OT: Brussels attacks

Nah, after the 28th virgin, you'd be looking around for someone with a little experience.

My understanding of why we didn't want to get into fighting in Syria is that there are more advanced weapons in play than we would be happy fighting against. In other words, we would expect significant casualties and loss of aircraft.

If you are talking about ISIS in Iraq, I believe we have been asked by the Iraqi government to stay the hell out!

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Rick

In your home, what exactly does it mean to be a "pacifist"? I'm guess the bar isn't too high.

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Rick

I think "radical" Islam, whatever that is, wants us to hate all Muslims, that makes people more radical.

To me, that is not what the US is about. I thought we were the land of religious freedom? I'm mostly agnostic, which is allowed here.

George H.

No, the fun is in teaching (and, of course, learning).

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James Arthgurs poltical blinkers prevent him from recognising that re-distr ibution in Sweden and Germany hasn't destroyed wealth, innovation or invest ment.

Sweden collects and re-distributes 55% of the GDP through its tax system, a nd Germany takes almost as much - about 50%. The US settles for 30%.

Germany persuades more of its population to get some kind of tertiary train ing than any other country, and that does seem to have helped create an inn ovative high-tech manufacturing sector, which exports about as much as the US despite Germany - at 80 million people - being a quarter the size of the US.

It's more than half of what China exports, which is even more remarkable. G erman workers aren't cheap, so if they are compteing with the Chinese they are doing it on quality.

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The Arabs have built themselves up but they started a long way further back than Israel did. Israel got a lot of skilled immigrants from Europe after WW2, and a lot of US capital, and it was all concentrated in one rather sma ll country.

Moving from being a third world country to become a developed country takes time and effort. Japan did it earlier than most. China did it as fast when they finally got their government system more or less sorted out. India ha s been rather slower - they had a more or less democratic government after they achieved independence, and the British had left them a more or less mo dern transport infrastructure, but democratic government doesn't necessaril y make the right decisions as fast as it might, or put all the resources it has into economic development.

The Arab world has had other problems - not least the Western interest in g etting oil out of them. Iran had a democratically elected government in 195

3, but it was too interested in developing Iran's economy and not amenable enough to oil company demands, so in August 1953 a CIA-orchestrated coup pu t the Shah in power as a dictator. He ran the country badly enough that in 1979 Khomeini was able to return and impose a theocratic regime - not the best government imaginable, but better than the Shah (and the oil companies ) had delivered.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

LOL! I almost spit out my tea!!!!

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Rick

I haven't read the entire Bible, I clearly missed that part. Where is it?

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Rick

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If the government doesn't invest much in education, the political views of the population are unsophisticated, and they tend to elect people who are b etter at rhetoric than running the country. The US seems to be running into that problem with Donald Trump.

Given time, a stable political system will find politicians who can run a c ountry efficiently and profitably, but it can take a while. Russia hasn't m anaged it yet. India took longer to get there than China did.

Redistribution isn't destroying wealth, innovation or investment in Scandin avia or Germany - Sweden collects 55% of the GDP as tax and re-distributes it wisely. Germany collects about 50% of the GDP as tax (still a lot more than the US

30%) and spends at least some of it on creating the best educated work forc e in the world - more Germans have some kind of tertiary education than the inhabitants of any other country.

As a more or less direct result, Germany exports almost as much as the US - despite have only a quarter of the population and roughly half as much as China, despite paying their workers a whole lot better.

If your government is as corrupt and incompetent at the current US system, redistribution may not be such a good idea, but the answer would seem to be to redesign the US constitution on the German model, rather than clinging to out-dated economic ideas because your form of government is too antiquat ed to run a modern economy.

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This rather ignores the point that Israel imported a whole lot human capita l - in terms of well-educated Europeaan Jews, as well as financial capital from the US, which did give them a head start on their neighbours.

When Iran had a government that was more interested in building up the Iran ian economy than in acquiescing to the demands of US and UK oil companies, the CIA egineered a coup back in August 1953, which put the Shah in control as a military dictator. He ran the country so badly that the population th rew him out in 1979 and replaced him with Khomeini and a bunch of other the ocrats, who didn't deliver particularly good government, but did better tha n the Shah had.

Most of the Middle East has had it's politics distorted by similar external pressures. The Saudi regime wouldn't survive if it didn't have internation al oil revenue to distribute ...

Talking about what the Arabs could have done while ignoring the real-world constraints on what they would have been allowed to do is pretty unrealisti c, but James Arthur has serious political delusions, and disconnection from reality is more or less compulsory in his circle.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

Clearly. But nowhere near as immoral a decision as carrying out the threat when the Quakers came back.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

I found it. It perfectly describes someone I know. At this point everyone around him hates him including all of his family.

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Rick

IIRC 30,000 (mostly civilians) jumped off cliffs in Saipan to avoid surrender.

Brr.

Phil Hobbs

And many of those women held their children as they jumped. (Remeber, in Sagan's Cosmos, the story of the Haike crab?) Some were filmed doing it by combat photographers. There was a US soldier, raised by a Japanese couple in California, who got a medal for talking hundreds into surrendering on Okinawa. Jeffrey Hunter played him in a movie.

Luke 14:26.

2 King 2:23-25 is pretty vile as well. I certainly wouldn't want to bow down before a person or doG that behaved like that.

And of course there's the bit from The West Wing

I corrected my math teacher, 35 does go into 19.

Jamie

That page was part of the pages you cut out for your hidden nippy bottle.

Jamie

So Jamie was still trying to learn math at 35 - without much success, as can be seen from the nonsense he posts about prime numbers. Who knows what incentives he had to offer to keep the math teacher interested?

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

19 is a bit young for a maths teacher.

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There are many things, not just in the Bible, that is you take them out of context mean something other than what they were in tended. Luke

14:26 does not tell anyone to hate another nor does it tell anyone to do anything to another. It is simply saying that you have to have undivided devotion to be a follower. Keep in mind that any Bible you read has been translated. They all vary to some extend which clearly shows how any part must be considered in the context of the whole.

I am no Bible thumper. But if you want to tell someone about Bible is not about peace and love, you need to do better than this.

I will say this about the King quote. If a God was like this, I certainly *would* bow down before him. I would be too afraid to anger him. But we both know there is no god so it's not really a problem.

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Rick