 | | First entry in "predict the responses!"
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(...) Well, I want to start at the gate, to see who would predict my rather predictable response. I see the core of Mr. Derbyshire's argument right here: "What a world! You can only read a certain amount of this stuff before you start to avert your (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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| | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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(...) <snip> I have to say I started by reading the conclusion first. This line caught my eye: “Being Arabs, they are incapable of constructing a rational polity, so their future is probably hopeless whatever happens.” As I am not aware of any (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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(...) I thought that the entire article was written with a cynnical 'tongue in cheek' method. I don't think the author is racist, but rather looking at the "facts" as he sees them and saying that' "Hey, you've had just as much opportunity thru the (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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| | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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Go, Baby, Go!!! Talk about ethnocentric views -- could that author have had more ready judgments about other people and their way of life? And talk about your straw man arguments: Arafat at the head of a Palestinian state as the desired goal? (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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| | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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(...) Look at it this way. Perhaps what he is trying to point out is that a government based upon a religion *is* irrational. I am all for the separation of church and state as I'm sure you are as well-- the Arabs terrorists and Arab state (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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(...) Not my spin. That is *totally* putting the situation WAY out of context. As I mentioned before, I kind of question the motives of people who would put *so* much importance upon this minor problem (in the context of all of the problems on earth (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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| | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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(...) You mean like dropping bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima? No argument. -- Hop-Frog (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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(...) No, there was a rational reason for dropping those-- to end the war, and prevent even *more* widespread killing. And it worked. That is not to say that that call was a no-brainer. It was an agonizing decision to make, and truthfully, the (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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| | The Eternal Nuke Debate? (was: Re: First entry in "predict the responses!")
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(...) This is the accepted wisdom, and no doubt that was a big part of the justification. But I don't think it was the only reason. (...) An interesting sidebar: Another point that's often been brought up is the less morally but far more (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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| | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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(...) John--which Arab governments are based on religion? In fact the most secular government in the region is Saddam Hussein's Iraq-- which is why he was our proxy against the Islamic theocratic Republic of Iran. Now, that *is* a religious (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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| | Re: The Eternal Nuke Debate? (was: Re: First entry in "predict the responses!")
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(...) I guess I am just trying to give some perspective to the "us vs. them" mentality that seems to pervade these discussions -- and I insist that there is no "us" and also no "them." Human being are capable of atrocity if pushed to a point beyond (...) (23 years ago, 23-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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| | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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(...) I agree that both Iraq and Iran have been very influenced by the West and could evolve into productive states on this planet, but of course that very westernization is what is driving the Islamic fundamentalists in those countries in the first (...) (23 years ago, 23-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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| | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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(...) Bingo! FUT: .off-topic.useless-pastimes ROSCO (23 years ago, 23-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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| | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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<snip> (...) I can't agree HK is all that good a comparator. The cold war also had a huge impact in the ME… this was less true of HK. (...) What if the wrong, which happened so many years ago, is continuing? (...) You are using the actions of a (...) (23 years ago, 23-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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| | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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(...) What if the wrong, which started so many years ago, which is also continuing because it is being perpetuated by *both* sides, continues? Who's at fault *today*? They *both* are. Let me try a different analogy and see if you like it better. (...) (23 years ago, 23-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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