The Joke's on Us

[Carol]

It makes no sense. Laptop bags, diaper bags and ladies' purses are OK, but a little flight bag or back pack might be used to transport... what? .

Here's the logic. (Note that I am not saying it is good logic)

All Young Adults carry Backpacks

100% of YP -> CB


Most terrorists are Young Adults

51-100% of T -> YP, 100% of YP -> CB


Therefore

Most terrorists carry backpacks

51 - 100% of T -> CB

Hey! Thats how I can spot terrorists!

 

[Jenny_in_Chico]

Let’s do a test. I’ll walk the streets of a Christian country with a derogatory cartoon of Jesus.


You’ll walk the streets of a Islamic country with a derogatory cartoon of Muhammad.


We’ll see who come out alive to post here.

In a lot of rural towns across America, you will get your dick knocked in the dirt for doing just that. Probably not murdered, though.

I never claimed that Islamic fundamentalists were not dangerous, or were less dangerous than Christians. I simply called attention to the fact that Islam does not have the market cornered on religious fundamentalism, or terror tactics. Fortunately, our country at this time is not so rife with fundamentalists that 10 fall into the yard every time you shake a tree. But it could head that way, if Americans continue to couple religious fervor with patriotism, and if the perceived threat to American "values/way of life" continues to grow.

 

[Jenny_in_Chico]

I'm an atheist, so take my comments as coming from someone on the outside looking in. Personally, I don't worry too much about religious fundamentalists. There are a lot of other things that have a higher percent chance of hurting me. Bees, for example, more people die from bee stings then they do from religious fundamentalist terrorism. I've been stung by bees, I have never met a religious fundamentalist that has ever tried to hurt me. Lets keep it real by talking about experience, because that is what we know to actually exist. The world portrayed by the media is a complete farce.

As long as they are not trying to force me to live my life the way they think I should live it, I don't care how they choose to live their life. That is my only beef with religious fundamentalists. It's certainly not something that I need to worry so much that I would trundle my children through a naked body scanner so that some TSA pervert can get off. That is a real threat to me. I see that as having potential to cause me and my family more pain then any religious fundamentalist. The bottom line is that I believe that a lot of the hype against religions is contrived. The powers that be use it as a tool to manipulate people by creating and fanning various kinds of prejudice. I have been (and I discover that I still am) a victim of this all of time.

As I wake up and realize that I am in control of reality around me and that I have the power of observation and discernment, I can start to use my own mental faculties to determine what is a threat and what is not. I will never again abrogate my right to determine who is the enemy.

I don't spend a lot of time worrying about anything. There is a lot of crap that goes on in this world that I have no control over. Plagues, climate change, crime, terrorism, etc. Like you, I figure that my chances of dying from a terrorist act at this point in time are slim. However, we can't be blind to the possibility that domestic and/or global destabilization might occur, because people are losing faith in the economy and government, both here and abroad. This destabilization might be triggered by the political rift between Islam and other nations coming to a head, perhaps through the action of private terrorist organizations who gain access to WMD. This is the Cold War all over again, except this time we are not pitted against the Russians, who are wonderfully predictable if you understand their psychology and end game, and whose activities were slowed by bureaucratic inertia. This time the self proclaimed enemy are often small, well funded, private groups who are unpredictable in their behavior but who have immense power to shape the actions of entire nations.