Make sure you let all your legit Hebrew pals know how diligent you are in minimizing islamist atrocities.
That will go over like gang-busters there.
Not sure you're aware of this (who am I kidding, of course you're not), but in Israel, they allow something called "free speech". It's a small community of people who don't try the stupid tactics of misconstruing what people say because they're too stupid to know the difference between hype and reality.
Yes, since Israelis deal with life and death, they try to minimize both the atrocities that would happen to them and the casualties that they might inflict on war. But of course, you are the typical American buffoon who rushes to use the word "minimize" not in reference to actual, physical acts (as I did), but in reference to the way they would be hyped.
That says something about you.
People for whom violence is a fact of life, and yet value life, do try to minimize casualties both to themselves and to others.
You apparently missed your calling: working for a tabloid.
alpha: "It's a small community of people who don't try the stupid tactics of misconstruing what people say because they're too stupid to know the difference between hype and reality."
LOL
Are they the type of community that includes people like you who simply make up quotes out of whole cloth?
also, make sure your Israeli pals are fully up to speed on the "American equivalent of the Taliban" body-count for the week.
Israelis don't mind using evangelicals and other oblivious conservatives for what they perceive to be their own political ends. But the difference between you and them is that they know they are using you. You don't realize that you are just being used. Unless you really buy into the belief that we need an apocalypse to occur (which would, according to the belief, require the deaths of most Jews in the world and of course in Israel). In which case it's hard to say who's being more cynical.
It's a cynical relationship, and needs to be made more healthy.
alpha: "Israelis don't mind using evangelicals and other oblivious conservatives for what they perceive to be their own political ends."
LOL
We are all motivated by our own perceived interests.
If, by chance, groups that might not necessarily agree on a range of issues find that their interests happen to be aligned on a particular issue, they will naturally pursue those interests.
That doesn't mean they advance policies to essentially ignore those realities, like you do!
alpha: "....and the casualties that they might inflict on war."
According to the left worldwide, this is a lie.
How do you reconcile this obvious truth with the even more obvious truth that your leftist pals say this is a lie?
LOL
Of course, you can't.
Wherein Drac indulges his wet dream of a belief that Israel has no political left or powerful center, the former of which not only built the country, but provided amply to some of its most respected defense ministers and prime ministers.
Is it possible for you to stop being a joke for even one minute? No Israeli would argue with what I'm saying. But then, they generally know the difference between politics and fact-free, religious beliefs, unlike you.
Says the guy calling us the "American version of the Taliban"!!
Conservatives are conservative everywhere.
Just because you lucked out on having a "tradition" that was brought to you by people influenced by liberals like Locke and Montesquieu, doesn't mean that you yourself are still incapable of pondering the meaning of and need for change.
Which makes you like a Taliban. You just have the "virtue" (not that you chose it) of being born in a country with a less barbaric tradition to fall back upon.
alpha is having a very difficult reconciling his alignment with the George Galloway's of the world so he is forced to create a fantasy world wherein the international left, which is almost universally aligned against Israel, is not really against Israel.
alpha, why don't you check in with all those Israeli graduate students who want to pursue their advanced degrees in universities in Europe and elsewhere and are being turned down due to their nationality alone?
LOL
Sorry, too much reality for you.
Go back to pretending that the left in Europe and the US is really on the Israeli's side.
Locke was adamantly opposed to encroachment on the individual by the state.
In what sense? This is boilerplate unless you can provide actual examples.
Historians call your imposition of presentist ideas on what Locke stood for illegitimate.
You desire the superstate.
LOL
Locke saw the state as merely a means, as do I.
"liberal" vs "Liberal" flummoxes alpha, regardless of what time zone he's in.
A distinction important only to American pundits.
Be careful alpha, Locke was big on private property rights.
And a lot of other things that you don't care about.
You're not exactly aligned with him!
You're pretty much diametrically opposed to him. He was the opposite of conservative. For every one thing between which you could say that he and I differ (the passage of time has a way of corrupting purity, imagine that) I could find a whole host of things that you differ with him on. He's not your conservative, I hate to tell you. But then, "conservatism" in America does not have the legitimacy given to it by actual "nations" founded on ethnicity that you admire so much.
The closest America can come up with instead, is the pseudoconservatism that Hofstadter wrote about. And its paranoid style. Which is why the right is in crisis.
But, the reality is that he is a man fully of the left.
If you can find one thing Galloway says with which I'd agree (not that I find his statements coherent enough generally to find a clear sense of agreement or disagreement anyway), I will gladly buy you a shwarama and a beer.
Look whos questioning the "Israeli-ness" of an Israeli now.
No. I am merely acknowledging the widely observed fact that a good number of immigrants to Israel are American. Their accents don't exactly win them the admiration of other Israelis. And I couldn't care less, other than to let you know that a Texan who moves to the Middle East might find it endearing and natural to add "y'all" to their adopted greeting.
Which side is it that believes the George HW Bush flew an SR-71 to the ME in order to arrange for the Iranians to continue to hold the US hostages until after the US election of 1980?
LOL
The side of "LIHOP/MIHOP" is lecturing others on "paranoid" style.
The ends you envision and how you desire to use the state as a means compared to Locke are a universe apart.
Yes, yes I know.
This time when the leftist revolution comes it will all be different because...because...ME!
You are standard issue lefty right out of central casting.
It might surprise you to know that Locke lived before the industrial revolution, and the economic landscape that it brought about. Therefore, it's stupid to pretend that he had a timeless and pure understanding or philosophy of what "liberal" economics would look like.
But I guess you are opposed to considering the passage of time and other civilizational milestones when it comes to understanding ideology or philosophy. Which must be nice.
alpha: "And I couldn't care less, other than to let you know that a Texan who moves to the Middle East might find it endearing and natural to add "y'all" to their adopted greeting."
LOL
I don't think you understand.
Big surprise.
This fellow was an Israeli.
He didn't speak English very well. Much of what we spoke about was translated for him by my hosts.
But hey, it takes a special smug American like yourself to assert that a fellow like that isn't an Israeli or was an immigrant from the US!
Actually, when it comes to redistribution, I'm more Adam Smith than John Locke.
"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion"
But then, Adam Smith did have the advantage of being a hundred years further along and closer to the advent of the industrial revolution than did Locke. Also, he thought more about economics in itself.
But hey, it takes a special smug American like yourself to assert that a fellow like that isn't an Israeli or was an immigrant from the US!
I asserted no such thing. I posed it as a possibility. As I did the same possibility that you raise.
But people like you do not understand the difference between considering two different possibilities and making assertions. That's life in Draco's black-and-white world, for you.
Locke would be all for the all powerful state that alpha envisions!
LOL
The things you have to tell yourself.
Drago - stop being an asshole. I'm putting Locke into context. I know you hate context, but it makes it possible for one's life to reconcile idealism with reality. Which really upsets you, much as every other decent and intelligent person finds it necessary.
alpha: "Drago - stop being an asshole. I'm putting Locke into context"
No, you're not.
You're absconding with a classical liberal and his philosophy and trying to twist it in order to buttress your case for an ever increasing state power over the individual.
alpha: "I know you hate context, but it makes it possible for one's life to reconcile idealism with reality. Which really upsets you, much as every other decent and intelligent person finds it necessary."
Says the guy who can't face the reality that he is aligned politically with the Galloways of the world.
Of course, alpha will argue that even if he and Galloway do agree on some matters of policy that in no ways means alpha and Galloway are in agreement with all matters, such as Israel.
The REALITY is that even though you believe that to be true, it is your side that is providing aid and comfort to Galloway and his like.
And that is a reality that you seem to be having a real problem addressing.
Nice assertion. That kind of confidence must a great way of convincing yourself that you're never wrong, mustn't it?
You're absconding with a classical liberal and his philosophy and trying to twist it in order to buttress your case for an ever increasing state power over the individual.
Great. So then you are also berating Adam Smith on account of your allegation of his desire for "an ever increasing state power over the individual". Which is as ridiculous as it is illogical (should I expect less?). What philosophical tradition did he claim?
In any event, if you want to deviate from Smith to claim that Locke had a better handle on economics than him, be my guest. That must be one hell of a pretzel for a conservative to twist himself into.
Says the guy who can't face the reality that he is aligned politically with the Galloways of the world.
Of course, alpha will argue that even if he and Galloway do agree on some matters of policy that in no ways means alpha and Galloway are in agreement with all matters, such as Israel.
Galloway and I "agree" on exactly nothing that I know of. I even challenged you to find a single position of his for me to disagree or agree to, which you neglected to do, as dishonorable a debater as you are.
But since you are as conservative as the Taliban, instead of dealing rationally with these realities, you retreat back into your black-and-white understanding of the world and refuse to debate intelligently in any way, shape or form.
Good job. I heard the Taliban aren't very good debaters, either.
"You'd think Islam would have a protection money tradition like other organized crime arrangements."
They do. It's called the jizyah. When the infidels are not under islamic domination as dhimmis, it takes the form of terroristic threats and demands for ransom.
So Christians burned the Library of Alexandria? As I recall it, it went more like:
Early in the year A. D. 642, Alexandria surrendered to Amrou, the Islamic general leading the armies of Omar, Caliph of Baghdad. Long one of the most important cities of the ancient world and capital of Byzantine Egypt, Alexandria surrendered only after a long siege and attempts to rescue the city by the Byzantines. On the orders of Omar, Caliph of Baghdad, the entire collection of books (except for the works of Aristotle) stored at the Library of Alexandria were removed and used as fuel to heat water for the city's public baths.
Perhaps there is some confusion because:
This is not the first time the library was damaged or destroyed. Originally built to house the massive collection of books accumulated by the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, the library had been devastated by fire several times. During Julius Caesar's Alexandrian campaign in 47 B. C., Caesar set fire to ships in the port. The fire spread to the library, which was called the Museum at that time.
In A. D. 391, riots instigated by fanatical Christians damaged the collection heavily. During the years between disastrous events, the library collection had been gradually restored. In 641, the Caliph of Baghdad exhibited the same spirit of religious fanaticism in ordering Amrou to burn the books stored there. The loss of the library at Alexandria was a particularly grievous blow because the works of so many Roman scholars. literary geniuses, and historians were destroyed.
Some of the Byzantine EMperios burned libraries. Savronola (a CHristion reformer) lit the Bonfire fo the Vanities in Fhorence: the response of mainstream Christianity was to burn him at the stake (a stronger response then we seem to get from the latest Islamo-atrocity. THe Crusaders burned the library of Constantine while generally sacking the city.
The motives of Omar, though, seem to have been that if they books contatin something that is in the Qoran, they are unecessary, and that which is not in the Qoran, then they are wrong. This was part of a consitent worldview, also expressed at - Library of Ctesiphon (Persian), destroyed by Caliph Umar - Library of Al Hakam, (in peaceful, diverse Andalusia) destroyed by fundamentalist muslims - Library of Rayy, destroyed by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni - Library of Ghazna, burned by Muslims, but more part of a general sack (like the 4th Crusade) - Library of Nishapur, burned by the Oghuz Turks - Library of Nalanda, ancient library of Buddhists, same scope as Alexandria, burned by Muslims under Bakhtiyar Khilji - Bibliotheca Corviniana, destroyed by Ottoman troops And, more recently - Ahmed Baba Institute, in Timbuktu, by the Islamist militia
Bender said: As for the problem of Islam being too literalist and fundamental, just exactly how would they benefit from a "Reformation" when the Protestant Reformation was largely about adopting a more literalist and fundamental approach?
Excellent point. In fact there is a strong parallel betweeb Wahhabi Islam and Calvinist Christianity. Both take offense at religious ritualism and iconography.
English Puritans and French Huguenots vandalized or destroyed relics and icons during the "wars of religion". Much of England's medieval stained glass was smashed by Cromwell's troops.
In the last century, Wahhabi Moslems have destroyed the relics and tombs of Moslem "saints", including Companions of the Prophet. Saudi money has paid for construction or rehab of mosques, but only if there is no ornamentation - in some cases forcing the removal of beautiful medieval stonework, inlays, and tiling.
The Reformation was about moral and theological corruption in the institutional Church, not freedom of conscience. It led there, but only because it created competing forms which had to learn tolerance.
What Islam needs is an Enlightenment. That's if one can say that "Islam" is an entity. The Reformation only affected Western, Roman Catholic Christians; it had no effect on Eastern Christians.
Do you believe that American conservatives are the equivalent of the Taliban?
You are confusing "equivalent" with equal. As I said, they are both the conservative/impeding elements of their own societies, and one just impedes its own back to a worse starting point than the other. But that doesn't mean that American conservatives aren't pretty destructive to their own country right now. They're just being a little less destructive to a country that is stronger, better and has already (thankfully) made more progress - which you hate. That helps mute their destruction despite the fact that they are being destructive. Still equivalent roles, if in different settings. So like the difference between an accountant in the mafia or Nazi Germany and an accountant in the IRS, your difference to the Taliban is one of degree, much less so than kind.
You and Galloway are peas in a pod.
Do we fellate each other as you and Rusty do?
You just choose to emphasize different items on the left's agenda.
I emphasize what I find to be important.
This must come as a shock to someone like you, who gets his ideological marching orders and talking points spoon-fed to him.
You may not like the pod you're in or who all of your pod-mates are.
The collectivist in you speaks!
But that's your problem.
More projection from American Taliban.
You are nothing new.
Oh and your own creativity is stunning!
Didn't realize I was supposed to compete for whatever ideological novelty you convinced yourself that you excel at. But then, you say that John Locke is a better (and apparently more conservative) economist than Adam Smith, so you certainly have that bit of incoherent nonsense going for you. Being nonsensically incoherent is probably the surest route to a new idea that's open to someone like you. Stupid, but definitely new.
Bullshit. There is no such thing as "modern" or "moderate" Islam. Until we can face that and say it out loud, there is no chance to drag these neanderthals into the present.
alpha: "Do we fellate each other as you and Rusty do?"
The way you choose to fellate someone really is your business, not mine.
It is when it's you and Rusty doing the fellating.
LOL
No one misattributed a quote to you, Sir Numbnuts. Here's a hint: When a statement is preceded by: "Shorter (fill in the name of blank asshole here)", they're summarizing the conclusion that you tried to avoid accepting, or even addressing.
They're sparing the reader the expense of presuming to make sense of the main (missed) point that anyone with a brain can summarize in your drivel.
LOL
These aren't direct quotes, and anyone with a brain knows that. They're suggested restatements of your conclusion, surrounded in quotation marks to emphasize the thoughts you missed (and the fact that they're not my own thoughts) - in all their ridiculousness. This is common practice on the internets, but you're too enchanted with cell phone technology acronyms to know that.
As I said, debate, or any reasoned discourse, is a foreign concept to a barbaric Taliban-wanna-be like you. So just fixate, like the little girl you are, on trivial distractions that don't provide anything other the chance for you to rearrange your messy hair-do in peace.
You know, since an explanation is an honor too genuine for you, I'll just provide an example, with more quotation marks added around them just to piss your little girl self off.
See, Dear Reader, it's like Drago's saying:
"I don't know how someone could interpret my incomplete thoughts without my guidance, direction and approval! It's like they're trying to take the nonsense I believe to it's logical conclusion! Soooo unfair!"
Now, the astute reader will see that I preceded this statement with the word, "like", (Uh oh, did I misquote someone just there?), which means that it's not what so-and-so said -- (in this case, the so-and-so is the asshole Draco) -- but a summary of what anyone could interpret of his meaning. The same way similes work in grade school. Not my thoughts (hence, the quotation marks), but what anyone with a brain might conclude if they were, unfortunately, in Drac's mind and had the misfortune of trying to think his own thoughts through for him.
But, you see, Draco objects to others interpreting his words because, he himself, is incapable of understanding the implications of his own ideas.
alpha (fellatio comparator) sure takes the long path to avoid the reality that when you use quotes and attribute them to someone else then you are simply making up quotes.
Notice how Drake can't even discuss any of the actual issues involved (even those which he himself raised). He just devolves into a constant barrage of "LOL", fixates on his disagreement over punctuation that he didn't like from over a day before and throws out political insults. That's all.
He also has apparently nothing more to say on his disdain for Adam Smith for supposedly being more of a "lefty" than John Locke.
Yup. That's Drago. Nothing intelligent to say. No point to make. No nothing. Not even worth trying to speculate as to how he might fill in the many blanks that exist in his mind and in his thoughts. He likes those blank spaces the way they are!
When Drago makes up thoughts to misattribute to others, he never, EVER uses quotation marks. He just flatly asserts them. That's what makes him honorable.
I guess making up quotes is easier than thinking for yourself.
This doesn't even make sense. After misattributing my own thoughts, you finally asked for them, I gave them, and you ignored them so that you could again cast aspersions and fixate on punctuation (again).
I know my thoughts.
Since you don't know yours, however (and can't explain them), you simply fixate on ways to distract from that fact - i.e. obsessing on grammar, the last lost battle of loser internet "warriors" everywhere.
Also noted: You don't win these things by longevity. The thread ended yesterday. Sticking around to wallow in emoticon equivalents and fixate on punctuation just proves that you have nothing defensible to say. So you pick at gnats. Typical.
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२५९ टिप्पण्या:
«सर्वात जुने ‹थोडे जुने 259 पैकी 201 – 259also, make sure your Israeli pals are fully up to speed on the "American equivalent of the Taliban" body-count for the week.
I'm sure they will be very impressed with how you have courageously endured such a rough battle environment to post your missives online!
Make sure you let all your legit Hebrew pals know how diligent you are in minimizing islamist atrocities.
That will go over like gang-busters there.
Not sure you're aware of this (who am I kidding, of course you're not), but in Israel, they allow something called "free speech". It's a small community of people who don't try the stupid tactics of misconstruing what people say because they're too stupid to know the difference between hype and reality.
Yes, since Israelis deal with life and death, they try to minimize both the atrocities that would happen to them and the casualties that they might inflict on war. But of course, you are the typical American buffoon who rushes to use the word "minimize" not in reference to actual, physical acts (as I did), but in reference to the way they would be hyped.
That says something about you.
People for whom violence is a fact of life, and yet value life, do try to minimize casualties both to themselves and to others.
You apparently missed your calling: working for a tabloid.
alpha: "Not sure you're aware of this (who am I kidding, of course you're not), but in Israel, they allow something called "free speech."
Well, then they are clearly not American leftists in an academic setting.
LOL
alpha: "It's a small community of people who don't try the stupid tactics of misconstruing what people say because they're too stupid to know the difference between hype and reality."
LOL
Are they the type of community that includes people like you who simply make up quotes out of whole cloth?
LOL
also, make sure your Israeli pals are fully up to speed on the "American equivalent of the Taliban" body-count for the week.
Israelis don't mind using evangelicals and other oblivious conservatives for what they perceive to be their own political ends. But the difference between you and them is that they know they are using you. You don't realize that you are just being used. Unless you really buy into the belief that we need an apocalypse to occur (which would, according to the belief, require the deaths of most Jews in the world and of course in Israel). In which case it's hard to say who's being more cynical.
It's a cynical relationship, and needs to be made more healthy.
alpha: "Yes, since Israelis deal with life and death, they try to minimize both the atrocities that would happen to them....."
That doesn't mean they advance policies to essentially ignore those realities, like you do!
alpha: "....and the casualties that they might inflict on war."
According to the left worldwide, this is a lie.
How do you reconcile this obvious truth with the even more obvious truth that your leftist pals say this is a lie?
LOL
Of course, you can't.
Drac: You're obviously obsessed with superimposing silly American political and cultural norms on a country where they don't apply.
But keep trying to convince anyone that you've got some kind of solidarity with them.
Let me ask you something, do you say "Shalom y'all"? Or does that cheapen it for you?
alpha: "Israelis don't mind using evangelicals and other oblivious conservatives for what they perceive to be their own political ends."
LOL
We are all motivated by our own perceived interests.
If, by chance, groups that might not necessarily agree on a range of issues find that their interests happen to be aligned on a particular issue, they will naturally pursue those interests.
This is really basic. What are you? 12?
alpha: "Drac: You're obviously obsessed with superimposing silly American political and cultural norms on a country where they don't apply."
LOL
Says the guy calling us the "American version of the Taliban"!!
You. Can't. Make. This. Stuff. Up.
Have you always been this hopelessly lacking in self-awareness?
LOL
That doesn't mean they advance policies to essentially ignore those realities, like you do!
alpha: "....and the casualties that they might inflict on war."
According to the left worldwide, this is a lie.
How do you reconcile this obvious truth with the even more obvious truth that your leftist pals say this is a lie?
LOL
Of course, you can't.
Wherein Drac indulges his wet dream of a belief that Israel has no political left or powerful center, the former of which not only built the country, but provided amply to some of its most respected defense ministers and prime ministers.
Is it possible for you to stop being a joke for even one minute? No Israeli would argue with what I'm saying. But then, they generally know the difference between politics and fact-free, religious beliefs, unlike you.
alpha: "Let me ask you something, do you say "Shalom y'all"? Or does that cheapen it for you?"
It's funny you ask that.
There is (or was a few years back) a tow truck driver in Tel Aviv who dressed up in the full Texas regalia.
Cowboy boots, the hat, the whole deal.
And that's exactly what he said when we were introduced.
Now, that was amusing.
Says the guy calling us the "American version of the Taliban"!!
Conservatives are conservative everywhere.
Just because you lucked out on having a "tradition" that was brought to you by people influenced by liberals like Locke and Montesquieu, doesn't mean that you yourself are still incapable of pondering the meaning of and need for change.
Which makes you like a Taliban. You just have the "virtue" (not that you chose it) of being born in a country with a less barbaric tradition to fall back upon.
alpha is having a very difficult reconciling his alignment with the George Galloway's of the world so he is forced to create a fantasy world wherein the international left, which is almost universally aligned against Israel, is not really against Israel.
alpha, why don't you check in with all those Israeli graduate students who want to pursue their advanced degrees in universities in Europe and elsewhere and are being turned down due to their nationality alone?
LOL
Sorry, too much reality for you.
Go back to pretending that the left in Europe and the US is really on the Israeli's side.
Now, that was amusing.
It's also because, if he was an Israeli צבר, and not an עולה, of being gracious to his hosts and considering their culture.
Which is not something that you're capable of, even when it comes to a society you purport to admire, like Israel's.
Awright!
Comparing me to George Galloway is beyond the pale!
You want a truce? I won't call you Taliban if you don't call me George Galloway.
I hate that idiot!
Locke was a liberal, not a Liberal.
That's where you are going wrong.
Locke was adamantly opposed to encroachment on the individual by the state.
You desire the superstate.
LOL
"liberal" vs "Liberal" flummoxes alpha, regardless of what time zone he's in.
Be careful alpha, Locke was big on private property rights.
You're not exactly aligned with him!
LOL
Oh. Wait.
Perhaps you are performing a little "Occupy Historical Figures" week activity.
George Galloway refuses to debate Israelis. Did you know that?
alpha: "You want a truce? I won't call you Taliban if you don't call me George Galloway."
I didn't enjoy employing his name, I must admit.
But, the reality is that he is a man fully of the left.
And there are far too many of them as far as I'm concerned.
Especially as it pertains to the status and security of Israel.
alpha: "George Galloway refuses to debate Israelis. Did you know that?"
LOL
alpha, all kidding aside, what are you, 25 years old?
Seriously, who DOESN'T know that.
Now 50 years ago you could chalk up some of what a Galloway might say to the standard British anti-Semitism.
But in the modern era it is qualitatively different.
He and his associates want Israel gone.
And they are aligned with many leftist groups.
If you disagree with him and them, then you have some housecleaning to do on the left.
And I don't envy you that task.
Locke was adamantly opposed to encroachment on the individual by the state.
In what sense? This is boilerplate unless you can provide actual examples.
Historians call your imposition of presentist ideas on what Locke stood for illegitimate.
You desire the superstate.
LOL
Locke saw the state as merely a means, as do I.
"liberal" vs "Liberal" flummoxes alpha, regardless of what time zone he's in.
A distinction important only to American pundits.
Be careful alpha, Locke was big on private property rights.
And a lot of other things that you don't care about.
You're not exactly aligned with him!
You're pretty much diametrically opposed to him. He was the opposite of conservative. For every one thing between which you could say that he and I differ (the passage of time has a way of corrupting purity, imagine that) I could find a whole host of things that you differ with him on. He's not your conservative, I hate to tell you. But then, "conservatism" in America does not have the legitimacy given to it by actual "nations" founded on ethnicity that you admire so much.
The closest America can come up with instead, is the pseudoconservatism that Hofstadter wrote about. And its paranoid style. Which is why the right is in crisis.
alpha: "It's also because, if he was an Israeli צבר, and not an עולה, of being gracious to his hosts and considering their culture."
Look whos questioning the "Israeli-ness" of an Israeli now.
alpha: "Historians call your imposition of presentist ideas on what Locke stood for illegitimate."
Yes, there are a lot of leftist historians who have made it a mission to rewrite history to satisfy their current political needs.
Hence: Stalin was a "conservative".
LOL
You really are about 25 aren't you?
alpha: "Locke saw the state as merely a means, as do I."
LOL
The ends you envision and how you desire to use the state as a means compared to Locke are a universe apart.
Yes, yes I know.
This time when the leftist revolution comes it will all be different because...because...ME!
You are standard issue lefty right out of central casting.
But, the reality is that he is a man fully of the left.
If you can find one thing Galloway says with which I'd agree (not that I find his statements coherent enough generally to find a clear sense of agreement or disagreement anyway), I will gladly buy you a shwarama and a beer.
Look whos questioning the "Israeli-ness" of an Israeli now.
No. I am merely acknowledging the widely observed fact that a good number of immigrants to Israel are American. Their accents don't exactly win them the admiration of other Israelis. And I couldn't care less, other than to let you know that a Texan who moves to the Middle East might find it endearing and natural to add "y'all" to their adopted greeting.
And its paranoid style.
LOL
Which side is it that believes the George HW Bush flew an SR-71 to the ME in order to arrange for the Iranians to continue to hold the US hostages until after the US election of 1980?
LOL
The side of "LIHOP/MIHOP" is lecturing others on "paranoid" style.
The ends you envision and how you desire to use the state as a means compared to Locke are a universe apart.
Yes, yes I know.
This time when the leftist revolution comes it will all be different because...because...ME!
You are standard issue lefty right out of central casting.
It might surprise you to know that Locke lived before the industrial revolution, and the economic landscape that it brought about. Therefore, it's stupid to pretend that he had a timeless and pure understanding or philosophy of what "liberal" economics would look like.
But I guess you are opposed to considering the passage of time and other civilizational milestones when it comes to understanding ideology or philosophy. Which must be nice.
alpha: "And I couldn't care less, other than to let you know that a Texan who moves to the Middle East might find it endearing and natural to add "y'all" to their adopted greeting."
LOL
I don't think you understand.
Big surprise.
This fellow was an Israeli.
He didn't speak English very well. Much of what we spoke about was translated for him by my hosts.
But hey, it takes a special smug American like yourself to assert that a fellow like that isn't an Israeli or was an immigrant from the US!
LOL
Thanks for living up to the stereotype!
alpha: "It might surprise you to know that Locke lived before the industrial revolution, and the economic landscape that it brought about."
It might not.
LOL
alpha is the first person to study Locke!
Locke would be all for the all powerful state that alpha envisions!
LOL
The things you have to tell yourself.
Actually, when it comes to redistribution, I'm more Adam Smith than John Locke.
"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion"
But then, Adam Smith did have the advantage of being a hundred years further along and closer to the advent of the industrial revolution than did Locke. Also, he thought more about economics in itself.
But hey, it takes a special smug American like yourself to assert that a fellow like that isn't an Israeli or was an immigrant from the US!
I asserted no such thing. I posed it as a possibility. As I did the same possibility that you raise.
But people like you do not understand the difference between considering two different possibilities and making assertions. That's life in Draco's black-and-white world, for you.
LOL
alpha is the first person to study Locke!
Locke would be all for the all powerful state that alpha envisions!
LOL
The things you have to tell yourself.
Drago - stop being an asshole. I'm putting Locke into context. I know you hate context, but it makes it possible for one's life to reconcile idealism with reality. Which really upsets you, much as every other decent and intelligent person finds it necessary.
alpha: "Drago - stop being an asshole. I'm putting Locke into context"
No, you're not.
You're absconding with a classical liberal and his philosophy and trying to twist it in order to buttress your case for an ever increasing state power over the individual.
alpha: "I know you hate context, but it makes it possible for one's life to reconcile idealism with reality. Which really upsets you, much as every other decent and intelligent person finds it necessary."
Says the guy who can't face the reality that he is aligned politically with the Galloways of the world.
Of course, alpha will argue that even if he and Galloway do agree on some matters of policy that in no ways means alpha and Galloway are in agreement with all matters, such as Israel.
The REALITY is that even though you believe that to be true, it is your side that is providing aid and comfort to Galloway and his like.
And that is a reality that you seem to be having a real problem addressing.
Why do you think that is?
No, you're not.
Nice assertion. That kind of confidence must a great way of convincing yourself that you're never wrong, mustn't it?
You're absconding with a classical liberal and his philosophy and trying to twist it in order to buttress your case for an ever increasing state power over the individual.
Great. So then you are also berating Adam Smith on account of your allegation of his desire for "an ever increasing state power over the individual". Which is as ridiculous as it is illogical (should I expect less?). What philosophical tradition did he claim?
In any event, if you want to deviate from Smith to claim that Locke had a better handle on economics than him, be my guest. That must be one hell of a pretzel for a conservative to twist himself into.
Says the guy who can't face the reality that he is aligned politically with the Galloways of the world.
Of course, alpha will argue that even if he and Galloway do agree on some matters of policy that in no ways means alpha and Galloway are in agreement with all matters, such as Israel.
Galloway and I "agree" on exactly nothing that I know of. I even challenged you to find a single position of his for me to disagree or agree to, which you neglected to do, as dishonorable a debater as you are.
But since you are as conservative as the Taliban, instead of dealing rationally with these realities, you retreat back into your black-and-white understanding of the world and refuse to debate intelligently in any way, shape or form.
Good job. I heard the Taliban aren't very good debaters, either.
alpha: "Galloway and I "agree" on exactly nothing that I know of."
Do you believe gitmo should be closed?
Do you believe that American conservatives are the equivalent of the Taliban?
You and Galloway are peas in a pod.
You just choose to emphasize different items on the left's agenda.
You may not like the pod you're in or who all of your pod-mates are.
But that's your problem.
You are nothing new.
Our little Stalinist is becoming quite unhinged.
That too is expected.
Rrhardin said:
"You'd think Islam would have a protection money tradition like other organized crime arrangements."
They do. It's called the jizyah. When the infidels are not under islamic domination as dhimmis, it takes the form of terroristic threats and demands for ransom.
Drago.
I admire your patience.
and your wit.
alpha: "..as dishonorable a debater as you are."
Says the guy who makes up quotes and assigns them to others!
LOL
You. Can't. Make. This. Stuff. Up.
Rusty: "Drago. I admire your patience. and your wit"
I was simply taking most of a Sunday to finish up some items for a client and I was using the blog to essentially "step away" and clear my head.
I usually don't have the time to spend so much time posting.
Fortunately, it only takes a moment or 2 or pop back and see what our "garage with a credential" happens to be saying at any given moment.
So Christians burned the Library of Alexandria? As I recall it, it went more like:
Early in the year A. D. 642, Alexandria surrendered to Amrou, the Islamic general leading the armies of Omar, Caliph of Baghdad. Long one of the most important cities of the ancient world and capital of Byzantine Egypt, Alexandria surrendered only after a long siege and attempts to rescue the city by the Byzantines. On the orders of Omar, Caliph of Baghdad, the entire collection of books (except for the works of Aristotle) stored at the Library of Alexandria were removed and used as fuel to heat water for the city's public baths.
Perhaps there is some confusion because:
This is not the first time the library was damaged or destroyed. Originally built to house the massive collection of books accumulated by the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, the library had been devastated by fire several times. During Julius Caesar's Alexandrian campaign in 47 B. C., Caesar set fire to ships in the port. The fire spread to the library, which was called the Museum at that time.
In A. D. 391, riots instigated by fanatical Christians damaged the collection heavily. During the years between disastrous events, the library collection had been gradually restored. In 641, the Caliph of Baghdad exhibited the same spirit of religious fanaticism in ordering Amrou to burn the books stored there. The loss of the library at Alexandria was a particularly grievous blow because the works of so many Roman scholars. literary geniuses, and historians were destroyed.
Some of the Byzantine EMperios burned libraries. Savronola (a CHristion reformer) lit the Bonfire fo the Vanities in Fhorence: the response of mainstream Christianity was to burn him at the stake (a stronger response then we seem to get from the latest Islamo-atrocity. THe Crusaders burned the library of Constantine while generally sacking the city.
The motives of Omar, though, seem to have been that if they books contatin something that is in the Qoran, they are unecessary, and that which is not in the Qoran, then they are wrong. This was part of a consitent worldview, also expressed at
- Library of Ctesiphon (Persian), destroyed by Caliph Umar
- Library of Al Hakam, (in peaceful, diverse Andalusia) destroyed by fundamentalist muslims
- Library of Rayy, destroyed by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni
- Library of Ghazna, burned by Muslims, but more part of a general sack (like the 4th Crusade)
- Library of Nishapur, burned by the Oghuz Turks
- Library of Nalanda, ancient library of Buddhists, same scope as Alexandria, burned by Muslims under Bakhtiyar Khilji
- Bibliotheca Corviniana, destroyed by Ottoman troops
And, more recently
- Ahmed Baba Institute, in Timbuktu, by the Islamist militia
Bender said: As for the problem of Islam being too literalist and fundamental, just exactly how would they benefit from a "Reformation" when the Protestant Reformation was largely about adopting a more literalist and fundamental approach?
Excellent point. In fact there is a strong parallel betweeb Wahhabi Islam and Calvinist Christianity. Both take offense at religious ritualism and iconography.
English Puritans and French Huguenots vandalized or destroyed relics and icons during the "wars of religion". Much of England's medieval stained glass was smashed by Cromwell's troops.
In the last century, Wahhabi Moslems have destroyed the relics and tombs of Moslem "saints", including Companions of the Prophet. Saudi money has paid for construction or rehab of mosques, but only if there is no ornamentation - in some cases forcing the removal of beautiful medieval stonework, inlays, and tiling.
The Reformation was about moral and theological corruption in the institutional Church, not freedom of conscience. It led there, but only because it created competing forms which had to learn tolerance.
What Islam needs is an Enlightenment. That's if one can say that "Islam" is an entity. The Reformation only affected Western, Roman Catholic Christians; it had no effect on Eastern Christians.
I was using the blog to essentially "step away" and clear my head.
Oh your head was already pretty empty by the time you got here.
Are you going to fellate Rusty in return or is the favor he paid you a one-way thing?
Do you believe gitmo should be closed?
Don't have a set opinion on it.
Do you believe that American conservatives are the equivalent of the Taliban?
You are confusing "equivalent" with equal. As I said, they are both the conservative/impeding elements of their own societies, and one just impedes its own back to a worse starting point than the other. But that doesn't mean that American conservatives aren't pretty destructive to their own country right now. They're just being a little less destructive to a country that is stronger, better and has already (thankfully) made more progress - which you hate. That helps mute their destruction despite the fact that they are being destructive. Still equivalent roles, if in different settings. So like the difference between an accountant in the mafia or Nazi Germany and an accountant in the IRS, your difference to the Taliban is one of degree, much less so than kind.
You and Galloway are peas in a pod.
Do we fellate each other as you and Rusty do?
You just choose to emphasize different items on the left's agenda.
I emphasize what I find to be important.
This must come as a shock to someone like you, who gets his ideological marching orders and talking points spoon-fed to him.
You may not like the pod you're in or who all of your pod-mates are.
The collectivist in you speaks!
But that's your problem.
More projection from American Taliban.
You are nothing new.
Oh and your own creativity is stunning!
Didn't realize I was supposed to compete for whatever ideological novelty you convinced yourself that you excel at. But then, you say that John Locke is a better (and apparently more conservative) economist than Adam Smith, so you certainly have that bit of incoherent nonsense going for you. Being nonsensically incoherent is probably the surest route to a new idea that's open to someone like you. Stupid, but definitely new.
I can't wait to see what new quotes alpha will create and assign to me.
LOL
Remember though, alpha is all about "honest debate"!
LOL
Sort of like how Obama is all about transparency in government and not criminalizing standard journalistic activities!
LOL
alpha: "Do we fellate each other as you and Rusty do?"
The way you choose to fellate someone really is your business, not mine.
I do find it interesting the things you let slip when you are in a frenzy.
NTTATWWT
LOL
Bullshit. There is no such thing as "modern" or "moderate" Islam. Until we can face that and say it out loud, there is no chance to drag these neanderthals into the present.
The comments in this story are one of the worse examples of thread hijacking I've ever seen. What a bunch of fucking morons.
alpha: "Do we fellate each other as you and Rusty do?"
The way you choose to fellate someone really is your business, not mine.
It is when it's you and Rusty doing the fellating.
LOL
No one misattributed a quote to you, Sir Numbnuts. Here's a hint: When a statement is preceded by: "Shorter (fill in the name of blank asshole here)", they're summarizing the conclusion that you tried to avoid accepting, or even addressing.
They're sparing the reader the expense of presuming to make sense of the main (missed) point that anyone with a brain can summarize in your drivel.
LOL
These aren't direct quotes, and anyone with a brain knows that. They're suggested restatements of your conclusion, surrounded in quotation marks to emphasize the thoughts you missed (and the fact that they're not my own thoughts) - in all their ridiculousness. This is common practice on the internets, but you're too enchanted with cell phone technology acronyms to know that.
As I said, debate, or any reasoned discourse, is a foreign concept to a barbaric Taliban-wanna-be like you. So just fixate, like the little girl you are, on trivial distractions that don't provide anything other the chance for you to rearrange your messy hair-do in peace.
LOL
LOL
LOL
You know, since an explanation is an honor too genuine for you, I'll just provide an example, with more quotation marks added around them just to piss your little girl self off.
See, Dear Reader, it's like Drago's saying:
"I don't know how someone could interpret my incomplete thoughts without my guidance, direction and approval! It's like they're trying to take the nonsense I believe to it's logical conclusion! Soooo unfair!"
Now, the astute reader will see that I preceded this statement with the word, "like", (Uh oh, did I misquote someone just there?), which means that it's not what so-and-so said -- (in this case, the so-and-so is the asshole Draco) -- but a summary of what anyone could interpret of his meaning. The same way similes work in grade school. Not my thoughts (hence, the quotation marks), but what anyone with a brain might conclude if they were, unfortunately, in Drac's mind and had the misfortune of trying to think his own thoughts through for him.
But, you see, Draco objects to others interpreting his words because, he himself, is incapable of understanding the implications of his own ideas.
So, cry he must. Waaaaahhhh!
LOL
LOL
LOL
alpha (fellatio comparator) sure takes the long path to avoid the reality that when you use quotes and attribute them to someone else then you are simply making up quotes.
LOL
"honest debate"!
LOL
I guess making up quotes is easier than thinking for yourself.
Which is why, of course, alpha (fellatio comparator) makes a perfect lefty.
Dragon, how often do you usually have to repeat your own lies before you start believing them... generally speaking?
LOL
Notice how Drake can't even discuss any of the actual issues involved (even those which he himself raised). He just devolves into a constant barrage of "LOL", fixates on his disagreement over punctuation that he didn't like from over a day before and throws out political insults. That's all.
He also has apparently nothing more to say on his disdain for Adam Smith for supposedly being more of a "lefty" than John Locke.
Yup. That's Drago. Nothing intelligent to say. No point to make. No nothing. Not even worth trying to speculate as to how he might fill in the many blanks that exist in his mind and in his thoughts. He likes those blank spaces the way they are!
LOL
When Drago makes up thoughts to misattribute to others, he never, EVER uses quotation marks. He just flatly asserts them. That's what makes him honorable.
LOL
I guess making up quotes is easier than thinking for yourself.
This doesn't even make sense. After misattributing my own thoughts, you finally asked for them, I gave them, and you ignored them so that you could again cast aspersions and fixate on punctuation (again).
I know my thoughts.
Since you don't know yours, however (and can't explain them), you simply fixate on ways to distract from that fact - i.e. obsessing on grammar, the last lost battle of loser internet "warriors" everywhere.
Also noted: You don't win these things by longevity. The thread ended yesterday. Sticking around to wallow in emoticon equivalents and fixate on punctuation just proves that you have nothing defensible to say. So you pick at gnats. Typical.
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