Blowback is Killing Us. Just Come Home.

[Okeefenokee]

Why not just buy some goats?

The temptation to eat them would be too great for me. I do like some goat cheese in moderation, but goat meat is delicious. Its not as good as lamb, but quite tasty. I would make a terrible farmer, because I would just eat my animals immediately before getting a return on my investment through milk, cheese or eggs. No one in the States eats goat, which is their loss. This Mexican restaurant in gainesville used to make these delicious goat tacos. I took a girl there and she said they made her sick. She said it tasted musky. Goats have some musk about them, but it gives them good flavor.

Just buy lots of goats, then, and pick a few each year to eat.

There's a guy down the street me with about a dozen goats. I don't think I could eat them if I had them. They are really cool when you get to know them.

Probably my favorite farm animal after horses. Tons of personality.

My wife cooks goat and lamb all the time. Tasty personality.

[Okeefenokee]

In fact, I'm not even sure if Zeus is truly the ruler of the gods. In the Iliad his decrees were often ignored, and the other gods would go behind his back all the time for the pettiest of reasons. He does not really seem like an omnipotent Yahweh type entity. He is more like a half assed manager with scheming employees. I don't really understand polytheism very well. A lot of the stories are interesting, but in many ways its far more chaotic than the monotheistic stuff that followed.

Polytheism seems to be centered on assigning gods to human traits.

You know that whole thing I talk about realizing you aren't God? Polytheistic gods are basically just people with super powers who are relatable to people who like to think that they are like God.

[Ex-California]

I like goats as friends

I don't think I've ever eaten one, maybe in a burrito

[C-Mag]

If it meant a gradual decline in the average American household's standard of living over the next couple decades, following a "Fortress America" type foreign policy, would you guys still support a massive reduction of the US military footprint across the globe?

Yes.

The material wealth of the last few decades has not brought us more happiness, and it has poisoned our soul.

+1. Sad, sad, but true.

Close the wars, all of them. Close the borders, all of them. Close the government schools, all of them.

I'm with Fife and Nick

I don't know that the US standard of living would drop that much. Fortress America in my view also means stopping subsidizing other countries. We give money to 96% of all the countries in the UN, in excess of $50 Billion a year. Then you can add another $10 Billion plus to NATO and the UN. Then we can add to that the $116 Billion a year illegal immigration costs us. Suddenly we are nearing $200 Billion a year that we give away. Wean the world off the trough, and our debt would go down.

Then if you are Fortress America. You don't need troops in 177 of the 194 countries in the world. You don't need 800 military bases around the globe either. Definitely enough money left to put an M4 over every mantel.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/othercomme ... 46e9e8ccb9

[heydaralon]

The eyes of Satan...

Those pupils are a dead giveaway that goats are not your friend. They are evil.

[Fife]

[SuburbanFarmer]

If it meant a gradual decline in the average American household's standard of living over the next couple decades, following a "Fortress America" type foreign policy, would you guys still support a massive reduction of the US military footprint across the globe?

Yes.

[heydaralon]

Is there anyone on this thread who hates America more than Fife? Never trust a man who wants to eliminate the Post Office...

[heydaralon]

In fact, I'm not even sure if Zeus is truly the ruler of the gods. In the Iliad his decrees were often ignored, and the other gods would go behind his back all the time for the pettiest of reasons. He does not really seem like an omnipotent Yahweh type entity. He is more like a half assed manager with scheming employees. I don't really understand polytheism very well. A lot of the stories are interesting, but in many ways its far more chaotic than the monotheistic stuff that followed.

Polytheism seems to be centered on assigning gods to human traits.

You know that whole thing I talk about realizing you aren't God? Polytheistic gods are basically just people with super powers who are relatable to people who like to think that they are like God.

In some ways that makes the myths more interesting.

You make a good point about Greek gods being people with superpowers. It seems like there were also people who could temporarily use some kind of tool or power the god's bestowed on them and become gods for a short time themselves. It seems like Achilles was almost a god. He possessed godlike military prowess. Some mortals had gods as fathers iirc. I don't know much about mythology, but in ancient times it appears that the distinction between god and man gets blurred quite a bit.

[PartyOf5]

At this point if we just come home, we better keep them from coming here. If there aren't any Americans in the ME to kill, they will want to come here and kill us. We come home and we need to lock the door behind us.

Do you know how nice of a door you can buy for the amount of money we spending blowing up sand over there?

Oh yeah. Money would be better spent here than over there.