Mongrel

I would sacrifice my life for your right to ignore my claims. And yet.. you can sort of tell if a person thinks of Arabs or Mexicans or whatever as a ...

The origin of Islam is very similar to the rise of the Mongols. In both cases tribes became fused by the violent actions of one individual and his fol...

Race is not biological. It's a social construct. So it can be configured as desired.

Hmm. You can always tell the ones who harbor hidden racism. They're the ones who get the most sanctimonious.

I'm not sure what you mean by "at the level of" the state. It is true that the basic Christian message gets away with pacifism because it has renounce...

I think all we can do is speculate based on what we know about human nature. Some have speculated that ISIS might have wanted to create anti-Muslim se...

Adaptation is an awesome movie.

Statements about counterfactuals might be normative: stating what one ought to believe. Or conventional: having to do with proper grammar. The weather...

Cool post. But acceptance often seems monstrous. Acceptance of child abuse, for instance.

Yep. The blame for an act of violence is on the perpetrator. But when we take a break from judgement and try to understand, it's meaningful to ask how...

One of the salt of the earth Iraqis I've known and loved got old and finally died. Is it really news to you that the US is full of Muslims along with ...

It's partly language game.

Ok, so I put it in a way that was inflammatory. It got your attention. Same thing with your OP.

Lawfulness is the underlying issue. European culture made a giant transition from the belief that God causes everything to belief in natural law. Why ...

I'm an AI. Obviously not strong on the I part.

I was kidding. You didn't threaten the pope. Is your family Catholic?

Well there was that time you said you were going to assassinate the pope.

I don't think the op was asking anything in earnest. It was just inviting a bitchfest. Surprising considering it was Vagabond, whose threads are alway...

What? I'm typing in a phone. You want an exposition on the west's effects on the middle east?

Sunni Islam doesn't have the same flexibility Christianity has. Muslims are not free to take scripture figuratively. You disagreed with that. Did you ...

Then you needn't read up on the topic. You've figured the whole thing out a priori.

Yes, that's inconsistent. Many liberals are bigots, but their target is the negative of the set of usual suspects.

Sunnis don't have the same flexibility.

Claims that terrorism is a result of western intrusion. What's forward bigotry?

You're making shit up, dude.

I think there's an element of truth to those claims, but it quickly gets lost in the soft racism and reverse bigotry.

For some strange reason I expected you to be a rational voice in this threadful of bigotry.

Buddhists and Christians have no problem condemning child molestation. For a Sunni it's trickier because the big M had sex with a 9 year old when he w...

I appreciate your raising victims up to be acknowledged. I gather you don't wish to discuss it further... which is fine.

I wasn't trying to virtue signal or anything. I really do think responsibility is an important factor.

For the moment, yes. The question I asked is not a complicated one. I'll take the fact that you won't address it as an admission of a serious weakness...

Your response is dubious, and we can discuss that if you want. But I wonder if you might address the question I asked. If you blame Islam for a case o...

This is the problem, tom: if you blame the religion for the atrocities, it would appear that you're taking the individual human actors off the hook. T...

Are math principles normative or a matter of convention?

Oh. I didn't know they called them Berliners.

Every 42 seconds someone in the US has a heart attack.

I thought you were from Florida.

Nirvana is a jelly doughnut.

I'm imagining people sitting around reading the KKK website (assuming there is one.) Maybe not so strange. I know two people who are fascinated by hol...

Sounds pretty boring to me. Why does it interest you?

I've seen that movie a could of times. Didn't remember the dolphin scene.

The oldest image of the Buddha is on a coin.

I don't think the US national debt will ever be paid. It will just disappear in the next great depression as the British debt disappeared in the last ...

I don't think it's unifying because it's politically self-defeating. Europe starved itself to get through the recent economic mess. Americans never st...

That sounds violent.

Yes, I was asking about the content of these supposed amendments. It would have to be an issue that's potent enough to unify a bunch of people who've ...

That's beautiful.

Ratify what exactly?

I disagree. I believe it needs lots of saying.

Everybody has to insert a "yes, but..." from time to time. Muslim commentaries do a lot of it, for instance.. "The Koran teaches that men should beat ...