I see this is as a real misjudgement on the Ayatollah's part. Not only did he support the wrong candidate, but he's not leaving himself much wriggle room for when the crackdown comes.
[quote]Exterminating the terrorists wouldn't be evil. Nobody had any problem with killing German Nazis, I don't know why Arab Nazis are better.[/quote] Luckily, the West, for all its myriad faults, doesn't agree that extermination is an appropriate response to extermination, so we still have the German people with us. I'm starting to get the impression that you want to see an Arab genocide. Is that really what you want/are prepared to support? If so, it's clear people in the m
[quote]I don't see how bulldozing homes (rather than bombing them) is "overreacting". I consider this entire "overreacting" thing simple anti-Semitism. There is no "overreaction" as a bad thing when you are defending yourself.[/quote] That's true, but only if you're prepared to go the whole hog and exterminate all opposition. There's no point regularly destroying homes and then leaving the people who were in them alive. It's counter productive and no one has had any excuse to do so si
[quote]Isn't that anti-Semitism, to assume that middle-eastern Jews are scheming and uncrompromising fools?[/quote] Not in the sense you mean it, because I felt the same way about the Arabs. [quote]Of course, the media didn't report that Israel had been under Lebanese attack for five years before 2006 or that the war was started by the PLO in violation, of course, of the peace treaty.[/quote] They did though. That's why it was always so depressing. Palestinian or Hezbo
[quote]But you did wonder why those protesters targeted Israel so often, didn't you?[/quote] Not really. I mostly saw anti-Israel protests while I was at uni from 2002-2006. It wasn't a happy time in the Middle East and Israel never seemed willing to turn the other cheek, so I assumed in my relative lack of interest that the Israeli government - what I now know to be a weak conglomerate of leftist, arch-nationalist and centrist parties - was just as belligerent as their Arab opposites
[quote]Really? Is that why their posters are often demanding a re-opening of Auschwitz and "Death to the Jews"?[/quote] I've never seen that in my area and I've seen quite a few anti-Israel protests in my time. I'm starting to think the differences in what we see are a matter of geography and the political lie of the land. You don't live in similar communities to me, nor do you read similar news. It's moments like these when you realise how laughable the idea of the global village is.
[quote]That's because anyone can walk into a synagogue and see for himself that it is not used for preaching hatred. And while this is probably true for most mosques as well, it certainly isn't true for all of them.[/quote] No, it's probably because people don't associate Israeli actions with Judaism, but with Israel. That's why marches tend to end up at the embassy, not the synagogue.
[quote]Osama bin Laden is referred to an a "Muslim fundamentalist", despite the fact that what he believes in has very little to do with real Islam in any shape or form. The fact that the media tend to confuse evil terrorists with Muslims is a related problem which I addressed in points 13 (interviewing philo-Semitic Muslims) and 19 ("Islamic Republic").[/quote] He and his followers are also hugely racist in favour of Arabs - if you look at the writings of Malay Muslim terrorists who'
[quote]Really? Can you point me to two examples where Arab imperialism is even mentioned?[/quote] I've yet to read a single article about Arab imperialists such as Osama bin Laden (presumably that's who you mean by Arab imperialists) where they've been discussed in positive terms. Not even in the Green Left Weekly, which is about as anti-Israel, anti-Bush as you can easily get in Oz (Obama's election has made 'anti-American attitudes' very hard to prove - he was cheered by random Pari
[quote]Yes, but why would that social agenda always include support for Arab imperialism, disdain for Africans and Jews, and a complete and utter disinterest in any world event that cannot be blamed on America or Israel?[/quote] I can only really speak for my own country's press, but I can assure you that what you say is not the case here. There aren't many journos that share those features. Usually if they're interested in America/Israel (whether for or against) they tend to be negat
[quote]I don't think so. While it isn't a vast conspiracy, it is pretty clear that the people who run the big news organisations (Reuters, AP etc.) have an agenda. Ignorance can only explain so much.[/quote] I think it's more accurate to say that people who become journalists tend to have a social agenda which causes them to become journalists. That social agenda inevitably leads to bias, through what probably has a proper name but for convenience I'll call the embedded effect. Basica
[quote]CO2 isn't even real pollution, we exhale it, its not like its gonna give you cancer like some of the other SERIOUS emissions.[/quote] CO2 has killed entire villages in the past, but that's by the by (check out the histories of some of the volcanic lakes in South America for the details). Still, do you really want to breathe polluted air? The change from leaded to unleaded petrol took a long time, sure, but it greatly improved the quality of air. Shifts to more efficient
I'm unconvinced by the idea of global warming, but climate change seems reasonable, if only because you can see it. Whether it's human-influenced or not is irrelevant. Many things climate change folks want to do - reduce emissions, stop old growth forest logging, encourage mangrove reclamation etc - are worthwhile anyway. Who really wants cities full of smog, with no forests nearby/convenient medicinal biospheres and a coast that erodes a couple of metres every year? As a resu
I'm mostly with you, Artysim. We shouldn't be focusing on gay marriage when a far darker evil lurks - gay singing. The argument against it is powerful and conclusive . It's time we acted to preserve the sanctity of song against the secret evils of homosexuality. It's for the kids.
[quote]I wonder what election results in the US would look like if only those people were allowed to vote who actually PAY for the things that the elected then does.[/quote] Theoretically it will skew the votes towards the conservative side of politics, but then again you may find it has no effect at all. There'll be some similarly arbitrary disagreement between kinds of conservatives which will lead to conflict and complaints about demagogues or whatever. Anyway, what's wrong
[quote]Cheney smacked down Obama. Obama was the usual bumbling idiot reading a teleprompter. You know Cheney is right when the liberals have their hissy fits about him.[/quote] Kingbee's article was a hissy-fit? I think I'm missing something that you picked up on.
I heard a rumour that Cheney's actually an immigrant from Romania, and his real name is Carpathia. His plan is Prez of US first, then the UN, then the world!
No. 3. It's important to make the economics easy. If you want to create an economic simulator, that's fine, but that doesn't seem to be the direction you're taking Elemental. One of the great strengths of, say Master of Orion 2, is the extremely basic economic model. It's simplicity makes for a more strategic experience. 3 would need only one thing to be perfect - the ability to set a trade route as safe or risky. If it's safe, it'll divert through player controlled terrain, trying to
I have one of these codes if you want it - DG-BKWF-UTBV-BHRP
[quote]They did. And the Iraqi constitution recognises them as sovereign over Iraqi Kurdistan. They are, within Iraq, completely independent, even have their own immigration (they accept Israeli passports etc.).[/quote] I didn't know that! That puts everything in a new light. I knew they were an autonomous state, but I figured it was the meaningless label it is in most 3rd world states. The article certainly suggests border control is by unauthorised thugs. So is the pesh merg
[quote]The Kurds don't see Kurdistan as an Arab country that Arabs should move freely in. After decades of oppression they finally want some freedom and security.[/quote] It's not really the kite-flyers fault or - necessarily - the governor's either. Kurdistan should have been granted indepedence, but for short-sighted realpolitik reasons the appeasement of Turkish genocide was more important than giving Kurds a homeland. If Kurdistan is going to be an Iraqi state, then it sho
[quote]The peoples of the world have slaughtered the Jews, imprisoned them, dispersed them, attacked and murdered them whenever they felt like it, destroyed the Temple so that only one wall remained, but they WILL NOT and they MUST NOT take Jerusalem (and that remaining piece of the wall) again.[/quote] Okay, this is clearly your irrational trigger issue, so let's just agree to disagree.
[quote]I don't care how many religions declare Jerusalem their holy city. Jerusalem is and will remain Jewish. Jerusalem can be an international city when Rome and Mecca become international cities.[/quote] Rome (or the religious bits anyway) is an international city. Mecca is unlikely, considering a basic law is that you have to be Muslim to even enter it. But so long as you're a Muslim, you can enter it any time. Border control around Ramadan is always rather lax. If
Interesting. I can see a pragmatic advantage in having Jerusalem an international city, but I doubt the UN is capable of ruling a village, let alone a large city with a populace that enjoys fighting each other and a heap of 'inspired' religious tourists. It smacks of the Tom Clancy solution (in his books they hired Swiss mercenaries to do the job). It would be better to have Jerusalem a city-state with a widely agreed constitution if it had to be independent of Israel. Israel doesn't
[quote]the difference is that it was some random guy off the street and not the ruling administration.[/quote] Wasn't it the comedian who made the suss joke about Rush being the 20th hijacker and not Obama? I thought Obama made the yawn-worthy japes about who the media vote for.
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