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IshbelRobertson
12-20-16, 2:20pm
People enjoying a Christmas market in Berlin were killed by a truck.

The latest reports seem to say that the Pakistani suspect has been released due to lack of evidence. Berliners are being told to remain at home tonight.

With the murder of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, does anyone else feel a pre-1914 echo?
JaneV2.0
12-20-16, 2:23pm
I've been feeling pre-apocalyptic lately. I hope I'm wrong.
iris lily
12-20-16, 3:27pm
Well, wasnt it provocative anyway, to put on a big Christmas event? Right out there in front of everyone. Insensitive in a way. Not everyone is Christian.

Or the apologist narrative goes something like that.
Tybee
12-20-16, 3:48pm
Ishbel, for what it is worth, I too flashed on Archduke Ferdinand when I heard this news.
bae
12-20-16, 3:52pm
I've been feeling pre-apocalyptic lately. I hope I'm wrong.

I felt sort of that way when Hillary took time during one of the Presidential debates to look the camera right in the eye and threaten to impose a no-fly zone over Syria against the Russians. That seemed....odd.

It's like They(*) want to push us into war. Might help the economy and global warming though.

(*) Pick your own personal value of "They"
LDAHL
12-20-16, 5:08pm
Ishbel, for what it is worth, I too flashed on Archduke Ferdinand when I heard this news.

I don’t see a Guns of August scenario here. Russia doesn’t have an elaborate system of alliances to drag into a greater war. Nor do the ramshackle Russian economy and restive minority populations seem to favor a very long or massive war. The major European powers seem too preoccupied with internal issues for intervention along their borders, and also lack the military capacity to do so in any case. The incoming U.S. president seems dangerously ambivalent about the American commitment to NATO. I would think that if these two authoritarian states were to decide to fight each other, the world at large would be inclined to let them.
bae
12-20-16, 5:12pm
I'm just glad my daughter's research expedition to Turkey got cancelled by their security team.
Teacher Terry
12-20-16, 7:16pm
Bae, I don't blame you. Turkey is not a safe place right now. When we were recently on our cruise I did not watch the news for 9 days at all which is unusual for me. It was a nice break. In Little Rock someone fired a shot in a car because the Grandma driving did not take off fast enough from a stop sign and killed her 3 yo grandchild. All of this is just sickening.
JaneV2.0
12-20-16, 7:44pm
Well, wasnt it provocative anyway, to put on a big Christmas event? Right out there in front of everyone. Insensitive in a way. Not everyone is Christian.

Or the apologist narrative goes something like that.

I don't think there are a lot of apologists for terrorists--at least the Middle Eastern kind. They're pretty much roundly denounced by everyone.
Ultralight
12-20-16, 8:42pm
Well, wasnt it provocative anyway, to put on a big Christmas event? Right out there in front of everyone. Insensitive in a way. Not everyone is Christian.

Or the apologist narrative goes something like that.

Snarky. Real snarky.
IshbelRobertson
12-23-16, 5:58pm
The Tunisian suspect was shot dead in a routine ID check in Italy.

Arrests in Australia of Aussie born citizens of Lebanese ancestry for atrocities planned for Christmas Day in Melbourne.

Merry Christmas to us all. What happened to Good Will to all Men?
Teacher Terry
12-23-16, 6:28pm
ISIL is publishing a list of churches that are Christian to be attacked all around the world. It is just so sad.
Ultralight
12-23-16, 9:25pm
I feel like we are teetering on the edge of total mayhem sometimes.
LDAHL
12-26-16, 11:54am
I feel like we are teetering on the edge of total mayhem sometimes.

We're always teetering at the edge of mayhem. But less so now than fifty or a hundred or five hundred years ago. We just seem to fret more about it now than in the past. I don't know if that's because we're more fearful or better informed than we were formally.

As we prepare for the transition from one fake messiah to another, I think we would do well to reflect that the enemies we face today are less formidable than virtually any since the birth of the republic.
creaker
12-26-16, 1:28pm
I feel like we are teetering on the edge of total mayhem sometimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgYFXCUEL4Y - we're always near the edge.