Europe wouldn't spend the agreed 2% of GDP on the military. Many presidents for many years tried to make them comply with the agreement, but they just ignored it. It was thought better to spend on the healthcare of the public and mock Americans for not having universal government healthcare.
Many people in countries in Europe, like Spain and Ireland, that effectively don't have militaries, are still laughing and mocking.
There was never any demand by the public for the output of such departments. They have been perceived as existing in their own bubbles. It's got nothing to do with conservative professors. It's just there's really no need for these departments in every university.
In retrospect, it turns out that in the 90s we had a paramilitary force murdering people with impunity in the streets of America, commanded by a demented pedophile conman, and it went down quite smoothly.
It is strange when unrelated topics get lumped together, almost forcing people to have to take sides they don't want to take. It creates animosity beyond what's at stake.
Some time ago, about 25 years ago, I realized that travel had become a status symbol. Wearing gold bracelets and flashy clothes, driving a fancy car, and doing other showy things was no longer cool. Telling someone that you went to Budapest last month was now the thing. And those that didn't go to Budapest were very sad that they didn't. Maybe that's why you're also sad for those that didn't travel?
It seems like these days most places in Earth have become simply different versions of each other. How people dress, what they eat, what they know, their interests, and other such things are very similar almost wherever you go.
Maybe traveling to central Africa or North Korea, or other very remote areas, would be radically different, but most travelers go to places where cell phones work and a portion of the public speaks English. Now traveling to another country is how traveling to another city was 60 years ago.
And they didn't work on a nuclear bomb, because Iran only has a civilian nuclear program, since they were not uniformed. It's all very convenient when what something is is defined by the label on it rather that its true nature.
It's a sign of an uneducated populace that a political campaign's success depends on visual design. The good thing for that kind of populace is that it can be made to think it's doing better, or on the way to better, when it's actually not.
But then there are dozens of impoverished and unjust places on earth.
I think the reality is that the five exclusively Norwegian politicians on the Peace prize committee are politicians. And they act accordingly. What if the committee would consist of Russian politicians exclusively, or Venezuelan ones?
When I listen to NPR, I know what their angle will be regarding almost every topic that comes up. I used to listen to them frequently, but they're too ideological, something that people that agree with them often fail to see.
There used to be more nuance 30 years ago, the discussions smarter. It's now boring because it's predictable.
Last year I was invited to a "living wake". The person was still alive and looked better than some of his friends. It was basically a party. But he had advanced brain cancer and did pass a few months later.
The idea of such an event was and still is highly strange to me.
You missed this part in the History section:
"In 1997, ASML began studying a shift to using extreme ultraviolet and in 1999 joined a consortium, including Intel and two other U.S. chipmakers, in order to exploit fundamental research conducted by the US Department of Energy. Because the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) it operates under is funded by the US government, licensing must be approved by Congress."
The underground rock formation that generates the Mavericks waves is actually pretty small. Photographers, rescue jetskis, and onlookers on small boats can be on very calm water, while surfers they're watching are riding a 100 ft wave just a few meters away.
I ask every new barber I use why the regulation. The answer is the same every time: "You don't want your ear cut off by accident".
But I know why the regulation exists: it's to protect existing barbers from unlicensed competition.
Just because some regulations that you would like to exist, but don't, doesn't mean there aren't regulations that exist, but shouldn't. I'm most US states you need a license to cut hair. I'm summer states you need a license to braid hair. These licenses are actually expensive and hard to obtain, keeping a lot of talented people from actually working in the field. I bet in China you can just cut someone's hair.
Armed intruders can demand something one minute and something else the next. They may be mentally deranged, they may be sexually devious, there's a good chance they don't have a lot of moral limitations. The issue is not material things. That there's an optimal approach to dealing with them, when you're unarmed, is just not true. You must do what seems best given the situation.
One could say the same about this very debate you're participating in. And since that's how you see debates, one has to immediately assume that you're not acting in good faith.
Charlie Kirk was a 30 year old political activist. You pick the finest minds of the last century, a famous debate between them, and somehow compare that to Kirk advocating whatever he advocates. It's like comparing a middle school math teacher against a college math teacher (professor) and their teaching styles.
As an immigrant who arrived here with all the right papers stamped and signed, I've always been upset by the lack of enforcement. It's unfair when I follow the law, but other immigrants just do whatever they want.
There are international arbitration courts and other methods to claim non compliance. Instead Hyundai chose to break the law. Understandably, the law wasn't being enforced, so practically it made sense to do as they did. But then the public voted to elect someone who promised to enforce that very law.
So Hyundai played the wrong cards, unlike American companies working in South Korea that hired locally or obtained visas.