BruceVC

Name me one ideology that has not and could not produce extremists. Let's start with one!Democracy?Democracy? Oh please... democracy is one of the most radical ideologies ever to exist. Ask the American independence fighters. The French revolutionaries. More recently, ask those involved in the Arab spring. name one democratic extremist Robespierre OK, I dont know much about him but i would not call ending slavery and feudal system extremism I meant to ask you, we have a Czech criminal who is now incarcerated in SA but initially came to SA and demonstrated a degree of brutal intelligence and unseen violence who nearly controlled most of the drug scene in SA....we were totally unprepared for this type of criminality...how prominent is he in Czech ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radovan_Krej%C4%8D%C3%AD%C5%99

Well the West won the ideological war against Communism and it will obviously win the war against Islamic extremism....what lesson should we learn?Essentially, what it means for freedom and freedom of speech. The Cold War took away everyone's opinion who was himself a communist or just somewhat around that spectrum in the name of security and te American way. Black List and all, does that ring a bell?Now, it takes on different forms with Islam, namely the constant surveillance. But in essence, it is the exact same thing all over again. Another thing is that the ideologies in question become senselessly defied in pure black and white patterns. Very few in the Cold War bothered to read Marx, Engels or even Lenin. Very few today bother to read the Quran (even though it would do good-one of the last few Textes even specifically tells Muslims that they have their religion, others have their own religion, and everyone should just get along). This of course does not only result in the waging of a war against the abstract concept of a certain ideology, but it also creates so much unnecessary fear, justifying the measures I've previously mentioned in the first place. I know the high level views of Marx and guys like Lenin and I haven't read even a single page of the Quran but I doubt reading these works would change my view that I am fundamentally opposed to both Communism and Islamic Extremism..... I know you not suggesting I should read them but what would the benefit be? Well let's differentiate... you don't need to agree with Lenin in order to agree with Marx, and you don't need to fully agree with Marx to see that he has a point (in some cases.... admittedly, other cases are just moronic). But let's not go there, that's not the point. So I recommend you read the Quran, just because it is simply well written. It contains, even when translated, quite beautiful poetry. And some none of us speak Arabic, to my knowledge, it appears we are missing out on some true art. And of course, itll be a huge cultural benefit. But anyway, you can't really oppose the extreme version of an ideology (be it Marxism-Leninism or Islamic Extremism) if you don't understand the ideology it is based on (Socialism or Islam). If you try to do that, then you are not opposing something, you are just being ignorant. And then of course, ignorance leads to unreasonable fear, a dogmatic world view and unnecessary, unhelpful and useless prejudice. There are communists/socialists and Muslims out there who genuinely want to make the world a better place. And they are even the vast majority of said groups. Of course there are extremists, but this is true for any ideology. But if you just oppose their entire ideology, without fully understanding it, how will you ever tell the difference between an extremist and someone who simply has a different point of view? So I will stress this again: you need to read the Quran. Bennie, Bennie, Bennie....this post is inconsistent and illogical, normally I would assume the person was trolling but I'll continue to believe you mean what you say. I just have to be honest its odd I don't need to know or understand Marx or Lenin because there isn't a country that exists nowadays that has followed there views and is sustainable. This is not personal, I just like to live in the world of practical examples I dont need to read the Quran because the manifestos of groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS are well documented, they take parts of the Quran selectively and then add the normal " end Crusader influence in the Middle East " ...its just religious demagoguery and cannot be accurately achieved You do realize the entire ME is fighting ISIS.....what additional understanding would anyone need ?

Well the West won the ideological war against Communism and it will obviously win the war against Islamic extremism....what lesson should we learn?Essentially, what it means for freedom and freedom of speech. The Cold War took away everyone's opinion who was himself a communist or just somewhat around that spectrum in the name of security and te American way. Black List and all, does that ring a bell?Now, it takes on different forms with Islam, namely the constant surveillance. But in essence, it is the exact same thing all over again. Another thing is that the ideologies in question become senselessly defied in pure black and white patterns. Very few in the Cold War bothered to read Marx, Engels or even Lenin. Very few today bother to read the Quran (even though it would do good-one of the last few Textes even specifically tells Muslims that they have their religion, others have their own religion, and everyone should just get along). This of course does not only result in the waging of a war against the abstract concept of a certain ideology, but it also creates so much unnecessary fear, justifying the measures I've previously mentioned in the first place. I know the high level views of Marx and guys like Lenin and I haven't read even a single page of the Quran but I doubt reading these works would change my view that I am fundamentally opposed to both Communism and Islamic Extremism..... I know you not suggesting I should read them but what would the benefit be?

Well the West won the ideological war against Communism and it will obviously win the war against Islamic extremism....what lesson should we learn?

Im playing Dishonored 2 at the moment, its great and exciting and well worth the money spent When I first bought the game it kept crashing after 5-10 minutes, I assumed it was because of a known bug I read about on the Steam forums and the solution was to wait for the next patch I then played Black Flag and that also kept crashing and my forum investigation revealed another bug, I started thinking " gee these PC games have become unstable ...might be time to get a console " Then I noticed after some hardware investigation that the fans on my Video card weren't working and this was due to a faulty power supply...so the issue was hardware related from day 1 and had nothing to do with patches, bugs or the perceived "instability of PC games "

What are the objectives of the " movement ", if they won what are the outcomes for this victory?

The speech was good but what do you think are the problems he should be attending to first? He is looking at reforming Obamacare, tax cuts for the middle class, he wants to rebuild the military and destroy ISIS amongst other things Those are actually the problems that need addressing. The issue is the Republican ideologues in Congress which will not agree to anything sensible. On Obamacare, they want to simply get rid of it, regardless of people who can't afford medical insurance. On tax cuts, Republicans including Trump, want a huge tax cut and at the same time increased military spending. In addition Trump wants a 1 trillion infrastructure plan, government paid family leave, and assorted other spending increases. All this while we already have a budget deficit that's projected to grow without bound, and a huge amount of unfunded future liabilities. Meanwhile, no one is even talking about bringing medical costs under control, which is the main driver of the budget problems. You raise some valid considerations . I share some of your concerns

The speech was good but what do you think are the problems he should be attending to first? He is looking at reforming Obamacare, tax cuts for the middle class, he wants to rebuild the military and destroy ISIS amongst other things

Remember the old " draining the swamp " from the presidential race, he definitely hasn't achieved much on that front

But I do think his overall speech was a positive one, he condemned bigotry and mentioned the USA needing to unify or other similar things and he did receive positive feedback from most polls

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/22/politics/jewish-cemetery-muslims-fundraising-trnd/index.html I have been very impressed by Pence on a number of examples, like this and his speeches and points he made in the latest EU visits

Are you sure you are understanding the combat mechanics, failure to grasp the nuances of any RPG ruleset can sometimes manifest as " chores " in parts of the game?

volo you have been given a unique opportunity to not embarrass yourself, defending a degenerate like Milo is really not a good idea You live in some mountain village in some remote part of Canada, distance yourself from him and never mention him again.....this is your chance for redemption

volo do you feel its necessary to defend Milo, you guys seriously need to lift your bar? I am honestly embarrassed how little you think of moral value. I can make some suggestions ? Well you live as you fight. What video is that

GD what would you say are worse nowadays or what do you think is getting worse?

I still maintain Obama was an excellent president, yes I now can see some real failures but he did more good than bad ? WOD let me ask you this so I understand your criticism of Obama better, what were the 3 worst things he did or tried to do in your view?

Ben you are missing over half the conversation. Alum & I were discussion a single benefit offered in the employer provided health insurance for public sector employees in California. It's offered as part of their employment compensation benefits. It is not "State Healthcare" in the way you are thinking. My point was whether it is a waste of tax money (that is obviously needed elsewhere, like the Oroville Dam) to offer what might be considered elective surgery on the public dime. Alum's point was that it wasn't really elective surgery and considering the number of state employees it is a benefit that will be used so infrequently as to not be worth getting in a twist over. What you are talking about here is a whole other subject. GD I haven't been following what you and alum have been saying, I just read the last paragraph or so. I want to share my opinion on this, firstly I can completely understand why you may think that Gender Reassignment Surgery is not a dire medical condition. Many people share you view so you skepticism is not unusual But imagine this, I want to give you one of my famous " BruceVC analogies " When you wake up in the morning and have a shave you look yourself in the mirror. People our age may think "damn I look like my dad more and more " but end of the day what we see in the reflection is ourselves...older....wiser...but there is no confusion on what we see. We see ourselves as men and despite any problems we have experienced we have never questioned our gender But imagine your entire life when you look at that reflection you always feel something is wrong with the image, how can you be a man when you are women? You think you a women, emotionally and mentally yet the mirror lies with what you are So for some cases of Gender Reassignment Surgery the surgery is critical for mental balance, it may not be always life and death like some cancerous growth but the constant mental confusion must be a terrible burden to bear I know this is probably difficult to empathize with but thats the argument for procedures like this being part of any medical aid system and I support that

2133 as much as I would love all the countries you mentioned to embrace the positive and transformative qualities of Western ideology you cannot force people to uplift themselves and have a better life....some governments just prefer running there countries in a benighted and intolerant way Look at Iraq, they had the chance to chose peace and Democracy and they decided on sectarian violence

Okay I know him, he is a very astute commentator . He was a legend near the end of the Cold War and a highly respected advisor to various US presidents Thanks for letting me know

I dont hate Trump, its counterintuitive to hate a new president of any country. Objective criticism is fine, I have seen some very good decisions by the Trump presidency around foreign policy but he has made some questionable domestic political decisions. But its far too early to write him off I can answer the link though, I'm confused by the point the link is making? Trump is neither of those options, I can see positive in both options but neither is ideal for me. But I dont get the spurious comparisons or what is the expected outcome of answering the questions? It's just for Trump haters to see if they'd hate him just as much if one or the other alternative is true. It's meant to point out to people that may be the reason they state for hating Trump isn't the real reason. More on the Milo controversy: http://thedeclination.com/the-media-strikes-back-milo-lies-and-videotape/ It's clear what he said though, why defend him? https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/02/20/some-breitbart-employees-set-to-walk-if-milo-not-fired/ Okay I see what you mean by the Trump questions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarry_(TV_series) Guys I recommend this, its about an ex-Vietnam veteran who does 2 tours and returns home to different reality since he has been at war. He then becomes a hitman for a variety of reasons and some you can understand

Well, she IS her father's daughter. I dont get it ?

Hair dye works wonders but its harder to dye the beard so stay clean-shaven

GB are you worried the media is indeed controlling your thoughts ? How deep does the rabbit hole go ..... No of course they don't. But it is arrogance and hubris of the highest order that they think that is their role. Okay, good to know because I was going to say "if you are someone who is suppose to be controlled by the media then they have failed utterly and abysmally in creating kinship and loyalty around their perceived thought control programs " ( the media scores an F- in controlling thoughts )

GB are you worried the media is indeed controlling your thoughts ? How deep does the rabbit hole go .....