Per the suggestion made by Bob Park this week regarding the use of the polygraph to catch spies – http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN10/wn011510.html – perhaps they should try tossing a coin instead.

Wait… Moorcocky?

I’m just bored today waiting on coworkers to get their acts together. I just want to go home and play Dragon Age. I’ll shout “For Allah! Souls devoured for mighty Allah!” every time I kill a darkspawn tonight.

A friend/acquaintance of mine was headed home from Japan, and found a Flight Sim game at the airport. When he was playing and the announcement for his flight came up, he just headed the plane for the ground and said “Allah Akbar” and ended the game.

He was in Naval Intelligence, BTW..

J/P=?

Yeah, all but the thing about the witches. We all know that witches, like ducks, are made of wood and are therefore flammable, and hence must be burned.

Trying to apply logic and reasoning to insane premises just doesn’t work. Here we unite the notions underlying the magic bomb detectors, blowing up Mecca and radical Islamic fundamentalists into one big “Don’t go there if you want to retain your sanity” blob.

On the other hand, stealing Mecca brick-by-brick has real possibilities. After all, the Brits stole the Elgin marbles and lots of Egyptian artifacts, and this seems to have prevented both Athena and Isis from making comebacks.

Snake-oil peddler: What’s more, my special elixir is a very effective elephant repellent.

Skeptic: But there aren’t any elephants around here.

Snake-oil peddler: See! It works!

Yes its an interesting idea, but no it doesn’t make this $40k joke worthwhile. It depends on a very key principle: the would-be-attackers believe it can detect bombs.

While that may work for a little while, as soon as the illusion is shattered they become useless, and in fact counter-productive as attackers learn that they can appear “checked” and “cleared” by a security checkpoint, while at the same time carrying explosives. So any effect it has as a deterrant will be strictly limited and diminish to zero over time, at the cost of $40k per wand, x wands per checkpoint, x checkpoints per square kilometre.

I do like the fact that that effect may save a handful of lives, but taking the $100m the government has spent on these wands and instead spending it on actual bomb/weapon detection equipment would be factors of 100 times more useful.

voltaire2009 seems so worried about the liberal left, but you’ve got nothing to worry about, you don’t have a liberal left in the States, only centre-right and far-right, so sleep well.

You’re new around here, aren’t you?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=rational-and-irrational-thought&sc=SA_20091118

It’S DISRATIONALIA, rather like dyslexia, only it applies to rationality. We all know people who score well on IQ tests, yet still seem unable to rationally analyze the world around them. Seems they just don’t have the right intellectual/knowledge tools(Bill Maher, are you listening?).

Oh, and this does seem to apply to this post.

Gary 7

Just remember to yell “Allah Ahkbar”. (God is great). It sounds so much more authentic that way.

Gary 7

Yes, it is obvious *you* are all a bunch of nits.

I’m just bored today waiting on coworkers to get their acts together. I just want to go home and play Dragon Age. I’ll shout “For Allah! Souls devoured for mighty Allah!” every time I kill a darkspawn tonight.

“Islam is NOT a religion of peace. From its earliest beginnings it was spread by the sword and by forced conversions, all headed by a delusional old nutcase who thought it was okay to marry a girl of nine or so. Muhammad began his “preaching” with theiving murdering plundering raids on other Arabs caravans. Jesus never did that nor did Buddha. Not that I believe in them either but some religions are worse than others – and there’s clear evidence here that Islam is one of the worst.”

Ooookay now. You’ve just pushed my button.
First: Islam IS just as peaceful as Judaism/Christianity and for pretty much the same reasons. It is another derivative of Judaism, meaning it derives its authenticity from Judaism.

Second:The old saw about “conversion at the point of a sword” is just pure hokum. What the Muslim warrior did, was if, while in the Midst of battle, a defeated opponent yelled “Allah is God and Mohammed is his Prophet” the Muslim warrior was REQUIRED by his religion to assume the defeated individual was, in reality, a Muslim and in Islam, a good Muslim is not allowed to kill a fellow Muslim, even thought there was a good chance the defeated was just fooling. What was then done to that person was to follow them around and make sure they practiced Islam.
It wasn’t “conversion”. It was merely erring on the side of religious mandate.

I expect if you mentioned this to most native Americans they’d laugh all the way to the local christian church.

Gary 7

My comment is strictly in response to Voltaire’s idiotic statement that (quote) Islam alone of the major religions says its great and sanctioned by Allah to behead adulterous women and western journalists and execute gay men. (unquote)

I agree, it is all too easy to bring up past discretions involving religions that have largely (but not entirely) moved on to higher moral grounds, but it was the blunt statement of erroneous fact I wanted to counter. As others have corrected, the majority of Muslims do not believe they are sanctioned to murder people.

As for newsflashes, well, none was intended. Isn’t it obvious we’re all a bunch of nits?

Not that I disagree, but how is this an answer to a religion that is doing this *right* *now*? I’m not sure if it’s a starwman or a non sequitur or both.

If I bring up the state of human rights for some groups under Islam, someone invariably says “Christians did the same thing long ago!”

Yeah… and? So it’s OK for someone else to do it now? Other than bringing up something that most people already know, what’s the precise point here?

Declaring “humans in general can be crappy for any reason” isn’t exactly a major newsflash. Go look at the XBox/PS3 message board wars. Or when the XBoxians and PS3-folken team up against the Wii-ites. Oh, my, it’s ugly!

Iraq did not attack New York and Washington. A group based in Afghanistan did.

IMHO, had our leaders kept their eye on that ball we would be in a very very different situation now. Did you notice that so far more American lives were lost during our occupation of Iraq than A.Q. took in the 2001 attacks? Afghanistan was where our attention should have stayed focused; I’m fully convinced would have been caught or killed by now (but then who would Pres. Cheney have had to scare people into accepting the “Patriot” Act and think waterboarding is a good idea?).

Saddam was a world-class jerk, brutal to his own people, somewhat threatening to his neighbors (esp. Israel) but really not a threat to the US (evidently he met with Bin Laden at some point but they really didn’t get along – B.L. was way too religous-fundamentalist for Saddam). Now, however, the country is out of control and is a happy breeding ground for the very people W claimed to be trying to go after. Thanks a lot.

Anyway, all religions are stupid and dangerous. The hatred that causes people to crash planes into buildings is the same kind of hatred that makes Christians think gay marriage will be the end of the world. It’s simply a matter of degree. Eliminating Islam isn’t going to get rid of the idiocy and the insanity.

Yeah, of course the Judeo-Christian traditions have absolutely no history of stoning women to death, or using witches as kindling, or putting to death those abominable homos.

Dare I say it? Hatred, bigotry, and ignorance don’t need any particular creed. Human beings are pretty good at coming up with any old excuse.

And for the record, Voltman, there were no Iraqis involved in the attacks of September 11. They didn’t “start” anything. But I guess that’s just dirty ol’ lefty talk, huh?

If you include following any religion, especially one as life-permeating as Islam, on the list of “sane” activities.

If Washington DC was nuked, would the American people fold in terror at the destruction of their capitol?

Nah, we’d armor up and go scavving for ammo and Nuka-Cola Quantums in the ruins.

That’s actually a nice example of the difference between the cultures:

Draw a cartoon of Mohammed = death threats and violence

Depict D.C. as a bombed out ruin = massive hit video game

Well, if you ignore the Fallout 1 & 2 fanboyen.

I think we should target Mecca

Couldn’t we just hire George Clooney to steal it? Brick by brick. We could call it Operation Ocean’s 72.

That said, perhaps the disloyal anti-Western left here may want to try and remember who started this war and how it began? 3,000 dead Americans and the twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon being hit by hostage filled jet airliners ring any bells?

Islam started this war. Islam motivated and drove Osama bin Laden and Mohammad Atta and inspired 9-11. The terrorists attacks on the West & Israel are committed by Islamists for Islam in name of their Allah delusion. That’s just incontravertable fact.

You can say what you like about about “Not all muslims support terrorism” but truth is far too many do. Not all Muslims are terrorists but most terrorists are, in stark fact, Muslim.

Islam is NOT a religion of peace. From its earliest beginnings it was spread by the sword and by forced conversions, all headed by a delusional old nutcase who thought it was okay to marry a girl of nine or so. Muhammad began his “preaching” with theiving murdering plundering raids on other Arabs caravans. Jesus never did that nor did Buddha. Not that I believe in them either but some religions are worse than others – and there’s clear evidence here that Islam is one of the worst.

Islam is the only major religion that teaches that its “martyrdom” to blow yourself up on a bus containing innocent people or fly jetliners into buildings in a sneak attack. Islam alone says that homicide-suicide bombers get rewarded with endless virgins in heaven and worships the sick brain-washed suckers that commit such atrocities.

Islam alone of the major religions says its great and sanctioned by Allah to behead adulterous women and western journalists and execute gay men. Or, at least, says that in practice now.

I have no hesitation in saying such Islamic values enrage and disgust me and that yes, Islam & its followers *are* a clear and present danger to us & should be viewed and treated accordingly. I cannot understand how people esp. on the “tolerant” left can be so sympathetic to such bigoted warped, inhumane, rubbish as makes up Islam, esp. the terrorist Jihadist variety of it. (Which I’ll also note doesn’t get nearly condemned enough by the so-called ‘moderate’ Muslims who are more keen to whinge about minor and petty “injustices” against them like racial profiling & extra unease by non-Muslim neighbours sparked by their violent co-religionists actions rather than tackle their own extremists.)

Never forget too that while the Western sides here (incl. Israel) always tries to minimise the number of innocent civilians victims in this war, the terrorists are deliberately trying to kill as many innocent civilans as possible – even those of their own faith & nationalities.

No, I wouldn’t nuke em or advocate mass murder, not really.

But I sure won’t shed any tears if anything bad does happen to them when we finish this war that they started. Our western American values (eg. freedom, tolerance, respect for others incl,. women, homosexuals etc ..) really are superior to theirs and I’m not ashamed to say so either.

Honestly, I do wish Islam (But *NOT* its people) would disappear from the planet making the world a better place thereby. Because this ugly, brutal, insane Allah delusion is one of the worst of all religions as its victims will tell you anyday. Just read the news & there’s more than enough proof of this from Pakistan homicide bombings to Afghanistan corruption and tribal war. From Hamas in Gaza to our corrupt hypocritical and untrustworthy Saudi “allies”. To Fort Hood and 9-11 here to the London subway, Moscow theatre and Bali bombings. Islam is bad news & bad thinking – that’s pure fact & public record.

And if StevoR and his fellow travellers don’t like what I have to say about this then I just hope there’s some truth to reincarnation (yeah I know there’s not) and they are born in their next lives as lesbian left-handed pig-farming jews in a Muslim sharia law nation.

The suicide bomber remains the radical Islamists weapon of mass destruction. It is not only effective as an explosive weapon, it’s very effective as a terror weapon. The constant fear of suicide bombers is very wearying to security forces.

If there could be some freedom and enlightenment in the lives of folks who live in the radicalized countries, we wouldn’t need the threat of nuclear annihilation. That seems like a pipe dream, as a glance at our own nation shows ignorance and superstition are still winning out over reason and evidence.