We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
... all our money is, in effect, pocket money, doled out by the
government-parent to the citizen-child. We are the wards, not the
masters, of the state.
Deputy State Department spokesman Marie Harf gives the catastrophic foreign policy of the Obama administration a lighter than air, Valley Girl kind of feel. She is a walking self-parody. As such, she presents a novel use of expressive form.
The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.
What ISIS Really Wants: There is ISIS, and than, there is ISIS. No doubt the article is describing the ISIS leadership but per the article, Caliphatalism (WMR’s American Interest website), linked in an earlier thread, ISIS is composed of ignorant, illiterate, rubes and greedy gangbangers.
If you want to know why ISIS exists, don’t bother searching Islamic texts, or examining Islamic traditions. The real reason ISIS happens is because of what keeps happening to Muslims.
The author's stunning lack of history, not to mention his intentionally ignoring Islamic texts, is breathtaking (but there seems to be a lot of that sort of thing on that side of the argument).
Almost since it's inception, followers of Islam has been the aggressor in conflicts with other people driven by their belief that their god calls them to conquer, kill, and enslave non believers.. Their reasoning has not changed. This is just the latest incarnation.
And why would you ignore Islamic texts? It is what the Islamists point to as justification for their actions. Why would they lie about that?
QUOTE:
The world’s Muslim-majority societies are remarkably diverse—much more so than the West, I’d argue.
Nothing more needs to be said about this since he offers no examples of this supposed diversity - because if there are any, they are minor.
QUOTE:
There’s almost no comparison between Islam and the West. For one thing, Islam is a religion. The West obviously is not.
The West is not a religion but Islam is not only a religion. It is also a legal system and a social order both of which are in direct conflict with Western Civilization. That Islamist want to force their order on non believers is what causes the rub, not that they are different.
The entire article is thinly thought out so that it supports a political point of view.
Now that MSNBC is cancelling a bunch of shows, I wonder if they will go to Salon for inspiration for new ones.
Reading Gen. William T. Sherman's memoirs, i was struck by his story of the fall of 1849 while stationed in California. Thousands were streaming in out of the mountains but told of thousands more stranded, starving with the coming winter. The Donner tragedy wasn't mentioned, but in that fall of 1849, the military governor of California released $100,000 from the civil fund and assigned Major Rucker to purchase flour and bacon and hire men and mules to go out and meet the immigrants. This government rescue project had great success in avoiding an even larger tragedy than the Donner Party.
I need to get back to reading the memoirs. Sherman was truly a man of American history with his often, back water at the time, assignments before the Civil War.
re Think of Earth, not just your stomach, panel advises
"Idiots."
Amen to that.
People can only think that way because their ancestors have made the world comfortable for them.
Drop them in the Canadian bush, or the arid Southwest or a jungle somewhere and it would be interesting to see how concerned they are about the fragility of the world.
Hold on there, Sam! I'm making no value judgement here. Salon is just as MSNBC (adjective) as Slate or PuffHo. We could add The Nation, and Mother Jones. Choosing between any is a difficult choice.
Thanks for the link to the column by Spengler (aka David P. Goldman) on why Jews are good at money. He has some interesting ideas that I hadn't considered before, and I wouldn't have found his column otherwise. His column prompted me to think further about money and religion:
Winter's Tale:
Tracked: Feb 22, 09:52