Dinh AaronMk

ISRAEL!!!

@Vilageidiotx

Fun-fact: the 1973 oil crisis started by the Arab states was in protest against the Yom Kippur War. And then again roughly six-years later because the Iranian Revolution.

Also around this time German, Venezuelan, and not-modern-Iranian production peaked. As well as US and Canadian production by then-conventional means*

Personally, if the US and British hadn't been Cold War dicks to Iran then perhaps the threat of Shia Islamism would have been greatly lessened. But no, we had to depose and put under house arrest their popular prime-minister because he was a socialist and put a dictator in power instead.

*I say that because now for us at least it's crawling back with the use of fracking.

O0h sweet christ (possible MGSV: TPP spoilers)

@Larfleeze

Well does this mean we can call Master Miller or Mother Base...

Hider

A snake eater?

Hider

Fun fact: I'm still fucking around in Afghanistan so I'm making shit up on the fly while technically in class. I'll go back to kidnapping goats later.

ISRAEL!!!

@Aragorn

Saudi-US relationship has been pretty strong and is even older than that with Isreal. They're not nearly as divergent as what you're saying, and are taking what the media has shouted in much the same way you're accusing Googer of doing. And Saudi Arabia wasn't the only supplier of Daesh, that blame goes to the other two gulf states as well: Qatar and the UAE.

What is important is the US-Saudi relationship as well as it still being considered a special relationship. Jordan is also another major ally to the US with or without Isreal and is considered to be the closest non-NATO ally of the United States in the middle east.

Egypt as well would have been a powerful and another old ally of the US if Isreal did't exist, since Egyptian antagonism to Isreal in the late 40's and into the 50's kept a wage between they and the US, despite the US keeping Britain and France from tearing shit up with them in war during that period. But if the Isreali factor was removed from the picture then both Jordan and Egypt could have been allies with the US much earlier than formal, positive-relationships were established.

Especially since in the context of modern history our allies in the middle-east were only really valuable in the political game between the US and Soviet Union in the region. The Saudis represent the oldest member of the old anti-communism alliance the US was building in the region to counter the fears of communist revolution, and then through the Cold War the expansion of Soviet influence in places like Syria.

The US doesn't necessarily need Isreal as a strategic ally in the region. In a historical absence of Isreal in the region they could easily be replaced.

IMO - I would rather Iran over Saudi Arabia since Iran at least doesn't publically crucify criminals and people convicted of witch craft. And then we can give the rest of the Sunni Arab world to the glorious modern Banu Hashim.

I LOVE LORDE (Musical Taste Thread.)

@JGBPhone

Their overall sound is something of a joke. And it conflicts with their image. They look metal but they're diluted pop-rock.

They're like The Edge in the guitar world. They - like he - might sound pretty but they're not doing anything unique or amazing. In the case of The Edge he's just layering effects over what he does to turn plucking two or three notes into something that sounds more riveting because he discovered that he can make the guitar echo.

ISRAEL!!!

an ally in the middle east.

@Aragorn

O0h sweet christ (possible MGSV: TPP spoilers)

@Larfleeze

My own design?

I LOVE LORDE (Musical Taste Thread.)

I was gonna say your tastes are acceptable, then I saw you like Nickelback, FOB, and Linkin Park. Now you just lost points.

Having said that of recent artists I have been growing fond of Monsters and Men and Hozier (except for Take Me To Church which is played so damn much it wears on me, I just want to hear his other songs).

But Pink Floyd has an honestly immovable place in my heart. I may go for a long-ass time without listening to anything by them, but then I look back at and listen to Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, and what have you and I realize why I chose to basically grow up to them.

Warren Zevon is also someone I keep rediscovering. I used to listen to mostly just his memorable hits (see: Wereeolves of London). Then I got into his deeper stuff. And then as I get older and go deeper into his work I find more songs that resonate with me or I can get. Prior I wouldn't have understood stuff like Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, but I think now I can at least listen to it now as a historical callback to passed modern history and get the references enough to appreciate it as a listener. On in the same vein I can listen to Lawyers, Guns, and Money with the frame of reference of a romantic perception of a bond-esque gambler in Latin America. Or Shit's Fucked Up and know then that's basically the theme to Zevon's later life and a recognition on his - and everyone else's - mortality.

And then there's on-and-off flirtation with Bob Dylan and The Doors. And off-the-radio country and bluegrass groups/musicians.

ARE Black Cats Bad Luck?

No. But they taste damn good.

O0h sweet christ (possible MGSV: TPP spoilers)

It's only a bromance. It's only a bromance.

Except with more showers and sheep.

I just got confirmation of...

@Aragorn
Plot twist: that's his fetish.