Maybe arguing with me is pointless. But somehow, I suspect that you will continue to do so. If you do, please continue to use your patronizing tone, so I won't suffer from the illusion that you're paying attention to anything I say.
If I didn't know, why would I say that we accomodate them? The same reason everybody else here makes statements they can't back up: you don't like admitting you're wrong about something.
Well, nobody does. But it's something we all have to do once in a while.
I can't just wave a magic wand and make you absorb years of accumulated information in a few minutes, Oh, please. We're not talking obscure facts here. You're claiming the west "bends over backwards" to accommodate the muslim world. That's a major pattern of behavior. If that's a conclusion you arrived at on your own (as opposed to something your favorite pundit said), then you must have observed many examples, and it's strange you can't recite one off the top of your head.
even if I did go through the trouble of gathering links you'd just dismiss it all as xenophobic right-wing propaganda. That's a cop out. You don't know what I'd do. Prove me wrong or admit you're wrong. If you can't do either, your opinions are worthless.
You think everybody who fights for these groups freely volunteered? That's nonsense. The Taliban is notorious for press-ganging people into its forces. I could tell you stories about a lot of other guerilla orgs. And even real volunteers are often responding to social pressure.
For that matter, not everybody who wore a Nazi uniform was a conscript.
Actually, I think somebody at Slashdot watched too many episodes of "The West Wing". On that show, they used "POTUS" like some kind of magic incantation.
Now we no longer have to listen to all those idiots who keep saying, "It's OK, because the constitution doesn't apply to foreigners." Which is not only untrue, but kind of beside the point.
Of course, you are talking about reporters. Not people who have been locked up for 6 years against their will, not knowing anything about what has happened to their families and not knowing whether they will ever get out, be tortured, killed, etc. A valid point. But you'd be suprised how few political prisoners come out of jail wanting not revenge, but reconciliation.
Look at the ANC guys who spent whole decades in South African prisons, and yet got very serious about reconciliation when they actually came to power. This interview with Mac Maharaj is particularly telling.
Whatever. I don't care whose fault it is that the Iraq version of the Marshall Plan has failed. I'm just dissenting from the argument that continuing it is a good reason to stay in Iraq.
You're reducing the whole argument to categorical statements about thousands, no, millions of human beings. People are different. Every social group has its fanatics who will do evil no matter how well they're treated. But if you assume that they're all fanatics, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You think Al-Qaidas's followers are irredeemable because they murdered 6 thousand people? The Nazis murdered millions. Six million Jews, practically the entire Jewish population in some regions. A couple million other minorities, including Gypsies, Slavs, and other "non-Aryan" ethnics. Millions of civilians in terror air raids, anti-partisan reprisals, and so on. Even thousands of Germans guilty only of suggesting that Der Fuhrer wasn't a god.
This is not an abstraction for me. My grandparents were Jews from Moldova, Lithuania and Ukraine. There used to be thriving Jewish communities in these countries. No more.
So by your logic, anybody who put on a Nazi uniform (and that was most Germans alive at the time, including the current Pope) is beyond redemption. Good thing we didn't use your logic, because if we had, the guerilla phase of World War II would have extended to this very day.
(Though, to be fair, we can probably pretty much count on it now.) Maybe not. In the Arab world, there's a big fascination with all things American, even among those who are most pissed at us.
Ever see Control Room? It's mostly about Al Jazeera, which most Americans consider to be the media arm of Al Qaida. That's nonsense, of course, but they do put on a lot of stuff that makes us look bad. They also have a lot of reason to be pissed at us, not just over the war, but because the believe that U.S. forces have been deliberately targeting their reporters.
And yet their individual attitudes towards the U.S. are surprisingly positive. One reporter admits he'd like nothing better than to get an offer from Fox News, move to the U.S., and educate his children here. Another says that he has an infinite faith in the U.S. constitution.
What, you're saying that we need to stay in Iraq so we can do the Marshall Plan thing there? We've been doing it since the beginning of the occupation, and it's pretty much been frittered away. The schools and hospitals mostly got contracted out to incompetent or corrupt people who never finished or did a sloppy job; the few that actually got built were destroyed by insurgents. Despite American attempts to beef up the infrastructure, it's actually worse than it was under Sadam, with most of the electrical grid down most of the time.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
It's amazing how many "STAY THE COURSE!" people don't know about this.
Sometimes the right thing to do is also the smart thing to do. Treatment of German POWs confined in the U.S. was designed to subvert the whole Nazi mindset. This included not just following the Geneva Convention to the letter (which meant that these POWs were probably among the best fed soldiers in the war, since they were required to get the same rations as American soldiers stationed at home, and the U.S. was one of the few places where there were no shortages of non-luxury foods), but also offered classes in civics and history.
If we had followed the same policy at Gitmo, the detainees would probably be demanding to enlisted in the U.S. forces by now. But no, the only way Bushcheney knows how to deal with opposition is "get tough."
It doesn't matter what the backup software can run on. The typical corporate desktop is still Windows, so the client side of the backup solution has to run on Windows.
If he's trying to steal karma, he's not doing a very good job. In fact, all of his sockpuppets have remarkably bad karma. Getting enough downmods to destroy the karma of a dozen different accounts is actually pretty impressive!
Twitter doesn't have a big Master Plan. (Dare I point out that assuming that he does is a very twitter-like mistake?) He just has a big ego. Hence his believe that it's OK to dominate discussions by fair means or foul. And, of course, his inability to admit that all his downmods are not the result of some big conspiracy, but simply the reaction of other users who think he's a jerk.
Enterprise-level backup apps are almost always 3rd-party, not "some kind of unreliable M$ thing". Ah, but they run on Windows, right? Thus they are fatally tainted by Redmond Uncoolness.
Slashdot Mirror
whiner
Maybe arguing with me is pointless. But somehow, I suspect that you will continue to do so. If you do, please continue to use your patronizing tone, so I won't suffer from the illusion that you're paying attention to anything I say.
How can China hate us? They want to be us!
Oops, sorry, I just answered my own question.
Well, nobody does. But it's something we all have to do once in a while. I can't just wave a magic wand and make you absorb years of accumulated information in a few minutes, Oh, please. We're not talking obscure facts here. You're claiming the west "bends over backwards" to accommodate the muslim world. That's a major pattern of behavior. If that's a conclusion you arrived at on your own (as opposed to something your favorite pundit said), then you must have observed many examples, and it's strange you can't recite one off the top of your head. even if I did go through the trouble of gathering links you'd just dismiss it all as xenophobic right-wing propaganda. That's a cop out. You don't know what I'd do. Prove me wrong or admit you're wrong. If you can't do either, your opinions are worthless.
In other words, you don't know.
You think everybody who fights for these groups freely volunteered? That's nonsense. The Taliban is notorious for press-ganging people into its forces. I could tell you stories about a lot of other guerilla orgs. And even real volunteers are often responding to social pressure.
For that matter, not everybody who wore a Nazi uniform was a conscript.
Name one place where we're "bending over backwards" to accommodate the Muslims.
Actually, I think somebody at Slashdot watched too many episodes of "The West Wing". On that show, they used "POTUS" like some kind of magic incantation.
Now we no longer have to listen to all those idiots who keep saying, "It's OK, because the constitution doesn't apply to foreigners." Which is not only untrue, but kind of beside the point.
Oh well, I'm sure they'll find something equally stupid to say.
Look at the ANC guys who spent whole decades in South African prisons, and yet got very serious about reconciliation when they actually came to power. This interview with Mac Maharaj is particularly telling.
Whatever. I don't care whose fault it is that the Iraq version of the Marshall Plan has failed. I'm just dissenting from the argument that continuing it is a good reason to stay in Iraq.
And I'm saying that not everybody who has reason to hate us does.
I'm lactose intolerant. And you're a bigot.
You're reducing the whole argument to categorical statements about thousands, no, millions of human beings. People are different. Every social group has its fanatics who will do evil no matter how well they're treated. But if you assume that they're all fanatics, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You think Al-Qaidas's followers are irredeemable because they murdered 6 thousand people? The Nazis murdered millions. Six million Jews, practically the entire Jewish population in some regions. A couple million other minorities, including Gypsies, Slavs, and other "non-Aryan" ethnics. Millions of civilians in terror air raids, anti-partisan reprisals, and so on. Even thousands of Germans guilty only of suggesting that Der Fuhrer wasn't a god.
This is not an abstraction for me. My grandparents were Jews from Moldova, Lithuania and Ukraine. There used to be thriving Jewish communities in these countries. No more.
So by your logic, anybody who put on a Nazi uniform (and that was most Germans alive at the time, including the current Pope) is beyond redemption. Good thing we didn't use your logic, because if we had, the guerilla phase of World War II would have extended to this very day.
You're just pissy because you want the last word. And sorry, you're not gonna get it: I'm having fun and could keep this up forever.
Ever see Control Room? It's mostly about Al Jazeera, which most Americans consider to be the media arm of Al Qaida. That's nonsense, of course, but they do put on a lot of stuff that makes us look bad. They also have a lot of reason to be pissed at us, not just over the war, but because the believe that U.S. forces have been deliberately targeting their reporters.
And yet their individual attitudes towards the U.S. are surprisingly positive. One reporter admits he'd like nothing better than to get an offer from Fox News, move to the U.S., and educate his children here. Another says that he has an infinite faith in the U.S. constitution.
His faith would seem to have been vindicated.
What, you're saying that we need to stay in Iraq so we can do the Marshall Plan thing there? We've been doing it since the beginning of the occupation, and it's pretty much been frittered away. The schools and hospitals mostly got contracted out to incompetent or corrupt people who never finished or did a sloppy job; the few that actually got built were destroyed by insurgents. Despite American attempts to beef up the infrastructure, it's actually worse than it was under Sadam, with most of the electrical grid down most of the time.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
It's amazing how many "STAY THE COURSE!" people don't know about this.
Sometimes the right thing to do is also the smart thing to do. Treatment of German POWs confined in the U.S. was designed to subvert the whole Nazi mindset. This included not just following the Geneva Convention to the letter (which meant that these POWs were probably among the best fed soldiers in the war, since they were required to get the same rations as American soldiers stationed at home, and the U.S. was one of the few places where there were no shortages of non-luxury foods), but also offered classes in civics and history.
If we had followed the same policy at Gitmo, the detainees would probably be demanding to enlisted in the U.S. forces by now. But no, the only way Bushcheney knows how to deal with opposition is "get tough."
It doesn't matter what the backup software can run on. The typical corporate desktop is still Windows, so the client side of the backup solution has to run on Windows.
Haha. Get a life.
And you're not?
If he's trying to steal karma, he's not doing a very good job. In fact, all of his sockpuppets have remarkably bad karma. Getting enough downmods to destroy the karma of a dozen different accounts is actually pretty impressive!
Twitter doesn't have a big Master Plan. (Dare I point out that assuming that he does is a very twitter-like mistake?) He just has a big ego. Hence his believe that it's OK to dominate discussions by fair means or foul. And, of course, his inability to admit that all his downmods are not the result of some big conspiracy, but simply the reaction of other users who think he's a jerk.
Dude, you say stupid stuff, you're going to get flamed. Don't whine about it.