Who's afraid of the big bad terrorists?

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I still remember July 28 2008 when PZ Meyers stuck a nail through a eucharist and threw it in the trash along with ripped up pages of the Koran. I was a Christian back then but I still saw no issue with what PZ did because he was protected by free speech. He got a lot of death threats but in America there is something called freedom of expression that allows people to do stuff like that and get away with it. Back then I thought that race hatred should not be protected by free speech but blasphemy should and that’s what I still think today. Later, in late 2009 I declared myself agnostic and abandoned Christianity.

By the time I was agnostic I had already become a big fan of a YouTube user called TheAmazingAtheist and I still consider him to almost be one of my heroes. In a recent video of his he burned both a Bible and a Koran just to show he could. He's probably going to get death threats for that but again I see no issue. The video has been blocked as inappropriate by the YouTube community because apparently they can't take freedom.

That brings me to Terry Jones and his Koran burning. I had nothing against the Koran burning because Terry Jones lives in America and is protected by freedom of expression. Books aren't people and neither are eucharists.

As much as I respect the YouTube atheist Pat Condell I think he and the republicans are flipping out too much over this "9/11 mosque". The people behind that thing have the right to build it because they live in America. Even if they called it "The 9/11 Mosque" I still wouldn't care.

Some people are going to say that burning the Koran "will cause terror attacks" or something. Are the terrorists our bosses now? Keep in mind that Osama Bin Laden was trained by the CIA. Not every Muslim in the Islamic world has CIA training. It's not like every Muslim in the middle east is a potential terrorist.

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-Benjamin Franklin

"THERE IS no terrorist threat. You need to calm down, relax, listen very carefully, and repeat after me: There is no terrorist threat. There is no terrorist threat! THERE . . . IS . . . NO . . . TERRORIST . . . THREAT!"
-Dude, Where's My Country? by Michael Moore

Fear of terrorism has caused some problems of its own. Dubya got the Patriot Act - something that increases the government's ability to spy on people - because people were afraid of terrorism. Obama still hasn't removed the thing because he either loves it or is too much of a coward to remove it. Then there’s that whole stupid color-coded terror alert system that's never going to be green or blue.
Also, when genius YouTube users like TheAmazingAtheist and Thunderf00t make videos containing harsh criticism of Islam, the rest of the YouTube community blocks them as inappropriate content. Then there’s that whole thing about how the cowards at comedy central censor those heroes Trey Parker and Matt Stone for simply Depicting Muhammad. First they censor Trey and Matt for depicting Muhammad giving Peter Griffon a “salmon helmet” and then they censor Trey and Matt for depicting Muhammad in a giant bear costume. OH NOES! How offensive! You gotta love how the creators of Family Guy can do whatever they want with Jesus but when Trey and Matt so much a depict Muhammad it’s a big deal.

So, who’s afraid of the big bad terrorists? Not me! What I am afraid of is the loss of freedom. The government are the real terrorists.

If a terrorist is going to blow 'em selves up, they're gonna do it. Any reason they give is merely an excuse. I agree that governments shouldn't take away our freedom because of this - they're no worse than the terrorists themselves if they do.

But what if terrorists were all cute cats?

There is some evidence that the person behind 09-11-2001 - bin Laden - died years ago and that there is no point today - 2010 - in pursing a dead terrorist. That raises the question as to why the US is in the middle east - Iraq and Afghanistan - if the persons behind the terrorism are dead.

It suggests that both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are being run today - 2010 - for profit for those who make and sell warfare materials.

It suggests that the two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) are really business gimmicks promoted by several White Houses because the wars produce profits for a number of industrialists/companies which make money off of warfare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden

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There can be other explanations for the continuing wars too - beyond the above.

Some have said that the US/NATO needs military bases in the middle east to stop wars from getting larger.

To remove the US/NATO from the middle east would force smaller countries to try to defend their interests - countries with small populations and land areas - so the US/NATO presence is a kind of intentional establishment of police stations (peace keepers) there.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnychOXj9Tg[/youtube]

I'm terrified of terrorists, I can never know when a US cruise missile/air strike/hit squad/extraction team etc will strike at my homeland, then there are all those unexploded armaments all over the place and all the crazy right wing factions they have armed up, the mass media feeding paranoia and fear, anxiety and neurosis... jeeze I am damn near kaking my daks at the thought of it all, luckily I can go and drink tea at the turkish place in town, come home smoke some herbs and listen to some african head charge to calm myself amid all this madness...

You worry too much.

ruveyn

So why burn the Qur'an and do things that offend many Muslims precisely to show the terrorists who's boss?

I spot a logic loophole, and wouldn't be surprised if somewhere underneath all that excellent argument about freedom of speech is our good ol' friend Racism along with its twin Ethnocentrism. Then again, maybe it's just general paranoia and/or fear of the big bad government.

Why would we waste expensive hardware on Australia? Unless we start running low on titanium I think you can rest easy.

AUSTRALIA?

You display your total ignorance of geography with this statement.

And perhaps you have no sense of irony?

Of course not. I am an Aspie.

ruveyn

Poor excuse, really, truly poor excuse...

If anything, it says why you shouldn't worry about the United States carpet bombing some anonymous towns in New Zealand. Most think of it as part of Australia, if they even know about it at all. Why would we waste so much time, money, and effort on a place which provides very little benefit to...

nevermind

explains so much...... what arrogant clowns

Completely agreed. Then again there's some mealiness to that with our approach to political correctness - meaning zero criticism - but we're still doing a lot better with this than many if not most countries.



He put the ball in too many people's hands. When he and church of 50 got world-wide press (which blows my mind that the worldn't didn't just ignore him instead), it made what he was doing a national security interest. While I agree the significance of reprisal would have been debatable I do agree that our servicement in Afghanistan and Iraq would have been endangered. Perhaps its a shame that the Vietnam press couldn't have been court-martialled on those grounds?


My martial arts instructor is from Lebanon, someone brought the topic up and he had a good point. He mentioned that he has friends who are muslim as well as jewish, catholic etc.. However, he mentioned that the reason for the concern over the mosque is its symbolism. Historically every time muslims are able to conquer or make a successful attempt at that sort of goal they build a memorial or something commemorative, as a symbol. I've heard this often and its understanding that with radical muslims you're talking about people who have a psychology that's UFO to the way an American liberal, moderate, or even conservative would thing. Questions like this need to be asked from understanding who they are, what their about, and what certain actions mean. In prison for instance - if someone asks you for your corn bread at the mess hall table, it may mean nothing to you, you perhaps aren't hungry - it has a very loaded meaning and those who end up in prison and end up giving away their cornbread find out about that quickly. Blowing someone is an act that causes no physical harm to the doer, however we give it symbolism as well. Same with sticking the center finger of one's hand up in the air while making a fist with the rest of it. I could go on but you probably have my point already.


No, the trouble is our media have neither shame nor standards. If they did there's be perhaps 200 people who had any idea who Terry Jones is.


We have too many in this country who believe it (terror threat) is a sham to give corrective action more than a half-hearted shove.


'by Michael Moore' is is all I needed to know.


Anyone who thinks that the feds will rush into their home or take them based on what they told grandma or over a cake recipe that they wanted - they don't get it, no one cares about their boring lives. For the FBI to listen in on that is insane, they'd probably rather gauge their own eyes out than sit through eight hours a day of that - so would FBI/CIA payroll. If you believe that we need more concrete definition of what constitutes a threat worth tapping, that's a fair claim if you've examined the laws and have the specific gaps in mind. Overall though, what happened in the days before they ever talked about the issue? No taps or listening?



Politics, and possibly that getting briefed daily may have brought him back to reality.


I'm hoping one day that a large enough portion of Islam around the globe stands up against, in an organized zero-tolerance manner, at the very least, physical jihad. I have a feeling that the threat of terrorism will continue to drop as our FBI and CIA stays trained on this and becomes more and more expert. This is the kind of storm that dies slowly, could take a decade, could take a couple.


They would likely have their heads slowly sawn off with dull knives on pirated tapes sent to Al Jazeera. Personally I don't like people being shelled from the consequences of their own actions - even if I like Trey Parker and Matt Stone for making fun of everyone without exception. Most likely reason - Comedy Central didn't want to receive the press, bad threats, pressure groups, lawsuits - ie. they didn't want to be shut down. That fear may have been legitimate.

Perhaps that's the pivotal key of this thread - don't fear the big bad terrorist, fear the ACLU?



Like I said, if you think that way - there's this little known group out there called the Alliance Defense Fund. You might want to take a look at collecting donations for them. They fight the 'tolerance police' on the issues where they've overstepped what's reasonable.

That's MR Arrogant Clown to you, Kiwi boy Show some respect to your international betters in public, we leave your island alone only because it has nothing we want...