Which POTUS started the war(s) in the first place? W. Bush. Which POTUS send billions upon billions of free military hardware to prop up a corrupt, coward, incompetent, puppet government? Trump.

Biden will own the absolutely hasty pull-out, though Biden ISN'T incorrect about unavoidable chaos. That's because the US -- AGAIN like most other American war adventures -- just pack up & left. In war, you either win, lose or negotiate an armistice to avoid a bloody and chaotic aftermath. You can't have an armistice with the Taliban because it wasn't - isn't - even a government entity. Biden was honest about the miscalculation about the speed of Afghanistan's fall to the Taliban at least. He said Intel couldn't imagine it'd be a matter of weeks but thought something like 90 days+? But that means crap because Intel said fall to the Taliban it WILL (i.e., an eventuality). So why the haste, where's the logistical & humanitarian planning? There is no justification for that strategic lapse. The major international criticism (100% valid IMO) is how Biden/America abandonned its own and allies' citizens & Afghan aides in a war torn country with little planning & time to get them out of the country BEFORE the military leave. And leaving all those military hardware intact to the Taliban? What the hell? I mean, what are the generals doing? Is American reverence of its President so total that you can't pushback and buy some time to plan for a better outcome? Or are they really THAT incompetent? What this fiasco shows is that Biden/Pentagon cares nothing BUT the military personel. That is f---ing it, no more, no less.

What we're witnessing in Afghanistan is arguably a collective American sin, not just Biden's. Most Americans want out, like it should've happened yesteryear. The US have been propping up its GDP by using endless wars to feed the mouths of the military industrial complex to sell hardware abroad. It's an addiction whether the Dem/GOP likes it or not. This is just another sad but typical American war history repeating itself again. It's America's military modus operandi. Want to apportion blame? Don't just blame it on Biden, there's plenty to go around: from the WH to the Senate, Pentagon and down to the "Almighty American Military Prowess' Sure Win" mentality in its people are all to blame.

Oh, rest assured that Republicans couldn't do better. Why? Because it's built into the American military DNA: arrogance & ignorance. That breeds blindness, making Intel useless - or worse - counterproductive because of the inherent lack of situational/cultural awareness. It's not really a political mistake, rather a huge military blunder.

It's a f---ing war crime to start a war and not knowing how to end it already. It's made worse that America collectively *think* it can "nation build" a vastly different (culturally, economically, socially, judicially... etc.) , and far away country by basically propping up a corrupt, dependant, puppet government and then leave, knowing (or EVEN worse, NOT knowing) the eventual outcomes. What a pathetic, cruel and deadly joke.

"...History repeats itself..."

Freedom of religion is independent of civilian armament.
History shows that religious persecution is normal for humanity, and in most cases it's perpetrated by the government. Sometimes to consolidate power (with government tie-ins to the main religion), and sometimes to pander to the grimace of a majority.

Ironically, in this country, freedom of religion only exists due to armed conflict, albeit merely as a side effect of independence from a religiously homogeneous ruling power.



It's true that Catalonians would likely have been shot at if they were armed.
However, likewise, the Spanish government will never grant the Catalans democracy so long as the Catalans are not armed - simply because it doesn't have to.
(*Barring self suicidal/sacrificial behavior on part of the Catalans that eventually [after much suffering] embarrasses the government into compliance - often under risk that 3rd parties will intervene if things continue)

When the government manufactures consent, it will be first in line to claim that people have democratic freedom. When the government fails to manufacture consent, it will crack down with force.

At the end of the day, in government, might makes right. Laws are only words on paper, the government's arms are what make the laws matter.

Likewise, democracy is no more than an idea. The people's force of arms (or threat thereof) is what assert's the people's dominance over the government.



You can say the police/military are stronger and it would never matter, however, the size of an [armed] population is orders of magnitude larger than the size of an army. Factor in the fact that the people need to cooperate with the government in order to support and supply the government's military. No government can withstand armed resistance of the population at large. This is one of the main lessons from The Prince.

Civilian armament is a bulwark against potentially colossal ills (albeit ills that come once every few generations).

Look at NK. The people get TV, radio, cell, from SK. They can look across the river and see massive cities on the Chinese side. They know they have to play along with the charade that their government demands. At the end of the day, without guns, things won't change.

Look at what happened during the Arab Spring. All these unarmed nations turned to external armed groups to fight for them to change their governments. All it accomplished was them becoming serfs to the invited 3rd parties. This is another lesson from The Prince : always take power by your own means, never rely on auxiliaries, because your auxiliaries will become your new rulers.






Below is general pontification. No longer a reply.
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Civilian armament does come with periodic tragedies. Those tragedies suck. But they're also much less significant than the risks of disarmament.
(Eg. School shootings, 7-11 robberies, etc -versus- Tamils vs Sri Lankan government, Rohingya vs Burmese government. etc.)

Regarding rifles specifically (all varieties combined), there is no point in arguing magnitudes (Around 400 lives per year - albeit taken in newsworthy large chunks). 'Falling out of bed' kills more people, same is true for 'Slip and fall'. No one fears their bed or a wet floor.

Pistols could go away and not matter much.
They have minimal militia utility, and they represent almost the entirety of firearms used in violent crime. (Albeit used to take lives in a non newsworthy 1 at a time manner)

(In the U.S.) If tragedy was the only way to die (otherwise infinite lifespan), you would live on average 9000 years. Guns, car crashes, drownings, etc. ~All tragedies included. (http://service.prerender.io/http://polstats.com/?_escaped_fragment_=/life#!/life)






A computer learning example I was taught:

Boy walking with his mom&dad down a path.
Lion #1 jumps out, eats his dad.
(Data : Specifically lion #1 eats his father.)
The boy and mom keep walking
Lion #2 jumps out, eats his mother.
(Data : Specifically lion #2 eats his mother)
The boy keeps walking
He comes across Lion #3.

Question : Should he be worried?

If you are going to generalize [the first two] lions and people, then yes, he should be worried.

In reality, lions may be very unlikely to eat people (versus say, a gazelle). But if you generalized from the prior two events, you will think they are dangerous.

(The relevance to computer learning is that : Computers learn racism, too. If you include racial data along with other data in a learning algorithm, that algorithm can and will be able to make decisions based on race. Not because the software cares - but because it can analyze and correlate.)

(Note : This is also why arguing religion is likely futile. If a child is raised being told that everything is as it is because God did it, then that becomes their basis for reality. Telling them that their belief in god is wrong, is like telling the boy in the example that lions are statistically quite safe to people. It challenges what they've learned.)



I mentioned this example, because it illustrates learning and perception. And it segways into my following analogy.



Here's a weird analogy, but it goes like this :

(I'm sure SJW minded people will shit themselves over it, but whatever)

"Gun ownership in today's urban society" is like "Black people in 80's white bred society".

2/3 of the population today has no contact with firearms (mostly urban folk)
They only see them on movies used to shoot people, and on the news used to shoot people.
If you are part of that 2/3, you see guns as murder tools.
If you are part of the remaining 1/3, you see guns like shoes or telephones - absolutely mundane daily items that harm nobody.

In the 80's, if you were in a white bred community, your only understanding of black people would be from movies where they are gangsters and shoot people, and from the nightly news where you heard about some black person who shot people.
If you were part of an 80's white bred community, you saw black people as dangerous likely killers.
If you were part of an 80's black/mixed community, you saw black people as regular people living the same mundane lives as anyone else.

In either case, you can analytically know better. But your gut feelings come from your experience.



Basically, I know guns look bad to 2/3 of the population. That won't change. People's beliefs are what they are.
I also know that the likelihood of being in a shooting is essentially zero.
I also know that history repeats itself, and -just in case- I'd rather live in an armed society than an unarmed society. Even if I don't carry a gun.

-scheherazade

Ohhhh... I wish people like him would actually read the Quran and the Hadithes and have some experience with the typical muslims.
He doesnt. Because he thinks we need to be compassionate and that will help, solve most problems.
The problem with Islam is that it sees our compassion as weakness. They dont respect us. Their Quran teaches them that we are inferior to them, so much that even their lowly women treat us like we are far below them.

Of course, not every Muslim is that way, but its the vast majority. And that has been proven by polls all over the Muslim world. Im not against helping people in need. But when those guests suddenly act like they own my house, want to change how I live, my culture, my values, and then they are allowed to stay and are treated better, get better chances than my own people, just because its good for the media and PC, then its getting dangerous. And its already too late in some countries. Even statistics are manipulated already to not reflect the huge increase in Muslim crime, to not show the mistakes these "morally superior" people did, like some examples in Sweden and Germany showed. Huge conflicts will come, and its because some people thought they had superior morality, just like so many times before in history, just in a different color.
We just dont learn from history. That much we learn from history.

You Americans still have it good. You check those Muslims coming to your country, if they really want to live your culture, are ready to say "ok, we accept that a part of our religion has no place in your culture", and maybe even turn into Atheists, but many European countries dont. The most conservative Muslims you can find. They just (had to) let them in unchecked, because of a new dictatorship called PC and people following it and its proponents blindly, because it makes them look morally superior and would make them look bad if they would criticize it. Again, history repeating itself at its best.

Thanks for your extra link there, that video is one very good talk on the subject. The writing is absolutely on the wall for some party like the Golden Dawn to exploit future unrest by just standing back and waiting for their moment. History repeats itself, and those who study it are doomed to watch helplessly as most refuse to learn from it.

For a different view, check out Oliver Stone's documentary: Untold History of the United States

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Oliver-Stones-Untold-History-of-the-United-States-3-10

Indeed, history repeats itself as now Obama is claiming to be able to save Syrian lives by bombing away the evil, while critics point to the political and economical interests of USA and it's allies as the real reasons for the urge to drop the bombs. What would Jesus do? Take the (drone) joystick, of course.

My bad on D1 dungeons.

There will always be cookie-cutter builds. And besides, when you're talking about 'the' build, you're talking about the ideal items to have, the vast majority of people will never get there. Meanwhile, the options for 'best with what you have' varied heaps. I played D3 through with a Monk, and the entire time, the only stats that felt worthwhile chasing were damage, dexterity and vitality.

I'm not saying it didn't have dark elements, but vast portions of the story, dialogue and tone, particularly after Act 1 (which I thought was best part of the game), where juvenile and completely off for a Diablo game. I mean for christ sake, the game delved into damsel in distress territory multiple times. Anyway posted this elsewhere, going to just copy paste:

1. Story tone is horribly off for a Diablo game. Act 1, the tone is almost that right mix of dark, macabre & grim horror albeit with overly colourful graphics. Then, in Act 2 and especially 3/4 the game becomes flat out goofy. It's almost like different studios designed the two parts. Regardless, it's obvious the whole gothic, cheesy but serious tone of previously Diablo games has been thoroughly ditched.

It becomes obvious there is a reason that most of the prime evils were mostly mute & why your characters was kept to making sarcastic remarks and one liners in D2. Diablo beretting you with grating "if it wasn't for your meddling kids" dialogue completely ruins the game's tone. Overall the mix of occasional ultra-violence and the overt colourfulness and childish NPC banter gives it an almost surreal and contradictory theme. As if a design house was of two minds, fighting over dominance over the franchise's feel.

There was just no need to muck with what was not broken to the point that it's hard for me to NOT imagine Activision sitting behind the developers dictating them how well the WoW tone sits with target demographics. There is nothing wrong with WoW existing in its own space with it's own unique identity. There's a problem with creative variety between Blizzard games becoming non-existent because they've caught on to what sells best and decided to stick to that.

As for launch issues, I didn't play D2 at launch, but that's not what really bugs me. It is abundantly obvious though that foisting online-only is part of the reason they're having so many launch issues.

Here's my full bitch session - http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5149543659

>> ^mentality:

>> ^RedSky:
@mentality
D2 felt like a huge leap on D1. Randomized dungeons, huge increase in class and especially item variety, introduction of a vast swathe of new environments. In comparison critically looking at D3, while it does have an expanded skills system, at the end of a prodigious 11 year development cycle, D3 has far less item variety at launch, and arguably simplified gameplay mechanics on a number of levels.
Personally, I happen to also think the story is a let down, the tone of the game has been inappropriately been made cartoonish (art design non-withstanding).

D1 had randomized dungeons. Item variety in D2 was very limited because there often was one set of unique item that was 'THE' item for a specific build. The expanded environments in D2 were also very cartoony compared to the dungeons of D1, and calling D3 cartoonish with levels like the Halls of Agony is outright ridiculous.
The fact of the matter is that the grass is always greener, and we all look at the past with rose colored glasses. History repeats itself, but it seems like few people remember all the problems, controversy and bitching surrounding Diablo 2's launch.

>> ^RedSky:
@mentality
D2 felt like a huge leap on D1. Randomized dungeons, huge increase in class and especially item variety, introduction of a vast swathe of new environments. In comparison critically looking at D3, while it does have an expanded skills system, at the end of a prodigious 11 year development cycle, D3 has far less item variety at launch, and arguably simplified gameplay mechanics on a number of levels.
Personally, I happen to also think the story is a let down, the tone of the game has been inappropriately been made cartoonish (art design non-withstanding).


D1 had randomized dungeons. Item variety in D2 was very limited because there often was one set of unique item that was 'THE' item for a specific build. The expanded environments in D2 were also very cartoony compared to the dungeons of D1, and calling D3 cartoonish with levels like the Halls of Agony is outright ridiculous.

The fact of the matter is that the grass is always greener, and we all look at the past with rose colored glasses. History repeats itself, but it seems like few people remember all the problems, controversy and bitching surrounding Diablo 2's launch.

Jesus Christ, the people who make that about Obama supporters just drive me nuts. (Segues into personal anecdote)

I used to work in an office in NYC. Not being from NYC, I was SHOCKED at the amount of people I worked with, smart capable people, who thought that it was so weird that I spent my spare time reading books. I used to have conversations like this about history all the time. I used to tell them stuff they couldn't believe, things that I thought at least a few people might know, but they were never interested, and they certainly could never even care to grasp the concept of history repeating itself. Again, these were capable, hard-working people that I respected. BUT...

They were the same people who were shocked, shocked, to find out that a presidential candidate could have the middle name Hussein. The same people who told me they heard about Obama's "true Muslim beliefs". The same people who questioned Obama's birth certificate when it was still a new idea. The same people who sent me chain e-mails with pictures of the Helix nebula that said things like: "astronomers call this the 'god's eye' and it's the biggest thing we've found in space".

I always though NYC was supposed to be this educated, literate, liberal place and I heard shit there that completely blew my mind (and not in a good way). These people are everywhere, in every age and in all walks of life. Never let yourself believe that they aren't.

And for that matter, never try to explain to them that history moves on, and common anecdotes and interests like the Titanic disaster become irrelevant and inessential to newer generations. Just like the survivors of the Titanic would've been mortified that you don't know the outcome of the Battle of Chancellorsville. I'm not trying to defend them, but I've certainly heard a lot fucking worse.

Given everything else in the game (Those who remember Burning Crusade) the fight will be a piece of cake in a month from all the changes to allow more than 0.001% of the games players to be able to accomplish this task.

History repeats itself with Blizzard

One of my earliest memories is being in elementary school, and seeing a picture in the newspaper of a soldier in desert camo fighting in Desert Storm, under President Bush.

Then, I turned 18 just after Bush was elected for the first time, and got to watch it happen all over again.

It was trippy. Like, history totally fucking repeating itself. You gotta try it sometime!

Like, right now, when I take a hit off this shit... I hope I will repeat the effect of forgetting about history repeating itself. That will be so pleasant.

^The book was published in response to 9/11, Katrina, in addition to other international incidents. The fact that history repeats itself doesn't make her work prescient. Rather, only serves to underscore the need for more sunlight on this travesty.

I don't know about you guys but I appreciate black people and culture. All of my favorite music was copped from a black man take for instance the original dub music which was called "Blue Beat" into the genius that is Lee "Scratch" Perry which was copped by every little white guy with a strat and suit to create shit-ska, or even much before that - Bukka White slapping his steel string guitar which was copped by many a mountain crooner - Can't forget the crazy zany and otherworldly Sun Ra Arkhestra of which many a neo-post-rock project wish and try to copulate; or how about the little-known noise/trance/congotronic Congolese group I rip off a lot named Konono No. 1? And I mean I didn't even begin to speak about Ethiopian music from the 60-70s (check out Ethiopiques or just try on Muhmoud Ahmed - f'n amazing).

But, outside of music even though there has been a black history month for a long ass time now kids just don't understand Dr. King! Listen to his damn speeches, oh young and flighty ones - he didn't just speak about his dreams he spoke about "RADICAL ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION"! As history repeats itself it is evident to remember to pay attention to your local black community; they know what is going on!

History repeats itself. The same thing (on a much, much larger scale) happened during the Korean War when thousands of suspected Communists were executed by Korean forces while American troops watched. I'm pretty certain in that case the Pentagon ordered troops to prevent it if possible but given how mercilessly and efficiently the Korean forces were killing it proved impossible to stop.

George Washington in fact faced a similar problem on his first military expedition. Charged with removing the French from Fort Duquesne, he ambushed and captured French forces commanded by Joseph Coulon de Jumonville. Jumonville surrendered, but to Washington's horror the Native American allies that had accompanied him on the expedition slaughtered Jumonville and a dozen other prisoners after the surrender. Just shows the problems you can face when you "ally" with the natives. Just because they're you're allies doesn't mean they're going to listen to your commands.

I agree with roughy. In a war zone, stuff like this happens. I don't agree with the Pentagon trying to pretend like it never happened (they did that in the Korean War incidents too), but I'm not really sure they're under any obligation to actually report the killings since they occurred on the Afghan forces' watch.

I have to laugh at the video eyewitness that says the Americans were in charge. It's pretty clear from other news sources that the Afghan forces at the time were led by tribal warlords that were really more interested in settling old feuds and expanding their power than freeing the country from the Taliban. If they worked with Americans, it was because it was in their own interest and I highly doubt any "command" issued by an American soldier would have had much value. I imagine the Special Forces soldiers that were there found themselves in the same situation as Washington, trying to reason with people who simply don't think the same way about such things as prisoner treatment.

Even though the FOX news reporter stated that they were not Obama supporters, he continually made references to the democrats and freedom of speech.

These guys were Black Bloc - "anarchists" or real leftists. Their message is real and I support their ideology but not many times their actions. They don't believe in our massively corrupted two-party, corporate, pseudo-fascist system and I see eye-to-eye with this idea.

But, FOX News and all mainstream media will use the Black Bloc or other anarchist "extremist" groups to scare people away from protesting. The same thing happened before we began bombing Iraq... the Black Bloc swept across major urban areas of the country ; they graffitied police cars, they burned flags, they smashed windows of large corporations on break-away marches from the centralized and legitimate permitted protests. When they did this the media made it seem like the other 99% of the protesters were engaging in these activities of which they were actually condemned. So, if history repeats itself as the US gears up for war again, more protests of tens to hundreds of thousands will manifest and once again the media will focus on these 100-500 black hooded twats/hooligans who only aid in obscuring the much more important message of peace. A few screwballs can ruin it for the millions protesting with this shitfaced media monopoly we've got going on.

Yeah, "Fuck Fox News" - these guys had a chance to go all Chomsky on Fox Live and they blew it....