So called "Islamic State"

So having run out of things to say you resort to swearing at people

At what point did I swear at you? At what point did I attack you?

This is how you want to treat people on this forum? I know what I'd do if I were a mod

I think you've just shown everyone what sort of person you really are

 

Spud. Wrong call mate. If your man needs a market for his gear - head west not north ...

 

Run out of things to say? Oh I don't think so ...

 

I think you've misunderstood. I'm not arguing this, but presenting it as something to think about. The point is that it's purely emotive. Maybe I ought to have made it clearer but I did say that I didn't agree with it.

 

Question Time from Kelso currently ...

 

Ok. Must be the philosopher in me finding those things interesting.

 

I don't see anything worse about a non-combatant child dying than a non-combatant man or woman.

A death is a death. It's awful in all cases. If anything, the issue isn't that children are overvalued, it's that men's lives are undervalued.

 

Ltc68. OK - olive branch time. I have no wish to feud on here and apologise if I didn't recognise or accept any peace offerings you might have made earlier. Thank you for some of your recent complimentary stuff re. Scotland.

But I never called you a Nazi. What I did say was that if you summarily execute people in the woods and set yourself up as judge, jury and executioner, as Breivik did, then you also set a very dangerous precedent and take the first step on a dark road that, irrespective of my agreeing with you that the jihadists deserve to die on this occasion, you potentially end with a state that summarily executes all sorts of people it doesn't like, for all sorts of reasons, including maybe you and me.

with a state that summarily executes all sorts of peoole it doesn't like including pote

 

That was a bit all over the place, I blame doing this on my phone. Hopefully now I have clarified a few points...

I didn't really bring up the Nordic bit for any real reason, bar somebody mentioned Anders Breivic, and I by chance happened to be reading a book about the extreme Libertarianism. Thinking about it, I probably missed the entire context of what was said...

 

Ltc68

Re Wicker man. OK joke and a film but it was a film where the victim unluckily strayed onto a 'remote Hebridean island'. It wasn't Lundy or the Scillies so be careful what you wish for! Maybe the answer is for Moog to roast us both slowly at one of his BBQs.

 

Zzt

Re: the US and the Russians. Well I never said that the US's targets were always on the left. What I did say was that the US does lots of stuff apart from just answering requests to be the world's policeman. Of course they and the Russians pointed their big toys at each other and continue to do so. And the Russians did/continue to do lots of stuff too, both covert and overt including once funding our Labour party. I doubt they still do that now though. Russia's moved on and why would even their 'old school' want to fund an organisation that is now virtually indistinguishable from the Tories? Now they just fund Chelsea instead.

Re:kids diet. Poorly phrased maybe. What there is plenty of evidence of is that kids greater calorific intake nowadays has meant they are bigger earlier and puberty also tends to arrive earlier for them. Many are also obese of course. None of that says anything at all about emotional devopment or mental maturity.

 

Zzt

Yep. Scandinavia's heading in just the direction you identify. Also, the SNP's policy for an independent Scotland was to increase immigration but they weren't exactly shouting it from the rooftops.

 

Back en piste

In an attempt to nudge this thread back towards it's origins kick this around the block.

The 'jihadists' come back and are electronically tagged. They're identified as anyone returning from Iraq or Syria who's been away for a certain amount of time and under a certain age. They have to report to, not only the police on a regular basis, but also to an Imam from an agreed list of moderate Imams. They are then monitored, re-educated by their own into 'acceptable Islam' and their community sees that some behaviours are entirely unacceptable and they have to take responsibility for their own.

Just a thought if other more drastic options (excluding summary execution) are unworkable. Legal? - I don't know.

 

America's Big Problem

Well as I see it it's managing retreat. America knows it's in decline, that it's almost certainly terminal but it's still in denial. The march of China towards new 'top dog nation' is irresistible and inevitable and the USA knows this. The Chinese already own 1.2 trillion dollars of US debt.

All empires and 'top dog nations' follow a similar bell-curve and advance in power when they do lots of both good and bad stuff, then plateau out and often become decadent before going into decline usually when another power on the up on their curve comes along. Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, us and now the USA. America is over the peak and on the way down like UK oil reserves.

But retreat is never managed properly. Instead, clinging on desparately by the fingernails is the usual way of things.We still try to do that despite the USA having been top dog for 100 years.

 

Allies

Interesting that the five Arab allies are all Sunni including the Saudis and Shia Iran is yet to sign up. Not really what I exlected at all.

 

It is very interesting.

From a theological standpoint, I cannot make very much of an argument why anybody's life is worth more than another's.

But to keep the debate going, perhaps from an evolutionary standpoint, women and children are more valuable in keeping our species going, so we may mourn the idea of their loss greater. If you have 100 men and one woman, you are in trouble, if you have 100 women and one man the result should be positive (especially for the man!).

In the same way, children need to be protected until they are of age to become a parent. They are the most vital, as without children (especially girls because of the reasons above), the race would die out.

Men are certainly the most replaceable out of the three.

 

On that basis once a women reaches the menopause, she becomes worth less than a man who remain fertile for many more years. Obviously she would still have other uses, of course!

Not that I agree with all this, HH24, just playing devils advocate.

 

Indeed, I'd not thought of that but it seems true at first glance.

Also the idea that men are masculine and protectors and so we feel like we've failed if a woman or child should die.

Most animals die soon after menopause. It's only us, monkeys and whales or something like that.

 

With over 6 billion of us spread across the planet, that stopped being true a long time ago.

 

Thats not strictly true Simms old chap.

 

Survival of the species is not a biological or evolutionary imperative. Only breeding and raising offspring until they are self sufficient and fertile so as to maintain the individual's gene line is that. The survival of the species is simply a by-product.

 

It is true of dairy cows. They contract slit throat disease as soon as the milk dries up.

 

Morally, i would say that the reason we are more condemning of the murder of women and children is because the former might be considered more defenceless and some arcane code of chivalry still prevails. With kids, it is because they are innocents. I might be a more productive member of society than my kids, but I've done a lot more in life which is negative too. Plus I've had a chance to determine my destiny to a greater extent and have more control about whether I put myself in harm's way.

 

Ahh the old nature vs nurture chestnut

 

That's true of Gravyitus that chickens contract once they cease to lay eggs.

 

The evil seems to have no bounds.

 

It annoys me that they are even called British. Just look at them, look at their names, look at their parents.

 

Explain

 

I understand the PC stance you are trying but if they are fighting against Britain then yeah...they are not British

 

Even Al-Qaeda condemned his kidnapping, now is the chance for the muslim community to unite and condemn this dispicable act on a global scale, both sunnis and shias alike. I hope that anyone who'd been thinking of going to join the IS cause realise that these animals are not muslims, they are vermin of the worst kind.