Romney claims Israelis culturally superior to Palestinians

[_Cicero]

As a demonstration of just how inane your comment here really is, just imagine Churchill or Roosevelt refusing to call Nazism or Japanese imperialism what they were in clear, ethical language. Doesn't work very well, does it?

And on cue, Droopy Godwins himself yet again.

[_Bob Loblaw]

I'll be sure to tell my Bangladeshi colleague that his culture is comparable to Nazism and Japanese imperialism. I wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to "name evil and darkness for what it is [sic]."

[_Equality]

The merits of Romney's position are largely irrelevant. The point is that Romney showed very poor diplomatic skills.

Dead Wrong. Reagan began the end of the Cold War and ultimate victory of America and the West by finally, after decades of dissimulation, verbal tap dancing, and intellectual cowardice, naming and labeling the Soviet Union and its ideology for what they were: evil. Once the Soviet Union had been once and for all called out as the "evil empire" that it was, its dismantling could finally begin. The inability to name evil and darkness for what it is is,perhaps, the single core illness of modern, Western civilization.

As a demonstration of just how inane your comment here really is, just imagine Churchill or Roosevelt refusing to call Nazism or Japanese imperialism what they were in clear, ethical language. Doesn't work very well, does it?

We had better learn - and very soon - to name fundamentalist Islam as our enemy, and to call it out morally for what it really is. We had better learn to call, name, and label the Palestinian cult of death, blood libel, and genocidal fantasy for what it is.

We do not have that much time left to do so.

Droopy Balls, what does all this have to do with John Dehlin and Gerald Bradford?

[Guest]

Any discussion of severe trade restrictions against Palestine? Nope.

Any discussion of massive American support for Israel? Nope.

Racism and bigotry? Yep.

[_Droopy]

Please. Read up on Averroes or the cultural and intellectual history of places like Cordoba or Baghdad. Did you know that the word "algebra" is derived from an Arabic word?

I am far more familiar with the history than you are.

Tell me this, is it the Israeli "occupation" that is causing them to implement the oppressive Sharia Law and persecute those of other religions? If the Palestinians were running your state, would you happily agree to the laws and requirements they would impose? Would you convert to Islam or die or pay the tax? Would you be happy with women, even of other religions, being forced to wear a burkah and not allowed to drive or receive a higher education? These are the things you support when you side with the Palestinians.

Your Caliphate is just a fantasy and there is no evidence that Muslims would achieve it if "left alone". Think harder. Think Libya, Egypt, and now Syria who have or are going to the Muslim Brotherhood. Compared to Israel, the Muslims have far more land (the entire Middle East and beyond), resources and wealth and NO ONE as a natural enemy except those who offend them in some offhand and obscure way. They have done nothing with it and concern themselves mainly with persecuting other religions and themselves if someone doesn't tow the line.

This is the core problem. To be at war with Islam (Dar al-Harb ), one need not actually attack or threaten Islam or Islamic peoples. One need only decline conversion. Once having done so, one is now at war with Islam and with all Muslims, and is liable to be treated as an enemy wherever found.

Anywhere, any land, where Islam is not dominant is at war with Islam. With that kind of mentality, and with the closed, totalist societies, utterly controlled media, conspiratorial thinking, and genocidal, apocalyptic psychology attached to the more extreme versions of Islam (the most orthodox, according to the fundamentalists themselves), there is little prospect for peace until this culture itself is either altered from within or obliterated by force from without.

Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had to be defeated and brought into the civilized world in the latter manner. That is probably not possible and certainly not desirable at the present time. What concerns me deeply is that the Muslim world may make such a unthinkable coarse of action the only alternative, and well within out own lifetimes.

[_Bob Loblaw]

And on cue, Droopy Godwins himself yet again.

Islamic culture has contributed much more to the advancement of humanity than has angry southern wingnut culture.

[_Droopy]

As a demonstration of just how inane your comment here really is, just imagine Churchill or Roosevelt refusing to call Nazism or Japanese imperialism what they were in clear, ethical language. Doesn't work very well, does it?

And on cue, Droopy Godwins himself yet again.

You could be intellectually serious, and enter the discussion, but no, no, this is the Trailerpark...

[_Bob Loblaw]

You could be intellectually serious, and enter the discussion, but no, no, this is the Trailerpark...

You are hardly the judge of intellectual seriousness.

[_Droopy]

Droopy Balls, what does all this have to do with John Dehlin and Gerald Bradford?

Nothing, so why did you bring it up?

[_Cicero]

This is the core problem. To be at war with Islam (Dar al-Harb ), one need not actually attack or threaten Islam or Islamic peoples. One need only decline conversion. Once having done so, one is now at war with Islam and with all Muslims, and is liable to be treated as an enemy wherever found.

Sounds good. Let me just go down the hall to tell a few of my co-workers to bring their guns tomorrow so that we can have it out since I won't be converting to Islam.

Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had to be defeated and brought into the civilized world in the latter manner. That is probably not possible and certainly not desirable at the present time. What concerns me deeply is that the Muslim world may make such a unthinkable coarse of action the only alternative, and well within out own lifetimes.

What Muslim world? Are Saudi Arabia and Turkey going to just let Iran lead out in a global conflict? Are Pashtuns and Arabs suddenly going to start getting along? Should we be preparing for war with Indonesia?