American Sniper

@midnight_reaper

This is not bad news … quite the opposite.

You don’t know who the President was before … :)

We will see what the new ones will do … doing worse than the previous one will be difficult.

One last: Jen made the point that to almost win is the same as losing. Not true. For example, if I punch someone in the face repeatedly, and ALMOST knock him out, did I somehow lose the fight? Meade’s forces were defeated on the first day… Meade was punched repeatedly on the 2nd, but stayed on his feet… Lee thought he could land the knock-out blow with Pickett, and failed.

That is basically Gettysberg, in one paragraph.

Edit:

Just to extend the metaphore further, Gettysberg was like a three-round fight:

Round 1: Lee cautiously approaches Meade. Lee lands several devastating blows. Meade staggers. Lee continues pummelling Meade, but Meade is saved by the bell. Meade retreats to his corner and regroups.
Lee wins the round.

Round 2: Meade assumes a defensive stance. Lee pummels Meade the entire round, opening up several cuts. Meade reels, staggers, drops to the ground twice, but Lee misses several knockout blows. Meade counters and bloodies Lee.
Lee narrowly wins the round on points.

Round 3: Meade keeps his defensive stance, knows Lee will go for the knockout blow to the center. Lee begins the round with a weak attack that Meade easily counters. Lee and Meade circle each other warily. Lee, unaware he is ahead on points, throws one last desperate haymaker. Meade guards his center. Lee breaks his hand on Meade’s forearm. Meade, barely conscious, has a chance to finish the fight, but is too battered, bruised and bloodied to do anything but wait for the bell.

Lee is unable to continue the fight. Meade wins a TKO.

Edited cause I like boxing.

@Bunnies:

3.  I don’t think Americans are offended by being stereotyped.  I think it’s the IDEA of stereotyping that pisses us off.  :x

No, I think there really is a constituency that gets pissed off when they are stereotyped.  But in general (and here I am stereotyping, :) ), I think many of us don’t like the IDEA of stereotyping, even if it is done accurately, but especially when it is done in-accurately.

@cystic:

Well for me it was odd as i went to typically touristic places - Disney, Harper’s Ferry and a few Civil War sites, Arches Park near Moab Utah, as well as various places in South Dakota.  Also i’m pretty chatty - i like meeting people, and i do everywhere i travel and make great friends.  Still - no non-USies did i meet while travelling in the US.  Just a weird coincidence.

You must of just had “bad” luck when going to Disney, I worked there for 2 semestesr and was just there over labor day - lots of Eurpeans.  Hell, go to EPCOT, all of the people there working the foriegn countries are straight from their original country.

I remember 15 years ago (god am I old) I was working and had to take a lost child to main street in the Magic Kingdom (that is where we take them).  It was so heart wrenching, this poor little french girl was so scared and I could say nothing to her because she did not speak English.  When they find a lost child that does not speak English they call a call center with people who are versed in all languages who told her to come with me.  She was holding my hand and I could feel her trembling.

I am getting off the point.  Just suprised you didn’t see any non Americans at Disney (there are a bunch).  Call it whatever you want, but since my Disney experience I have a dislike for Brazilian tourist (long story).

@Janus1:

i meant no disrespect to you, and sorry if i somehow offended you, but you know what, F*** off. you want to be offended by it, fine, go ahead

Boy Janus, you sure picked the right name (i.e. the two faced god of Graeco-Roman mythology). Are you bi-polar or what? “Sorry if I offended you, but f*** you!”. Double your dosage buddy, and don’t bust a blood-vessel being so FED-UP! :lol:

Now if you and your moronic buddy will excuse me, I’ve got to get back to hitting the bottle and shooting craps at my casino on your tax dollar. :wink:

Agent_Smith - Its a small college, but I won’t get into which one. Too many psychos on the internet! :roll: Sorry I didn’t specify, but I thought that “college” was implicit in my statement about the summer semester. And yes, I’m in the abd phase of the Phd. You are correct that I was taking an absolutist position, but I thought that this simplistic and addle-brained poll/thread lent itself to such. My first instinct was to steer clear of it, but at least some intelligent discourse was generated.

I fail to see how anti-Muslim sentiment is racist. There is no Muslim race. Muslims are Arabs, Persians, Turks, Africans, Afro-Caucasians, etc. Some are even Caucasians. It may be a prejudiced sentiment, but it’s not racism. The Palestinians and Jews are both Semites, for goodness sake. Race and religion often have nothing to do with one another. This is one of those cases.

Why choose NYC as a site for an Al-Qaeda attack when there as many Muslims in NYC as there are in the largest cities of some other countries? Because NYC is mostly white people instead of brown? Because there’s alarge Jewish population, too? Because it’s easily noticed and is centrla to the Western way of life? Because the building hit were the tallest in the world, and in the opionion of the attackers showed a Babel-style pride?

Please don’t tell me that anyone seriously believes it’s because NYC is a haven for white people, if there actually are still more white than nonwhite people in NYC. It’s not racism. It’s religion. It’s politics. It’s economics. It’s a lot of things. It’s not racism.

@cystic:

@Mr:

@cystic:

I think we sold the US about 2B$ in military equipment for Vietnam. What a travesty.

Ghoul - you have a point, however i don’t know that the extent to which we are allied w/ the US and UK has been determined. Certainly we need to keep up w/ our NATO committments, however aside from basic peacekeeping what need have we for a large military? We sent at least 5 bronze star recipients to Afghanistan (in addition to our own highly trained PPCLI) as well as a lot of equipment the Americans did not have. Our country needs little defence irrespective of the US regard for our borders, aside from that required to make the US think that we have a military.
Of course we’ve discussed Liberal government failings, and i agree that Britain holds us in minimal regard (the bastards), but i do not think that the US is supporting our military to any real extent, but rather Canada supplies military equipment and infantry, not to mention diplomatic equity to American pet projects instead.

I agree, I don’t no the extent of our alliance with US/UK.
I assuming that some form of document was signed in reguards to Canadian military upkeep.
I just trying to justify the American commentary about our military.
It has to be based on something. I hope.

lol - true enough.
also give me a buzz sometime about a game. It’s been a while. Although play w/ Wild was good, i like a real person on the other end :)

I’ll give you a call and set something up.

Man Xi, no offense, but I think you are the only one laughing at your jokes.