Hixter

I can't speak for NoJ, but my little yellow winking guy was there for a specific reason.

Works for me.

And then there is Russia. Russia is a far bigger threat to the West than IS and Putin is a much more formidable and cunning adversary. The breakup of the USSR was a crushing blow for Russian pride. To add insult to injury, 12 former territories (including 10 former Warsaw Pact nations) have joined arch-enemy NATO and more are vying for membership. Putin has annexed and invaded parts of Ukraine and has made it clear that he would do likewise anywhere there are large numbers of ethnic Russians who feel oppressed. NATO is sworn to protect any member which is attacked. An attack against one n

It's far from a simple question, as there are too many variables involved, but it's essentially a rhetorical question since American service members are already risking their lives in the fight in Iraq and Syria. That said, yes, I think it is worth the risk in order to destroy IS, but I will qualify it with a big BUT (insert Sir Mix-a-Lot song here) by saying that it all depends on the administration's plan that is supposed to be revealed tonight. It will definitely takes boots on the ground in both Iraq and Syria to destroy IS; there are no two ways about it. The president has made so many

I am quite capable of speaking for myself, so there's no need for anyone to try to put words in my mouth. Some VC posters have an unfortunate tendency to do so and I will always reject any such attempts. I'm an open-minded individual. I enjoy having polite and mature discussions with people who hold opposing viewpoints. I find it easy to separate a person's politics from the person himself and I don't know if I've ever had a political discussion with someone that actually made me angry. I don't lump everyone together as either Left or Right, with lockstep views and predictable beliefs, so i

Unless they're all hopping around on one foot, 1500 soldiers = thousands of boots. Because I didn't say it.

As I've said many times before, I do not watch or read Fox News. You mentioned it, I went to their website and found the report in about 4 seconds. After the latest beheading, the DoD announced plans to send 350 additional troops to protect the embassy, bringing the total to nearly 1,000. Obviously, troops defending an embassy from attack are combat troops. There are also several hundred advisors in country. I would expect most to be special ops troops who are actually involved in combat. Then there are the special ops troops that we don't talk about and are most certainly fighting. I s

That's because there's plenty to hate. First of all, the European plan does nothing to address Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's just a plan to keep current NATO members in the region mollified by promising them something that they've been promised by treaty all along: an attack on you will be considered an attack on us all and we will defend you. Nothing new there at all. And, as usual, the brunt of any fighting in the future will be borne by the United States, as our NATO allies are relatively small and incapable of going it alone. As for IS, this line is telling: IS will not be defea

Drinking beer with my neighbors, brewing beer with my neighbors, watching football with my neighbors. Cleaning out my garage: alone.

A former ISIS fighter talks about their future goals: http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/04/world/meast/isis-inside-look/index.html?c=world

You're living in a fantasy world. But I guess that's true for most of Washington.

There are plenty of valid conversations to be had about how and why we got to where we are, and what we should do to sort things out, but to claim that things are well under control is about as far from the truth as one can get.

Let's see: ISIS: in control of much of Iraq and Syria, beheading American citizens, executing hundreds of men at a time, massacring Christians, Kurds and Yazidis, plundering American-made heavy weaponry, humiliating Iraq's military, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from banks, seizing oil fields and oil profits, attracting thousands of British, American and European citizens eager to wage jihad at home, threatening neighboring states and generally making al Qaeda look like small potatoes. Russia: invaded and annexed Crimea, invaded Ukraine, rattling the nuclear saber, sending bombe

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Cold War II: Moscow doesn't want or intend to wade into any "large-scale conflicts," Putin insisted at a youth forum, state-run Itar-Tass reported. A few breaths later, he made the point that Russia is "strengthening our nuclear deterrence forces and our armed forces," making them more efficient and modernized. "I want to remind you that Russia is one of the most powerful nuclear nations," the President said. "This is a reality, not just words." He later warned, "We must always be ready to repel any aggression against Russia and (potential enemies) should

That's the only way to defeat them. It would be nice if the boots weren't American for a change, but we're the only military that has the means to defeat them. The president has repeatedly said that we won't put boots on the ground (despite the fact that there are already thousands of our boots on the ground) so a reversal will make him look even more wishy-washy and out of touch than ever. Yes, but it takes decades or centuries, not months or years. Look at Japan and Germany, for example. Smart people said that Iraq and Afghanistan would take 50-100 years to effect a permanent change. Th

Sure it is, but it's not exactly "knock yer socks off" wealthy. In my school district, a married couple with no prior experience could pull in $100k/year. That's not even enough to buy a house in many parts of the country.

I said that $100,000 isn't a lot of money. But $300,000 is very low on the CEO pay scale. Google says that the average CEO salary is $750k; $300k is in the bottom 5-10%.

Just what I said: it's not that much money in 2014. I made that much until my recent unemployment. My 28-year-old son-in-law makes that much. All of my neighbors make more than that. Many military officers make $100k. They are paying truck drivers $100k in the oil fields south of here and they can't find enough drivers. Engineers, lawyers and salesmen top 6 figures. It's really not that much money for someone who has been working in their field for 20 or 30 years, especially in places like southern California, the Bay Area, NYC, etc. Hell, Jeff Tweedy makes $100k per gig ...

That's an average salary for many Americans and $300,000 is small beans for someone who is in charge of an organization that raises and distributes tens of millions of dollars per year. I'm sure the CEO of my former company makes at least $300k and our revenue was a lot less that the ALS Association. It would be great if an already wealthy person with the skills to run such an organization would take the job for peanuts, but you can't expect an "ordinary" person to take on that kind of position for less than they could earn at a "real" company.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3296 I've yet to donate (but I will, as ALS killed my father-in-law 3 years ago) but I've heard that you can request that 100% of your donation can be earmarked for research.

The Who's Facebook page has been doing a 'Fifty Years Ago' thing. On this date in 1964, the band (then known as The High Numbers) played a gig in Blackpool. Also on the bill were The Beatles and The Kinks. That must have been a heck of a show.

The Geraldine Fibbers

I remember the Tampa Bay Rowdies and their commercials which always ended with a sung 'The Rowdies arrrreee ... a kick in the grass!' I have Kyle Rote, Jr.'s autograph that I picked up at the Superstars competition in my hometown in the mid-seventies. I think he won it two or three times.

Not much of a fan, but my neighbor/friend is a huge Aston Villa supporter and I'm looking forward to attending their friendly against Houston tomorrow evening. I'm also looking forward to the upcoming season because it gives us a legitimate excuse for drinking beer at 7 AM.

Agreed. The latest issue of Time magazine (didn't realize it was still around):