Politics

Very interesting:
Republicans calling Obama a "tar baby"

HF, it is not anti-Muslim propaganda. Have you watched it?
It talks about the multiple and various Muslim countries which live in peace and harmony. It separates Muslim beliefs from Islamic beliefs since they're not identical.
It sheds light on the roots and the current state of Islam and it does so in a non-hate mongering way. Not about hatred but awareness. I watched this with a woman who used to be heavily involved with the nation of Islam and she concurred that it was all true. There are no made-up "facts".
Watch the first 10 minutes and tell me if you see what you think it is about.

 

For whatever reason that video is down. I think Islamism might be the term? Basically people who want to impose a theocracy, right?

On another topic, relevant to the election year we're in -- this article reaches some pessimistic conclusions about the current vacuousness of the political process, but I have trouble disagreeing:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_globalization_of_hollow_politics_20120423/

 

Here's part 1:


And I think this is the vid that was deleted:


The whole entire thing is definitely worth watching though. It didn't make me feel hatred or fear or anything negative but it did help me to understand and learn more about Middle Eastern culture.

EmX, I believe politics is going to reach a level where it's going to be a lot like the movie Idiocracy. Lol, I know it sounds silly but mark my words, we WILL see a candidate way more popular than Obama or Reagan get elected based mostly on his popularity and mass appeal.

 

Look at the people in the movie, Robert Spencer, in particular. He is an ultra-right winger and the founder of Jihad Watch, a nutty "counterjihadi" blog. Jihad Watch is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and even the very pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League.

Having just taken a graduate course on political Islam, I can say that these guys are fringe elements and should not be taken seriously. That isn't to say that academic consensus on subjects is always correct, but these guys truly are screwballs. If you found the piece persuasive, well the most charitable thing that can be said is that it is a well-produced piece of propaganda.

I have to wonder how you would get turned on to something like this considering that the guys behind this stuff literally think that Obama is a Communist who hates America. Sometimes super pro-Israel Jewish people find this kind of crap to their liking. That isn't to diss Jewish people as a whole since most of them that I have known are generally less bigoted than most people.

 

A remember a Jewish acquaintance with his long-term girlfriend, a Tourettes sufferer. I never understood how they were able to stay together for so long.

Then I saw the swear jar.

 

Hahaha, awesome joke BlackDragaon.

Marly and HF, really? If you guys are right, which I think you are, then I am wrong.
HF, I really like that you're so educated on such a wide range of topics. As dumb as it sounds, I really thought that "documentary" was speaking the truth since when I looked up parts they were quoting from the Koran they were accurate.

Marly, no other religion or faith I know says to be violent towards any other faith or religion... but maybe I'm wrong about that too.
I was a Christian for a few years and even though the bible says some pretty outlandish things like Jesus saying that "if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out" but it doesn't say anything like "pluck your neighbor's eye out".
How many religions out there are still practicing harm towards other humans for whatever reason?
Satanism?
I think too many people play the apologist role when it comes to Islamic beliefs. I mean, even when I was a Christian and people would ask me about some of the stuff in the bible I would say "dude, I have no idea what that's all about, I'm trying to figure it out myself".
I stuck with it thinking that maybe, eventually, I would understand but all I did was kept realizing more and more how man-made all these religions are and how insane some of those writings are.
I believe some of them were created by evil and twisted individuals.
It's hard to stand up so hard for something that just doesn't sound right and keeps sounding worst the more you read/hear it.

 

I hear you on all the religious stuff. I can't make heads or tails of it, but in many ways, I think it is a distraction when it comes to people killing people.

Muslims are the best example. Yes, there are fanatical Muslims out there, but there is a history that almost no one knows. To oversimplify slightly: The British Empire created the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood was the first formally organized pan-Islamic movement and it was supported by the Brits because it was an alternative to Egyptian Nationalism. During the Cold War, the CIA would sponsor Said Ramadan, a globe trotting Muslim Brotherhood man.

The Muslim Brotherhood was the inspiration for the Devotees of Islam in Iran whose descendents run the crazy theocracy in Iran today. The Devotees were instrumental in the CIA overthrow of the elected Iranian gov't in 1953. The US and Brits were angry at Iran b/c Iran nationalized its oil.

The Muslim Brotherhood also spawned more directly Hamas and al Qaeda. Al Qaeda's top man Ayman al-Zawahiri is a Muslim Brotherhood man. The US used al Qaeda in Afghanistan in the 80's and in Bosnia, Chechnya, Azerbaijan, and Kosovo in the 1990's. They have recently fought alongside US supported forces in Libya and Syria. In between they "turned against us" and did 9/11 or whatever.

The main point is that the US and British Empires have always favored Islamists like the Brotherhood and the Saudi Wahabis because they are nutty religious fanatics and not materialists. Meanwhile, our ruling class is thoroughly materialistic: We want all the oil and the banking power that comes with it. We will use that economic power to build a huge military to make sure that we will always be able to maintain the power and wealth of the ruling class. Empire is a self-licking ice cream cone.

Long live the Empire!

 

Cracked.com comes through again...

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-spot-b.s.-political-story-in-under-10-seconds

 

^^

Sums it up for me!!

 

Study reveals: Super Rich hiding more than $21 trillion in tax-free havens

That's more than the economical worth of the U.S. and Japan combined

 

Whenever this thread gets revived I get scared to check who posted, I don't want to see tengu's name ever again... >=j

 

As long as we are on the topic, here is a Ron Paul video! (one worth watching for once)

 

I saw this earlier. See, the funniest thing about Romney is that he's wealthy and doesn't openly flaunt it. Instead he makes flailing attempts to downplay it and it turns out awkward, weird and very, uh, Mormon. In other words, he's not a good candidate for the spite voter. I think I'm asking for too much from CollegeHumor, though.

Anyways, I'm sitting this election out. No more lesser of two evils nonsense. I don't think the Greens are making the ballot here anyway.

 

Lol

 

Politics?
Ahhhhhhhhh! Everyone, run!! Look for cover!