Sir Bandelot

Oh yeah? Well faux you too

Thank you for pointing that out. I forgot this thread is about actually making sense. My bad

The problem with Islam is not the religion in itself, or in the writings of a book, it's about who holds power. In Islamic countries there is a class of people who believe that they are authorized to carry out God's will. In other words, that they have the right to directly punish anyone who does not adhere to Islamic practices. They believe that they represent God, they are the spokesman and in essence the very hand of God. It's not a problem in religious belief per se, but in the belief that the Imams, the Ayatollahs, the religious leaders, have a right to carry out God's will. In order for Islam to reform, power needs to be taken away from these people. That is what really needs to be changed, power needs to be removed from the religious authorities. More specifically, the power to carry out punishments based on religious beliefs. Islam itself does not need to be attacked or put down. It is theocracy that is at the root of the problem. Specifically, the idea that man is obligated to carry out vengeance in the name of the Lord. We can point to other Islamic countries where there is no theocratic rule, and see a model for healthy, living Islam. For us this relates back to a time when theocracy ruled western civilization, we can look back at our own history and see what took place. Many people were put to the death. That dark time was possibly even worse, than the Islamic theocracy we see in the world today. At some point in our past we removed the power of the priests to enact Gods authority. This is based on the concept "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord". That belief is ancient, but it did not stop us from creating a harsh theocracy in our own civilization, one that lasted for centuries, until we finally embraced the real meaning of our own religious thought. We chose to leave judgment to God, recognizing we are all imperfect, that none of us has the right to cast the first stone. So for Islam to reform, what its followers need to do is become more Islamic.

Oh oh, a yankee fight! Get out the popcorn...

There's no "Anarco-Syndicalist Communist"...

I don't think the OP is a bigot. Israel is just another country, and like any other deserves criticism for its flaws. These people are trying to do that in a non-violent way, so I think it's ok. Israelis who are protesting certain actions taken by their own government are trying to make Israel a better and more fair country. That's part of how it should be done, and they have the right to do it. More than that, they are obliged to do it, and so are we. Any citizen gets the country they deserve.

Well since you've resurrected it, I thought about this one a while ago. I like the jazzy intros that were in style in that era, even as a little kid. The sort of big-band sound, with the horn section, radical beats and disonnant harmonies. Some other intros from that time in a similar style were already mentioned in this thread, like "Mission Impossible", "Hawaii 5-0".

That would be a tremendously honest thing to dom but i doubt it will happen. For the other dancers, a lesson in reality.

I think it's much simpler than that- We are Devo

I disagree, and I'll tell you why. You know how many people there are in my shanty-town, who are substance abusers of some kind, either alcoholics or hash hounds of some sort? And they have kids. Because of their substance abuse they neglect their obligations to family, they have poor jobs with minimal income, they live ina dirty run down shack. Those kids grow up generally neglected. They are ignored by their own parents who live in squalor and like to get high. For most of these kids, their fate is sealed. And there is not a damn thing anyone can do about it. So I am not for legalization, but decrim and work harder at rehabilitation. The courts should have ore options besides criminal record and jail time. That only puts the drug user deeper into the hole they've dug themselves into. And honestly, you right wingers who oppose decrim, which of you has never had a drink after a hard days work? Or your mom was on valiums for depression, for years. Why should anyone go to jail, just because they're having problems.

Incorrect. I am talkng about the past, Bubo. Hint- READ FINAL SENTENCE

Give it time, and remove all conservative opposition and barriers, and it will eventually happen. It always begins in the realm of comedy. By making "jokes" about pedophilia to break down the general feeling of disgust, get people to laugh about it, to drop their inhibitions. Then it advances by incrementalism, one by one the traditions based on ancient wisdom fall, and all the iniquities they are intended to prevent consequently released. The final conclusion of unrestrained liberalism is a degenerate society of hedonists, neurotics, drug abusers, sexual deviants, rampant disease and finally, cancer. But fear not, in such as disastrous collapse of civilization the end would only come swiftly. For reading of further interest see "Fall of the Roman Empire"...

Sentence one and sentence two in my post are both liberal attitudes. No contradiction there, that I can see.

= Basura Liberals have expanded the definition of bigotry to include, practically anything that involves a value judgement on other peoples personal choices or lifestyles. There is no right or wrong way to live. Leftist liberal means, leftist degenerate.

Oh by the way, I didn't mention it earlier but I live less than 30 minutes from the Bay of Quinte. So there you go... six degrees or whatever

Oh come on. Thread appreciated. At least for its comical left-wing self loathing/ soul purging value...

We should allow anyone to speak at our universities, including Blatchford and the chick from United States. Also people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, and Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Give them all a megaphone.

It doesn't, really. It shows that people want to do this, for a variety of reasons we can get into. But main point is, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to stop it. Ok, so let's discuss the best ways to achieve that. My view is that a criminal record, something that a person carries around with them for the rest of their life, is more destructive than the drug problem in itself. In our society today these are essentially life sentences, despite being two-years-less-a-day.

A Bio forum? Yech. What next, some kind of "Self-Help" thread, where bleeding heart leftists can confess about their shameful sins, and feel less guilty?

Yeah they were not nice, even to each other. I saw it on "Dances with Wolves"...

Absolutely, this is a grotesque oversimplification of the problem with homelessness. Mental illness is a major factor in most cases. You can offer them all the work incentive you want, but in a lot of cases their minds are depressed and traumatized. Some of them have suffered through a personal tragedy that led them to the point where they've given up on living in normal society. In order to fix anything you've got to address that issue, and that's where I suspect the real cost comes in.

I was thinking the same thing. Boom. Clearly many of us do not understand the intended meaning of these tales of old, and interpret them fundamentally.

Not really, that would be a good thing to change, if it existed. But they might achieve sharia law as part of the official legal system. And they could do it entirely by legal means. By getting their representatives democratically elected. First step would be to create unified communities, where the vast majority are like-minded. Then elect a few MP's...

BINGO. Until they change the law...

If you read my earlier post you'd see what I was talking about. Liberalism and conservatism is a personal choice, and most of us are composites that include one and the other. Society generally sways from lening towards one, then as problems begin to arise, toward the other. Extremism is the problem, on either side. And what I said was, we are now swinging away from a culturally liberal period that more or less peaked in the 1980's and is now in decline. Don't forget this is "philosophy". The evidence is all around you. Even our "liberal" leaders are conservative now. Liberalism shall soon enough be known as "the L word"... (in case you can't tell, that's a joke)