Not the one's in Germany...or Japan...or to some extent any in the middle east....but I do get your point. While those two are now allies, the reason the bases are there is because they were enemies, so we denied them the right to have their own military.

Yes, for the same level of effective military, replaced by the countries each of these bases are in, it would cost more overall, I'm sure you're right. BUT...most of them don't need anywhere near the level of military we supply, and they would still be our allies, so have our huge, advanced military backing even if they supplied their own military instead of relying SOLEY (or even mostly) on ours. Also, that $100B per year would be spread out over nearly 300 countries, so far easier to pull off.

About not being invaded...just to name 3....Kuwait had a US military base when Saddam invaded, Iraq has many, and they aren't dissuading ISIS. I actually think we have one in the Ukraine too, but I'm not sure (we certainly have a treaty that said clearly that we were supposed to defend them with the full force of our military if they were ever invaded...so much for that promise though). It's often a deterrent for considerate governments, but not all military agencies are thoughtful or consider the repercussions of their actions (I think the US policy proves that clearly).

The whole thing was quite obviously made soley to show off huge turtle cock

Upvoting your comment soley for the overexamination of such a geeky topic.

Makes me feel better about my own geeky obsessions.

>> ^messenger:

Why do you think so? What makes this guy studying for exams different from someone in a classroom studying for exams?>> ^charliem:
Rote learning for exams and using that experience to describe a full 4 year education is dubious at best.
Throw this guy a non-exam question, see how he handles it vs. someone thats done the actual 4 year course.
Id be willing to bet not too well.



My experience with people who obtain knowledge intended to be spread over a large ammount of time, but done so in shotgun approach, is that they are have a very limited scope of understanding of the topics they have read up on.

Typical university courses that run for 3-4 years gives you time to explore concepts in depth. Rushing that in a year is like putting horse blinkers on....you focus soley on the objectives, and dont capture bigger picture lessons that you would otherwise get if you spent a lot longer time investigating something.

Take for example Cisco's CCNA/CCNP program. Ive met people who have brain-dumped for the exams with a 2 week super-course, sat the exam, passed, but cant even use or decypher wireshark dumps.

In theory its a good idea, but you lose so much if you focus on just the end goal to complete objectives in the shortest time possible.

A collection of verses from the Qur'an about unbelievers

A person's beliefs about life (and afterlife) have a huge effect on how they live and perceive the value of other people's lives; it is nothing like blaming school shootings on violent video games, unless you assume that the shooters actually believed they lived inside a videogame.

The Qur'an, Islam's founding text, makes it quite clear that
a) The unbeliever will burn in hellfire forever (e.g. 4:56)
(nothing new here, M's recycling the holy texts already in existence)
and b) the unbeliever must be killed if he does not accept Islam (4:89), either by God or "or at our hands" (9:52); only Islam can exist on earth (2:193).
See this article on the history of Jihad and martyrdom in Islam.

Of course, the majority of muslims, like any other group of human beings, aspire to live their peaceful lives, etc. The difference between Islam and Christianity or Judaism, apart from its youth, is that it is founded upon a character and his book that are highly impervious to the effects of secularization. While the Bible is an edited compilation of transcripts written by several authors over centuries, the Qur'an was written by one warrior general in the space of his lifetime; questioning any part of the book's infallibility puts the whole faith in question, a risky thing when you read what the book in question has to say about non-believers. (I could go on, but really, Harris says it so much better than me in "The End of Faith" ...for free!).

But you want evidence, so here are a few things to ponder, in relation to what the Qur'an, and thus Islam, has to say about the topics in question. (Keeping in mind that Mohamed did not invent the barbarities that the book contains; they were contemporaneous, he simply enshrined them as the "infallible" word of God. Also: Mohamed's life, as transcribed in the Hadith, is considered a role model).

Honour killing: women considered property of men (see s.4:34) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/02/0212_020212_honorkilling_2.html
Honour killing: adulterers should be killed anyway, no?
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/07/24/2003180222

Because of sharia law's stance on adultery, it remains a crime in several Islamic countries
(sharia law is for the most part copied from the Torah/OT; in Islam, adultery is one of the worst sins/crimes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zina_(Arabic) ):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adultery#Criminal_penalties

Also, denouncing rape can get you jailed... for adultery:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=7943698

homosexuality: illegal in 75/195 countries; 32/48 Muslim countries. In 8 countries it is punishable by death... under sharia law, of course (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, UAE, Sudan, Nigeria, la Mauritania and Somalia).

Condoning slavery: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_slavery#Slavery_in_the_contemporary_Muslim_world

forced marriage of minors: what Islamic doctrine/scholars say: http://muslim-quotes.netfirms.com/childbrides.html
women protest age limit laws: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88589
more statistics on child brides (once again, the problem did not stem from Islam, but is upheld by it... Mo+Aisha): http://marriage.about.com/od/arrangedmarriages/a/childbride.htm

Apostasy and human rights: http://www.iheu.org/node/1541

Of the 126 designated terrorist organisations, 73 (60%) are religious, 65 (51%) are Islamic extremists. To compare, the second highest ranking terrorist-fueling ideology, communism, has only 21 (17%) groups. Jihad anyone?

Government report on link between Koranic schools and terrorism: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS21654.pdf

Of the 17 "Significant Ongoing Armed Conflicts of 2010", only 5 are not marked by religious ideologies (only 2 if communism is counted as a religious ideology). Eleven of these conflicts involve Islamists, who are either trying to instate an Islamic theocracy (in accordance with the teachings of the Qur'an), or they are fighting Muslim governments that are considered not "Muslim" enough.

edit: html's not working, so this looks like crap. sorry, i'm too tired to rearrange right now.


>> ^SDGundamX:

@<a rel="nofollow" href="http://videosift.com/member/hpqp" title="member since July 25th, 2009" class="profilelink">hpqp
You repeated his speaking points and provided no evidence to support them and then insinuated that I know nothing of Islam's teachings to boot. You've clearly learned from your teachers (Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens) quite well.
Show me some evidence please that shows that Islamic followers are more likely to cause harm to fellow human beings than others. By evidence I mean an empirical study that controls for other factors that include but are not limited to: education, income, regional cultural factors (other than religion), and local political systems (or lack thereof as the case may be, for example in countries such as Somalia).
And no, you didn't correct that for me. It doesn't matter their stated reasons for committing the violence. People who resort to violence do so for a complex array of reasons. I dispute the notion that people commit violence soley "because of their religion" any more than school shootings occur "because kids play violent video games."

@hpqp

You repeated his speaking points and provided no evidence to support them and then insinuated that I know nothing of Islam's teachings to boot. You've clearly learned from your teachers (Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens) quite well.

Show me some evidence please that shows that Islamic followers are more likely to cause harm to fellow human beings than others. By evidence I mean an empirical study that controls for other factors that include but are not limited to: education, income, regional cultural factors (other than religion), and local political systems (or lack thereof as the case may be, for example in countries such as Somalia).

And no, you didn't correct that for me. It doesn't matter their stated reasons for committing the violence. People who resort to violence do so for a complex array of reasons. I dispute the notion that people commit violence soley "because of their religion" any more than school shootings occur "because kids play violent video games."

So in other words you have no refutation to the video and nothing to contribute to the discussion

>> ^enoch:
@<A rel="nofollow" class=profilelink title="member since January 21st, 2011" href="http://videosift.com/member/shinyblurry">shinyblurry
1.you accuse people of being intellectually incurious,stupid or downright wrong based solely on your own understandings.yet cry like a whiny little girl if someone even remotely disagrees or criticizes anything you postulate and demand to be deemed as factual.
2.you stomp your feet and passive aggressively admonish people for cherry-picking or twisting your words yet are oblivious to your own exact same behavior.
3.you accuse others in self-righteous indignation of trolling and seem oblivious to your own trollish mannerisms.
4.your own circular logic is also hidden from you but you have no problem accusing others of formulating their arguments as such.
5.when confronted with a solid argument you cannot deflect or cherry pick your resolve to most infantile and pathetic of excuses.."satan did it"..how very..dark ages of you.here is a hint:the christian reformation was pinnacle in ushering in the "age of enlightenment".you may wish to look that up.
your blatant hypocrisy is one of the reasons i do not engage with you.
why would i?
it would be a waste of time.
but i knew..KNEW you would eventually reveal yourself to be the self righteous prick you are and on THIS thread you reveal your true colors.
so i say this in defense of burdy and the many other christians who participate on this site:
you are false.
a fundamentalist pretending to be an evangelical who is so convinced of his own righteousness based soley on his pathetic and limited understanding of the bible.a bible which you believe to be the un-erring word of god and BECAUSE you believe so strongly in this you feel you have the authority to deem another un-worthy,unclean and utterly failing in their own faith.
to deem an atheist as such is too easy but YOU have judged another christian to be UNWORTHY!
burdy is a devout christian,as are many others here,yet you..and i quote:
"You have a schitzophrenic faith, my friend. I would call you my brother but it doesn't appear that you know our Lord. It appears that in your picture you are ashamed of your Lord. So allow me to enlighten you for your edification:"
you are a child who lacks understanding.
who stomps his feet and calls people names when they disagree with him.
who feels attacked when his holy book is questioned,as if it were somehow personal.
but to judge another somehow lacking because that person does not subscribe to YOUR interpretation is blasphemous.
how DARE you sir.
fundamentalism is the single most powerful tool for ignorance this world society has ever known.
it stagnates the brain and stunts any form of growth.
it promotes ignorance and hate while wearing the false guise of acceptance and unity.
i was wrong in my initial assesment of you.
you are not an evangelical...you are a fundamentalist.
but you have your right to say and do as you wish and your voice is welcome here.
i for one absolutely LOVE your posts!
especially the comment section.
you amuse me like no other.
your solid entertainment prowess is unmatched.
so...please continue..
it amuses me.
oh.
and burdy will always be a far better christian than you could ever hope to be shinyblurry.
you might want to accept that fact and follow his example.
you might actually learn something.
i look forward to your bullet form refutation filled with nonsense and self righteous indignation.
which of course i will ignore.

@shinyblurry
1.you accuse people of being intellectually incurious,stupid or downright wrong based solely on your own understandings.yet cry like a whiny little girl if someone even remotely disagrees or criticizes anything you postulate and demand to be deemed as factual.
2.you stomp your feet and passive aggressively admonish people for cherry-picking or twisting your words yet are oblivious to your own exact same behavior.
3.you accuse others in self-righteous indignation of trolling and seem oblivious to your own trollish mannerisms.
4.your own circular logic is also hidden from you but you have no problem accusing others of formulating their arguments as such.
5.when confronted with a solid argument you cannot deflect or cherry pick your resolve to most infantile and pathetic of excuses.."satan did it"..how very..dark ages of you.here is a hint:the christian reformation was pinnacle in ushering in the "age of enlightenment".you may wish to look that up.

your blatant hypocrisy is one of the reasons i do not engage with you.
why would i?
it would be a waste of time.
but i knew..KNEW you would eventually reveal yourself to be the self righteous prick you are and on THIS thread you reveal your true colors.
so i say this in defense of burdy and the many other christians who participate on this site:
you are false.
a fundamentalist pretending to be an evangelical who is so convinced of his own righteousness based soley on his pathetic and limited understanding of the bible.a bible which you believe to be the un-erring word of god and BECAUSE you believe so strongly in this you feel you have the authority to deem another un-worthy,unclean and utterly failing in their own faith.
to deem an atheist as such is too easy but YOU have judged another christian to be UNWORTHY!
burdy is a devout christian,as are many others here,yet you..and i quote:
"You have a schitzophrenic faith, my friend. I would call you my brother but it doesn't appear that you know our Lord. It appears that in your picture you are ashamed of your Lord. So allow me to enlighten you for your edification:"

you are a child who lacks understanding.
who stomps his feet and calls people names when they disagree with him.
who feels attacked when his holy book is questioned,as if it were somehow personal.
but to judge another somehow lacking because that person does not subscribe to YOUR interpretation is blasphemous.
how DARE you sir.
fundamentalism is the single most powerful tool for ignorance this world society has ever known.
it stagnates the brain and stunts any form of growth.
it promotes ignorance and hate while wearing the false guise of acceptance and unity.
i was wrong in my initial assesment of you.
you are not an evangelical...you are a fundamentalist.

but you have your right to say and do as you wish and your voice is welcome here.
i for one absolutely LOVE your posts!
especially the comment section.
you amuse me like no other.
your solid entertainment prowess is unmatched.
so...please continue..
it amuses me.

oh.
and burdy will always be a far better christian than you could ever hope to be shinyblurry.
you might want to accept that fact and follow his example.
you might actually learn something.

i look forward to your bullet form refutation filled with nonsense and self righteous indignation.
which of course i will ignore.

>> ^spoco2:

>> ^criticalthud:
>> ^spoco2:
>> ^criticalthud:
http://ne


ws.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110107/sc_yblog_thelookout/florida-temporarily-closes-runway-due-to-magnetic-pole-shifting
i'm not trying to open a can of worms, or threaten anyone's "beliefs". but this appears to be happening.

Yeah, and um, from THAT article: "The Earth's poles are changing constantly... "
You really liked the movie 2012 didn't you?
sigh

sigh.
that article is just a quick google to show that even mainstream media has noticed it.
the gov goes to great lengths to not alarm it's workforce. a steady diet of charlie sheen. sigh
sigh sigh
all theories can be conspiracy theories if you wish to label them as that. and you're trolling. fuck you.

I am so NOT trolling, I'm just sick of people like you that see some natural disasters and then start saying 'THERE'S SO MANY MORE NOW! THE WORLD IS ENDING!'
Really?
Where's the increase in earthquakes? http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/other/quake1.html
Where? Take a look at the numbers and tell me you're seeing an increase over the last 30 years, because you aren't. Because there hasn't been, because it's bullshit.
Stop using just your perception that 'gee, there seems to have been a lot of earthquakes' as an empirical measurement, look at the ACTUAL FIGURES before you start saying such things. And stop relying SOLEY on nut job websites for all your 'facts'


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080314-warming-quakes.html

>> ^criticalthud:

>> ^spoco2:
>> ^criticalthud:
>> ^spoco2:
>> ^criticalthud:
http://ne


ws.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110107/sc_yblog_thelookout/florida-temporarily-closes-runway-due-to-magnetic-pole-shifting
i'm not trying to open a can of worms, or threaten anyone's "beliefs". but this appears to be happening.

Yeah, and um, from THAT article: "The Earth's poles are changing constantly... "
You really liked the movie 2012 didn't you?
sigh

sigh.
that article is just a quick google to show that even mainstream media has noticed it.
the gov goes to great lengths to not alarm it's workforce. a steady diet of charlie sheen. sigh
sigh sigh
all theories can be conspiracy theories if you wish to label them as that. and you're trolling. fuck you.

I am so NOT trolling, I'm just sick of people like you that see some natural disasters and then start saying 'THERE'S SO MANY MORE NOW! THE WORLD IS ENDING!'
Really?
Where's the increase in earthquakes? http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/other/quake1.html
Where? Take a look at the numbers and tell me you're seeing an increase over the last 30 years, because you aren't. Because there hasn't been, because it's bullshit.
Stop using just your perception that 'gee, there seems to have been a lot of earthquakes' as an empirical measurement, look at the ACTUAL FIGURES before you start saying such things. And stop relying SOLEY on nut job websites for all your 'facts'

fine. stop using comments designed to create an emotional response.
your figures are great, and show a marked increase in seismic activity, especially in the last 5 years.
what i'm saying that if you increase the total mass of the worlds oceans, and reduce mass at the axis of rotation, coupled with water current patterns that will concentrate these masses differently than what has occurred in the last, say, 1 million years, we may very well be seeing enough change to affect very unstable plate movements that occur on a fairly consistent basis.
this isn't a 2012 conspiracy. and the world isn't ending. and maybe i am crazy. i sincerely hope i am.
but we are just starting to understand how fragile our ecosystem is, and how dependent we are on the stasis of it....and that underestimating such fragility can come at a very high cost.
look at what we are doing to the rest of the planet, the rest of the ecosystem. why is it so inconceivable that we may also be affecting something that is constantly teetering as it is?


and what further alarms me is that with a system that has taken a few billion years to find a relatively stable equilibrium, it's adaptation to change also takes time, on a different scale than we're used to (a plantetary time-frame), meaning we may be now just seeing the effects of our changes to the climate, and meaning that these adaptations could continue well after we've ceased mucking about.

>> ^spoco2:

>> ^criticalthud:
>> ^spoco2:
>> ^criticalthud:
http://ne


ws.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110107/sc_yblog_thelookout/florida-temporarily-closes-runway-due-to-magnetic-pole-shifting
i'm not trying to open a can of worms, or threaten anyone's "beliefs". but this appears to be happening.

Yeah, and um, from THAT article: "The Earth's poles are changing constantly... "
You really liked the movie 2012 didn't you?
sigh

sigh.
that article is just a quick google to show that even mainstream media has noticed it.
the gov goes to great lengths to not alarm it's workforce. a steady diet of charlie sheen. sigh
sigh sigh
all theories can be conspiracy theories if you wish to label them as that. and you're trolling. fuck you.

I am so NOT trolling, I'm just sick of people like you that see some natural disasters and then start saying 'THERE'S SO MANY MORE NOW! THE WORLD IS ENDING!'
Really?
Where's the increase in earthquakes? http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/other/quake1.html
Where? Take a look at the numbers and tell me you're seeing an increase over the last 30 years, because you aren't. Because there hasn't been, because it's bullshit.
Stop using just your perception that 'gee, there seems to have been a lot of earthquakes' as an empirical measurement, look at the ACTUAL FIGURES before you start saying such things. And stop relying SOLEY on nut job websites for all your 'facts'


fine. stop using comments designed to create an emotional response.
your figures are great, and show a marked increase in seismic activity, especially in the last 5 years.
what i'm saying that if you increase the total mass of the worlds oceans, and reduce mass at the axis of rotation, coupled with water current patterns that will concentrate these masses differently than what has occurred in the last, say, 1 million years, we may very well be seeing *enough* change to affect very unstable plate movements that occur on a fairly consistent basis.
this isn't a 2012 conspiracy. and the world isn't ending. and maybe i am crazy. i sincerely hope i am.
but we are just starting to understand how fragile our ecosystem is, and how dependent we are on the stasis of it....and that underestimating such fragility can come at a very high cost.
look at what we are doing to the rest of the planet, the rest of the ecosystem. why is it so inconceivable that we may also be affecting something that is constantly teetering as it is?

>> ^criticalthud:

>> ^spoco2:
>> ^criticalthud:
http://ne

ws.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110107/sc_yblog_thelookout/florida-temporarily-closes-runway-due-to-magnetic-pole-shifting
i'm not trying to open a can of worms, or threaten anyone's "beliefs". but this appears to be happening.

Yeah, and um, from THAT article: "The Earth's poles are changing constantly... "
You really liked the movie 2012 didn't you?
sigh

sigh.
that article is just a quick google to show that even mainstream media has noticed it.
the gov goes to great lengths to not alarm it's workforce. a steady diet of charlie sheen. sigh
sigh sigh
all theories can be conspiracy theories if you wish to label them as that. and you're trolling. fuck you.


I am so NOT trolling, I'm just sick of people like you that see some natural disasters and then start saying 'THERE'S SO MANY MORE NOW! THE WORLD IS ENDING!'

Really?

Where's the increase in earthquakes? http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/other/quake1.html

Where? Take a look at the numbers and tell me you're seeing an increase over the last 30 years, because you aren't. Because there hasn't been, because it's bullshit.

Stop using just your perception that 'gee, there seems to have been a lot of earthquakes' as an empirical measurement, look at the ACTUAL FIGURES before you start saying such things. And stop relying SOLEY on nut job websites for all your 'facts'

Newt, you are the biggest, brownest stripe on the nastiest, stankiest pair of tighty-whiteys ever donned in this modern age of man. Nothing you have ever uttered has resonated with me as anything other than simple partisan blustering and blathering of inane dross, meant soley to incite the legions of prosimian nutters that comprise the conservative base. However...

I don't disagree with you on this.

I like the conversation. My 2 cents: The bill was, in its conception, a great policy. But after it went through the special interest ringer that has a stranglehold on our governance, it turned into a giant turd. I have examples but will spare you the ten paragraph rant. The bill stands as a beacon of just how fucked our political system has become. I pray that over time new legislations will be added to ensure that premiums won't increase due to the new insurance regulations. Also that a public option will be added so that people will be activly participating in driving down insurance rates, and turning their money into aditional aid that will reduce the federal deficit.

I do not see this like most of my fellow liberals, as helping out a less fortunate sector on the socioeconomic rung. Their gross income will be reduced more than it has ever been, regardless of whether or not they need any medical coverage at all. I definitly don't agree with the conservatives who think that this is a handout at their expense. No class stands to gain if your looking soley at paystubs, as the republican argument always appears to.

In reply to this comment by TheFreak:
Always take the time to investigate sources.

"The Acton Institute is an ecumenical think-tank dedicated to the study of free-market economics informed by religious faith and moral absolutes."
Who funded the Acton Institute?
The Bradley Foundation: $225,000 (laissez-faire capitalist organization)
Philip Morris: $10,000
ExxonMobil: $30,000

No thank you Acton Institute. You're assertions are rejected. Not because your points are short sighted, naive and laughable and you show an obvious agenda towards promoting corporate power through manipulation of religion...no wait, that is the reason.

while i agree knowing and vetting a source is valuable. information should not be dismissed out of hand based soley on that factor.
is it your contention that what america has now is a free market?
that what has transpired in the past few years could not remotely be considered a flirtation with plutocracy?
while i am not a purest when it comes to capiltalism,what we have now has become an abomination.