Explosions at Belgium Airport

[ChumpDumper]

your textual/literal approach to this forum would make scalia proud

Hey if you think Catcher in the Rye killed John Lennon, that's your belief.

You didn't answer the question.

I do blame the Nazis.

They were the people who killed other people.

I don't blame Mein Kampf.

Do you understand?

Yes or no.

[boutons_deux]

GOPers Clamor For Obama To Cut Cuba Trip Short After Brussels Attacks

Republican leaders criticized President Barack Obama for remaining in Cuba on Tuesday afterterrorist attacks killed at least 31 people and injured 181 others in Brussels.

GOP presidential candidates Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) both said that the President should cut his planned trip to Latin America short and return to the United States immediately.

“President Obama should be back in the United States keeping this country safe or President Obama should be planning on traveling to Brussels,” Cruz told ABC News.

In an interview with Fox’s “America’s Newsroom” ahead of Obama’s scheduled address to the Cuban people, Kasich urged the President to tell his audience that he was heading home.

“I hope he will say he's leaving Cuba and heading back to the White House to organize meetings with leaders around the world and get
himself in the position where we can send teams of people to Europe to see what we can do to address the vulnerabilities we have,” the Ohio governor said.

Rep. Pete King (R-NY) joined the GOP candidates’ call, telling Fox News that the president “has to come back.”

“Come back and assert leadership,” King said. “We are the leader of the free world in the fight against ISIS. It's important for ISIS to know that. This is much more important than Cuba. You can't come back in a panic but he has to come back.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/re...+%28TPMNews%29

Repug Klown BUS!

[DMX7]

Mein Kampf isn't exactly analogous to the Quran.

[Pelicans78]

Saudi Arabia could take out ISIS in Iraq and in Syria almost single-handedly if it wanted to.

They don't have enough man power. They have plenty of artillery to bomb the out of them like they do the Houthis in Yemen, but they don't have enough ground troops to take them out. That's why they're constantly asking Pakistan to help out.

[rmt]

I think what irritates most is that legit Muslims seem to do little or in some cases nothing to expose ISIS phuck s.
Example that section of Belgium that houses many of the s.
Hard to believe others do not know exactly who they are, what they are doing.

Yep, that last Paris terrorist managed to hide out in his neighborhood for 4? months. There's no way those people living in that area don't know what's going on. They harbor these terrorists. Are they afraid of getting killed themselves why they don't speak up or do they also believe in what they're doing? And the Belgium police can't go into these areas or expect any cooperation.

[DMX7]

They don't have enough man power. They have plenty of artillery to bomb the out of them like they do the Houthis in Yemen, but they don't have enough ground troops to take them out. That's why they're constantly asking Pakistan to help out.

They have like a quarter-million active duty troops (not including reserves). That's more than enough to take out ISIS with minimal help.

[ChumpDumper]

Mein Kampf isn't exactly analogous to the Quran.

What is a better example for the Nazis then?

[Pelicans78]

They have like a quarter-million active duty troops (not including reserves). That's more than enough to take out ISIS with minimal help.

They can't take out the Houthis. Their army is not well-trained and sucks overall.

[DisAsTerBot]

Yep, that last Paris terrorist managed to hide out in his neighborhood for 4? months. There's no way those people living in that area don't know what's going on. They harbor these terrorists. Are they afraid of getting killed themselves why they don't speak up or do they also believe in what they're doing? And the Belgium police can't go into these areas or expect any cooperation.

do you know everything your neighbors are up to?

[Warlord23]

Blaming this on a religious book is kinda missing the point. Most religious texts has some de able/crazy things in them, not to mention contradictions and fallacies. The problem starts when a majority of people (especially the ones in power) insist that the book is to be followed literally. Countries like the UK or Denmark where Christianity is the state religion don't have laws or government policy based on the Bible.

Most Muslim majority countries use religious law to curb individual rights, discriminate or dispense cruel punishment. Countries like Iran, Iraq and Egypt which used to be secular became religious (the US and UK had a shameful role to play in Iran's conversion, BTW). Turkey is nominally secular, but has increasingly mixed Islam with politics over time. This is the fight that mainstream Muslims should have fought - to keep their religion separate from their politics.

The irony of course is that the most bellicose criticism of political Islam comes from right wing Christians who want to (selectively) use the Bible to guide the legal system, e.g. abortion, gay rights, Nativity scenes on government property, etc. Once that monster is out of the bag, it's difficult to put it back in.

[spurraider21]

Blaming this on a religious book is kinda missing the point. Most religious texts has some de able/crazy things in them, not to mention contradictions and fallacies. The problem starts when a majority of people (especially the ones in power) insist that the book is to be followed literally. Countries like the UK or Denmark where Christianity is the state religion don't have laws or government policy based on the Bible.

Most Muslim majority countries use religious law to curb individual rights, discriminate or dispense cruel punishment. Countries like Iran, Iraq and Egypt which used to be secular became religious (the US and UK had a shameful role to play in Iran's conversion, BTW). Turkey is nominally secular, but has increasingly mixed Islam with politics over time. This is the fight that mainstream Muslims should have fought - to keep their religion separate from their politics.

The irony of course is that the most bellicose criticism of political Islam comes from right wing Christians who want to (selectively) use the Bible to guide the legal system, e.g. abortion, gay rights, Nativity scenes on government property, etc. Once that monster is out of the bag, it's difficult to put it back in.

[clambake]

maybe its the waffles.

[CosmicCowboy]

I honestly don't understand the endgame of these ing jihadists. What is really accomplished by blowing yourself up in a group of non political, non combatant strangers? So you kill and wound a couple hundred people...how does this advance their cause? What the IS their cause?

[SupremeGuy]

Damn! So close.

[SupremeGuy]

The irony of course is that the most bellicose criticism of political Islam comes from right wing Christians who want to (selectively) use the Bible to guide the legal system, e.g. abortion, gay rights, Nativity scenes on government property, etc. Once that monster is out of the bag, it's difficult to put it back in.

I think it's more ironic that the American liberals(feminists, gays, Atheists, etc) that support islam the most are the same people they want to kill.

[boutons_deux]

I think it's more ironic that the liberals that support islam the most are the same people they want to kill.

In your magnificent ignorance and confusion, supporting Muslims' right to practice their religion isn't same as supporting terrorists who are Muslims seeking revenge against Christian US/Europe.

[boutons_deux]

in a general election, Trump, burdened by broad unpopularity, would start the race as an underdog, but many analyses have concluded that he could win the presidency anyway if voters are sufficiently terrified. It feeds into a conventional wisdom that suggest Republicans benefit politically in the wake of terrorism, and Trump specifically benefits even more.

But the conventional wisdom may not be entirely correct. Yes, Trump has seen a boost in GOP support after attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, but extrapolating to a national audience is a different story. I’m reminded of this Washington Post/ABC News poll we discussed around Thanksgiving – after the Paris attacks and when Americans were increasingly panicked about refugees.

A crescendo of tough talk on Syrian refugees and terrorism seems to be elevating the toughest talkers in the GOP primary – most notably Donald Trump. But among the broader American public, the most trusted person to handle the issue is Hillary Clinton. […]

By 50 percent to 42 percent, more Americans say they trust Clinton to handle the threat of terrorism than Trump, who leads the Republican field and responded to the Paris terrorist attacks by calling for heightened surveillance of mosques and redoubling his opposition to allowing Syrian refugees to settle in the U.S.

Clinton’s eight-point advantage over Trump wasn’t unique: the same poll showed the Democratic frontrunner also leading the other GOP contenders when respondents were asked, “Who would you trust more to handle the threat of terrorism?”

It’s not the only data available on this. The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent noted this morning, “A recent Economist/YouGov poll found that only 30 percent of Americans think Trump is ‘ready to be Commander in Chief,’ while 60 percent say he isn’t.

For Hillary Clinton, those numbers are 46-45.”

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...d=sm_fb_maddow

[Warlord23]

I think it's more ironic that the people that support islam the most are the same people they want to kill.

Not really. Those who avoid critique of Islam (I don't think "support" is the right phrase here) might be misguided, but they are still sticking to a principle of not judging every member of a group based on stereotypes. This is misguided because it ignores the way the religion in question affects the structure of Muslim nations and the traits of its citizens. Whereas it is clearly ironic that people who want their faith to drive politics hate it when another faith (Islam) drives the politics of Muslim nations far more deeply than Christianity does at home.

[DMX7]

What is a better example for the Nazis then?

I don't think there is any good example. The Nazi party was in direct opposition with the church, and it was hardly, if at all, using religious texts to justify its actions. Many Islamic extremists on the other hand cite religious texts as justification for their actions and some probably do draw genuinely bad motivation from a literal interpretation of these texts.

[ChumpDumper]

I don't think there is any good example. The Nazi party was in direct opposition with the church, and it was hardly, if at all, using religious texts to justify its actions. Many Islamic extremists on the other hand cite religious texts as justification for their actions and some probably do draw genuinely bad motivation from a literal interpretation of these texts.

Still doesn't change anything. Could be the swastika or Hitler's speeches or whatever. Influence is influence, but it's the people doing the killing, not the book.

[Splits]

“President Obama should be back in the United States keeping this country safe or President Obama should be planning on traveling to Brussels,” Cruz told ABC News.

Who listens to this and is like, "yeah, he's right!"? Seriously. This is the stupidest, laziest, and most nonsensical way of thinking. Like the entire government comes to a halt when the President is 90 miles offshore.

[DMX7]

Still doesn't change anything. Could be the swastika or Hitler's speeches or whatever. Influence is influence, but it's the people doing the killing, not the book.

People do things for a reason, and the influence matters.

[DeadlyDynasty]

I honestly don't understand the endgame of these ing jihadists. What is really accomplished by blowing yourself up in a group of non political, non combatant strangers? So you kill and wound a couple hundred people...how does this advance their cause? What the IS their cause?

To serve notice to Repugs and BigOil, duh

[ChumpDumper]

People do things for a reason, and the influence matters.

So you do think Catcher in the Rye killed Lennon.

OK.

[DMX7]

So you do think Catcher in the Rye killed Lennon.

OK.

No, does the "Catcher in the Rye" say to kill John Lennon?