I’d just like to add that I’ve never seen you be anything but a tireless crusader for the protection of civil rights for everyone. Personally, I’ve always admired you for your intellectual consistency.
How did this thread turn into a Lucky Charms ad?
Agreed. Dio is nothing if not intellectually honest.
Because, you know, that really relates to safety issues.
Anyway, you’re thinking too small. I suggest- no, I DEMAND, that the SDMB immediately post everybody’s credit card info, especially Liberal’s!
Shouldn’t these add up to 100%?
And I can add to this that Liberal overlooks the presence on this message board of of at least one Arab Middle Eastern Terrorist supporting/ financing/recruiting Muslim.
This on its own represents an immediate life-threatening situation for every member who does not
- abandon immediately the decadent Way of Life of the Great Satan
- writes here under my eyes the shahada
- swears to have said it outloud in the presence of two Muslim witnesses while typing it.
After that, we can start negotiations for eventually softening my Fatwa.
Salaam. A
It’s a violation of board rules.
But there was a time, to prove a somewhat similar point, that I did post my name, phone, and address here. It was deleted by the administration.
Haven’t they already?
I’m not saying it’s without reason, but there is a Federal law forbidding protestors near abortion clinics. But PeTA is allowed to walk right up to customers going into Macy’s and Bloomies.
Surely you’re not saying that because there are laws keeping protestors a certain distance from clinics - I don’t know if there’s a federal law; I think there have been a few state laws that survived legal challenges (not all of them did) - we’ve “taken away the rights of Christians?” That would be a pretty large exaggeration. You don’t have to be a Christian to oppose abortion or protest at a clinic. On the other hand, the restrictions we’re discussing here are specific to Muslims. While you’re correct about the inequity here, federal registration and curtailment of privacy seems to me a greater restriction of one’s civil rights than a law that says “you can protest your heart out at a clinic, just do it at a distance of feet.”
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that I felt that it was necessarily an attack on the rights of a certain religious group. Since you admit the inequality, which was all I was pointing out, I don’t feel any need to beat this dead horse. 
I am disgusted by the results that this study got. I agree with other posters that most polls are only good for very specific lobbying purposes, and one has to read the exact questions to be able to judge what any given poll might actually address. Having said that, I actually find certain other data buried in the reports even more disturbing: That the pressure toward curtailing civil rights is coming from all political parties.
I have said it before, and will say it again, until politicians and pundits are willing to point out that our choices are to remain a free society or to become a police state, we’re going to continue to see popular pressure towards these kind of restrictions. While remaining a free society means we will remain vulnerable to another 9/11 style attack, or Oklahoma City bombing, I feel still that it is the lesser evil.
That’s fine as long as we’re agreed that there are some differences between the case of anti-abortion protestors and the case of Average Joe Muslim SixPack coming under surveillance in the USA. Bringing up the fact that PETA has never killed anybody would be out of line with the logic of this thread, but it’s still worth noting.
Umm… point of information: PeTA hasn’t killed anyone. Nor has ALF nor ELF, yet. However any terrorist group that uses arson routinely is only the next fire away from murder. ALF and ELF are inveterate arsonists, and PeTA does have links to both groups.
It’s worth noting, but I believe it is a fact that is soon to be outdated.
I’m not denying they’re allied with terrorists; I’ve argued that on this board and elsewhere, and I’ve even said it in print. I hope they don’t take that next step, but if they do, people will think differently about them than they do now.
So then you’d go along with shutting down the Catholic Church in Boston, for their assitance to the IRA?
What if I said " While remaining a free society means eventually we’ll be overtaken by a theocracy, I feel still that it is the lesser evil"
Marley, no problem. It’s that particular link that influenced my choice of ‘other’ protest groups, that’s all.
I’m afraid you’ll have to explain to me how the theocracy involved in this case (ultrafundamental Islam) could/would overtake us, first. Until, and unless, a more effective means of attack than 9/11-type strikes is available to the theocracy involved, I’m not going to worry about it.
Even if we assume that Al Qaeda’s goal is to set up a Muslim theocracy here, which it isn’t, the fact that they’re terrorists proves that they can’t do it. You don’t resort to terrorism unless you’re totally unable to beat your enemy by conventional means, and those means are quicker and more decisive- and require much more popular support.
I’d say that there is already quite quite enough reason to shut down the Catholic church in Boston without dragging in the IRA.
As for terrorism in mosques, sure, there is going to be a certian amount, but as has been mentioned already, not any different in kind than Irish bars taking up collections for the IRA or fundie Christians aiding Eric Rudolph–should we lock up every mick in Boston or every Bible thumper in the Carolinas? I may be alone in this, but I still believe in the presumption of innocence.
Moreover, we have already had the unfortunate example of an ethnic minority locked up in concentration camps by America in the grip of war hysteria. (and for the historically illiterate, the concentration camp was not devised by the Germans, but by the British during the Boer War. It doesn’t mean “death camp” but an area where one collects, concentrates if you will, the enemy into a central holding area where the government can keep an eye on them.) I’d just as not repeat the errors of the past.
Who knew the 1997 Ed Zwick film, The Siege, would be prophecy?
Well, you know, when they came for the Muslims, didn’t say much about it cause, heck, I’m not a Muslim, weren’t nothin’ to me. And when they came for the hippy protestors, didn’t have much to say 'bout that either, cause for damn sure I ain’t no hippy protestor…