So, that’s two acts of war against us in two separate countries, and our Glorious Reader apologizes for the fact that an American made the movie that supposedly (but not really) prompted these attacks.
And if it’s 1979 again, how come I can’t go see The Ramones at CBGB’s?
More importantly*, if it’s 1979 again, the Hughes Amendment won’t exist until seven years from now. Stock up while you can!
*Naturally, there is room to disagree on the relative importance of Happy Fun Switches and The Ramones. After all, The Ramones were “the hottest band this side of the Iron Curtain” in 1979….
That brings back memories! In that pre-DVD, pre-VHS era, I saw that movie in a first-run theater.
And don’t forget Devo.
Devo is on tour as we speak. I think they are playing the Greek tonight.
Lord some people sure take their feelings very seriously.
“I just want to say, how would the Americans feel if films insulting leading Christian figures like the pope or historical figures like Abraham Lincoln were produced?”
I guess they would either buy popcorn to see it or thumb it down on rotten tomatoes but I’m pretty sure no sane person would go around murderizing other human beings and fire bombing buildings… but that’s just my take on it.
I don’t know about 1979 (even though I was there) but I sure am hearing 2003 again.
To expand a bit: It’s reported that the film in question was made by an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian and an Israeli-American — people with axes to grind in Egypt.
I am in no way implying that it excuses the demonstrators, but those people had to know what would happen. It was a deliberate provocation — protected by our First Amendment, certainly, but still a deliberate provocation.
Just sayin’ — it unsettles me to hear saber-rattling when the conflict would be instigated by two smacked-asses with a video camera.
Civilized, rational people don’t harm or kill over a non-physical insult. Full stop.
I don’t care if the film insults the Prophet or their own sainted mothers, the fault lies solely and completely on them.
If I piled newspapers in my living room, and someone came in and threw a match in them and burned my house down, would it be the fault of the newspaper and the people who printed it for being such a flammable medium, while the guy who threw a match in it was totally blameless?
There are some facts in the world that just are. Newsprint doesn’t need to be flammable, but it is. Fundamentalist Muslims don’t need to be incensed over portrayals of the Prophet, but they are. Calvinists don’t need to portray Catholics as non-Christian idolators, but they do. Coptic Christians may be victims in the Mideast, but they don’t need to foment international incidents for America, to make their points or torment their enemies. But, it would seem one just did. And someone having nothing to do with either side’s religionist bullshit is dead.
No, four people who had nothing to do with a mere movie which “insulted” a dead man are dead because one particular set of religionists does not behave in a rational way. Full stop.
There is only one blameworthy group here and it isn’t “America”, Copts, or the film makers or anyone else.
Fundamentalist Muslims need to join the Calvinists in the rational modern world in not -killing- over religious differences.
To state that Islamists get a pass on civilized because they “can’t help it” is the worst kind of patronizing Progressive Social Darwinism.
“Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-American anti-Muslim activist, managed in one week’s time to take an overlooked YouTube video featuring a lame attack on Islam and turn it into a flashpoint with violent extremists, with deadly consequences. As the New York Times reported last night, Sadek drew attention to the obscure video clip “in an Arabic-language blog post and an e-mail newsletter in English publicizing the latest publicity stunt of the Florida pastor Terry Jones, reviled in the Muslim world for burning copies of the Koran.†Within days the clip was making the rounds in Egypt, prompting denunciations from politicians and generating press coverage, and culminating in protests and a deadly attack in Libya.
“Sadek, who has worked with Jones in the past, says he is fighting for the rights of his fellow Coptic Christians in Egypt. Unfortunately he seems much more focused on attacking Muslims than helping the Copts. Sadek pulled his Facebook profile around 1 pm today, but we were able to take a look beforehand. Here’s what we found.”
(Go to link for screen shot)
So?
I care no more for his motive than I cared about Serrano’s. The violent response is undefensible. Full Stop.
You and I agree completely about the religion, on all sides. I just get the sense that by refusing to distribute blame, when it can be distributed, you are choosing to deny what is because it’s not what it ought to be.
How many forwarded-a-million-times emails have you received lauding some violent or irrational response when, say, an American flag was burned, or, inciting hatred for someone because they failed to “honor the flag” properly? Is there really any difference, except that to date, such incidents here have stopped short of murder?
There is no blame to be distributed. I can insult you all I want and as a rational human being you get to walk away or consider me a jerk. Full stop.
The “any difference” is the fact that essentially -all- of those violentish responses stop short of murder when it comes to flag burning or mistreatment in this country and no rational person then tries to “distribute blame” to the flag burner.
Hell, they tried to burn, then tore up, our flag in Cairo. They did burn our Consulate in Libya and kill and possibly desecrated the bodies of 4 innocent Americans.
Number of dead Libyans and Eqyptians this morning in the US in response? Number of Libyan or Egyptian embassys or consulates invaded and burned?
Drop the relativism and apologetics for barbarism and irrationality.
There is no “distributing the blame” to be done.
If person “A” calls your mother a [$INSERT_SLANG_FOR_FEMALE_BODY_PART_HERE], and in response you shoot person “B”, why does “A” hold any blame for your actions, which would be unreasonable even if you took those actions against him?
Answer: He doesn’t. Your actions are yours alone, and so is the blame. The same holds true for the scum that attacked our embassies. End of story.
Except we will be exceptionally lucky if it is the end of the story.
What’s the other option? Succumb to the heckler’s veto from barbarians?
We find the guilty parties if, when, and where we can and kill them. There’s no accomodation to be had with them.
The flag they raised wasn’t even the usual green flag of Islam, it was the black flag of al-Queda. And they killed an American in Libya.
How’s that Arab Spring and your “smart diplomacy” working out for you, oh Chosen One?
It wasn’t just an American they murdered, it was the American ambassador to Libya.
So, that’s two acts of war against us in two separate countries, and our Glorious Reader apologizes for the fact that an American made the movie that supposedly (but not really) prompted these attacks.
When did we stop shooting people for this shite?
Don’t worry, it gets even closer.
https://mobile.twitter.com/JasonBWhitman/status/245669649092587520?photo=1
Plus ça change, plus ça meme chose.
And if it’s 1979 again, how come I can’t go see The Ramones at CBGB’s?
More importantly*, if it’s 1979 again, the Hughes Amendment won’t exist until seven years from now. Stock up while you can!
*Naturally, there is room to disagree on the relative importance of Happy Fun Switches and The Ramones. After all, The Ramones were “the hottest band this side of the Iron Curtain” in 1979….
That brings back memories! In that pre-DVD, pre-VHS era, I saw that movie in a first-run theater.
And don’t forget Devo.
Devo is on tour as we speak. I think they are playing the Greek tonight.
Lord some people sure take their feelings very seriously.
I guess they would either buy popcorn to see it or thumb it down on rotten tomatoes but I’m pretty sure no sane person would go around murderizing other human beings and fire bombing buildings… but that’s just my take on it.
Seriously, has this guy even googled “Pope Lincoln Mohamed lolcat orgy”? (If it doesn’t exist now, I give it till the end of the week.)
Hmmmm. How’s our stockpile of napalm and CBU’s look?
Separated at Birth: The U.S. Embassy in Cairo (and the Libya consulate) and…?
I don’t know about 1979 (even though I was there) but I sure am hearing 2003 again.
To expand a bit: It’s reported that the film in question was made by an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian and an Israeli-American — people with axes to grind in Egypt.
I am in no way implying that it excuses the demonstrators, but those people had to know what would happen. It was a deliberate provocation — protected by our First Amendment, certainly, but still a deliberate provocation.
Just sayin’ — it unsettles me to hear saber-rattling when the conflict would be instigated by two smacked-asses with a video camera.
Civilized, rational people don’t harm or kill over a non-physical insult. Full stop.
I don’t care if the film insults the Prophet or their own sainted mothers, the fault lies solely and completely on them.
If I piled newspapers in my living room, and someone came in and threw a match in them and burned my house down, would it be the fault of the newspaper and the people who printed it for being such a flammable medium, while the guy who threw a match in it was totally blameless?
There are some facts in the world that just are. Newsprint doesn’t need to be flammable, but it is. Fundamentalist Muslims don’t need to be incensed over portrayals of the Prophet, but they are. Calvinists don’t need to portray Catholics as non-Christian idolators, but they do. Coptic Christians may be victims in the Mideast, but they don’t need to foment international incidents for America, to make their points or torment their enemies. But, it would seem one just did. And someone having nothing to do with either side’s religionist bullshit is dead.
No, four people who had nothing to do with a mere movie which “insulted” a dead man are dead because one particular set of religionists does not behave in a rational way. Full stop.
There is only one blameworthy group here and it isn’t “America”, Copts, or the film makers or anyone else.
Fundamentalist Muslims need to join the Calvinists in the rational modern world in not -killing- over religious differences.
To state that Islamists get a pass on civilized because they “can’t help it” is the worst kind of patronizing Progressive Social Darwinism.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/american-who-sparked-libya-egypt-unrest-hates-obama-hearts-gop
“Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-American anti-Muslim activist, managed in one week’s time to take an overlooked YouTube video featuring a lame attack on Islam and turn it into a flashpoint with violent extremists, with deadly consequences. As the New York Times reported last night, Sadek drew attention to the obscure video clip “in an Arabic-language blog post and an e-mail newsletter in English publicizing the latest publicity stunt of the Florida pastor Terry Jones, reviled in the Muslim world for burning copies of the Koran.†Within days the clip was making the rounds in Egypt, prompting denunciations from politicians and generating press coverage, and culminating in protests and a deadly attack in Libya.
“Sadek, who has worked with Jones in the past, says he is fighting for the rights of his fellow Coptic Christians in Egypt. Unfortunately he seems much more focused on attacking Muslims than helping the Copts. Sadek pulled his Facebook profile around 1 pm today, but we were able to take a look beforehand. Here’s what we found.”
(Go to link for screen shot)
So?
I care no more for his motive than I cared about Serrano’s. The violent response is undefensible. Full Stop.
You and I agree completely about the religion, on all sides. I just get the sense that by refusing to distribute blame, when it can be distributed, you are choosing to deny what is because it’s not what it ought to be.
How many forwarded-a-million-times emails have you received lauding some violent or irrational response when, say, an American flag was burned, or, inciting hatred for someone because they failed to “honor the flag” properly? Is there really any difference, except that to date, such incidents here have stopped short of murder?
There is no blame to be distributed. I can insult you all I want and as a rational human being you get to walk away or consider me a jerk. Full stop.
The “any difference” is the fact that essentially -all- of those violentish responses stop short of murder when it comes to flag burning or mistreatment in this country and no rational person then tries to “distribute blame” to the flag burner.
Hell, they tried to burn, then tore up, our flag in Cairo. They did burn our Consulate in Libya and kill and possibly desecrated the bodies of 4 innocent Americans.
Number of dead Libyans and Eqyptians this morning in the US in response? Number of Libyan or Egyptian embassys or consulates invaded and burned?
Drop the relativism and apologetics for barbarism and irrationality.
There is no “distributing the blame” to be done.
If person “A” calls your mother a [$INSERT_SLANG_FOR_FEMALE_BODY_PART_HERE], and in response you shoot person “B”, why does “A” hold any blame for your actions, which would be unreasonable even if you took those actions against him?
Answer: He doesn’t. Your actions are yours alone, and so is the blame. The same holds true for the scum that attacked our embassies. End of story.
Except we will be exceptionally lucky if it is the end of the story.
What’s the other option? Succumb to the heckler’s veto from barbarians?
We find the guilty parties if, when, and where we can and kill them. There’s no accomodation to be had with them.