>> ^joedirt:
By that logic, the Israelis deserve what they get for pissing off a whole bunch of nothing-to-lose heathens. And the US deserves generations of suicide attacks from all the orphaned Iraqis and Afghans.


This may be a very apt description. NOBODY is looking at the big picture here. Everybody thinks that if they can just beat the enemy into submission then that will be the end of it. But it NEVER ENDS. As long as you use violence, the problem will just continue to compound. You will get retribution, blowback, terrorism... people will not forget that some other nation tried to grind them under their heel.

Hamas, or whoever is really firing those rockets from schools, WANTS the Israelis to blow up schools and hospitals. And Israel is falling for it.

America lost its moral high ground with Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. That will not come back for a long, long time. Now Israel is doing the same in Gaza. Their international support, what little they had left, will be gone. That's what Hamas wants. The Palestinians are losing this battle, but winning the war.

Young Abdel Mahdi (Shahmay) was only 18 years old,
He was the youngest of nine children, never spent a night away from home.
And his mother held his photograph, opening the New York Times
To see the killing has intensified along the road to peace

There was a tall, thin boy with a whispy moustache disguised as an orthodox Jew
On a crowded bus in Jerusalem, some had survived World War Two
And the thunderous explosion blew out windows 200 yards away
With more retribution and seventeen dead along the road to peace

Now at King George Ave and Jaffa Road passengers boarded bus 14a
In the aisle next to the driver Abdel Mahdi (Shahmay)
And the last thing that he said on earth is "God is great and God is good"
And he blew them all to kingdom come upon the road to peace

Now in response to this another kiss of death was visited upon
Yasser Taha, Israel says is an Hamas senior militant
And Israel sent four choppers in, flames engulfed, tears wide open
And it killed his wife and his three year old child leaving only blackened skeletons

It's found his toddlers bottle and a pair of small shoes and they waved them in front of the cameras
But Israel says they did not know that his wife and child were in the car
There are roadblocks everywhere and only suffering on TV
Neither side will ever give up their smallest right along the road to peace

Israel launched it's latest campaign against Hamas on Tuesday
Two days later Hamas shot back and killed five Israeli soldiers
So thousands dead and wounded on both sides most of them middle eastern civilians
They fill the children full of hate to fight an old man's war and die upon the road to peace

"And this is our land we will fight with all our force" say the Palastinians and the Jews
Each side will cut off the hand of anyone who tries to stop the resistance
If the right eye offends thee then you must pluck it out
And Mahmoud Abbas said Sharon had been lost out along the road to peace

Once Kissinger said "we have no friends, America only has interests"
Now our president wants to be seen as a hero and he's hungry for re-election
But Bush is reluctant to risk his future in the fear of his political failures
So he plays chess at his desk and poses for the press 10,000 miles from the road to peace

In the video that they found at the home of Abdel Mahdi (Shahmay)
He held a Kalashnikov rifle and he spoke with a voice like a boy
He was an excellent student, he studied so hard, it was as if he had a future
He told his mother that he had a test that day out along the road to peace

The fundamentalist killing on both sides is standing in the path of peace
But tell me why are we arming the Israeli army with guns and tanks and bullets?
And if God is great and God is good why can't he change the hearts of men?
Well maybe God himself is lost and needs help
Maybe God himself he needs all of our help
Maybe God himself is lost and needs help
He's out upon the road to peace

Well maybe God himself is lost and needs help
Maybe God himself he needs all of our help
And he's lost upon the road to peace
And he's lost upon the road to peace
Out upon the road to peace.

Divine retribution?

>> ^Sarzy:
Fun fact: God prefers Atheists.


Exactly my thoughts actually... I think that if there were a god(s) he/she/it/them would prefer people to live moral, good lives through the belief it's the right thing to do rather than purely out of fear of retribution.

But nooo, religious types like to suggest that Atheists have no morals. Yeah, because we need to pray to have morals. They've hijacked what morals are and turned them to mean you have to go to church.

And yet many church goers I know are far less moral people than I, so there is no correlation at all... or is it actually an inverse one?

People who are addicted to the idea of eternal life, and who think people only behave morally because of the threat of divine retribution or reward, sometimes take any suggestion that god might not exist as a threat to their existence.

>> ^quantumushroom:
The human heart is infinitely deceptive; anyone who thinks they can make up their moral code as they go along is already a victim of that deception.
Man remains a vicious animal, a reptilian brain with only a thin veneer of reason and rationality. There is nothing in the atheist's bag o' tricks to quell the beast (ego).
Apparently there's enough good in religion--any religion--that promotes human survival over destruction. I don't believe you can be an authentic atheist without acknowledging this.


Maybe you have only a thin veneer of reason, qm. I have several more layers of brain development on top of the reptilian portions that make me into a creature that is tribal by nature, part of a pack. As a member of this tribe, I strive to be recognized as a valuable member, contributing as much if not more than I receive. In that way, my peers will hold me in high esteem, and I will have access to plentiful resources which make my life much more pleasant. If I were to commit crimes against the tribe, such as theft, deception, assault, or murder, I would lose some if not all of the esteem of my peers. Aside from the retribution my peers might seek, I may also face ostracism or death. Knowing this, I don't even consider such actions within the realm of thought, excepting perhaps in only the most extreme of circumstances, where I would be facing death due to lack of such actions.

But most days I don't have to consider such dire choices. I am polite and considerate, yet assertive. In this way my peers may safely assume I will work with the team to hold up my end of the work we must do together, but I will not allow myself to be taken advantage of. And knowing that, they can plan their lives making me a part therein, and I can do the same.

And all without religion.

EDIT: The idea that you must have religion in order to be a good person is one of the Great Lies that religion teaches people. Individuals are selfish by design, but all it takes is a little thought to realize that being a part of a healthy community is essential to our well-being.

"Now is definitely not the time to be partisan or hold someone in contempt for not testifying. It is not the time to recall the past eight years (of cronyism, incompetence, and unconstitutional law), it is time to embrace the future. Now is not the time to go digging through erased emails and big oil donations. We want an end to partisan retribution. I think we all learned from Clinton's impeachment hearings, don't you?"
- Rove

>> ^Stingray:
They don't give stickers to us, but I did say "hi" to the elderly women running my ward and precinct.

>> ^BillOreilly:
That's just one of the reasons I vote Absentee, the old women always look mean and threatening, like I'm going to vote for the wrong candidate and they're going to come at me with swift retribution with walkers and canes.


If you vote for the right candidate they come at you with hugs and pies.

>> ^BillOreilly:
That's just one of the reasons I vote Absentee, the old women always look mean and threatening, like I'm going to vote for the wrong candidate and they're going to come at me with swift retribution with walkers and canes.


That's because you probably did vote for the wrong candidate...

>> ^BillOreilly:
>> ^Stingray:
They don't give stickers to us, but I did say "hi" to the elderly women running my ward and precinct.

That's just one of the reasons I vote Absentee, the old women always look mean and threatening, like I'm going to vote for the wrong candidate and they're going to come at me with swift retribution with walkers and canes.



I'm fairly certain that sentence contradicts its self. Although the place I voted did have a slight pee smell, but I live in the city so where doesn't it smell like pee.

>> ^Stingray:
They don't give stickers to us, but I did say "hi" to the elderly women running my ward and precinct.


That's just one of the reasons I vote Absentee, the old women always look mean and threatening, like I'm going to vote for the wrong candidate and they're going to come at me with swift retribution with walkers and canes.

It's interesting. All socially repressed males likely rejoiced when the guy cracked her, and yet most would probably never hit a girl, and spit on those who do.

I suppose these are our primal "instincts" or whatever you'd like to call them coming out.

This is similar to the reaction people have when someone who did something wrong gets punished in spades, and unjustly so. For example, many people would savagely rejoice to hear of a rapist being castrated and bled to death for what he did. Is that a just fate in a civilized society? No. Are these people sick in the mind? Seemingly.

But not necessarily.

I am not saying that I am apparently psychotic and think that cruelly rejecting a person is a crime and deserves significant retribution, by the way.

These are normal reactions. What of ourselves individually and as a species, at our lowest levels comprises them; who knows? Are they morally correct? No.

Also, you are correct in being disturbed by this reaction. I just thought I'd shed some light on exactly what was going on.

The first amendment DOES apply in school to some extent. Tinker v. Des Moines ruled that only disruptive speech may be restricted by the school.

Students can NOT be forced to say the pledge, and retribution against a student for abstaining from the pledge is unconstitutional according to the Supreme Court (though it often still happens informally). Some public school teachers have to lead their class in the pledge, while individual students can choose to abstain. When the state of Missouri forced my school district to reinstate recitation of the pledge after 9/11, I objected.

Unisons are crap because they promote groupthink, empty platitudes, (in-group-ism regardless of merit), and implicit compulsion of everyone to say it. Unisons remind me of the Borg and the Nazis.

AWESOME.

And what makes you think dag would randomly discard your videos?

>> ^gorgonheap:
>> ^Zifnab:
Too funny! Who gets to be Jar Jar?

Here is Jar Jar, now if you don't mind I need to prepare a siftquisition for when a bunch of my video get discarded, when a member, who shall remain nameless, will act out in that way as a lame form of retribution.

>> ^Zifnab:
Too funny! Who gets to be Jar Jar?


Here is Jar Jar, now if you don't mind I need to prepare a siftquisition for when a bunch of my videos get discarded by a member, who shall remain nameless, who will act out in that way as a lame form of retribution.