Hyperreality

Perhaps I would be more appalled if I was even slightly surprised by it. You know how there were protests in Israel before the war about the supreme court?

This is one of the reasons why:

An article by former United States ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and former Jordanian United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid bin Ra'ad in Foreign Policy argued that the insistence of Israeli right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on curbing the powers of the Supreme Court, stems from a desire to "more easily enact his vision of an Israel that extends unimpeded from river to sea," as the court had previously impeded the legalization of Israeli settlements built on privately-owned Palestinian land.

"the US also bombs civilians to take out military targets"

Not wrong though.

IRC the initial shock and awe coordinated 'surgical' bombing at the beginning of the 2003 Iraq war cost the lives of up to 8000 Iraqi civilians. I remember watching it at the time, and American media were really gushing about that whole thing. Going on about how precise it all was. Apparently if you dress it all up in a bit of newspeak (collateral damage, precision bombing, surgical strike, ...) you can convince most people that the pressure wave from a large bomb stops at the window of a building.

Maybe international law is too lax. Maybe the US is too powerful to face consequences for anything but the most egregious examples, but then again it's not as if the world (including the middle-east) gives much of a shit when Assad barrel bombs yet another a hospital. And no one gives a shit about the thousands who died in Sudan this year, because they're black, so they apparently don't count.

In a deeply cynical way, it makes sense that the IDF and Israel think it's unfair. Why should they get so much flack for war crimes, when others get away with it consequence free? China got to demolish ten thousand or more mosques, Russia got to demolish multiple cities and deliberately murder sheltering children, it's only fair that Israel gets to commit a bit of genocide.

I'm old and tired, and please understand this is an angry and sarcastic comment, but I do wonder what people think war is actually like. Especially urban warfare. Because given history, it seems to me that this is what it's always like. Thousands of dead civilians, razed buildings, and flimsy excuses and technicalities which allow countries to get away with (not so) accidentally murdering thousands. The world's biggest and least funny joke.

No need to invent new commandments. Use the holy book they claim to follow.

James 5: 1-6:

1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

Not done your best to eliminate wage theft and tax the rich? Fail.

Leviticus 19:34

The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Not voted in favour of equal (voting, residence, labour, ...) rights for migrants? Fail.

Exodus 22:25

“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.

Not voted in favour of mandating interest free loans to the poor? Fail.

The lawyers. Even a rapist's friends deserve a fair trial. The lawyers are simply doing their job and ensuring that no one can claim the rapist's friends didn't get a fair hearing.

5d chess.

Husband would rather die on the front than return home to his angry wife.

On a related note, I'm still annoyed microsoft bungled the windows phone and didn't do more to support app developers. Arguably better than osx and certainly android at the time.

Wrong Abrahamic sect.

Can't you simply register an account on old.reddit without using email (they ask but you leave it empty) and after changing your IP with your VPN?

Doubt they've fixed that yet.

Not that there's any point. If you're not interacting with bots or copy-pasted comments, you're interacting with morons and people who think internet points matter.

Enterprise was arguably hornier with all the decon chamber raisin smuggling and massages.

Warranty will often mention that it's void if you race it. But I don't think the comparison's fair.

Even in circumstances where it isn't literally illegal to ride even a 'budget' motorbike anywhere near full potential, it's still incredibly dangerous for an amateur. You literally can't abuse it like a pro, without likely killing yourself.

Pro-level bicycle? Often no problem. You're less likely to get into trouble at 20mph/30kmh than 120mph/200kmh on a cheap motorbike. Forget about motogp bikes which IRC do 0-300kmh(190mph?) in under 10 seconds.

Not just marketing. Carbon fibre and weight reduction can get very expensive.

Of course, you pretty quickly hit diminishing returns, and most people don't actually need that for a short weekend trip.

But it can make sense to spend a few thousand on a bike, if you're using it to commute or you use it for work (deliveries, etc.).

price of motorcycles. You can drop £10k on road bike or mountain bike, and still not really get top of the range. Look up what kind of motorcycle you can get for that money and then make a value judgement .

Don't know much about bikes, but I remember reading the story of someone who had bought something insane. Think a high end ducati. Anyway, he was complaining about how it overheated and/or got to hot at traffic lights. Someone pointed out it wasn't designed to idle at a traffic light or cruise highway speeds. He was driving it too slowly for it to cool the engine properly. He'd bought a bike that was designed to go fast, only to find out it wasn't actually that good at riding around at relatively slow speeds.

Don't know if that's true, but it does illustrate that more expensive isn't always necessarily a better choice for an individual user.