Did I go to sleep and wake up in an alternate universe? In the timeline I inhabit, the Soviets not only did not beat the Afghans, but the blowback from that fiasco was the final blow to their ramshackle bad joke of a system. And in my world, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union had contiguous borders, so the Red Army's supply lines did not depend on airbases in countries like Uzbekistan with iffy governments. And if the US helped the Mujihadeen (who later became the Taliban) with arms and money, isn't somebody else helping the Taliban now (like certain very wealthy private citizens of un-named Islamic countries)?

Dear Wannawander is not where you think it is. It is in those Jews who don't understand that the Xianist support for Israel is based in the crazy visions of a hermit who railed against the Roman Empire from a cave or something in the Aegean, that has become (to the dismay of many Xtians) the last Book of the NT. The prophecy requires the reestablishment of a Jewish regime in Jerusalem before the Second Coming can occur. At that point, half the Jews will convert and the other half will be thrown into the fiery Pit. (I know which half this Jew will be in.)

So support for Israel is not out of concern for Jews as such, at all. The disconnect is among ultra-Zionist supporters of Bibi and his literal-minded followers, every bit as fundamentalist and nutso and stupid as any Bible-thumping, Holy-rolling, snake-handler.

That's when a poker player has a strong hand that doesn't look strong to the other players (say 3 of a kind on the flop --- a set --- with two of the three in his pocket, with a good chance to catch a full house or even quads) and doesn't push aggressively at first, letting the others commit themselves and hitting them hard when he fills.

I missed the first few minutes of the speech, but tuned in at about the time when he was calling liars liars, and heard the heckle. That was a slow-play...he has let the a$$holes demonstrate their a$$holery to all the world, and tonight he went all in. Hr also let the media Villagers lower expectations --- a bunch of fish, they are --- which made the reality that much more powerful.

I think his play was not for Republicans (except maybe a couple of Senators from a basically Blue state i. e. Maine --- the rest of them may find themselves in a very tricky position politically) but for Blue Dog Democrats, Of course it may not work, but not for lack of trying. I hope all of you here and elsewhere who have been moaning that he needed more brass in his ...well, you know ... are satisfied. Obviously I am.

He makes the point that Jolie out-draws Streep at the box office. True. But so what?

Fortunately for people of varying tastes, movies that are not mainly T and A and loud explosions get made now and then, because there is still a market for them.

Comparisons are odious, especially when it comes to taste. De gustibus non disputandem est. (Pardon my Latin! and correct my grammar if needed.) i. e. You can't argue about taste, the only thing I remember from a college esthetics course I took a long time ago.

It seems to me that spoincey's manner of expression (e.g. dragging insults to "liberals" into a discussion of acting ability) is a deliberate attempt to stir up a s----storm, sort of like stamping on an ant hill for the pleasure of watching the beasts mill around in panic. In that he succeeded, but only because some of us (yes! I am a liberal too) rose to the bait. Isn't there enough going on in the real world to elicit anger without letting a malicious little troll push our buttons so easily? Let him cultivate his resentments somewhere else. Nobody here is going to change his mind, or whatever part of him does the writing.