Life

That line is meant to be ironic because Marc Antony didn't think of Caesar as an evil man. Even out of context this would assume that Koch left a bad legacy but was still a good man with those deeds now forgotten. You should really reread that entire monologue again because you horribly misused that line here.

How about some Israeli music? This is just a taste.

See, this, I can agree with you on. Minus the post-modern ethos where I'd substitute modernism instead. But that's simply because I highly disagree with post-modernism in all forms in a fundamental sense. I've mentioned at least once that the Ultra-Orthodox here are nothing more than parasitic leeches and that's still a lot better than a lot of the religious sects in the general area.

I bring up military service because it has nothing to do with "pride for your country" and all that jazz. What it really does is teach you the actual value of a human life. Usually, those who have never served are either relatively naive when it comes to conflicts (example: believing that morality matters as opposed to being realistic) or they are absurdly cavalier with other people's lives.

I would also prefer not to be friends with the Saudis. But the reality of the situation means that I have to deal with a nation that has legalized slavery. I don't bitch and complain about that... because I prefer not going back to war (I really hope that I'm not the only person here who has actually done military service). Also, geopolitical foreign policy didn't ruin the Middle East. This area hasn't been stable since... well, go back to Sumeria, I suppose.

Israel and Iran aren't allies in any sense of the word? It's not that I have an issue with attacking someone's economy. I have an issue attacking an ally's economy for your own personal ideology (never mind the fact that these women are gender/race communists). Let me put it this way. We (Israel) aren't calling for sanctions on India's economy despite their actions in Kashmir.

I guess you could say... shots fired?

Yes. That's the point. The optics are based on a LIE. And the lie is that Trump and/or Bibi had anything to do with the banning of Tlaib and Omar (Tlaib was actually not banned outright, she was given permission to visit her family if she didn't push her political positions).

I'm not sure you understand this. By saying Trump had a hand in this (which I have to repeatedly say over and over that he didn't), you are helping spread a false narrative. Now, it just seems to be on purpose because you won't say "you know what, you clearly know more about this situation than I do because you live in the area so I will stop trying to push a debunked narrative that has been explained to me over and over why I am incorrect". I don't care what Trump says on Twitter. Both he and Bibi had no hand in the matter and cannot even influence the Interior Minister to do or not do anything since Deri is only beholden to the Ultra-Orthodox here and takes that job seriously. I don't care how the optics look, you are simply telling me that you refuse to acknowledge that the Israeli government does not work the way you wish it would to support your narrative. The optics do not reflect the reality of the situation. Trump was not involved. Bibi was not involved. Whatever they wanted politically is irrelevant because neither actually held the cards here. Accept it. Stop assuming causation because of correlation.

This is incorrect as I have explained twice. Deri was planning to ban them from the start. I heard about this a week before the news actually broke. It was Ron Dermer (Israeli ambassador to the US) who believed that Omar and Tlaib would be the exceptions to the 2017 BDS law. EDIT: This is in case you missed that point the first time.

Then explain why two US congresswomen who were flying to Israel could not even name it as such on their manifesto and were not planning to meet with any Israeli officials. As I understand it, it's the Squad that does not perceive Israel to be an American ally and has attempted to embarrass us for ideological purposes. And remember, 93% of Democrats in Congress oppose the Squad on BDS. You have congresswomen who are actively attempting to hurt our economy. What do you expect us to do, just smile and take it like all the rockets we've taken over the years? How is this anything other than an attack on us?

I'm playing on an emulator so no online stuff.

I'm sorry, I'm going to take Maher's side and call BDS a bullshit purity test, just like he has. Maher makes the exact same case I do but does it far more eloquently. As he pointed out, 93% of the Democratic Party voted against the BDS bill that the Squad put forward. Now who's the one really out of touch and making enemies for no particular reason? Tell me, what is your understanding of Middle Eastern history from the 1920's onwards? I'm not trying to be condecending; I simply don't know where the gaps in your knowledge base exist and I can probably help fill them in due to me living in the area. EDIT: For the record, as I explained prior, both Trump and Bibi had no influence on Deri's decision to ban the Squad... because Deri was publicly saying that he'd uphold the BDS law a week before. You didn't read what I posted and so decided that it must be Trump and Bibi... because why not?

It's back! Few rules here since the last topic got locked (and I will periodically ask a Mod to be on top of it): I get that talking football, especially with fans of rival teams, can get heated. Except for Jets fans, they're not real fans and I hope they go 0-16 this year. ANYWAY; let's keep conversation simple. Assume that the person who you're speaking with knows something that you don't, even if it's probably not the case. At the end of the day, we are all fans of the same sport and want our team to succeed (again, the Jets don't count). Aight. So regarding the Bills, I see a lot of positives from preseason. Allen looks great so far in the pocket and is delivering accurate balls on time, something he couldn't really do last year. Defense is still monsterous. WR corps looks a lot better this year (Brown looks solid in practice and Beasley has 5 recptions for 44 yards in Carolina). Shady and Frank Gore teaching Devin Singletary all he needs to know about football. I'm predicting 8-8 and praying for a 10-6 season with a playoff spot. Unlikely but if it all works out, it could happen.

At base level? Level 12 Wyvern? I mean, Miredy was good, sure, but even she isn't OHKOing Cavs with the Horseslayer without her HM bonuses. I just ran the numbers; she's got 50 effective Atk only after her +5 Str boost on HM. Miredy is also considered one of the few broken FE6 units due to those bonuses and a mount. And yes, I'm comparing the two because they are effectively the same unit (similar join time, first Wyvern, excellent and very similar stats). Cherche, on the other hand, has almost identical stats to HM Miredy (Cherche doesn't even need HM bonuses to do that) in a game where my avatar is ORKOing everything from range with the durability of a greased pig. Like, Cherche should be considered broken everywhere else and yet, I'm yawning because this isn't special here (and I just reclassed Sully to Wyvern Rider for the lulz). This game is absurd.

So as the title says, I'm on my first run of Awakening since I never played it and I grew up on the GBA games, FE4 and FE9. So, because I'm effectively playing blind, I have a question. Why is Cherche OHKOing Armours in her join chapter on Hard Mode? This game seems a bit... I don't want to say easy because Ambush Reinforcements suck on a first playthrough but the sheer strength of my army is kinda absurd. Example: When wyverns first showed up, I decided that I would train Virion just so I could always OHKO them on player phase. Why is it easy to actually do this? Sure, I like my gods among men of FE4 but that game felt like an outlier due to Holy Blood and Holy Weapons. Why do I have more excellent units than slots to deploy them with?

I also want to mention this (sorry for the double post) because I find this fascinating. Why can't I just say "well, that wasn't REAL fascism" because it didn't produce the ultimate state utopia and ended up turning into one of the bloodiest meat grinders of all time? This is a serious question.

Goat cheese is great, never had sheep cheese. Hard cheese from the big daddies is still the way to go though. I'm going to split this into two parts: The Squad and Trump. Regarding the Squad: I despise Omar and Tlaib at this point because it's self-evident that the pair only wanted to come to incite trouble. They couldn't be bothered to label their itinerary with even the name of the country they were visiting (because they both fundamentally don't believe that Israel should exist). They certainly aren't trying to represent American interests by coming here and refusing to meet with Israeli officials. And furthermore, Tlaib was given permission to enter solely to see her family and decided that her ideological position was more important. It is also important to note that despite what you might read in the newspapers, neither Trump nor Bibi had any say in the decision. This was Aryeh Deri's decision alone and for the week leading up to last Thursday, Deri (the Interior Minister) was solid on his position that Tlaib and Omar should be subject to the BDS law, making them no different than any other foreign national regardless of status or position in any government. Tlaib and Omar's rejection to entry is actually the rule, not the exception. It was Ron Dermer (Israeli ambassador to the USA) who had promised the pair entry despite the fact that he was in no position to do so. Deri, by the way, is not in Bibi's party (he is the leader of Shas, the party of the ultra-Orthodox Haredi leeches) and is not beholden to Bibi in any form. Bibi actually needs Deri to even have a chance at forming a government and we already know that if Bibi attempts to pressure Deri to do something he doesn't want, Deri is OK with dissolving the Knesset and calling new elections since the Haredi will always vote for Shas and they are the kingmakers here. We know this because it has already happened once this year over the draft law. This is effectively most Israelis' opinions because we are tired of the West trying to impose Western moralization upon us, especially when it comes from the bourgeoise who don't have to go to military cemeteries on a yearly basis. In this part of the world, might makes right. We cannot deal diplomatically with neighbours who cannot accept the inevitability of the fact that we conquered the land and they will get it back when they take it from our cold dead hands. It really is frustrating to see the West does not understand that while we are the most civilized barbarians in the area, we are still barbarians. For us, that is a symbol of pride because the reality of never-ending war exists here. We never really wanted Tlaib and Omar to come here in the beginning. Was it a political mistake to bar them? Personally, I say yes because I would have rather prefered some political theatre and force Tlaib to admit on foreign soil that she is not working in the interests of the people of Michigan who elected her but rather for her own ideological interests. Then I'd load her up onto a plane back to Washington. That's my personal opinion. Trump: There are things I like about Trump that make me call him an idiot savant. This is not one of those things. 25% of the electorate voted Likud. I'm not one of them. But Bibi is my prime minister... because I am an Israeli citizen. Not because I am a Jew. It's the same fundamental problem I have with Israel's nation-state law. I don't give a shit about being a Jew. I care about the fact that I am Israeli. Me being a Jew should not entitle me to more rights at a fundamental level... but the state doesn't agree with me on that. I've personally questioned Yair Lapid on this matter and even he has stated that Israel should be Jewish first and a liberal democracy second. The man's left wing, by the way. As a result, the majority of the country likes Trump. Trump will let us get away with some necessary evils but he ends up magnifying them in the process and putting us in a position where our issues with Gaza and the West Bank won't ever move forward simply because we're under the microscope even more than ever. Not to mention that we have to then justify ourselves to people who don't deserve even a second of our time. I saw an Indian dude say recently that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza. How am I the only one who sees a hypocrite? The Indian government takes over half of Kashmir by force? Ho hum. We retaliate after Gaza does this between March 2018 and June 2019 (16 months): Eight killed 282 wounded 1,932 rockets/mortar bombs 841 petrol bombs 25 shootings 128 IEDs 2,155 fires ignited by arson kites/balloons (updated 2 July 2019) 8,747 acres of land – farmland, forests, nature reserves – burned This is after considering that there is a guarded fence between the two areas. This should be enough damage to call for a war without having everyone cry over those poor little Arabs. But no, we're always the bad guys. Even to massive hypocrites. So when Trump comes out and puts us under the microscope like this, who is he helping? Not us. Not the Arabs. Luckily, his political opponents are incompetent so he's not helping them either. It just boggles my mind. EDIT: Regarding Gaza, if you care about the land, fire bombing it is the exact opposite of showing that. It's not that the Palestinians want to live peacefully in the area. It's that they want to live peacefully in the area... after the Jews are expelled from it or just massacred first. They don't care if they inherit rubble; their issue is that we are here at all. If you want contest this point, I strongly urge you to book a flight to Tel Aviv and I will personally take you to the fence myself to illustrate my point live and in colour.

Why don't y'all ask the Jewish Israeli who did army service in the West Bank for his opinion?

I'm 100% going to regret this (me actually popping back up) but whatever. A few things to note if the US and Iran go to war: 1) The Gulf States will actually back the USA. Shocking, I know. But the USA, Israel and the Saudis have what used to be a real under-the-table alliance that is anything but that these days. Hell, I see positive things said about the Saudis in my local newspapers while they still fund terrorists that want us dead. 2) Since the Gulf States will back the USA, Europe will just putz around and claim how they are disappointed but won't do anything about it. 3) War in Iran is AWFUL because that means that I will probably die before I have kids.

This and the following responses regarding Brazil shows a basic lack of Brazilian history. Brazilians like military dictators. This isn't actually surprising. What's more surprising is how shocked people are.

I couldn't even bring myself to watch the game last night. Just listened to the radio broadcast instead. I miss watching football by just listening to the radio broadcast. Maybe I'll start doing that for the rest of the season because it hurts to watch this squad play.

I've put this here because it qualifies as entertainment. Right, I'm a pretty big fan of watching competitive LoL. Been so ever since about 2012 and the first team that I latched onto (and still support for whatever reason) was Counter Logic Gaming, also known as CLG. But once I started watching Europe rather than North America, I moved my allegiance over to G2 Esports. The Koreans have always been the best at this game but this year, let's do the run-down. Because this has been ridiculous. So next week, IG (China) will face off against G2 Esports while the current projected favourite Fnatic (Europe) takes on Cloud 9. And the play so far has been absolutely stellar and just a joy to watch. Anyone else gonna watch semis next week and cheer on G2 with me?

The Bills/Texans ending was painful.

And... we've officially ruined Josh Allen. Yay...