The Glade 4.0

Glad we were able to finally "prevent a massacre". Can we stop lobbing ordnance onto Libya now and bring everyone home?

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Dropping ordnance on a country through hundreds of air strikes is not 'preventing a massacre', there is something very 1984-ish about our officials calling it that. It worries me that they would use similar language to justify some kind of domestic action.

That's never happened in this section of the world before, why would it start now?

This is, literally, how I editorialized the first few lines of Obama's speech today, in real time.


Now, it can be ruled by somebody else's iron fist.


Like trials for the accused.


The new regime has decided to skip the detaining and beating. We applaud them for it.


By assassinating their rivals and opponents.


Now, we get a young, untested dictator to rise to power in what may turn out to be a bloody struggle to the top!

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Damn it Kaffis, would you put the rose colored glasses back on. You just haven't been the same since you found out you were only worth two chezburgrz,

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

It was a revelatory moment.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

It's great that we're seeing Obama be so successful on all the important issues and all. yes we can!

I don't know whether to laugh at the sarcasm or cry at the truth of this statement. Is it possible to do both.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/ ... 0-17-07-21



Wait, wait, I thought blood for oil was a bad bad thing under Bush? But Blood for oil is just dandy if its a UN action?

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"Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky."
— Alan Moore

Because effect clearly indicates motive.

I'm not stating that that WASN'T a motive. Just that the above effect in no way implies that the reason countries were involved.

and why Syria can continue to massacre its civilians in peace. If I ever where a dictator let it be of the least strategically, economically useful **** hole! No one would care who I raped and killed then!

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"Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky."
— Alan Moore

I find your ideas intriguing, and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

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That is called South America and the Far East.

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Don't forget sierra leone, darfur, and Tibet! *cue waccko Warner singing*

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Of course none of those countries have blown up civilian airliners or were suspected of having a nuclear weapon program.

Cool so when do we shift from Libya to Iran?

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

And to put it into perspective:

Starting at about $30-40/barrel, oil sands become profitable. Some estimates say that Canada's oil sands (and Venezuela's oil sands, as well) contain more oil reserves than all of the conventional oil reserves in the world combined. The hard part is ramping up the quantity of production.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
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To some degree we have already. But the situations are not comparable no matter how much you want to try to sell them as such.

A) Iran is a republic
B) Iran's popular opinion is with its leadership. taking out the leadership of Iran will not lead to regime change, only a lot of pissed off Iranians.

Ahh, the sound of lib ligaments stretching to the point of snapping in defense of The Chosen One.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

A) Iran's ultimate center of power is Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i, the official "Supreme Leader of Iran", not the so-called elected "President," figurehead Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even then, the elections are a sham. The Ayatollah merely selects someone who will parrot clerical policy. There is zero chance of the elections putting in someone the Ayatollah does not approve of (as shown in the last elections in Iran, where the public overwhelmingly reelected Ahmadinejad with zero public support.)

B) The popular opinion of Iran is that its leadership should all be shot. The average iranian is under 30 years old, has internet access, and is very secularly-minded. (Note that this does not mean the Iranian public wants an American invasion. They dislike America as much as they dislike their leadership, perhaps even more so.)

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

So, Vind, is it your view that the Iranian political situation is substantially similar to the situation in Libya just prior to our intervention there? Do you actually disagree with TheRiov's point, or are you just speculating on his motive for making it?

My view is that hearing neocon apologetics spring from mouths that are more used to producing exclamations about "bombing brown people" and "no war for oil" strains credulity.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

I think you're missing a very important point. Libyan rebels had taken territory. That gives NATO something to work with. Some place to drop supplies, some place to defend from Ghadaffi. The Syrian rebels hold no territory. There's nothing for NATO to support.

The two situations are wildly different, and that has nothing to do with oil.

I challenge you to find where I've stated either of those things. In fact, a search of my posts will mention exactly 3 posts with the word 'oil' --one in gaming, two where I quote someone else, (one of which agreeing with one of Ron Paul's stated position)

I think some states should secede from the united states and when Washington sends troops, Iran should bomb them.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

I challenge you to find where I've stated that you've stated either of those things. Gee, that was fun.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko