What's in the news?

[Ironwolf85]

he's apparently not charging for the training either.

[Warlock]

A gay piece of news. :P

[Lustful Bride]

A gay piece of news. :P

Well it seems they are having just a grand gay old time *rimshot*

[kylie]

If he does it not for monetary gain he's a volunteer.

Now, if he is hired to do this, it depends. If you think he's a bad guy he's a mercenary. If you think he's a good guy the appropriate term is "security consultant".  ;)

      Meh.  I think 'security consultant' just sounds awfully corporate/faceless, in a vaccuum.  Of course, if it's your people being held hostage in some particular moment etc., you might think that's just the sort of language you'd like.  But "good" ?? I dunno.  /twocents

[TheGlyphstone]

If he does it not for monetary gain he's a volunteer.

Now, if he is hired to do this, it depends. If you think he's a bad guy he's a mercenary. If you think he's a good guy the appropriate term is "security consultant".  ;)

Even if he was taking pay, though, why not call him a mercenary? We love to glorify them in movies and other fictional contexts - Expendables being the first and foremost recent example, but heroic soldiers-of-fortune are a long staple of action films. And this guys definitely sounds like he meets the 'heroic' bit, completely aside from the fact that he's doing it for free.

[LisztesFerenc]

Even if he was taking pay, though, why not call him a mercenary? We love to glorify them in movies and other fictional contexts - Expendables being the first and foremost recent example, but heroic soldiers-of-fortune are a long staple of action films. And this guys definitely sounds like he meets the 'heroic' bit, completely aside from the fact that he's doing it for free.

  But that's the movies. In real life, mercenary equals Blackwater and the like more than heroic.

[Avis habilis]

There's apparently some question about whether militia guy is a sloppy but well intentioned volunteer or an opportunist.

[eBadger]

Not a mercenary.  Mercenaries are hired for pay, they don't spend their own money.  Spending his personal funds to train a religious minority for armed conflict...well, I'll leave that to perspective.  The situation of Christians in northern Iraq is obviously quite different from Muslims in the US, but the concept is exactly what bin Laden did, and he certainly wasn't a mercenary. 

Beyond that...ugh...this is a pure expression of American hubris.  He has no actual military training, but he's training them to defend themselves - as though they simply didn't understand how?  The explicitly religious slant on it sickens me a bit.  Are all the Christians there innocent?  Are all the non-Christians not worth saving, or all eager to hunt down and kill the Christians?  Crowdfunding and media whores, the new Crusades....

[Oniya]

I'd imagine that his stint fighting Qaddafi gave him at least some training.  It may not have been an official boot camp, but boots-on-ground experience doesn't give you the option to wash out and take the next bus home.

[eBadger]

I'd imagine that his stint fighting Qaddafi gave him at least some training. 

Sure; although being a random person thrown into a violent conflict defines all the people he's going over to train, too.   

[TheGlyphstone]

Sure; although being a random person thrown into a violent conflict defines all the people he's going over to train, too.

So he's going to help people who are/were like him, or at least in a very similar situation, and you're criticizing him for it? That's not hubris, that's something called empathy.

As far as the religious slant...duh. It's the Middle East, religion is a gigantic part of culture there whether you like it or not, and - if those articles are accurate - it's an express fact that everyone is focused on the various Muslim sects and paying little attention to minorities like Christians in the areas, even if they need help. Would you be so quick to condemn if he was going to help an explicitly ignored ethnic minority group instead?

[eBadger]

So he's going to help people who are/were like him, or at least in a very similar situation, and you're criticizing him for it?

I imagine it's sort of like my walking into my local Starbucks and announcing that my neighborhood is paying me to teach them how to make coffee because I worked at an unrelated latte stand a few years ago.  So yes, I am critical. 

As far as the religious slant...duh. It's the Middle East, religion is a gigantic part of culture there whether you like it or not, and - if those articles are accurate - it's an express fact that everyone is focused on the various Muslim sects and paying little attention to minorities like Christians in the areas, even if they need help. Would you be so quick to condemn if he was going to help an explicitly ignored ethnic minority group instead?

Religion is a divide; I don't see that as a good reason to emphasize it while teaching people how to kill each other, no. 

An ignored ethnic minority...such as, for instance, caucasians living in the area?  I would have objections.  Is there a reason not to focus on groups willing, needing, but unable to defend themselves generally?  Why must 'Christian' be constantly placed before that?  What purpose does that serve, other than to leverage the violence and tragedy to spread one's own ideology?

[TheGlyphstone]

I imagine it's sort of like my walking into my local Starbucks and announcing that my neighborhood is paying me to teach them how to make coffee because I worked at an unrelated latte stand a few years ago.  So yes, I am critical. 

Religion is a divide; I don't see that as a good reason to emphasize it while teaching people how to kill each other, no. 

An ignored ethnic minority...such as, for instance, caucasians living in the area?  I would have objections.  Is there a reason not to focus on groups willing, needing, but unable to defend themselves generally?  Why must 'Christian' be constantly placed before that?  What purpose does that serve, other than to leverage the violence and tragedy to spread one's own ideology?

If making coffee is a life or death situation in your neighborhood, please never invite me there.

[Oniya]

If making coffee is a life or death situation in your neighborhood, please never invite me there.

[eBadger]

If making coffee is a life or death situation in your neighborhood, please never invite me there.

Well...that's running a bit far with the metaphor, which was attempting to illustrate the condescension involved in teaching someone while lacking any clear knowledge to do so, with the implication that a lack of organized defense is the product of larger social, economic and political issues. 

However, I do live in Seattle.  We take our coffee pretty seriously.  Don't visit.   ;)

[TheGlyphstone]

Great. Now I'm imagining a post-apocalyptic Seattle, where gangs fight turf wars over the proper amount of cream and/or sugar to put into a cup.

[Avis habilis]

Coming summer 2017: "The Roast Warrior"

[Formless]

Part 2 in 2018 : Brewing Dawn. ( Couldn't resist. ::) )

[Cycle]

Is there a penalty for the flagrant/excess use of punage with malice aforethought?!? 

There should be.

Ow.  Ow.  Owowowowow.

[Warlock]

There's the Pun Police from Casey and Andy, and knowing their habit of breaking the forth wall we should all be afraid.



Social Democrats, part of the current goverment in Sweden, have had their congress after some fairly depressing numbers as support have fallen from after the election. Stefan Löfven, prime minister, have been on the attack trying to counter some of the criticism thrown his way in the lead up to this event, publishing articles through some of our main newspapers, etc.

[kylie]

       Interesting article about Hasidic Jewish politics and gender roles in the UK..  One school of the Belz sect says it will not take students whose mothers violate 'their' rules for the group by driving them there.  (Which is to say they frown upon women in their group driving.  At least unless their committee finds a mother has some "special reason" that I suppose totally requires it...) 

       Now aside from initially rolling my eyes high, I'm just trying to follow their external explanatory logic.  Responding perhaps more to characterizations of the Belz in general (or is that the idea really?), they say:

"It is a fact that most women in our community do not drive cars. It is equally true that a fair number of women do drive cars openly and entirely unhindered.

"They and their families are as respected within our community as any other members and we have no intention of changing that."

     ... However, they apparently simultaneously maintain that for their particular school, children will not be accepted if mothers drop them off.

     Generally anyway...  Very interesting article actually with quite a bit of background sprinkled in.

[Warlock]

For all my criticism against the EU, there are a few shining lights and our standards on imported products I'd generally view as one of them. Seeing it eroded for corporations to profit despite harm to others, almost hurts physically.

TTIP, for when signing a deal with the devil is not evil enough.
Now with a free dead baby.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/22/eu-dropped-pesticide-laws-due-to-us-pressure-over-ttip-documents-reveal

[consortium11]

Rather than using the French Foreign Legion or mercenaries as a comparison for Matthew VanDyke, wouldn't the international brigades (or, more accurately, all the international volunteers... the term international brigade is generally reserved for those who fought against Franco) from the Spanish Civil War be a more accurate analogy/example to use? They included a lot of people, frequently with little to no combat experience, who went over to fight abeside nd train with those they agreed with ideologically.

The Spanish Civil War actually has similarities with the conflict involving the Islamic State, specifically Syria. As well as the number of foreign fighters who journeyed over to take part one could look to how the conflict escalated and the more liberal elements elements within both the Republicans in Spain and the opposition to Assad in Syria found themselves overwhelmed by the Islamic State and the USSR supported Communists respectively. One can look at Iran's support for Assad and draw comparisons with how Germany and Italy supported Franco. One can compare the areas ISIS has taken over with the Social Revolution in Anarchist held areas... in both groups were able to quickly implement their social ideals on fairly large areas. Switching over to Iraq one can draw comparisons between how the Republican government originally struggled against the military coup and how ISIS swept through the Iraqi army and how the Kurds arming themselves and fighting off ISIS gives them a better claim to independence compares to armed civilians in Barcelona fighting off the military and putting it (and much of Catalonia) under anarchist control.

[gaggedLouise]

If making coffee is a life or death situation in your neighborhood, please never invite me there.

Part 2 in 2018 : Brewing Dawn. ( Couldn't resist. ::) )

---can't help thinking of the scene in Lucky Luke where Billy the Kid, supremely in control of the town, orders cups of boliling hot chocolate for a couple of the bigwigs and ranchers he's met at the saloon, and challenges them to down the hot drink in one go, with his gun ready to reinforce his generous gesture.  :D

[ShadowFox89]

If making coffee is a life or death situation in your neighborhood, please never invite me there.

You've apparently never been to Seattle.