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-- source

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

I'm much more offended by the rules for customers and the long lines than by an unconsecrated wafer, but I do agree that Muslims have cut people's heads off for less.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

So the denigration of entire groups and ethnicities is deserving of your scorn here, but that that objective approach is discarded when it comes to Muslims? Seems like all are equal in your world, except some are more equal than others.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

What are you saying? That Muslims haven't cut people's heads off for things that are the equivalent of that burger? I highly doubt that the owner of Kuma's would serve a Muhammad Burger. And if he did the likelihood that a Muslim might attack his store is far greater than that of a Catholic doing anything more than writing a letter to the editor.

CNN and other media outlets refused to show the Danish cartoons out of fear. Nobody fears showing something offensive to Christians.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying many people haven't been killed in the name of Christ. But at this point in time, the vast majority of people who identify as "Christian" would more appropriately be described as secular.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

What I am saying is you are inconsistent in your criticism of generalizations and offensive stereotypes. In fact you've just done what you've criticized earlier by suggesting that over a billion + people either murder for trivial reasons, or have no problems with it. The link between Muslims and violence is specious, as any objective reading of murder rates across the world will show you that murders are committed for a variety of reasons that include both "secular" and religious.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Actually, I'm quite consistent. Muslim values are inherently opposed to American values. Let me ask you an honest question, how do you feel about cartoons mocking the Prophet?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I don't think you know enough to make that kind of broad, sweeping statement.

The cartoons are satirical, can be quite funny, and also can be quite ignorant and bigoted. However, the violent reaction to the cartoons was even more ignorant and stupid, and in no way justifiable.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Let's name all those Muslim countries that have a free-market democracy that ensures the basic human rights of all its citizens.

OK, you go first.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

You can think that as long as you want and every time I walk out of my house I see a Muslim woman wearing a burqa. Right here in America. That isn't an American value. We don't cover our faces. We don't consider women subservient. All cultures are not equal.

And are you denying that many Muslims - not just a few crazies- do indeed feel a violent reaction to an "insult" to the Prophet is justifiable?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2013/10/24/bangladesh-targets-only-nobel-prize-winner-claims-he-is-un-islamic

This kind of thing happens at the Vatican all the time ....

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Feel free to speak about American values as if everyone is the same. I'm sure you know that the vast majority of Muslims in America are not walking around in burqas, or even scarves, but if I saw one I don't know why I would be offended.

I don't know as much as you do about the personal feelings of over one billion people, but yes, I would say the idea to react violently to something as innocuous as a cartoon is not most people's first reaction, let alone a reaction at all.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Everyone is EXACTLY THE SAME when it comes to the American values as defined in our Constitution. And if they aren't, they aren't American. You have the right to be offended. You do not have the right to make me shut up.

Why am I offended by someone walking around with their face covered? Let's see? What would the country be like if we all decided to wear masks every time we went outside?

The only thing I can use to judge the personal feelings of people is their actions. You seem to be far more upset about my viewpoint than you are about people getting killed over a cartoon. If only you would wax so eloquently in response to that.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Are you saying I am asking you to shut up? I'm doing the opposite...I'm trying to engage you in a conversation. I'm sorry if you took that a different way, that's not my intention.

It's wrong of you to assume I'm not disturbed and upset over murder because of a cartoon. I don't need to state that the whole fiasco was stupid and sensless; it should be obvious. All murder disturbs me, and you cannot assume it doesn't. As you may have gleaned from my criticism of Bernstein, there is nothing more important than valuing human life.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

We've done this before.

Turkey would be the only country that would come close to this description.

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By close, you mean like a million miles?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

[quote="veganfan21"]

It's wrong of you to assume I'm not disturbed and upset over murder because of a cartoon. I don't need to state that the whole fiasco was stupid and sensless; it should be obvious. All murder disturbs me, and you cannot assume it doesn't. As you may have gleaned from my criticism of Bernstein, there is nothing more important than valuing human life.[/quote]


Take a minute if you will and list the Muslim countries where they value:

a) Human life
b) The lives of other Muslims even

That won't take long, so if you could just give your OPINION as to why this isn't happening there, that would be enlightening.

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We're talking about people here, which is separate from states. The vast majority of people, irrespective of race or creed, are inclined toward peace.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

And I don't want you to misunderstand me. I think many- if not most- of the world's problems are due to organized religion. It's not that I have anything against Islam in particular, but at this point in the history of our world, the time you and I are living in, Islam has more "true believers" who are willing to take those beliefs to their only logical end: death and then the afterlife.

Obviously, there are a handful of Christians that have similar beliefs and certainly some crazy Jews who think that gathering all Jews in a single location will facilitate the second coming. But there is no national Christian or Jewish leadership espousing such thoughts. Nobody outside of Islam suggests basing a Constitution on a holy book. Someone like Netanyahu is a Zionist for practical reasons, the protection of his people from persecution. I don't believe he is looking forward to the end of the world. He is a secular leader.

And that is the thing that is inherently immoral about the established religions in general. They promote a philosophy that our focus should not be on this life, in this world, except as a means to set ourselves up for the next one.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

We are talking about the people that run the states. And in many cases, the people within the states.

And if you have ever read the Koran, it is not inclined to be peaceful toward women. Contrary to what someone has told you.

_________________

Thanks for elaborating. I agree with some of what you said, and may quibble about other particulars, but that's a different conversation for some other time. If I may, I would like to say that if you're looking for leadership structures that espouse deaths that put human lives in danger, and yes evil fringe Muslims belong in this category as well, then you could also look at state-based violence, some of which advocate genocide to advance strategic and economic interests. Bosnia and the ongoing problems in Kurdistan come to mind as current examples. The most obvious example was the Holocaust. So, sure these aren't based in religion, but surely you'd agree that ideological violence can also emanate outside of religion as well?

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Of course, it's often driven by money. Seriously, a true belief in a greater being and everlasting life is a real motivator. Few things can inflame passions to such a degree. Especially when you have a bunch of poor young people who don't have much of a future and they are indoctrinated from day 1.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

That's how I became a Cubs fan

_________________

Agreed.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

But the food is usually really good and the beer selection is fantastic.

_________________

I wasn't looking for the conversation to take this direction when I brought up the WYC of the Catholic church. I would have preferred a Beardown tangent.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Baffoe: Join Me In Waiting For An Illegal Hit To Kill A Pro Athlete
October 25, 2013 9:39 AM

By Tim Baffoe-

(CBS) You’ve seen the film Se7en, right? If not, I don’t respect you as a functional citizen, and you have to go rent it immediately. It’s one of those that “Shawshanks” me—if I see it on, I stop whatever I’m doing and watch it until the end, even though I’ve seen it roughly 73 times.

A major part of its appeal is the villain, John Doe, played by Kevin Spacey. We don’t even meet him until the film is more than half over, and by then we’re already so fascinated by him that we expect much more of a monster than we actually meet. And as he talks to the protagonist detectives, played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, we find ourselves strangely sympathetic toward him because he explains how he kills people almost all of us on a daily basis don’t necessarily have murderous thoughts about but certainly despise in various ways (unless we happen to be the despised and are either comfortable in our gross misdeeds or terribly un-self-aware). He makes the ultimate examples of some types of real people we wish would be made examples of.

The detectives question why Doe goes to such shocking extremes—very symbolic murders—in order to get his feelings on society heard. Doe replies, “Wanting people to listen, you can’t just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you’ve got their strict attention.” Even fictional serial killers can provide good advice.

So I heard Wednesday that Washington defensive back Brandon Meriweather had his suspension for illegal hits on Bears receivers reduced from two games to one. Meriweather is a piece of garbage—a repeat offender who we watched as a Bear himself commit unnecessary acts of violence on opponents and who knows he’s doing it and has no remorse. And he likes to make super funny jokes about it all.

Bears receiver Brandon Marshall said a guy like Meriweather has no place in the league. “Guys like that really don’t understand that there is life after football,” he said. “I respect the league trying to better our game and guys like that, maybe he needs to get suspended or taken out of the game completely.”

The latter isn’t going to ever happen because the NFLPA would never allow it. The NFL made a big statement amid its public relations crisis of head injuries and the game by suspending the reckless head hunter. But then it reduced the suspension because the league doesn’t actually care about most players getting injured because they’re faceless, replaceable drones. And the union is a bunch of hypocrites because it cries foul on the league’s attitude toward player safety yet backs a turd like this.

Then Wednesday night I saw the highlight of Buffalo Sabres goon (and former Blackhawks goon) John Scott blatantly head-shotting Boston Bruin Loui Eriksson with no strategic goal other than to injure, and to a part of the body with which the NHL has also had its own PR issue. Twitter blew up with typical hand wringing regarding Scott’s superfluous thuggery. Columns appropriately chiding him and his crappy coach got written. Mike Milbury—who once beat a fan with a shoe—said prior to the game that there was no reason for Scott to be on a roster and after the game called for both Scott and his crappy coach to be out of jobs.

Again, though, the latter won’t happen in Scott’s case. At least not by league mandate.

So for a while we get to be morally outraged at two idiots in their respective sports tarnishing games we love by being unnecessarily dangerous. We call for banishments that can’t legally happen, and we bring up silly “Dirty players should be suspended as long as the victim is injured” Hammurabian ideas. The fines get paid, the suspensions get served, and we go back to enjoying our viewing experience and forgetting about guys like Meriweather and Scott until they rear their dumb heads again. And they will because fines and suspensions have never stopped a jerk athlete from being a jerk.

We put the dangers of the game in the back of our minds because unless we’re sociopaths we understand there is something humanly wrong with getting entertainment from of people harming themselves or others. And we roll our eyes or even respond viscerally to those who keep bringing up those dangers and making us confront our imperfect love we have for sports.

We don’t want to be tapped on the shoulder incessantly. Yet we certainly don’t want to be hit with a sledgehammer.


But that’s what I’m waiting for now when my guilt of watching violent sports turns to outright anger as it did twice Wednesday because I know nothing tangible will come from those two situations because those two guys haven’t had anything stop them from being bad guys in the past. Nope. Won’t happen.

Until a player dies.

That is the inevitable I’m dreadfully waiting for in order to get everyone’s complete attention. A lifeless body on the field or ice or solemn doctor breaking the news from a hospital in front of TV cameras. Us knowing we watched a human being’s life be taken by another human being for our enjoyment.

Oh, then the mob won’t rest until the dirty player is jettisoned from the game if not imprisoned. Then the players union won’t have a leg to stand on. Then the league will have to make good with our outrage by making sure the thug is no longer employed at the highest level. Then writers will demand new rules for athletes who intend to harm other athletes beyond the rules of the game. Things get changed when people die—that’s how America so often works.

I recently read a gut-wrenching piece on the death of boxer Franky Leal and watched video of his brain basically cease to function ever again. Boxing is different from football and hockey because watching the ring we’re more cognizant of the intent to inflict pain in order to win, and getting someone’s brain to tell the rest of the body “We’re not doing this anymore” is the goal during a fight. There is also no malice in trying to win a boxing match, though—no Meriweatherian or Scott-esque intent to harm for the sake of harm.

That didn’t stop writer Iron Mike Gallego from pointing out in that column the hypocrisy of the boxing industry, though, and the hypocrisy of our apathy toward the health of fighters until the worst happens. A fighter had to die in order for him to vent about the problems with a sport he loves and the conflict he faces being a lover of the sport.

And that’s boxing, where we are aware, at least passively, that boxing kills professional participants annually. Football and hockey have helmets and pads—an illusion, to a degree, of safety for player and viewer. Punching other people in the head largely has not changed over the years. But football and hockey bodies are constantly evolving, growing and speeding up and becoming greater weapons, especially when used intentionally. Skulls and brains of athletes are not evolving.

Athletes have died playing these games in the past from contact not intended to harm. Happens to a handful of kids every year, and we sigh and press our lips while slowly shaking our heads. Those are freak accidents and terribly unfortunate collateral damage to most of us.

Specifically targeting an opponent’s head, especially with the knowledge we now have of brain injuries, would increase the odds of death, you would think. It has yet to kill a pro in my lifetime. But it will.

Think about that panicky feeling you get seeing someone unconscious on the ice or turf and how you plead for him to get up. Part of it is because you are concerned for his health. Part of it is because you cannot love something that maims and kills.

Crowns of helmets to earholes and elbows to jaws and punching others’ heads into a solid ice surface and launching one’s conditioned, braced body at an unsuspecting target—we gasp and then moan and then move on. But we won’t move on so easily, if at all, when we see a man die. And we will see that, because the lucky dice that have been rolled with large men trying to hurt other large men’s heads won’t stay lucky forever.

When that sledgehammer falls and kills a guy it will have our fullest attention.

Good to see 10ft midget recycling his hot sports take from Magary

http://deadspin.com/what-a-paralyzed-player-would-mean-for-the-nfl-1451367463

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We're going to see a head come off in an NFL game in our lifetime...

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"I'm not smiling because I thought what you said was humorous. I'm smiling because one day I know you'll be dead..."