caeron

I do separate the people from the government. It isn't the people I don't trust, it's a government that committed the Tiananmen massacre. Their recent actions in Hong Kong show to me that they haven't changed. Their arrest of Canadians in a naked attempt to force the Canadian government to subvert their own justice system is just more proof of the type of regime it is. Iran also has locked up civilians trying to get leverage with their governments. With my familial ties to the military and the intelligence community, I am not willing to risk going and getting turned into a pawn. I hope it changes one day, since I'd very much like to visit, but with the current political situation, I think it unwise. Others with no such concerns may find the risks acceptable.

I believe China holds foreign nationals as political prisoners (Canadians attempting to apply leverage to the Huawei thing). While I'm a civilian, my family includes people who aren't. There simply isn't the rule of law in the country when the powers that be deem it should be otherwise. China is a typical authoritarian regime. They dress themselves up nicely, but underneath that, there is nothing that stops the authorities from doing whatever the hell they want to you. As I've gotten older, my interest in engaging with these kinds of regimes has significantly diminished and my interest in placing myself in a position where that kind of power might be wielded against me. While the odds of that seem low, there are plenty of other places in the world where that isn't true. Maybe some day it will be different and I will go back. Your mileage may vary.

China is mess, and I want nothing to do with it. They're assholes to everyone around them, and to their own people. The fact that my nation often sucks too, doesn't mean I can't judge them as well.

Oh, I think Russia does remain a 3rd world power. Just one with an army of disinformation hackers that can hurt the rest of us. They are coming up, they're just trying to drag us down to their level.

Britain chose its isolation with Brexit and Boris Johnson, I think. Britain and the US are both nations of narcissists who think they're important. For the moment, the US still is. I'm not sure Britain still is, having given the finger to Europe. If we get another republican or two like Trump, I'm pretty sure the US will be in the same boat. Both of these are a real pity, because Russian and China remain real threats to world freedom.

Biden could have handled it better, but he was delivered a shit show thanks to Trump. But, I think most of the drama is because nobody likes to admit failure of a mission, and this mission has been a failure for a long damn time. So when that finally became really clear, everybody is mad at Biden. I mostly blame the Neocons, but I also Blame Obama who I think was often naïve, and should have acted in his time in office. I think he was far too timid a president. As blame goes, Biden's is pretty damn small compared to the president who started it and those who sustained it. He just happens to around right now when the plug finally got pulled.

That country is such a tragedy. I fear the power mad generals will only achieve another failed state. Every where we look in the world we see what power mad men have wrought. I wish my superpower was to make them all stop.

The dangers of American style football are very well known to the players these days. They can retire at any time. Some do. Most don't. I think that speaks for itself. My nephew was told by his mother he could do baseball but not football for this very reason. I doubt that is unusual. Who knows if the sport will fade in the coming decades as more mothers do that?

Our gladiatorial games evolve to get less dangerous, but there is a large audience for such things. And with such an audience, a big enough payday to make people take those chances.

The initial reviews out of Venice are that it is quite stunning. I'm hopeful. I loved that book as a kid. Previous efforts failed pretty badly (though Sting as sexy bad boy was not a bad consolation).

I think It isn't generally good when lots of a place's housing is only occupied part time. It prices out the locals as vinapu says, and those people are only spending money in the economy when they're in town (though probably a fair bit more spend than a local while they're in town).

What is the point of the question? Even if he is gay, it isn't likely that I'm his first choice to go to bed with. He's working. I ask about what I want to do in bed. I am never looking for a long-term partner.

I agree. I suspect pretty much all strong mouthwash does the same, but I seriously doubt its effect on transmission is more than deminimus, so why?

Stories. The Tale of Gawain morphs over the centuries. The Wikipedia entry is pretty good (my partner is a medieval scholar who read the originals so it made it fun to watch with them.): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gawain

I remember wanting to be in that bed!

I had very mixed feelings about The Green Knight. It was very well done, but I disliked it. It plays with the original stories very well. Free Guy told you it was bubblegum icecream and it was. Fun, and silly, and not very deep. I think The Green Knight is worth a watch for most. Free Guy, if you like summer bubblegum movies, because it is one.

Do they actually do business that isn't porn? This seems like them just deciding to go out of business....

During lockdown? Not much has happened at all during lockdown.

That may be true for you, but these forums over the years have been littered with stories about people who lost sight of this truth and lost their hearts and their money when it turned out their fantasy was just that, a fantasy. Being realistic doesn't mean being mean or bitter.

If so, I'm not sure of the point, because if the guy on the ground who supposedly is in charge abandons his job, that rather says the situation is not tenable, and was only barely so by the continuous presence of western troops.

"A US-backed President who fled the moment things began to look really bad?" If you think 20 years of failure of the Neocon plan is "fled the moment things began to look really bad", I am not sure there is a basis for discussion. This reads more like somebody with an axe to grind against Biden.

I think it is wishful thinking to imagine the exit could have gone better. It was always going to suck. Putting it off just means more bleeding before the inevitable messy exit. How many more lives and how much more money are we supposed to spend in search of something that we haven't found after 20 years on the ground?

I think it is very dangerous to lose sight of the nature of the relationship. The boys may like you, but they're doing this for the money.

Frankly, given how obviously fragile our democracy is, is it any wonder we couldn't build one in a country that has almost no tradition of it? Worse, given the state of the country and maslov's hierarchy of needs, how many Afghani's are well off enough to give a fuck what passes for government in their world? That's a luxury that rich folks like us get to think about. I think We (the west) should have gone in, brushed the Taliban aside and crushed Al Quada. We should have then left with the promise that we would keep returning if they kept up their ways. Much like Iraq, conservatives imagine we're so amazing that as soon as we arrive everyone will immediately become republicans. Surprise, when you kill more people than Saddam did by a large measure, they won't thank you. As a military intelligence officer I know said at the time, "We don't know if Saddam is the way he is because of Iraq, or if Iraq is the way it is because of Saddam". Turns out, it might have been the former. And, given what China has been up to, it is a good idea for us to step out of the cross hairs of the islamic terrorists and let state terrorists like China and they beat up on each other.

After 20 years, it is over. Stop spending lives and gold. Once the Taliban step out of the shadows to attempt to govern what they hold, they get to become targets themselves.