...

I would do this in a heartbeat if I didn't have family plans right up until game-time.

The Coneheads are from France. The place can't be all that bad.

I did say at the time. Today, yes, the price is down, but if just the US government alone would alter its stance on energy and fossil fuels to support that industry, especially while the $pb remains low, stock would fly off the shelves. As I said earlier, the return on investment would be world-history changing in magnitude.

Well, hell's bells, if you're going to outlaw arguments, I vote to outlaw the ridiculous "climate change" argument. All in favour? Autos kill people and pollute the environment. What more reasons do you want? Those are the same reasons for gun control. Oh, wait, I forgot some reasons: even crazy, poorly educated people can access autos. And, autos create power disparities between people.

For Iraq, at the time, the idea was to leverage its greatest export: oil. You seed the economy there, help them manage it, and add funds where necessary.

I'm quotong it for posterity. Excellent contribution.

Just a joke.

@sizzlemeister: Bogo injured during morning skate, out another 6-8 weeks.

It's not unlike the death of Princess Diana. We may hear of other prominent people dying, but nothing sends the media off the rails like a pop culture darling. The media didn't go wall-to-wall bonkers when Harry Blackstone Jr. died the same year.

In a good or bad way?

Obviously ridiculous. Those refugees are innocent pawns and a distraction from the real players. So what only 70% (or more) of the refugees are men of military age. They don't need scrutinizing, they need free XBoxes and Starbucks gift cards. That'll show 'em we mean no harm. Like offering a gluten-free breakfast bar to a lioness. Anyway, given recent history there is no reason not to take the threats seriously. It's too late for the countries that are too PC and hypnotized to have isolated the refugees they accepted, or who don't take immigration and borders seriously. Those countries will have to back-track and find every person they let in, and thoroughly vet them, at the very least. As long as they can forgive themselves for being judgmental while they do so, and appearing to prefer their own citizens' welfare to that of complete strangers. Which is mighty Christian of them, a fact which on its own must cause traumatizing intellectual dissonance.

I doubt you'll find much opposition to this idea. What seems to be the stumbling block is HOW you accomplish this. You're not just going to saunter into town and start fixing things and earning karma points. Little kids get their arms cut off in African countries after the UN or missionaries administer inoculations. Iraqi homes are invaded, and a patriarch has his face peeled off with a wire for cooperating with the US forces. Before you lay the groundwork for "a better life" you need to remove the fear that pursuing "a better life" will result in torture and death. And that's assuming the natives think what we'd bring is better for them. To us it's a no-brainer, but not every belief system thinks ultra- materialism and spiritual vapidity equals "a better life".

More people die from automobiles, you know. It's a popular Internet search term. I don't have the exact number handy, but a quick estimate is something like 1.8 million auto related deaths since 1968. Also, over half the gun related death total is a result of suicide. If they didn't have a gun available, would they still be alive? But, whatever. Guns are bad, guns are evil. No one but the government should have guns. Yeehaw.

I wouldn't want to give up an asset now unless the player coming back is expected to be a contributing part of the team for the next 4 years or so. I think McCabe is a keeper for that period, so, it's going to have to be a forward if the trade has to happen.

I will grant you the general theme of this post; the Allies definitely were short-sited coming out of WWI and those European nations had zero respect for the history of the ME when they went meddling in there following the war. That theme carried over to WWII as well.

It would be far better than winning the Cold War, in my estimation. It would be among the greatest historical achievements in the world, akin to winning the Revolutionary War, or the establishment of the Ming dynasty.

ISIS and Al-Qaeda are the very definition of radicalized people. They "chose" us because we are that from which all things cool and groovy emanate. If the USA falls, the remaining western nations will have a difficult time withstanding radical Islamist al-harb. If we fall to them, at worst, they block us from helping our allies. At best, they use us against our allies. It's chess, except that instead of removing the queen from the board if you take her, you can use the captured queen as an offensive weapon.

We gave the Jews Israel after WWII. After that, we fundamentally left the ME alone. We may have provided support for Israel, we may have meddled in Iranian politics, we may have sat by while various ME scrums played out, and we may have propped up Saddam Hussein. But no big weaponry until the Gulf War as far as I recall. Our problem is that we're the mecca for apostates, and, again, we created Israel. And, of course, they could point to all of the tinkering we had done in the region. But, I don't see why you asked the question.

I'm going to solve this for y'all... "radicalized people" is now the subject as presented by eastside. "Them" here is referring to "radicalized people", the subject as presented by eastside. JJ is asking how it makes sense to play the peace card first with radical terrorist types. They are not discussing "different people", they have been discussing "radicalized people". Prior to this, it seemed both parties understood who they were referring to, which is probably ISIS and Al-Qaeda types. I don't believe either radicalized peoples would welcome us to help develop and educate them (unless, of course, they used it as a way to gain access to us for Jihad). We had gone in there, trying to be nicey nice while hunting down radical Islam. The problem is that the locals are so terrified of the radicals, that invariably the locals turn on us. It almost worked in Iraq, until we pulled out too early. The people in Iraq were trying to side with us. At the moment we pulled out, the delicate balance was gone. You think they would trust us again with radicals still on the prowl? No, we would have to demonstrate to the locals we mean business first. We would have throw away the rules of engagement manual and kill terrorists. Our work is twice as difficult now thanks to pulling out early and not leaving any presence. Improving their education and improving their economy are a loooonnng way off. Many acts of terror will happen between the beginning of any sincere engagement in the ME and actually making a difference to the peaceful people there.

I'm sure you are.

They killed 3000 of our people in one day on our soil. Prior to that they killed hundreds of our people in foreign lands. They have killed hundreds, if not at this point, over a thousand, of our allies people. This is within our modern era. They threaten the safety and stability of the planet. They have laid down the gauntlet several times over. There is justification in my opinion. I do not want what happened in France to happen in NYC, or Nashville, or even Toronto. I think France would be right there with us.

It's an important tangent, not so much for the content, but as an illustration of how we will tear ourselves apart. All any opposing force has to do is keep the argument going. It's like a Polish family on Thanksgiving day.

How you would characterize our relationship with the Japanese and Germans today?

There is nothing more stopping a black family from getting out of the ghetto than what is stopping a white family from getting out of the ghetto. The only difference is the race-hustlers playing the black folk, and all the black folk have to do is ignore the race-husters. In fact, a black family has access to more tools to elevate their situation than does a white family. And God bless 'em, we owe that to 'em.

I don't go in that time-sink very much at all. Our discussion will end here on the matter. If what I said doesn't appeal to you, then we are among the schism'd and are contributing to the downfall of our country.