Perhaps you and the wise adviser to McChrystal, Abu Muqawama , could discuss which of the 12 or so Taliban militias are most closely associated with global terrorism, and which ones are not (and therefore can be negotiated with.)

In my view the groups with the closest connections to global terrorism are Haqqani, Punjabi Taliban, Chechans, Uzbechistan Takfiris, and AQ Ughairs.

Can the Quetta Shura Taliban be negotiated with? Hmmm. I think Russia, Iran, India, China and Turkey (which is close to Afghan Uzbechs) might be very concerned about negotiations with the Quetta Shura Taliban.

Perhaps this is the debate we should be having.

http://justworldnews.org/archives/003735.html

Bloggingheads.tv is an example of white male power structures using new technology to reinforce their traditional oppressive role in global society because women and people of color don’t try to participate and the editors don’t magically know who they are? And also women don’t do video chat because they’re too busy having children and fearing technology?

You’re not really making any sense, and you’re implying bias simply because your preferences are unmet. What number of women of color would Bloggingheads have to include so that they would not fall prey to your charges of racial and gender bias? How many gays and lesbians must be represented to achieve diversity? How will they balance the proper mixture of black, latino, asian, and whatever else to meet your exacting standards?

Seriously, though: just shut the hell up. You do not have permission to hijack this thread for your diversity war.

I do see this as yet another instance in which the introduction of new technologies that have a huge potential to include voices traditionally left out of the discourse end up instead reinforcing the existing disparities.

This phenom looks very much like “the math class problem”– that is, the white guys who have a lot of self-confidence shoot their hands up first (sometimes, when they don’t even have an answer) while the females and people of color who for whatever reason don’t have that self-confidence don’t… and a BAD teacher (or BHTV manager or whatever) will just call on the guys who have their hands up rather than encouraging the hangers-back to join in.

Well, there’s that, plus the technophilia/gadgetophilia of many young white guys, plus the inequities in sharing household duties that mean that women especially of child-rearing age simply don’t have the spare time to hang around exploring new tech fixes, whizz-bang means of communication, etc because they’re too busy raising their husbands’ (and their) children.

As for me, I’m well past that age. But to see all the young guys still shoot their hands up and still get disproportionately called on by the ‘teacher’ is also getting really old.

In my view, while yes there is a predominance of “white” “male” voices, there is also a predominance of “educated” “institutional” and “wealthy” voices.

Or are you just angry they haven’t asked you to be on?

See yesterday.

Just sayin.