I figured it was more of a joke - and I laughed, but then I thought that while they are right (for the very reason you give) I wanted to add that I think it's still important. It's good that people with means to worry about more than making it through the day use that position to engage in activities aimed at improving things for everyone.
Personally I think sometimes the implementations are misguided and I don't agree with the philosophical underpinnings of some of the more high profile green groups - but I'm sympathetic with the idea of not wrecking the planet we live on. (oddly enough)
You need to be able to separate empathy/understanding from advocacy. Going all Godwin over my showing how someone reaches an idea is ideologically in the same camp as the kind of thinking you are criticizing.
I disagree - but I'm unaware of any way we could come to a conclusion as it is merely the opinion each of us holds about what a whole bunch of people we don't know "really" think.
I do know people who I am absolutely convinced do hold the position I've described, but I don't expect that to sway you. And I can easily imagine that there are people who actually view it the way you describe. So it seems to me we'd just be talking about immeasurable percentages.
Just imagine that you really believe that abortion (at any point in pregnancy) is morally identical to lining up young children and shooting them in the head. Do you see how that one position could outweigh all other considerations?
One issue voters are people who care very, very deeply about that one issue. I don't understand why anyone would resent that. The key is getting them to see that there may be more than one way to address their key issue.
My personal exposure to international politics has been that American politics is pretty staid compared to some of what goes on world wide.
I think US politics get a lot of coverage because of US influence, because US media is so pervasive world wide and because it all happens in English.
If you want to talk about some crazy political theater - you should check out what is going on here in Hungary right now. It is off the wall. The thing is - none of the speeches or crazy stuff will make news in too many places. The impact outside Hungary is small and not very many people speak Hungarian. But we've got plenty of political folks that make US politicians look rather sedate.
And I don't think the media thing can be over stated. It's interesting as this story comes out of hollywood legislation. When I watch TV here - most of it is American shows dubbed over in Hungarian. When I buy dvds - they have options for Hungarian menus and subtitles/or dubbing but English is still there. When I listen to the radio or shop in stores, the music is far and away predominately American. That constant presence is what I think draws all the watchers.
The other way not so much. Malev, the state airline here shut down today. I have friends stranded in Paris and I doubt my friends in the US will ever hear about it.
absolutely - and there are more groups - greens for one. Look at the oil pipeline decision recently for a good example of the different forces at work in the dem world.
but I will commiserate with you. The humor (to me) is I'm a moderate evangelical. So we are different but experience a similar disconnect with the majority groups. (I assume - it sure sounds like it anyway)
For me it's a huge disconnect between the conservatives who are supposed to be more Christian and Christian values. At the same time I'm stumped as to why so many liberals seem to be completely fine with ramping up our over-seas assassination program to entirely new levels. As you say, Bush got the ball rolling, but Obama's numbers leave any other US president in the dust when it comes to blowing up foreigners (or the occasional American on foreign soil).
I quit paying too much attention a long time ago though - I realized I wasn't going to reconcile it all or change it. I don't have a team to route for and that's what it has all boiled down to.
I don't live in the US and I don't go out of my way to keep track of the current presidential election - but from what I can see Obama should coast to victory. But honestly I see no difference. I think what happens in the public eye is a side show to keep people from dealing with reality.
It's going on all over the world - not just the US. The attention level is just higher because what the US does has such a high impact on so many other countries.
I don't agree. I think it shows that they are pretty much the same. Republicans "listened" because they weighed the potential political gain to be greater than the risk.
Read mainstream press about anything involving the US government any more and you'll see that they don't skirt it - it's all about being elected, re-elected or gaining political leverage, apparently for it's own sake. Doing something with the military somewhere? Decisions based on strategy or national interest? No - they are based on political considerations. Setting fiscal policy. Is any of it based on anything other than if it helps or hurts your party? No.
I got torn up last time this came up - ( a long time ago in a discussion on Orson Scott Card ) - so I don't want to get into an argument - but I'd say that the list is a bit longer than that if one is comparing LDS to the RC church, Eastern Orthodox or most protestant groups. A lot of Mormons I know think it is shorter because they don't know much about the doctrines or teachings of the other groups.
I had a job for a while where I checked in product that vendors delivered to a grocery store. One of the truck drivers I dealt with regularly was chatting with me about star wars. (Pepsi was doing a promo with Star Wars characters on cans of soda) and I mentioned that Luke was Lea's brother. He didn't know this, and said "So - they are related - like Jesus and Satan are brothers?"
I said, "Oh, I didn't know you were mormon."
He said, "How did you know I was?"
I said, "Because as far as I know only mormons believe that Jesus and Satan were brothers."
He said, "Huh - I thought everybody thought that."
The idea of humans becoming Gods, God the father having a physical body, baptism for the dead, Jesus and Satan as brothers, and a number of other things are rather significant differences as I understand it. The closest analogy I can think of is Judaism and Christianity. I guess Christians could say they have more in common with Jews than is different between them but when you really dig into what the differences mean they are so significant that the two terms are kept separate. It seems to me that what has historically been considered Christianity is so different in content and intent from Mormonism that they should also not be lumped together.
But in the end I don't think it matters much. The term Christian has come to encompass so much that it's pretty much useless and any discussion of religion that goes anywhere the terms have to be narrowed down pretty quickly anyway.
yes - they are lucky no-one died. I've seen tool control related accidents (fod) and other problems due to maintenance issues go a lot further south than this - though the dollar total is impressive.
I think that gel keyboard for the ipad is stupid - but I still enjoyed seeing it in action after we had discussed it here. (I also think the ipad is stupid, but people keep buying them - so maybe that keyboard will do well too.)
I still don't get how the invisible keyboard works. Would have appreciated him doing more than explaining that letters are shaped differently and then using it when I can't really see what he's doing.
That last little machine was neat.
All in all - I enjoyed this and look forward to the next videos.
"In theory, we might have learned something from Millennium Challenge. I suspect that we didn't learn a damn thing, but the Iranians did."
This is completely wrong. The US Navy has an incredible history of learning and adapting from failure. It's the reason they excel at so many activities that no one else in the world can do to the same level, or often not at all. See the Top Gun school as a great example of USN leadership looking at a weak area and compensating.
When I was a lowly enlisted sailor, I made recommendations for changes in equipment and procedures via the Navy's maintenance improvement program. I did some time in the reserves following my activity duty. I was pleased to see that a number of years later when I was doing some training on another ship of the same class that many of those suggestions had been put into place. It may not have been from my work center's suggestion specifically - others probably saw the same issues and suggested those changes as well.
The point is though, the Navy is very accustomed to continually taking criticism and suggestions and feeding those into actual steps that lead to improvements. To assume that entire levels of leadership just got angry and ignored the outcome of an exercise because it didn't match their predefined view requires ignoring history, reality and clinging to a misconception that you have about USN leadership.
I hope you are right - every time I hear time lines they seem to be revised down, not further out. Of course I don't have access to any information that I find to be especially trustworthy. They may not be remotely close for a long, long time. Then again if I wake up tomorrow to news that they've had a successful test it wouldn't shock me either. I don't trust my sources.
And from a certain standpoint it wasn't a problem. But to my statement - I'm talking about one very specific thing - the primary mission of the Navy, to keep sea lanes open. Iran will not be able to block the straits for any considerable length of time and the US military (and possibly others) will make sure that traffic continues to move out of the gulf.
I spent a considerable amount of time there in the late 80's, early 90's. We would often spend the day in the Indian Ocean, then sail up into the gulf at night and escort tankers down. There were times we would have planned events based on Iranian activity that was known before it took place. The idea that tactics openly discussed here will take the USN by surprise and render them helpless is ridiculous.
I have no idea about long term political implications, or what nation will take which side. That stuff gets rather muddy quite quickly. My point is that should Iran try to stop anything from entering/leaving the gulf, whatever means they employ to deny that access will be destroyed.
I don't think all the Iranian leaders are as crazy as they make out. I think they portray that face to ensure they maintain their power and affluence. I could be wrong.
That said, if they are really well and truly nuts, I'm still not worried about a fleet of speed boats- it's the nukes that will be a problem.
As for the pro-Iran sentiment on the board - I'd rack 90% of that up to trolls and another 10% to anti-US sentiment that is rather in vogue in quite a number of circles. I'm rather cynical when it comes to international politics and I don't really see the US government as any worse or any better than another. So I don't hate them and want to see them go down but I'm not blindly supporting whatever they do either.
I was in the US Navy though - and the people who think that this would be a huge problem for them are very ill informed and/or naive.
Slashdot Mirror
good point.
I figured it was more of a joke - and I laughed, but then I thought that while they are right (for the very reason you give) I wanted to add that I think it's still important. It's good that people with means to worry about more than making it through the day use that position to engage in activities aimed at improving things for everyone.
Personally I think sometimes the implementations are misguided and I don't agree with the philosophical underpinnings of some of the more high profile green groups - but I'm sympathetic with the idea of not wrecking the planet we live on. (oddly enough)
You need to be able to separate empathy/understanding from advocacy. Going all Godwin over my showing how someone reaches an idea is ideologically in the same camp as the kind of thinking you are criticizing.
I disagree - but I'm unaware of any way we could come to a conclusion as it is merely the opinion each of us holds about what a whole bunch of people we don't know "really" think.
I do know people who I am absolutely convinced do hold the position I've described, but I don't expect that to sway you. And I can easily imagine that there are people who actually view it the way you describe. So it seems to me we'd just be talking about immeasurable percentages.
sorry to disappoint. i'd try to ease your pain but i'm not sure why you think my estimation of how this will turn out is unfortunate.
fwiw - it's not how i would prefer for it to turn out, it is just what i think will happen.
Caring about the environment is a luxury, this is true, but that doesn't mean it isn't a valid concern.
See, you just need to care enough.
Just imagine that you really believe that abortion (at any point in pregnancy) is morally identical to lining up young children and shooting them in the head. Do you see how that one position could outweigh all other considerations?
One issue voters are people who care very, very deeply about that one issue. I don't understand why anyone would resent that. The key is getting them to see that there may be more than one way to address their key issue.
My personal exposure to international politics has been that American politics is pretty staid compared to some of what goes on world wide.
I think US politics get a lot of coverage because of US influence, because US media is so pervasive world wide and because it all happens in English.
If you want to talk about some crazy political theater - you should check out what is going on here in Hungary right now. It is off the wall. The thing is - none of the speeches or crazy stuff will make news in too many places. The impact outside Hungary is small and not very many people speak Hungarian. But we've got plenty of political folks that make US politicians look rather sedate.
And I don't think the media thing can be over stated. It's interesting as this story comes out of hollywood legislation. When I watch TV here - most of it is American shows dubbed over in Hungarian. When I buy dvds - they have options for Hungarian menus and subtitles/or dubbing but English is still there. When I listen to the radio or shop in stores, the music is far and away predominately American. That constant presence is what I think draws all the watchers.
The other way not so much. Malev, the state airline here shut down today. I have friends stranded in Paris and I doubt my friends in the US will ever hear about it.
absolutely - and there are more groups - greens for one. Look at the oil pipeline decision recently for a good example of the different forces at work in the dem world.
um - Bin Laden was in a nice Pakistani house.
but I will commiserate with you. The humor (to me) is I'm a moderate evangelical. So we are different but experience a similar disconnect with the majority groups. (I assume - it sure sounds like it anyway)
For me it's a huge disconnect between the conservatives who are supposed to be more Christian and Christian values. At the same time I'm stumped as to why so many liberals seem to be completely fine with ramping up our over-seas assassination program to entirely new levels. As you say, Bush got the ball rolling, but Obama's numbers leave any other US president in the dust when it comes to blowing up foreigners (or the occasional American on foreign soil).
I quit paying too much attention a long time ago though - I realized I wasn't going to reconcile it all or change it. I don't have a team to route for and that's what it has all boiled down to.
I don't live in the US and I don't go out of my way to keep track of the current presidential election - but from what I can see Obama should coast to victory. But honestly I see no difference. I think what happens in the public eye is a side show to keep people from dealing with reality.
It's going on all over the world - not just the US. The attention level is just higher because what the US does has such a high impact on so many other countries.
I don't agree. I think it shows that they are pretty much the same. Republicans "listened" because they weighed the potential political gain to be greater than the risk.
Read mainstream press about anything involving the US government any more and you'll see that they don't skirt it - it's all about being elected, re-elected or gaining political leverage, apparently for it's own sake. Doing something with the military somewhere? Decisions based on strategy or national interest? No - they are based on political considerations. Setting fiscal policy. Is any of it based on anything other than if it helps or hurts your party? No.
This shows a lot more of the same going on.
made popcorn as soon as I saw this come up in red - have at it kids.
I got torn up last time this came up - ( a long time ago in a discussion on Orson Scott Card ) - so I don't want to get into an argument - but I'd say that the list is a bit longer than that if one is comparing LDS to the RC church, Eastern Orthodox or most protestant groups. A lot of Mormons I know think it is shorter because they don't know much about the doctrines or teachings of the other groups.
I had a job for a while where I checked in product that vendors delivered to a grocery store. One of the truck drivers I dealt with regularly was chatting with me about star wars. (Pepsi was doing a promo with Star Wars characters on cans of soda) and I mentioned that Luke was Lea's brother. He didn't know this, and said "So - they are related - like Jesus and Satan are brothers?"
I said, "Oh, I didn't know you were mormon."
He said, "How did you know I was?"
I said, "Because as far as I know only mormons believe that Jesus and Satan were brothers."
He said, "Huh - I thought everybody thought that."
The idea of humans becoming Gods, God the father having a physical body, baptism for the dead, Jesus and Satan as brothers, and a number of other things are rather significant differences as I understand it. The closest analogy I can think of is Judaism and Christianity. I guess Christians could say they have more in common with Jews than is different between them but when you really dig into what the differences mean they are so significant that the two terms are kept separate. It seems to me that what has historically been considered Christianity is so different in content and intent from Mormonism that they should also not be lumped together.
But in the end I don't think it matters much. The term Christian has come to encompass so much that it's pretty much useless and any discussion of religion that goes anywhere the terms have to be narrowed down pretty quickly anyway.
oh - reading the executive summary (3rd link) it says damage was 25 million.
yes - they are lucky no-one died. I've seen tool control related accidents (fod) and other problems due to maintenance issues go a lot further south than this - though the dollar total is impressive.
that's funny - today has sucked and this was my first actual laugh - thanks.
there will be if you write one - these are submissions, just like all the rest.
I think that gel keyboard for the ipad is stupid - but I still enjoyed seeing it in action after we had discussed it here. (I also think the ipad is stupid, but people keep buying them - so maybe that keyboard will do well too.)
I still don't get how the invisible keyboard works. Would have appreciated him doing more than explaining that letters are shaped differently and then using it when I can't really see what he's doing.
That last little machine was neat.
All in all - I enjoyed this and look forward to the next videos.
It's a joke. "leap" second - white men can't jump. get it?
will be screwed
"In theory, we might have learned something from Millennium Challenge. I suspect that we didn't learn a damn thing, but the Iranians did."
This is completely wrong. The US Navy has an incredible history of learning and adapting from failure. It's the reason they excel at so many activities that no one else in the world can do to the same level, or often not at all. See the Top Gun school as a great example of USN leadership looking at a weak area and compensating.
When I was a lowly enlisted sailor, I made recommendations for changes in equipment and procedures via the Navy's maintenance improvement program. I did some time in the reserves following my activity duty. I was pleased to see that a number of years later when I was doing some training on another ship of the same class that many of those suggestions had been put into place. It may not have been from my work center's suggestion specifically - others probably saw the same issues and suggested those changes as well.
The point is though, the Navy is very accustomed to continually taking criticism and suggestions and feeding those into actual steps that lead to improvements. To assume that entire levels of leadership just got angry and ignored the outcome of an exercise because it didn't match their predefined view requires ignoring history, reality and clinging to a misconception that you have about USN leadership.
I hope you are right - every time I hear time lines they seem to be revised down, not further out. Of course I don't have access to any information that I find to be especially trustworthy. They may not be remotely close for a long, long time. Then again if I wake up tomorrow to news that they've had a successful test it wouldn't shock me either. I don't trust my sources.
And from a certain standpoint it wasn't a problem. But to my statement - I'm talking about one very specific thing - the primary mission of the Navy, to keep sea lanes open. Iran will not be able to block the straits for any considerable length of time and the US military (and possibly others) will make sure that traffic continues to move out of the gulf.
I spent a considerable amount of time there in the late 80's, early 90's. We would often spend the day in the Indian Ocean, then sail up into the gulf at night and escort tankers down. There were times we would have planned events based on Iranian activity that was known before it took place. The idea that tactics openly discussed here will take the USN by surprise and render them helpless is ridiculous.
I have no idea about long term political implications, or what nation will take which side. That stuff gets rather muddy quite quickly. My point is that should Iran try to stop anything from entering/leaving the gulf, whatever means they employ to deny that access will be destroyed.
I don't think all the Iranian leaders are as crazy as they make out. I think they portray that face to ensure they maintain their power and affluence. I could be wrong.
That said, if they are really well and truly nuts, I'm still not worried about a fleet of speed boats- it's the nukes that will be a problem.
As for the pro-Iran sentiment on the board - I'd rack 90% of that up to trolls and another 10% to anti-US sentiment that is rather in vogue in quite a number of circles. I'm rather cynical when it comes to international politics and I don't really see the US government as any worse or any better than another. So I don't hate them and want to see them go down but I'm not blindly supporting whatever they do either.
I was in the US Navy though - and the people who think that this would be a huge problem for them are very ill informed and/or naive.