American hostage decapitated by al-Qaida--I hope Dan Rather is happy

[GWB]

[ QUOTE ]
Does that make Churchill sub-human, after all alot of Dresden residents were children. What about Truman, he decided to destroy a city not once but twice. Nietzsche might have considered these thugs supermen and Machiavelli would no doubt have admired their singleminded will to perform such atrocities for political gain.

The fact is they are just human beings like you and me. Man has tortured and murdered from the beginning of time. This is not new. These people are not new. And your arrogance isn't new.

[/ QUOTE ]
The motives of these men do matter. Neither Truman nor Churchill were out to just kill a lot of people, but rather to bring a war against aggressors to a speedy end at the lowest cost in suffering possible (recognizing that they are human and imperfect decision makers).

To try and end such a war does not sound like "commiting atrocities for political ends" to me. A true atrocity is a crime committed without a moral compass that is based upon true human goodwill.

[MMMMMM]

No, Superleeds, depraved killers are NOT human beings just like you and me.

Yes, man has tortured and murdered from time immemorial, that is, SOME men have, others haven't. Truly, I often feel that humanity is divided between people who empathize with others and people who don't. That might be the great divider: greater than physical attributes, perhaps greater even than intelligence.

Some people are apparently incapable of empathy, whereas others possess it in varying degrees. Those who completely lack empathy, but instead possess great cruelty, are indeed less than human in the most meaningful and important sense of the word. Otherwise we might just as well all be reptiles or something.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. (Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a similar pun using "Euphrates".)

[/ QUOTE ]

How about "You fraidies ain't just a river in Egypt?"

Or "The Euphrates makes strong men into ladies."

OK. These are not good. You were right not to try.

[Rushmore]

I especially like the way you cannot seem to mention the United States without mentioning Israel before ending the sentence.

It's like after 9-11, when we were told that the Arab terrorists attacked the US because they "hate our freedom." I found it curious that Israel got omitted from the conversation then.

I guess it's the same programming that brought us the ever-present, ever-absurd term Judeo-Christian ethic.

We're such a bunch of dupes, honestly.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
And your arrogance isn't new.

[/ QUOTE ]

He's not being arrogant. He's making an observation. If it seems like arrogance to you that he finds bloodlust and other abjectly base pasttimes to be less than that for which we might have been intended, well, I guess you two are simply on different sides of that particular aisle.

My theory is that we are simply a species in the most difficult stage of our evolution, and that there is some question as to whether or not we can see our way through the growing pains.

Recorded history is a relatively small sample, but all indications are that we are moving in the generally right direction.

If we survive, it might be a decent world someday.

[elwoodblues]

How about after 9/11 there was a widely held sentiment that we shouldn't explore how our international policies might have contributed toward terrorist attack (because then you are blaming America); but now we should blame Dan Rather for an act of barbarism.

Typical of the blame the media first crowd

[hetron]

that people in Iraq get their news from Dan Rather. Your argument MIGHT make sense if people in Iraq were watching CBS. However, we have no control of how many time Arab media outlets show the prison abuse pictures.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
How about after 9/11 there was a widely held sentiment that we shouldn't explore how our international policies might have contributed toward terrorist attack (because then you are blaming America); but now we should blame Dan Rather for an act of barbarism.

Typical of the blame the media first crow

[/ QUOTE ]

I have no recollection whatsoever of this "widely held sentiment." I do, however, recall asking myself, my friends, and my family why NOBODY on the wacky television box was making any mention of our little colony there in the Holy Land. I mean, it was as if God Himself had issued a memo expressly forbidding even hinting at the idea that our Inexplicable Israel Policy might have something to do with all of the bodies splashing onto the sidewalk and all of the weeping and death and misery and jet fuel immolation.

P.S. I don't think we're disagreeing, by the way, Elwood.

[elwoodblues]

[ QUOTE ]
P.S. I don't think we're disagreeing, by the way, Elwood.

[/ QUOTE ]

me either...and I sometimes (though rarely) reply to posts with which I agree.

[Chris Alger]

[ QUOTE ]
I consider quite a number of people to be subhuman

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't doubt this. My guess is that this applies to hundreds of millions.

[ QUOTE ]
Tell me truly, do you think these people were acting humanly, or more as beasts?

[/ QUOTE ]
They were acting in the fashion that you praise when your side does it.