Belisarius

#rekt And tell me about it. Everything is so laggy on this page. Thanks Kurd

Congrats you guys

Thanks Sheepy!

Poor Cow

Here you go:

Should be an interesting war. May this become a bloody, protracted war

https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/32fvwm/til_the_us_paid_jizya_to_the_ottomans_until_the/ tl;dr - The money the United States paid to the Barbary states was meant to avoid North African pirates from pirating American merchant shipping. To confuse this with the jizya demonstrates both historical ignorance and a profound misunderstanding of what the jizya is.

I should also add that your argument in the OP constitutes a Tu quoque logical fallacy. Why? Because the atrocities committed by Western nations or the Syrian regime do not invalidate the atrocities of the Islamic State. The actions of the Islamic State are immoral by themselves. What another faction does does not invalidate that simple fact. Doesn't matter if the Syrian regime killed more people. That does not take away from the deaths committed by the Islamic State. Intent matters. Why did the Islamic State kill those civilians? Because they weren't true believers? Yezidis? Atheists? Homosexuals? "Traitors?" Again, what you're doing here is saying: "Yeah the Islamic State kills people...but so does the West!!!" without grappling with whether the Islamic State is justified in killing the people that it does. All lives are equal. But it's understandable why events nearer to Westerners would garner more attention. In much the same way I'd be more interested if a flood struck my hometown than say in another state, so would I care more if Paris was attacked than Kabul. Paris is in the Western cultural imagination; Kabul isn't. The same applies to those in Kabul and the rest of the Islamic world. It's understandable why they'd care more about the Israel-Palestine conflict than the Zapatistas in Mexico, or atrocities in North Korean. Essentially, it's human nature. You may as well argue against gravity for all the good that'll do you. Now! Let me ask you: Do you lower the value of Yezidis than Muslims? Why or why not? And do you think the actions of the Islamic State against them - which IS trumpets and is proud of - is moral?

Yes, the Islamic State is morally evil for its genocidal campaign against the Yezidis. Let's distill this to its components, shall we? The Yezidis never harmed nor attacked the Islamic State The Yezidis are not complicit in the atrocities of Bashar al-Assad, nor the policies of the Iraqi government. Further, the Yezidis are a ethnoreligious group very much on the margins of Syrian, Iraqi, and Middle Eastern society. The Yezidis suffer from greater poverty and discrimination than their Sunni Arab and Turcoman neighbors. Now, let's just talk about this. The Islamic State can continue its operations against Assad, the Iraqi government, and everyone else without committing genocide. Without committing child rape. Without enslavement. Without murdering and harming a single Yezidi. And yet, they have. And they've done so with gusto, enthusiasm as they murder men, women, and children. This cannot be denied, nor sidestepped. By committing a genocidal campaign against the Yezidis, the Islamic State is on par with all other genocidal regimes in history. Such a regime must be destroyed and eliminated from the face of the Earth. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/12/yes-the-islamic-states-attacks-on-the-yazidis-are-a-genocide-new-report-says/ http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/09/yazidi-women-rape-slave-islamic-state.html https://www.amnesty.org.uk/sites/default/files/escape_from_hell_-_torture_and_sexual_slavery_in_islamic_state_captivity_in_iraq_-_english_2.pdf From the Islamic State's magazine Dabiq: Never mind that the non-existence of God makes Shariah law irrelevant. Any moral code that legitimizes slavery and child rape is immoral and is evil. Or are you going to disagree with that? Not the god bit, but on the immorality of slavery and child rape? The evils of the Assad regime does not offset the evils of the Islamic State. Period.

Everything is better with tacos!

Neat! Thanks Sheepy! As an aside, everyone is so tiny around me :3

It was a thread on the absurd notion of "feminazis"...it was always crap What? The graphic doesn't say that. It mocks the suggestion that the victim is to blame. You yourself acknowledge that, lol.

If you acknowledge that: Rapists are to blame for rapes That this is not in dispute ...what is the point of your objection? That women shouldn't go out and do things like men? That women should live under the fear of being rape? You say the graphic is bullshit, but the reason you give are incoherent. If you don't dispute that rapists are to blame, what are you objecting to? That certain situations increases the likelihood of rape? No shit, as FoxFire said, you can say the same thing about car accidents. My response to you was on your notion that this is due to people going to parties and drinking spiked drinks, or walking alone - a statement you said that the statistics bear out. The statistics I posted (derived from the US Department of Justice) showed that the majority of rapists are someone that knows the victim, either their SO, friend, acquaintance, or relative. That is, not the scenario you imagined above. And even if this were not the case, you have not said anything that would indicate that the graphic is incorrect. You even acknowledge it was correct and "indisputable!" So what is your point? Rapists are to blame entirely for their rapes, regardless of the victim's gender, beliefs, conduct, situation, time, or location. The victim is blameless. I mean, if you can't agree to that, there really isn't any hope for you >_>

Eh, no. The majority of rapists rape someone they know or are acquitted with. It's far more likely to happen at home than the stereotypical scenarios you outlined above. Besides, the blame lies with the rapists, not the victims. I don't know why this is even in dispute.

^ Not that subtle ._.

Welcome back

Cheaper to be sure But good luck on your forum-free future!

Glad to see this done

Congrats!

Yep. I'm pretty sure there are more Mexicans than bloody Lithuanians

Oh, I meant Episode VIII. But yeah, non-episodic movies like Star Wars: Rogue One are going to be shown in-between the formal episodes. So you're right, Star Wars is Star Wars. Yay \o/

Neat! Good luck to both Alpha and Fark

It's all a matter of one's taste and needs. If someone is happy with Ubuntu or OS X or Windows 10, more power to them.

Pirates are gonna pirates. Congrats Arrgh o/

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, probably gonna watch it again this week. The casting was great, and BB-8 won my heart. I did not like that this plot of the movie - secret plans, evil henchmen, giant planet destroyer - is the same plot as Episode IV and VI. But that's a minor quibble. Two more years until the next one \o/