Boston Marathon Bombings

[SavvySavage]

And what is my ideology again? Please, remind me.

Left leaning Obama living America hating politically correct liberal who feels it ok to live in America but feels it's ok to crap on it still. Did I forget anything?

[Drake]

Left leaning Obama living America hating politically correct liberal who feels it ok to live in America but feels it's ok to crap on it still. Did I forget anything?

I don't think Syn is an American, guy.

[David Jamieson]

Honestly, I was one of the people who hoped it was anyone but a muslim. It's sad how a whole class of people are demonized by the actions of extremists. This islamophobia shit is ridiculous. It seemed that the eastern european muslims were being glossed over and the focus was on arabs for awhile. Hopefully they don't get treated poorly now because of this. We always overreact to stuff like this when we should put the focus solely where it belongs.

You ever deal with Islamic folk at all? Not that you can't, but in a broad sense you will be rejected as the infidel you are. Moderates aside, and really, religious moderates are the ones who are non-observant and seem to preserve their lip service to their religion for cultural, filial, ethnic solidarity, etc means.

Bottom line is that in the right wing or fundamental views of the apocalyptic religions if you aren't one of the flock so to speak, you are fodder. Less than human .

[Syn7]

Yes, actually I have. There is a large Muslim community where I grew up. Mostly Persian and Arab. Not so much with the eastern Europeans. Some, but a drop in the bucket in comparison. Some were lip service Muslims, some were devout muslims. Most were nice people who minded their own and treated me with the same courtesy and respect that I gave them.

If you wanna get down to it, all 3 books from that "region" are horrible when followed literally to the letter.

Are Christians who don't murder adulterers just lip service Christians? Or are they people of faith who understand that today's world is not the same world we had 2000 years ago?


IMO the Boston bombings are more about alienation and disenfranchisement than it is about Islam. This is exactly what people mean when they talk about the consequences of Islamophobia and racial profiling. And it's not just with Islamic immigrants, you can apply it to African Americans joining street gangs and stuff like that too. When people are treated noticeably differently in a negative way we tend to have negative consequences. Inclusion and respect go a long way. I have seen you write it a bunch of times, love and acceptance will get you a lot further than hatred and animosity.

And don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying we shouldn't be aware of extremists of any type and deal with them accordingly. I'm just saying it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy when you treat people this way.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Terrorists are people that believe the ends justify the means, people that believe that violence against people is a valid, even preferred, method of resolving issues. terrorists are people that have a grudge against a society or segment of society and then grudge is, typically, used and feed by a 3rd party with, typically, political gains in mind.

There are many excuses that are used to "motivate" a terrorists, things like religion and class are popular, but the real root tends to be either tribalism or egalitarianism.
Making a person feel part of something when they are not part of anything is crucial.

You can never underestimate the role of ethnic background.
I was born in Portugal but has been in Canada most of my life, I am a citizen and have served BUT I still view myself as Portuguese-Canadian and still view my ethnicity as Portuguese.

I know people that were BORN here and because of the strength of their ethnic culture in their life, view themselves more Italian or Spanish or Turkish then Canadian.

[David Jamieson]

If you move a bunch of people into your country from countries that you are bombing fr a decade, you're gonna eventually have problems m'kay?

There's a lot of factors at play here. That's all I'm saying. People do things for reasons. they aren't just "crazy" They are angry for being marginalized and stepped on and pressed down or perceiving it to be done to them.

We can't commit our explained away or hidden atrocities upon people far away in the name of commerce and political ideology without the blow back from those actions coming back at us. It's pretty simple.

And now, with people who identify with the "enemy" in numbers inside the gates that are higher than they have ever been by way of immigration etc are a reality, it's gonna get crappier and crappier.

It's just gonna keep happening as long as the world functions as is now. The power constructs are the same and plutocracy and oligarchy is growing. I'm pretty sure we can expect more of this kind of stuff going forward.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Its very easy and desirable to put the blame on some ideology ( religion or whatnot) because we think that if we eliminate it ( whatever it may be at the time) we will be safe.
BS.
The simple fact is that PEOPLE are the problem.
Certain people will always find the "right thing" to justify the one simple fact that drives them to harm others: They Hate and they want to see others suffer.
They like to see the "world burn".
I won't use the term "evil" because that will get us in to philosophical debate that misses the concrete issue that CERTAIN PEOPLE will find any excuse to harm others AND ENJOY It.

[mawali]

Left leaning Obama living America hating politically correct liberal who feels it ok to live in America but feels it's ok to crap on it still. Did I forget anything?

yeh! What do you call Tim McVeigh and his ilk? Or those who, knowing that the Nazis were defeated (allegedly). adopt their philosophy knowing it is allowed in USA because of free speech i.e to talk as they wish, march, demonstrate or clean the highways of this great nation

[RenDaHai]

'Tis a rare man whose morals are fully known to himself. Many are not so strong in their conviction and must lean on a supporting pillar of false ideology to guide them through life's more difficult decisions.

True privilege in life is not from wealth or beauty, but from loving mentors who inspire a mind of self reflection. This abounds in our western culture, more so than in much of the world. Culture is an immensely precious and fragile thing. And a child learns more in his first few years, even without speech, than in the rest of his life. To impart good culture is the highest goal of society.

But alas! Wise culture takes many generations to impart her subtle lessons. This cannot be ignored. The world is moving too fast!

We in our technology have created a world where all cultures are mixed. In our quest for virtuous governing of this melting pot often the less informed of us follow false virtues, opposite extremes. They come up with 'positive discrimination' and 'cultural relativism' which are simply 'racism' and 'xenophobia' under more insidious guises. For you see opposite extremes generate one another.

In such a fast moving world, these heinous things will happen. Is the source this meeting of incompatible ideals between cultures, or are some people just animals?

[sanjuro_ronin]

'

In such a fast moving world, these heinous things will happen. Is the source this meeting of incompatible ideals between cultures, or are some people just animals?

Honestly?
Some people are just "animals".
Some people believe that the ends justifies the means.
Some people truly want to see the world burn.

[RenDaHai]

Honestly?
Some people are just "animals".
Some people believe that the ends justifies the means.
Some people truly want to see the world burn.

Hmmm, Perhaps.

But these 'ends', these goals, are they not defined by a disturbed culture or ideal?

True in order to set about them the person would have to be already broken, but would taking away their excuses not help to prevent them?

A fable if you'll indulge me:

Zeus bade the Titan Prometheus to make man and animals from clay. When finished he showed Zeus, but Zeus said there were far too many animals and too few humans and told Prometheus to re-address the balance. Alas, Prometheus had already used all of the magic clay. So instead of making more humans he took some animals and changed their outward form to appear human. Zeus was fooled. But the unbreakable human soul could not be reforged.

So it is today as it was then that some people have the forms of men but the souls of beasts.


From this Aesopian fable we can see that this problem has always been and possibly it is a natural state of the world that some people are inhuman. Maybe it cannot be helped.

But a malicious individual working alone can not do any where near as much damage as many working together, or even two (brothers) as is the case here. Perhaps there are aspects of culture that force these broken people together, and give them excuses that multiply their animosity.

[sanjuro_ronin]

People that like chaos over order, people that like to see others suffer, they tend to attract liked minded people.
No man is an Island and that goes for what is "good" and "bad".
Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Po attracted to "their cause" like minded people.
Yes, these people tend to be in the minority but they also tend to exploit the complacency and apathy of those that are NOT extremists like they are.
That is why so man can be ruled/controlled/terrorized by so few.

We must ignore the excuses we WANT to blame these things on because they are not so. We must accept the horrific truth that some people, people we CAN NOT "pigeon hole" are people that just want to watch the world burn and that we can't blame it on things we HOPE we can eradicate, we must put the blame on THEM ( and to a certain extent the society that allows their way of being to be "feed").

[Oso]

so, I play WoW, and yesterday *I saw* this other toon *that* was named after the younger suspect.

I thought this in very poor taste.

[Syn7]

Left leaning Obama living America hating politically correct liberal who feels it ok to live in America but feels it's ok to crap on it still. Did I forget anything?

Left leaning, sure, but not what Americans consider left. Obama fan? Not a chance. Living in America, nope, but I did live in the bay for awhile. And yeah, you forgot a ton. Nice try tho. Back to the end of the line for you.

You act like Americans should be so grateful they live there that they should just shut up and take whatever they get. That is "un-American". Imagine if your forefathers subscribed to that kind of weakminded bullshit.

Take nothing for granted, question everything.

Would anyone here actually accuse me of being politically correct? lol. I have the mouth of a truck driver and I have never been shy about sharing my opinions.

And politically, I'm an independent. I like to think for myself and vote on actual issues and the merit of the people running. As for your diverse political system, I only like the dems slightly more than the republicans. Which is not very much. It's just a shell game with most of those dicks.

[GeneChing]

First Tsarnaev is connected to MMA and now a Ricin suspect is a TKD guy? And I thought our forum going wonky was a bad time for the martial arts. Not even going to go into the Elvis connection.

Today 10:55am 4,319 41
Cleared Ricin Suspect Claims Frame-Up Over Martial Arts or Elvis Feud

Sometime Elvis impersonator Paul Kevin Curtis, cleared yesterday of charges that he'd sent poison ricin-laced letters to President Obama and other public officials, now claims he was framed by another man. Over a martial arts feud.

J. Everett Dutschke, a Tae Kwon Do instructor and "longtime personal enemy" of Curtis', has not been charged with a crime, but investigators searched his house yesterday and law-enforcement sources told CNN that authorities "are investigating whether someone may have tried to falsely implicate" Curtis.

And why would Dutschke attempt to frame Curtis? TPM explains:

Curtis provided further details about the feud at the press conference when reporters asked him about his relationship with Dutschke. He claimed he did not know Dutschke well, but had received angry messages from him and heard indications from others that Dutschke had a major grudge against him. Curtis implied Dutschke may have developed these negative feelings towards him when they studied taekwondo together or because of his career as an Elvis impersonator. According to Curtis, one of the messages he received from Dutschke was an email saying, “I’ve created a band called Robodrum and we’re going to throw you off the national circuit.”

Robodrum is Dutschke's band, which performs "Live-Loop Oriented Rock with tons of lasers."