Someone really needs to tell the brass to stop messing around with drone sorties during the night or when the weather turns sour; we just can't get these two F-16s off the ground like this.
The weather is actually beautiful today, though. We could probably squeeze in a ceremonial flyover if things were different.
Man, you could hear that thing buzzing like crazy right above the Beltway. It felt like everyone was just sitting there, holding their breath, waiting for the actual BOOM to happen. Seriously though, does anyone actually know which part of a jet engine is supposed to have a parachute?
I feel like we’ve stumbled into a bit of a public health mess here regarding the coronavirus topic (somehow it ended up under Politics), and honestly, it feels like it might be tied to a certain moderator’s ego.
There’s an attempt to force this new virus into being labeled as just a common flu. Now, look, I get why someone would want to do that—it makes total sense if the goal was just to dial down the unnecessary panic a few weeks ago while the virus was still stuck on a different continent far away from us.
But it stops making sense when the entire thread gets locked just because a few people expressed genuine concern about what's happening over in Italy.
To quote the national crisis center: "The situation in Italy is not good; the disease is spreading rapidly."
And to quote WHO: "The sudden increases of cases in Italy, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Korea are deeply concerning, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said."
So, the thread gets shut down because the moderator and his "expert buddy" decided it should be, simply because some users voiced worries about the situation in nearby Italy using language that was perhaps a bit more blunt than what you'd hear from the WHO or the national crisis center.
Look, I have nothing against the thread staying locked forever if the moderator and his expert friend actually know more than the national crisis center and the WHO (this isn't my forum, and I don't care about the owner's decisions if they come from the top down).
But if they don't? Then I’m asking for a rethink. If we can just set aside one person's ego for a second, wouldn't it be smarter for the sake of public health to listen to the WHO and the national crisis center rather than a clearly less qualified moderator and his mysterious "expert" friend?
I’m not saying those two aren't right currently, or that they won't be right in the long run. What I am saying is that, right now, they are going head-to-head against two organizations whose entire job is to handle this.
I'll also quote the WHO regarding the moderator's favorite talking point—that this is just the same thing as the flu:
"We are on completely uncharted territory. This virus is not the flu. We have never before seen a respiratory pathogen that spreads this easily and quickly."
However, they also say (which is likely true if we can trust the data coming out of China) that "...but it can be contained with the right measures."
And let's be real: implementing those "right measures" is going to be damn near impossible if we keep telling people that this is "just like the flu."
Because if people believe that, frankly, they won't give a damn. We’ve already seen a few people in the discussion openly stating they have no intention of following health inspector guidelines since there are no real penalties or the fines are basically pocket change.
At the end of the day, we’re all on the same side here. We all want as few people as possible to get screwed over, and we want this whole thing to blow over as quickly and with as little damage as possible.
And hey, I totally get wanting to keep the panic levels low.
But when a moderator goes directly against the WHO and the national crisis center, I think we really need to re-evaluate the strategy.
LONDON -- Eight female badminton doubles players were disqualified Wednesday from the London Olympics after trying to lose matches to receive a more favorable place in the tournament.
The Badminton World Federation announced its ruling after investigating two teams from South Korea and one each from China and Indonesia. It punished them for "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport" in matches Tuesday night.
Like I said before, I would've just kicked the Spanish squad out of the tournament entirely.
I honestly think we should just kick those Spanish losers out of the tournament altogether. The way those Chinese badminton players were absolutely tearing through them was just embarrassing to watch. Seriously, this whole situation is going nowhere fast.
We might not be the smartest group out there, but at least we actually play the game with some heart.
First, he starts things off by throwing that catatonic Cop onto the field, then he actually puts a kid in there—like, for the first time ever—under the guise of "building for the future," and to top it all off, he brings in a half-dead Lace right when the score is falling apart...
Honestly, huge props to the guys. That was an absolute grind of a game, and frankly, our performance in the league this season has been way better than I ever expected.
And look, Lin, I’m not exactly his biggest fan, but hey, you can't argue with the scoreboard. He’s getting results, and that’s what matters.
Lawrence Sanders4 said:I can see you now... sitting in your chair, a case of beer, some snacks, three best friends... and everyone's a world champion at talking trash. Typical American profile right there.☕
I don't drink, I'm on a diet, and I always watch the games solo. 😉
And, yeah, I wouldn't be exactly thrilled if we blew the soccer European Championship final. I mean, sure, in five years I might look back and think, "Man, we were cool, we got silver, that was great," but on the actual day? You wouldn't be happy about it for anything. 😁
Jamie Moore8 said:First off—Jeremy Phillips54, those guys are Spanish. And besides, it wasn't even Spanish refs calling that basketball game. You can't go blaming an entire nation just because a few idiots messed up.
It's the same logic people use against us when Dinamo fans head out to Europe.
Look, Dinamo fans in Europe aren't out there robbing their opponents; sure, they might get into a scrap or two, but they aren't thieves.
Even if the refs weren't Spanish, everyone knows exactly who was rigging those calls and why.
And as for Santana? He’s actually Mexican, not Spanish. You could try to stretch the truth to match his nickname and all those "heroic" deeds, but if we start digging that deep into history, we'd all be claiming to be from Kenya or somewhere else entirely.
The refs are absolutely murdering us here. It’s like the Danes don't have the guts to actually finish a play on their own, so whenever they get stuck, they just call for the officials to bail them out—and then they need a goalie to save them too.
But seriously, they finally went way too far this time. There is no way we can win this if they keep playing like this, especially since the Danes haven't even managed to score a real goal before the buzzer.
James Campbell2 said:Look, I think you guys are seriously overreacting. Sure, the refs blew it on the calls against Čupić, and maybe even Lacković, but two massive errors back-to-back? That’s just bad. As for Vukić, I’m not 100% certain, but from where I was sitting, he definitely touched the ball. And Lino? He absolutely deserved that ejection for acting like a complete idiot. But let’s be real—remember how many calls went the other way for Team Denmark? Traveling, fouls, the whole nine yards. Even that blatant error at the start, where they called a foul on Dominiković instead of giving them a penalty shot... that was huge. The real issue wasn't just the officiating; it was that they missed calls against us during the most critical moments, and when you combine that with Lino’s stupidity, that's what decided the game.
Man, you've gotta be kidding me. Are we seriously saying the problem is only that they made those calls at the most critical moments?
Since we're basically a powerhouse in the NBA, why the hell don't we have any kind of officiating protection? It's not that people should be coddled, but our guys look like they've been through three different wars because of this.
And then there were those two greasy fast-break goals they let slide—calls that wouldn't even pass muster in the minor leagues—right when things were already going south.
The war started right from that first ejection. I think it was Spoljaric? It wasn't even close to being his fault; Dominikovic caught him in the face while he was trying to move away, and he ended up getting punished for nothing.
The Americans wouldn't have won this without the refs, regardless of the fact that they might actually be better right now. They basically froze up ten minutes before the end and could only score on fast breaks. If we had been within two goals of them, we would have completely blown the doors off.
vividorca5 said:What’s wrong with silver? Seriously. If someone from upstairs whispered in my ear that we were actually going to snag a silver medal in the World Cup, I don't even know what I'd say—probably a whole lot of nonsense.
Honestly? I'd say it's total garbage. That’s what would actually break me. Forget the finals—if you don't go all the way and grab the gold, what was even the point?😁