Hixter

In a word, no. Syria doesn't have to let inspectors in before November, so now they have several weeks to continue their war without risk of U.S. military intervention. A few days ago the administration said that it was imperative that the United States punish Assad for using chemical weapons, but now there will be no punishment. I can't see how they can destroy a thousand tons of chemical weapons in 9 months, since the U.S. and the Russians have been been destroying their stockpiles for more than 15 years and still haven't managed to finish the job. We'll probably see the same thing we sa

It's quite possible to be compelled to act while not being in the financial position to afford such action. It's been going on for centuries. Don't forget, inaction also has its costs and they can be very great indeed. As for isolationism, it will be difficult to "deal with" a problem if we've folded up our tents and gone home. The assets and facilities we have in place around the world took a century to acquire and would be nearly impossible to restore. The United States has a great capability for projecting power across the globe, but it's easy to overestimate. In these days of tighten

I've reread what I wrote 3 times and I can't understand how/why you'd say that.

I'm unable to see the future, but you can rest assured that our allies are nervous and our adversaries are emboldened. It wouldn't surprise me to see Iran and/or North Korea test the waters in the near future. I would mention China, too, but they've already been doing plenty of water-testing off of Japan in recent months. I think you'll find the the U.S. intervenes militarily in only the tiniest fraction of skirmishes around the world. Like it or not, we're in a unique position of being able to project military might across the planet and much of the world expects us to do so. Some parts of

In a nutshell, loss of respect by most of the world, loss of confidence by our allies and an increased sense of confidence by our adversaries. It will have actual, real-world consequences in the long term. CNN is currently running a big headline that says 'Putin Scores Diplomatic Win' along with a smirking photo of the Russian leader. Putin and the leaders of Syria, Iran and North Korea are high-fiving while the leaders of Japan and Australia are running the numbers to see whether it would be cheaper to cozy up to China rather than build out their own military now that they have less confide

The time to do something was 2 years ago. An "incredibly small" military response at this point would be a waste of time and money. For what it's worth, we haven't killed hundreds of thousands of people in our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. You'll find that deaths at the hands of coalition forces are dwarfed by those killed in sectarian fighting.

He's made himself -- and therefore the nation -- look incredibly weak, ineffective and unprepared on the world stage. Somewhere, Hillary is smiling.

I guess I missed that. Who says all Nazis are stupid?

I was surprised that nobody suggested adding a few drops of blue food coloring to the substandard meth.

I've been assuming all along that the ricin was for Walt's eventual suicide. Slow-acting poison so that he can turn himself in (to the DEA, cops or cartel?) and die before they can punish him.

It absolutely screamed 'foreshadowing', but maybe it was just the writers playing with us. The scene with Marie finding brains in the garbage can make me wonder if we'll see Hank's brains on the desert sand next week. It'll be weird if they kill him off in the first couple minutes of the show, however.

I'm sure it was the worst day of Zimmerman's life, but I wouldn't consider it a mistake to shoot someone who was smashing my face in. The jury agreed. Stalling tactic to make the United States look weak and wobbly; Putin played it perfectly. John Kerry's assurance that any strike would be "unbelievably small" should result in his resignation -- especially when taken with his off-the-cuff remark that gave Putin and Assad an out. If this is the "smart diplomacy" that the Obama campaign promised, then I think they need to look up the meaning of the word "smart."

(2) The presumption set forth in subsection (1) does not apply if: (a) The person against whom the defensive force is used has the right to be in or is a lawful resident of the dwelling, residence, or vehicle, such as an owner, lessee, or titleholder, and there is not an injunction for protection from domestic violence or a written pretrial supervision order of no contact against that person; or

I don't believe that Florida's "Stand Your Ground" laws applies if the person is legally entitled to be in the home (homeowner, renter, family member, etc.) Unless Ms. Zimmerman had a restraining order, George Zimmerman was legally allowed to be in the house. It really comes down to the wisdom of grabbing someone's gun. It wouldn't be difficult to convince a jury that someone who grabs your (hidden) gun is planning to use it against you. Try grabbing a cop's gun sometime and see what happens.

That's 5 minutes of my like that I'll never get back.

His history of gun-related incidents has exactly one entry: the shooting of Trayvon Martin -- for which he was acquitted. If you're including speeding tickets and arguments with spouses as part of the 'lengthy history,' then pretty much every person in the country has a 'lengthy history.'

That's quite an authoritative stance for something that is merely a guess (and possibly wishful thinking.)

"Disarming" him would essentially be theft, assault and/or a threatening act. Smart people don't try to take someone's firearm, they remove themselves from the situation.

I'm thinking it was Huell.

Perhaps we'll know when the video is recovered. As of now, everything is speculation.

Stay classy (and incomprehensible)! Great minds, etc.

That's a blurry video of George Zimmerman tossing an iPad. It does not show a gun or any sort of altercation with his wife. Unless/until the iPad video surfaces, there is no evidence of a crime.

Those were George Zimmerman's words when detectives floated the idea that there was video of his encounter with Trayvon Martin. Not exactly what you'd expect someone guilty of a crime to say... I need to keep this quote hand for every time someone says something like that: Have you seen video which shows Zimmerman threatening his wife with a gun? No, of course you haven't. Any incriminating video would be on the iPad and police have yet to recover it. As of right now, there's no evidence to prove that Zimmerman broke any laws and that's why he has not been charged.

I didn't own any firearms until 4 or 5 years ago.

It is also common for people to make false claims in order to 'punish' their partner by having them arrested under zero-tolerance domestic violence laws. My mother volunteered at a women's shelter for many years and she heard plenty of stories from the residents. She once overheard a woman telling a new resident, "Just slap yourself on the arm with the handle of a wooden spoon four times and it'll look like he grabbed/slapped you and the cops will have to take him to jail." People involved in a messy divorce make all kinds of wild accusations. My ex-wife told my Army commander something so