patrick.net

Patrick says

A Saudi Arabian man who renounced Islam and made disparaging remarks about the prophet Muhammad has been sentenced to death.

Murder plain and simple. What will we do? Absolutely nothing.

America "liberated" Afghanistan and afflicted it with a Constitution that makes Islam a source of law. Ditto Iraq. Most Islamic countries have that provision. We could have given them a better Constitution, but the Bandar Bush administration insisted on Islam.

An Afghan tried to convert to Christianity. His neighbors demanded he be executed, as per Islam. The story made headlines in America. A diplomatic solution followed: he was allowed to plead insanity, and then exiled. That's a win for him though, considering what's been happening to the Afghans who continue to suffer under Islam.

Good thing Trump left Saudi Arabia off the muslim ban list...

What Muslim ban list? Leftist judges won't even let Trump restrict immigration from the six Muslim countries.

DirtyLesson says

What Muslim ban list? Leftist judges won't even let Trump restrict immigration from the six Muslim countries.

That Muslim ban list. Where Trump included Iran which is a Shia (non-terrorist) Muslim country , but for some reason, left off Saudi Arabia, which is Sunni Muslim, and the source of virtually ALL Islamic terrorism.

Why doesn't the press keep after Trump on this? Are they all being paid by Saudi Arabia? Totally possible.

rando says

Why doesn't the press keep after Trump on this? Are they all being paid by Saudi Arabia? Totally possible.

Better question is why aren't the Trumpcucks holding his feet to the fire on Saudi Arabia? They go on and on about what amounts to the Islamic boogie man, and Trumps great job of tackling Islamic extremism, yet nary a peep about Saudi Arabia literally being the source of ALL terrorism.

Now listen Ahmad, you're just making it worse.

Strategist says

Murder plain and simple. What will we do? Absolutely nothing.

We will continue to send them weapons and billions of dollars for oil.

And no one in our government will ever say a fucking word about their terrorism because of this:

Sources told CNN that Saudi Arabia recently threatened to sell off American assets if Congress passes a bill that would allow 9/11 victims to sue foreign governments.
...
Dumping a huge amount of U.S. debt at one time would likely cause Treasuries to tank, potentially destabilizing financial markets.
In response, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday: "I'm confident that the Saudis recognize, just as much as we do, our shared interest in preserving the stability of the global financial system."
The Saudi threat strikes many experts as empty because it would amount to a fire sale that would likely severely hurt the value of the Saudis' own holdings. And any ripple effects on the U.S. dollar could also backfire because the Saudi riyal is pegged to the dollar.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/19/investing/saudi-arabia-threat-dump-us-assets-911-bill/index.html

That's why trump will not do anything to China either, unless he is more leveraged than he admits and wants a massive dollar devaluation to help landlords and Fuck renters.

Welcome to the integrated world.
Where, instead of war, countries hold financial ruin over each others head.

Even if Saudi is not holding our balls, we can't put them on the ban list. Dems and their judges won't allow it.

That's religion, not faith. You can tell by the way you're not allowed to stop believing in it upon pain of beheading.
Islam is a cancer.

DirtyLesson says

Even if Saudi is not holding our balls, we can't put them on the ban list. Dems and their judges won't allow it.

We would never find out if Dems and their judges would allow it, because Republicans are the ones in bed with Saudi Arabia and would never propose it. They prefer to keep getting their money even with all the terrorism that comes along with it. Par for the course for Republicans, get their money at the expense of the citizenry

Quigley says

That's religion, not faith. You can tell by the way you're not allowed to stop believing in it upon pain of beheading.

At least Muslims have an excuse. They participate for fear of being beheaded in real life. Christians participate for fear of an imaginary hell with an imaginary Satan monster and the wrath of God when their ever loving Christ comes back. You can't make this shit up!

errc says

DirtyLesson says

Even if Saudi is not holding our balls, we can't put them on the ban list. Dems and their judges won't allow it.

We would never find out if Dems and their judges would allow it, because Republicans are the ones in bed with Saudi Arabia and would never propose it.

Don't forget, Obama bows before the Saudi King.

YesYNot says

Quigley says

That's religion, not faith. You can tell by the way you're not allowed to stop believing in it upon pain of beheading.

At least Muslims have an excuse. They participate for fear of being beheaded in real life. Christians participate for fear of an imaginary hell with an imaginary Satan monster and the wrath of God when their ever loving Christ comes back. You can't make this shit up!

Stop making excuses for Islam.
Muslims that don't believe in Islam pretend to still believe. Christians that don't believe in Christianity don't have to pretend.

Strategist says

Stop making excuses for Islam.

That wasn't an excuse for Islam. That was an excuse for 'Muslims' in Islamic countries who go along with the religion instead of denouncing it, sticking their neck out, and waiting for the sword.

Christians don't have such an excuse, and according to Pew, 70% of them don't really believe their religion anyway. Stop making excuses for 'Christians,' who pretend when they don't have to.

YesYNot says

At least Muslims have an excuse. They participate for fear of being beheaded in real life. Christians participate for fear of an imaginary hell with an imaginary Satan monster and the wrath of God when their ever loving Christ comes back. You can't make this shit up!

Well obviously you did make it up because that's NOT the Christian faith. Might be bits of Catholicism in your summary, but not the basis of Christian faith.
Christians believe that Jesus sacrifice provided a way for imperfect people to relate and be restored to a perfect God. Faith isn't accomplished by good works but by accepting Jesus and acceptance of His salvation. And naughty actions don't invalidate it, sending one to Hell, but may lessen your eternal reward.

Being faithful to God's commandments and promises is its own reward. They are like a primer for school children designed to keep the child safe and ensure a good path for his/her life. Breaking them comes with natural consequences, just as leaping from a cliff (without any precautions) comes with its own natural consequences.
The Hindus call this Karma.

Quigley says

Well obviously you did make it up because that's NOT the Christian faith.

Are you saying that my Christian relatives think that I'll go to heaven even if I think that their God and Jesus figures are make believe and that I have zero faith in their religion?

I could have sworn that I listened to a southern baptist minister go on about the Jews burning in hell for 20 minutes one unfortunate Sunday morning.

Religion of peace and tolerance...

YesYNot says

Are you saying that my Christian relatives think

I really don't care what your relatives think or what a two-bit minister ranted about one Sunday as you recall it. There's a lot of competing sects out there with a lot of nutty ideas. I really can't blame you for being confused.
I just told you what Christianity actually is. Do with that as you may.

It's a global cult. Where it dominates, that's what it does.
Imagine if Scientology was doing, even outside the US.

errc says

Better question is why aren't the Trumpcucks holding his feet to the fire on Saudi Arabia?

Simple. Saudi Arabia has the Press (who bury Saudi stories on the back pages), Academia, and pretty much the entire Political Class from lobbyists to most congresspeople. To open that box is a bridge too far.

Could you imagine if Putin locked somebody up - never mind the death penalty - for an Atheist? The Press would be foaming at the mouth and demanding military action to boot.

There is no mandate in Christianity for Christians to go on Jesushad and convert people to Jesus by the sword, or even strong encouragement with the promise of afterlife rewards. Not so in Islam.

Lashkar_i_Trumpi says

Could you imagine if Putin locked somebody up - never mind the death penalty - for an Atheist? The Press would be foaming at the mouth and demanding military action to boot.

they would immediately impose sanctions. When it comes to the Saudis, we immediately kiss their rotten butts.

"Could you imagine if Putin locked somebody up - never mind the death penalty - for an Atheist? The Press would be foaming at the mouth and demanding military action to boot."

Are you kidding? We do nothing when he kills reporters, why would we do something when he kills an atheist?

Sovereign nation with sovereign laws,don't like it,don't live there.
They have the right to believe in an imaginary figure just many Americans.

Quigley says

I just told you what Christianity actually is.

No. You didn't say much about the three concepts that I brought up.
1) Is there a hell? Will people who do not accept Jesus as their savior go there?
2) Is the devil real?
3) Does the book of revelations mean that Jesus may come back at any time, and if you are not yet a believer, you will burn in hell?

Lashkar_i_Trumpi says

Could you imagine if Putin locked somebody up - never mind the death penalty - for an Atheist? The Press would be foaming at the mouth and demanding military action to boot.

According to the press, Putin has murdered plenty of journalists - as many as 34. They have not demanded military action, yet, though. Sorry.

HEY YOU says

Sovereign nation with sovereign laws,don't like it,don't live there.
They have the right to believe in an imaginary figure just many Americans.

The problem is that they are influencing our laws and our leaders with their money, and they are exporting an insanely violent ideology across the world, and even into America.

HEY YOU says

Sovereign nation with sovereign laws,don't like it,don't live there.

They have the right to believe in an imaginary figure just many Americans.

Try drawing a Mohammad cartoon in public in America. Now tell me which sovereign nations laws are enforced.

YesYNot says

According to the press, Putin has murdered plenty of journalists - as many as 34. They have not demanded military action, yet, though. Sorry.

... by assigning every murdered Journalist - including those running stories on the Russian mob - to Putin as suspect #1.

This is actually evidence in favor of the Media spreading propaganda.

I particularly liked the WaPo story that acted like the Politskaya case was still open, when a Mafia hitman and ex-cop was convicted, confessed ratted out his Mafia employers for a lighter sentence, and they were found to have fled the country the moment he was arrested. It's pure coincidence she had written several pieces about that Family in the months before her execution.

The WaPo absolutely neglected to mention ANY of this. This is why it's propaganda.

A strong leader like Putin doesn't want strong Mafia operations competing with his authority. You may have noticed how under Yeltsin, local government officials were assassinated regularly for not playing along, and now this doesn't happen anymore.

YesYNot says

According to the press, Putin has murdered plenty of journalists - as many as 34.

Yet again, your link contradicts your comment. Quoting from YOUR LINK:

"Trump is right that no one has proven Putin to have ordered assassinations of dissidents.
***
34 journalists have been murdered in Russia since 2000.
***
Just one case over the past 15 years was fully adjudicated...The murders of two other Novaya Gazeta reporters resulted in partial justice.
***
As for the other assassinations of journalists during his reign, experts say Putin isn’t directly responsible for any of them." [emphasis added]

You seem really to have a chronic pattern of linking sources that contradict your comments.

Meanwhile, the absolute monarchy in KSA executes apostates as a matter of Islamic law. They are proud of it.

curious2 says

Meanwhile, the absolute monarchy in KSA executes apostates as a matter of law. They are proud of it.

And when the Monarchy tries to tamp it down to avoid international criticism, like Pakistan, by merely imprisoning them indefinitely, it's the Religious Police and Authorities that scream and shout and call for Quran-required blood of the apostates.

The secret to Saudi Arabian Monarch's behavior is the 1979 Mecca Attacks. The participants were members of some of the most powerful families, demanding an end to Western Influence and more Islamic Purity, it took weeks to defeat them in running armed battles. One of the responses by Saudi Arabia was to increase the severity of Shar'ia law afterwards. Understand what happened there and you understand why Saudi Arabia does what it does.

How did the 1979 attacks change Saudi behavior?

rando says

How did the 1979 attacks change Saudi behavior?

Predictably, the ruling Saudis doubled down on their pre-existing beliefs that had been previously described by Winston Churchill. I'll quote Wikipedia, because the links there are to books that I can't link directly:

"Following the attack, the Saudi state implemented a stricter enforcement of Islamic code...Saudi King Khaled however, did not react to the upheaval by cracking down on religious puritans in general, but by giving the ulama and religious conservatives more power over the next decade. He is thought to have believed that "the solution to the religious upheaval was simple - more religion." First, photographs of women in newspapers were banned, then women on television. Cinemas and music shops were shut down. School curriculum was changed to provide many more hours of religious studies, eliminating classes on subjects like non-Islamic history. Gender segregation was extended "to the humblest coffee shop". The religious police became more assertive."

I've been reading Scott Adams lately, and learning to heed his advice that identity and emotion persuade more powerfully than evidence and reason. The Saudis identify as Muslims enforcing Islam, and feel good about empowering and spreading Islam. YesYNot has been hypnotized to feel good about spreading Islam for different identitarian reasons. The Saudis' actions overlap with their own self-interest, but YesYNot proves daily that people can be persuaded by identity and emotion to oppose their own self-interest, and to ignore evidence and reason, even lying outright to enable people who believe in killing them.

Yes, identity is central to everything. The ego has just one mission: to preserve itself.

That cannot be changed, but what can be changed is the definition of the ego, what it includes and what it excludes.

When you join a religion, you adopt it as part of yourself. Any threat to the religion is attacked as a threat to yourself.

The Koran not only effectively takes over the ego, it also inculcates a very deep resentment of all non-Muslims, who after all have the choice to join, but reject it. They fail to submit, literally.

And so all non-Muslims seem like a threat to the self which must be exterminated. That tone came from Mohammed himself, and his resentment of being rejected by the Jews as a legitimate prophet.

rando says

The Koran not only effectively takes over the ego, it also inculcates a very deep resentment of all non-Muslims, who after all have the choice to join, but reject it. They fail to submit, literally.

And so all non-Muslims seem like a threat to the self which must be exterminated. That tone came from Mohammed himself, and his resentment of being rejected by the Jews as a legitimate prophet.

Wow! Excellent analysis!

curious2 says

You seem really to have a chronic pattern of linking sources that contradict your comments.

It doesn't contradict my comment at all. Some in the press have said that Putin kills Journalists. According to the link, the count is as many as 34. The link states that there is no proof that Putin has killed journalists. But it does state that the press has accused him of it. It also states that an unusual number of journalists have been murdered in Russia. Take it as statistical evidence that someone is having them killed, and that is why the press has repeatedly accused him of it.
If you want to contradict what I sad, you will have to explain why the link states that Joe Scarborough calls him a murderer, and Trump does not deny it. Trump only defended Putin a couple of days later after consulting with others.

"I’m confused," Scarborough pressed. "You obviously condemn Vladimir Putin killing journalists and political opponents, right?"

"Oh sure, absolutely," Trump conceded.

A few days later, Trump defended Putin again, to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. "You're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, at least in our country. It has not been proven that he's killed reporters."

All of this is completely consistent with what I actually said. You have offered absolutely no evidence to show that I'm wrong. Note that I never said that Putin actually did kill the journalists, because that is irrelevant to my original point. I'm not sure if you are smart enough to understand that, because you don't address my main point in your vitriolic post of accusation piled on top of previously made and previously repeated accusation.

If you want to claim that the press do not think that Putin kills journalists, you will have to address this article, in which they mention

"Bill O'Reilly's characterization of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "killer."

You will also have to address the Scarborough transcript
HOST JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, I mean, also is a person who kills journalists, political opponents and ...

WILLIE GEIST: Invades countries.

SCARBOROUGH: ... and invades countries, obviously that would be a concern, would it not?

TRUMP: He's running his country, and at least he's a leader, unlike what we have in this country.

SCARBOROUGH: But, again: He kills journalists that don't agree with him.

TRUMP: Well, I think that our country does plenty of killing, too, Joe.

Here's a link to an activist talking about being poisoned twice and mentioning activists and independent journalists being murdered:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/05/02/dozens-russian-deaths-cast-suspicion-vladimir-putin/100480734/
Here's another story discussing the suspicious deaths in Russia:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/23/here-are-ten-critics-of-vladimir-putin-who-died-violently-or-in-suspicious-ways/?utm_term=.b52ebe4ab5d8
These stories are all over the place.

Are you claiming that journalists don't think that Putin has killed journalists? Are you claiming that the link doesn't say as many as 34?