<p>Well done Fiji! </p>
nonpartizan
Posts
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Siam" data-cid="604075" data-time="1470651961">
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<p>Ever since Gollum posted this info graphic a few weeks ago:</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/the-scale-of-terrorist-attacks-around-the-world/'>https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/the-scale-of-terrorist-attacks-around-the-world/</a></p>
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<p>It shows the western deaths (Europe and Americas) attributable to Islamic Terrorism and the rest of the world deaths attributable to Islamic terrorism since January 2015 - 658 to 28,031 if you're interested</p>
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<p>I've been wondering if this "Islamic threat" isn't pretty much the biggest media build up ever.</p>
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<p>I mean less than 700 deaths over a year and a half is hardly a significant number and hardly spell the end of civilisation as we know it, does it?</p>
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<p>Looking at the murder stats without context is silly. This line of arguing supposes that the only way something can negatively impact your life is if it kills you. Millions of people throughout the world live in oppressive circumstances be they gay, Christian, women etc. because they are in a Muslim majority country. Look at the way that the Coptics have had their churches destroyed after the Arab spring in Egypt. I read a story a few weeks ago about a couple of Christian kids being sent to jail for blasphemy against Allah. Yes, blasphemy laws still exist in the 21st century, whats up with that? </p>
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<p>Of topical significance it wasn't until 2012 that Saudi Arabia sent women to the Olympic games and that was only due to pressure from the IOC that they would be banned from competing altogether not because they came to the realization that treating women like second class citizens is absurd. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="reprobate" data-cid="603310" data-time="1470452184">
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<p>you can't quantify an adjective, and something can be rabid without any action taking place at all. the backlash is exactly what cato described, and it certainly exists.</p>
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<p>he has gone to lengths to repeatedly say that he is not comparing the two. you fellas still want to rant about how they're not the same thing, but everyone already knows they're not the same thing. you seem to be saying how ridiculous it is to compare them, but nobody is doing that, so who are you arguing with?</p>
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<p>I'm looking for something a little more concrete and a little more tangible than "people are committing thoughtcrimes against Islam". </p>
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<p>London just elected a Muslim mayor a little less than 3 months ago, so the idea that there is strong anti all things Muslim feeling in the UK doesn't seem very credible. I'm asking Catogrande to put a little flesh on these bones and provide specifics that support his point. </p> -
<p>This "rabid backlash" seems to be the figment of overactive imaginations. </p>
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<p>After the failed suicide bombing in Germany where was the "rabid backlash"? </p>
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<p>In France, the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Nice, the priest getting his throat cut. What was the "rabid backlash"? </p>
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<p>Can anyone point to anything that's actually happened, something substantive that could quantifiably be described as "rabid backlash"? </p> -
<p>This came on right after:</p>
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<p>This is the jam. Incredible that as amazing as this song is it was William DeVaughn's only hit. You'd think there was plenty more where this comes from: </p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="gollum" data-cid="602211" data-time="1470070759">
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<p>You implied he had been manipulated and used. That he was this simple guy twisted into being a pawn. If you read the article he very clearly states that this was his call to confront what he saw as the attack on Muslim Americans, and his speech was 100% him, this wasn't Clintons aides telling him what to say & how to say it to land the biggest political blow. The Dem's gave him the option, but he was very much not being manipulated. </p>
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<p>You know, I don't put up with dishonesty. I never said or even implied that he was a "simple guy", I made no judgment as to anyone's intelligence, in fact it was you who used the term "ignorant hick". Again, those were his words and his sentiments, I have never said they weren't but the idea of incorporating this guys narrative into Hillary's campaign was the brainchild of some staffer and it was done for political benefit. Consensual or not, that's being used and that is someones death being exploited. </p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">There is a huge amount of that from people who closet-love Trump - the idea that, sure he's not great, the Hillary is at least as bad.
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<p>You don't have to "closet-love Trump" to see that Hillary is an appalling candidate. She struggled to put away a self confessed socialist in the primary who wasn't even a bona fide Democrat and it looks like she is going to be in a quagmire with a reality TV star. She's not an up and comer, she is a has been, someone who is known to have changed her stance on many issues to such an extent that it's difficult to know what she really stands for and worst of all, she's a hawk. I don't trust either of them and it is a genuinely frightening prospect that one or the other will be in charge of the world's most powerful military come next January. </p>
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<p>This is an election where voting for a third party candidate is to me the most appealing option. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="mooshld" data-cid="602165" data-time="1470044792">
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<p>So we hate the player or the game?</p>
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<p>Both. This whole business is so crass and so undignified I just can't give any of it much credence. If there's two things that I have decided upon in these campaigns its that Trump and Clinton are both awful, unpalatable people and Presidential elections are more a media circus than anything else. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="gollum" data-cid="602191" data-time="1470052647">
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/seven-minutes-that-shook-the-convention-214126'>http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/seven-minutes-that-shook-the-convention-214126</a></p>
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<p>Bullshit. This wasn't some ignorant hick being used & scuplted to further poltical gains.</p>
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<p>1. A few days after the article was published, Khan received a call from a member of the Hillary Clinton campaign. The staffer asked him if Hillary Clinton could use his remarks, exactly as written in the interview he had given Vocativ, in a tribute to his son.</p>
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<p>“I said ‘Yes, of course.’â€</p>
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<p>2. Later, the Clinton campaign contacted Mr. Khan again and asked if he would be willing to let them use the same tribute during the Democratic convention. Once again, he answered "Yes, of course."</p>
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<p>3. Then they called again: Would you and your wife, Ghazala, be willing to appear on stage after the tribute? The campaign thought it would send a strong message of support for the candidate. He didn’t hesitate.</p>
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<p>4. The fourth time they called they asked: “Would you like to say something at the convention?â€</p>
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<p>You refute my point then link to an article that supports my contention. Other than the fact that he wrote or rather didn't write his own speech nothing in that article disproves what I said. The Clinton campaign read his sons story and on four separate occasions they called and each time they had obviously strategized how they could best use his sons death in order to score political points. As his role in the convention evolved or rather expanded I'm forced to wonder if it was in direct response to the Benghazi mother speaking at the RNC. </p>
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<p>Regarding the "ignorant hick" comment I'm not sure what your point is there. Ignorant, poorly educated white people have as much right to grieve and feel aggrieved when their kids die as parents from any other demographic. </p> -
<p>This came on youtube after a D.O.C song I was listening to. Had literally never heard of this song until now. MC Ren, Eazy E, Dr Dre, Digital Underground, Ice T, Tone Loc and other West Coast rappers. The thing I really dig about this track and N.W.A tracks of the same era is the funky bass line. </p>
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<p>I know that a big reason for moving to the conference system was so that there would be more national derbies but round robin and one solitary table would be my preference. That would be two more games than are currently played now but I like the symmetry and meritocracy of everyone playing everyone else once. </p>
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<p>Obviously given the number of timezones that the competition is played in and the amount of travelling involved there are logistical problems that can never be resolved but those are issues that are largely out of the hands of the administrators. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="reprobate" data-cid="602092" data-time="1470030489">
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<p>i agree with your point on clinton, and 100% on the use of death in politics - but it is hardly surprising that muslim americans are going to be opposed to trump - and that they would see his rhetoric as insulting to the memory of their kid.</p>
<p>i would also think that people whose children die for something would tend to not want to think it was pointless.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I can totally understand why he would be naturally opposed to Trump. I just feel bad that as BSG said he is just being used as a pawn, his tragedy and his sons sacrifice cynically exploited for political gain. </p>
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<p>I guess what I find really grotesque is that you just know the DNC's decision to include this guy was calculated by some campaign consultant over coffee and bagels. I can picture the scene, "Hey, why don't we find a dead Muslim soldiers Dad to speak against Trump? It'll be a great sob story that will make him look unpatriotic and uncaring toward military veterans. It'll play really well to minorities, women (it'll tug at the heart strings and they love a good sob story) and Muslims obviously. Say, what do you think?" </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Baron Silas Greenback" data-cid="602086" data-time="1470029049">
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<p>Agreed, and not only that, basically EVERYONE sees straight through it!</p>
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<p>Giving a speech with your dead sons picture behind you when you attack another politician.. and then get 'offended' when he throws insults back.. is not really fooling anyone. Is it?</p>
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<p>I'm with you on that. I think its sad that his son died in Iraq but for context remember that it was a war (an unnecessary and illegal one at that) that Hillary Clinton voted in favor of. Clinton is the one with that soldier's blood on her hands. Not Trump. </p>
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<p>If my son died in a war that was subsequently found to have been fought under false pretenses there is not a chance in hell that I would agree to speak at a convention on behalf of any politician who supported that war. I feel that it would do a massive disservice to him and all others who were needlessly put in harms way. </p> -
<p>One of the most distasteful aspects of the campaigns in my opinion is the way that both sides have paraded the families of dead people for political gain. Trump had parents of murder victims who had been killed by illegal immigrants at one of his rallies in LA and then he had one of the Benghazi mothers at the RNC. Hillary answers back with the "Mothers of the Movement" and this Muslim soldiers father.</p>
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<p>I think all murder and death is in its own way tragic so to cherry pick certain people's deaths in order to create a narrative and push an agenda is pretty disgusting. Let's be honest Trump and Clinton don't give a fuck about these people, they care about winning an election and if that's what they have to do in order to win thats all that matters to them. </p> -
<p>Draymond Green accidentally snapchats pictures of his junk. </p>
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<p>This guy is such an idiotic POS. </p> -
<p>I think it is very difficult to gauge to what extent the EU has been responsible for maintaining peace and stability in Europe since WW2 and to what extent it can attributed to other factors: western Europe having a common enemy in the Soviet Union, NATO, lack of will amongst Europeans for more bloodshed, unfettered nationalism being discredited, the disarmament of Germany, post war prosperity and so on. </p>
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<p>Credit where its due, that was an excellent performance from Jantjies. The kick-pass for the try was beautifully weighted. </p>
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<p>Highlanders didn't play that poorly in my opinion but I feel they lacked concentration and intensity. They seemed very lethargic. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="601375" data-time="1469840084">
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<p>Clinton has a big advantage in money, so there will be a ton of similarly themed (but hopefully smarter) ads to this:</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href=''>
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<p>Trump is a con man, I have no doubt of that. </p>
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<p>That said the fact that such a charlatan is even in a race for the White House is a damning indictment of the state of the US political scene. For one it demonstrates just how ideologically bankrupt and how debased the GOP is. I think it is also speaks to the lack of trust that Americans have for Clinton. Could the Democrats possibly have chosen a candidate with more skeletons in their closet?</p> -
<p>I fancy a repeat of last years SR final. </p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="KiwiPie" data-cid="601224" data-time="1469766647">
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<p>Well Conte certainly seems to know how to set up a team, judging by the way Italy tamed Spain in the Euros. With Kante to do the dirty work, he should be able to mould a similar unit with that Chelsea squad.</p>
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<p>Yeah, that was a good bit of business. My major concern right now is the lack of depth at striker, we've been threadbare there now for a number of seasons. After Costa there's not enough quality in the squad. </p>
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