Apathetic Voter

@Publius_____ @ChristianHeiens @FireTestsGold I do remember reading somewhere that Afghanistan should've just been split to numerous other countries instead of trying to unite a whole slew of people that despised each other.

@ChristianHeiens @FireTestsGold Parts of the Middle East are very much capable of illiberal democracy. That is Iraq to a T right now. It is not the liberal democracy the neocons attempted to force. Afghanistan post 911 should have been a confederal state run by pro-US warlords not a centralized democracy.

I think the average American is simply exhausted at this point when the Middle East is brought up. They just want to never have to think about this part of the world ever again. It has completely dominated the headlines their entire lives, as well as the entire adult lives of their parents. Online personalities will make being pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel their entire identity, but the average American just wants to forget about this corner of the world entirely. They’re pro-Israel insofar as they are influenced by a century of Christian dispensationalism, or they view Israel as being more similar to Western-style nations than anyone else in the region, but those pro-Israeli feelings have been eroded by a combination of Leftist/Islamist agitprop over the last three years (which is not a good thing and none of us should ever delude ourselves into thinking that allying with Leftists or Muslims is a viable option), and a feeling that certain elements within the Israeli government are working as hard as possible to keep the US engaged in a conflict that few Americans want anything to do with (which the events of the last 48 hours have practically confirmed to everyone). Americans just aren’t interested in the prospect of having to babysit the Middle East. The overwhelming majority of them just want us to focus on our own country and our own hemisphere. And these feelings are only going to grow over time, not diminish.

The Middle East is not compatible with Democracy. Never in the 5,000+ year history of civilization has this part of the world seen a thriving multi-party parliamentary system outside of modern Israel itself. These people need a monarchy. The moment the post 9/11 goal went from “kill the terrorists who attacked us” to “building western style democracy in the Middle East” we were doomed to fail.

@ChristianHeiens I think there would be more willingness to deal with Iran had Bush not pursued futile nation building among cultures that aren't fit for democracy. And yes, the agitprop from the left is not helping.

In 1995, Mr. T was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoma. His response when he found out the name of his cancer was typically Mr. T: "Can you imagine that? Cancer with my name on it, personalised cancer." The cancer initially responded well, five radiation treatments over four weeks and it dissolved. Eleven months later it came back, and he underwent six weeks of high-dose chemotherapy. He described the experience as the great leveller of his life: "My fame couldn't save me. My gold, my money couldn't stop cancer from appearing on my body. If they can't save me, then I don't need them." He was declared in remission in 2001. T-Cell Lymphoma is incurable but treatable, remission is the realistic best outcome rather than a cure, which makes his sustained recovery genuinely remarkable. His advice on the experience became one of his most quoted lines outside of The A-Team: "I pity the fool who just gives up. We're all gonna die eventually from something or other, but don't be a wimp. Put up a good fight."

20 June 1998. Conrad Schumann committed suicide (aged 56). He had been an East German police officer who escaped from East to West Berlin in 1961. His escape was memorably captured in a famous photo by Peter Leibing.

Marlène Dietrich by Jacques-Henri Lartigue, 1933

Gena Rowlands & John Cassavetes editing a film in their Hollywood Hills home in 1967 ❤️✨📽️

'Dames Plotting' Ernesto Garcia Cabra 1931

A Communist Party that goes to privatization of the economy will make Uncle Marx turn into his grave. But there’s some beauty in the whole story, and that is that Communism never works. Only in the mindset of spoiled and indoctrinated Westerners who have never spent a day in it.

The Hey Arnold movie is good, but yeah that Doug one is a big miss.

I wish more movies would do campy/fun costume promo shoots like Barbarella

Everybody Loves Raymond print ad following the Seinfeld finale (1998)

Tennessee Williams was a dedicated Gena Rowlands stan and I love him for that

What is it about American vamps and British princes?

Remain in Mexico needs to be enshrined into legislation.

Forgotten Females: The beautiful tragic Diane Ellis - high school classmate & best friend of Carole Lombard. Lombard's star rose while Ellis' was cut short. Marrying at age 20, in 1930, she suddenly died of an infection in India, 5 weeks into a round-the-world honeymoon.

The obituary for Margaret Groening, the mother of The Simpsons' creator, Matt Groening.

Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak traded a number of viscious insults in "The Mirror Crack'd" and reportedly had an absolute blast doing it.

Marilyn Monroe on the set of 'Some Like It Hot', 1959

audrey hepburn and the cat in ‘paris pursuit’ for harper’s bazaar by richard avedon, 1959