enemy

[Luce]

I mean, in my opinion, we have been in exactly two justifiable wars since the end of the war of 1812, which would be world war two and the Korean war.

On the Iraq thing, our adventures allowed ISIS to become a threat, by creating a power vacuum.

[sexobon]

You gonna punch him in the head?

Punch him in the head! How crude.

Through the town, we are stalkin'
ISIS recruit, while he's walkin'
A first round kill from the top of a hill
Walking in a sniper wonderland

Or in his dwelling we could plant a time bomb
And we'd set it to go off at twelve
He'd be leaving in a million pieces
When it goes and blows him all to Heh, eh, e...

Later on, we may conspire
Instead to set his place on fire
We'll laugh as he cries
While we burn him alive

Walking in a sniper wonderland

[henry quirk]

.

[sexobon]

For bein' stupid?

plug him after he joins, not before

Either way.

If Allah wills that he be ISIS, he'll survive it.

If he dies, it's because Allah decided he was too stupid to live anyway.

[henry quirk]

Originally Posted by sexobon

Either way.

If Allah wills that he be ISIS, he'll survive it.

If he dies, it's because Allah decided he was too stupid to live anyway.

HA!

[henry quirk]

Originally Posted by sexobon

Punch him in the head! How crude.

Through the town, we are stalkin'
ISIS recruit, while he's walkin'
A first round kill from the top of a hill
Walking in a sniper wonderland

Or in his dwelling we could plant a time bomb
And we'd set it to go off at twelve
He'd be leaving in a million pieces
When it goes and blows him all to Heh, eh, e...

Later on, we may conspire
Instead to set his place on fire
We'll laugh as he cries
While we burn him alive

Walking in a sniper wonderland

[Undertoad]

"Last time we waited for them to behave" is a case for more foreign intervention. There are power vacuums all over the place, and Nazis of different stripes all over the place.

Kosovo was certainly defensible from that perspective

[henry quirk]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

"Last time we waited for them to behave" is a case for more foreign intervention. There are power vacuums all over the place, and Nazis of different stripes all over the place.

Kosovo was certainly defensible from that perspective

When we *know a jackhole nation is gunnin' for us or our friends, actin' preemptively can be justfied. When we get all adventuristic that's when we screw up.









*not 'suspect', know...Iggy Rabinowitz: If you know someone is coming to kill you, get up early and go kill him first....know is a high standard and we ought to work hard to meet it, without exception

[BigV]

How about having your heart broken for a little bit today?

Here ya go.



From this story on NPR.ORG today. Very, very worthy.

As a school teacher in the small town of Riceville, Iowa, Elliott first conducted the anti-racism experiment on her all-white third-grade classroom, the day after the civil rights leader was killed.

She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people.

She says we're repeating this blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment every day.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That experiment is old, I first read about it at least a dozen years ago. Of course it's not an experiment any more, now it's an excellent teaching tool.

[Squawk]

I must admit I have hated successive Tory governments here in the UK, and continue to do so.

But I like the quote from the comic strip Pogo:

'We have met the enemy and he is us'

We have a strong tendency to repeat the mistakes of those before us, to blame others rather than ourselves, which reinforces our own sense of normality and self-justification. It is a lot easier to assign some other group as the enemy and offload on them than to deal with our own problems.

[footfootfoot]

To inject a humorous angle on this I'll reference Richard Herring (Here's the bit, the first 1:15)


"I chose to live my life by the motto 'My enemy's enemy is my friend.' Unfortunately, as it turns out, my enemy is his own worst enemy. So I have to invite him to barbecues and stuff. It's quite annoying because I don't really like him.


"It's doubly annoying because he lives his life by the motto, 'Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer.' I'm just helping him out there; it's an annoyance."

[Griff]

Ha! Brilliant.