Slashdot Mirror
ISIS's Hunt For a Bogus Superweapon
schnell writes: The New York Times Magazine has a fascinating story about ISIS efforts to get their hands on a mysterious and powerful superweapon called Red Mercury. The problem is that by consensus among scientific authorities, Red Mercury doesn't exist. And yet that hasn't stopped the legend of Red Mercury, touted by sources from Nazi conspiracy theorists to former Manhattan Project scientists, as having magical properties. Middle East weapons traders have even spun elaborate stories for its properties (ranging from thermonuclear explosive properties to sexual enhancement) and origins and sources (from Soviet weapons labs to Roman graveyards). What can account for the enduring myth of Red Mercury — is it rampant scientific illiteracy, the power of urban legend and shared myth, or something else?
Are you telling me a group of religious fundamentalists are scientifically illiterate??
Exactly.
Maybe they're thinking of Ice-9?
--Steve
What can account for the enduring myth of Red Mercury — is it rampant scientific illiteracy, the power of urban legend and shared myth, or something else?
Yes.
I thought this too, but after reading the article, it seems knowledge that red mercury is fake is already easily found. They just ignore it, often rationalizing the evidence of a hoax as a government-run disinformation campaign. They'll just think the same of the NYT's article - perhaps it will even egg them on, if the government is so desperate as to have their news puppets push this story (or so they'll phrase it).
Modded troll, but each statement is true.
Every refugee who goes to a non-Islamic country "votes with their feet" against Islam.
Actually, that was about convincing the Russians it would work, and then they would bankrupt themselves trying to keep up. So, yeah, that worked.
Yes, because Shariah does not allow a valid Caliph (whom al-Baghdadi is, btw - he meets all the qualifications including being Qurayshi, the first real Caliph since like the Abbasids) to recognise any borders or accept any peace treaties longer than 10 years.
It's the duty of the Caliph to wage Jihad and conquer as much as possible territory to be included in Dar al-Islam - should he not do so, he would no longer be worthy of bays'a [allegiance] of Muslims.
It's not so much lebensraum but rather territory that hasn't yet been occupied by the Ummah (basically the nation that is Muslim).
This is the hardcore Salafi doctrine by which people like Daeesh operate by and it's theologically valid, though batshit insane.
HOWEVER, only about 70-80% of Muslims are Sunnis and of those maybe 10-15% are Salafis.
So no, the "mohammedic brutalism" will not be carried with them - they've seen what life under a Caliphate is like and they want the hell out of there.
I can say this with some certainty as during my last 3 years in Beirut (which BTW has more Syrian refugees than ANY Western city) say that the Daeesh are a bunch of psychopathic foreign assholes led by an eloquent sociopath from Baghdad.
Unfortunately the NY Times again is trying to downplay ISIS as a stupid bunch of thugs who can't possible be a threat. The real story is ISIS has some real significant money to work with to buy real and significant weapons and we should not underestimate their abilities to gain access to them. It seems the liberal media keeps making excuses for Obama and I thought the whole premise of ISIS being a JV squad was long since dispelled. I'm sure the people in Paris know this now.
The census in prose with the lovely insertions of slaughtering the Midianite captives including women and children EXCEPT for the young virginal girls who were given to Moses' soldiers to -- wait for it -- rape and enslave, followed by a half page of tallying up the loot of a genocidally slaughtered civilization and recording how much of it Moses, the priests, and the war captains got. If one rewrote it and published it as an account of what the ISIS "caliph" did with, say, Beirut or Damascus, the world would be shocked and cry out everything from genocide to infanticide, but because, well, it's MOSES, well then it is OK. Even Jesus loved Moses, and entertained the man himself during his transfiguration.
Come to think of it, a lot of what ISIS has done does fit right in with Old Testament reports of God's Own People.
rgb
Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.