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UpperWestside

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by UpperWestside

  1. 3 minutes ago, Dutchrudder said:

    This Suns offense is so cringe, I can't watch it any more. They need a real offensive game plan and a point guard to run it so badly. 

    If only Phoenix had an aging point guard that can make someone like Booker look valuable. Too bad they never had a guy like that.

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  2. The Sixers did almost everything better last night except for the final minute. I get the frustration from Embiid, but just take the loss and move on. Complaining about officials swallowing their whistle in the final minute is not the way to go. Win the next two and make it a best-of-three.

    Also the Nova Knicks are ridiculously mentally tough. This is the first time in forever that the Knicks have that trait and it’s thanks to the Nova contingent.

  3. 5 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

    Then you have “Christian” loons who are rooting for war because that means Jesus is coming back

    How do you fix that?

    You cannot fix this. I think we as humans, especially westerners, think we can fix everything. Sometimes you just cannot fix things. I also loathe the “Christians” who think war there means Jesus is on the way back. I never think along those lines. It’s offensive to me to think Jesus sanctions this stuff and just can’t wait to fly in from the clouds in the middle of a war. Those “Christians” are people I steer real far away from. I hope for the best each day for people and that suffering would cease. You can only control what is in front of you. 

  4. On 4/19/2024 at 9:39 PM, Anastasis said:

    UW, I know that you are a sincere poster coming from a good place at heart. This above is wrong headed though. With sincerity, I would like to suggest a couple books that I think you might enjoy and would find some interesting perspective. I'd be happy to send you either one or both. 

    https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Brothers-Dramatic-Palestinian-Christian/dp/154090217X

    https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Mountain-Journey-Christians-Middle/dp/0307948897

     

     

    I look at history as an almost never ending struggle of humans to subdue other humans not included in their group. That phenomenon plays out all across the world. This one just has more documentation than others. I believe that it was George Carlin that commented on liking individual encounters with people as fun, but once people get in groups is where things inevitably go sideways. Both of these sides had control at various points in history and both were also subjected to foreign rule by more than one empire. Again humans gonna human at the expense of the less powerful. In this case the Palestinians get slaughtered because they do not have the weaponry or organized army ravaging them. It’s why I want them sent to the US to live and flourish. As long as Israel is allowed to murder the population they have no chance to have a normal existence. I’d also add that since the Israeli Jews overwhelmingly want them removed that the onus should be entirely upon them financially to facilitate that move. We all know this won’t happen, but it’s better to think of better days for Palestinians than to see them continually suffer endless war.

    I will attempt to read at least one of the two books, probably the first one. I read for at least an hour and a half a day so when I can work that book in I will do so because you can never know enough or ever stop learning more about the world you share with others.

    • Like 1
  5. On 4/17/2024 at 9:38 AM, Frank Drebin said:

    For many problems, you just need real life family and friends for help. 

    I remember going to a therapist during the first year of the pandemic. It was helpful I believe and I would recommend therapy to anyone seeking it out or in need of it. 
     

    Sometimes though I think having close friends or family there for support can be of equal value. Absent that I would go to a therapist though. I wish we lived in a country, or world for that matter, that put greater emphasis on mental health. 

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  6. 1 minute ago, BrickHorn said:

    And I stated that your claim is 100% bullshit which, in any meaningful sense, it is. 
     

    Good stuff.

  7. 42 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

    Your understanding of the history of this conflict is fucked. The idea that Jews and Palestinians have always fought and always will is a lie. I can’t put it any more politely than that. 

    Your understanding that not always fighting means they are cool with each other is off the mark. Nowhere have I said they have always fought. I stated plainly that the origins of this go back three millennia. You look at everything through your western lens and not the lens of the people that have historically had control of their ancestral homeland. The Palestinians want their home back and the heavily armed Israelis are not giving them anything. We’ll both be long gone and this conflict between these two ancient peoples will still be ongoing. 

  8. 2 hours ago, BrickHorn said:

    It’s a thought-terminating cliche. An attempt to stifle debate and inspire “What are ya gonna do?” shrugs, rather than dig in and understand the conflict. The biblical connotations make it extra effective at shutting down any critical thought.

    And yeah, I thought twice about calling out @UpperWestside specifically on this because his views on the issues seem generally reasonable. But he has repeated this particular canard and it’s a dangerous one.

    There’s no attempt to stifle any debate. You can go back and forth into perpetuity if you want to. The evidence shown says that we will not see these two groups of people sit down and come to an agreement that stops the violence. The big brother right now is unloading almost everything in the arsenal and the little brother in this scenario will look to get revenge at some point and the violence starts all over again. It is not going to stop and we as westerners think we can just ride in and save the day. We cannot and will not.

    Mentioning that both of these two peoples share common ancestry is nothing new. That a large part of it went to Egypt and came back to take it several centuries later because “God told them it was their promised land of milk and honey” meant they came back and either slaughtered, ejected or enslaved the locals who were there in the centuries that the Jews were gone. I would imagine that should the US still be here in 3000 years (I know, I know) that there will still be Indigenous people’s ancestors who want their original land back. That’s humans being humans. Palestinians deserve to have their ancestral lands back intact, but there is a greater chance of the Lakers asking me to be their new shooting guard than that happening. I abhor violence and hate to see it in any form against anyone, but here we are. I would rather just take every Palestinian and move them here to have a better life. Human beings as a whole hold bitter grudges and will never stop trying to kill one another as long as at least two of us exist.

  9. 19 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

    I think we will. And I agree about citizenship for those who want it. I think most will.

    The issue are these.

    1- How do you ever fix the animosity on both sides?

    2- What do you do with those who do not want this solution? The hardline on both sides.

    3- How to integrate?

    4- How do you stop the expansion of settlements?

    The existence of Arab Israelis, many who serve in the IDF, shows it can work.

    The animosity is something we cannot fix. This goes back to Old Testament times for each of them. That level of dislike, hatred, distrust is something that is out of any of our hands. Again that sucks, but sometimes there are things that will not change.

    If I could take the hardliners on each side that continue to prod and provoke anger to an island and leave them all there to fight it out to the death I’d readily do it if it meant cooler and more sensible people could come together from each side.

    If I could take the Palestinians that want to come here I would do it and I would get the ones capable of working into a career field they are either already in or qualified to be in as well as getting them started with housing. Perhaps an apartment relative to the size of their family. Again this would require a society that doesn’t have millions that hate brown people to make it work.

    You want to see the settlement expansion stop? You stop giving leeway to the leadership in Israel to be pricks. You stop handing them weapons and weapon systems that kill people by the bushel. Israel keeps doing what they do because there is no one stopping them. Again this whole settlement thing also goes back to the Jews believing all this land to be theirs since God gave it to them. This ignores the parts where God sent them away from the land for being ungrateful idol worshipping clowns. That part always seems to be overlooked. He giveth and He taketh away. 
     

    I do like that the IDF is an integrated unit with Arabs serving in it. The military here was ahead of the civilian population as well on integration as you well know. 
     

    Overall I think you have to have two sides who want compromise. This is not that situation. The best case would be to tell the Palestinians to pack their bags for America and a life where they can not have to live like prisoners. That would be my course of action. We can never be diverse enough in my opinion. 

     

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  10. This situation obviously sucks for the Palestinians. We all should have the freedom to exist and be able to do so without a threat of lead falling from the sky that could kill us at any moment. 
     

    I do not believe that any of us will live long enough to see a two state solution implemented nor will the bickering that leads to outright violence ever stop. If I was the president of a country of people who embraced different cultures and didn’t have 40 percent or so of it that hates brown people I would offer every single Palestinian full citizenship that would want to take it. They are entitled to have the ability to live life without the fear of death hanging over them. We get one life and so much of theirs is wasted by their neighbor being a schoolyard bully while the teachers and administration (Us and the rest of Israel’s enablers) lets this continue on.  

  11. Perhaps don’t employ these people or send them to the press conferences of high profile female athletes. That exchange is just so absolutely ridiculous. Good on Clark for being disgusted with it.

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  12. 29 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    He was also wrong, apparently, about his uncles' enlistment dates:  it wasn't after D-Day, it was after Pearl Harbor.

    Big fucking deal. 

    I would have guessed that was wrong pretty quickly as well because the amount of time it took from enlistment to entering the war in the Pacific was lengthy due to training. These details do not bother me because I doubt Biden spends much time reading about such details from that war. I enjoy reading about them, but I have much more free time than the leader of the free world does. 

  13. 1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

    Yeah, you're high and you have fucked up news sources.

    Yeah, it appears that it probably wasn't cannibals, but that's far from an impossibility.  New Guinea has had cannibals forever.  https://www.livescience.com/51191-cannibalism-prions-brain-disease.html

    New Guinea had some horribly awful things happen there before, during and after the conclusion of WWII. The mountains and jungles of the Owen Stanley Range are some of the harshest places on earth to survive. I want to traverse the Kokoda Track at some point. 

  14. Told a Lakers fan I work with that we’d win. They obviously want a shot a Denver because pro athletes don’t think like fans do. This series goes 5 at most unless Jokic decides to leave early to go into horse racing full-time. Should be fun watching our two best players eat their own words all series about wanting to see Denver again.

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  15. 2 minutes ago, Hank_Hill said:

    The conflicts in the ME will not continue for millennia. We’re going to kill the planet way before that.

    Well sure we’re on target to do that as a species, but if we somehow are still here several millennia from now they’ll still be fighting. 

  16. 2 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

    I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.  Do you think we shouldn't be arming the Ukrainians? 

    The middle east isn't exceptional.  We should support other nations or people when our interests align and remove support when they don't. 

    Again the topic is not Europe. I have no issue helping to ensure that Israel survives as a nation. I’m cool with Netanyahu seeing a prison cell though. There just will never be a solution to the violence in the Middle East. They will fight amongst each other for the rest of our lives and again long after we are turned to dust.

  17. 15 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

    Adding on to @Macklemore, but Iran had established diplomatic and military relationship with Israel and was a non-shooting ally against the Arabs.  In fact, it was so strong that even when he was deposed, the Israelis and the Iranian elites continued the relationship through the Iraq war before Khomeini more firmly established his theocracy at the head of the government (bear in mind this means the Israelis were selling US supplied arms to Iran while we sold weapons to Iraq). 

    I don't mean to pick on you @UpperWestside, but when people describe the middle east conflicts are perpetual and immutable, it makes it sound like they are somehow distinct from those in the West.  I think part of the perception is it's a place with 2000 years of preserved written history so we just know a lot more about it.  There's been huge swaths of time when there was relative peace and I don't think the region appears all that more given to violence than Europe or the new world up to WW2. 

    The whole "death to Israel" shit is Khomeini and is because of his rivalry with the Saudi's for religious legitimacy. 

    Europe is the most bloodied continent in recorded history on the planet that also suffers from perpetual war. They are not the topic here. Again anyone that thinks they will solve the continual state of wanting to go to war and fighting over land there has not done any real purview of the history of the region. The Middle East will continue to bicker and fight long after we are all gone. 

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  18. 17 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

    Bullshit. There would be no Islamic terrorist proxies or hostilities between Iran and Israel if HIH Reza Pahlavi was on the Peacock Throne. Iranians don’t give a shit about Palestinians and are resentful that their hard earned money goes to that cause.

    Spend time reading more about the history of the region. Do not tell me that you have because if you had you would know the divisions go back for millennia upon millennia. This will go on into perpetuity. 

  19. Every generation believes they will be the one to put a stop to wars in the Middle East. These conflicts stretch back several millennia and will continue to happen for several millennia more. Thinking that this is a problem that has a simple solution, or really any solution, is a fallacy. The best to hope for is containment to the region and that the civilian population does not suffer too greatly if things escalate like they inevitably will.

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  20. 1 hour ago, safe sex said:

    I am fucking stoked to be on that list lmao. You losers care about meaningless internet points way too much; it's fucking pathetic. 

    My only regret is that I'm not #1.

    I got on the medal stand because of the copious amount of neg rep I gave to one poster that absolutely deserved them and still does under the various amount of new handles they have used since their original name. 
     

    I don’t care about getting a negative rep because this is a message board where we all have varying viewpoints. There are people I read and both agree and disagree with in different forums on here. In a nutshell that’s how we mostly are as people. We find common ground more often than not on things, but sometimes we just do not. 

  21. I saw this on my phone at work. My mother has had three different types of cancer and almost a decade later is still here thank God. I wouldn’t wish cancer on anyone, but my reaction to this was “Cancer did what the justice system did not.”
     

    Then when I turned to tell a guy my age that OJ died the 21 year old sitting next to me says “Who is that?” He quite literally means nothing to millions of people in this country and I’m glad for that. I hope he’s hanging out with Robert Kardashian right about now.

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