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The Rational Response Squad is a group of atheist activists who impact society by changing the way we view god belief. This site is a haven for those who are pushing back against the norm, and a place for believers of gods to have their beliefs exposed as false should they want to try their hand at confronting us.
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NO he doesn't.....
There is a lot of Obama hating going on in this forum. (Post above me for example?)
I for one think he is doing an excellent job so far with the mess he started office in.
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
I think i'll second that...
So far he's played his cards well, and any issues that arise are of a direct result of Bush... so Obamas sitting golden, for now
What Would Kharn Do?
Signature ? How ?
Oh no..they've drank the Obamalade!
INGREDIENTS: massacres in Gaza, Rick Warren, escalation of the Afghanistan war, Hillary Clinton, bailout of big business, Rahm Emanuel, blaming Black people for problems the system inflicts on them, "coming together" with those who hate gay people, Robert Gates, whitewashing torture by the Bush regime, and the Patriot Act.
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Obamalade causes massive loss of life in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Pakistan and many other countries; continued attacks on Black people, women, immigrants, gays & lesbians; political cowardice that is dangerous to the health of humanity. If, after drinking Obamalade, you find yourself accepting the crimes of this system -- you should immediately take 2 doses of reality and report to the nearest movement of resistance against these crimes.
Absolutely...
Personally, I would have preference another 10 terms of GWB (hypothtically). Americns deserved him. Actually, Americns deserved alot more of him and his assholes.
All Obama will bring is a slow death.
What's needed is radical change, and for that to happen many more Americans need to share in the pain of those that GWB, Clinton, Reagan, and GB1 destroyed.
Okay; I cannot and have no wish to defend Obama's orthodox theism bias (and associated decisions), or his assistance in covering Bush/Cheney for no good reason, however:
- Gaza was an IDF affair. Obama has no jurisdiction in Israel, has been much firmer than either of his two predecessors with Israel, did not condone the attack (unlike Stephen Harper *cough*) and has repeatedly demanded that Israel cease building settlements. Israel simply is not listening to the U.S. right now.
- Afghanistan is a necessary military front right now. The Taliban are a real threat to the region and if they can be kept pushed to a few isolated territories (like South Waziristan), the local militaries of Persian Gulf states that are smelling blood (like Pakistan) will eliminate them for everyone's future benefit.
- The entire financial system would've crashd without outside intervention. No ands, ifs or buts. It may very well crash anyway due to inflation, but at least it is not 100% guaranteed to fail now. There was actually an electronic 'run' on the banks, and if it hadn't been plugged-up, they'd have toppled like so many dominoes. Obama has been trying to play it smart, let's put it that way; he's surrounded himself with financial experts (like Warren Buffet) and is mostly just listening to them. It seems arrogant/ignorant, but I think of it somewhat like any other situation where an expert simply needs to be heeded over the beliefs and opinions of the mob (there is a dying man you who's life you are trying to save, but you're unsure what to do. You have at your disposal the advice of a medical doctor, who is instructing you of a surgical procedure he wants you to attempt, and the advice of the man's family, who insist on a simple naturopathic remedy. Which advice do you rely on?)
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Absolute bullshit to the nth degree!!!
Obomber is the leader of the empire. Obama could open his mouth and speak words that set in effect a chain of events that would halt funding to the genocidal terrorist state of Israel. Obama could do any number of actions to stop the genocide in Palestine, but his job is not to stop the genocide in Palestine rather to calm the outrage over such imperialist aggresion the world over while still implementing it.
The Taliban are in Afghanistan, that is their land. If you ask them what the number 1 thing that is pissing them off they'll tell you plain as day..get off our land the world over with your military and your businesspeople. The ruling class here paint it as if Islam is the root cause of aggression, and while Islam is definitely an evil religion, if you want it to be much more evil just keep doing the number 1 thing that they tell you they don't want you to do, attempting to exploit their land and people and destroy their culture. If you want to destroy Islam you are right for that, but giving Muslims food and assuring them against imperialist invasion would go a billion times further than giving them bullets. You know when a large portion of the Muslim world has had relatives killed and abused by USrael terrorists, it kind of alters perceptions and unfortunately people in Muslim countries tend to express their anger towards their oppressors by rallying around Islamic banners, because those are the interests of those who control the public opinion-molding machines there. In other places like Nepal, people are rallying around revolutionary banners that take a 100% scientific approach.
And your kill the Taliban attitude is that of a genocidal fascist. The Taliban are human beings who are products of their environment which is largely out of their control. If you want to get rid of the Taliban you have to alter the environment that produces them, killing them will simply make them stronger. When terrorists kill your family you don't forget for generations to come.
It'll be a glorious day when capitalism crashes and the dictators squeal. Without a political party with proper vision taking control of state power and of the public opinion-molding machine however, the horrendous system of capitalism will be restored.
We should take the advice of those who're richest on what to do about the economy? I imagine you think the way humanity will thrive is if the rich can just get a little more money in their pockets to share with us, exploit the Earth and it's inhabitants a little more, create a few more jobs where those who own the means to produce needed and desired goods can systematically steal from more of the workers who are the ones who actually produce the wealth...yeah all that and humanity will be thriving. The last thing humanity needs is to listen to the very ruling class dictators that has led us to this horrendous condition in which we are far more than capable of producing enough food and shelter for all, but people still die of malnutrition and the overwhelming majority must enter into degrading and exploitative relationships just at having a shot to live.
So no, I don't rely on a surgeon who has butchered the majority of their patients and been very kind to a select few. You've got to apply the scientific method to find answers, capitalism is clearly a failed hypothesis if your goal is to have a system that places humanity above all other. Capitalism inevitably and unavoidably leads to their being those in society who think stacking cash is more important than humanity.
I have full admiration for the fact that BHO can put out a message of condolance to Michael Jackson's family in minutes and has to think about Iran's despotic behavior towards its own people for a few weeks.
I realize the situations are vastly different, but come on!
How can not believing in something that is backed up with no empirical evidence be less scientific than believing in something that not only has no empirical evidence but actually goes against the laws of the universe and in many cases actually contradicts itself? - Ricky Gervais
Well as a vet all I can say is that there are still troops over there getting blown up, and for what? When are they coming home like he said at the beginning of his campaign.
"Take all the heads of the people
and hang them up before the Lord
against the sun.” -- Numbers 25:4
I understand the logistics are not such that we can teleport all the troops home, which is a shame. Once we leave the power vacuum will destroy the place and all those lives and dollars will have gone for naught. Sickening, but the Middle East will always be a cesspool whilst islam is considered a moral compass.
Just finished reading 'The Forever War' by Dexter Filkins which is a harrowing account of life in Iraq from a journalists POV.
Thank you for your service, Tenbears!
How can not believing in something that is backed up with no empirical evidence be less scientific than believing in something that not only has no empirical evidence but actually goes against the laws of the universe and in many cases actually contradicts itself? - Ricky Gervais
They're not going home at all. The wars are being expanded. Didn't you hear, war is the new peace? You should be happy to die under such peaceful conditions.
There are twists of time and space, of vision and reality, which only a dreamer can divine
H.P. Lovecraft
Then I guess we have an answer to the question posed by Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?
No one.....
How can not believing in something that is backed up with no empirical evidence be less scientific than believing in something that not only has no empirical evidence but actually goes against the laws of the universe and in many cases actually contradicts itself? - Ricky Gervais
*Blinks*
...The... wha?
Okay, seriously. Read less Noam Chomsky. America is not 'TEH EMPIRE!!!'; and Imperial state and military doctrine is not possible in contemporary times. The United States could just barely win a guerrilla war in the Persian gulf, much less aggressively expand it's borders and take over other industrialized countries (...not that they would even want to at this point in time, thanks to globalization).
What could Obama do, specifically, to stop Israel from building settlements? Declare war on them? That'd be a happy ending.
The US has repeatedly asked Israel to stop. They won't. So your whole theory is just dead wrong; if Obama could just open his mouth and make everyone join hands, they already would've.
Also: ...Genocide? The systematic killing of a specific ethnic group? Where is this happening in Palestine, pray tell? The IDF is pretty careless about where it's JSOWs end up exploding and are pretty callous when it comes to collateral damage in Gaza, but it's not like Palestinian arabs are being rounded-up in trucks and shipped off to the gas chambers. The message Israel wants to deliver is pretty clear - every time Hamas kills an Israeli citizen, the IDF will kill a few thousand Palestinians. Tit for tat, as it were. Maybe you don't agree with that (me neither), but it's not 'genocide' by a mile.
Ho. Lee. Fuck.
According to Adolf Hitler, all of the world was his. I guess the Allies should've just laid down and let him have it, eh?
The Taliban are monsters. They impose Sharia law on everyone in their domain, meaning that women are legally considered property and must, under pain of death via stoning, simply sit and accept any abuse thrown their way. Damn right it's about time someone came and upset their apple cart.
They are not 'products of their environment'. They created their environment. Many Arabian countries have modernized and moved forward with the world.
Oh dear.
I don't like capitalism, but believe me - it won't be the dictators squealing when we lose the infrastructure that's been keeping our population at it's bloated level. Do you honestly believe it'll be all sunshine and rainbows after the Walmarts and Safeways have tanked and been left as looted ruins, the power is all out and the water from your tap is an odd brown tint? Is that what you'd describe as the day your ship came in?
Yes, we should take the advice of people like Warren Buffet as far as what we should do to get an economy back in the black. He obviously knows what he is doing in that arena. The aspersions you're casting on the character of all wealthy people are bizarre at best; you really think Mr. Buffet is some malicious sociopath?
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
It'll take books worth of text to get you caught up on a proper understanding of the nature of imperialism, but I'm going to try my best to do it as briefly as possible here.
Okay first and irrelevant to this, I don't like Chomsky. Chomsky is a liberal (one of the better ones, but still disgusting), I'm a Maoist. I agree with a lot of what Chomsky says, but some of his views are completely unscientific.
Okay imperialism, the highest/last stage of capitalism, you must understand that that armed force is merely the last head of the imperialist dragon. Imperialism is spread by use of the public opinion-molding machine most often. Imperialists wear business suits and go over to other countries and use their elevated status to control societies and destroy cultures. They may not directly control the government of foreign countries, but the second the companies hit a snag in their money flow that comes from the exploitation of the Earth and it's people, what happens is the imperialists begin using their money to fund those in those countries who oppose whatever is preventing the businesses from exploiting the people as much as they'd like, they get on TV, write newspaper articles etc.. denouncing whatever is in their way and seeing as the poor people who are victims of these criminals don't own TV stations etc.. to compete to mold the public's opinion, nor could we ever compete with the amount of funds they have in any way to advance our position equally while playing the capitalism game, so usually that's enough right there to allow them to have a firm grip on production relations and every aspect of society is wrapped up in that. In some cases the people wisen up to the point that the ruling class dictators have to use their public-opinion molding machine elsewhere in the world to purchase the behavior of US military terrorists for instance to go slaughter the poor people in other countries because their public opinion-molding machines have failed their.
"The ideas of any age are the ideas of the ruling class." - This is a paraphrase of one of Marx's most powerful and informative statements. In most cases you're getting the facts about things as they are reported to you by the ruling class, who will always report them with their interests in mind. If those who they fund to speak for them don't then they quickly get put in check...they lose theirs.
If Obama were to get on a camera tomorrow and say "You know we've been pursuing the wrong line about Israel, Israel is a genocidal terrorist state who systematically violates people's human rights and has been doing so for years, and I think it's time we strip all funding, recall our staff from there, take back what weapons that we've given them that we can, and place a strict embargo on them." A simple statement like that would open the debate wide open, and after Obama's funeral sometime (murdered by the people he's a spokesperson for), after the public's awareness has been raised it'd drastically change the situation in Palestine. Israel must be isolated as the terrorist state that it is to stop the cycle of violence. Israel doesn't have the means to take on the most of the Muslim world by itself.
It is genocide. Speak to almost any IDF terrorist is all you have to do to know that. But if you don't want to call coming into people's homeland and driving them off of their land and then systematically murdering/imprisoning them every time they air their grievances then don't call it that, but you spit in the face of humanity by attempting to whitewash the crimes of the genocidal terrorist state of Israel that has no right to even exist. It, like the USA, is a terrorist nation founded upon genocide heavily influenced by holy text. Surely you don't excuse the genocide of the Native Americans too do you?
Wow, can we approach things scientifically here? You're comparing the Taliban in Afghanistan to the Nazi regime? Let us go to the facts if they matter to you at all: The Taliban is a group mainly formed as a response to US imperialism who want nothing more than for the US to remove it's influence in their land! This is a secular request. Now if after the US imperialists leave their land and it's clear that the situation is defused, and after that they start acting like imperialists themselves, going into others lands and using their elevated status to exploit the Earth and people, and then if we don't let them they start killing us....then we have an enemy that needs crushed.
Nazi Germany was imperialist. They had the stated goal of taking over the world militarily in the name of their ideology which obviously did not put humanity above all other like the ideology I advocate. Some Muslims have this "take over the world" attitude as well, as do some Christians, but the difference is that they mean that they're trying to win in the world of ideas (everyone is), they're not talking about murdering everyone else. I don't think anyone has ever been converted by being murdered. Sure there are Muslims who have adopted very unscientific approaches to dealing with the oppression they face, but the only variable that we control in that equation is the oppression. As I've stated, and is in better words here by Bob Avakian:
And we are ALL, every single person, every single thing, products of our environment 100%. I'd be interested in anything other than just a declaration that you believe this is not true. The blog linked here should help convince you that you're not taking a scientific approach on this. Perhaps you're not going on the correct definition of environment, each person's environment has been different even if they grew up next door to each other. Your environment is everything that makes up your surroundings.
I think Islam is disgusting, and long for the day of it's demise at the highest possible levels one can, but that doesn't stop me from accepting scientific truths about these issues. You'll never murder enough Taliban to make them forget that you did it. You might murder them down to there almost nothing, but you better believe those who you leave will have a story to tell others that'll rally Islam like you've never seen it. You're really playing with humanity's future and without taking a scientific approach to these things you're going to end up causing more harm in the world than the good that you're trying to do.
What if David Mills went nuts and blew up a church or something and wishing to further capitalize on this the ruling class arranged a few more "atheist" attacks and then started cracking down on atheism calling us terrorists, plucking up a few of us atheists, agnostics, and deists putting us in jail for being atheists, and then when we aired our grievances about that, they arrested more of us, and before long bullets were flying from both sides and they'd killed a large portion of us... the rest of us, having had our loved ones ruthlessly murdered by an empire are not going to to roll over and forget about it. We'd possibly go over to Italy or something and our story would rally the masses against the empire even more. And you can say, but Islam is wrong and we're right!, but THEY don't think so and that is what matters as relates to the cycle of violence.
Man, it'll be best if you don't try to state what I believe other than going on my words here. I usually have to clean up a whole huge pile of straw by the end of my conversations on these subjects with people. I know my ideas are not known to many in the USA and are hard to grasp for some who're products of the public opinion-molding machine here, but as one who is a former Christian turned atheist activist and who had a profound awakening when that happened, that awakening is miniscule in comparison to the awakening I had after having engaged these ideas myself. So I ask that you bear with me here in the same way that you'd wish for a theist to listen to your ideas presented to them that sounds "out there" to them. These ideas aren't best conveyed quickly, rather they require foundational knowledge that needs built upon...back to hammering.
No, I don't think that it'll be nice at all when capitalism fails, and especially not without a political party with proper vision to take control of state power and the public opinion-molding machine, and even then there will be severe turbulence in society, violence all around, but what makes me long for that day is a scientific understanding of the nature of this system and what it will take to lead humanity out of this horrendous condition we are in today and put into place a system where goods are made for need rather than profit, a system that places humanity above all other, a system that guarantees a person's right to live is more important than property "rights." With the eventual goal of doing away with all forms of class distinctions, ergo the underlying social antagonisms.
And as for your envisioning of brown tap water if the ruling class don't get their way is absurd. We humans are capable of more than you think without having a wad of cash in our pocket. If there's no water where I live, best believe the problem is going to get worked on whether some rich person wants to give me a little of the money they make off my work for it or not.
I'd never shop at either of the places you mentioned, but if they're closed, seeing as I've grown up poor like the majority of humanity, I'll be just fine. If you seek the American way (the selfish way) then I can see where your whole world might be crumbling before you and that'll make a huge smile on the face of all the exploited masses of conscious people on this planet.
Warren Buffet does know how to stack cash for the rich, and if that's your goal then you go to Warren Buffett. On the other hand if your interests are in emancipating all of humanity from the dictatorship of the capitalist ruling class then you'll rightly brand Warren Buffett and any possessing anything approaching about 1/100,000,000?th or so of his wealth as enemies of humanity. To sit back idly with money in hand well beyond what it takes you to secure your survival while children in our world die of hunger and treatable illness, is a crime against humanity worthy of harsh punishment. People like Warren Buffet would have their properties seized and given rights just like everyone else in a Maoist run society, but if they attempted to exploit anyone ever again they'd face jail.
, - Israel from building settlements,declare war on them ? Let's get real here Kev,nobody is saying such nonsense,but there are a few things that we could do that I know of, No.1 stop sending Israel a billion dollars a year (U.S. foreign assistance) the largest recipient in over 30 years.No.2 Stop arming Israel with superior weapons www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3387. Put sanctions on Israel,if we were serious about the current events,I'm sure that we could do even more without going to war with Israel. And before this absurdity you say that "Read less Noam Chomsky.America is not 'TEH EMPIRE' , I really disagree with this statement,Chomsky is not (by far) the only scholar to say that the US is a "Failed State",you got former CIA station chief John Stockwell www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Stockwell/John_Stockwell.html , Ray McGovern-former CIA analyst,and de-briefer for two US presidents. and of course John Perkins who wrote "Confessions of an Economic Hit-Man " and "A Secret History of the American Empire:economic hit-men,jackals(CIA) and the truth about Global Corruption " www.johnperkins.org/
Signature ? How ?
Not only are American taxpayers forced to fund Israeli crimes, They're forced to fund Israeli crimes against other Americans. According to Reuters on June 30 the Israeli navy rammed and hijacked a ship in international waters carrying humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza they've been attempting to starve to death for the last two years. The ship was also carrying a former US congressman.
There are twists of time and space, of vision and reality, which only a dreamer can divine
H.P. Lovecraft