...and the reason why people debating it will never understand each other, is that there is a larger question about the current situation. Is it a war, yes or no? If it is a war, then a targeted assassination of an enemy leader such as this one is perfectly justified and correct; what is more, it is an excellent move, in the enemy's own code. Osama ( Read more... )

Teal Terror, you can post on my LJ as Anonymous. The comments will remain screened (invisible to anyone except me) until I unscreen them or comment on them. From what I've seen, that is not something that should worry you. One thing only: I suspect we are on different time fuses. The last time we debated, I was having a sleepless night, which is ( Read more... )

I think there is a widespread habit of reading things that people said "benevolently", especially if the person in question is famous or respected. When a sentence starts with "What I think s/he REALLY meant is...", I go "uh-oh" inwardly. The classic case as far as I am concerned is John Lennon's song "Imagine", a song which postulates a dreadful ( Read more... )

I have often found myself in the position of having to say: "You are talking nonsense. I know what Fascists are like. I have met them in considerable number since I was a child. I was born in the same country as Fascism. I have studied Fascism as a historian. [insert personal or group name] may be a detestable person, and his/her/their views ( Read more... )

...You see, I am not Barrack Obama. I do not believe that unity or agreement are either a value or even a desirable goal. I believe that nobody has a right to demand or even to hope that someone else change their views, and that the primary purpose of debate is not to change the mind of the opponent. Anyone who thinks that has a positively ( Read more... )

You may remember the case of that disabled child in Canada for whom the parents obtained permission from a court to stop her growth by chemical and surgical means. I was very unhappy with the story when it came out, but I did not know enough, and I thought it better not to criticize the parents when I did not know what they had been through or ( Read more... )

Four years ago, the government of the French Republic took the lead in refusing to support the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. The French, who had taken a very active and successful part in the first Iraq war, simply did not think that an invasion followed by the occupation of an Arab country was a good idea. That was their prerogative (see ( Read more... )

The Cuckoo: your dogma has no bearing whatever on historical fact, of which you are woefully ignorant. The sad thing is the cheerful confidence with which you retail the same old legends. For instance, the vast majority of early churches was built well away from pagan sites. You may have some fourth-hand notion of Gregory I's libellus responsorum ( Read more... )

I don't know. I just cannot seem to stay out of trouble. Time and time again, I encounter viewpoints, even among friends, that I have discarded with contempt long ago - if I ever accepted them at all - and which seem to me to violate all common sense and even basic fairness. And yet they are not only kept, but entertained and fed and honoured ( Read more... )

( Read more... )