Jim the Pleb Made Me Do It

[welch]

Fuck. Shooter on loose at MIT, apparently. One officer down at present. News still coming in.

I have a friend there for interview...

:-(

I used to do IT for the MIT cops. Helped a friend take the gig when I left, he's still there. This blows, I really liked those guys.

[welch]

I'm a little surprised that the FBI couldn't generate clearer images from the cameras with current tech.

I kept yelling 'ZOOM! Now... ENHANCE!!' at my computer. It did nothing. Mac piece of crap...

:P

Silly Abbie. That only works if you have of those CSI/NCIS computorz that hackz peoples IP and stuff.

Yeah, but you need two people for those:

[youtube]u8qgehH3kEQ[/youtube]

[welch]

http://atheismplus.com/forums/viewtopic ... 400#p75360

So apparently there is this Catholic comedian. Dan Cook. And one of the jokes, which Coworker L--who knows I'm an atheist--relayed to us to tell Coworker K how much K would enjoy Cook's work, goes something like this.

violent imagery [ Show ]
So Dan was talking with an atheist. And Dan asked the atheist what he believes happens after death. And the atheist said he wants to be buried so that he can return to the earth and become a tree.

Dan said he hopes some burly lumberjack comes along to cut down the tree, take it to a paper mill, and turn it into paper on which the Bible is printed.

NOT AMUSED.

It still baffles me how these people manage to function in daily life.

So offensive! ...except its not.

How would those Aplussers react over a George Carlin stand-up?

[youtube]D_5fqvBZnA0[/youtube]

I like to bring that one, and the "how 'bout one a you cupcakes gives me a blowjob" one. They start backpedaling all OVER themeselves to excuse it for george. Usually "satire" and "punching up" or some such bullshit.

[welch]

Once again, the charming Comraddeee PhysioPreppeee:

Web And App Designers Who Should Die In A Fire
Uncategorized by Comradde PhysioProffe

The ones who think that it “looks nice” to use gray text and gray backgrounds. TEXT SHOULD BE FUCKEN 0,0,0 BLACK AND BACKGROUND SHOULD BE 255,255,255 WHITE.

Oh, that's amazing, Comrade Fuckeen Physioshit, because YOU DON'T EVEN FUCKEEN USEE #000 AS YOUR FONT COLOR, YOU FUCKING PIECE OF MOBY DICKE!

Not only he gives bad cooking and literary advice. Now the fucker wants to give bad design advice. That's glorious.

Wait, I thought the die in a fire shit was done and gone at FTB.

[Hunt]

Can someone explain Comradde PhysioProffe to me? I mean, what's with this guy, why is he there? Is he some former star academic that went insane and now FtB keeps him around as some kind of charity case? I don't get it (him).

[Barael]

Can someone explain Comradde PhysioProffe to me? I mean, what's with this guy, why is he there? Is he some former star academic that went insane and now FtB keeps him around as some kind of charity case? I don't get it (him).

That's as good a guess as any I've heard so far.

[Steersman]

I'm having a discussion with a person on Youtube who believes that although women make up 51% of the global population she is in fact a minority:

I'm not making a direct comparison between the plight of slaves and the plight of women. I was just pointing out that being the "majority class" has to do with power, not numbers.

Minority status has to do with belonging to a class with less social power, due to things we can't help, usually due to birth. So unfortunately you are wrong. It pretty much IS my vagina that defines me as a woman, and therefore defines me as belonging to that minority class.

What you want to do is argue that...

Get that? Being a minority has nothing to do with numbers. It's to do with power.
*Takes gun and shoots self in face*
They love redefining words don't they?

Unfortunately, there is actually a definition that sort of supports that argument - at a stretch:

mi•nor•i•ty
n. pl. mi•nor•i•ties
1.
a. The smaller in number of two groups forming a whole.
b. A group or party having fewer than a controlling number of votes.
2.
a. A racial, religious, political, national, or other group thought to be different from the larger group of which it is part.
b. A group having little power or representation relative to other groups within a society.
c. A member of one of these groups.

There’s something badly fucked in the idea of allowing definitions to words that are antithetical to core ideas inherent or manifested by the other ones: "from a contradiction, anything follows". Sort of like giving one definition for “rape” as “the nicest thing one person can do for another” ….

[surreptitious57]

For all the people who bring up the colonialism issue . What is the year that we should go back to ?
Which year has the borders correct ? Which groups were the ones who really owned that land that
they took from someone else, who took it from someone else who took it from someone else

There is only one absolutely objective way to deal with this : And that is to go right back to the very beginning of human history : When homo sapiens first walked the Earth : Anything else is just lines
drawn in the sand : Subjective and arbitrary : The only problem however is that there is no absolute precise moment when humans came into existence : So this is fundamentally an unanswerable question

Slight deviation : What is interesting are those who talk about the perfect race suggesting that there is indeed a superior one : If the ancestry of these individuals was traced back to the very beginning they would be the same ancestors that all humans have : This is an undeniable fact : We are all the genetic descendants of the first humans : It is rather comforting to know that racists are descended from African tribes : Even more comforting when they are blissfully unaware of this fact : Someone should inform them that if it was not for those tribes leaving Africa to migrate to Europe to propagate the species that they would not even exist : Some think only the English should be allowed to live in England : I think you might find the Danes the French and Germans have more right to live in England than the English by that logic

[AndrewV69]

Hmmm... the MIT shooting was related to the Boston bombing?

http://www.rickey.org/boston-marathon-b ... dy-report/

[Hunt]

The suspect is now reported dead, so hopefully he was more than a suspect. The other one is still on the run. I kind of "suspected" this was going to rap up rather quickly when I opened yahoo and saw the video and magnified images of their faces. Nobody can run from that type of publicity.

[EdwardGemmer]

Holy moly crazy.

[Michael K Gray]

The suspect is now reported dead, so hopefully he was more than a suspect. The other one is still on the run. I kind of "suspected" this was going to rap up rather quickly when I opened yahoo and saw the video and magnified images of their faces. Nobody can run from that type of publicity.

Yo.
The suspect is now reported dead
So hopefully he was more dan a suspect.
The udder won
is still on de run.
I kind of "suspected"
this was going to rap up rather quickly
when I opened yahoo
and saw the video
an magnified da images
of their fæces.
Nobody can run
from that type of publi-city.
Yo.
Yeah.
Get up, wi' me homos.

[Hunt]

See? I make one stupid spelling error and this is what I get.

[Michael K Gray]

See? I make one stupid spelling error and this is what I get.

Intertoobz fame.
What's not to li(k)e, already?

My partner, Hymie, has a contract here for you Hunt, to slave sing a few hit (c)rap songs in the same vein, you know.
Spelimg errors, schmellink erors, if it makes moolah, it is right by me.
Here sign dis (c)rap artist kontract, and your money worries are over!
You won't have to worry about money ever again. Coz Hymie will relieve you that emotional burden.
Deal?

[Hunt]

It occurs to me that criminal apprehension is almost the perfect crowd sourcing app.

[Michael K Gray]

See? I make one stupid spelling error and this is what I get.

Oh. I just heard from George Lucas that you are to change your first name from "Michael" to "anything else".
Don't really know why, but there you are.

[Michael K Gray]

It occurs to me that criminal apprehension is almost the perfect crowd sourcing app.

We called it "Monkey Bars"
(a pre-hension = NOT as of before hanging from =? After hanging from?)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gRWT6b3HmTs/S ... onkeys.jpg
(As for perfect Crowd Saucing, quite possibly, if t'wer enough involved.)

[Hunt]

Hymie, eh? Well, Sinatra don't do rap, baby. This is what I'd sound like rapping (or "wrapping") Goulet!:

[youtube]pamHRy81phw[/youtube]

[Phil_Giordana_FCD]

See? I make one stupid spelling error and this is what I get.

Oh. I just heard from George Lucas that you are to change your first name from "Michael" to "anything else".
Don't really know why, but there you are.

"Anything Else the Hunt"?

[Gefan]

[youtube]mpuIyobffxE[/youtube]

Ok, here Half Fish says that being a settler means that "Your blood relations DO NOT TRACE BACK to the first people on the land on which you live" now, from my limited knowledge of natural history, doesn't that include everybody who doesn't currently live in Africa?
He's also trying to say that Native Americans don't count as settlers.
I pulled him up on it and mentioned that by his standards even the Native Americans are settlers and he came back with some magic rules like a 500 year limit and some shit about genocide victims don't count etc.
Fucking loon.

Alternatively: "Everybody just got to keep fucking everyone else till we all the same color" - Senator Jay Billington Bullworth.

[Michael K Gray]

See? I make one stupid spelling error and this is what I get.

Oh. I just heard from George Lucas that you are to change your first name from "Michael" to "anything else".
Don't really know why, but there you are.

"Anything Else the Hunt"?

It was his preferred name for Jabba the Hutt, but was over-ruled by Darth Maul.

[Scented Nectar]

Once again, the charming Comraddeee PhysioPreppeee:

Web And App Designers Who Should Die In A Fire
Uncategorized by Comradde PhysioProffe

The ones who think that it “looks nice” to use gray text and gray backgrounds. TEXT SHOULD BE FUCKEN 0,0,0 BLACK AND BACKGROUND SHOULD BE 255,255,255 WHITE.

I muste reluctantly agree, despite the insane dictatorialle tone he takeseeeeeeee. Anythinge otherre than that is verye hardde on the eyeseeeee. Eeeeeeeee.

No, really, it is. Anyone using PaintShop Pro X5? All colour choices for the menu areas were designed by a sadist. I'm certain of that.

[Phil_Giordana_FCD]

See? I make one stupid spelling error and this is what I get.

Oh. I just heard from George Lucas that you are to change your first name from "Michael" to "anything else".
Don't really know why, but there you are.

"Anything Else the Hunt"?

It was his preferred name for Jabba the Hutt, but was over-ruled by Darth Maul.

Just what I suspected. DAMN YOU LUCAS!!!

[Michael K Gray]

See? I make one stupid spelling error and this is what I get.

Oh. I just heard from George Lucas that you are to change your first name from "Michael" to "anything else".
Don't really know why, but there you are.

"Anything Else the Hunt"?

It was his preferred name for Jabba the Hutt, but was over-ruled by Darth Maul.

Just what I suspected. DAMN YOU LUCAS!!!

I shouldn't be telling you this but, and I'm sure you'll keep it hush-hush Nighthawk, but GL's original name for JtH, don't you know, was:
"Becca the Hut".
But the feministas of the planet Bespin banned it by means of their virtual strike against mental intercourse with the virtual male worriers of the planet sol.
And there was much semen spilled on that tragic day. Alak, coolay.

[Scented Nectar]

It occurs to me that criminal apprehension is almost the perfect crowd sourcing app.

We called it "Monkey Bars"
(a pre-hension = NOT as of before hanging from =? After hanging from?)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gRWT6b3HmTs/S ... onkeys.jpg
(As for perfect Crowd Saucing, quite possibly, if t'wer enough involved.)

That looks like fun! We called those types of climbing things 'monkey bars' too. That was in Windsor Ontario (across the river/border from Detroit in the US).

Anyways, I have to ask. What are those bushes behind you growing in the sandy looking soil?

[Michael K Gray]

Anyways, I have to ask. What are those bushes behind you growing in the sandy looking soil?

Erm, est not moi, despite microscopic similarities in species of scabies on the legs.
That piccy was from the random interwebs, and by the look of the singularly spiky bushes, is almost definitely snapped in Africa.
Not Australia.

[Hunt]

No, it can't be Australia. His shorts are too long. Can't be Amurrka either. There isn't twelve inches of wood chips on the ground. That thing is a C4 injury waiting to happen.

[Scented Nectar]

Anyways, I have to ask. What are those bushes behind you growing in the sandy looking soil?

Erm, est not moi, despite microscopic similarities in species of scabies on the legs.
That piccy was from the random interwebs, and by the look of the singularly spiky bushes, is almost definitely snapped in Africa.
Not Australia.

Oh, never mind then. I guess you can't tell me if they have fragrant flowers in that case.

Not sure if I've ever seen a close up of your face. Excuse my mistaking you for that other scabie-legged guy. Oh no! Now, by power of suggestion, I'm going to be itchy all day! Argh!

[clownshoe]

Trigger Warning: Plastic is no protection from Cemeteries
Full Frontal Zealotry episode 15 is out:
http://everdense.com/ffz/
#FFZ #Atheist

[Hunt]

Looks like it was the Rushkies. Damn you, Brezhnev*.

*This update: Brezhnev is dead. He died approximately 31 years ago. More later.

[windy]

Ok, here Half Fish says that being a settler means that "Your blood relations DO NOT TRACE BACK to the first people on the land on which you live" now, from my limited knowledge of natural history, doesn't that include everybody who doesn't currently live in Africa?

I do, but I suspect that doesn't "count" for some reason or another... Is there a "right of return"? Where can I claim my ancestral Homo sapiens sapiens hunting grounds?

And, as ThreeFlangedJavis reminded, African groups have also "settled" areas inhabited by other African groups during their history. Same as on other continents, there are almost always multiple waves of migration to any given area, so everyone is a "settler" to some extent (not to mention other human subspecies which we displaced and occasionally interbred with). Andaman Islanders and Polynesians might have the best claim of actually being mostly descended from the first people on the land on which they live.

[Dilurk]

I'm a little surprised that the FBI couldn't generate clearer images from the cameras with current tech.

I kept yelling 'ZOOM! Now... ENHANCE!!' at my computer. It did nothing. Mac piece of crap...

:P

[youtube]Vxq9yj2pVWk[/youtube]

[youtube]3uoM5kfZIQ0[/youtube]

Actually, 'Castle' got it right.

[youtube]PaMdXjTn9rc[/youtube]

[Dilurk]

"corneal imaging" is possible up to a point. It all depends on how many pixels you have.

http://petapixel.com/2012/08/17/great-s ... eal-thing/

I've done similar with one shot of a bird I took. Those of you who know my flickr can find it easily enough.

[BarnOwl]

Looks like it was the Rushkies. Damn you, Brezhnev*.

*This update: Brezhnev is dead. He died approximately 31 years ago. More later.

Suspects are brothers from Chechnya - one died from gunshot and shrapnel wounds at the hospital, and the other is at large in Watertown.

If true, they are quite literally Caucasians. Of course the Fox News headlines on the Google News feed emphasize the "foreign" aspect.

[Hunt]

Caucasian, but Muslim, and unfortunately that's going to be quite enough to feed everyone's paranoia.

[Cunning Punt]

No, it can't be Australia. His shorts are too long. Can't be Amurrka either. There isn't twelve inches of wood chips on the ground. That thing is a C4 injury waiting to happen.

Those monkey bars come with their own GPS, over on the right.

[Tigzy]

Caucasian, but Muslim, and unfortunately that's going to be quite enough to feed everyone's paranoia.

Hmmm. Privileged white folk who follow an oppressed brown-people's religion. That's gonna get the SJWs in stew.

[Apples]

We asked Rebecca Watson about how she got started as a public speaker, why she only speaks at events with 35% women speakers and an anti-harassment policy, and what her dream speaking engagement would be.

http://adainitiative.org/2013/04/rebecc ... ks-anyway/

[decius]

Caucasian, but Muslim, and unfortunately that's going to be quite enough to feed everyone's paranoia.

Unfortunately my arse. Islam must be recognised for the ideology of hate and extreme divisiveness that it is. Did you expect them to be Druids, by any chance?

[Some Lurker]

Caucasian, but Muslim, and unfortunately that's going to be quite enough to feed everyone's paranoia.

Unfortunately my arse. Islam must be recognised for the ideology of hate and extreme divisiveness that it is. Did you expect them to be Druids, by any chance?

Source? Sunil was a philosophy student. So probably an atheist.

[Remick]

FBI releasing those Boston photos is a bit of a troll considering that the races of the perpetrators are hard to determine from them. Anyone with a particular axe to grind has concluded immediately that they are X ethnicity. People are now bickering over whether maybe black cap is Korean and white cap is Iranian. Ridiculous.

I suppose they should only release photos of suspects who are "really white", "clearly black", or "unmistakably asian". :roll:

In other news, one of them is now dead, and there is a crazy manhunt going on today. (I live nearby).

[decius]

Caucasian, but Muslim, and unfortunately that's going to be quite enough to feed everyone's paranoia.

Unfortunately my arse. Islam must be recognised for the ideology of hate and extreme divisiveness that it is. Did you expect them to be Druids, by any chance?

Source? Sunil was a philosophy student. So probably an atheist.

Bollocks.

[Tigzy]

@Some Lurker

What, you mean a philosophy student like Alvin Plantinga must have been at one time?

[Dick Strawkins]

We asked Rebecca Watson about how she got started as a public speaker, why she only speaks at events with 35% women speakers and an anti-harassment policy, and what her dream speaking engagement would be.

http://adainitiative.org/2013/04/rebecc ... ks-anyway/

Q. Popular speakers usually have a list of requirements for speaking at an event (a.k.a. speaker rider). Yours includes two unusual requirements: an anti-harassment policy, and 35% women speakers. Why did you add these?

Anti-harassment policies just make sense. I’ve heard from many women who have told me they’d feel safer at a conference that has one; the only people I’ve heard who hate them are the people who harass me online, so it seemed like an easy call. I want to support conferences that are inclusive and welcoming to women and minorities, and that’s one very easy way they can do that.

I’ve also seen that the more women who speak on stage, the more women show up in the audience. People feel more at home when they see people like them in prominent positions. Because the conferences I attend are usually heavily male-dominated, having a minimum of 1/3 female speakers is another easy way that conference organizers can show they place a high value on diversity. 35% is actually ridiculously low considering women are 51% of the population, but then, I’ve always been pretty easy-going. Despite the rumors. Next year I may up it to 40% and add a “non-white” percentage for fun.

She seems to have no thought's whatsoever that having quotas for representation on speakers panels is not simply a question of addition.
You don't get more a higher proportion of women by simply adding one more woman to the list.
You also need to drop a man from the list.
And the really arrogant point from her is the complete assumption that she can "add a "non-white" percentage for fun" (not because non-whites have anything interesting to say, but "for fun"!) - and still confidently expecting to be speaking herself. It might come as a shock to her, but Rebecca, you are white yourself!
Increasing the percentage of non-white speakers at conferences means that there must be a corresponding drop in the percentage of white speakers - the category to which you belong!
What makes her think that she is excluded from this?
:think:

[Some Lurker]

Caucasian, but Muslim, and unfortunately that's going to be quite enough to feed everyone's paranoia.

Unfortunately my arse. Islam must be recognised for the ideology of hate and extreme divisiveness that it is. Did you expect them to be Druids, by any chance?

Source? Sunil was a philosophy student. So probably an atheist.

Bollocks.

My mistake I thought Bommer #2 was some guy named Sunil Tripathi.
Boston Police just confirmed its Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

[Hunt]

Caucasian, but Muslim, and unfortunately that's going to be quite enough to feed everyone's paranoia.

Unfortunately my arse. Islam must be recognised for the ideology of hate and extreme divisiveness that it is. Did you expect them to be Druids, by any chance?

After everything else Islam has delivered to us, this isn't going to push more than a few more people into sudden epiphany that Islam is evil. If lack of global public goodwill was going to put a dent in Islam, it would have done it decades ago. No, I'll tell you what this is going to do: more renditions to Gitmo, more drone strikes and more airport groping.

[bovarchist]

You know, I thought he looked familiar...

http://www.vanden-eykel.com/minchinpuberty.jpg

[Remick]

Caucasian, but Muslim, and unfortunately that's going to be quite enough to feed everyone's paranoia.

Unfortunately my arse. Islam must be recognised for the ideology of hate and extreme divisiveness that it is. Did you expect them to be Druids, by any chance?

Source? Sunil was a philosophy student. So probably an atheist.

Plenty of philosophy students are religious. Often they are trying to figure out which religion they will follow.

[BarnOwl]

Stay safe, Remick!

From the Boston Globe:

The city of Cambridge awarded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a $2,500 scholarship toward college in 2011, according to The Boston Globe. The scholarships were for students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, part of the Cambridge public school system.

I predict that this one small fact is going to hurt many completely innocent individuals who are simply seeking an education in the US and prospects for a better future wherever they may choose to live.

I hope that I will be proven very wrong.

[Submariner]

Unfortunately, there is actually a definition that sort of supports that argument - at a stretch:

mi•nor•i•ty
n. pl. mi•nor•i•ties
1.
a. The smaller in number of two groups forming a whole.
b. A group or party having fewer than a controlling number of votes.
2.
a. A racial, religious, political, national, or other group thought to be different from the larger group of which it is part.
b. A group having little power or representation relative to other groups within a society.
c. A member of one of these groups.

There’s something badly fucked in the idea of allowing definitions to words that are antithetical to core ideas inherent or manifested by the other ones: "from a contradiction, anything follows". Sort of like giving one definition for “rape” as “the nicest thing one person can do for another” ….

In a democracy I would argue that even the underlined definition does not apply to women (in the USA and Canada for example) as the political power is exerted at the voting booth. Were women to unite behind a candidate, that candidate would win, period.

[Dave]

Caucasian, but Muslim, and unfortunately that's going to be quite enough to feed everyone's paranoia.

Unfortunately my arse. Islam must be recognised for the ideology of hate and extreme divisiveness that it is. Did you expect them to be Druids, by any chance?

Source? Sunil was a philosophy student. So probably an atheist.

Plenty of philosophy students are religious. Often they are trying to figure out which religion they will follow.

Well, its pretty clear these two fucks are Islamic. From the Grey Lady's article on them:

Both brothers have substantial presence on social media. On Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular social media platform, the younger brother, Dzhokhar, describes his worldview as “Islam” and, asked to identify “the main thing in life,” answers “career and money.” He lists a series of affinity groups relating to Chechnya, and lists a verse from the Koran, “Do good, because Allah loves those who do good.”

The older brother left a record on YouTube of his favorite clips, which included Russian rap videos, as well as testimonial from a young ethnic Russian man titled “How I accepted Islam and became a Shiite,” a clip titled “Seven Steps to Successful Prayer.”

Shrug. Ive known fuckeeedupppeeed Christians (and atheists) and very sweet and kind Muslims. Some **people** are fucked up. At the moment, for various reasons, there is a strain of thought that appeals to fucked up Muslims that makes Merica out as the enemy, so the fucked up people that stand out to us are often Islamic. IOW, sampling bias.

[Southern]

I muste reluctantly agree, despite the insane dictatorialle tone he takeseeeeeeee. Anythinge otherre than that is verye hardde on the eyeseeeee. Eeeeeeeee.

No, really, it is. Anyone using PaintShop Pro X5? All colour choices for the menu areas were designed by a sadist. I'm certain of that.

Sure, good contrast between the text color and BG color is a given. But the thing is, that's not what Dr. Proffeeeeeeee said. He went out of his wayee to sayee that people should use solid black (#000) and white. Which it, by itself, a sound choice for coloring (ha, sound choice for coloring, geddit?), but it's not even what FTB uses - they use #2c2b2b, a dark gray shade (hahaha, shade of grey, geddit? One more amazing joke like this and Ed Brayton will pick me to write a blog, I'm sure).

So, by his own conviction, himself, PZ, Ed, Ophelia et. al should go die in a fire. I hope you enjoy barbecues, Profee

[Lsuoma]

Caucasian, but Muslim, and unfortunately that's going to be quite enough to feed everyone's paranoia.

Unfortunately my arse. Islam must be recognised for the ideology of hate and extreme divisiveness that it is. Did you expect them to be Druids, by any chance?

Source? Sunil was a philosophy student. So probably an atheist.

Oh, FFS. Don't be dense. Look up Jonathan Wells and Michael Behe.

[Lsuoma]

Two Little Boys, eh?

Nice one, Rolf!

[Gefan]

Looks like it was the Rushkies. Damn you, Brezhnev*.

*This update: Brezhnev is dead. He died approximately 31 years ago. More later.

Suspects are brothers from Chechnya - one died from gunshot and shrapnel wounds at the hospital, and the other is at large in Watertown.

If true, they are quite literally Caucasians. Of course the Fox News headlines on the Google News feed emphasize the "foreign" aspect.

Given the eagerness of the "Fox News Nation" to pick a fight with the Russians over the last few years, it'll be interesting to see how they spin the Chechen connection.
Since the Russians have an even bigger and less solvable problem with Jihadis than does the US, Roger Ailes' minions may finally figure out that Putin's government is conservative, nationalist, and deeply in bed with the christian church. That is to say, they're basically Republicans except, unlike actual Republicans, United Russia is actually fairly good at governing.

[Dick Strawkins]

Two Little Boys, eh?

Nice one, Rolf!

I dread to think what 'Jake the peg' was really about...

[decius]

After everything else Islam has delivered to us, this isn't going to push more than a few more people into sudden epiphany that Islam is evil. If lack of global public goodwill was going to put a dent in Islam, it would have done it decades ago. No, I'll tell you what this is going to do: more renditions to Gitmo, more drone strikes and more airport groping.

Renditions to Gitmo are an abomination, but drone strikes are an effective mean of countering the proliferation of islamic paramilitary groups, which are known to inspire and finance terror operations in the West. Their existence and capability to inflict damage cannot simply be swept under the carpet.
Once in a while horrible mistakes are made, but that's the nature of chaotic situations such as armed conflicts. Compared to dumber and less precise weapons, drones have the advantage of not putting the lives of military personnel at risk.

Let me be clear: I do not like war and I believe that a large proportion of past conflicts could and should have been avoided.

Yet, I still have to hear an objection to drone strikes which isn't purely emotional or informed by blanket pacifism, or by some other utopia which forgets that not all wars are unjustified or intrinsically immoral.
Sometimes one has to read gems of journalism like this one, quote-mining for moral outrage, and ultimately whining about drones killing not just senior Al-Qaeda, but also... wait for it... rank-and-file terrorists.

Questions: What is the nature of your objection to drone strikes? What kind of alternative solution do you suggest in order to prevent these gentlemen for plotting to submit the world to a global caliphate by means of terror?

[decius]

Sorry, I forgot the link.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/a ... rs/274835/

[decius]

I meant subjugate, not submit. Coffee...

[windy]

Renditions to Gitmo are an abomination, but drone strikes are an effective mean of countering the proliferation of islamic paramilitary groups, which are known to inspire and finance terror operations in the West. Their existence and capability to inflict damage cannot simply be swept under the carpet.

By what measure do you conclude they are "effective"?

CIA drone attacks are counter-productive as they kill civilians and rescue workers and increase recruitment by militant groups, a new report concludes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... lians.html