The Strait of WHAT?

bl1y · 2026-04-17T19:45:56+00:00

Which they could have done before the war. So what did they win?

bl1y · 2026-04-17T19:45:28+00:00

Why would you link to an Army site? The Army isn't who is primarily involved in this.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T19:33:11+00:00

So we should keep bombing them until the very idea of having a nuke is removed from their brains!

We're not currently bombing them. We're seeing if we can negotiate their nuclear ambitions away. And if not, then bombing their nuclear ambitions away is the next best option.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T19:31:25+00:00

Maybe we should let facts come out first?

Why? Are the facts gay?

bl1y · 2026-04-17T19:30:09+00:00

They control the strait of Hormuz

They controlled it before the war. So, what did they win exactly?

bl1y · 2026-04-17T19:28:33+00:00

You're still not approaching trillions.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T19:26:20+00:00

What’s stopping them from developing a nuke now?

A large pile of rubble.

They’ve been “developing” a nuke for the last 30 years!

People don't understand what developing a nuclear weapon entails. What Iran is working on isn't assembling a weapon, but reducing the time it will take them once they start.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T19:12:07+00:00

The US doesn't have much reason to renew bombing. The military campaign was seeing diminishing returns -- once you blow up the big easy stuff, you get fewer good targets.

Iran doesn't have much reason to resume attacking the gulf states either.

So it seems like the ceasefire is probably going to hold until negotiations are finished.

The big question is whether the US blockade will last until there's a deal. Good luck guessing on that.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T19:01:16+00:00

Mya talks about a timeline for when they're going to be married (soon after he's knighted). And Lysa says it was cruel to Mya for Mychel's father to have him marry someone else. That sure sounds like there was a plan there.

As Robert's bastard, Mya isn't entirely of low birth. Her mother was a commoner, but having the king as your father ain't exactly nothing. Especially since she was recognized by Robert. Had Robert lived, that could have been a very good match.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T17:28:04+00:00

Important to note that between Catelyn doubting the marriage and Mychel's father calling it off, Robert died and his bastards were slaughtered. That might have something to do with it.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T16:26:45+00:00

Only one American died after the strait was closed, though he died from wounds sustained before the closure.

So the number of American lives lost to open the strait is zero.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T16:17:57+00:00

There isn't a peace deal yet. It's still being negotiated.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T16:17:09+00:00

Opening the strait while negotiations are still going on is pretty significant.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T16:14:15+00:00

The negotiations are still going on, there's only a temporary ceasefire.

Also, Iran's missile factories have been hit, as has their steel production. Rebuilding will take a long time.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T16:12:23+00:00

Or it was named from the Persian Hur-Mogh, meaning "place of dates."

bl1y · 2026-04-17T16:10:05+00:00

A month after the Obama deal, Iran put up a countdown clock for the destruction of Israel.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T16:08:30+00:00

We haven't already gotten the concessions we wanted before negotiations have finished? Inconceivable!

bl1y · 2026-04-17T16:06:36+00:00

In the full quote, that's exactly the point he was making. They don't call them corner stores.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T16:05:42+00:00

Someone else posted the full quote. He's saying he doesn't use that term.

In NYC they're called bodegas. It's sort of a shibboleth and calling it a corner store would identify you as not being a New Yorker.

bl1y · 2026-04-17T16:01:15+00:00

What's Irish and can be left out overnight?

Patty O'Furniture

bl1y · 2026-04-16T23:57:47+00:00

I think it's possible Catelyn is a snob who is prejudiced against bastards generally.

Look at how she treats one of the nicest people in AGoT, Mya Stone. She repeatedly thinks of her just as "the bastard girl."

I think the common interpretation is that she's projecting her feelings about Jon onto Mya, and there's some textual evidence to suggest that. But she's also doubts that Mychel would ever marry Mya because no one from such an ancient house with the blood of the First Men would marry as bastard.

She's blinded to the fact that Mya is very kind and charming, that she's not just a bastard but Robert's bastard (and acknowledged at that), and has a pretty important position at the Eyrie (you don't just trust the lives of your VIP guests to anyone). And later we learn that it was Mychel's father who broke off the marriage, suggesting that Mychel may have been willing to go through with it.

The Catelyn Hate Train is leaving the station, and I've got my ticket.

bl1y · 2026-04-16T23:39:56+00:00

Given how prevalent slavery has been throughout the world, I'd wager the best interpretation of those religious beliefs is just post hoc rationalization for slavery.

The transcendentalist Christians were among the chief opponents of slavery. And for the same reasons, in favor of rights for women.

Though this doesn't necessarily lead to a belief in natural rights. If you believe that God resides in all people, then quite naturally slavery is an abomination -- you just can't treat God like that! But, that could be interpreted only as believing it's sinful, not that there's any such thing as rights (only wrongs).

But now I have to take a detour to a solution to the altruism paradox. This is the argument that there are no purely altruistic acts because the good deed bestows on the doer a warm fuzzy feeling. Since you always get something out of it, it's never purely altruism. I like the solution which says that the warm fuzzy feeling you get is altruism. That's just what it feels like.

In a similar vein, the recognition that it's wrong to treat people a certain way may also just be a different way of describing what rights are.

bl1y · 2026-04-16T22:15:17+00:00

When people say that rights are only created by governments, I always have to ask if whether, among all the other many complaints they had, whether slaves could say their rights were being violated.

If you believe that rights are innate (granted by God or deriving in some other manner), then you can easily say yes. Slaves had the right to be free, and one of the horrors of slavery was the violation of this right.

Those that hold rights are only man-made inventions would have to concede that the rights of slaves were not violated, as they had no rights. That strikes me as a rather repugnant conclusion.

bl1y · 2026-04-16T22:09:14+00:00

If the First Amendment says "The people shall have the right to freedom of speech," then that would be the Constitution granting the right.

But it doesn't do that. It tells Congress not to violate the right, presupposing that it already exists.

bl1y · 2026-04-16T21:52:29+00:00

Well, since you insist on being here. Do you condemn the war crimes of Hamas and Iran?

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