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You make it sound as if there is a choice. Work 14 hours a day in the office OR work 8 hours, go home, crack a beer, relax, hang out with friends, see kids etc... To spice things up lets add bills, taxes and kids to the equation. For example many choose to work crazy hours so that their other half wouldn't have too, so that at least one of them would be home with kids most of the time. Because Kids grow better when they are looked after and get attention.

Because.. you say so? oby, I find your avatar so apt, considering that during the course of this thread you have been doing everything to delegitimize the Ukrainian anti corruption protest. iirc so far you tried to paint them as nothing but nazis, terrorist, nationalist, us/west drones etc etc. For all intent and purposes you are a Russian propaganda tool. While I usually take everything with a grain of salt especially in times like this with fast evolving conflict on our hands, I am also familiar with the idea of blitzkrieg and disinformation campaigns, and so far Russia has completely drained my good faith resrves. Bottom line they Russia has been steering the pot from the start (even before euromaiden), Russia is violating Ukrainian Sovereignty and their promises, Russia don't give a F*** about solving this solution, they want to secure a forward base by use of force if necessary. Also I love the "spontaneous" out breaks of support; and division of outfitted men who knew where, how and when to take strategic objectives with precision, take communication lines etc.. Overall Putin wins the spin doctor of the year award.. he can also win the best actor award considering how he describe the unfounded everyone's sentiments toward Russian actions with a plain face.. Also while I usually HATE the use of emotional images especially those that involve kids, that try to sway the discussion from logic, in this case i'll just repost this for you: Of course! please allow me to correct my previous statement by adding propaganda to the list of similarities to your comparison to Munich Agreement, on top of Putin's Authoritarian rule, his foreign policy and irredentism under pretext of protecting Russians ...

I think Obama threatened to unfriend Putin on Facebook, this is something right?

In other news: ...It is clear that in this part of Ukraine, many ethnic Russians distrust the fledgling [interim] government, and some would indeed welcome Russian troops. But the events unfolding in major Ukrainian cities in recent days appear to match a pattern played by the Kremlin in Crimea, where pro-Moscow forces paving the way for Russia to seize control were neither altogether spontaneous, nor entirely local. As pro-Russia demonstrations in 11 cities have suddenly erupted where significant populations of ethnic Russians live, the apparent organization of the demonstrators, appearances of Russian citizens and reports of busloads of activists arriving from Russia itself suggest a high degree of coordination with Moscow. At a minimum, Russians are instigating protests by Ukrainians sympathetic to Moscow, helping to create a pretext for a broader intervention if Mr. Putin decides to push things that far. From Russia, ‘Tourists’ Stir the Protests

Exactly. If Crimea voted on independence and Ukraine was trying to assert its authority there was room for your arguments... ( although it reminds Chechen separatists declaring independence in 1991, which led to 2 invasion by russia). So Putins Russia intervenion in another sovereign state, breaking their previous agreements is gross violation. Also I read that other than taking strategic location and placing checkpoints Russian armed men also cut communication with Ukraine, not sure how effective it is, but certainly it has an effect as no doubt that Russian national news works extra hard to tell the people of Ukrianian Crimea the "truth" and nothing but that truth. How so? is it Putin's foreign policy of irredentism, with pretext of protecting Russians or his military build up? Because compared to the Kosovo superficial similarities deflection, this examples actually pretty nice.

Lately, I have been really enjoying my jogs, especially after work that + good shower and I feel like a new man.

Soviet era Pravda("Truth"/Propaganda)... Russia who instead of trying to help Ukraine resolve its issue, or look for peaceful resolution, amassing troops on its borders, deployed armed men within another sovereign state, put up checkpoints and threaten to shoot the citizen of that country for attempting to move call it a provocation.

The other other side set aside the democratically elected government elected primarily be the east. Not worried at all about their disenfranchisement, are we, after all the side which lost the elections will do what we want, so all's good? WTF are you talking about?! we was talking about something completely unrelated. As for this, your usual one trick whore argument: but but but it was "democratically elected" bla bla bla, it was also democratically dissolved by vote of no confidence after use of live ammo against protesters which claimed the lives of 70+ Ukrainians. And there is no "do what we want", there would be election and Ukrainian decide what they want, even if the "west"/Russia don't like it. Nah, that's rubbish. Everyone has accepted that there is a very strong secessionist or unificationist sentiment in Crimea ... Nah?! I am familiar with Crimean sapartism movement for a long time. In fact it was initiated by local Tatars, until Stalin "disabused" them of the notion with Russian iron fist. What I don't understand how it negates what I said, unless you are unaware of two decade long of Russian propaganda and support for separatism in Crimea, especially when talks of deal with EU came about. That's sophistry. He gave it to Ukraine, one day it was part of Russia, next it was part of Ukraine. That's like describing Georgian ethnic cleansing as "unfortunate reaction to secessionism" or whatever weasel words Hitchens used. A palatable way to describe something that is unpalatable when someone else does it. The opposite is the true, you try to imply that because the district was moved between two administrative division within soviet union in the 1950s, it gives Russia legal grounds today, which is BS. Soviet Union is no more, Crimea is part of independent Ukraine and in 1994(?) Russia signed agreement to respect Ukrainian sovereignty and protect its territorial integrity. Since then Russia got upset that yet another country is moving toward to the EU, so they decided to went with dirty soviet era politics and Russian iron fist, in violation of their previous commitments and Ukraine national sovereignty. The only irony here is Putin PR BS about respecting sovereignty of other states or whatever Putin daily pravada produce to justify its actions. Because while the "west" or rather the international community is trying to resolve issues through talk and negotiations, Russian bully knows only one way the brute force way(protiv loma net preoma, right?). But sure deflecting it to the "west"...

Are you suggesting that if tomorrow 'Republic of Ireland' decided to drop the EU and join Russian economic union. That the UK wold be justified to invade it to "protect" British people within or due to its "strategic importance" to UK ?!

The problem is that Ukraine give up its Nuclear arsenal the third largest(iirc it was larger then the one of France and UK combined) for security and territorial assurances from Russia/USA/... so the lesson here(other than do not trust Russia) is that anyone interested in securing its border should get some nukes ... Because if Ukraine would have placed its nuclear arsenal on war time reediness, Putin wouldn't be so smug and the whole world would be there trying to resolve the issue... That is a matter of perspective EDITED.

I just noticed this Gravity dominates the Academy Awards with seven Oscars and its 8.2 on imdb( Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller ) Someone previously stated it was crap, can anyone please elaborate i.e. good/bad and why ?

Playing a video game could reduces cravings for food and alcohol e.g. Playing Tetris for 3 minutes reduces cravings by as much as 24%. link Wait what? looks like another one of those studies that prove something that we already now (i.e. staying busy makes time pass by) only with eye candy title for "younger" audience..

The other side is not the one who violated the sovereignty of another state after two days of minor protest. Btw People like to bring up former Yugoslavia, do you recall how much time the International community spent on resolving the issue until they took action there or what was the catalyst?

Sure. Just a minor nit pick, instead of "supporting" Crimean independence "orchestrating" would be far more appropriate ( i.e. the German ww2 refernce someone mentioned above ) Similarly to how they tried to portrayed themselves as the generous saviors of Ukraine in the recent financial deal that tied Ukraine to Russia, leading to the Euromaiden protests. When actually they orchestrated that Ukrainian financial crisis, so that Ukrain don't join the EU, and swooped in to pick up the pieces with that "generous" deal( that you can refuse) Who established what Crimea wants? was there any vote, attempts to resolve the situation, or any kind of international forum to assess the situation? Because it looks like more Russian single minded self interests aggression like in Georgia. First of all he didn't gave it to "Ukraine" but he made adjustments to districts within the soviet union which Ukraine was part of. Russia has no more claims to either districts of former Soviet union, then imperialist UK to any of its colonies or Germany to territories of Nazi Germany.(even if they have a nice German majority) Otherwise tomorrow they can decides to invade Belarus for example. True, but they support Ukrainie, in fact they have been the major force in pro-Ukrainian against separatism in recent Crimean protest.

or good old disinformation campaign while they solidify their assets.

So far it nothing, they agreed to talk.. i.e. this the usual jerk off smile and shakes to the camera announcing procedural triumph as progress Yeah those cheeky Russian bastards in the Caucasus playing Imperialist! actually everyone are .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_separatist_movements_in_Europe

While they live in Ukraine there is actually a large presence of Russians left in crimea in post Soviet times, and the constant presence of the Black See Fleet and its personnel(who also like to retire there) is a big contributing factor. Although I wouldn't call them all Russians, while some of them are ethnic Russians, many of them also belong to other groups and overall they all ukrinian included are slavic people..

If you are talking about Ukraine Crimea situation then yes this has been brewing for a looooong time, since early 90s if you count the current crisis, what led to the Euromedian, previously the whole BSF issue; or longer if count other things.. Edit: You can find a rough summary here conerning crimea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_crisis#Background

^ Because nothing says second amendment f*** yeah, like a gunship parked in your back yard.

You are correct that the Ukrainian government might want todo that, after all that deal was sketchy, but the pragmatic in me would like to note that big election slogans and promises rarely survive the practical phase of number crunching, like it or not Ukraine is in an economical **** storm and they both need the income from that base, Russian gas deal and the loan they provide so the chance for that deal to go away was slim to none. What Ukraine actual want is that Russia would stop its blunt disregard to Ukrainian sovereignty. Also we fully aware of Russian interests in Ukraine, but no one gives a damn about Russian shoes, it s the shoes of independent Ukraine and every other country that Russia trample that we are concerned about. Also How Russia view Ukraine:

Interesting POV which I haven't considered before: Meanwhile Ukraine approaching economic disaster. Facing default it would inevitably need to make tough reforms, with recession in its future, which is never popular, but especially since I understand that much of East Ukraine depends on soviet era industries, and with Russia turning the heat and fear mongering along sectarian lines, making Ukraine political cohesion hard. Funny how many times you saddle up on a powder keg of your own making.

I agree, many people seem to associate 'gun control' with 'banning guns'. Personally, I have no problem with people owning firearms for protection or as a hobby. However, we need gun control to educate the masses about firearm use/safety and regulating the process of possession and acquisition so we don't enable criminal elements. None of those ideas are new and applied to every other dangerous substance/item. About that statistic, how many of those fights were justified in self defense or in the defense of others? How many of those guys were hothead macho's who escalated or instigate the fight because they had bone to pick or wanted to play the hero. The answer to both is that your guess is as good as mine.

This is not true at all, the effectiveness of a tool depends on the situation, the circumstances and the environment. Weapons are no different. Things like concealability, remote control of a weapon and those kind of things have to be considered. This happened at an airport so maybe there is a reason why knives were used. About the ease of use of guns, knives are FAR easier to use. Also its always hard to spot the attackers when knives are used in a crowd, the ensuing chaos and the small size of the weapon gives them a certain amount of concealment so they can do a LOT of damage before they can be identified and stopped. Airport?! The key word was "Generally" i.e. most attacks are not premeditated nor happening in Airports, but perpetrated by regular joes in their homes/hoods/.. Same goes for the ease of use, generally speaking perpetrators are your regular joe. If you think that that for most it easier to stab someone then pull the trigger, we will have to strongly disagree. There is a reason why most will opt for a gun and most suicides happen by gun and not Knife, or why a cop would prefer dealing with knife wielding drunk than one with a gun. Life isn't action movie, and guns far more commonly used by criminal elements then some regular joe who saves the day. So this is the exception that prove the rule. It reminds me an old statistic that showed that people who trained in martial arts are far more likely to be involved in fight and require medical attention.