Posting Towards Gomorrah

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Spanky
Which planet are you talking about?

Edit that post to delete, quick, we are up on him for the day,,don't blow this for us spank!

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Tamils aren't all Hindu and they are hardly trying to secede from Sri Lanka on account of religion.

I believe that the Tigers are Hindu, in part because they evicted Moslems from Jaffna a few years back, which tends to undermine what you are suggesting here, but I'll admit that I'm no expert on the subject.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
Edit that post to delete, quick, we are up on him for the day,,don't blow this for us spank!

slave still hasn't said what was incorrect about the NYT's NIE piece from last Sunday, and none of you have mentioned anything about Woodward's upcoming book. I'm undefeated!

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop

[Ty quote] I'll admit that I'm no expert on the subject.[/Ty quote]

New Thead title?

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
I'm undefeated!

In the dumbest contest?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
It gives me some solace that the hope I have placed in Islam being only a failing but redeemable, and not failed religion is not misplaced. I can't wait until the moderates reign in the radicals and the global threats start to lessen. We will drink heartily of my stash of Harlan Estate on that day my brother.

Is Islam failing if most Moslems think that suicide bombing is wrong? Maybe Islamic countries are particularly susceptible to non-religious factors -- occupation by a better armed country, poor education, or maybe dumping of cheap Washington State boxed wine -- that drive people to kill themselves and others simultaneously.

Define "worst" in the above context. please.

Quantitatively, not qualitatively. As of a few years ago, I read that the Tamil Tigers were responsible for far more suicide bombings than any other group, including the Japanese military. Maybe with the unrest in Iraq and better customs enforcement keeping the Washington State boxed wine out of Sri Lanka, those numbers have changed since I read that.

[Not Bob]

What the heck? Anybody heard about this? And, spanky, isn't (uh, wasn't) Foley regarded as a pretty decent guy?

From Yahoo/A.P.:

• WASHINGTON - Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former male page.
  
  "I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," he said in a statement issued by his office.
  
  The two-sentence statement did not refer to the e-mails and gave no reason for Foley's decision to abruptly abandon a flourishing career in Congress.
  
  *********************
  
  Campaign aides had previously acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.
  
  *********************
  
  The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy, who served as a page for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.
  
  "The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process," the group wrote, adding that the committee, "must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House."
  

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Not Bob
What the heck? Anybody heard about this? And, spanky, isn't (uh, wasn't) Foley regarded as a pretty decent guy?

I read about the e-mails with the page yesterday on TPM. They were creepy. Apparently he stepped down when it came out that someone found even creepier stuff in IM transcripts.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Good news out of the Senate on torture, for a change.

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
Edit that post to delete, quick, we are up on him for the day,,don't blow this for us spank!

You lost me.

Taxwonk claimed that Islam is the largest religion on the planet. This is wrong. There are about one billion Muslims (80% Sunni 20% Shia and other denominations). I believe there are over one Billion Catholics let alone all the other denominations. There might be as many as two billion Christians.

I realize I am a little slow but what has this got to do with your scoring system?

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Is Islam failing if most Moslems think that suicide bombing is wrong? Maybe Islamic countries are particularly susceptible to non-religious factors -- occupation by a better armed country, poor education, or maybe dumping of cheap Washington State boxed wine -- that drive people to kill themselves and others simultaneously.

Ty, out of optimism and recognition of the demographics, I am willing to buy that several hundreds of millions of Islamics (collectively referred to as the "Moderates") think that suicide bombing or war or insurgency or oppression of noin-believers, woman et al in the name of Allah is wrong; however I am not convinced that those Moderates are taking the lead in reigning in or creating negative conseqiuences for those Islamics who think killing and oppression in the name of Allah is a good thing. I am waiting to be able to champion those Moderates when they raise their banners and start getting out in front of the problem. Hopefully you and I together can bridge our ideological gaps participate with them in that campaign. Kumbayah?

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop


Quantitatively, not qualitatively. As of a few years ago, I read that the Tamil Tigers were responsible for far more suicide bombings than any other group, including the Japanese military. Maybe with the unrest in Iraq and better customs enforcement keeping the Washington State boxed wine out of Sri Lanka, those numbers have changed since I read that.

Are you saying that since say 2000, the Tamil Tigers have killed more than 3000 people with suicide bombings?

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I read about the e-mails with the page yesterday on TPM. They were creepy. Apparently he stepped down when it came out that someone found even creepier stuff in IM transcripts.

Transcripts please? Don't just tease us.....

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Not Bob
What the heck? Anybody heard about this? And, spanky, isn't (uh, wasn't) Foley regarded as a pretty decent guy?

From Yahoo/A.P.:

• WASHINGTON - Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former male page.
  
  "I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," he said in a statement issued by his office.
  
  The two-sentence statement did not refer to the e-mails and gave no reason for Foley's decision to abruptly abandon a flourishing career in Congress.
  
  *********************
  
  Campaign aides had previously acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.
  
  *********************
  
  The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy, who served as a page for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.
  
  "The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process," the group wrote, adding that the committee, "must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House."
  

There are a whole swath of in the closet gay conservative Republican congressmen. I know of at least five but from what I understand there are a lot more. My guess is that he was one of the ones I didn't know about.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
Ty, out of optimism and recognition of the demographics, I am willing to buy that several hundreds of millions of Islamics (collectively referred to as the "Moderates") think that suicide bombing or war or insurgency or oppression of noin-believers, woman et al in the name of Allah is wrong; however I am not convinced that those Moderates are taking the lead in reigning in or creating negative conseqiuences for those Islamics who think killing and oppression in the name of Allah is a good thing. I am waiting to be able to champion those Moderates when they raise their banners and start getting out in front of the problem. Hopefully you and I together can bridge our ideological gaps participate with them in that campaign. Kumbayah?

I think I agree with everything you say here. Wowzer. Also, you remind of the Yeats poem, "The Second Coming":

• Turning and turning in the widening gyre
  The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
  Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
  Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
  The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
  The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
  The best lack all convictions, while the worst
  Are full of passionate intensity.

Are you saying that since say 2000, the Tamil Tigers have killed more than 3000 people with suicide bombings?

No. Thanks for clarifying.

I don't think of the 9/11 attacks as "suicide bombing" because I think of the planes as having been passenger planes full of people, but I can see why their explosive qualities might lead you to think of them as bombs.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
Transcripts please? Don't just tease us.....

Links here. More here.