Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

They aren’t sending their best. Or wait, maybe they are.

[lineygoblue]

A question I'd like to ask Dr. Gay:

"Doctor, you said it depends on the context, when one is calling for the genocide of the Jews, as to whether it violates Harvard's Code of Conduct. So, can you give me an example of a context where the advocating of the genocide of the Jews would be acceptable under Harvard's Code of Conduct?"

[AlabamAlum]

And I’m a free speech guy, say what you want (with certain very limited exceptions), but be consistent if you’re a rule maker. If calling for the genocide of Jews is okay, then it’s okay for any group.

[Dr. Strangelove]

And I’m a free speech guy, say what you want (with certain very limited exceptions), but be consistent if you’re is rule maker. If calling for the genocide of Jews is okay, then it’s okay for any group.

Yeah, the problem is this mentality has been saying that words are violence for a while now and suddenly there's at least one group (Jews) they are hedging on.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The Texas Supreme Court granted AG Paxton a temporary stay in that abortion case from two days ago.

He and his office also argued that Texas law does not permit abortions solely based on the fact that a fetus is unlikely to survive outside the womb.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-supreme-court-puts-hold-order-granted-pregnant-womans-request-ab-rcna128856

[Mike]

That’s a high bar for a medical emergency-exemption.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Per her doctors she has about a 50% of miscarrying in her third trimester with a possibility of it rendering her infertile. If she actually delivers the baby, over 90% with that condition are dead within a year.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is the place to apply medical science instead of religious ideology - objective over subjective, common sense over foolishness that brings pain and suffering. But what do I know.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I just spent an hour at the ISW web site studying the Order of Battle (OAB) of Hamas (how their military wing is organized). A couple of things I took from ISW's presentation.

• Hamas is a highly organized political and military organization with generational depth. The IDF cannot destroy it.
• It can, however, render it combat ineffective that would prevent it's political wing from exercising power through the "barrel of a gun".
• ISW lays out the structure of the Hamas military wing and it looks like any other army organization down to the brigade and company level.
• ISW lists Hamas commanders within the OOB that have been KIA. It's an impressive number of them but Hamas has built their organization to where subordinates are trained and capable of assuming command duties when a superior is killed. i.e., it's "generational" capacity
• Biden has been urging the Israeli's to shift from high intensity combat operations and attendant high civilian casualties common in urban warfare to targeted killing of Hamas leadership.
• NB: The west's targeted killing of Jihadist leadership approach - confronting the entire scale of the various Jihadist groups in the ME and SW Asia in general - has been ineffective, Most notably in the Sahel region of Africa. It won't work in the Israeli - Hamas war either.

My take: The Israelis making war time decisions - and it's not Netanyahu - are not going to be deterred by the increasing global opposition to Israel's chosen COA, both military and strategic. Because of the superiority of the IDF v. organized components of the military wing of Hamas, the IDF can, most likely, force negotiations on Israel's terms. No one is predicting a time frame but speculation is rampant that Netanyahu will not be a part of a post war Israel. Likewise, Hamas leadership will not be a political force in Gaza and the PLO leadership in the West Bank, is likely to be a casualty of the current war.

IOW, the post war political picture for Israelis and Palestinians is going to radically change with new leadership on both sides - at least that is the hope and underpins the aspiration of ME Arabs. They want nothing else than stability juxtaposed with Iran and their authoritarian supporters - Putin and Kim Jung Un - who like stirring up the ME pot. What's going on in this conflict - the civilian casualties and infrastructure destruction in Gaza - is inhuman but so was the Hamas attacks of October 7th that started all of it. People lose sight of this. Is the IDF's invasion and occupation of Gaza a proportional response? I would tend toward a characterization that it is not but given the initiating actions of Hamas I'm not sure that there were suitable options.

I've seen several good articles on how this conflict has reopened opportunities for a two state solution - Jewish settlers illegally occupying contested regions of the West Bank notwithstanding. The Israeli government needs to restrain these right wing nationalists and that is something that is likely to take place once Netanyahu is out of the picture. I'm hopeful.

[lineygoblue]

And just FTR, this right to life person believes that a decision to abort to save the life of the mother is a decision that should be legal. I am opposed to abortion as a means to terminate an inconvenient pregnancy, i.e. an additional means of birth control.

[Da Geezer]

And just FTR, this right to life person believes that a decision to abort to save the life of the mother is a decision that should be legal. I am opposed to abortion as a means to terminate an inconvenient pregnancy, i.e. an additional means of birth control.

Abortion to save the life of the mother has always been allowable; even in Christian theology. It is like Just-War theory. There are times when killing is allowable. Just not for convenience or "consequence-free sex".

[THE_WIZARD_]

The left wants abortion on demand with no exceptions. Some lunatics on the right would go for an all out ban with only life of mother as exception. I think the 6 week ban is too extreme. 15 weeks would be acceptable with life of mother exception. The left obviously demagogues the shit out of this because it works.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The Penn imbroglio demonstrates there are limits to free speech. I'm all for free speech to a point. It has to be balanced. I think in this case if students were allowed to gather and chant "intifada" (which to Jews means violence against them), the Jewish students ought to be allowed to gather and chant for a global cause to render Hamas impotent, politically and militarily.

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Mike]

If a political party was trying to lose as many elections as possible, would the Rs be doing anything different?