cuate makes a well stated point. What we fear most is a change in the status quo. We’re used to having only nominally Christian presidents so even one who takes his faith seriously scares half the population.
It’s not taking faith seriously that scares me, it’s bludgeoning that faith into policy that I don’t like. I don’t care if the prez is Jewish, Christian, Wiccan, Satanist, or whatever, as long as he takes the non-establishment clause seriously too.
RexDart, it seems to me that the main thrust of your argument is that we shouldn’t elect a Jewish prez. because it would upset the terrorists. I for one don’t think we should choose our leaders based on appeasing murders.
The problem of assassination worries would be solved if Lieberman would simply choose a Jewish vice president.
I agree with you Mojo. Besides, I am pretty pissed at the terrorists. They don’t seem to care about that so why should I worry about upsetting them.
In fact, the idea of upsetting the terrorists is enough to make me consider voting Democrat if Lieberman does run! 
What do you mean “if”.
Sorry…couldn’t resist.
I sure hope we have advanced beyond a people who would even consider the religion of a candidate in deciding whether or not to elect him or her President. I can’t believe it is even an issue.
Lieberman would be a terrible candidate, but not because of his religion. He has zero charisma, and I would never be able to listen to him speak without imagining Alf standing next to him.
Like it or not, charisma DOES matter. He just won’t connect with enough voters.
Yeah, this was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.
That damn Pope-kissing Roman, the first thing he’ll do is build an underground tunnel from the White House to the Vatican.
But deciding that someone cannot be president because of his or her religion means that we dont’ have a free state.
Bullshit.
We maintain a free state precisely by electing whoever the hell we want. If the terrorists attack us with a Christian for President, limiting our rights to elect who we please is both idiotic and pointless.
You aren’t getting it. Fuck Osama bin Laden. Fuck Saddam Hussein. Fuck the Soviets when they threatened us. Fuck the Ayatollah Khomeini when he labelled us “the Great Satan”. Fuck the Taliban, and Timothy McVeigh, and the Puerto Rican terrorists who shot up the House of Representatives back during the 50s.
More bullshit, and worse. ObL and Co. did not attack us because we are allies with Israel. That is a line of crap he dreamed up after we bombed the piss out of his allies in the Taliban. He attacked us because our troops were in Saudi Arabia defending one set of Muslims from attack by a different set of Muslims.
Have you seen what this pig rectum wants us to do? His conditions for ending his war on us are to turn this country into a fundamentalist shithole like the Taliban did to Afghanistan.
Fuck that. My wife and daughter are not going to be locked in the basement wearing burqas to make this fundamentalist goat-grabber happy. I don’t want him happy, I want him dead.
Along with every other totalitarian twit who wants to enslave the free peoples of the world to his half-baked political masturbation fantasies.
Regards,
Shodan
On Preview: Dang, must learn to type faster than Shodan… 
**Geez, could you possibly suck up any more? They’re psychopaths, Rex, like Hannibal Lecter. Does sucking up work on Lecter? Would it have worked on the Unabomber, or Jeffrey Dahmer? No, because psychopaths by definition aren’t playing by the same set of rules as the rest of us. The FBI doesn’t deal with mad bombers and hostage-takers by sucking up to them.
There are any number of terrorist groups that might explode a nuclear device in an American city. Here’s the official list.
http://www.fbi.gov/terrorinfo/ftolist.htm
How in the world are you going to suck up to ALL of them? How are you going to be able to appease Al Qaeda at the same time as Kahane Chai and the Shining Path and the Liberation Tigers and Aum Shinrikyo? You’ve got some kind of tunnel vision–you’re focusing only on Al Qaeda, but the truth is that there are at least a dozen other equally disgruntled groups who could easily leave a suitcase nuke at the bus station.
And how quickly you gloss over that “Abandon Israel”. The mind boggles. Have you no concept of foreign policy? Of how it would look to the rest of the world to have Uncle Sam pink-slip Israel, to give her the “First Wife” heave-ho and show up at the Oscars with the Islamic Trophy Wife on his arm? It would jeopardize our foreign policy credibility with evvvvvvvvveryone in the world, from the UK and France and Germany right on down to Gabon.
**And–all those Islamic terrorists trust us now? What planet are you living on? We’re not talking about “the Islamic world”, remember–we’re not talking about the governments and the peoples of countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt. We’re talking about groups of mad bombers. The Saudis are grownups, and so are the Egyptians. If America elected a Jewish president, they would deal with it (without setting off any nukes), and it wouldn’t really change anything in the Mideast. They would deal with a Jewish president the same way they dealt with a Christian president.
**Apparently your planet is called La La Land. What policy changes would you suggest, that would make a group of mad bombers less pissed off at Uncle Sam? All I can think of would be complete surrender of the United States of America, including the White House, Air Force One, and Congress.
**Don’t you get it? Their Hate Meters are already set on 11. They already hate us as much as it’s possible to hate someone, plus they’re on a Mission From God to destroy us–what on earth makes you think they’re susceptible to either sucking up? Would sucking up have deflected Jake and Elwood from their mission?
And–hello?–we really ARE out to get them. They’re on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, remember?
http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/fugitives.htm
**I guess things are different on your planet, huh? Here in America it’s pretty much business as usual–we just had free elections, we are allowed to say pretty much whatever we want in public (outside of shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater), we’re allowed to do pretty much what we want in public (as long as it doesn’t involve too much nudity), and actually it’s still a Free State. Sorry about where you are.
**This is just hilarious. I mean, ROFLMAO!!
Dude, they’re on the FBI’s friggin’ Most Wanted List!! How the hell are we supposed to demonstrate to them that we’re “not going to interfere with them any longer”? Take them off the Most Wanted List, I guess? Issue a statement to CNN–“The United States government would like Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden to know that the government no longer has any issues with them, that they can go ahead and live their lives and do as they please, free of the burden of being wanted by the FBI.”
I mean, geez, Rex, get real. :rolleyes:
Oh for heaven’s sake. How old are you?
Giving in to extortionists–appeasement–never works because they always want more. Always. Every time that blackmailer tells you, “This will be the last time, I promise”, he’s lying. It’s never the last time, because it’s a cash cow, and he’s greedy.
And where “power” is concerned, it’s never enough. The Leader is never going to say, “My followers feel like they have enough power.” That’s not how it works. The followers are always looking to get more power, because down deep, they all think they can do a better job and they’d very much like to be leader. And the leader isn’t stupid (that’s why he’s the leader), and he knows that the way you keep your followers off your back is by promising them more power, but in little dribs and drabs. No way is he going to stop asking for more toys for his people.
You still don’t get it. These people are psychopaths. They aren’t playing by your noble “no thanks, we’re fine” rules. They’re crazy.
Here’s the medical definition of “psychopathy”.
This is who you’re dealing with–people who don’t give a shit what you think. You could strip naked, give them oral sex, your wife, and all your money, sacrifice your infant son to them, and beg them not to leave a suitcase nuke at the bus station–and they simply–Would. Not. Care. They would shrug and go ahead and do whatever they had already made up their minds to do.
It’s funny how American’s view of militant Islam has become almost as blindly insane as militant Islam’s view of America since 9/11. Suddenly everyone’s an expert on the psychology of the Arabs, even though they can’t pinpoint specific countries on a map. Reading some of the above posts really makes me laugh.
Care to point some out?
Remember, we’re not talking about the Islamic world, or even “militant Islam” as such–we’re talking about Islamic terrorists. There’s a difference.
Thanks for narrowing it down. But I still say most of what you said sounds like the it came from the CNN school of armchair Islamic studies. Do you really know them so well as to dissect their thought patterns so verbosely?
KNOW your enemy…don’t just second guess him or make up vitriolic statements that appeal to your hurt macho and nationalistic sense of pride. Learn about what you’re dealing with.
Reread the post Rider. DDG was clearly talking about terrorists extremists not arabs in general. I’d say we have a good idea of the view of America held by those that would continue what started on 9/11.
Rexdart, appeasement is a good example of a self defeating principle. I may link your post to a thread on that topic. There aren’t and example of appeasement to terrorists making everything better and everyone safe.
Revtim, you use yourself as an example but I’m talking about the population at large. Presidents who pay more than lip service to their particular faith alienate a large part of the population. I’m not saying that’s good, I actaually think it’s bad but it is.
Padeye…maybe you could reread my post…I said Militant Islam, not Arabs in general.
Rider, how is America’s view of militant Islam “blindingly insane” and what in this thread supports your assertion?
JMojo…ust reflecting on what I have seen and heard over the last year, both Sateside and from Americans abroad. Statements like “You could strip naked, give them oral sex, your wife, and all your money, sacrifice your infant son to them, and beg them not to leave a suitcase nuke at the bus station–and they simply–Would. Not. Care.” Seem to bear out, if not typify, my observations.
Whoa now. The statement above is merely hyperbole, not blatant untruth. If you think the gist of above statement is flat-out incorrect, is that nor tatamount to saying appeasement will work?
So what are you saying? Use of hyperbole = lack of understanding? Help us out here.