The War on Terror /Central Asia/Mid East/Africa thread

[spike]

you post more fucked up phrases than that hourly

[verb_to_trust]

you post more fucked up phrases than that hourly

Why do you hate cats?

[4/5]

“Small government” is just something some people say, they don’t really mean it.

Unfortunately I think this is usually true. But there are some people who mean it. You just wont find them in governmental power or cheering for either team.

Libertarianism is like a young hot chick you could get down with for a bit, but you know ahead of time you’ll have to grow out of it. Some choose not to. Whatever.

Maybe a cartoon version (which lots of libertarians invite upon themselves). But also, there wouldn't have been a 20 year war on terrorism or a war on drugs or mass incarceration, etc., etc. I know there's other things that you (and some that I) support that wouldn't happen either, but there are some significant things that you probably would happily accept if they had gotten to make those policy decisions.

I was mostly messing around, referring to those cartoon versions of online libertarians like Burt. My whole life I’ve heard “small government” but it was usually Republicans using that in an economic sense - low taxes, fewer services, free markets… but they never talked about those 3 examples you give (they actually grew those polices). So were they small government? The left tends to want less government in the social sphere (replacing the war on drugs, less incarceration, getting the government out of the bedroom or decision to marry, etc… but they want more services for the people, even if it means higher taxes. Why is that automatically the big government side? I guess I just think for most people, it doesn’t really boil down to big or small government. More about what you think its priorities should be.

I agree with all of this. My explanation is that whatever libertarianism is supposedly part of the Republican party is almost completely fictional. It's rhetorical. They claim(ed?) to be the party of small government but have overwhelming expanded government, just in different directions than Democrats expand it. Occasionally they've scaled back some very small part of the Democratic expansion while at the same time growing it in a different direction. They're only small government when it's convenient, which is to say they aren't really small government advocates, they just invoke that argument to justify opposition to Democratic programs. There are people who actually believe in small government (or smaller government) but they aren't playing for either current team.

[spike]

you post more fucked up phrases than that hourly

Why do you hate cats?

i don't! why must you always assume?

[verb_to_trust]

you post more fucked up phrases than that hourly

Why do you hate cats?

i don't! why must you always assume?

Does the thought of someone skinning a cat not make you want to cry?

[simple schoolboy]

[Rob]

“Small government” is just something some people say, they don’t really mean it.

Unfortunately I think this is usually true. But there are some people who mean it. You just wont find them in governmental power or cheering for either team.

Libertarianism is like a young hot chick you could get down with for a bit, but you know ahead of time you’ll have to grow out of it. Some choose not to. Whatever.

Maybe a cartoon version (which lots of libertarians invite upon themselves). But also, there wouldn't have been a 20 year war on terrorism or a war on drugs or mass incarceration, etc., etc. I know there's other things that you (and some that I) support that wouldn't happen either, but there are some significant things that you probably would happily accept if they had gotten to make those policy decisions.

I was mostly messing around, referring to those cartoon versions of online libertarians like Burt. My whole life I’ve heard “small government” but it was usually Republicans using that in an economic sense - low taxes, fewer services, free markets… but they never talked about those 3 examples you give (they actually grew those polices). So were they small government? The left tends to want less government in the social sphere (replacing the war on drugs, less incarceration, getting the government out of the bedroom or decision to marry, etc… but they want more services for the people, even if it means higher taxes. Why is that automatically the big government side? I guess I just think for most people, it doesn’t really boil down to big or small government. More about what you think its priorities should be.

I agree with all of this. My explanation is that whatever libertarianism is supposedly part of the Republican party is almost completely fictional. It's rhetorical. They claim(ed?) to be the party of small government but have overwhelming expanded government, just in different directions than Democrats expand it. Occasionally they've scaled back some very small part of the Democratic expansion while at the same time growing it in a different direction. They're only small government when it's convenient, which is to say they aren't really small government advocates, they just invoke that argument to justify opposition to Democratic programs. There are people who actually believe in small government (or smaller government) but they aren't playing for either current team.

Agree, and I know there are actual small government advocates out there. They should be a bigger part of the conversation. No one side/idea can make it work on its own, it’s always a compromise. We should listen to as many (sane) ideas as possible and work from there. Government getting out of the way is sometimes the right move, too.

[BurtReynolds]

The absolute madlad did it again

Spoiler: show

[BurtReynolds]

[B]

[spike]

mickey bat signal activated

[simple schoolboy]

I guess its appropriate that the Brits, with their experience of losing an empire are doing a better job of rounding up their nationals than the US that still seems somehow in denial.

(Brits and Germans are sending patrols out to Kabul safehouses to pick up their nationals. The US is very much not)

[simple schoolboy]

Is the Taliban demanding a lifting of sanctions so the Afghan National Bank gets its money released? They've got us by the balls, I figure it would be one of their asks.

The US abrupty changing their policy on negotiating with hostage takers would be less than ideal*.

*Recent history of US hostages suggests that its more about not giving a shit about hostages and preferring to kill them in bombings than bother to send in the SEALs, but I like to cling to the fiction that its a principled stance that they don't want to encourage hostage taking.

[Bammer]

Skinning cats is such a fucked up phrase

I attended a Zoom conference today. One of the featured speakers is a refugee from Kosovo. At one point he spoke the phrase “call a spade a spade” in a business context. Someone posted anonymously in the Zoom Q&A “Can we please stop using that phrase. It has racist origins.”

I was curious so I Googled it. The phrase originated about 500 years ago and spade is quite literally a spade, aka a small shovel. Then about 100 years ago it was supposedly co-opted by racists.

Fuck people, man. Just let the Kosovan refugee give his fucking talk without getting all woke on him.

[simple schoolboy]

Skinning cats is such a fucked up phrase

I attended a Zoom conference today. One of the featured speakers is a refugee from Kosovo. At one point he spoke the phrase “call a spade a spade” in a business context. Someone posted anonymously in the Zoom Q&A “Can we please stop using that phrase. It has racist origins.”

I was curious so I Googled it. The phrase originated about 500 years ago and spade is quite literally a spade, aka a small shovel. Then about 100 years ago it was supposedly co-opted by racists.

Fuck people, man. Just let the Kosovan refugee give his fucking talk without getting all woke on him.

Its appropriate to call an individual who turns their back on the true faith of Orthodox Christianity a spade. Their forefathers sold out their countrymen to please their Ottoman masters.

[Bi_3]

Some context:

[Bi_3]

[simple schoolboy]

I was wondering about that. If the Taliban is letting fuel trucks in, that would be difficult to hide with those crowds around every gate. The drivers would presumably be fulfilling contracts that have yet to expire, but why on earth would they bother continuing the mission with no one to pay them?

[wease]

Skinning cats is such a fucked up phrase

I attended a Zoom conference today. One of the featured speakers is a refugee from Kosovo. At one point he spoke the phrase “call a spade a spade” in a business context. Someone posted anonymously in the Zoom Q&A “Can we please stop using that phrase. It has racist origins.”

I was curious so I Googled it. The phrase originated about 500 years ago and spade is quite literally a spade, aka a small shovel. Then about 100 years ago it was supposedly co-opted by racists.

Fuck people, man. Just let the Kosovan refugee give his fucking talk without getting all woke on him.

You should have called out anonymous and told them while it does have racist connotations attached to it, the origin of the phrase is not racist. Unless they scoop ashes out of the fireplace by using black people as shovels.

[B]