Rick Steves also spoke at the Commonwealth Club about his trip to Iran. That is on Fora TV.

Here is a clip of it:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Rick-Steves-Martyrdom-and-the-American-Empire

And the full video:
http://fora.tv/2009/01/26/Rick_Steves_A_Perspective_on_Iran

I caught this on cable a couple of months ago. Did anyone else feel that he started breaking into a fake accent on a few occasions?

You try being stoned as shit and going to all these countries and than talking!

Moving this video to curiousity's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

*promote

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued - promote requested by original submitter curiousity.

Moving this video to curiousity's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

lol... I don't think this sift will ever get 15 votes. Guess I have to look for other types of videos to submit. Googling "ball to crotch" now...

*promote

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued - promote requested by original submitter curiousity.

Lol if your going to struggle to be understanding if your religion takes its TXTS literally. or you base you morality on something written 4,000 years ago.

>> ^westy:
Lol if your going to struggle to be understanding if your religion takes its TXTS literally. or you base you morality on something written 4,000 years ago.


Did you watch it? Your comment comes off like an angry teenager lashing out at their favorite thing to insult.

I understand your point, but I think the struggle to be understood consists of so much more than the religious aspect. Every culture has it's own quirks. I live in the Northwest section of the United States and it amazes me the difference in culture just within the US. I've been very lucky in life and have had the opportunity to travel to several places. I traveled to the USSR and Lithuania in the early 90's. Wow - what an eye opener for a high school student! Later I was able to travel to Australia, several countries in South America, and the Middle East. It is amazing how different cultures are. I firmly believe that the best thing for any person, for personal growth, is to be placed in a foreign country either by themselves or in a very small group. Suddenly they are the weird ones not conforming to the normalities of the culture they are visiting. A whole new world of empathy opens up and you realize why statements about turning the "whole Middle East into a glass parking lot" are infantile and ignorant.

Yes I did watch it and I have lived in multiple cultures speaking different languages .

If you are fowling a religious txt that is racist/iratoinl then you will end up being racist and irrational unless you abandon the religion/ stop folowing it. unfortunatly most religoins are racist and iratoinal as the ones that havent died out are commonly thousands of years old with a sum what squed seance of morality written into them.

"Did you watch it? Your comment comes off like an angry teenager lashing out at their favorite thing to insult.

How exactly dose it come off as an angry teenager ? maby you can explain what's wrong about my comment ?

I think Its more "teenage like" to argue that sum one must be young rather than atacking there argument.
also I see nothing intrinsicy wrong with angry teenagers if there argument is correct who cares how old sumone is.

Moving this video to curiousity's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

That's an invalid argument by giving a false choice of either you follow religious texts and became a racist or you abandon the religion. The world isn't black and white or binary.

Your comment reminded me of an angry teenager latching onto one thing they already dislike and focusing on that while ignoring the whole of the picture. That was my initial reaction and I posted it. I wasn't trying to imply that you are young, I was simply stating that your comment made me think of an angry teenager. As for your attempt to put the label of "teenage like" back on me... didn't you read the rest of my post? We both know you did, so why you pretending that I didn't follow up with an explanation? Ahh, you must have missed the (very slightly) implied connection. I was trying to make a small comment about how the differences in cultures goes far beyond religion and you probably shouldn't focus on, again I'm assuming here, what is your favorite subject to denigrate.

Sorry that you didn't understand my comment. I will try to be more clear for you in the future.

Where did I say that if your not religious you don't have the potential to still be racist ?

If you are folowing a racist / idoitic religouse TXT then you are going to be racist and idotic to some existent and unable to change this view point because that would be arguing with god.

if you are not you could still be racist and idiotic however there is allso the posablity that you wont be, this is because You have chosen not to base your morality on some dogmatic txt that cannot change.

so person basing life on racist idiot txt = Always racist idiot
person not basing morality on racist idoitc txt = non racist / could be racist


the point is if you are following a religion that is fundamental racist / iratoinal/ bult of ideas from 5000 years ago . then you will be racist , ethor that or you are not following the religion or you are picking and choosing what you believe which in alot of religoins is against the fundimental rules of that religoin and in the end if you belive it to be gods word why would you pick and choose? unless your compleatly incapable of basic logic and consistency.

>> ^westy:
Where did I say that if your not religious you don't have the potential to still be racist ?


You didn't, but neither did I ever say that you did. Please make an effort to respond only to the things I actually say. It's funny that you insult my logic abilities and yet you failed to use basic logic to see this point.


>> ^westy:
If you are folowing a racist / idoitic religouse TXT then you are going to be racist and idotic to some existent and unable to change this view point because that would be arguing with god.
if you are not you could still be racist and idiotic however there is allso the posablity that you wont be, this is because You have chosen not to base your morality on some dogmatic txt that cannot change.
so person basing life on racist idiot txt = Always racist idiot
person not basing morality on racist idoitc txt = non racist / could be racist

the point is if you are following a religion that is fundamental racist / iratoinal/ bult of ideas from 5000 years ago . then you will be racist , ethor that or you are not following the religion or you are picking and choosing what you believe which in alot of religoins is against the fundimental rules of that religoin and in the end if you belive it to be gods word why would you pick and choose? unless your compleatly incapable of basic logic and consistency.


You seem to have a fundamental lack of understanding about religion. Either that or a much over-simplified concept of it. This combines with a knowledge shortage of human psychology leaves you in an awkward position. Really, all you've done is add substance to my feeling that you are acting like an irrational teenager focusing on the subject they love to insult.

I'll try to explain for you. My explanation will be based from a Christian / Roman Catholic viewpoint because that is the one I'm most familiar with.

Most Christians don't believe the bible is the literal truth. A minority does and I think that we might be able to find some common ground in thinking those people are mainly illogical and fearful. Honestly, I don't have a problem with fundamentalists in principle as long as they don't try to push their ideas upon other people or run for vice-president. But that is a small minority. For the Roman Catholic Church, there are a small set of core beliefs and the rest are up to personal exploration. You try to create this picture of a very rigid religion that doesn't bend at all and you completely miss the reality of the people that follow the religions. You've missed the forest because you are focusing so intently on the trees.

And again, you try to draw false choices. If people do A => B. Life isn't binary or so simple. You are looking at one set of circumstances (looks like a personal grudge) and focus on that while ignoring a whole host of other environmental variables. I'm sorry, but you can't explain life with two to four variables and then lump everyone into that equation.

Two-thirds of the way there... *beg

Sending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter curiousity.