Israel is as secular as Saudi Arabia.

And yet, people are free to worship in mosques, churches or Bahai temples. Jews can renounce their Judaism in favour of atheism there without a problem. Some convert to other faiths and do not suffer corporal or capital punishment for it.

Homosexuality/transgender is accepted. Freedom of sexuality is enshrined in Israeli law. In fact, gays/transgender from the Muslim world come to live in Israel as it is the only place in the area where this is accepted.

Religious law does not dominate society. Yes, Saturday is the day of rest and many shops are closed, but that is no different to Sundays in Italy.

Contrast that with Saudi Arabia run by Koran-citing Sharia Law.

Are there some religious nutters there, including those who believe homosexuality is a sin? I am sure there are, we have them right here too. But just like here, it is secular law that has the final say, not religious law.

Interestingly, Israel is the only country in the Middle East whose Christian population has not declined but increased in the last 50 years.

Israel is underpinned by the fact that it is a Jewish state, that's why it's there. But it accepts other faiths, atheism and apostasy. Laws are made by parliament which has little to do with faiths of any kind. (By the way, that parliament has Muslim, Arab MPs in it.)

Unlike Saudi Arabia but like Australia or Italy, women can, and do, dress any way they want and are in no way dominated by a patriarchal society that forbids them freedom of movement citing some hadith in the Koran.

Oh and responsibility for rape lies with the perpetrator, not the victim.

Sounds pretty secular to me. In fact, a lot more like Australia than you'd think. You can go and see for yourself or buy into myths that are promoted by people with agendas.

You can also get all this from Google, so you have no right to ignorance.

Israel is a country who is currently at war with an ethnicity of people PURELY because of their religion. This is NOT 'secular'.

To be fair it's not as if they're going out of their way to fight. If they really wanted to, they could annihilate everyone around them.

:lol: If they showed any significant aggression towards neighbouring countries they'd be wiped off the map faster than you can say "What do you mean antisemitic?"

Zionism. Look it up.

Given who stands on their shoulder I doubt that even the Arab League nations are that suicidal.

[

On what might have been her 44th wedding anniversary with John Lennon, peace activist Yoko Ono has tweeted a graphic reminder about gun violence in the United States – her photograph of Lennon's blood-stained glasses.

The 80-year-old artist repeatedly posted the picture with the message that "over 1,057,000 people have been killed by guns in the USA since John Lennon was shot and killed on 8 Dec 1980".

The same image appeared on the cover of her first solo album, Season of Glass, which was released in 1981 and had the songs Goodbye Sadness and I Don't Know Why.



She reminded her 3.6 million Twitter followers that "31,537 people are killed by guns in the USA every year".

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"We are turning this beautiful country into war zone," she wrote. "Together, let's bring back America, the green land of peace.

"The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. After 33 years our son Sean and I still miss him."


Ono's tweets come as one of the toughest and most vehemently opposed gun control bills is being formulated and debated in Congress.

This week the National Rifle Association claimed a significant victory after it was announced that the bill would not include a proposed ban on assault weapons.

Assault guns were used in the mass shooting sprees at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado.

Although many famous names have already lent their celebrity status to lobby for gun control after the massacres, Ono's name is the most synonymous with anti-violence messages.

Her latest exhibition War is Over! (If You Want It) comprises of five decades of art works centred around messages of peace, and was named after a poster made by Ono and Lennon, which first appeared in 1969 across public billboards in 12 cities worldwide.

The exhibition is due to open in Sydney for four months as part of the 2013–14 Sydney International Art Series, starting November 15.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/nothings-going-to-change-the-world-like-lennons-bloodstained-glasses-20130321-2ghlr.html#ixzz2OH6aAkJx_

You'd be surprised. The US aren't going to jeopardies their oil value by standing by Israeli aggression in a conflict that they could never hope to win.

Israel is hardly a "foothole in the middle east".

No more so than Iraq or Afghanistan would give them.

Freezing Britain's unusually harsh winter could have cost thousands of pensioners their lives.
This month is on track to be the coldest March for 50 years – and as the bitter Arctic conditions caused blackouts and traffic chaos yesterday, experts warned of an 'horrendous' death toll among the elderly.
About 2,000 extra deaths were registered in just the first two weeks of March compared with the average for the same period over the past five years.

And for February, 3,057 extra deaths were registered in England and Wales compared with the five-year average for the month.
Campaigners at Age UK, which says 26,000 people die needlessly in winter every year, said the current weather could prove deadly for thousands more.
Director general Michelle Mitchell said: 'Colder, harsher winters tend to lead to an increase in life-threatening conditions such as heart attacks and strokes which in turn leads to a high rate of excess winter deaths.

'For every one degree drop in average temperature, there are around 8,000 extra deaths.'
The Office for National Statistics said the extra death rate 'could be to do with the prolonged period of cold weather we've been experiencing.' But it cautioned that it was too early to make an absolute link. The March figures are still provisional.
Malcolm Booth, chief executive of the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners, said that last month almost 700 of his members had died, compared with 250 last year.
'If our membership is a representative sample that was replicated across the general population, then we could be looking at a horrendous number when all the figures are in,' he said.

'An increase in fuel costs and the extended winter means that more people are going to suffer, and more will be unable to afford to eat and heat their homes. It's a scary prospect.'
It is not just pensioners who are at risk. The body of a 27-year-old man who went missing while walking home from a night out was found in deep snow in farmland near Burnley, Lancashire, yesterday afternoon. Police said the man would not be named until all family members had been informed.
Chief Inspector Derry Crorken of Burnley Police said: 'Early indications suggest that it is a very tragic incident where a young man has been out with friends and has become caught up in the weather last night on his journey home.

'I would urge people to only go out if it is necessary.'
Blizzards and power cuts wreaked havoc across large parts of the country yesterday, leaving snowdrifts of up to 15ft in Cumbria and night-time temperatures plunging to -7C (19F) in the Pennines. Power lines were down in Northern Ireland, Scotland and North Wales, leaving 50,000 homes without electricity.
Ulster was hardest-hit, with 29,000 properties without power and 1,000 without water.
The transport network was also crippled. East Midlands, Leeds, Robin Hood (Doncaster) and Humberside Airports were all forced temporarily to close runways for snow and ice to be cleared.
Train services in the North-West were severely hit and even major roads were treacherous. In Cumbria 70 people were put up in a school after being stranded in their cars on the A595.

In North Wales, the Red Cross was brought in to transport vital medical staff to hospitals in 4x4 vehicles because the snow had made roads off limits to normal cars.
The M62 near Rochdale was closed for a time but gritters were out to ensure the route between Manchester and West Yorkshire remained open overnight.
Yesterday's sporting programme was also badly hit, with Northern Ireland's football World Cup qualifier against Russia called off for the second time in 24 hours as Belfast's Windsor Park was unplayable. Elsewhere, seven Football League games in the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North were cancelled and race meetings at Doncaster and Newbury were abandoned. Theme parks at Alton Towers and Drayton Manor Park closed, too.

The Environment Agency had 59 flood alerts in place last night, covering the Midlands, East Anglia, the south east and the south west.
Hundreds of schools were forced to close on Friday and many were expected to remain closed tomorrow, causing headaches for parents.
Weathermen forecast that the harsh conditions would gradually diminish over the coming week but a biting wind from the east would ensure temperatures remain at 4-6C (39-42F), well below the seasonal average of 11C (52F).
Greg Dewhurst of the Met Office said: 'While the rain, sleet and snow will peter out, it will still feel very cold because of strong easterly winds. The signals are that temperatures will start to return to normal after Easter.'
The weather is also taking its toll on retailers, especially fashion chains where spring lines are remaining on the racks. For DIY chains and garden centres, this is normally one of the most important months. But Mandy Murphy of the British Retail Consortium said: 'Bad weather could feed through to sales being poorer than hoped for over the big bank holiday weekend.'
It is all in stark contrast to the same time 12 months ago, when sunbathers swamped beaches as temperatures hit 22C (71F), sparking fears of a possible drought.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2298246/UKs-coldest-spring-1963-claims-5-000-lives-Pensioners-worst-affected--experts-say-final-toll-horrendous.html#ixzz2OWRJUSa6
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

So much for global warming :oops:

Whose multi is this ridiculous fucking troll? Own up already.

The Deep South rang, they want their attitude back.

Edited by afromanGT: 25/3/2013 05:13:19 PM

:lol: If they showed any significant aggression towards neighbouring countries they'd be wiped off the map faster than you can say "What do you mean antisemitic?"

Technically they've been at war for the last 60 or so years

To be honest, Israel has been in positions to take large amounts of land from the arabs and even gave Egypt back the Sinai.

Leader of the brat pack?
George W. Bush had probably forgotten he'd named North Korea as part of the axis of evil. He wouldn't be giving North Korea much thought at all, busy as he is throwing horseshoes and whatnot.

The world's leaders are scratching their heads because Pyongyang is threatening to nuke Texas. Analysis of North Korea's US Strike Plan indicates that Mr Bush's ranch in Crawford lies close to the projected line of fire.

What's Kim Jong-un really up to? It's 11,000 kilometres from Pyongyang to Austin. North Korea's longest-range missiles are said to have a working range of 3900 kilometres, and would run out of gas a third of the way into the trip to Texas.

Hence, this is nothing but classic attention-seeking behaviour. Kim Jong-un is essentially asking George W. the saddest question of all: "Remember me?"

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The answer has been: "Well, yeah, but who cares?"

Texans don't. "Was it me?" chortled Karl Rove, Mr Bush's former aide and fellow Texan. Others have joked - or rather engaged in wishful thinking - that Mr Kim is actually targeting Austin's dope-smoking hippie enclave.

When Mr Kim was pictured working at an Apple iMac, one local resident suggested that he was the "ultimate Apple fanboy" and was planning to "nuke Dell", the PC company located nearby.

All of which means Texans aren't talking about North Korea at all - they are, as usual, talking about themselves.

None of this will relieve Mr Kim's abandonment issues. This talk that he is in "a state of war" with South Korea is akin to a sibling rivalry tantrum. China and Russia are standing by, shaking their heads, like awkward parents on the sideline of a particularly embarrassing soccer game that's on the verge of a brawl.

Mr Kim's problem, as the archetypal outsider weirdo child, is he can't get a game. Still, weirdo children are dangerous and, in their own way, wily.

So the question remains, what is Mr Kim really up to? Is he truly seeking revenge for international isolation and crippling trade sanctions - he's not legally entitled to own that Apple computer, by the way - or is this fit of pique of a more personal nature?

The useless threats against Texas suggest the latter.

And yet it's a ruse. A white paper found that his longest-range missiles could be tricked out to make 6400 kilometres. Some analysts note this puts Alaska in range of a nuclear strike.

Alaska, however, isn't the target. Mr Kim is after Canada.

Lonely weirdos hate being misunderstood - but they hate even more when someone truly understands their frailty.

In 2004, Canadian Trey Parker wrote and directed a movie called Team America, in which Mr Kim's father, Kim Jong-il, made an appearance singing the family song: "I'm so ronery, so very ronery."

We all laughed. And now we must pay.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/kim-wants-to-be-remembered-for--anything-20130330-2h08f.html#ixzz2P1SUIrvS