The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[derspiess]

Yeah I am not watching shit from one of those d-bag cable news networks.

But it's MSNBC.

[Jacob]

Lower crime, higher GDP per capita and better infrastructure. On what basis could you argue the Mexican cession isn't better off than the crime ridden blood bath that is northern Mexico today?

You do realize that the crime ridden blood bath in northern Mexico is primarily the result of money coming from the US, right?

[garbon]

I was talking about the terrain.

Why does that matter?

[derspiess]

Lower crime, higher GDP per capita and better infrastructure. On what basis could you argue the Mexican cession isn't better off than the crime ridden blood bath that is northern Mexico today?

You do realize that the crime ridden blood bath in northern Mexico is primarily the result of money coming from the US, right?

Damned illegals and their remittances

[DontSayBanana]

Lots of guys are quick to make this generalization, yet time after time you see high-status males with rail-thin women. Angelina Jolie, Gisele Bundchen, Amal Clooney, the aforementioned Queen of Jordan... Clearly many guys are into this look.

I think the clue there is "high-status."  High status tends to gravitate toward established status symbols.  If you're going for the obvious clustering example, "high-status" guys tend to drive import cars or foreign exotics, while the stereotype among the lower and middle class leans heavily against those in favor of domestic vehicles.

The argument could be made that the two stereotypes tend to attract each other not because of immediate attraction, but because of a desire to maintain status appearance and not be seen "slumming it."

[Jacob]

Damned illegals and their remittances

You're reliable, I'll give you that

You know that's not what's fuelling the criminal bloodshed in Mexico, but rather the US drug market.

[Valmy]

Damned illegals and their remittances

Well played that made me LOL.

Anyway it is the typical 'so far from God' thing.

You do realize that the crime ridden blood bath in northern Mexico is primarily the result of money coming from the US, right?

And the US would still have money creating crime ridden blood baths without the Mexican cession.  Living next door to a much richer country is not all its cracked up to be.

[KRonn]

http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/joe--obamas-prayer-speech-baffling-395029571633

I was astonished at that speech. Like it came out of left field with no real relevance to conditions that exist today, except to make some sort of equivalency argument which just falls flat.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Looks like they're reporting the last American ISIS hostage (a previously unnamed American female aid worker), Kayla Mueller, was killed in a Jordanian air strike on Raqqa. If that's actually how she died, probably the best outcome she had left. I'm sure she's been "married" or just an outright sex slave ever since August of 2013 when they captured her and there was no realistic scenario where she came home alive. At least they didn't get to make a beheading video out of her death. And of course rescue is almost never possible due to the size of the cities they tend to hide hostages in, it's like finding a specific needle in a stack of needles.

An alternative theory is ISIS killed her on the quiet, and blamed it on a Jordanian airstrike in the hopes it would somehow alienate Jordan from America. If so I don't think they really understand American military/foreign policy. America has killed a few hostages of other countries by accident, and knew full well all of its airstrikes could conceivably hit a hostage, that's been known in most wars where we've had prisoners. It's just reality, she wasn't going to be housed somewhere that didn't have ISIS targets, so any bombing on ISIS has always carried with it a chance of killing hostages, America's people and its government aren't going to hold this against Jordan.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Jordan's military has actually made a good point that it's highly unlikely ISIS would be able to identify which country's planes have bombed any of its targets, so there's also that to consider.

The specifics of the ISIS claim are totally bunk--that she was "alone in a building that collapsed from bombing and no militants were killed" is so obviously false as to be ludicrous. If she was actually killed in a bombing a lot of dead ISIS goons were certainly killed as well. If she was not killed in a bombing they likely quietly disposed of her (option two in my previous post) in a fairly obvious ploy to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Jordan.

[Admiral Yi]

Tech Sgt. Chen!

[mongers]

Looks like they're reporting the last American ISIS hostage (a previously unnamed American female aid worker), Kayla Mueller, was killed in a Jordanian air strike on Raqqa. ....

Yes, that's what I thought when I heard the news, if ISIL were to be believed, then her death was probably the most merciful she could have expected.

Suddenly being killed out of the blue by an airstrike, probably killed by blast or massive building collapse meant she didn't know too much about it, as opposed to what ever fear, torture and cruel end ISIL had in store for her.

[Razgovory]

I'm betting she's been dead for months now.  They probably killed her when they couldn't get the ransom back in August.  They are touchy about admitting to killing women.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm betting she's been dead for months now.  They probably killed her when they couldn't get the ransom back in August.  They are touchy about admitting to killing women.

They seemed to have no problems with admitting they tortured and killed that Iraqi human rights lawyer in Mosul.

[Eddie Teach]

I think the clue there is "high-status."  High status tends to gravitate toward established status symbols.  If you're going for the obvious clustering example, "high-status" guys tend to drive import cars or foreign exotics, while the stereotype among the lower and middle class leans heavily against those in favor of domestic vehicles.

The argument could be made that the two stereotypes tend to attract each other not because of immediate attraction, but because of a desire to maintain status appearance and not be seen "slumming it."

"High-status" was a term I used to indicate that they were men who were rated highly by society and could presumably have their pick of women. Other than that, they are a disparate group and shouldn't be generalized too much. Professional athletes in particular don't have any reason to choose a mate to impress others rather than for their own gratification.