Yup. Unfortunately, they couldn’t exactly have Nicholson end the speech with “I am a huge piece of shit and everything I just said is naked cope”, so we’re stuck with huge pieces of shit sharing that speech as naked cope.

I imagine that’s handed out by state security.

“US braces for Iranian attack”? Really? We’re doing the red-light-orange-light terror alert again?

The fact that you think the constant whining and blamecasting at nobody in particular constitutes a callout speaks volumes. And the fact that your first resort on being challenged is a barrage of insults speaks even more. Someone more intellectually minded might even use it as a jumping off point for some introspection, or see the parallel with US politics in general and foreign policy in particular - but, of course, that would risk recognizing the nose and rainbow hair as the reflection in the window pane that they are.

Honk-honk, Buttons. Honk-honk.

Man, you Americans really do think everything is some foreigner’s fault?

…Here’s a thought exercise for you: The year is 2028, Trump is running for a third term, and the Dem ticket is… IDK, Newsom/Buttigieg or whatever, and the big thinkers of the DNC have come up with a foolproof plan to steal away MAGA voters: they will agree with exterminating trans people, but! BUT! will firmly, and I mean FIRMLY stand behind gay marriage. And you’re trying to explain that both of those choices are unacceptable to you, and in response are met with an avalanche of mockery because “sure, yeah, one side wants gay marriage banned, but they’re both the exact same amirite?”

Seriously, though, best of luck. Not to assume stuff about your situation, but getting out sooner rather than later sounds like a good move.

You may think that now, but I distinctly remember the then-prime minister of Estonia and current vice-president of the EC honouring a summit where the participants were carrying around a blow-up shark. Why a shark? Well, a random Russian tourist got killed in a shark attack some time earlier, and, well, dead Russian, ha-ha.

It’s good to see the sentiment has receded somewhat, but it is concerning that it literally took the tables turning to get people to self-reflect.

Oh, it’s not the “system, man”, it’s you. As in, you, @[email protected], personally. You are the exact person I’m thinking about when I say this, and it’s frankly amazing you decided to throw your hat in ring here, while simultaneously defending attacks on Iran elsewhere.

Yeah, you’re right. I’m sure the Democrats would not have supported Israel in Iran, same as how they didn’t support Israel in Yemen, or in Lebanon, or in Gaza, or in Syria, or in…

You remember when Russia invaded Ukraine, and the whole western world collectively decided being Russian made you ontologically evil?

Well, that.

I have to say, the one good part of Trump in office is at least you lot aren’t lecturing people on why invading Iran is good, actually!

Hats off, in particular, to the editors actually signing the piece, rather than hiding behind the board like WaPo does.

Just get Gianni Matragrano on the team and let him go nuts.

Doesn’t look grounded, though.

No, they’re saying everyone against them is a part of a conspiracy.

Essentially.

A straightforward example would be an equation system: 2x+4y=10, 3x+5y=13. You could solve it manually, or you could call Cramer’s rule and plug the numbers into the formula:

Ax+By=C
Dx+Ey=F

x=[CB/FE]/[AB/DE] = (CE-BF)/(AE-BD)=(10*5-4*13) / (2*5 - 3*4) = (50-52)/(10-12)=1,
y=[AC/DF]/[AB/DE]=AF-CD / AE-BD = -4/-2=2

Pure algo, no thinking required. Also note that you don’t strictly need x to get y and vice versa.

In a more complex example: You’re making a program to draw something in 2D. You could implement mirroring, rotation, scaling etc…, or, you could declare each point (xy) a vector V=[X Y], implement matrices, and then V times [1 0/0 1] gives you V, [-1 0/0 1] gives you V mirrored on the Y axis, [1 0/0 -1] mirrors on the X axis, [j 0/0 j] scales it by j, [cosw -sinw/sinw cosw] rotates it by w… Makes life much easier.

You know how you can write “5+5+5-4-4-4” as “35-34”, and then use it for weird shortcuts like “3*(5-4)”? Well, matrices make for relatively easy handling of certain systems of equations, letting you fiddle with the whole system at once instead of restating equations one by one.

Because the fatwa declares: “Israel has a right to defend itself”. Denying it is haram, and infidels must be punished.

At a certain point, it stops being about enforcing the fatwa, and becomes about defending your right to declare fatwas.

Backwards. Shia are the majority. Power was mostly in sunni hands specifically because Saddam wanted to stamp out Iranian influence.