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This week in Islam devoted Muslims signified their peaceful nature and the respect they hold for those who worship in other ways by bombing churches and murdering priests and worshipers on Palm Sunday. http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/09/middleeast/egypt-church-explosion/

Thanks God, modern democracies keep army idiots under a leash. Otherwise, these idiots would be running around mindlessly destroying other countries in the name of nationalism.

I don't know where to put this topic.....I suppose it can turn into a philosophical discussion, too. This was inspired by an argument in Support section ("MLW" thread). Have you put someone on ignore? Why? What are the pro(s) and con(s) of having someone on ignore? When you've put someone on ignore, do you really follow through? No peeking? ---------------------------------- Yes, I've put a few folks on ignore at some time.....but I've taken them off it, too. The reason was due to senseless posts and name-callings (which were distracting), and the thread was spiralling down. I've taken them out after a "cooling" period ........the cooling was for me! I hardly put anyone on ignore. They really, really have to be so obnoxious - even then, I think I'll never put anyone there again, because there is a downside to putting someone on ignore. When I put someone on ignore, I'm "out-of-the-loop" in a way with how the discussion is going. If others are responding and debating with him - especially if it's a subject you're very much interested about - you are missing parts of it. Some folks responding to an obnoxious poster may have very effective, tactful smack downs....... and sometimes they're hilarious. I've seen some here and chuckled as I read from the sidelines.

Gilmore hammers all weapons system procurement programs...that is his job as independent evaluator for DoD and Congress. He "didn't like" the F-22 Raptor or P-8 Poseidon either, but both aircraft are now in service.

The analogy would only work if you lived in the first neighborhood. If, however, you lived in another city, and this second, much worse group, had been operating for many years and you ignored them and continued to focus on the first, people would wonder why. Unless of course, you have personal involvement in that neighborhood. And even then it's a false analogy since there are lots of gangs in that neighborhood and all of them are worse than then one that you are obsessed with. They simply lack the power to project their brutality as they would wish. You miss the point. There have been a few cases where the IDF used ARABS as shields from attack. Do you comprehend the difference in using your own people to shield you from an enemy and using the enemy's people to shield you? Hamas if showing explicitly, that they know Israel doesn't want to harm civilians. Even ENEMY civilians. Hamas, of course, has no such concerns, even about THEIR OWN civilians.

Yes any man or a women must be an idiot to serve this nation, to answer the call when ever needed. Be it the defense of this nation or it's foreign policy, be it in time of need such as search and rescue, fighting forest fires, floods, or ice storms.....we are the idiots that have never once in our recorded history, failed to come to your aid....we are the same idiots that have died in the thousands to earn the freedoms we have now, we are the idiots that gave birth to this nation on Vimy ridge......We are the same idiots that come from average Canadian families, who are your fathers , mothers, brothers , sisters, aunts. uncles, cousins, friends.....every Canadian knows at least one of us idiots....every town or village has constructed memorials to the idiot citizens that have answered our nations call, everyone of those idiots have their names carved in stone.....for their sacrifice....where is your named carved..... What is sad is today, like yesterday the a lot of Canadians think those veil, disgusting, uncouth, Idiots should be kept in a glass jar, with a huge sign that reads break only in case of emergency..... Not sure what your afraid of, but then again they say you you fear what you know nothing about.....you blame them for all your troubles because once again you know nothing about them....perhaps your jealous, or envious i'm not really sure..... Members in our military walk among us everyday, they are law abiding citizens just like you and me, they love hockey , and everything about Canada.....they pay the same rate of taxes as you and me, they get to vote just like you and me. they have families,children and even friends, go figure, they are Canadian just like you and me.............they have a great interest in how our country is run.....and in return We ask them to forego many of the freedoms me and you have, we ask them to travel to the worlds shit holes and support our nations foreign policies, we ask them to live in conditions not fit for a rat, we ask them to do carry out violence if necessary on our behalf, we ask them to unconditional lay their lives down if necessary ....we ask a lot of these idiots....one would have to ask what is it that you do that puts yourself above these men and women, what is it that you do that gives you the right to judge them as idiots....because in the end we are all the same, Canadians.....but that means nothing to you does it.... Most Canadians such as your self would be hard press to list what our military does for you on a day to day basis.....this is their thanks you have bestowed upon them ...."Thanks God, modern democracies keep army idiots under a leash." because our military has shown time after time again , that it makes lousy foreign policy decisions here in Canada, that we secretively run this nation, that we have a proven record of taken part in coups within our own nation, justing discourse, that we continued to do things that have eroded your trust....Perhaps i may be wrong, it is the Canadian military we are talking about is it not..... I know that you have not taken this course yet, however our nations military is a form of diplomacy that our elected politicians have at their disposal....we don't do anything unless directed by those elected officials... No need to fear our military.....we are not idiots or monsters, you paint us to be....we are Canadians....

What about those who every second word is Mufti or as their viewpoint runs parallel to yours their zealotry is OK with you? This is how you become insular in your ideological bubble. I don't even have our "6 deg of Uncle Sam" contributor on ignore even though I strongly suspect they are an intentional traffic generator on this site. I occasionally see some informative data that I may miss otherwise.

You don't seem to get the fallacy in the comparison. Your attempt to try to shut down criticism of Israel is not going to work. Here is an analogy for you: There is a gang of really abusive group (Israel), who has been reeking havoc in a neighbourhood (Palestine). They control everything that happens in that neighbourhood. They're well armed and they abuse whoever they please in this neighbourhood. They kill and dispossess people's property with impunity. This blatant abuse is reported to the police, however, nothing is ever done, because the police commissioner (U.S.) and some of the top cops are bought out by this gang. After many years of this abuse, in another part of the city, along comes a fresh new gang, who begins abusing the people in its neighbourhood. This gang's tactics are much more vicious. Then, the next time someone comes to complain and report the original gang which has been abusing the people in its neighbourhood, a few apologists start complaining that people should not be reporting this gang, because there is another gang, somewhere else, who seems to be using more gruesome tactics. I point out to the fact that something has not been proven and you comeback with that? How about you let me know the next time I point a finger without evidence, instead of firing blanks and whining. Fact remains that there has been no evidence that Assad carried out the 2013 and the latest chemical attacks. In fact, the 2013 attack was investigated and the UN reported that there was evidence that they were carried out by foreign backed rebels. I recommend you read this article, which is about the UN commission which investigated the chemical attack in 2013. I think you should make an effort to inform yourself about a topic, before you start typing about it. At the same time, I can show you several UN reports where there is clear evidence that Israel used men and children as human shields. But who cares about that, right? It's much simpler to parrot the tired, old, b.s. to try to excuse the slaughtering of Palestinians by Israel. Just a reminder: The Israeli high court who ruled that the IDF should not use civilians as human shields. Of course, the IDF continued to do it after this ban, as reported by several international reports and seen continuously in many videos, which have become a major problem in the narrative Israel wants to sell the world.

Trudeau wants to bring in more Syrian and another refugees into Canada. This guy just wants to screw up everything with his bring them all in attitude. We will find a hole for you, somewhere, and Canadians can take care of you. The liberal dumbness of it all is quite deplorable indeed.

Agreed. Especially when our missiles have killed some of their relatives. And some of them will remember it even when they move to our country.

And this is the only reason Syria was attacked: (Just replace Obama with Trump and Libya/Iran with Syria)... What an asshole...

Conflicting messages???

So this week the religion of peace sent a warrior to attack the godless heathens of Sweden who have been so brutal and vicious in attacking and oppressing Muslim peoples of the middle east. Everyone knows how cruel Sweden has been to the world's Muslims and caused all manner of upheaval with their constant military aggression, so the least the world's Muslims could do was ram a truck into a bunch of them to teach them a lesson. Someone noted that Japan doesn't have to worry about such things because it doesn't use military aggression against the Arab world. I would counter by suggesting it was because unlike Sweden, Japan doesn't let Muslims in without a very, very good reason. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/08/suspect-arrested-stockholm-attack-likely-truck-hijacker/

Agreed on this. There is someone else who benefits as well. This illegal military attack is to salvage Trump's own flailing presidency, distract from his own corrupt operations, sell and send more arms to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and all their GCC puppets, while on the domestic front dismantling any meager resistance the corrupt Democrats were willing to put up preventing a legal Neanderthal like Neil Gorsuch appointed to the US Supreme Court --all of that at the criminal cost of more death and destruction in Syria.

Yes. UN isn't doing what it's supposed to do. But that doesn't mean US has the right to take an initiative unilaterally. It's like if police doesn't help you what you perceive to be is right, you pick a gun and start doing your perceived "right" thing on your own.

I am really trying to understand you. It seems like you genuinely think that US military inventions around the world are for good cause. I, like many others, think that it isn't the case. US military interventions are perceived by international community as either a way to promote its arms industry or expand its political influence. The question is not that who would save the world, US or Canada. Question is : Will US or Canada or any self righteous country spare the world and not take any military actions on its own without consulting other powers.

Not that US has achieved anything. Assad is still there. Probably a few of his soldiers died. It would be much more impactful if there was a global consensus to take action against Assad. US, acting as a hegemon and taking actions single handedly, just sends the wrong message to rest of the world.

OTOH = On the other hand... Defining bad actors isn't the job of Americans. Bad is a relative term and Americans, Chinese and Russians have varying opinion on the definition. If you are going to allow every powerful country to take action against the bad actors according to their definition, there will be many unjust wars. It would be better to go through UN in order to have a consensus against a bad actor and a mutual agreement should be reached before taking unilateral actions.

US has no right to attack Iraq or Syria. Why does US even try to act as if she has an exclusivity of defining humanity or responsibility to save the world. What they have done in Vietnam or Hiroshima (just two examples of many), I would say our world would be a much better place if US abstains from intervening in other countries' affairs. In that sense, I like Trump's America First approach. Only that he is doing exactly opposite of that by attacking Syria.

Then they should release that information to the public.

Cool, now if only you could deal with that pesky thing called evidence.

Cause that approach has been working so well the past 15 years...

Yes... Assad's the madman. Not the crazy organ-eating fighters of ISIS who kill basically all non-Sunni muslims and will happily blow themselves up so they can get their 72 virgins. I don't buy it. But if you have evidence beyond just blindly believing Western propaganda then please present it.

Yes. Now prove the Syrian government did it. I'm not disputing that chemical weapons were used. I just don't know who they were used by, and I see no good evidence to conclude that Assad did it.

I don't care what the 'consensus' is. Show me the evidence. Prove Syria did it and not the 'rebels'.

Here's a question: What incentive would Assad or the Syrian army have to use chemical weapons? And why did they wait so many years before using them? Which group benefits the most from using chemical weapons? Assad and the Syrian army? Or the 'moderate rebels'?

USA has made lots of nonsense claims in the past such as Sadam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction. I think the intelligence community is littered with confirmation bias, making it unreliable.

How do we know Assad did the gas attack and not the 'moderate rebels'? Where is the evidence?

I should mention that I'm glad you are so concerned about the well-being of the Syrians. I'm sure the next time Canada decides to bring in refugees from there, you will fully support the decision.

It makes it utterly fatuous and insane. Or to quote Douglas Murray, who is gay. "I wish those protesting the pope for not allowing me to marry would reserve their ire for those who want to throw me off a cliff." Right. And if I choose to concern myself with hungry cats instead of starving children, no one will think that odd, right? The Syrians and their Russian partners are gassing children but your concern is what the "Zionists" are up to. Why? No concern for the abuse of human rights would focus on such a vastly lessor transgressor while remaining mute on such things. And yet, no other reason makes the slightest degree of sense.

...while children contaminated with sarin gasp for air...and die on camera...in states with some concerns. Now...had Israel done that..."whadabout"...

The endgame is simple: the destruction of the West.

All I can say is thank you universe for Trump. THANK YOU x infinity. Thank you for saving the good hearted people of the world for a little longer.

Lies. I got assaulted once and suffered a concussion. No military came to my aid then. Then you didn't do a very good job of it since we don't even have freedom of speech in Canada.

Your use of this thread to attack Israel's right to exist is again manifested. The m.o. of these threads starting with one subject and then switching gear to try question the right of Israel to exist is loud and its blatant. The issue was about some mentally ill person being arrested in Israel for making death threats. You have chosen to use it to launch into an anti Zionist tirade which Argus responded to. It was in fact you who chose to initiate the comparison in the first place-but hey you actually take responsibility for your role on this thread or any other and admit what your agenda is? Tell me other than question Israel's right to exist what do you write on this forum? What do your latest words have to do with the topic?

Compared to what's happening in Syria, in Iraq and Yemen, in South Sudan, in North Korea, in Mali and Nigeria and other places - it IS the equivalent of hungry cats. When have you EVER required the slightest evidence, let alone proof, to point fingers at Israel? Were you snickering when you wrote that? Given your incredibly one-sided expositions about Israel, which have been so one-sided they could have been written by the UN's human rights council, you are really in no position to make such an allegation against anyone at all. Horrific? There are death camps in North Korea. Syria is gassing children. South Sudan is using starvation as a weapon. ISIS are taking children as sex slaves, buying and selling them on slave markets. Horrific? Has Israel established a slave trading system? Does Israel behead opposition figures like Saudi Arabia does, or hang them the way Iran does? Horrific? Let me explain the moral bankruptcy of your position. Even the UN, as one-sided as they are, have stated that Hamas uses children as human shields. Now think about that for a moment. They are using their own civilians as human shields because they know the hated Jews, who they say are descended from pigs and monkeys, will hesitate to kill them. Can you imagine the IDF herding Jewish kids out in front of them in hopes this would prevent Hamas from opening fire? The idea is laughable. Hamas would be delighted to kill Jewish kids, as they've demonstrated often enough in the past. So Hamas is itself showing that Israel is on a higher moral plateau than they are themselves. During the last dustup between them, it was pointed out by you and yours how one-sided the casualties are, as if this was a demonstration of Israel's evil. But one of the reasons the casualties were one-sided is because Israel has taken great pains to shield its civilians, to build bomb shelters for them, while Hamas has actually located itself AMONG its civilians in order to increase the death toll so people like you would get more indignant about how one sided it was. So who is on the higher moral plateau there? *I believe it was Sam Harris I heard pointing this out but could be wrong.

It's your opinion that Israel's systematic abuse of the Palestinians and human rights violations for the past 6+ decades is equivalent to hungry cats. First of all, you are quick to point fingers at Syrians + Russians, without any proof. Because that's how you roll. You lack the sophistication and judgement to look outside of the box and instead, you have chosen to "pick a team" and echo whatever that you are told to repeat. So your whole premise of your argument starts clumsily. Regardless of "who done it", the horrifying scenes we have been witnessing from Syria is just that. It is some of the most brutal things I have seen in my lifetime. I can at least say that my country has very little involvement in the cluster fuck which Syria has turned into. They have not supported any of the sides involved (yet), including the Syrian government, the Russians, the rebels, the Wahabi mercenaries, like ISIS. and other terrorist groups. I speak against the situation in Syria when I can and would pressure on my government if they supported any side that has created the situation. On the other hand, the situation in Palestine has been going on for decades. Many decades before Syria. Not only that, but we are able to see only one side of who people are on this forum. If someone comes into this forum and starts excusing any of these horrific acts being committed in Syria, I would be more than happy to speak out. Thankfully, there aren't any idiots who are defending the crimes against the people in Syria. On the other hand, there are a handful of people who try to defend the horrific treatment of Palestinians by the "Zionists" on this forum. Your comparison and attempt to create a connection between the situations in Syria and Palestine is illogical. and irrational. It;s a weak attempt at shutting down conversation that will not work.

The electoral college has strayed from the framer's intent causing a failed democratic republic. If the framers intended for popular vote in a state to be their view of a representative republic , they would never have created congressional districts. The only 2 states that remotely follow the framer's intent are Nebraska and Maine which allocate EC votes proportional to the votes of the people. Americans have a very short memory. Remember the last time you made a guy president who didn’t win the most votes.? 911,,,Iraq war disaster, Torture, financial crash. That's what happens when you subvert the will of the people.

Who is the more ardent racist?

Certainly not all, but there are lots of them out there. And they always seem to rally around the conservatives.

That unspeakable truth that can't be spoken is all substantiated by fact.

The sky is not falling, blackbird, despite all of Conrad's wacky notions. Think for a second. It just doesn't make any sense what you guys are saying. It is just right wing extremism that has been watered by right wing media.

Oh look. It's the "what about..." argument. Just because people choose to protest against one thing rather than another, similar, thing does not invalidate their protest. If I choose to protest against, or boycott Israel then that's my choice. I don't have to protest or boycott every state with which I have some concerns. Different people have different priorities. My parents chose to boycott apartheid South Africa in the seventies, but that protest was not invalidated because they did not boycott every state with which had some issues. You do what you feel is right, and what you feel is likely to be effective. Regarding Israel - I am very critical of much of what the state does. This reflects on my attitude to the citizens that elected the government. In no way does religion enter into my critical view. The fact that it is a Jewish state is entirely irrelevant.

I would go with O'Leary. Too many career politician idiots on the podium. Bernier is a dolt. He can't figure out how to use his zipper is let alone a budget. I would vote for Bonnie Raitt not Lisa Raitt. You gonna play a tune it aint with Lisa.

Probably. But the time has come to shit or get off the pot. 5 yrs now, 500,000 dead half mil are now refugees. Where is the UN, trying to figure out a way to criticize Israel for it.Also time to gut the UN and put people from the west into the top positions and get the place cleaned up. The dictators of the world have ruined the place.

Looking back now at this post its clear PIK called Trump. The timing of his post and the decision to send in the Tomahawks..on Friday, was it coincidence?

We assume there was no evidence to be had. Satellite surveillance isn't something we are generally privy to. I'm sure the sight of children gasping and dying from sarin in front of the cameras had some effect. Trump is human. Do you think the entire population of Syria should be allowed into North America and then have their upkeep taken care of by taxpayers forever and ever? Me neither... Let's keep the "war-weary" over in the Middle East...much closer to their homes.

Conflicting messages....yes because the US is the only one with conflicting messages in today's world...there is no conflicting messages at least from where i am sitting .....The US has every right to set the conditions as to who, is allowed to visit, stay, or apply for immigration, it is not up to the UN or the rest of the world, it is up to the elected government of the US, ..and it can change this at any time for any reason....Where is the Middle East on this issue....Where are the Muslim countries on this issue.....where is the rest of the world on this issue......they have all hoisted the big FU flag.....no muslims allowed......That's not racist is it, do they get the same treatment in our media, shit that would be a clear violation of the islamophobia act.....wouldn't it ...... I'm just guessing here but i'm sure there are not to many Americans losing any sleep over WTF you think of what ever message they are sending out, they want you to hear it....but they don't care what you think..... Must be taking the same classes as the other guy, not so hot.....

That's just straight up nonsense. Of course not, I've heard it all before a thousand times. Well the solution is bloody obvious, round up all the lefties and atheists and tell them to convert or kill them, you honestly think that asshole up in heaven is going to give a rats furry ass? Okay so put up or shut up. God helps those who help themselves or so I'm told so start doing something proactive about us God-damned lefties and cleanse the abomination once and for all.