Bob

I think you know what the answer to that question is when you're asking someone like cybercoma. He views government force as some sort of benevolent Robin Hood tool. If the government can raise as much money as it wants, whenever it wants, why not tax everyone at a rate of 100%? After all, it's a not-for-profit organization that can do as it pleases, right?

I certainly never equated the circumstances of Jews in today's Islamic Republic of Iran with those endured by the Jewish people under Nazi persecution. Your reading comprehension is not even on-par that of a high-school graduate. As usual, when you try to engage someone like myself in "debate", you reveal that you're completely out of your league.

I say what I mean and MLW regulars certainly don't need you to engage in some sort of warped leftist exegesis in order to interpret my statements for their benefit. When I say Islamist, I mean Islamist. When I say Islam, I mean Islam. When I say Muslim, I mean Muslim. I cannot be more clear than that. I grasp nuance and utilize it often. You are certainly in no position to be critiquing someone like myself of being ambiguous or unclear in writing, although of course that will not stop you from regularly and intentionally (or stupidly) mischaracterizing my statements. Leftists like yourself want to control what can and cannot be said, as you've demonstrated several times in other threads where you've alleged that "hate-crimes" are being committed on MLW by invoking a ridiculous section of the Human Rights Act of 1977 prohibiting electronic transmission of of messages that are "likely" to expose a person belonging to an identifiable group to "hatred and/or contempt". You're trying to bully this forum with not-so-subtle legal threats. You're trying to shut down discussion on MLW, your entire schtick is utterly despicable.

Reading comprehension isn't one of bud's strong points, apparently. You'd think he'd be better at it by now considering all the time he's spent around here.

I know you thought it was clear. My question was also clear, as well as equally irrelevant and meaningless and completely from left-field.

In other words, you are unable to substantiate your leftist rhetoric of "money equaling power". "It has to do with reality" doesn't qualify as a legitimate explanation or argument. So being able to "affect your life" to a greater extent than those with lower incomes than you translates to you being more "powerful" than them? I asked you a simple question, are you twice as powerful as a person with half your income/wealth? If not, what is the threshold of money/wealth where "power" begins to get ramped up? Without even realizing it, you're parroting bullshit from the communist playbook.

So basically, as a typical leftist, you're trying to threaten the system with violence if you don't get to steal what you want from others through "democracy". And with a cute smiley-face, as well. In other words, if we don't get what we (meaning you and your brand of avaricious leftists) want from those that we covet and resent, we will steal it through violence and coercion - like OWS rioters and G8/G20 "protesting" hooligans.

"Hate-speech" laws in Canada, as well as the broader West, are highly politicized and typically aren't apply to Islamists. Consider that the recent viral video of Emma West ranting about immigrants in London landed her in jail for "racially-aggravated assault" while three drunken Somalian ladies in the same place who viciously assaulted a woman while chanting "kill the white slag!" didn't spend one day in jail, as the judge accepted as a "mitigating factor" the "fact" that Muslims don't drink enough to know what to expect in terms of its effects. (non-flagged version) Another example of left-wing politicization - consider the fact that the "racist" tirade from Emma West is flagged by YouTube as "adult" material, while the vicious and genuinely racist assault by the Somalian third-worlders isn't. Unsurprising...

And nobody understands your original meaningless question - "What are your views on innocent Muslims?". Can you make it any more obvious that you don't grasp anything I'm saying? Our moderator, ladies and gentlemen....

The West's freedom and achievement began long before the beginnings of its contemporary involvement in the Middle East (see Roosevelt's initiation of America's modern relationship with Saudi Arabia and the development of ARAMCO years earlier). Good luck providing any legitimate narrative of the West's freedom and achievement being built on the back of oppressed Muslims". That's literally a Jihadist talking point, and the type of historical fantasy that one would expect to hear from the mouth of Nasrallah or Ahmedinejad. The relationship between the West and Muslim-majority countries is relatively mutual (they produce petroleum products and we buy them), but of course you want to perpetuate this false victim narrative that Islamist-apologists and their leftist allies (like yourself) love to tout - that somehow the Muslim-majority Middle East would've been a bastion of freedom and achievement had it only not been for the imaginary phantom of colonialism/imperialism/interventionism. It's a transparent attempt to deflect the responsibility for the dysfunction of the region on external forces, basically an infantile blame game. The reality is, of course, that the Muslim-majority Middle East has been one of the most resistant regions to foreign influence. It has been and remains quite immune to Western influence, and is very insulated by virtue of it's oppressive governments and rigid cultural/social/religious structure. Of course a leftist like yourself has this all upside down, as what the Muslim-majority Middle East needs is MORE Western influence, not less.

Actually, synagogues often request a security detail from some type of police because of regular threats of violence from the usual suspects - "passionate" Mohammedans. I know you know this, but I just wanted to point it out.

Reading straight from the Communist Manifesto, I see. First of all, the economy isn't meant to be democratic, it's meant to be a meritocracy. Politics, on the other hand, are meant to be democratic. Unfortunately, our political establishment has great control over the economy and is constantly seeking to increase the scope of its control. It's at the point where people think they can take whatever they want from whomever they want as long as they can get enough votes. That's not the kind of society I want to live in, unfortunately, leftists have done a good job of perpetuating these social/political/historical narratives that preach hatred and resentment against "the rich", asserting that they need to be cut down to size in order to usher in "social justice", always coming from an envious point of departure. As far as what can claim the most responsibility for the success of the West with respect to equal access to opportunity to succeed and become wealthy, it is certainly not socialistic policies as you're asserting. What built the West and continues to be its saving grace is it free market sphere. Free individuals associating freely, without being overencumbered by the heavy hand of the government. If your argument held any water (and it doesn't), then Cuba and North Korea would be bastions of success considering their increased equality of the distribution of wealth. You know, there's a flipside to the principle of freedom, and that's the dirty word leftists like you hate - responsibility. God forbid someone should fail as a consequence of the choices they make in life.

Well said. Completely true. Just another covetous leftist who resents success and achievement.

Money is power? They don't appear to be synonyms in my thesaurus. I must be missing something. Money, or the concentration of it, certainly does NOT translate to "power". That's just communistic rhetoric. If your opening statement equating money to power is true (and it isn't), then do you have twice as much "power" as a person earning half your income?

North Korea has pretty balanced income distribution. So does Cuba. Those countries have successfully addressed the phantom menace known as "income disparity" that leftists like you like to chase as if "income disparity" is some sort of social problem that requires correction through public policy. Nevermind that people whose incomes are in the bottom, say, 5% have a higher quality of life than their counterparts dide fifteen, twenty-five, and fifty years ago given the drops in costs for all sort of "essentials". No, that type of context is irrelevant because leftists want income equality ("social justice"?) NOW!

Wal-Mart is probably the greatest deflationary force in America and Canada today, and its held that position for many years now. On balance, it's probably impossible to advance an argument that Wal-Mart has had a negative impact on America and Canada beyond the benefits it's delivered (i.e. being the biggest party of the machinery increasing the trade deficit, while greatly reducing the costs of living for Americans). You seem to be inching close to typical leftist anti-Wal-Mart ("we hate greedy corporations!") rhetoric, invoking "business policies" that you disagree with and implying (incorrectly) that Wal-Mart systematically mistreats its employees - which is a particularly strange assertion when it's been demonstrated time and again that when compared with similar positions at comparable companies, like Target, Wal-Mart pays higher salaries and provides more value through benefits packages, as well as having higher rates of employee retention. Methinks you should stop watching Robert Greenwald videos.

What are your thoughts on the United Russia political party?

Who exactly is demonstrating an inability to have a dialogue? When Islamist filth (is that term too offensive for you when describing mass murderers, Michael Hardner?) perpetrate suicide bombings at religious ceremonies like Passover seders, teenagers partying on the weekends at discotheques and nightclubs, and break into homes and murder entire families including several-month-old infants up close and personal with knives, are they demonstrating an ability to have a dialogue? Perhaps we should be negotiating with such people, because in your myopic view, anybody who would commit such disgusting crimes must have a good reason, right? We must've done something really really really mean, right? You must've fainted from satisfaction when campaign-Obama in 2008 committed to speaking, without preconditions, to speaking Ahmedinejad, right? After all, "peace" at any cost is your religion.

You obviously don't much about either Islam or Judaism, or their sub-categories. Some of us aren't ignorant enough to be buying your Chamberlain-esque "moderation" (which in the world of the non-historically ignorant is described as appeasement) brand. Keep on trying to build those fantasy parallels between Judaism and Islam, and by natural extension Muslims and the Jewish people. You may actually fool someone, someday. You serve as one of MLW's examples of the leftist who engages in apologism for Islam/Islamism by deflecting from the conversation with irrelevant tangents and red herrings, and as I've already stated you and your ilk regularly try to draw false moral parallels and equivalencies between them and us (i.e. Judaism and Islam being "very similar"). You are the type who pulls out the predictable and expected Timothy McVeigh red herring, in an attempt to demonstrate the obvious - "not ALL terrorists are Muslims!", as if that somehow detracts from the threat of contemporary Islamic terrorism or minimizes the near-monopoly Islamism has on contemporary terrorism through mass murder. You're literally exhibit A or B in the museum of insider collaborators who through either malice or stupidity assist in ushering in the enemy. There's nothing an Islamist loves more than a voluntary assistant to do his political propaganda for him from the inside. Congratulations.

Islam is repugnant. It's a doctrine of conquest, rife with deep-seated hatred of the infidel (or kaffir), misogyny, and a desire to regulate every dimension of human behaviour through coercion and fear. Although not all self-professing Muslims subscribe to Islamism, there is a great deal of overlap between the two ideologies and their followers. I view contemporary Islamism (which many deeply religious Muslims see as one-in-the-same as Islam) as the greatest threat to Western civilization today, and it tends to operate hand-in-hand with leftist (socialists, communists, etc) who have formed a sort of perverted alliance through their shared contempt of what the West represents - freedom and achievement. Sometimes politics makes for strange bedfellows.

It's an infamous propaganda film that utilized "useful idiots", in this case the Red Cross, to demonstrate to the world that all the information about anti-Semitic practises implemented by The Nazis in Germany and Nazi-occupied territories were untrue. In other words, look how happy these Jews are working in Theresienstadt. Prior to the arrival of the useful idiots, the Nazis selected (via the Judenrat) persons who would be displayed in the propaganda video based on outward appearance of good health: typically those who were the newest arrivals who hadn't yet become as emaciated as their more tenured fellow prisoners. They were then made more presentable by being fed more adequately in the days and weeks leading up the arrival of the useful idiots. Most chillingly, they were coerced into compliance with promises of consequences (typically torture and execution) for themselves and their family should they refuse to cooperate with the filmmakers. It is understandable that you are not aware of this film, and the truth is I don't expect non-Jews to know such details of the Holocaust (least of all someone like yourself, in all honesty), but what dre is doing is parroting the propaganda lines from the Iranian government and other Islamist-supports and apologists. Essentially, he's doing the what the Red Cross did in this instance, volunteering to perpetuate propaganda to advance his false historical and political narrative. Here, he's echoing the "Jews have it pretty good" line from the Islamists and pointing to the "special Jewish representation" that the Jews in Iran "enjoy". This is exactly what Nazi supporters and sympathizers did with this video, where the Red Cross knowingly cooperated in the production of this propaganda. It's really vile, but the depths to which dre will stoop on MLW are something to behold. Luckily, I'm here to shine the light of disinfectant on this disease.

If I recall correctly, and I think that I do, you're also of the ilk to whom anti-Semitic conspiracy theories appeal. After all, you're an Alex Jones follower. Simple (and false) answers to complex questions appeal to simple people. So it's no surprise to anyone on MLW that the narrative of "the Jews did it!" resonates with someone like yourself. If not the Jews, then it's the globalists, the neo-cons, the Bilderberg group, the "banksters", or maybe even the Free Masons. Either way, it's always some shadow conspiracy group pulling the strings behind the scenes and pulling the wool over the eyes of the public. Thankfully, in this Matrix-type world of lies and deception, we have Alex Jones (Morpheus) and his fledgling redeemers like yourself (Neo, perhaps?) who will guide the rest of us ignorant masses to the light of emancipation.

Unsurprisingly, you like to frequent Ron Paul fanboy links, such as the uploader of the above video. A Ron Paul sympathizer like yourself should recognize that people of your brand are drawn to Paul because of his ambivalence towards Israel. You like the idea of an American president not giving a damn about Israel and its security challenges. Moreover, anti-Semitic narratives about global Jewish/Zionist control and manipulation appeal to you because they help reinforce your fantasy narrative of Israel (and by extension the Jewish people) being the centre of all the world's problems. The little blurb that pops up at the end of that video, accusing Gloria Borger as being a "liar", isn't entirely accurate. It doesn't take more than about ten seconds on the internet to find at least one of the documents she was referring to that raises suspicion of the Mossad being responsible for the 1993 WTC bombing. It's right here. Any cursory examination of Ron Paul fanboy sites, such as Ron Paul discussion forums or even dialogues on Ron Paul supporters' YouTube pages quickly reveals widespread subscription among these folks towards anti-Semitic narratives of Jewish/Zionist evil smoke-filled-room conspiracy theories. Pretty much the same filth that you spew regularly, bud.

Ron Paul has won the award for most frightening level of ignorance illustrated in a debate during this 2011 campaign. From his statement that Timothy McVeigh was dealt with well with a legal and enforcement structure pre-Patriot Act here, after which Gingrich lightly chastises him for this monumentally stupid statement... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hLI3AI9Ixs&feature=related ...to his inability to grasp the conflict between civil liberties/freedoms and security concerns, to his parroting of the Islamist narrative that mass murderers and other terrorists have legitimate grievances compelling them to undertake their crimes, to his conspiracy theorist leanings that there is "war propaganda" beating the drums to push more unnecessary conflict. Ron Paul is the the most frighteningly oblivious candidate, even if he does have some slightly redeeming qualities rooted in his distrust of increasing government encroachment and control over both the social and economic spheres of our lives in a general sense. Another observation I've made is that there is a sizeable segment of Ron Paul's following, and it can be seen on MLW, that subscribes to tenured anti-Semitic narratives of Jewish/Zionist control and manipulation of the masses. Essentially, a contemporary version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Contemporary iterations of this anti-Semitic narrative invariably allege manipulation of our governments and media via "the Jewish lobby" (also the title of a ridiculous and "academic" book parroting the same anti-Semitic narrative), neo-conservatism (allegedly a Jewish/Zionist ideology, mirroring the same allegations not too long ago about "Jewish Bolshevism"), and long lists of Jewish people in our governments, media, and corporate world - who apparently all think alike! Anyways, plenty of Ron Paul supporters suscribe to these ridiculous anti-Semitic mythologies. And as I just said, you can see in on this very forum.

No, they're not. Although this oppression isn't exclusively experienced by the Jewish segment of Iran, of course. Ordinary Iranians as well as other minorities (i.e. Bahais) have to endure the oppression that comes with living in a heavily controlled and religious state. Perhaps you should consider actually moving out of whatever bubble you live in and actually speak with Iranian/Persian ex-patriates - which you obviously have never done. As far as the Jewish experience in contemporary Iran, go speak with Persian Jews who were expelled, coerced, or otherwise intimidated into fleeing Iran in the years folliwing Israel's reestablishment or after the 1979 "Islamic Revolution", which amounted to over a hundred thousand. Most of them now live in LA, NYC, Miami, and Israel. Ask them what it's like to try and maintain communication with friends and/or family that remained in Iran, and what day-to-day life is like there. Yeah, the Soviet Union had similar guarantees of freedom and protection for minorities, including the Jewish people. Is that also considered evidence of Jews living the good life in the Soviet Union? My grandfather must've imagined the pogroms he told me about. I guess we all imagined Ahmedinejad talking about wiping Israel off of the map ("he was speaking metaphorically!"), hosting Holocaust denial propaganda fests ("it was a sincere historical review!"), and embracing anti-Zionistic fringe religious Jewish groups ("they're the *real* Jews!"). I guess we must've imagined finding Iranian Revolutonary Guard bodies in southern Lebanon among Hezbollah terrorists during the summer 2006 Israel/Hezbollah war, as well as Iranian weapons and equipment. I guess we must've imagined hearing Farsi on radio and mobile phone frequencies/spectrum during the same conflict providing logistics and intelligence to Hezbollah and other terrorists. I guess we must've imagined intercepting weapons shipments originating from Iran trying to be smuggled into Gaza. I guess Iran hasn't been funding terrorism since its "Islamic revolution" against Israeli/Jewish and American/Western interests, most notably the two bombings in Buenous Aires in the nineties. I guess the 150-200 hundred thousand Jews that fled Iran during its two major exoduses was also a figment of history's imagination. Yeah, that must be it... Alice in Wonderland, or something like that.... Still parroting the propaganda narrative of the enemy, dre is, as the disciplined anti-Semitic worker bee he has commmitted himself to being on MLW. Dre's ideological ancestors would've been in the metaphorical online discussion forum (in the streets) in 1943 displaying the "evidence" that Jews were in fact being treated well in Tereizenstadt with this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7220829978743875704&q=The+Fuhrer+gives+the+jews+a+city&total=3&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1# See? Things are fine for the Jews! Stay vile, dre, stay vile.