The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Apr 2, 2011 22:30:44 GMT -5
Got to see Bill McCreary's last game today. He looked like the happiest guy on the ice for the whole game.
Great game too, as the Caps came back in the last minute and won in OT. Arnott hasn't scored a ton of goals with the Caps, but it seems like every goal he scores has been huge. Great trade deadline pickup.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Apr 2, 2011 22:23:34 GMT -5
Wright Thompson explains cricket in modern India and the phenomenon that is Sachin Tendulkar to an American audience. This is exceedingly long, but I find this sort of thing fascinating - a billion Indians revere this man and I knew nothing about him. Yeah, that was a fantastic piece, and Wright Thompson is a superb writer. It also does a very good job of capturing the crossroads that cricket is at right now. New trends like shorter game formats and power hitters have the potential to increase the game's popularity in a huge way, but they're also alienating the game's traditional fans and the purists.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Japan
Mar 26, 2011 0:58:17 GMT -5
Post by The Stig on Mar 26, 2011 0:58:17 GMT -5
Not bad. Only $9 million behind Michael Schumacher's donation for the 2004 tsunami.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Mar 26, 2011 0:56:22 GMT -5
I'm NOT looking forward to a Caps-Rangers series in the first round. The Blueshirts haven't just beaten the Caps this season, they've slaughtered them.
That said, the alternatives (Habs or Sabres) aren't much better.
The Arnott trade for the Caps was one of the better trades I've seen in a while, even though he's hurt now. The Caps' season really took a turn for the better when he got here. He fills a lot of gaps on and off the ice.
As for Chara, I don't think that hit deserved a suspension. It was 2 minutes for interference. What Chara did wouldn't have been an issue had it happened anywhere on the ice. Punishment needs to be decided by what the player did, not the outcome of the hit. A dirty hit that doesn't knock a guy over should be punished more than a clean hit that knocks a guy out cold.
A friend recently proposed a solution to the Matt Cooke problem. Instead of the suspension, just declare open season on Matt Cooke. No hit/slash/elbow/knee/punch/tackle/anything on Cooke can be penalized for the rest of the regular season and the 1st round of the playoffs. I know plenty of players and fans who would greatly enjoy that open season.
BTW, frostback ain't the only Flames fan here!
Also: Penguins/Capitals 24/7 - Greatest sports TV show ever?
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Mar 21, 2011 17:36:35 GMT -5
I think the goal, at least from the US perspective, is to look like we're doing something and make ourselves feel good about it. I don't think that's a very good reason for this sort of action, although we're not exactly devoting a lot of resources to this.
The Europeans, especially the French, are more focused on regime change. They have a variety of reasons for seeking that goal, ranging from economic interests to stemming the flow of refugees that are coming out of Libya right now.
I'm certainly getting the sense that the Europeans are the ones leading the way on this. Obama seems like a reluctant partner at best. Let's face it, the US has bigger fish to fry right now. Libya is a humanitarian crisis, but it's not going to affect our national security.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Mar 21, 2011 15:10:01 GMT -5
President Obama today launched an unprovoked attack on Libya with far fewer coalition nations than President Bush did in Iraq. Can we now start the "Obama lied and Americans died"? Or "Obama launched a unilateral pre-emptive strike on the people of Libya"? Or can we now compare Hillary Clinton to Don Rumsfeld or Edited Cheney? Or can we say Obama vacationed in Crawford Texas - I mean Rio - while he sent Americans into battle? Will the left mount anti-war demonstrations all over the country? Just askin'. You'll probably see some anti-war demonstrations, but this is a very different beast than Iraq 2003. Kosovo 1999 is the much better analogy. The reality though is that this will be about as effective as the Iraq NFZs. It makes for good TV, but it won't change the situation on the ground. What could change the situation on the ground, and what is rumored to already be underway, is steps to arm the rebels with better equipment.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Japan
Mar 15, 2011 20:09:47 GMT -5
Post by The Stig on Mar 15, 2011 20:09:47 GMT -5
Back to Japan, anyone with knowledge about nuclear power and radiation have any thoughts on the meltdown situation? What damage might it cause there, and is there any possibility of harm to our west coast? I'm no expert, but from the responsible reporting I've heard, there's little risk. The radiation exposure that civilians near the station are experiencing are about the same as you'd get from eating a banana. The key is the steel containment vessel around the reactor. If that is breached, it's a full-fledged nuclear disaster. If that stays intact, it's not a big worry. Stuff can blow up around it, you can have fire everywhere, and you can have the reactor completely melt down. As long as the containment shell stays intact, the dangerous radioactive material stays inside of it, and basically nobody gets hurt. At Chernobyl, the containment shell was breached in a big way, and the reactor's core was exposed to the environment. As a result, huge amounts of the worst types of radioactive material were released into the environment. In Japan, none of the containment vessels have shown any signs of serious damage. In other words, the chances of any sort of incident that poses a serious threat to civilians in the area, much less the US West Coast, are very low. One important thing to note is that a meltdown itself is not a serious danger. The reactor can melt down completely, but as long as the containment vessel stays intact, the melted down reactor material stays inside the vessel, and does not pose a major health threat. There appears to be a decent possibility of a meltdown in Japan (and one might already be underway), but a meltdown without a breach of the containment vessel isn't something to worry about.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Japan
Mar 13, 2011 9:39:39 GMT -5
Post by The Stig on Mar 13, 2011 9:39:39 GMT -5
Police now saying the death toll will be above 10,000.....
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Mar 12, 2011 11:02:59 GMT -5
An interesting conundrum from Foggy Bottom: A. Madeleine Albright touting for years how well the no-fly zone worked against Saddam Hussein as an argument against the Iraq war. B. Hillary Clinton: No-fly zones don't work. Never have. (FWIW, I'm with Hillary on this one.) I mean, the NFZ in Iraq did and didn't work. Did it keep Iraqi forces out of the air? Yes. Did it help the people we urged to revolt to avoid slaughter? No it didn't. That's probably what would happen in Libya too. I think people are vastly overstating the impact of the airstrikes in these operations. Gadaffi's counterstrikes have been successful because his troops are better armed and better organized than the rebel troops, not because he has air superiority. An NFZ would keep the Libyan Air Force out of the sky, but it probably wouldn't reverse the situation on the ground. The only surefire way for the US to help the rebels would be to put boots on the ground, and that's simply not happening. Other options that could have a real impact include intelligence cooperation with the rebels and providing the rebels with weapons. However, both of those options have significant risk of blowback.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Japan
Mar 12, 2011 10:59:38 GMT -5
Post by The Stig on Mar 12, 2011 10:59:38 GMT -5
Devastating indeed. Even the aftershocks are huge earthquakes.
Japan certainly isn't out of the woods yet. There was just a big explosion at one of their nuclear power plants. Reports are also coming through of evacuated villagers showing signs of radiation exposure.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Mar 4, 2011 22:31:05 GMT -5
I think a ceremony in honor of Buckles and all the Doughboys in the Rotunda would be appropriate. That doesn't require lying in honor, which I agree would be a bit much.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Mar 1, 2011 22:09:18 GMT -5
Rest in peace indeed. A man who truly served his country well.
I believe there are only three known WWI veterans still alive. Although they will sadly all be gone soon, let us hope that the lessons of that horrible conflict never die. It is hard to think of another conflict that was started so needlessly, fought so brutally and pointlessly, and ended so poorly.
The politicians and generals started the war for no good reason and continued it long after the men in the trenches realized the awful truth that the war had no purpose. Afterwards the Allied leaders proceeded to lose the peace even though their fighting men had won the war. After all that sacrifice, it's truly tragic that so little lasting good came from the Great War.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Feb 23, 2011 19:32:13 GMT -5
I've got no problem at all with pan-Arab talk. If Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans, and so on want to put their Arab identity ahead of their Islamic identity, I'm quite happy with that.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Feb 21, 2011 22:32:16 GMT -5
The problem with the Glenn Beck Caliphate argument is that the last Arab Islamist regime was... the Caliphate. Modern Arabs have shown no inclination towards accepting an Islamist regime. Some want more religion in their politics, but no more so than what you find in the Christian Right here in the US. I think most would agree the current Iranian regime qualifies as an Islamist regime. Regardless of whether the middle class and younger Iranians want an Islamist regime that's what they got. I would agree that the middle class and younger "educated" Egyptians don't want an Islamist regime similar to Iran. However, we will soon see whether that block can remain united in the face of a strong Muslim Brotherhood effort to control/be a major player in Egyptian politics. Their pronouncements don't give a lot of comfort. And the idea that campaigns for Sharia law is the same as what the US religious right wants is both offensive and laughable. The Iranian regime certainly is Islamist, but Iranians aren't Arab. Sharia isn't a word that you hear very often in the Arab world. It's a big issue in places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Indonesia, but not really in the Arab world. There may be elements of the Muslim Brotherhood that advocate for Sharia, but they're not in the majority. There's a lot of things that Arabs, especially those in North Africa, want before they want Sharia. Jobs tops the list.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Feb 21, 2011 21:30:20 GMT -5
The problem with the Glenn Beck Caliphate argument is that the last Arab Islamist regime was... the Caliphate.
Modern Arabs have shown no inclination towards accepting an Islamist regime. Some want more religion in their politics, but no more so than what you find in the Christian Right here in the US.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Feb 21, 2011 17:17:05 GMT -5
Meanwhile, Mummar Gadaffi has decided to show us how things could have gone in Egypt if Mubarak had been a monster and if the Egyptian military hadn't outright refused to fire on its own people.
From the sound of it, Libya has descended into mass chaos and near-civil war. Fighter jets have been attacking protesters, the Air Force has been ordered to carry out air raids on Benghazi, naval vessels are bombarding the shore, soldiers are firing anti-tank missiles into crowds, tanks are rolling through the streets, border guards have abandoned their posts, parts of the military are refusing to carry out orders, fighter pilots are fleeing the country with their jets, and Gadaffi has issued an order to execute any soldier who refuses to shoot the protesters.
It sounds like the eastern part of the country has fallen to to the protesters, but the government still has a pretty firm grip on Tripoli. This is going to get a lot bloodier.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Feb 19, 2011 19:03:31 GMT -5
The Stig also was also disgusted with the Republicans' Party of No tactics over the past 2 years.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Feb 19, 2011 17:25:56 GMT -5
The Stig agrees that the Boz Doctrine applies nicely in this case.
While The Stig thinks that Scott Walker is a pigheaded idiot who is just trying to engage in union busting, The Stig thinks the tactics of the state senate Dems are a bit ridiculous, to put it nicely.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Feb 12, 2011 10:42:24 GMT -5
The suicide bombing is the only one that would be scary, but you've skewed that one pretty badly. 80% say suicide bombings are never justified or only rarely justified. As the survey notes, support for suicide bombings has also dropped considerably since they last took the poll.
For what it's worth, I think similar or even higher percentages of Americans would express support for terrorism if you asked the question right. The IRA was arguably more popular in the US than it ever was in Ireland.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Feb 12, 2011 9:52:37 GMT -5
What's so scary about that poll? There are a lot of Americans who want more Christianity in politics.
The poll also makes it very clear that Egyptians are scared of radical Islam and oppose violence in the name of Islam.
Getting back to current events, watch from the 1:00 mark of this video:
That perfectly describes Egypt's situation right now.
|
|