winsor

I do not think this is any great revelation. It has been demonstrated that getting a Viking to die in battle is much easier if doing so is an instant ticket to Valhalla (the benefits package is AWESOME!). Telling someone that they can either A) Live out their days in squalor in a fetid shithole or B) Get an instant Ticket to Paradise (tm) if they simply strap some explosives to themselves and go bang in an approved fashion has proved pretty effective. One more virgin into the fray! The potential for reincarnation at an improved station convinced a large number of applicants to drive explosive laden craft into various vessels of one type or another. You will find that people facing very real and uncontrollable dangers are much more superstitious than those whose reaction is "fuck that!." Sailors have relied on divine intervention before setting off on the briny deep as long as anyone could tell. It is harder to get up for the game with the knowledge that it was as much of a crapshoot as it has always been. Anyhow, this story is of the 'dog bites man' variety. BSBD, Winsor

Not sure how a stanader for wire gauges is going to up your electricity bills. But I am thinking that every time you type AWG you really mean AGW. I think the TLA is AWG in Esperanto. Nah that TLA is ACS. I'll buy that. My Esperanto is pretty weak.

Not sure how a stanader for wire gauges is going to up your electricity bills. But I am thinking that every time you type AWG you really mean AGW. I think the TLA is AWG in Esperanto.

Nope, the 'People of the Book' are the Children of Israel (Jacob). This is literal, not figurative. Semetic peoples, such as Hebrews and Arabs, are Abrahamic. It is a matter of bloodline, not religious affiliation. Note that the vast majority of Muslims are NOT semites (Persians, Indonesians, sub-Saharan Africans, et al.). It is the Universal Religions that use the Bronze Age traditions of one very dysfunctional family (the aforementioned Children of Israel) that are into conversion - with or without the threat of death. As far as the dysfunctional family goes, you are either one of the Tribe or you are not. Convert? Nah, bugger off. I respect rattlesnakes, and generally leave them alone. Same goes with charismatic megafauna. The guy who decided he could get along with Alaskan Brown Bears by being buddies with them did just fine - until they ate him. Danny Pearl thought he could show respect for Muslims and expect the same in return, which worked until it was time to behead him. It's like the old joke: "You bit me!" "What did you expect? You knew I was a snake!" BSBD, Winsor

More like Apples to Androids.

An old guy trying to find another story to maintain his relevance and stay in the public eye??? It's called the Jimmy Carter effect. FWIW, Jimmy is a much better ex-president than he was a president.

This is the process of picking flyshit out of pepper that I was trying to avoid. Let us start out with the principle that religion=bullshit. If there are 1,000 religions, and a maximum of one has validity, that rounds out to 100% likelihood that any particular one is nonsense. If you consider a model of religion as psycho-cybernetic malware, it makes sense. In computation it is difficult to design a virus resistant platform, and the human brain is no different. Dawkins gives a good account of the mechanism from a different standpoint, and suggests a survival model for the susceptibility to such psychological viruses. Some people are naturally more resistant to such infections than others. Like Stuxnet, mental malware can be used for military purposes. Peoples who remained undefeated militarily have been subjugated by infection by the appropriate virulent religion; Ireland and Afghanistan come to mind. To get into a discussion of, say, the nuances of Scientology with Tom Cruise or his wapiti is pointless. If someone does not notice at the outset that the whole thing is nonsense coming and going, there is no use in pointing out to them the glaring inconsistencies in their stance. Where I stand on Islam gets to its roots. While Siddhartha and Lao Tzu, for example, were contemplative and peaceful, Muhammad was a psychopathic pervert. I have deep misgivings about anyone who could possibly revere such an evil piece of shit. I hope that clears things up a little. BSBD, Winsor

It's pretty much across the board, I'm afraid. Imagine, if you will, a pedantic Hindu man coming up to you and telling you how the Torah set the foundation for the fact that Jews love money over all else. I imagine you might pay little heed to his words. Wait a minute - are you suggesting we don't?

It is similar to the breakdown between the Roman Catholic Church and some Protestant movements. Shi'a, from Shi'atu Ali, meaning 'followers of Ali,' is the more hierarchical of the two major denominations; Sunni Islam is much more distributed - there are no Ayatollahs amongst the Sunnis, for example. Both accept the Koran ('recitation') as being the Revealed Word of God (tm), but the issue came with quite who would inherit the mantle of Muhammad upon his death. The Koran is but a cherry-picked set of transcriptions of the ramblings of Muhammad (he was entirely illiterate); those that were deemed too fucked-up for print were considered to have been influenced by Satan in their transcription ('Satanic Verses') and committed to the flames. An ironic note is that Muhammad is quoted as saying that the proof of the truth of Islam is its monolithic nature. The fact that Christianity was fractious by the time he came along showed irrefutably that it was not the 'True Religion.' I can find the Sura if pressed. In any event, those that became Sunni took exception to the practice of selecting the Khalif from the family of Muhammad, seeing that as a cult of personality and thus blasphemous. The Shi'a viewed the Sunni's rejection of the divine selection of the Khalif as equally blasphemous. In any event, the comment attributed to Yasir Arafat is that religious wars are but fights over who has the best invisible friend. BSBD, Winsor

It's pretty much across the board, I'm afraid. Rather than state particulars so that we wind up picking flyshit out of pepper, allow me an analogy. My father went out with the Fleet to the South Pacific as part of a series of invasions. His assumption was that everyone on both sides wanted to get it over and - with any luck - go home. Steaming along the Western side of Luzon, they witnessed a number of ships without superstructures being towed by oceangoing tugs. Asking an Officer what was the story, the response was along the lines of "gee, I don't know." Later, at anchorage, they went through the familiar drill of an observation plane ('Washing Machine Charlie') flying overhead, the fleet firing 3 or 4 million dollars worth of ammunition at it, and the plane flying blithely back to base. Having been alerted, they were at battle stations when the inevitable bombers appeared some time later. When, instead of flying over or diving to release their bombs, the 'bombers' simply flew into the biggest ship they could, the realization sunk in that THESE GUYS AREN'T GOING HOME! At this moment, his view of Japanese culture and things Japanese changed irrevocably, and it stayed with him until he died. We had close Japanese friends all my life, and he spent time in Japan at various times, but there were parts of Japanese culture he witnessed first hand (his ship was eventually sunk by a kamikaze) that were simply beyond the Pale. I won't waste the breath to go into the "some of my best friends are...' bit. There are, however, folks with whom I will spend time in a Western venue, but I would not dream of visiting at their home. I could not get a visa to many of their home countries without lying on the application, so I would give it a pass. We will not quibble about the fact that there are things about Western society that I find entirely unacceptable, since that has no impact on my stance regarding Islam. "You guys are fucked up too!" is not a viable defense. When any group of people shows fundamental acceptance of things I consider appalling, I generally seek to avoid them. BSBD, Winsor

According to P. J. O'Rourke (while driving a Testarossa, IIRC), it is but an "ass-engined Nazi slot car." Though Enzo was a world-class prick, I am partial to Ferraris. BSBD, Winsor And the difference between a Ferrari and a porcupine is.....? Yeah, I am reminded of a Car and Driver road test of a Benz (500 SEL?), where the author started out saying that people don't dislike Mercedes Benzes. they dislike the people who drive Mercedes Benzes. He concluded that, while the world would be a better place without the majority of Mercedes Benz owners, he had to admit that it was a very well executed automobile. I should say that I like DRIVING Ferraris, but know better than to own one. It is important, after wringing one out for an afternoon, to be able to bring it back full of high test, without a scratch on it, and hand the keys back. At that point it is Someone Else's Problem. If someone hands me the keys of a Ferrari and says that it behaves peculiarly as it approaches red line in fifth gear, I am willing to investigate and offer my opinion. And give it back. BSBD, Winsor

I should temper my perspective with the knowledge that the bulk of adherents to any particular ism have never investigated the origins or fundamental tenets of, and thus have a very poor understanding of the global significance of, their faith. I knew someone who espoused Socialism/Communism/Marxism, but had never actually read Marx, Lenin, et al. I, unfortunately, have. I got far enough into "The Book of Mormon" to reach a lifetime's limit, and I barely got into "Dianetics" before my bullshit meter broke. The Koran I force myself through. The bulk of practicing Christians have never read the Christian Scriptures or the Hebrew Scriptures, and many that have, have done so in the sense that a scanner handles a document - to imbed the image, rather than to process information. Thus, when I refer to Islam, I refer to the basic underpinnings of the ism (note: I most certainly do not give Christianity or the religious aspects of Judaism a pass). I am not being cute when I state that at its core National Socialism has much more to recommend it than does Islam (though both are unspeakably evil). Though there are very nice people who adhere to one form of Islam or another, it is anything but a "religion of peace." BSBD, Winsor

Oh, bullshit. DanG's rebuttal is correct, and your counter is twaddle. I'm,.... I'm hurt.

What does the President's prior work experience have to do with the capability of the rest of the national intelligence and military apparatus? In this case, nothing - which is precisely my point. THEIR capabilities and his ability to ORCHESTRATE their efforts are different issues altogether. It's much like the candidates the Republic of Vietnam sent to the U.S. for helicopter pilot training. They were selected for political reasons, such as being the son of a village chief or whatever. When they got here, the difference between a kid who grew up working on lawn mowers and always had a Chevy in the driveway and the kid who never drove anything more technically advanced than a water buffalo was nothing short of mind-blowing. The instructors who had the technically unskilled students tended to drink a lot.

Going all Godwin here, since my copy of the Koran sits beside my copy of Mein Kampf I do not greatly distinguish between the two (six of one, half a dozen of the other). People have harsh view of National Socialism, but they overlook the bulk of the good things that NSDAP brought about. Germany was impoverished to the point of starvation and people's lives were destroyed by the economic devastation of the '20s. The NSDAP brought about a break with the Imperial past, and these egalitarian changes are still with us. The economic powerhouse that is today's Germany is largely the result of the paradigm shift brought about by the National Socialists. Sure, there were excesses and the odd setback, but the end result was a country that is the envy of its rivals. Etc, etc. Islam is, like Scientology or the Mormon church, an ism made up of whole cloth by a charlatan as a tool to wield power. Islam is a virulent mental illness. The level of its pathology varies, but it is fundamentally evil. Followers of a psychopathic pervert are necessarily suspect, as well they should be. Btw, I have spent a large amount of time in the company of Nazis (real SS types, not wannabes) and Muslims (Sunni, Shia and lesser offshoots), and spent a fair amount of time in lands that made up the Third Reich and those that made up the Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire. While I am hardly a fan of things Nazi (for a variety of reasons), Islam has earned a level of loathing and contempt by which National Socialism pales in comparison. BSBD, Winsor

Ooh, ooh! Do tell! I am not sure quite who Seymour Hersh is, beyond being the author in question. I read a synopsis of his take on the whole thing elsewhere, and it made at least as much sense as the official version. My experience with being close to events that were widely reported is that the accepted narrative did not remotely resemble my first-hand observations. The idea that a Community Organizer playing post-turtle would have coolly orchestrated a black op to its successful conclusion as the administration would have it is beyond unlikely. The fact that Bin Laden had been marginalized by the time of his demise is a given. The level of security that was required to keep him alive that long precluded his direct operational control Killing his ass, however, had significant P.R. merit. It gets across the point that, if you cross the line by that much, you will NOT die of natural causes. In any event, the propensity for attacking the messenger, rather than the merits of the message, says it all. BSBD, Winsor

According to P. J. O'Rourke (while driving a Testarossa, IIRC), it is but an "ass-engined Nazi slot car." Though Enzo was a world-class prick, I am partial to Ferraris. BSBD, Winsor

All of the current problems in the New World can be traced to the failure of indigenous peoples to enforce strict immigration control.

Think Freddie Mercury.

The So. Dem. All. did quite well, I hear.

"Isn't that Father Murphy's car parked outside the brothel?" "It's a pity - one of those girls must be very sick."

A school of herring, no doubt.

"Incompetent leadership" is a racial code word. It is only used by racist honkies.

"He's dead, Jim."

So Texas has thousands upon thousands of morons living in the state. Quite unlike Illinois or California, which routinely deport anyone who does not qualify for Mensa.