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  • That's awesome....Also do they really have name cards in front of them? lol...
  • Only when Rick Perry is part of the meeting. ;)
  • So, the headline that's making the rounds is that America has now "formally ended the war in Afghanistan." Of course, this end is formal and nothing more. We have no plans of actually leaving. In the DoD press release I read, Hagel quite clearly states that this is only the end of Operation Enduring Freedom, and that a new mission is beginning in Afghanistan immediately after. This is Bush's "Mission Accomplished" all over again. I realize I'm preaching to the choir here, but it really pisses me off how we keep declaring that our wars are over, and then continuing to fight them.
  • Greg said:

    We have no plans of actually leaving.

    It's one thing to say "the enemy is still there," but I would leave this part out. We still have a strategic presence in most countries we've been involved with: Germany, Japan, South Korea, Iraq. The US will always keep a "thanks for the help" foothold in Afghanistan, if only to help it stage its resources around the globe.

  • Matt said:

    Greg said:

    We have no plans of actually leaving.

    It's one thing to say "the enemy is still there," but I would leave this part out. We still have a strategic presence in most countries we've been involved with: Germany, Japan, South Korea, Iraq. The US will always keep a "thanks for the help" foothold in Afghanistan, if only to help it stage its resources around the globe.

    Pretty much.
  • Is that work classified as a mission, though? The Afghanistan thing has a Operation something or other name.
  • Shit, you get bases here, and all you started on our soil was a fucking race riot and a syphilis outbreak.
  • edited December 2014
    Churba said:

    Shit, you get bases here, and all you started on our soil was a fucking race riot and a syphilis outbreak.

    You're welcome.
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • Matt said:

    Greg said:

    We have no plans of actually leaving.

    It's one thing to say "the enemy is still there," but I would leave this part out.
    What enemy? Who is a threat to us? The people who are hostile there are hostile because we are there. They wouldn't attack us if we left them alone.
    Matt said:

    We still have a strategic presence in most countries we've been involved with: Germany, Japan, South Korea, Iraq.

    And you consider this a good thing?
    Matt said:

    The US will always keep a "thanks for the help" foothold in Afghanistan, if only to help it stage its resources around the globe.

    Why? Afghanistan is a war zone, and we should be doing everything we can to stay away from war zones.
  • Greg said:

    And you consider this a good thing?

    No opinion. I am just here to be pedantic on an internet forum.

  • Greg said:

    Matt said:

    Greg said:

    We have no plans of actually leaving.

    It's one thing to say "the enemy is still there," but I would leave this part out.
    What enemy? Who is a threat to us? The people who are hostile there are hostile because we are there. They wouldn't attack us if we left them alone.
    Doubtful because we've already poked them, a lot. The amount of anger present could lead to attacks at embassies or other military bases - see USS Cole and the '98 embassy attacks.
  • Banta said:

    Greg said:

    Matt said:

    Greg said:

    We have no plans of actually leaving.

    It's one thing to say "the enemy is still there," but I would leave this part out.
    What enemy? Who is a threat to us? The people who are hostile there are hostile because we are there. They wouldn't attack us if we left them alone.
    Doubtful because we've already poked them, a lot. The amount of anger present could lead to attacks at embassies or other military bases - see USS Cole and the '98 embassy attacks.
    We can militarize the embassies. Such a threat does not call for a full military occupation. As for the other military bases, I'm against having them in the first place.
  • What is the deal with those massive fires is Australia? Do you guys have a forestry service that manages your forests and clears out deadwood and the like to prevent fuel buildup?
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus
    Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable (ignited trees have been known to explode);
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus

    Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable (ignited trees have been known to explode);
    Even more proof that everything in Australia is designed to be lethal to humans.
  • edited January 2015
    HMTKSteve said:

    What is the deal with those massive fires is Australia? Do you guys have a forestry service that manages your forests and clears out deadwood and the like to prevent fuel buildup?

    image

    Lackofcheese already covered a large part of it, but you're also half right. We do have a forestry service who does monitor and maintain as much as they can, but there's a problem of scale - we just have that much bush that it's practically impossible to monitor completely, let alone manage and clear.

    This current blaze in SA is 13,000 hectares(and spreading). That's relatively small(at the moment), for our yearly fires - roughly the same time last year, we had the Gippsland fires, which ended up burning 166,000 hectares - about 640 square miles. Basically, if half-and-a-bit of New York City burned down. 2009 fires were four times that size again.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • edited January 2015
    The offices of French Satire and reportage magazine Charlie Hebdo have just been attacked. Twelve dead at this time, Nine journalists, two police officers, at least one cartoonist. Five injured, including the Cartoonist Charb, who famously ended up on the AQ most wanted list for drawing cartoons about Mohammed. Attackers rolled in with pump-actions and Kalashnikovs, videos confirm automatic gunfire and attackers shouting "Allahu akbar". AFP reports that attackers were also shouting "We have Avenged the prophet."
    Post edited by Churba on
  • Ralph Steadman speaks about Charlie Hebdo. Brings up several interesting points. I liked his observation about "responsible satirists" making sure that something is not only offensive but also funny. I liked the bit the author brought up about the anarchist cartoonist who was fired for submitting a cartoon offensive to Jews. I don't really know what to think of it as a whole, besides interesting.

    And related reading: the historical background to depictions of Muhammed.
  • http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_OBIT_KING_ABDULLAH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

    I was going to copy and paste but ap has some bullshit that prevents copy and paste. King of Saudi Arabia dead at 90.
  • Oh snap.
  • HMTKSteve said:

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_OBIT_KING_ABDULLAH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

    I was going to copy and paste but ap has some bullshit that prevents copy and paste.

    I was able to copy and paste it just fine.
  • Maybe it only impacts people using a mobile browser?
  • edited February 2015
    So Greece recently brought into power the left-wing Syriza party, which promised to bring an end to austerity in Greece.

    Instead, it looks like they are playing chicken with Germany over their debt (which doesn't matter), and they didn't saw off their steering wheel first.

    I don't see this ending well for Syriza, or Greece: either they have to eat their words, or go into default and get kicked from the Euro. I don't see much of a middle ground.
    Post edited by Banta on
  • Yet again the media is misleading people. Case in point, the recent $300M budget cut (over two years so $150M per year) proposed by Scott Walker in Wisconsin targeted at the school university system. It is widely being reported as a 13% budget cut which it both is and is not because the reporting does not differentiate between the University budget and the state funded portion of their budget.

    After digging through the University financial statements the 13% reduction in state funds for the university is only a 2.5% reduction in the Universities budget of just under $6B.
  • The Chairman of the FCC proposes new rules for the Internet to ensure Net Neutrality!

    wired.com/2015/02/fcc-chairman-wheeler-net-neutrality

    Title II baby!

    I wish he had gone further and proposed unbundling of the last mile to promote more competition.
  • The last mile was unbundled via the telecom act of 1996. Is there some new meaning to unbundling the last mile I am ignorant of?
  • HMTKSteve said:

    The last mile was unbundled via the telecom act of 1996. Is there some new meaning to unbundling the last mile I am ignorant of?

    I could be wrong, but the last mile was only unbundled for dial-up "copper wire" access. Maybe I wasn't clear enough, but what I meant to say is that I wish the FCC had gone farther and allowed more last mile competition on cable as well.

  • As someone who works in the last mile network I can assure you that on the telecom side the copper loop is unbundled. Cable is different because there is no real last mile loop or central office. I suppose they could put a competitors router in their office and split the traffic off at that point but cable has a shared architecture on the local loop side while telephony has a private local loop.
  • Obviously you know more about this than I do, but I guess what I'd like to see is a system more like the UK's and the Netherlands where there is more competition and cheaper prices.
  • HMTKSteve said:

    The last mile was unbundled via the telecom act of 1996. Is there some new meaning to unbundling the last mile I am ignorant of?

    TFA said:

    there will be no rate regulation, no tariffs, no last-mile unbundling.

    Wait, so what is he proposing exactly?
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