Posts by bohm

19

Moral High Ground

by Spoletta in

it seems that the other threads about trump's policies are veering off into endless ideological theories about how much better we are than islam.

does anyone think there is a chance that islam can be changed in the same manner that christianity has over the centuries?

with the inflow of ideas from western countries into the middle east, will people gradually want to move away from sharia law to something less patriarchal and cruel?

bohm

Islam has already been reformed... otherwise, there would be no such thing as "Islamic reformers".

The problem in these conversations is that people talk about Islam as one thing and think about Islams religious texts, sexist and horrible as they may be, as determining what Muslims must believe similar to how Newtons laws determine how a ball drops to the ground.

In practice, religion is nearly infinitely malleable and the religious texts of all religions (including Islam) can be interpreted in a million different ways.

236

84 Lumber Commercial

by azor in

jw
friends

just saw this commercial and was very impressed.

hoping more companies start doing the same.

most of us are immigrants.

bohm

I agree that DT should offer more transparency about which companies he own and who they own money to than what would simply show up in a tax return. A tax return is just the basic level of financial transparency which he refuses to offer..

236

84 Lumber Commercial

by azor in

jw
friends

just saw this commercial and was very impressed.

hoping more companies start doing the same.

most of us are immigrants.

bohm

Arguments that Trump does not need to show his tax returns are in my opinion quite ridiculous. It is well-known he owns hundreds of millions to hostile governments as well as nearly 100 limited liability companies. What are these companies doing? Who exactly has financial power over Trump? Nobody knows...

Even entry-level positions in intelligence services require regular polygraph tests as well as disclosure of very personal details about one's private life. Requiring just a fraction of the same disclosure for the person who is ultimately in charge of running the country is in my view a no-brainer.

236

84 Lumber Commercial

by azor in

jw
friends

just saw this commercial and was very impressed.

hoping more companies start doing the same.

most of us are immigrants.

bohm

This is only tangentially related, but regarding free speech and the crazy left, I think Mitch McConnell just silenced Elizabeth Warren because he wanted the senate to be a safe space lol!

I have a feeling that Warren 2020 might just have been launched ;-).

236

84 Lumber Commercial

by azor in

jw
friends

just saw this commercial and was very impressed.

hoping more companies start doing the same.

most of us are immigrants.

bohm

freemindfade: Does it often happen to you that people who don't agree with you 100% call you a racist?

Like, has that every happened to you?

Because it seems to me that examples of people who exhibit that behavior is very rare...

236

84 Lumber Commercial

by azor in

jw
friends

just saw this commercial and was very impressed.

hoping more companies start doing the same.

most of us are immigrants.

bohm

I have a question: does a commitment to free speech which implies that the use of racial slurs is okay also mean that when the left use very expansive definitions of the words "racist" and "fascist" that is okay as well?

9

Trump vows to repeal limits on churches

by StarTrekAngel in

i know the jws would not necessarily take advantage of this (or may be they would) but certainly, they will spin it off somehow.. https://www.yahoo.com/news/religious-looking-trump-protections-081209487--politics.html.

bohm

Sir82: A joke I saw on twitter was that they should just build a fake oval office and do a Truman show on him. Heck, for that I would don a MAGA hat once a year and meet up in DC to celebrate that he had nuked Narnia.

401

So, the Womens March ... What Is It For?

by Simon in

it seems like mobilizing after the election, which seems pointless.

i keep hearing demands for equal rights but don't understand what rights they are missing exactly.. normally a march is to show the support (and potential votes) for a cause, but ... votes for what?

... and the election happened already.. is anyone else confused?

bohm

Balaamsass2: Delegitimization at all costs...

Here is the opinion of a lawyer:

https://lawfareblog.com/malevolence-tempered-incompetence-trumps-horrifying-executive-order-refugees-and-visas

The malevolence of President Trump’s Executive Order on visas and refugees is mitigated chiefly—and perhaps only—by the astonishing incompetence of its drafting and construction.
(...)
This order reads to me, frankly, as though it was not reviewed by competent counsel at all.
(...)
Let’s start with the malevolence of the document, which Amira Mikhail summarized and Adham Sahloul analyzed earlier today. I don’t use the word “malevolence” here lightly. As readers of my work know, I believe in strong counterterrorism powers. I defend non-criminal detention. I’ve got no problem with drone strikes. I’m positively enthusiastic about American surveillance policies. I was much less offended than others were by the CIA’s interrogations in the years after September 11. I have defended military commissions.
Some of these policies were effective; some were not. Some worked out better than others. And I don’t mean to relitigate any of those questions here. My sole point is that all of these policies were conceptualized and designed and implemented by people who were earnestly trying to protect the country from very real threats. And the policies were, to a one, proximately related to important goals in the effort. While some of these policies proved tragically misguided and caused great harm to innocent people, none of them was designed or intended to be cruel to vulnerable, concededly innocent people. Even the CIA’s interrogation program, after all, was deployed against people the agency believed (mostly correctly) to be senior terrorists of the most dangerous sort and to garner information from them that would prevent attacks.
I actually cannot say that about Trump’s new executive order—and neither can anyone else.

401

So, the Womens March ... What Is It For?

by Simon in

it seems like mobilizing after the election, which seems pointless.

i keep hearing demands for equal rights but don't understand what rights they are missing exactly.. normally a march is to show the support (and potential votes) for a cause, but ... votes for what?

... and the election happened already.. is anyone else confused?

bohm

Simon:

The ideology of Islam is much closer to Nazism than anything (Hitler was inspired by it and Muslim countries fought on their side and made up their own SS brigades). So it's ironic that the left is so adamant to support it (I mean the general left, not just the extremists).

It is impossible to have a reasoned discussion on this topic if you will not acknowledge I have the opinions I do in fact have. I know that you know this is a fallacy in other contexts so I do not know why this has to be an issue.

We've already repeated the mistake of shutting the door to those most at risk just like boatloads of Jews were turned away from the US to die in concentration camps.
Why not check who is allowed in and who isn't? It would be a bad idea to let the modern day nazis in after all wouldn't it?

..which is why a country-by-country ban is a bad idea, especially when not banning the countries that have actually send terrorist (curiously, Trump does not have business ties to those countries banned).

You did not say if we should fear muslims by the way. General Flynn believes that is rational...

401

So, the Womens March ... What Is It For?

by Simon in

it seems like mobilizing after the election, which seems pointless.

i keep hearing demands for equal rights but don't understand what rights they are missing exactly.. normally a march is to show the support (and potential votes) for a cause, but ... votes for what?

... and the election happened already.. is anyone else confused?

bohm

Do your own research if you're interested.

Well I did. Didn't find anything concrete...

The have Syrian immigrants, how many are refugees is debatable. The fact is the surrounding Islamic countries (with some exceptions) aren't the defacto destinations you would imagine they should be.

Ah, they ARE in fact taking in a whole bunch of refugees :-). Isn't it something like 500'000 in Saudi Arabia and about 20'000 in the USA?

Individual Muslims? No. Islam and Sharia? Yes. Islam takes over and trashes civilizations. It's an ideology that measures its advance in centuries, not the short-term that we tend to view things in.

Well I have something to say about the "love the sinner hate the sin" attitude. but for now I will only quote General Flynn: "Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL: please forward this to others: the truth fears no questions..."

I think they value the country that Obama gifted to them more.

What do you mean?

I have to pass the rest of your post. I don't think I can explain my position if you do not acknowledge the difference between the far left and the left.. it is very frustrating that I must answer for beliefs that I vocally oppose and have opposed for all the years I have been on this board.

This might interest you regarding who is running the country:

Steve Bannon has, BTW, just replaced the director of the joint chiefs of staff/Director of national intelligence on the principals committee on the NSC so expect more from him in the future...