How does the World view America these days?

[Rubin Farr]

Las Vegas police wiped the Mayor's iPad clean of child porn for him, after shifty request to "debug" his phone, because yeah.

 

http://gawker.com/vegas-mayors-ipad-magically-filled-with-child-porn-cop-1703119060

[Adieu]

I don't know about all y'all, but if I were a muslim living in Texas (or anywhere in the south really) I'd get the hell out before I was subjected to anymore of that famous "southern hospitality".

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/us/garland-texas-shooting-muhammad-cartoons.html

 

 

Nope, I'm talking bout what's sure to follow.

 

I'm pretty sure the only thing sure to follow is more idiocy on your part.

 

Top 10 airports for firearms seizures, gee the South likes guns? Who knew. Look at Texas numbers, funny if it wasn't so scary. I'm sick of US articles that call this a "post 9/11 world", it's a post 9/11 country. The rest of the world moved on.

 

https://instagram.com/p/yXzjeml9xB/?taken-by=tsa

 

Why is it scary that people have guns?

[awepittance]

The Price Of Dissent: Abby Martin Gets Graphic Rape Threats From Chris Kyle Fans
http://www.mintpressnews.com/the-price-of-dissent-abby-martin-gets-graphic-rape-threats-from-chris-kyle-fans/205456/

Edited May 8, 2015 by John Ehrlichman

[awepittance]

Are you really taking the side of the people who initiated gunfire because some folks drew a cartoon?

turns out Texan Americans aren't so different from the people who shot up that exhibit, my sister is being inundated with extremely detailed rape and death threats still as I type this from active and former marines most of them living in Texas.

 

so anybody who wants to hone in on as their 'free speech' issue of the year this ridiculous Pamela Geller stunt needs to seriously shut their fucking mouths and stop being a hypocrite. not anyone in this thread, just anyone idiotic and sad enough to use the muslim cartoon thing as the defacto free speech issue of the moment, seriously fuck all of you people, calling you retarded would be a compliment.

Edited May 8, 2015 by John Ehrlichman

[luke viia]

jeeeesus what the fuck, I hope she (and your whole family) stays safe

[luke viia]

Why is it scary that people have guns?

 

Because they're fatal weapons being carried around in public...? Because it's easy to use them for intimidation...? Because you can easily buy them at a gun show and not get them registered (like a few people I know have done)...? Because they're so easy to get that irresponsible people end up with them in their pockets regularly...? Because I've been held hostage, robbed and kept at gunpoint by criminals (who acquired guns from legitimate gun shops) twice in my life when I committed no wrong except being in the wrong place at the wrong time...? Take your pick I guess.

[Perezvon]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/virginia-woman-admits-spreading-feces-co-worker-desk-article-1.2212668

 

(that could have happened anywhere but I still wanted to share this)

[Rubin Farr]

 

 

Why is it scary that people have guns?

Because they're fatal weapons being carried around in public...? Because it's easy to use them for intimidation...? Because you can easily buy them at a gun show and not get them registered (like a few people I know have done)...? Because they're so easy to get that irresponsible people end up with them in their pockets regularly...? Because I've been held hostage, robbed and kept at gunpoint by criminals (who acquired guns from legitimate gun shops) twice in my life when I committed no wrong except being in the wrong place at the wrong time...? Take your pick I guess.

Because civilians react out of fear, not training. No one needs a firearm except the military, and properly trained, experienced law enforcement officers with a clear understanding of their policing duties, and the community they are charged with protecting.

[luke viia]

That is possibly the best point of them all.

[autopilot]

thanks for editing your post about your sister's rape threats to include a quote of my post!

[autopilot]

To clarify: Originally the post was just "my sister is getting rape threats" and now it's a response to me, seeming to lump me in with the people making those threats. If that wasn't your intention, speak up, but that was really unnecessary to make it a part of a post that it wasn't related to at all to begin with. I'm not from Texas, I agree with a lot of what Abby Martin says, and I don't hop on "free speech issues of the moment" or whatever the fuck you're on about.

 

I think the whole draw-the-prophet thing was brilliant and people need to start realizing that this idea of islam being a peacful religion driven to extremes by western meddling is just simply not true. Has US intervention caused a lot of problems in the middle east? Most certainly. Are those who are willing to kill people over a cartoon uneducated, ignorant, and operating on stone-age superstition? Undeniably.

[goDel]

The Price Of Dissent: Abby Martin Gets Graphic Rape Threats From Chris Kyle Fans[/size]http://www.mintpressnews.com/the-price-of-dissent-abby-martin-gets-graphic-rape-threats-from-chris-kyle-fans/205456/

 

Good thing she keeps on using her voice instead of being silenced by the threats. Even though it appears as some extreme form of online trolling, most people would have chosen the precautious option and go silent, I'm guessing.

 

I especially like what she said here.

After emphasizing that the threats are a crime verging on terrorism, Martin also critiqued the idea that oppressive behavior is a way to uphold the principle of free speech.

 

“You’re not doing anything daring, dude, you’re just riding a wave and then saying it’s all about free speech,” she said. “Sure it’s free speech, but you’re not standing up to the man.”

 

The First Amendment is meant to protect dissent, she told MintPress, adding: No one needs to protect the free speech rights of those who are just repeating the propaganda of America’s militaristic culture about one of its soldiers, Chris Kyle.

 

“It’s an insane, cult-like syndrome and they are on top of the world. The U.S. is the military machine, it’s the military empire. And here you have this war ‘hero’ who is in reality a xenophobic, racist bigot that bragged about killing savages,” said Martin.

 

She reserved some of her strongest criticism for those who claim that Kyle died defending the Constitution, when in reality he was slain by another soldier:

 

“Don’t get it twisted, he didn’t die in Iraq,” she said. “Just the fact that these people think the Iraq War had something to do with freedom, that’s how in denial they are and that’s how dangerous movies like ‘American Sniper’ are.”

 

Martin explained that “American Sniper” deliberately includes footage of September 11 as a way to emphasize the imaginary connection between Iraq and the 2001 terrorist attack.

 

She continued: “These kinds of psychotic people are the reason why Iraq is so messed up today and the reason why terrorism is on the rise.”

 

[autopilot]

Oh wow, sorry dude @ John. I was mistaken above. I thought you edited the post where you posted that article and instead changed it to the one where you were responding to me. My mistake, I just didn't scroll up. I should've done that before posting all that. Apologies.

 

I'd totally go back and edit all that out if I could but you know I can't because WATMM is awesome like that.

[Alcofribas]

I think the whole draw-the-prophet thing was brilliant and people need to start realizing that this idea of islam being a peacful religion driven to extremes by western meddling is just simply not true. Has US intervention caused a lot of problems in the middle east? Most certainly. Are those who are willing to kill people over a cartoon uneducated, ignorant, and operating on stone-age superstition? Undeniably.

 

it was brilliant only in the ridley scott meaning of the word.

[markedone]

How does the world view Antarctica these days?

[baph]

How does the world view Antarctica these days?

satellites mostly

[LimpyLoo]

 

 

I think the whole draw-the-prophet thing was brilliant and people need to start realizing that this idea of islam being a peacful religion driven to extremes by western meddling is just simply not true. Has US intervention caused a lot of problems in the middle east? Most certainly. Are those who are willing to kill people over a cartoon uneducated, ignorant, and operating on stone-age superstition? Undeniably.

it was brilliant only in the ridley scott meaning of the word.

If people were getting killed for drawing Mickey Mouse, it would be plain as day that, of course, people should be able to draw Mickey Mouse at will and not consequently fear for their safety.

 

But for some reason this idea gets muddled when it pertains to offending the members of a bronze age cult. It seems to me a sort-of liberal PC-ness run amok (and I say this as a fellow far-lefty).

 

As far as I'm concerned, the first amendment isn't up for debate. And the only way to be immune to blackmail (as I think this essentially is) is to pre-commit to ignoring threats of blackmail so that there is no incentive to blackmail you in the first place.

 

Silly religious dogmas have had a grip on humanity's throat for long enough: some politician's faith tells them that marriage is between a man and a woman, or that life begins at conception, or that the earth is only 6,000 years old or that climate change isn't happening because only God can destroy humanity...and then we're left holding the check.

 

It seems like a kind of masochistic insanity, how we let these deluded half-wits dictate how we live. To the extant that we denounce cartoonists for not folding to the implicit blackmail of a thuggish cult, we have truly lost our way.

Edited May 9, 2015 by LimpyLoo

[LimpyLoo]

PS that sux, JE

Stay safe you guys

[chenGOD]

 

I don't know about all y'all, but if I were a muslim living in Texas (or anywhere in the south really) I'd get the hell out before I was subjected to anymore of that famous "southern hospitality".

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/us/garland-texas-shooting-muhammad-cartoons.html

 

 

Nope, I'm talking bout what's sure to follow.

 

I'm pretty sure the only thing sure to follow is more idiocy on your part.

 

Top 10 airports for firearms seizures, gee the South likes guns? Who knew. Look at Texas numbers, funny if it wasn't so scary. I'm sick of US articles that call this a "post 9/11 world", it's a post 9/11 country. The rest of the world moved on.

 

https://instagram.com/p/yXzjeml9xB/?taken-by=tsa

 

Why is it scary that people have guns?

 

 

Hey that's a great rebuttal. I tell you what, I'll bet you one album purchase max 20 bucks that an innocent muslim gets shot in the US in 2015.

Those idiots who opened fire at the draw-a-prophet thing (a stupid idea - almost certainly guaranteed to cause an incident) were not innocent, so don't think I'm condoning them.

 

As to your last question, it's not scary that people have guns per se. There are a lot of guns up here in Canada. What's scary is that people feel the need to walk around shopping malls with machine guns, or that concealed carry is totally legal in all states along with stand your ground laws in many states (23 states have stand your ground laws) that would make it difficult to press murder charges unless there was an eyewitness or video evidence. Some jackoff in Florida or Arizona loses his shit cause he thinks you cut him off, then whips out his gun in the heat of the moment? So I guess what I'm trying to say is that your gun "laws" are ridiculous.

 

Whoever wrote about the religion of peace thing - please, take a look at how many muslims there are in the world, and then look at how many are actively killing christians. Do you honestly, honestly think the actions of a few represent the whole? There's a far higher chance of being killed by a Christian if you're living in the US.

 

Edit: and yes that's fucked up JE. I hope your sister stays safe, along with you and the rest of your family of course.

[Alcofribas]

 

 

I think the whole draw-the-prophet thing was brilliant and people need to start realizing that this idea of islam being a peacful religion driven to extremes by western meddling is just simply not true. Has US intervention caused a lot of problems in the middle east? Most certainly. Are those who are willing to kill people over a cartoon uneducated, ignorant, and operating on stone-age superstition? Undeniably.

it was brilliant only in the ridley scott meaning of the word.

If people were getting killed for drawing Mickey Mouse, it would be plain as day that, of course, people should be able to draw Mickey Mouse at will and not consequently fear for their safety.

 

But for some reason this idea gets muddled when it pertains to offending the members of a bronze age cult. It seems to me a sort-of liberal PC-ness run amok (and I say this as a fellow far-lefty).

 

As far as I'm concerned, the first amendment isn't up for debate. And the only way to be immune to blackmail (as I think this essentially is) is to pre-commit to ignoring threats of blackmail so that there is no incentive to blackmail you in the first place.

 

Silly religious dogmas have had a grip on humanity's throat for long enough: some politician's faith tells them that marriage is between a man and a woman, or that life begins at conception, or that the earth is only 6,000 years old or that climate change isn't happening because only God can destroy humanity...and then we're left holding the check.

 

It seems like a kind of masochistic insanity, how we let these deluded half-wits dictate how we live. To the extant that we denounce cartoonists for not folding to the implicit blackmail of a thuggish cult, we have truly lost our way.

 

 

i hardly think the issue is muddled. it's one thing to unconditionally support free speech (i agree with you completely that it isn't up for debate) and quite another to characterize knuckleheads like pam geller as "brilliant."

 

beyond that your characterization of islam as a "thuggish" "bronze age cult" engaged in the blackmail of our rights is not particularly compelling.

[luke viia]

Meanwhile Obama is doing his best to fast track the TPP through congress, starting this Tuesday if it all goes according to plan.

 

I don't even. I really, really dislike Obama.

Edited May 9, 2015 by luke viia

[usagi]

Meanwhile Obama is doing his best to fast track the TPP through congress, starting this Tuesday if it all goes according to plan.

 

I don't even. I really, really dislike Obama.

 

 

we're a long way from 2008, baby.

 

one of my few American friends here in Sydney once got offended when I characterised - half-jokingly - Obama as the antichrist. my meaning was that the office of US president is bound by its nature and by its workings to result in wrongdoing, and I still believe that. I'd've gone further and said as much but we were in a polite social gathering and I fucking hate political talk, so whatevs.

 

I believe he also took general offense at someone of my background criticising the leader of his country, like people who come from non-democratic nations don't have that right. pretty funny reasoning. we don't hang anymore.

[chenGOD]

TPP is happening, and while there are some (big) issues with it, on the whole, expanded trade is good for us (denizens of watmm generally not living in developing nations). Trade agreements are never set in stone, and shit can always be disputed at the WTO. Beyond that, furthering economic ties increases stability and security in general.

[luke viia]

Chen, I have to respectfully and deeply disagree with you here. Exactly which parts of the TPP do you find troubling, and which parts positive? I imagine this might be a difficult question to answer since neither you or I, nor congress, can read the majority of the agreement*, but I'm curious.

 

 

*and I refuse to accept an argument from ignorance here. "We don't know it's bad so it must be fine" isn't OK - had to say it since that's how I've been countered on this subject before.

Edited May 9, 2015 by luke viia

[luke viia]

if you want, I can get the ball rolling. Do you agree with, or can you defend in good faith, the ISDS clauses?