If a big wall would save Egyptian church-goers from the ceaseless bombings by Muslims, Tawadros would waste no time building it, moral high ground be damned.
One day the Democratic party will get the opportunity to set things right. But they will first have to understand how they lost the White, working class as well as middle class voter. Blaming Putin or racism is not a starting point.
The Islamic world shares the blame with the U.S. for Islamic terrorism. The success of the Islamic Republic of Iran provided the Sunni Islamists proof that they too could take over governments. And the billions upon billions spent in spreading the Wahabi way have made the Muslim world more narrow-minded, more suspectible to violent extremism.
Doesn't explain why ISIS and other jihadi "rebel" groups are comprised of so many foreigners. And if the police state the young people are fighting against, why don't they fight as Libertarians or Anarchists? Sharia-based societies like Saudi Arabia are perfect examples of a police state. You might have to consider that some of the guys actually believe that violent Jihad is what some big bearded dude in the sky wants.
The Somalis I have met in school and at work are a refined, wonderful people. They have been very kind to me. I am relieved that these white terrorists were arrested.
Properly, America should make the lives of all Syrians whole. In other words, cede chunks of territory to Syrians, to let them live under their own values and governance. Which is politically impossible. So a compromise must be reached. Destroy other people's countries, bring them in as refugees, and expect them to adopt American values. That sounds like justice!
Does separation of religion and state mean the same thing to a North African as it does to an American? Does it mean you can have truly equal rights for women and religious minorities, or does it just mean imams should stay out of politicking and leave it to the elites?
The Gulf princes determine how much oil gets pumped.
And they have their luxury refuges set up all over the world, so no skin off their nose if the Mideast turns into a furnace.
Social justice policies are a nice thought, but who defines what is social justice? Martin Luther King? The U.N? A liberal Western blogger? Wouldn't the Quran get a say? Would social justice in a Muslim country look like Malaysia, with its Bumipetera policy that is effectively a jizya on the Chinese and Indians?
Kevin Smith worked on an aborted Prince documentary. Smith recounted that Prince preached Christianity to fans at his home, and advocated the obedience of women to men. CNN is reporting that Prince was against gay marriage. So wasn't exactly a liberal who admired Islam. More like someone who recognized Islam for what it is, a focused, uncompromising worship of God.
I had a lot of good Muslim friends when I was younger. My best friends, actually. I admired them greatly for their earnestness, sincerity, forthrightness. But I was close enough to see that Islam took away from people as much as it gave back, if not more. It will never be for me.
The kindest, most sincere people that I have ever met are from Muslim backgrounds. They try to do everything right for their community, for their Allah. It is because they are so sincere that they take such undeserved fear and suspicion to heart.
If Turkey ends up in a civil war, with the Kurds and Jihadists, then the resulting exodus to Europe will be unimaginable. Turks will become part of the EU, whether the Europeans like it or not. Hopefully saner minds will prevail in Turkey, and step back from Erdogan's dreams of regional hegemony.
The last czar and his security apparatus probably saw the Communists as just a dangerous fringe, and rightly so. How could a bunch of over-educated peasants take over the country? But the abject failure of the government that opened the gates for the fringe to take control.
It's a mistake to judge the potential of a rebel movement solely on how pathetic they seem. After all it's the societal losers who make up the vanguard of a rebellion. The other side of the equation is how incompetent and unstable are the governments they seek to overthrow.
ISIS may only be a bunch of gangsters, but imagine if the Latin Kings took over Texas, from the government on down. Or if the Mafia did the same to New York and New Jersey. And if they had an actual political ideology to motivate them, to kill and die for, they wouldn't be merely gangsters. Stalin started out as an extortionist in the oil fields of Baku. Mao and his party financed themselves through banditry. The founding fathers of the United States probably looked a lot like gangsters to Great Britain.
Bigotry against Muslims, racism against the peoples who believe in Mohammed is wrong and can only bring more misery to everyone. But how big or small the actual threat of ISIS has nothing to do with it.
"When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers". Victims of terrorism, war are only the grass. Of the elephants fighting, there is an entire herd, and Saudi Arabia is just one of them. It's not going to end until there's nothing left fighting for.
There is indeed a double standard, but probably appropriate. Christian or white supremacist terrorists do not (yet) have organizations as fearsome as ISIS or Al-Queda backing them.
Israel is an apartheid state, and has been for decades. This is fact. Historical justice, however, is a subjective desire, not something inevitable. The Arab world is rapidly going down in flames; they are too busy saving themselves to back up the Palestinians.
World powers and regional powers all have their own plans for Syria, none of which consider what the Syrians themselves want. Consequently, Syria does not exist anymore. It's just one big battlefield for soldiers and jihadis to grind out over the coming years.
The speedy destruction of ISIS would be the best thing for the entire world. But the survival of the Assad regime, the Iraqi government is not what some Sunni countries want. My guess is when ISIS is cowed, hanging by a thread, the northern and southern borders will quietly open up with aid.
The question that journalists ask is when Anbar will be retaken. Which is natural, given the repugnance of ISIS. But given the deep divisions among ISIS' foes, the more relevant question is when Baghdad will be invaded.
Doesn't Turkey have some sort of shrine to Attaturk behind the Syrian border? With Turkish soldiers guarding it, and ISIS(?) leaving it alone as a part of their tacit truce? I wonder if it will be used a justification for some kind of military action by Turkey.
It speaks to the audacity and shamelessness of the Bush clan and their elite supporters to want to raise another of their sons to the Presidency, and to rule in a similar manner. Yet Jeb may be one of the least bad candidates among the Republican candidates. Which is abysmally depressing.
When religious people perceive a victory, they praise God. When they suffer a setback, they say God is testing them. But what if God seems to hand victory after victory to a committed enemy? Time to look for a new god ...
According to one documentary, Jerusalem is basically a barren hill of no particular strategic value. Yet different peoples have been fighting over it for millennia.
It's important and necessary to point out the acts of terror by our own U.S. government. An analogy between those and the death of the Jordanian pilot doesn't quite work, probably because the latter was staged and distributed, while the former doesn't get much attention from the press. Different "kinds" of terror. Perhaps a comparison of the torture at Abu Ghraib and ISIS' executions is more relevant, given that ISIS' leaders are said to have come from the U.S. prisons in Iraq.
© 2026 All Rights Reserved
If a big wall would save Egyptian church-goers from the ceaseless bombings by Muslims, Tawadros would waste no time building it, moral high ground be damned.
One day the Democratic party will get the opportunity to set things right. But they will first have to understand how they lost the White, working class as well as middle class voter. Blaming Putin or racism is not a starting point.
"You have to ask where it came from."
The Islamic world shares the blame with the U.S. for Islamic terrorism. The success of the Islamic Republic of Iran provided the Sunni Islamists proof that they too could take over governments. And the billions upon billions spent in spreading the Wahabi way have made the Muslim world more narrow-minded, more suspectible to violent extremism.
Doesn't explain why ISIS and other jihadi "rebel" groups are comprised of so many foreigners. And if the police state the young people are fighting against, why don't they fight as Libertarians or Anarchists? Sharia-based societies like Saudi Arabia are perfect examples of a police state. You might have to consider that some of the guys actually believe that violent Jihad is what some big bearded dude in the sky wants.
The Somalis I have met in school and at work are a refined, wonderful people. They have been very kind to me. I am relieved that these white terrorists were arrested.
I thought his Victoria's Secret commercials were brilliant.
But what would the Middle East do if no one bought their oil and gas?
Properly, America should make the lives of all Syrians whole. In other words, cede chunks of territory to Syrians, to let them live under their own values and governance. Which is politically impossible. So a compromise must be reached. Destroy other people's countries, bring them in as refugees, and expect them to adopt American values. That sounds like justice!
A failed Muslim could still go straight to heaven if he died a martyr. Right?
Does separation of religion and state mean the same thing to a North African as it does to an American? Does it mean you can have truly equal rights for women and religious minorities, or does it just mean imams should stay out of politicking and leave it to the elites?
The Gulf princes determine how much oil gets pumped.
And they have their luxury refuges set up all over the world, so no skin off their nose if the Mideast turns into a furnace.
Social justice policies are a nice thought, but who defines what is social justice? Martin Luther King? The U.N? A liberal Western blogger? Wouldn't the Quran get a say? Would social justice in a Muslim country look like Malaysia, with its Bumipetera policy that is effectively a jizya on the Chinese and Indians?
Kevin Smith worked on an aborted Prince documentary. Smith recounted that Prince preached Christianity to fans at his home, and advocated the obedience of women to men. CNN is reporting that Prince was against gay marriage. So wasn't exactly a liberal who admired Islam. More like someone who recognized Islam for what it is, a focused, uncompromising worship of God.
I had a lot of good Muslim friends when I was younger. My best friends, actually. I admired them greatly for their earnestness, sincerity, forthrightness. But I was close enough to see that Islam took away from people as much as it gave back, if not more. It will never be for me.
The kindest, most sincere people that I have ever met are from Muslim backgrounds. They try to do everything right for their community, for their Allah. It is because they are so sincere that they take such undeserved fear and suspicion to heart.
If Turkey ends up in a civil war, with the Kurds and Jihadists, then the resulting exodus to Europe will be unimaginable. Turks will become part of the EU, whether the Europeans like it or not. Hopefully saner minds will prevail in Turkey, and step back from Erdogan's dreams of regional hegemony.
The operation was technically a success, but the patient died. Let's give the surgeons a round of applause!
The last czar and his security apparatus probably saw the Communists as just a dangerous fringe, and rightly so. How could a bunch of over-educated peasants take over the country? But the abject failure of the government that opened the gates for the fringe to take control.
It's a mistake to judge the potential of a rebel movement solely on how pathetic they seem. After all it's the societal losers who make up the vanguard of a rebellion. The other side of the equation is how incompetent and unstable are the governments they seek to overthrow.
ISIS may only be a bunch of gangsters, but imagine if the Latin Kings took over Texas, from the government on down. Or if the Mafia did the same to New York and New Jersey. And if they had an actual political ideology to motivate them, to kill and die for, they wouldn't be merely gangsters. Stalin started out as an extortionist in the oil fields of Baku. Mao and his party financed themselves through banditry. The founding fathers of the United States probably looked a lot like gangsters to Great Britain.
Bigotry against Muslims, racism against the peoples who believe in Mohammed is wrong and can only bring more misery to everyone. But how big or small the actual threat of ISIS has nothing to do with it.
"When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers". Victims of terrorism, war are only the grass. Of the elephants fighting, there is an entire herd, and Saudi Arabia is just one of them. It's not going to end until there's nothing left fighting for.
There's a similarity, but it's a bit of a stretch to draw an equivalence.
There is indeed a double standard, but probably appropriate. Christian or white supremacist terrorists do not (yet) have organizations as fearsome as ISIS or Al-Queda backing them.
Israel is an apartheid state, and has been for decades. This is fact. Historical justice, however, is a subjective desire, not something inevitable. The Arab world is rapidly going down in flames; they are too busy saving themselves to back up the Palestinians.
World powers and regional powers all have their own plans for Syria, none of which consider what the Syrians themselves want. Consequently, Syria does not exist anymore. It's just one big battlefield for soldiers and jihadis to grind out over the coming years.
The moderate center does not ever seem to hold in Middle Eastern countries. Too much "my way or the highway" attitude in the culture.
The world will be so much better off when we are no longer reliant on petroleum, especially Saudi petrol.
The speedy destruction of ISIS would be the best thing for the entire world. But the survival of the Assad regime, the Iraqi government is not what some Sunni countries want. My guess is when ISIS is cowed, hanging by a thread, the northern and southern borders will quietly open up with aid.
Who would have thought that the Arab Spring would be a precursor to a vast regional war, from Turkey all the way down to Yemen?
The question that journalists ask is when Anbar will be retaken. Which is natural, given the repugnance of ISIS. But given the deep divisions among ISIS' foes, the more relevant question is when Baghdad will be invaded.
Doesn't Turkey have some sort of shrine to Attaturk behind the Syrian border? With Turkish soldiers guarding it, and ISIS(?) leaving it alone as a part of their tacit truce? I wonder if it will be used a justification for some kind of military action by Turkey.
It speaks to the audacity and shamelessness of the Bush clan and their elite supporters to want to raise another of their sons to the Presidency, and to rule in a similar manner. Yet Jeb may be one of the least bad candidates among the Republican candidates. Which is abysmally depressing.
Is the situation becoming similar to Pakistan's enmity with India and their support of the Taliban? I hope not.
When religious people perceive a victory, they praise God. When they suffer a setback, they say God is testing them. But what if God seems to hand victory after victory to a committed enemy? Time to look for a new god ...
According to one documentary, Jerusalem is basically a barren hill of no particular strategic value. Yet different peoples have been fighting over it for millennia.
Before all this, wasn't Turkey a long time ally with Syria? What happened to turn them into mortal enemies? Was it just the Arab Spring?
It's important and necessary to point out the acts of terror by our own U.S. government. An analogy between those and the death of the Jordanian pilot doesn't quite work, probably because the latter was staged and distributed, while the former doesn't get much attention from the press. Different "kinds" of terror. Perhaps a comparison of the torture at Abu Ghraib and ISIS' executions is more relevant, given that ISIS' leaders are said to have come from the U.S. prisons in Iraq.