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Apple or U2? {rimshot}

Try the veal, folks, I'll be here all week!

Obama can't countermand the order? Are you really saying that? Bush was trying to pressure the Iraqis into a SOFA agreement. Closer to the actual withdrawal date, a smarter strategy is required.

So, the civilian uprising that happened when we left was better than the one that the Shia would have stage-managed?

If you had any experience with fighting in Iraq, you'd realize that if anything is going to be done about ISIS, it'll have to be a foreign power doing it. The Iraqi forces are ineffectual - poorly led and lacking in ideology and resolve compared to their opponents. The Syrians had the same problem, aside from the Alawite core that is loyal to Assad. Note the sectional relationship - worth far more in that area of the world than any contrived "nationality". ISIS is a catch-22. Either you fix it from outside or acknowledge that a Caliphate is in the cards.

Are you serious? I admit she has a great body, but she isn't much of a singer by historical standards. I understand that in this age of autotune and singing through flangers, this may not be immediately obvious. there's really no one better currently?!?

Actually, making tools and organizing labor is we're really good at. I personally have never killed anything larger than a bug in my life; I suspect a lot of other people haven't either. I've never had to, because there have always been other people who are willing to do those unpleasant tasks for me, in exchange for modest amounts of money.

Granted, I could learn those skills (and others) if I had to, but it would probably take me some days or weeks before I got good at it. It's not clear I would survive long enough to learn them.

So yes, humanity is the most deadly predator the planet has ever had. Any particular human being, OTOH, most likely is not -- we're more likely to be the most effective C++ programmer the planet has ever had, or the best Fedex deliveryman, or some other not-so-helpful-during-the-zombie-apocalypse skill.

How long would it take the 95% to eliminate (or convert, if you prefer) most of the 5%?

Taylor Swift sucking and U2 having been passable back in the 80s, does it?

I mean, one of the filler tracks on War is better than anything she has ever recorded.

You realize I was saying that YOUR post should be upmodded, right? Or are you using Beta?

Is to spread the love around to multiple companies. Therefore, I won't use anything Google for anything else (other than the Gmail and search I currently use - and I'm desperately trying other alternatives to get off of those, too.)

This is such a load of horseshit.

First of all, Bush was out of office 3 years by the time we actually pulled out of Iraq. Blaming shit on him at that point means Obama is ineffectual and can't negotiate things. Is that what you are saying?

Second, you can't leave forces in a country without a SOFA once you have acknowledged its sovereignty. Iraq refused to grant one that was palatable to the US. It's not about war crimes, it's about "your soldier raped an Iraqi girl" or "soldier ran over Iraqi kid" - will it be tried in military courts or the Iraqi civilian ones? That said, if pushed hard enough (by the ineffectual O administration) the Iraqis would have granted one. In retrospect, they would have been very ill-advised not to, and it was made clear later that they were prepared to deal for the right concessions. The O administration saw political benefits in not pushing for a SOFA - just pre-2012 election, remember? As it stands, it was less than 2 years between US withdrawal and ISIS taking over most of the north of Iraq. Anyone could have seen that coming, the Shiite government is about as dumb as rocks and couldn't concede even a little to the Sunnis. That's why 25% of the country ruled over the Shia majority for most of recorded history post-Prophet.

Yes, Republicans don't care about sovereignty. That's why Democrats were responsible for denying the Vietnamese self-determination for most of the 1960s and for that matter, invading North Korea even though the UNC authorization gave them no such authority. Of course, we all remember Bush 41 taking Baghdad because he didn't care about Iraqi sovereignty. And Bush 43 didn't have a UN authorization to do what he did in Iraq and Afghanistan. You're definitely right here.

The guy does have a point.

Yeah, it's fine once you learn to avoid the rape gangs.

Wake up, that's a bunch of bullshit, we just happen to be following the shiniest crew in the fleet. Hell, they intended to make the Ferengi sophont-eaters originally.

The AC was making an ignorant reference to the fact that Zachary Quinto, the new Spock, is gay.

Requires a special pen, expensive and easy to misplace, cleaning lady hides it, etc.

It's too bad they give absolutely zero details about the light pen on the page. They just say it exists. Won't even show it to you. I'm guessing this is also shit.

Real multitouch digitizers which attach to a display cost a lot more than the display. You want people to be happy with crappy alternatives. If they were good, they'd already be widely adopted.

We already have intercontinental audiovisual communication in real time, machine translation, and handheld computers with near-instant access to many libraries worth of knowledge. With a couple of centuries to go. I'd say we're doing pretty well so far.

Feel free to submit to a gentle, peaceful decapitation. Be sure to let us know how that works out for you.