Paris shooting

[He's Dead, Jim]

The problem is that 'westernizing' the Middle East nowadays seems to be bombing the shit out of them while trying to steal their resources (oil in Iran, Iraq, Libya, lithium in Afghanistan, etc), and promoting hatred and radicalism against the west; keep the wheels of war well greased and going.

Not going to dispute much of your post, but the idea of the U.S. engaging in "resource wars" to nab other countries' stuff, if it ever was true, is certainly no longer the case:

Not to mention that oil is a totally fungible resource, so the fact that we can get it from X country doesn't matter- although the free flow of oil out of the Middle East certainly does (or did, until the shale boom), hence the first Gulf War. And if we went into Iraq and Afghanistan to set up a system that disproportionately benefited us, it seems a bit ludicrous that China, our emerging global competitor, wound up as the largest buyer of oil and mineral resources in both countries.

As for lithium, it's not like we needed to go to Afghanistan to get it- it's all over the western hemisphere in the "lithium triangle" of Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Two of those countries shit on us constantly in both rhetoric and national economic policy, and our diplomatic response, to say the least, has been mild over the past decade or more. Most lithium mining companies are Australian and Canadian, not American at any rate. Anyway, sorry for the OT post.

 

[~BURNY~]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJEvlKKm6og

Totally looks like controlled demolition. :Smug: Must be Mossad agents.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJEvlKKm6og

Everything this channel does is conspiracy bullshit. It's like an Alex Jones fuck fest.

 

[JeffTD]

There's a phrase called "American Know-it-all-ism" popular in the East.

Enough now

I wonder if it's as popular as clean air and potable water is over here?

 

[AD Chaos]

Everything this channel does is conspiracy bullshit. It's like an Alex Jones fuck fest.

Everything, really?
For one thing they predicted the currency war that is currently going on in between China/Russia, and the dollar-backed countries. A little too dramatically, I'll give you that, but they still did so. How exactly is that a 'conspiracy'

I too cringe a bit when these types of channels/bloggers seem to start needing to find a conspiracy on every-single-event that makes world news -> produce a constant amount of content for their sites.
But then again, going to the opposite extreme (calling everything other than mainstream media BS) by definition alone isn't any less skewed.

That particular channel (SCG) at least makes an effort to document their points -and isn't selling you ''Pro-Pure'' water filters for when the end of the world

Then again they do take donations, so it isn't like they're totally unbiased either..

 

[AD Chaos]

it seems a bit ludicrous that China, our emerging global competitor, wound up as the largest buyer of oil and mineral resources in both countries.

It doesn't really matter who ends up needing or buying the oil. What matters for the petro-dollar is that the oil is traded in dollars, to keep the currency dominant, and avoid a massive default from its money-printing induced debt. If you're an oil producer and start thinking about getting away from the dollar -like Hussein, Gaddafi or Iran did, back in the day.. we know what happens next.

Seems like this is partly why the price of the oil barrel plunged recently. Oil-based economies like Russia get to suffer from it and their currency gets hit, hard. Aside from additional sanctions, that is.

But it isn't like that's going to stop Russia's new energy agreements with China. If anything that pushes Russia to step away from the dollar even more so.

 

[scorpio01169]

Evangelist Christians issue death threats against Duke University.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/duke-bows-to-pressure-over-muslim-call-to-prayer.html

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Evangelist Christians issue death threats against Duke University.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/duke-bows-to-pressure-over-muslim-call-to-prayer.html

What a bunch of pusses. What they should do is actually kill fallowers of islam like followers of islam regularly kill Christians in other parts of the world.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Actually, why in the flying fuck is Duke playing the call of prayer? I get that they are a private school, but I would be pissed if the school I was attending was endorsing ANY religion.

 

[~BURNY~]

What a bunch of pusses. What they should do is actually kill fallowers of islam like followers of islam regularly kill Christians in other parts of the world.

I know you're (half?) joking but I'll say this.

This is exactly what Islamist Terrorists hope for.

They expect moderate Muslims in western countries to feel rejected and come to them.

I have an immense aversion for every fucking forms of religion so I'm not gonna defend Muslims but they need to be supported in their right to worship what the fuck they want as long as they do it peacefully and don't place their god above the laws of the country they are living in.

Rejecting them as whole is the worse that can possibly happen.

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

I know you're (half?) joking but I'll say this.

This is exactly what Islamist Terrorists hope for.

They expect moderate Muslims in western countries to feel rejected and come to them.

I'm sure there are sociological studies that could answer this question, but I often wonder why Muslim immigrants to the U.S. tend to be so much better-integrated and happier with their lives here. Part of it is probably that the immigrants in Europe are leaving their countries mainly for economic reasons, whereas the U.S. is so far away from home that the people taking the extra effort to come here probably have more money and a firmer belief in our national (mostly secular) ideology.

On the other hand, while France and most other European countries claim to have republican constitutions based on citizenship and ideology rather than ethnicity, I also think that's sort of untrue (look at the FN), and the U.S. has an authentic immigrant identity that helps to integrate them better. Not sure which of those factors is more important though- one is based on geographical luck and the other is based on political identity.

edit: http://www.economist.com/news/unite...-better-america-europe-islamic-yet-integrated some other explanations in there too.

 

[~BURNY~]

I have plenty of examples of perfectly integrated 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants from Muslim countries in my direct entourage. People that are no more religious than you and me. I even know one who plays bass in a death metal band. His name is Mohammed and he loves bacon.