Voltaire

Wordle 864 3/6 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 LOL. What a second guess. I had no right to a birdie.

Look, my first reaction was the same as yours. Since they only have ~230 Israeli hostages, how can they have 500 Americans? It makes no sense. Then I remembered the Palestinian Americans stuck in Gaza. I'm not saying they're hostages, nor how many there are. But it seems pretty reasonable to assume there are at least 500 of them stuck there...

Let me be more clear and try this again... Early in the war, immediately after the invasion, you remember how we'd all heard about the Americans in Israel trying to get out? Well, maybe locally to the news in SE Michigan because of our situation, we have a bunch of Palestinian Americans in Gaza also trying to get out (I mention Dearborn because that is the heart of their community.) How many, I don't know. Anyway, supposing these Palestinians with US citizenship were taken hostage by Hamas -and I'm not claiming that they were- but that could conceivably be how the math could add up.

The only way the math works is if >80% of the US citizens being held are residents of Dearborn, Michigan and were already in Gaza three weeks ago visiting family.

No, that doesn't matter. In Colorado, the Democratic party executive committee gets to filter through the options and pre-select which candidates you are allowed to vote for.

Rodgers has been talking all along of how he expects to come back later in the season. If somehow the Jets limp along, stringing together enough Ws along the way to make the playoffs,, look out.

Glad that's over, left way too many points on the field.

This thread ought to make an easy place to start.

Oh, Dear Lordy.

Congrats... although I''d prefer it had not happened.

Now that you pointed it out, I hear it every time.

That's for the field position, Raiders.

I don't know that wearing gray against the raiders is a good choice.

Long FG drive to start the game which is good since some key players are missing. Then a good stop after one 1st down for the D. Despite all the injuries, the Lions had been in the habit of beating teams by 14 until the Baltimore debacle, hopefully they get back on that track.

If that's the going price for players this year, I'd as soon the Lions sit pat.

Lions sports talk radio had a hilarious bit on today. They had the music to Creed's "Higher" but the lyrics were "Can you get me Saquon? Can you get me Pat Surtain?" Ah, maybe you had to be there.

Taking out Miami was impressive. These next five weeks or so for Philly will be quite a brawl.

Cowboys will get a big jump if they can off Philly this week.

The defense is first rate and Lamar is lights out when healthy - which he is right now.

I did that too. I have a top 11 contenders, then a group at 12-17, then 3/4 of the NFC South, then everybody else.

My condolences, Kilroy.. Lots of stories from other posters but not me. I've been lucky in this. Death among even my parents generation, let alone close friends, is something that I've been able to avoid. The closest I have is a former very close friend who I'd lost contact with that snapped and murdered his family eight years ago, I posted about it at the time.

If true, POWs shouldn't be executed. Fair enough. Does Israel kill Palestinian civilians indiscriminately? Do they put their civilians on the front line and hide behind them? Has a Palestinian school bus ever blown up? I don't see anything resembling that on your link. Jordan slaughtered both the PLO and their civilian sympathizers, those who weren't slaughtered were chased them all out of the country. All of them. 100%. That's despite being the same religious and ethnic group as the Palestinians. When you try to assassinate the king, sh*t happens. Well sh*t happened again. By way of contrast, Israel has behaved and continues to behave with restraint and has been exponentially less harsh than Jordan ever showed. Israel just wants to be left alone. They don't want to police this sh*thole. They aren't to genocide the Palestinians, which is what the Palestinians would do to them. They do want to get rid of Hamas in the here-and-now and whatever happens the day, or year, or decade after that, I'm not aware of the long term plan.

Hamas attacks any Israeli they can find. They are also responsible for the vast majority of their own civilians dying as well. Israel only attacks military targets. Palestinian civilians die because Hamas deliberately hides behind their own civilians who they've either intimidated into staying or who've got imbibing the "stay and die like martyrs" propaganda. Granted these Palestinian civilians don't have great options but they are not being targeted. Hamas hides behind them. I think that makes all the difference, but you seem too married to the moral equivalent argument to grasp the difference. I'm like, "alright Israel, do what you have to do." Then there's exception that proves the rule... the Palestinian hospital that did get indescriminatly bombed and caused international outrage... it was a misfired Palestinian rocket.

It's not, they don't have any truly safe place to retreat to since the borders are shut. "Go south" doesn't really cut it. They also cut off electricity and water and any humanitarian aid that finds its way in either gets looted or goes to Hamas, which may or may not be the same people.

It seems to be a decently workable solution considering the numbers of school buses that use to get blown up regularly has been curbed greatly in the last 30 years.