Dark Energy

Greg Moyer?

I disagree. Goes against what generation means. Should be more rare. That said, language is like that. People misuse words all the time and the meaning is still understood. ‘I literally died laughing!’ ‘Vito freaking murdered that bracket’ - I’ll admit, I get a chuckle when ‘murdered’ is used to describe how dominant a wrestler is vs the field. Meaning I enjoy it.

Reasonable questions. I don’t know and I expect the answer varies based on the situation, the value of the target, the degree the ‘innocents’ are willingly acting as shields, and so forth. How many opportunities occur to kill the rat bastard without hurting ‘innocents.’ Etc. But the answer is likely to be above 0. Above I’m pointing out the inconsistency and hypocrisy you are displaying. Trying to get you to step back and a bit and recognize the other side of the debate. Peace.

For those that claim Israeli has been committing genocide.

Ok. Nor are you in the Israeli commander discussions regarding degree to avoid innocents, and the challenge they have in finding Hamas as they hide under and behind civilians. Nor are you in the meeting with Israeli leaders as they’ve sought to make tradeoffs to obtain peace with Palestinians over the decades. You still have an opinion on it I’m sure.

Uh, ok. Let’s use your logic. The vast vast majority of Palestinians were not born when Israel was created or its boundaries expanded. Thus they do not have a say in whether Israel has a right to exist. Sound good? No, I didn’t think so. You may not recognize Hamas as the elected and ruling government of Gaza … doesn’t make it true.

So because Hamas is only the elected government of Gaza they should not be held to the same standards? Does not need to uphold the rules of war? They have less responsibility to protect innocents? Again, I disagree, completely. You choose not to answer the Q regarding what Hamas expected. You have an idea but you know expressing it would make your case and stance look bad. Your point about the long history here is fair. It is long. And complicated. And ugly. Coming out of WWII new nations were being created, borders were moved, families separated, new governments put in place and mass refugee situations had to be addressed. In all of this, Britain carved out land they effectively controlled for the new State of Israel. Almost immediately bloodshed ensued, many locals didn’t want this and along with many others nearby. They fought to expel the new arrivals and the new government and seemed to be close to winning but lost. In the near decades to follow more wars were initiated by the displeased. Israel emerging victorious each time and often increasing their land area and control. This often happens by the end of a conflict. As does the creation of refugees. However, the adjacent nations refused entry from the refugees, keeping the bottled up, in tight land areas. Israel has fought to exist over and over again. They have dealt with terrorism again and again as well as shelling of civilians. And they have taken harsh measures to protect themselves. They are not saints. I agree that many settler actions over the decades are illegal. I get being pissed about much of this. I get protesting over these illegal, disgusting, and wrong actions. And I think many were starting to look at Israel negatively as a result. But, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, rises to the level of what Hamas did. NOTHING justified it.

Mike has more responsibility to not harm civilians? That is where we differ. You are giving a pass to the evil aggressor. Your right to do so, but it is ugly in my opinion. Question for you - what do you think Hamas expected to happen after they invaded Israel, raped, murdered and kidnapped in a grand scale? Curious to hear your answer. If it isn’t anything but ‘A hellish wave of Israeli retribution’ … you are naive. Hamas wanted this.

@braves121 - that is disingenuous. That’s like saying …. I know Mike. Mike is having a heated argument with Brian. I don’t know Brian. So I’m only going to critique Mike and ignore all the things Brian is saying or doing that are egregiously wrong. I have my blinders on. Just silly. And for all those that take this stance, it shows a shocking degree of hypocrisy. The folks protesting Israel’s actions should also make clear that the elected Government of the Gaza Strip are evil and deserve severe retribution. But only if they believe that. I’m not thinking many of them do.

@uncle bernard- see my post above? Thoughts?

Catching up … If the protest is about urging Israel to be more careful in their hunt for Hamas and by doing so kill fewer ‘innocents.’ Ok. I get that. Hell, I can be a supporter. Seems like that is what @uncle bernardis protesting about. As part of this, there is recognition that what the elected government of Gaza did was EVIL and Israel has the right and obligation to destroy the leadership and leaderships ability to conduct such EVIL. @uncle bernard .. fair to say you agree with this part too? Colleges have a history of protest action. I’m good. Protests that follow every rule don’t get much attention. These protesters want attention. However, I’ve seen plenty that suggests that the protests can go beyond this. ‘From the river to the sea, let Palestine be free’ (etc.). Basically … The desire for the elimination of Israel. I’m against that. I would not join protests for this cause.@uncle bernard - you? I’ve also seen video of protestors in the past clearly supporting Hamas. Not following the college stuff enough to know … but if any of the protests suggest support for Hamas … gross. Is there a clear write up of the exact demands of this protest movement? As an aside - Some chant Israel is has been and is committing genocide …. which is laughable on its face. Gaza population has grown a lot in past decades. Death toll would be exponentially higher if regular purposeful targeting of every human in Gaza was occurring and the eradication of Gazas population was the plan — akin to what Hamas did when it invaded Israel.

Ok. So you are cool with everyone that spews hate and murder that then say … oops. Didn’t meant it. That’s all it takes. Fair enough. Seems like the people in the article who are his friends feel the same way. Ready to embrace him. Good guy. And no acknowledgement that statements like these create a hostile school environment. Even if it is a small group.

Here is my first post to you. Several questions within.

I am mistaken. You are correct. He was proclaiming his desire for all zionists to die. That is not the same. Interesting that you avoided recognizing that this is also hateful and disgusting and creates a hostile environment for other students. Instead you think that my error some how changes the point. Calling me disingenuous. While I was not correct in the wording, the point still is the same. You say you are glad he apologized. You avoided my question about right wing folks that say oops. You feel the same way about them?

You want me to copy and paste my whole post above where I literally tagged you twice? Twice. No, you are dodging and weaving. And my last post you answered what you wanted to answer and avoided the tough questions. I’m done.

Ok. So your approach is to trumpet your opinion and spread snippets while avoiding answering questions whose honest answers would be hard to square with your public behavior and stances. Everyone trying to engage with @uncle bernard - pls take note! Don’t waste your time with this intellectual coward.

@uncle bernard - you are posting all these snippets. Do you choose to believe all the ones you post, not acknowledging that these are snippets and not showing full context? And perhaps can be misinformation? Haven’t I seen you complain that others blindly believe what they post without recognizing most of the situations have a broader context? And appear to be misinformation? Did you read the NYTimes article today about the guy who proclaimed death to Jews? Doubled down on it. Now says he was wrong. Oops. Should all just forgive him? Like we should forgive right wing protestors that say oops?

Selective reading comprehension?

@uncle bernard you are asking questions but not answering the one I posed to you.

@uncle bernard - what did I post that suggested they I was accusing any poster here of supporting Hamas? You jumped to that? I guess because you feel you are on the defensive and I am trying to imply you support Hamas. I am not. What I am doing is pointing out the direct guilt Hamas has here. I could not believe it when I saw that there were protesters supporting Hamas after Oct 7. Vile. Evil. Simply pure Evil what they did. Hamas, the elected government of Gaza, brought this down on the people of Gaza ON PURPOSE. There should have been, and should still be mass protests from many of their people AGAINST the atrocities and AGAINST the holding innocent civilians as hostages. They should be seeking to surrender and turn in these pure war criminals that objectively and with purpose, from their leaders down to their troops had the intention, and only this intention, of committing mas war crimes … and then did it. The protestors today are clearly choosing to ignore or belittle the actions of October 7. Israel has the absolute right to protect itself and ELIMINATE Hamas, force unconditional surrender, and then put the war criminals in trial. And yes, unconditional surrender. For now, Hamas continues to fight and hide behind civilians. WHERE ARE THE PROTESTS, WHERE IS THE ANGER from the innocent people, and their allies, that innocents are being used as shields? And again, this talk of Israel committing genocide is ridiculous. Population of Gaza has grown over the years. If Israel wanted to commit genocide the death toll by now would 1 million plus. Fact. On the other hand the chants from Hamas and their supporters, and the ACTUAL ACTIONS THEY TOOK TARGETTING CIVILIANS ON OCT 7 show their desire to wipe out the Jews of Israel. Is that clear enough @uncle bernard?

How anyone … seriously .. anyone …. can support Hamas after what they did, is sickening. I’m ok with supporting the historical claims that Palestinians have made, but supporting Hamas and their actions is disgusting, through and through. And there were many after Oct 7 that did just that. Many with their current chants and protests aren’t simply imploring Israel to protect innocents, they are trumpeting Hamas’ calls … all while Hamas still holds hostages. F’ing sick.

I didn’t read all the pages here. But will just jump in. Hamas, the elected government of the people of Gaza, planned for, prepared for, and then executed a planned invasion of Israel with the sole intent of killing, mutilating, and raping civilians along with taking hundreds of them (old folks, kids, babies, moms) hostage. Doing this by hand, face to face, savagery. Freaking definition of evil. Pure, unadulterated evil. Like freaking sick, disgusting evil. Pure terrorism. Pure targeting of ALL civilians they could find. Picture some group / government / organization doing this to the US. Seriously, picture it. Then, Hamas runs back to Gaza and then hides behind and under civilians. Absolutely on purpose. Thus, clearly violating the ‘rules of war’ over and over again. What did they expect Israel to do? What reaction did they want? This, they wanted this. They purposefully brought this down on the people of Gaza. The people that elected them. The people that did not report that this horror was about to happen (many had to know but kept it secret). And now, Hamas continues to fight. Continues to bring the fury of Israel down on Gaza. Refuses to relinquish all hostages. If Israel wanted to target.civilians and commit genocide, we would be talking about millions dead by now. I feel for the true innocents. I do. But what Hamas did rightly unlocked pure fury and Hamas hiding behind the innocents is the true guilty party here. ‘

Interestingly, applications to Harvard were down 5% this year. That is a lot considering most elite schools that report are showing good growth. Lots of turmoil at Harvard these past several months.

I’m thinking that this is a premature post. Let’s see how he actually does before declaring this a great path. You may very well be right, but given his complete lack of results, can’t tell right now. That said, I get the logic and can see why optimism is very high.

I see this term, ‘Generational Talent’ thrown around quite a bit. I would suggest too often. What do you all think it means? I think it means the best of the best … the kind of best that you see in a person once every 20 years or so. 20 years being a reasonable time frame for a ‘generation.’ This is a very high bar. Perhaps golf’s Nicklaus and Woods. I want to say John Smith to Jordan Burroughs but there have been some fast followers behind JB. Many seem to think there are generational talents popping up every year. E.g., Referring to Aaron Brooks as a generational talent. To me, that makes no sense. Kind of like how many people (such as my kids) use the word ‘literally’ … they don’t seem to know the meaning of the word. Thoughts?