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The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, also known as the "Mother of All Bombs", has been dropped in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. It is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal.
The US military has dropped an enormous bomb in Afghanistan, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission. A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, nicknamed MOAB, was dropped at 7 p.m. local time Thursday, the sources said. [...] A MOAB is a 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition that is America's most powerful non-nuclear bomb.
The bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, according to the military sources. They said the target was an ISIS tunnel and cave complex as well as personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province.
Gen. John Nicholson, Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement. "This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against [ISIS]." The statement said U.S. forces took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties.
Also at Fox News. The bombing came days after the death of a Green Beret in the same province, but a defense official said the bombing was unrelated. Another official had this to say:
The MOAB had to be dropped out of the back of a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane due to its massive size. "We kicked it out the back door," one U.S. official told Fox News.
Update: The Afghan defence ministry says that 36 ISIS fighters were killed by the strike.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday April 14 2017, @04:56PM (27 children)
> A lot of people will be going to hell for that.
Isn't it nice that religion provides a convenient outlet to drain the resentment for those who get away with being horrible people ?
"My kids' school is crumbling and I can't afford to treat their cough, because all my taxes go the CEO of the company making bombs we throw at some random brown guys. Buy hey, when he's so old that even his platinum doctor can't revive him after his heart attack banging top models in his gold pool, he'll go to Hell! So he's the loser!"
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @05:23PM (24 children)
They *will* go to Hell, though. Now, the term "go to Hell" is a little bit of a misnomer, as Hell is more of a state than an actual place, but nevertheless, there they will go. And they will reincarnate, probably dozens or hundreds of times given their karmic load, in bad situations, perhaps on other worlds with intelligent life if this one no longer serves that purpose. All this stuff is being graded. I don't know anywhere near all the details, but I believe I know enough to say that everyone gets, to the precise last attosecond, precisely the amount of suffering they cause.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday April 14 2017, @05:32PM (15 children)
Or, as i believe, they simply cease to exist. There is nothing else.
Sooooo.... we need to TAKE REVENGE NOWWW!!!!
Revenge is a dish best served with the death of a thousand cuts/scraping the skin slowly from their bodies/slowly removing all the oxygen in their locked office (but don't let them die right away: remove oxygen, then put it back, then take away again... such fun!)
......
Does this mean i'm going to hell for thinking like this? Nah, i'll just die--
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @05:52PM (14 children)
I wish to fuck you were right, but my girlfriend's past- and between-life memories and some of the research I've done strongly point to there being...well, "afterlife" is the wrong word, if anything our earthly lives are the interregnum, but it's entirely just. There seems to be some sort of physical, unconscious law like gravity that leads to the emergence of something you could well call karma.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @06:47PM (8 children)
I look at how Science manages to converges on the truth.
I then look at the thousands of religions that have existed (with most of them now being extinct) and I observe how their dogmas DIVERGE in an ever-widening shamble of made-up nonsense.
I had religion figured out as a power-grabbing scam by the time I was 13.
...but it's clear that some folks need fantasies to cling to.
I'm not saying that the notion of karma is not very appealing, but the evidence is severely lacking.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 14 2017, @07:10PM (2 children)
What gave religion away as a scam?
I guess many other just get dronized.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday April 15 2017, @07:37AM (1 child)
In my case, it was preachers demonstrating disobedience to the Bible, browbeating for tithes.
We were instructed to live by faith, and they of all people should adhere to their own advice.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 15 2017, @12:04PM
System inconsistency...
Don't mind the man behind the curtain ;)
Almost like the government and taxes.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @07:15PM (2 children)
Oh, I'm with you on that. NO religion has it correct and the vast majority are somewhere between hilariously and horrifyingly wrong. I look at this as just another branch of science, because it seems to be conforming to a set of natural laws. We humans have a very bad habit of distancing and "othering" ourselves from the rest of nature and reality; it's a kind of ego-sickness.
As near as I can tell "God" isn't the best word to use here, but it's a kind of metaphor not unlike "Mother Nature," when what's being described is a sort of base-concept to matter, energy, and intelligence, the old philosophers' "ground of all being." I don't think it's conscious, certainly not as a personal, egoistic entity. Why couldn't there be a naturalistic "afterlife" anyway?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday April 14 2017, @08:06PM (1 child)
A mother nature given soul?
(I like the Phillipe Jose Farmer thing: (No, i'm not going to google the spelling, no i cant remember the name of the series... i'm old and tired, lol))
I just don't see it: i'll be dust returned to dust and i have no soul to be reborn.
I. got. one. shot.
Also, i think there should be a law that you can kill one person EVERY year, no consequences, so long as you register the fact that YOU (state your name) are going to kill HIM (state his name).
Once per year, no consequences.
Wouldn't the world be a better place without all the dead assholes who piss off EVERYONE!!
:)
Tired... rambling... need vodka.... sleep....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @08:34PM
"To Your Shattered Bodies, Go." Notable for the fact that some NDE researcher appears to have fabricated or confabulated his own NDE from his memories of the book.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @09:17PM (1 child)
I found a somewhat different result: grew up without religion clubbing me over the head and was amazed to find some very common threads running through most religions. The problem with religion is it is based on belief so there is very little flexibility in updating the concepts. Science suffers the same way, however once you get evidence that your new concepts are better then there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. With religion the power structure keeps the status quo by burning the heretics.
Anyone who has a glimpse into spiritual aspects of life (prophets, etc.) probably have the same problem as someone trying to explain color to a blind person.
Yes religion is used as a massive tool of power and oppression. Ignoring other aspects is like judging the US Constitution by the screwed up crap we have today.
Perhaps there are just a bunch of crazy people who need to believe something, but there is a massive amount of anecdotal information that points to there being "something more". Maybe its a collective telepathic hive-mind which can lead to people getting memories from others, or maybe there is a spiritual dimension not contained in our physical reality. I can't say its all bunk, and I can't say any of it is 100% true, but after a long time of believing only in scientifically proven facts I realized the hubris of science and reason. They are still my guiding principles, but I try and keep a more open mind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:09AM
With Anubi, religion seems to be in no small part a social thing.
He seems to have found a sect/congregation/community that gets it right.
Take away the mumbo-jumbo and you'd still have something worthwhile.
His bunch seems to have avoided/expunged the Sister Bertha Better-Than-You types. [google.com]
(With over 10 million people in Los Angeles County, you'd hope there would be 1 bunch that aren't simply about tribalism.)
Heh. Aaron Sorkin had a field day with this notion.
Dr. Jenna Jacobs [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [memoryhole.net]
...and comedian Emo Philips really kills it WRT the "can't reach consensus" thing. [theguardian.com]
I figure the Bible could be boiled down to 1 thing [google.com] and the rest could be tossed.
I find scripture to be wholly unimpressive. [google.com]
Basically, a book of fairy tales with a really bad editor.
The "slaves, obey your master" crap and the condoning of violence are particularly troubling in a "holy" book.
the Quran has only 532 cruel or violent passages, while the Bible has 1,321 [alternet.org]
In northern Europe, they have lower rates of religiosity and more functional democracies.
I think they have things figured out better.
...and there's some stats that say religious folks just aren't that bright. [google.com]
As for the deity thing, a guy had this figured out a long, long time ago:
.
a collective telepathic hive-mind
You should write books.
Make sure that the publisher understands that those are fiction.
We don't need another L. Ron Hubbard.
a massive amount of anecdotal information that points to there being "something more"
...only if you deny evolution and claim that all other creatures don't possess a "soul".
The notion of an afterlife is just wishful thinking and denial that you won't live forever.
If you don't want the memory of your existence to fade, produce children and raise them in a way that they will want to have children.
...or accomplish something that is really memorable.
Still, it's unlikely that many will know your name 1000 years from now (assuming that there is a sentient species left to even do that).
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @12:25AM (2 children)
were there 7.5 billion souls 4000 years ágo?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:49AM (1 child)
No idea. I suspect this isn't confined to Earth, and would be very surprised if there weren't intelligent life elsewhere, as well as possibly some "promotion" to our type of soul from other sentients like whales or orangutans. I'm told you don't get "busted down" in that sense, i.e., the Buddhist idea of reincarnating as an animal simply does not happen.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:00AM
I dunno, I would gladly opt to reincarnate as a whale or bird after the madness of being human...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:24PM (1 child)
Wasn't it extremely lucky that her past life just so happened to be on the same planet as her current one. Not any of those other worlds with intelligent life you just mentioned.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 15 2017, @03:26PM
Yeah, wasn't it? I don't entirely understand this stuff either, not even close. For all I know, if there are other planets with intelligent life, maybe the beings on them have different sets of life lessons to learn. I'm getting all this secondhand and am not by any means an expert on any of this.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @07:46PM (1 child)
Hell is more of a state than an actual place
Are you talking about New Jersey?
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Friday April 14 2017, @08:07PM
In the past maybe, but for the past 20 years Oklahoma beats New Jersey for the title of Hell.
*disclaimer: And for my sins, I have lived in both.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @08:30PM (4 children)
It's an interesting image, that hell is like an oubliette, a place for souls you can forget about and then be smugly self-assured that they're getting what they "deserve." Or if you think that's too harsh, we can design this oubliette so that it has a time-lock mechanism that lets it vomit up souls once their "sentence" is served. 3 centuries early for good behavior? Paroled out as a starving girl in Africa? lol.
Why choose to be reincarnated at all?
There seems to be this idea that the spirit world is more real than this one. Or that if this world isn't a Just World, then the spirit world must be a Just World, because... or the combination of the two adds up to a Just World, because...
Because it has to? Or... what? Because... why?
What would that mean if even the spirit world weren't a Just World?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @09:26PM (3 children)
As far as I can tell, and this is mostly extrapolation based on what little I *think* I know, the terms "life" and "afterlife" aren't very useful; rather, it's ALL "life" but through a series of different states, *ideally* ever more rarefied until we merge with "God" again. There's a lot of distractions, and most of us seem to be ruled by the ego to the point that we don't learn enough to break free and sometimes need to reincarnate, though I'm told most unlearned lessons can be learned the rest of the way in the "afterlife."
Exceptions are things like most murderers, rapists, etc., or people who've made a conscious decision to place "idols" like money or a given ideology above fellow humans; in many cases, the only way around that is to be forced to endure the logical endpoint of a lifestyle like that the next time around, i.e., hardcore Randroids who hurt people with their actions might come back in the third world as poor farmers. I am told this is voluntary in that most of the time, on reflection, people decide that they *have* to do it this way to "get it" faster, in much the same way reading about building a computer isn't the same thing as having the experience of building one.
The contents of our minds and our beliefs and our past actions are very important, as the "spirit" world seems to be much less physical and much more mental than this one. It's impossible to fool ourselves there the way we can here; we are aware of everything we ever did for better or worse, no excuses. So it's not too surprising that, say, a spree killer getting hit with all the pain he caused other people, when his "body" is largely thought or thought-like itself, would think he was being tortured. "Hell" manifests the way peoples' cultures make them think it does; it's their minds trying to make sense of the pain they're getting returned to them through whatever cultural background they have. This is why my girlfriend "went to one of the Buddhist Hells" last time, for example, as she was some kind of Buddhist in her last life. She even "met Enma Daiou," who does not actually exist; it was a manifestation of her own conscience judging her, and she remembers him sounding like an angry, male, incredibly huge version of her.
Does any of this make sense? It looks like complete batshit insanity even as I type it. All I can boil it down to is there seems to be some kind of "every deed produces an equal and opposite karma" law in effect, entirely naturalistic, and we seem to be here on some kind of journey from, and now back to, the "Source" of it all.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday April 15 2017, @12:30AM (2 children)
pure fantasy.
the only reason we think there is more than what we see is that we are so filled with ego, we think we are just THAT important.
we are not.
nothing matters. in the long run. and no one cares, in the long run.
yes, its harsh. but I'd rather have truth than 'comfort' in lies that we tell ourselves.
why WOULD there be any rhyme or reason or even justice to this universe? I see absolutely no evidence of anything 'planned'. no planner, no reasons.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:46AM
I wish I could believe that! It sounds counterintuitive, but that would be far more comforting to me than what I do believe. I'm so tired of it all, so existentially tired.
Really, pretty much any idea other than "death is the end of your consciousness" is horrifying. Infinitely horrifying if your consciousness stays more or less as it is forever. I find the idea of annihilation on the death of the physical body comforting, and wish it were true, but think I've seen too much evidence against it.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:06AM
Heh, show me your proof.
I think you're just being reactionary against the typical theistic view of "God / Allah / Yahweh / Flying Spaghetti Monster". You have no rationale, just a belief. What if your "truth" is a lie you tell yourself so that you can be complacent. Or the "nothing matters" lets the horrors of humanity slide by more easily?
I don't hold to an almighty Planner either, but don't let your reason get ahead of itself.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday April 14 2017, @08:55PM
Hell is more of a state than an actual place
Florida?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @05:25PM (1 child)
Religion is the opiate of the masses after all.
Except the occasional time when it is the meth of the masses.
(Score: 4, Touché) by julian on Friday April 14 2017, @05:42PM
For most of rural America, Appalachia, opiates are the opium of the masses.