I refuse to speak for any other poster’s, let them comment on their own opinions. My opinions are formed in the usual way, just like most every other person I know (reading No, I haven’t read the Koran…I think I’d rather chew tin foil, watching, listening and observing). Attacking me for pointing out a very under-reported quote from a radical hater of my country and my culture (as well as many others) has very little to do with having my head up my ass. (Besides, last time I tried something similar, I couldn’t even reach my lap):eek:
I’ll be honest with you, I laud your pursuit of peace and understanding…just like I did Angua and the Ismaili Community. However, I don’t hold the same utopian views you do. I for one keep asking how many more Americans have to be attacked; nearly 4,000 dead, 1,500 wounded in 94 seperate attacks since 1970. That’s alot of pain, alot of anguish, way too many families, destroyed in the name of fundementalist islam. In this case fanned by the imam of the mosque of mecca. Maybe instead of complaining about my head being up my ass, you should start worrying about all the complacent idealists who either have their face buried a philosophy book or their nose buried in a cup of Arabian Mocha Java down at Starbucks.
No I didn’t. Not even close. Throw around the ignorant and bigoted labels all you want. I’d love to know what I said that could be construed as such. Not all German or Japanese citizens were evil, but calling for a broader understanding in the 40’s would have been regarded as foolhardy.
I don’t know about flying, way too many hijackings and bombing. Maybe a cruise ship would be safer; what do you say I ask Mrs. Klinghoffer if she thinks it’s a good idea. When I reach my desitantion, can I wear a crucifix or a revealing bathing suit? Where should I go? (Don’t say hell)[ol][]Saudi Arabia? Hell no, the radicals there are really bold. They even shoot up US soldiers in the knowledge their gov’t won’t do a thing to stop them.[]Yemen? I’ll pass. Being blown to bits by suicide squads is not my idea or either a vacation or a sabbatical.[]Sudan? Prefer not to. They even kidnap and kill our ambassadors & diplomats.[]Beirut Lebanon? Ahhh, the Paris of the Mediterranean. No Thanks. Too many kidnappings, murders and truck bombings to enumerate[]Tehran, Iran? That would go over like a fart in Church.[]Baghdad? Not unless there’s a genie there to protect me. If I change my mind, I’ll be sure and send that misunderstood dove, Saddam Hussein, your regards.[/ol]I guess it’s going to have to be London. It’s not even safe on the European continent. The airport in Rome makes for a nice shooting gallery and in certain Greek, Spanish, Parisian & German restaurants you can get really bombed without even having a drink. esponsible for the attacks.
Ah well, all the better. I run into too many know-nothing American tourists as it is, one less can’t hurt. On the other hand, it probably would be fun to run into the OP on the street in Rome and go Boommm!
Screw this kinder, gentler Collounsbury! I want the one who dissects the poster’s errors and misconceptions in excruciating detail. I mean, Saudis shooting up U.S. soldiers? Kidnappings and truck bombs in Beirut? Murdering American ambassadors in Sudan? It’s like he’s asking to be eviscerated, Col!
Hell, I spent the entire month of April in Germany and the only time I got bombed was from drinking too many Red Bulls with vodka or sucking down the ebbelwoi.
Kinder, gentler? Busy and deadline meeting. I gots to describe how we might access MENA cap. markets for a possible jv. Bullshit, I know it’s gonna get vetoed but what the fuck.
I read over the OP decided the depths of its … I don’t have the right word… is just too time-consuming to address right now. I will note that in the scare-mongering link he gives in re Islamic Fundie violence against Americans (from a fairly heavy agenda website - which is to say biased) that we actually have an ad hoc conflation of PLO (secular) PLP (marxist as I recall) Turkish leftist radicals (how this fits into the Islamic Arab angle I don’t know but then this site has the agenda of painting a certain picture, as a link by gobear to its resume of Jewish position in mid-East showed) and real Islamist groups into one rather oddly incoherent basket. That’s just what I noticed on the first pass.
Whatever, it strikes me this poster probably is also scared to death to go to the City 'cause of all the violent minorities and mafia violence he’s seen on channel 9, or whatever howdy doody channel he gets out on the Island.
If you think this amounts to some sort of armageddon, some sort of Islamic fundamentalist “onslaught” (to use a term you used earlier), you don’t know the meaning of the word. Even if the figures you quote above are accurate, (and they are a crock of shit, see Col’s post above) they are a drop in the bucket. 5,500 people in 32 years? 170 people a year? By that definition, bees are an onslaught. Accidents with scissors are an onslaught. I don’t mean to belittle the deaths of those involved, but for fuck’s sake get some perspective. There are wars so small that they don’t even reach the newspapers going on around the world where that many people are killed in the average afternoon.
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[quote]
I don’t know about flying, way too many hijackings and bombing. Maybe a cruise ship would be safer; what do you say I ask Mrs. Klinghoffer if she thinks it’s a good idea. When I reach my desitantion, can I wear a crucifix or a revealing bathing suit? Where should I go? (Don’t say hell)[ol][li]Saudi Arabia? Hell no, the radicals there are really bold. They even shoot up US soldiers in the knowledge their gov’t won’t do a thing to stop them.[]Yemen? I’ll pass. Being blown to bits by suicide squads is not my idea or either a vacation or a sabbatical.[]Sudan? Prefer not to. They even kidnap and kill our ambassadors & diplomats.[]Beirut Lebanon? Ahhh, the Paris of the Mediterranean. No Thanks. Too many kidnappings, murders and truck bombings to enumerate[]Tehran, Iran? That would go over like a fart in Church.Baghdad? Not unless there’s a genie there to protect me. If I change my mind, I’ll be sure and send that misunderstood dove, Saddam Hussein, your regards.[/ol]I guess it’s going to have to be London. It’s not even safe on the European continent. The airport in Rome makes for a nice shooting gallery and in certain Greek, Spanish, Parisian & German restaurants you can get really bombed without even having a drink. esponsible for the attacks. **[/li][/QUOTE]
Well, like my ma said to me when I was a boy, a small frightened animal is more dangerous than a relaxed large one. Do you have any conception of the “onslaught” that you face from fellow drivers every time you get in a car? How do you dare to get out of bed in the morning? Your perspective has no perspective whatsoever. That’s what worries me about people like you. You are so frightened of the world that you are likely to lash out in fear and start the very war you are so scared of.
[You should have seen this post before I realised it was in GD and not the Pit;))
I had a professor in college who grew up in Beirut. . He likes to tell the story of the time he was living in New York City. He called his brother in law, who was still living in Beirut, and said “Faisal, you need to come visit me in New York.” His brother in law said, “I’m not going to New York! It’s not safe there!”
The comparison that fundamentalist Muslims of today are like fundamentalist Christians of today is a bunch corn fed, Texas bred, hot and steaming bullshit.
Yeah I see Jerry Falwell always telling his minions to go blow up the Catholics, Jews, Mulsims and Hindus. Fundamentalist Protestants crashing airplanes into buildings, well that’s something I worry about daily. And I wear my burqua everyday to the grocery store because the very sight of my hot, sexy ankle may make a man want to jump me right then and there. :rolleyes: