Comments Posted By funny man
Displaying 371 To 380 Of 492 Comments
Ron Russell,
Comment Posted By funny man On 15.01.2009 @ 17:15
I think you exaggerate quite a bit. If all of Israels problem were a few students in Berkeley, that would be a happy moment.
For a little balance, I'd recommend some reading (and perhaps disagreeing) with:
http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2009/01/03/if-i-were-israels-pm/
Comment Posted By funny man On 10.01.2009 @ 00:26
Part of the Muslim world will always hate us (the 'West' in general) no matter how even handed we act, that is true. However, I also believe that the Palestinians were sold out by many in the past years e.g. their own Arab "brothers", the Iranians and the Muslim Brotherhood. That had tragic consequences for many because, believe it or not, there are also innocent desperate Palestinians worthy our sympathy (and it is with them in mind that I want a fair solution; I couldn't care less if the extremist Islamists are driven into the sea). So eventually there has to be a two state solution (or should be) and the majority in Israel would agree with that. The majority of Israelis is also not in agreement with some of the religious freaks of the settlers and neither should we. We should try to find a fair two state solution that is all I'm saying.
Comment Posted By funny man On 9.01.2009 @ 20:32
Now concerning the 'Arab world", I do believe that they feel disrespected. For the most part that has nothing to do with Israel or the West but with a society that has difficulties transforming itself. They feel they were once superior (true more than a thousand years ago) but now 'lost' it. That is a dangerous psychological mix that is not going to go away anytime soon. However, as I stated before we should give the sensible elements reason to be on our side and I also want to tell you that I agree with a lot of your analysis though.
Before people get overheated, I'd like to get back to the question 'is it in our national interest to have a significant portion of the Muslim world constantly against us?'. Hamas might not be such a monolithic bloc as sometimes assumed:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,600349,00.html
I don't have much sympathy for Hamas but I don't see anything wrong in trying to support the current Egyptian-led initiative as Condi Rice is doing. That would include Hamas BTW.I would agree because war, while sometimes the answer, has its limits in this situation. Israel was not seeking to "defeat" or "punish" Hamas in the classic sense. They were simply trying to degrade the ability of Hamas to hurt their citizens. In this, they have been successful and it may be time for the Egypt-France initiative to move to the forefront.
As for your question about Muslims hating us, unless you have some evidence that they would not hate us if Israel didn't exist or if we supported the Palestinians, it is a moot point. There are other bones of contention, not the least of which is our support for various kleptocracies and brutal kingdoms in the Arab world over the years - more a cold war hangover than anything. But even if we overthrew them all, I find no evidence that we would be any less disliked.
You can't simply make a statement that the Arabs wouldn't hate us if we were more even handed or didn't support Israel. It may seem like common sense but history doesn't work like that. In order to do so, you have to posit a counterfactual. And if you read Niall Ferguson's Virtual History, you would see the problems with that path.
ed.
Comment Posted By funny man On 9.01.2009 @ 19:08
TERRORIST JEWS HALT THEIR BABY KILLING TO ALLOW HUMANITARIAN RELIEF OF THEIR ENEMIES
This 'self-hate', white males are in the dumpster is just nonsense. Just an urban legend trying to 'explain' liberals. Same what the lefties do trying to 'explain' conservatives. I
Comment Posted By funny man On 7.01.2009 @ 23:28
It is true that Hitler only got a bit over 30% of the vote (and then there were other undemocratic parties e.g. national conservatives, communists) (thanks for pointing that out). It was only after the 'Ermaechtigungs Gesetz' that he seized power and got rid of any opposition. However, as in Germany and Gaza these people have (had) popular support. I just wanted to point out that when you have someone like Hitler or Hamas running the show, innocent people will be killed through no fault of their own.
Comment Posted By funny man On 3.01.2009 @ 17:43
Just a few points I wanted to add. I agree with Postagoras that there are quite a few on the left who strongly support Israel against Hamas. Hitler was also democratically elected and the German people (and many others) suffered for it. I do believe that there really is no solution with Hamas. However, not all of Israel's actions (mainly the settlements) is helpful for a just solution. BTW, that is also majority opinion in Israel and quite a few conservatives such as Buchanan point out that the United States should have been less one sided. As far as Franco and the Spanish Civil War is concerned, one has to consider that there was a coalition fighting the Fascists e.g. George Orwell was definitely not enthused about the increasing influence of the communists. Once the Germans with 'Legion Condor' started supporting Franco the republican side was desperate for help (unfortunately Soviet).
Anyway, Hamas, Hesbollah and the whole islamist gang is definitely something entirely different and moral equivalence with Israel is ridiculous.Before someone beats me to it...
Hitler was NOT elected. It was months after his defeat in the presidential race by Hindenberg that he maneuvered Von Papen into getting the President to ask him to form a government as Chancellor - a government Von Papen thought he would control in the wings.
Not the last to underestimate Hitler.
ed.
Comment Posted By funny man On 3.01.2009 @ 15:40
As a conservative I'm naturally against such a massive government take over/bail-out/what have you. However, I'd like to point out that nobody of today's economists be they conservatives or liberal know what the best medicine is. Most agree that some sort of stimulus is helpful (also conservatives BTW) and they all mean billions and billions. On the other hand, not doing anything could work out and maybe it won't. I challenge anyone in this forum to come up with a plan to a) keep us competitive in the long run b) help reduce our deficit and c) stimulate the economy.
Comment Posted By funny man On 31.12.2008 @ 00:52
Most of you seem only to care about the political fallout, I really don't. Let's assume Obama assembled a dream team regarding economists and he can pull it off thereby "proving" my economic understanding wrong. Would I have a case of wounded pride? Yes!!, but in the overall picture that hardly matters. I hope it is still country first. Now I want to emphasize that I don't think Obama's plan (and many Republicans) will work. However, nobody here on this forum really knows what just happened with our economy (or did anyone of you lost any sleep over mortgage backed securities just three month ago) nor knows how to fix it. Or do we have the conservative Paul Krugman in our midst?
IS 'BARACK THE MAGIC NEGRO' RACIST?
I have to go to a 'black' barber shop to talk like that not with my fellow whites. There is a pretty funny piece about this in 'stuff white people like' under 'being offended'.
Comment Posted By funny man On 27.12.2008 @ 16:40
I also want to add that the original Skinheads were not racist as depicted today. They actually listened to Reggae, they came from the hard end of the Mods who split by the end of the sixties into hippies and skinheads (ok, oversimplified for my American bloggers). The style is actually a merger between working class attire and the Rude Boy style of Jamaica. American skinheads didn't appear until way into the eighties and a lot (not all) are racists of the dumbest order.
Sure ID and creationism can be taught in school, just don't pass them off as science. I could name you quite a lot of experiments of how to determine the age of the Earth none of which says 6000 years. If you can do that, try to publish that in a serious journal. Maybe then we can start talking about admitting this into the science curriculum. What should be taught is 'scientific methodology' not just facts. Can you verify or falsify a theory (according to Popper you can't verify only falsify; nevertheless that gives you a better and better idea of what is going on). With ID you can't do neither because it is experimentally not verifiable. Would you thus propose we should teach reincarnation in the science curriculum? Same problem there. Again, how you design experiments to test a hypothesis is what science is all about. That would probably help this discussion too.
Comment Posted By funny man On 28.12.2008 @ 17:23
