Muslim Attitudes

[Big RR]

Jim--I doubt you'd get much of an argument re the points you raised in your last two posts, including that we do face a danger from radical islam. But trying to temper our response to that danger is not sticking our heads in the sand, it is also recognizing that we're treading in dangerous territory here, and every action can have many unintended reactions that are just as dangerous to our safety and way of life as anything radical islam can dish out, and it's important not to ignore that.

[MajGenl.Meade]

LJ - you stated in opposition to Sue that ANY analogy between supporting the IRA and supporting ISIS fails on so many levels.

You then described the levels of difference:

The IRA only killed a few people
The IRA only killed people in two countries
The IRA didn't try terror in the USA

So your criteria for saying that there is no analogy between supporting Irish terror and supporting Islamist terror were... what, if not those? Questions of "trivializing" do not arise. Question of moral culpability do.

I acknowledge your comment that supporting the IRA is awful, bad, put 'em in jail - but why is that? Have you decided that there is, after all, some kind of analogy? That supporting terrorism is supporting terrorism and it's wrong, no matter how huge or small, no matter where?

If so, then we are clear indeed. The analogy fits.

ETA what Sue just said and Big RR's first sentence

[Lord Jim]

My point is that not so long ago,

Sue, I dearly wish I could go back to "not so long ago"...

In Not So Long Ago, it was the 80's and I was partying like a motherfucker, smoking weed, snorting coke, and being totally irresponsible...(and having meaningless sex with women I barely knew...and Ronald Reagan was President...good times.... )

But "not so long ago" is gone...

Now we are in The Year Of Our Lord Two Thousand and Fifteen...

And I have a family, (as do you) and I have to concerned about them...

And that requires, (in my view) that one be realistic....

We face some very real threats here, and we should respond accordingly...

You can choose to minimize and trivialize the nature of the threats we face, you can shove your head in the sand and try to ignore them, but that's not going to make them go away...

At the end of the day, the threat still remains...

And we must confront it, and be realistic about it....

Wishing it were not so, won't make it not so....

[Lord Jim]

You seem to think (In this as in so many other ways - one in particular) that quantity is the definition of morality.

Well, yes and no...

The taking of a single innocent human life is a moral abomination...

But mass murder is a moral abomination cubed...

If the Nazis had "only" killed a thousand Jews, they would not be remembered as infamously as they are; that's a simple historical fact., as morally inaccurate and repellant as it may be...

Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, are remembered (rightly) as mass murderers, who committed murder on an industrial scale....

And we judge characters of that sort differently...

[MajGenl.Meade]

God doesn't

[Lord Jim]

Nor should He...

[wesw]

the IRA has established a world wide clan system. green grass and Guinness have become mandatory. fisticuffs are encouraged on a friday night at the pub and during football matches. all women must learn to step dance and sing like angels. sheep for everyone! except the English.

[oldr_n_wsr]

how can i get people to donate to my IRA? If I get enough donations I can retire in 8 years at 65yo.

[BoSoxGal]

good one!