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Neuroscientist Halts Research to Stop Extremists
FleaPlus writes "UCLA neuroscience professor Dario Ringach, known for his contributions to our understanding of how the visual system processes information, has been forced to give up his experiments by the actions of animal-rights extremists. Although he and his family had endured harassment and vandalization by animal-rights activists for years, Ringach reconsidered after extremists tried to firebomb a colleague's home and accidentally left their Molotov cocktail on an elderly neighbor's doorstep. Ringach sent an email to animal activist groups saying, 'You win... please don't bother my family anymore.'"
I'd considered "crusade", but rejected for two reasons. The first is that the word has historical baggage, right from its very creation.
The crusades came about in large part because the Benedictine monks of Cluny were struggling to reform and control the Roman church after it had absorbed a large number of northern European barbarian chieftans and their retainers. This was the context in which the Eastern and Roman churches split. Just because they were baptized, these barbarian warriors did not change overnight, giving up their habits of pillage and petty warfare. The Cluniacs came up with a program which must have seemed to them, in the words used by Col North do describe the Iran Contra deal "a neat idea". They'd harness the martial energy of the barbarian knights to a useful purpose, at the same time the effort would provide a kind of military pilgrimage that would tutor them in Christian spirituality.
So, what the Cluniacs and their sophisticated disciples intended was very much a kind of struggle of the sort I describe. The knights, however, perceived the effort in a much simpler and more familiar way: vendetta. Somebody else was holding clan lands. Plus they decided that they had an issue of blood to settle with the Jews. Up until this point, anti-semitism as we know it did not exist.
The second reason is that allowing that "crusade" could be used would weaken my point, which was probably the more telling of the two reasons. Then you had to come along and notice. Thanks much.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The behavior of the patriots was thoroughly inconsistent with the established contemporary customs of war. And they generally didn't wear uniforms either, and they tended to hide their weapons and fighters amongst the civilian population.
The boston tea party destroyed commercial assets, in order to have a political effect, which by the present US government's definition, is in fact terrorism. Their intention is irrelevant; the act itself could be construed as subversive to the government, particularly since it stood to loose enormous tax revenue from the tea that was dumped.
If someone tried to start the Million Man (really 300,000 man) March today, they'd never get the permission to march that many observant Muslims in the capitol, and if they tried to do so without permit, they would certainly, under the current regime, be liable for arrest as a terrorist (as opposed to being arrested for merely being disorderly).
So sed -e 's/Sunni/Tory/' | sed -e 's/Iraq/Colonies/'. Maybe Iraq's off to a good start, after all.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.