Appropriate:

jimkabrhel

Both of those approaches are horrible.

I'm sure this predicament is more common than we know. Not so much high school inadequately preparing kids for college, but college graduates doing poorly in school and not really learning anything that will help them professionally. Add a global recession and a subsequent uneven recovery, and, well...you have the situation before us all.

[QUOTE="Palantas"]

Those behaviors do seem unnatural to me. They require a decision-making process that runs contrary to nature.

-Sun_Tzu-

They run contrary to nature as you define it.

And if these behavariors seem unnatural to you and yet they are still observed in nature then your definition is probably off.

This is turning into a debate about semantics, but going back to my original point, that's my problem with your explanation for why there is so much income inequality in the first place. "Human nature" is a concept so vague that it basically turns into a meaningless slogan when closely examined. It's an explanation that doesn't really explain anything at all. That's why I prefer explanations like capitalism, which helps explain income inequality in today's world, or fedualism if we were talking about a few centuries ago, or even agriculture in general if we were going to go back a few thousand years ago. These are already reasonably well-defined terms, so there's no need for a preliminary debate over semantics (that could very well never be settled) before getting to the heart of the discussion.

What would you attribute inequality to in centrally planned economies?

Did you do well in school (especially mathematics)? Try tutoring on your own. Even if you charge a relatively low fee, you can still make $100 after a few hours easily. It might take more than a few days though.

[QUOTE="SUD123456"]

Feel bad for the average everyday person who just wants to live a normal life with friends and family.

Having said that, there is a certain poetic justice to think of Syria being Lebanonized.

And I definately will be LOL if Assad ends up swinging from a lamp post.

BossPerson

Good luck to that while Lebanon is in Assad's sphere of influence. Maybe not for long though.

CIA destabilization op.

Find malcontents.

Train them in Israel

Send them back in with equipment and suitcases full of money.

Support with drones.

Same thing they did in Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.

Only place it won't happen is Saudi, because we need their oil.

ZombieKiller7

When did the CIA do that in Egypt?

There;s so much I can say about this.....

Personally I believe the car bombs are being orchestrated by the regime to give the impression that Syria is falling into chaos. Note, how one day after the massive bomb in damashq; the Syrian authorities miraculously stop some would be bombers. Furthermore, the terrorist groups the Syrian government claims to be fighting (Al-Nusra Front to Protect theLevant)is pretty fishy; only appearing recently after the protests began. I also wouldnt be surprised to eblieve that a government that killed more than 10 000 of its own people for protesting would kill a few hundred more in car bombs.

The opposititon has ZERO to gain from doing terrorist attacks, they know it will turn the populace against them. Also, usually when people commit terrorist attacks, they own up to them so people can fear them )thats the point of terrorist tactics anyways) in this case, the opposition has not claimed to have comitted these attacks.

As for the whole situation in general; I am 100% on the side of the SNC, but I dont want a civil war to erupt since I have family in Damashq. I hope that bastard Bashar gives up before he drags Syria to hell with him,

BossPerson

No matter who's doing it, it still represents a significant escalation of the conflict. And you should know just as well as I that what I say is true. Syria has a dangerous sectarian mix and divide, a generally weak economy (even beforehand), and an elite that has no intention of going down easily. I do wish for the best, but I have to be pragmatic.

So the plot thickens. In Syria's 14 month struggle, another deadly string of car bombs on Thursday has evoked the kind of carnage that afflicts Iraq even today. Damascus, once one of the world's safest capitals, is now a closed city that is seeing more insurgent attacks, bombs, and protests as time goes on. More extremist players like Al Qaeda seem to be entering the fray. And yet so far, Assad has seemed to have alienated most of the country's Sunni majority with his defiant and unsophisticated crackdown on the opposition. All the while, the already weak economy is sagging heavily as sanctions bite and the Syrian government funnels all its money into its military crackdown, cutting back severely on key services like education.

I don't see a clear and smooth endgame in Syria to say the least. Whether Assad goes or stays, the fate of the country in my eyes is Lebanonisation and Iraqisation, with a weak or nonexistent central government and military, militant, and paramilitary groups all carving out their own stakes and fiefdoms among sectarian lines and settling their own scores (sectarian, personal, or otherwise) as this conflict becomes more chaotic and untenable.

You think power vacuums are bad? How about a power vacuum that unleashes vengence seeking groups and empowers an opposition far more united by the hate of Assad than any common ideology. This could really unleash pandora's box of both the Arab Spring and the surrounding Middle East. I don't want to see what will happen if and when the 40 year House of Assad and its apparatus of regional alliances, state secrets, and stacked sectarian Alawite interests comes crashing down. Although, even if it still stands at the end of the day, Assad may very well face a long and unwinnable war. And it should not be understated that he does not have to be defeated militarily to be utterly doomed.

Enjoy the show I guess.

You don't have to believe in anything. That said, are you going to do something or are you just going to ask tired questions regarding a topic of which this forum has seen far too much?

[QUOTE="jetpower3"]

[QUOTE="BranKetra"] Indeed. The page you linked has 404 load error, by the way.BranKetra

Alertnet seems to do that a lot.

Here's an updated story and toll.

They should start with a better counterinsurgency strategy. So far, they've successfully alienated most Sunni Muslims, which are still the majority of the population, with their brutal tactics that evoke the kind of sectarian war that still goes on in places like Iraq.

Add that to Assad's complete inability of conceding real reforms, and instead writing off the whole opposition as a "conspiracy" against Syria. Taken together I don't think he has any idea what kind of existential threat his regime is facing. Or at least he is too unsophisticated to know how to deal with it (but what can you do for a man whose e-mail password was "12345"?).