VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
No bio...
User ID: 64
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
10d ago
And yet no one is seriously accusing them of being genocidal.
I think "no one" is excluding a lot here: the governments of several NATO member states have made such claims, and the ICC (which admittedly isn't held in the highest esteem everywhere) has issued arrest warrants for Russian leaders on genocide or genocide-adjacent charges.
I'm not suggesting you have to agree with those descriptions, but I think it falls well short of "no one."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
10d ago
Under a very loose definition of "ethnic cleansing", the IDF forcing Jews out of Gaza in the 2005 withdrawal (in some cases unwillingly) fits the definition, but is hardly the central example you're looking for.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
10d ago
The zipper and button closures on men's and women's jackets and shirts are traditionally reversed from each other, too.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
10d ago
The external bed of a pickup truck is also easier to clean than the inside of a van, so you can haul dirty things that you might not want inside your van (cans of gas for your lawn implements, deer carcasses, brush) and hose it out when you're done.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
10d ago
Gaza also bans abortion and IIRC limits birth control pretty heavily, in addition to promulgating pro-natal memes, even if they are "eventually outnumber the [redacted]."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
11d ago
I'd be cautious there that a middle option is technically possible: Obama ordered airstrikes on Syria against ISIL, and there have been American boots on the ground there since (unclear on exact deployment dates and current status), but they've remained in a limited capacity as such without being a full-blown invasion a la 2003. It's possible the exact wording of your prediction may matter quite a bit.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
11d ago
I find it somewhat amusing that the US has state-run education, and we regularly talk about how the $17k spent annually on the median K-12 student is too low (but is still higher than peer nations). But healthcare is (mostly) privately run, and we spend more than peer countries and in this case it's obvious that we should save by switching to a more centrally-run model. I'm not sure those positions really square with each other.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
12d ago
The modern theory of deterrence may look more like identifying the humps that disrupt the slippery slope, and trying to beat your opponent back to one of those humps but no further, versus... trying to push your humps as far up the slope as possible?
I think the term in the literature you're looking for is "escalation dominance."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
12d ago
My advice for rulers, especially ones on the outs with major geopolitical powers...
It seems like "on the outs with major geopolitical powers" is doing a lot here. It's not even "be a democracy": nobody is threatening to invade Eritrea (not far from Yemen, also a dictatorship). It's not exclusively Muslim nations either (Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea are in the club).
As best as I can tell, the only consistent rule seems to be "don't be jerks to your neighbors beyond your borders," but I'll accept there's some level of Realpolitik at play.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
12d ago
It's weird that "National" refers to the US and Canada together here (the NBA has one, previously two Canadian teams). The last guy to call them one country got a lot of grief for it.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
I've heard lots of accounts of regular medical (and dental) patients crossing the border to Mexico (and maybe Canada) for procedures because it's much cheaper there and the quality is equal or at least close enough. A few horror stories too, though. Usually not too distant travel, though.
I think cancer patients travel pretty regularly for specialist treatment too.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
"what is a woman?"
I will (weakly) defend her non-response on the basis that SCOTUS are the constitutional Platonic philosopher kings, to whom this sort of seems-trivial-but-actually-has-subtlety question like "is the ACA fine for not having insurance a tax?" (whether or not you agree on the depth of this particular question I think the category still stands), and that generally justices are discouraged from discussing potential cases during confirmation hearings.
That said, I quite likely disagree with her answer to the question regardless.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
The pro-life side will probably happily point you to the apparently slippery slope of MAID in Canada (and elsewhere): have you considered euthanasia as a treatment for PTSD?
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
A brief search suggests that the average Democrat in the House is two years older than the average Republican. And the last 8 members of Congress to die in office have been Democrats.
Although it's quite possible those numbers are pretty dynamic and shift with major elections though: I couldn't trivially find a time series.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
IIRC the NYC mayors race OP is complaining about uses ranked choice voting.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
16d ago
It would be 2000 cruise missiles a day for three weeks before there was any kind of landing attempt.
And the presumed response looks like 2000 anti-ship missiles (or pre-placed torpedos) denying navigation to the entire strait, plus long-range anti-ship missiles used to declare a blockade of Chinese ports (see the Black Sea, but with potentially less regard for continued commercial traffic). Which isn't to say that would work out either, but the idea that Taiwan's defenses would crumble immediately like Iran's have isn't a guarantee either.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
16d ago
I actually use it and am pretty happy with it, but it is really heavy. That said, I'm not really trying to run other heavy applications at the same time other than compile jobs, so it's not really inconveniencing on any reasonably-modern hardware ("I have 1-2GB of RAM available for this").
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
16d ago
“Best” is a meaningful term because Israelis don’t have the means to actually destroy the facilities themselves
IMO it's not inconceivable they can figure out a way. WWII had the Grand Slam and Tallboy bombs built specially on fairly short notice for attacking hardened German targets. Desert Storm was a short war, but special bunker busters were developed and dropped in combat within a month.
Israel has had quite a bit of time to consider the problem, and given that they have total control of the air, dropping something very heavy with a modern guidance kit from a cargo plane doesn't seem that inconceivable.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
16d ago
VSCode is just the spiritual successor to emacs: it's an operating system in search of a good text editor.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
18d ago
"this is a politically motivated assassination"
Charitably, this statement is true if they were killed because of their roles as politicians, which seems likely any time a public political figure is killed except by random violence or accident. That said, the implication that "the other side" did it isn't necessarily true, and hyping it as such in this case can presumably put a lot of egg in the face if it turns out to be [your side] infighting, which also isn't uncommon.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
19d ago
Gaza was “genocide” on Day 1. Exactly what does Israel get for not doing exactly that...
Somewhere here is a good observation about the importance of escalation dominance in the domain of information warfare.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
20d ago
So, the Bike discussion down below generated a lot of angst and heat
I just want to state the obvious here, that bicycle sheds should be blue.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
20d ago
It does not appear to be truthful reporting. American officials took the unusual step of announcing on several occasions that America is not on board with the attack. The IDF is telling reporters that they are coordinating with America.
I think the only coherent reading of both claims is something like "Israel told the US ('coordinating with') they were going to do it, and US forces didn't take part in or recommended against ('not on board with') the actual action".
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
20d ago
The US Navy only knew how to shout on the internet until 2013.
I wonder if that's how presidents had to be in the past, and the rest of us
reading the newspaperlistening to radiowatching on TVfollowing social media real-time feeds just weren't as knowledgeable about those realities until recently.More options
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