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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Lascoden ... from Missouri, USA Since: Nov, 2012
...
#47951: Jan 23rd 2013 at 4:49:38 PM

[up][up]Nope, they're in February. Zero Dark Thirty is up for Best Picture (among other things).

edited 23rd Jan '13 5:15:48 PM by Lascoden

boop
johnnyfog Actual Wrestling Legend from the Zocalo Since: Apr, 2010 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
Actual Wrestling Legend
#47952: Jan 23rd 2013 at 5:53:11 PM

I wonder if the CIA panic over the film is just a feint to make liberals want to see it more. [lol]

Real talk: I doubt it glorifies torture more than 24 did, or heck, even NCIS at its most gleefully fascist.

I'm a skeptical squirrel
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#47953: Jan 23rd 2013 at 6:09:26 PM

The torture nets the characters nothing. It's being nice and tricking the prisoner that works.

Ultrayellow Unchanging Avatar. Since: Dec, 2010
Unchanging Avatar.
#47954: Jan 23rd 2013 at 6:45:37 PM

[up]It's also a lie. There was no torture. It was included (and it was left uncertain whether it worked or not) because the director wanted to introduce the "ethical conundrum" of torture. Which Zero Dark Thirty portrays as unpleasant but necessary.

Except for 4/1/2011. That day lingers in my memory like...metaphor here...I should go.
DrTentacles Cephalopod Lothario from Land of the Deep Ones Since: Jul, 2012 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
Cephalopod Lothario
#47955: Jan 23rd 2013 at 7:14:14 PM

[up] That's just...wow.

/facepalm

Well, there goes whatever respect I had.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#47957: Jan 23rd 2013 at 7:46:21 PM

Rand Paul also called the attack the worst disaster in American history since 9/11. Really? Worse than Hurricane Katrina or Virginia Tech?

http://www.upworthy.com/senator-rants-at-secretary-clinton-says-something-incredibly-insensitive-and-spe?g=2&c=la3

edited 23rd Jan '13 7:59:07 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Ultrayellow Unchanging Avatar. Since: Dec, 2010
Unchanging Avatar.
#47958: Jan 23rd 2013 at 7:57:52 PM

Senator Paul really wants to make a name for himself, doesn't he?

Except for 4/1/2011. That day lingers in my memory like...metaphor here...I should go.
Lascoden ... from Missouri, USA Since: Nov, 2012
...
#47959: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:03:13 PM

[up]I hope that he doesn't mind if that name is "Biggest Asshole of Congress".

boop
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#47960: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:05:25 PM

Rand Paul is an idiot. Seriously there is maybe one time where he said something and I didn't feel like punching him for his idiocy.

Trivialis Since: Oct, 2011
#47961: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:11:38 PM

[up]Paul was the sole vote to oppose a resolution against Iran. And the resolution may have been a bit over the line.

Edit: This was posted in the thread last September, for reference.

edited 23rd Jan '13 8:24:09 PM by Trivialis

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#47962: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:14:31 PM

Seeing as I think Iran getting nukes is a terrible thing I still can't bring myself to like the guy.

Trivialis Since: Oct, 2011
#47963: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:15:57 PM

So I guess you agree with the 90 senators who implicitly wanted to be aggressive towards Iran, even up to a war? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just pointing this out.

DeviantBraeburn Wandering Jew from Dysfunctional California Since: Aug, 2012
Wandering Jew
#47964: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:22:09 PM

Better a war, than a nuclear Ahmadinejad.

Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#47965: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:22:35 PM

I would prefer we avoid a war but I do agree with being prepared to do something if Iran gets nukes. This isn't like North Korea. Iran is actually somewhat competent.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#47966: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:24:48 PM

Iran is an incredibly serious problem: a regional instigator of instability, a major military power, a sponsor of terrorism, a known biological and chemical weapons manufacturer, a would-be nuclear power, a dictatorial jihadist regime, a defier of international law...

(In before someone observes snarkily that some of those apply to the United States as well. I'm here and they are there and to me, they look like a problem.)

I do not, however, think that going to war with them is any kind of solution, except as an absolute last resort.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#47967: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:30:42 PM

Trivialis: Rand Paul opposing a bad policy a grand total of once does not make him any more acceptable given just about every other thing he's spouted. He's following right in his dad's footsteps in gunning for policies that, while keeping us out of other people's business, would utterly destroy us here at home. You know, by gutting healthcare and opposing taxation, things we need.

Again, opposing one bad policy doesn't make an otherwise bad politician suddenly palatable.

edited 23rd Jan '13 8:32:07 PM by AceofSpades

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
TheStarshipMaxima NCC - 1701 Since: Jun, 2009
NCC - 1701
#47969: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:33:05 PM

Guys, I'd like to ask a question. What right do we have to stop any country from getting nukes? I ask this totally as a question, for once, I'm not coming at this from any viewpoint.

I mean, we can't prevent a country from develop commerical air travel or electricity. Could we demand a halt to a nation's space program? Or, do you guys believe that when it comes to devices that are basically Apocalypse How made real, then, yes, we get to say who can or can't?

And....why are we so dead set against Iran getting nukes, but not the Police State known as North Korea?

It was an honor
Trivialis Since: Oct, 2011
#47970: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:34:15 PM

@Ace of Spades

Kostya asked for "one time where he said something" justifiable, and I suggested one. I think it's fair.

edited 23rd Jan '13 8:44:49 PM by Trivialis

Lascoden ... from Missouri, USA Since: Nov, 2012
...
#47971: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:38:53 PM

[up][up]One way to look at it is like this: If it is an issue that will seriously affect the world, then the rest of the world gets a say. One country, especially a particularly violent one, getting a weapon that can cause massive devastation affects the whole globe. So, the rest of the globe should have a say.

Also: The difference between Iran and North Korea is that the latter is, well, completely incompetent in near everything it does.

boop
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#47972: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:39:54 PM

Speaking of nutbars with nuclear weapons... North Korea is trying to be threatening again.

http://www.cnn.com/?sr=fbmain

Err, just noticed that didn't link to anything but the main page, here's why their Facebook page said.

BREAKING NEWS: North Korea said Thursday that it plans to carry out a "high-level nuclear test" and further long-range rocket launches, all of which it said are "aimed at the U.S."

edited 23rd Jan '13 8:43:04 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#47973: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:43:45 PM

North Korea also has China in its corner, kind of sort of policing their policy. And China's not exactly interested in anyone gaining weapons, particularly not such a close neighbor.

Anyway, while we don't have much right (as I understand international law) to decide someone can't have nukes, we do have legal methods to push them in a certain direction. Ah, politics.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#47974: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:43:47 PM

Maxima, when looked from a purely neutral perspective, the knowledge to make nuclear weapons is out there, and any nation has the theoretical capability to take that information, dig up (or buy) some uranium, process it, make a bomb with it, and declare themselves members of the nuclear club.

That fact aside, the current players in that club have more or less decided that they're not letting any more members in. Partly because they have managed to establish a mutual, grudging level of respect that gives most people in the world a reasonable level of assurance that they won't suddenly be vaporized.

New entrants to that club axiomatically lack that established trust and as such are a disruption to the status quo, a destabilizing factor that may or may not play nicely with others. Mutually Assured Destruction only works when your enemy cares about his own people enough to not deliberately risk them getting vaporized in retribution.

Iran is, as I said, a tyrannical dictatorship with marked lack of respect for human life and a known sponsor of terrorism. Further, they as a matter of national principle oppose the existence of Israel. Israel also has nuclear weapons. It's all too easy to imagine any conflict between the two nations, both nuclear-armed, ending in (or worse, starting with) a giant mushroom cloud.

Iran has demonstrated its will to be a rogue state, not obeying the mandates of the United Nations, not obeying conventions on human rights, actively calling for the destruction of other nations, etc. They cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons.

North Korea is a case where they developed their own nukes already (with China's help, we strongly suspect), and as such they kind of snuck their way into the nuclear club. We don't acknowledge them as members or let them participate in talks and they have repeatedly demonstrated a level of irrationality commonly associated with hormone-addled preteens. I think the world in general would love to take their nukes away by almost any means necessary.

edited 23rd Jan '13 8:44:26 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#47975: Jan 23rd 2013 at 8:44:05 PM

And....why are we so dead set against Iran getting nukes, but not the Police State known as North Korea?

Oh we're against North Korean nukes, it's just uh. North Korea is painfully incompetent and can't even fire missiles worth shit 99% of the time, and generally is too dilapidated and lacking supplies to do anything than wave a stick rudely and stomp their feet.

The problem with Iran is that even if they held nukes merely for self defense: A) They hate Israel B) They are major supporters of terrorism across the Middle East, and if a rogue nuke went off in Israel or the US, it'd probably be from Iran handing it off to some of their terrorist clients.

[up]Fighteer lists the reasons better.

edited 23rd Jan '13 8:45:32 PM by PotatoesRock


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