The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[Ed Anger]

Meanwhile....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2941058/Senior-al-Qaeda-militant-killed-drone-strike-Yemen-group-leaders-say.html

[Valmy]

Al Qaeda are a bunch of has-beens.  Though I guess quite literally in this case.

[mongers]

So ... do women who are thin as rails get dual citizenship in the US based on media portrayals of their hottness? And this is a result of ISIS? 

Thanks for the exec.sum, I was wondering wtf was going on in this thread now.

[Eddie Teach]

Well straight women seem to think we want them thin as rails which only fashion designers and Ide like.

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.

[Martinus]

Well straight women seem to think we want them thin as rails which only fashion designers and Ide like.

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.

First of all, there is a difference between anorexic and slim - none of the women you mention are "rail-thin", they simply are not overweight.

Secondly, men are attracted to women who look healthy and in the modern day and age slim look is the healthy look.

Thirdly, if anyone is deluding themselves, I think that it is low-status males that convince themselves they like fat women, than high-status males who convince themselves (through media etc.) they like slim women. 

[CountDeMoney]

Thirdly, I think that it is low-status males that convince themselves they like fat women, than high-status males who convince themselves (through media etc.) they like slim women.

Oh man, where do you come up with this stuff.   

[Eddie Teach]

First of all, there is a difference between anorexic and slim - none of the women you mention are "rail-thin", they simply are not overweight.

If they aren't suitably thin, Valmy's generalization fails from the other direction- women do not have a common perception that they need to be thinner than Angelina Jolie.

[Martinus]

Thirdly, I think that it is low-status males that convince themselves they like fat women, than high-status males who convince themselves (through media etc.) they like slim women.

Oh man, where do you come up with this stuff.   

What? I have never seen a high status male dating an anorexic woman as some people here claim. They have all dated slim women, who fit universal, modern standards of beauty.

Now, I have seen plenty of not-high-status males in relationships with women who were clearly overweight or sometimes even obese - and claimed they "like it that way".

Sure, you can blame it on "everybody has a different taste" but the fact is that the higher in the social hierarchy you go (whether we are talking about rich, successful, famous etc.) the less likely you are to see men with "women of all shapes and sizes".

So there are two explanations. Either, the more powerful, successful, rich, famous etc. as a man you are, the more likely you are to be pressured by the society into accepting something you don't like. Or, the more powerless, unsuccessful, poor and insignificant you are, the more you are forced to settle for something sub-substandard.

The latter is, imho, much more likely.

Edit: I suppose there is a third explanation - men who like slim women are more likely to succeed in life than men who like fat women.

[11B4V]

Well, this has made a bizarre turn. 

[Tonitrus]

ISIL guys are probably into fatties.

[Martinus]

ISIL guys are probably into fatties.

Yeah. You are less likely to hurt your hand when beating them.

[PJL]

Back on topic - can't we just give the Sunni Arab bits of Iraq & Syria to Jordan? They're practically the best Muslim country in the region (that includes Turkey who've fallen off the rails for a while now).| Hell, I'd argue they should be given Hejaz back as well if possible.

The Kurdish bits of Iraq and Syria can be independent. Rump Syria & Lebanon could merge together, and Shia Iraq to be a vassal Iranian state.

[Tonitrus]

Jordan probably doesn't want that mess.

And of of the big things that came out from the Iraq invasion, that most of us in the West I think were (and somewhat still are, probably) ignorant of...and I've seen some more of it swirling around the story of the downed/burned Jordanian pilot...is that in Jordan/Iraq (and no doubt Syria), local tribes are a big deal to maintaining power and stability.  We just see the figureheads at the top of the pile, and assume they have total power.

[Martinus]

Yeah, it always strikes me as rather naive when people are "offering" to give parts of dysfunctional countries to functional ones and hope this will be somehow acceptable to the functional state and also a good solution to the problem.

That would be like offering parts of Ukraine to Poland or Northern Mexico to the US - why the hell would we want poor, unruly territories for a bigger headache? It's a very 19th century style thinking that I don't think works any more.

[Eddie Teach]

That would be like offering parts of Ukraine to Poland or Northern Mexico to the US - why the hell would we want poor, unruly territories for a bigger headache? It's a very 19th century style thinking that I don't think works any more.

Much of the part of northern Mexico we already took isn't any better than the part that's left. Now, whether it's worth it to take more probably depends on how much oil they have left.