World Politics/Global Events


World Politics/Global Events

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thupercoach
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paulbagzFC wrote:
The Townsville Bulletin had a Boston Bombing Special Edition yesterday.

Front cover was all Red, White and Blue ala America style.

While I feel for those who are lost, that level of pro-America BS is just annoying.

-PB
If it happened there, it can happen here. There's a strong connection and similarity between the two countries.

Entirely appropriate.
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thupercoach wrote:
If it happened there, it can happen here.


The point is that it can happen anywhere, the difference being how we react to it.

Patton Oswalt said it best:
Patton Oswalt wrote:
Boston. Fucking horrible.

I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, "Well, I've had it with humanity."

But I was wrong. I don't know what's going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.

But here's what I DO know. If it's one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me).

This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak.

This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."

thupercoach
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Thanks, a wonderful article. And all true.

The only thing us that evil rarely defeats itself, it required a concerted effort by the good to make it happen.
afromanGT
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benelsmore wrote:
afromanGT wrote:
benelsmore wrote:
Don't be dense, the vast majority of attacks that have gained widespread media coverage in the past decade have always been Islamic extremists or groups sympathetic to them. Is it any wonder why people jump to conclusions?

In the past decade there have also been detonations by Israelis, Quebec separatists, american looneys, christian fundamentalists...

Just because you hear hoof beats doesn't automatically mean horses.

Edited by afromanGT: 18/4/2013 02:55:53 AM


Yes but the vast majority shown on TV have been?

.....Islamic extremists.

Welp...ya got me. Hard to argue with Donald Bellisario and the Coen brother.

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afromanGT wrote:
benelsmore wrote:
afromanGT wrote:
benelsmore wrote:
Don't be dense, the vast majority of attacks that have gained widespread media coverage in the past decade have always been Islamic extremists or groups sympathetic to them. Is it any wonder why people jump to conclusions?

In the past decade there have also been detonations by Israelis, Quebec separatists, american looneys, christian fundamentalists...

Just because you hear hoof beats doesn't automatically mean horses.

Edited by afromanGT: 18/4/2013 02:55:53 AM


Yes but the vast majority shown on TV have been?

.....Islamic extremists.

Welp...ya got me. Hard to argue with Donald Bellisario and the Coen brother.


Vote with the remote then.

Movies always reflect whichever war's going on in the world. There were wartime films during WW2, Cold War films (some great ones) in the 60s-80s period, and now that Islam is fighting the whole world they find themselves the bad guys in movies.

Luckily they are against most things fun so they won't be watching.
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That's not at all the point being made. The point is, it's fiction.
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afromanGT wrote:
That's not at all the point being made. The point is, it's fiction.


Fiction often reflects the politics and socials mores of the day.
thupercoach
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dp

Edited by thupercoach: 19/4/2013 07:53:12 AM
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thupercoach wrote:
afromanGT wrote:
That's not at all the point being made. The point is, it's fiction.


Fiction often reflects the politics and socials mores of the day.

That doesn't mean that every time you see something bad on the news a muslim is at fault. :roll:

Stop trying to defend your fear of muslims with "if the tv says it, it must be true".

Edited by afromanGT: 19/4/2013 07:54:58 AM
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afromanGT wrote:
thupercoach wrote:
afromanGT wrote:
That's not at all the point being made. The point is, it's fiction.


Fiction often reflects the politics and socials mores of the day.

That doesn't mean that every time you see something bad on the news a muslim is at fault. :roll:

Stop trying to defend your fear of muslims with "if the tv says it, it must be true".

Edited by afromanGT: 19/4/2013 07:54:58 AM
Every time?

Btw, if you were to make a TV show that deals with terrorism you don't think Muslims are going to come up in it? Given that the overwhelming majority of worldwide acts of terrorism has been perpetrated by Islamists? Or is it the case of " don't mention the m word", Basil?
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afromanGT wrote:
benelsmore wrote:
afromanGT wrote:
benelsmore wrote:
Don't be dense, the vast majority of attacks that have gained widespread media coverage in the past decade have always been Islamic extremists or groups sympathetic to them. Is it any wonder why people jump to conclusions?

In the past decade there have also been detonations by Israelis, Quebec separatists, american looneys, christian fundamentalists...

Just because you hear hoof beats doesn't automatically mean horses.

Edited by afromanGT: 18/4/2013 02:55:53 AM


Yes but the vast majority shown on TV have been?

.....Islamic extremists.

Welp...ya got me. Hard to argue with Donald Bellisario and the Coen brother.


News buddy, watch the news. We're not talking about fiction.
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And now there is a shooter at MIT. Fuck Boston isn't having a good week.
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[youtube]E9Lwfab18Rs[/youtube]

The 2 official suspects.

Btw Afro what Quebec and Jewish terrorists are you talking about?

IK during the early years of the arab-jew conflict there was a jewish terrorist group who committed many acts.

Edited by aussie4ever4: 19/4/2013 01:50:02 PM
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Musharraf got arrested in Pakistan and a 7.2 earthquake off Japan.
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Aussie4ever4 wrote:
[youtube]E9Lwfab18Rs[/youtube]

The 2 official suspects.

Btw Afro what Quebec and Jewish terrorists are you talking about?

IK during the early years of the arab-jew conflict there was a jewish terrorist group who committed many acts.

Edited by aussie4ever4: 19/4/2013 01:50:02 PM
Blowing up that hotel in 1947 (I think) was a terrorist act against the Brits not the Arabs.
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thupercoach wrote:
Aussie4ever4 wrote:
[youtube]E9Lwfab18Rs[/youtube]

The 2 official suspects.

Btw Afro what Quebec and Jewish terrorists are you talking about?

IK during the early years of the arab-jew conflict there was a jewish terrorist group who committed many acts.

Edited by aussie4ever4: 19/4/2013 01:50:02 PM
Blowing up that hotel in 1947 (I think) was a terrorist act against the Brits not the Arabs.


They did target some arabs also.

Wasnt it a female who done that hotel bombing btw?

Edited by aussie4ever4: 19/4/2013 05:52:26 PM
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Aussie4ever4 wrote:
thupercoach wrote:
Aussie4ever4 wrote:
[youtube]E9Lwfab18Rs[/youtube]

The 2 official suspects.

Btw Afro what Quebec and Jewish terrorists are you talking about?

IK during the early years of the arab-jew conflict there was a jewish terrorist group who committed many acts.

Edited by aussie4ever4: 19/4/2013 01:50:02 PM
Blowing up that hotel in 1947 (I think) was a terrorist act against the Brits not the Arabs.


They did target some arabs also.

Wasnt it a female who done that hotel bombing btw?

Edited by aussie4ever4: 19/4/2013 05:52:26 PM
Not sure
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benelsmore wrote:
afromanGT wrote:
benelsmore wrote:
afromanGT wrote:
benelsmore wrote:
Don't be dense, the vast majority of attacks that have gained widespread media coverage in the past decade have always been Islamic extremists or groups sympathetic to them. Is it any wonder why people jump to conclusions?

In the past decade there have also been detonations by Israelis, Quebec separatists, american looneys, christian fundamentalists...

Just because you hear hoof beats doesn't automatically mean horses.

Edited by afromanGT: 18/4/2013 02:55:53 AM


Yes but the vast majority shown on TV have been?

.....Islamic extremists.

Welp...ya got me. Hard to argue with Donald Bellisario and the Coen brother.


News buddy, watch the news. We're not talking about fiction.

Can you genuinely quote me a news article reporting a muslim terrorist attack on US soil since 2001?
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Japan Steps Into the Void by Peter Schiff
http://lewrockwell.com/schiff/schiff219.html

In the years following the global financial crisis, economists and investors have gotten very comfortable with very high, and seemingly persistent, government debt. The nonchalance may be underpinned by the assumption that globally significant countries that can print their own currencies can't get trapped in a sovereign debt crisis. However, it now appears that Japan is preparing to put this confidence to the ultimate stress test.

For the better part of 20 years, successive Japanese governments and central bankers have been trying, unsuccessfully, to use quantitative easing strategies to pump up a deflated asset bubble. The economy has by and large not responded. The sustained and impressive growth that Japan delivered during the 45 years following the Second World War (which had made the country one of the most successful economic stories in world history), has never returned. For the last 20 years Japan has offered a "zombie" economy characterized by low growth, stagnation, and exploding government debt. The Japanese government now owes approximately $12 trillion, a figure representing more than 200% of GDP. The IMF expects that this figure will reach 245% by the end of this year. This gives Japan the unenviable title of having the world's highest government debt-to-GDP ratio. But Shinzo Abe, the newly elected Prime Minister of Japan, and Haruhiko Kuroda, his newly-appointed Governor of the Bank of Japan, feel much, much more debt needs to be issued to turn the economy around.

The hope that Abe would be a new kind of prime minister with a bold economic formula helped revive the long dead Japanese stock market. Between May and November of 2012, the Nikkei traded within a range of 8200-9400. As Abe's victory began to be expected, the Nikkei started moving up, reaching 10,000 by the time he was sworn in on December 26 of last year. The euphoria continued throughout the spring and by April 2 the Nikkei stood at 12,003 points. Then on April 4, BOJ Governor Kuroda made good on Abe's dovish rhetoric and announced a plan to end years of mildly declining prices by doing whatever necessary to create 2% inflation (in reality these price declines have been one of the few consolations to Japanese consumers). To achieve its goals, the government is prepared to double the amount of Yen in circulation. Stocks immediately rallied, and in less than a week the Nikkei had breached 13,000 points, taking the index to a 4 1/2-year high. It is rare that any major stock market can achieve a 50% rally in less than a year. But the rally will be costly.

The Japanese government already spends 25% of tax revenue to service outstanding debt (compared to 6% in the US). These costs become even more astonishing when one considers the extremely low rates Japan pays. Ten-year Japanese government bonds now pay less than 0.6%, and five-year yields are now a little more than 0.20%. How much will debt service costs increase if Abe succeeds in pushing inflation to 2.0%? Two percent rates would triple long term borrowing costs. Given the size of its debts, increases of such magnitude could hit Japan with the force of 10 Godzillas.

Japan has an aging demographic and as more time goes by, the pool of potential bond buyers continues to shrink. Unlike the United States, where individual savers are mostly irrelevant in the sovereign debt market, Japanese investors have largely set the market in their own country. There is evidence to suggest that Japanese savers are increasingly considering overseas sources of yield for protection from the inflation that Abe is so determined to create.

As the Nikkei has moved upward, the Japanese Yen has taken the opposite trajectory, falling more than 20% against the U.S. Dollar since the beginning of 2012, and nearly 12% since the beginning of this year (the decline has been even greater in terms of several other currencies). This steep drop, which has taken a huge bite out of the nominal gains in Japanese stocks is unusual in the foreign exchange markets, and has threatened to destabilize an already weak global financial system.

Earlier this year the falling yen issue sparked a full-fledged headline war. On February 16th, participating members of the G20 issued a statement, clearly aimed at Japan, warning against competitive devaluations and currency wars. A day later, Japan's Finance Minister stated flatly that Japan was not attempting to manipulate its currency. After some hesitation, the G20 seemed to accept this statement. For now it seems the international powers have fallen in behind Japan. Both IMF Chief Christine Lagarde and Ben Bernanke have praised Abe's policies. The prevailing opinion seems to be that weakening a currency should not be considered manipulation as long as it's done to revive a domestic economy, not specifically to harm competitors. Such an opinion qualifies as a great moment in rhetorical shamelessness.

In addition to his plans for inflationary monetary policy, Abe is also attempting to wage war from the fiscal side as well. His Liberal Democratic Party has called for over $2.4 trillion USD worth of public works stimulus over the next 10 years. This spending represents approximately 40% of Japan's current GDP and, adjusted for population, would be the equivalent of nearly $600 billion USD annually in the United States.

It should be obvious to anyone with even half a brain that Japan's prior experiments with ever larger doses of quantitative easing have failed. Leaders in both Japan and the United States, however, are following this path with reckless abandon. According to Abe, the entirety of Japan's economic problems can be blamed on the fact that consumer prices have been declining by one tenth of one percent per year. If only Japanese consumers were forced to pay two percent more per year for the things they need or desire, all would be well.

Abe's wish may already be coming true. McDonald's announced this morning that, for the first time in 5 years, the price of hamburgers and cheeseburgers in Japan will be rising by 20% and 25% respectively. No doubt the Japanese will be so excited by this development that they'll rush to the stores to consume all the burgers they were planning on eating in 2014 before prices go up again. Of course there is no official concern that low-income Japanese will now have to pay more for low cost food.

The idea that informs Abe's plan, that rising prices entice consumers to buy before the prices go up, is clearly suspect as economic law dictates that demand increases when prices fall. Any store owner will tell you that cutting prices is the best way to move merchandise. Apart from this problem, how does Abe expect consumers to buy more when their currency is losing purchasing power and more of their incomes will be needed to pay interest on the national debt?

The boldness of Abe's plans should provide the rest of the world with a crash course in the ability of debt accumulation to jumpstart an economy. The good news is that the effects should not take too long to be seen. I believe that we will be treated with a stark lesson on the limitations of inflation as an economic panacea.

Hopefully, failure of this latest Japanese experiment will help convince leaders in the U.S. and Japan that the only true path to prosperity is free market capitalism. Rather than trying to reflate busted bubbles and micro-manage Keynesian style recoveries, politicians and central bankers should recognize their respective roles in creating the problems and get out of the way.

April 20, 2013
Peter Schiff is president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets and Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse. His latest book is The Real Crash: America's Coming Bankruptcy, How to Save Yourself and Your Country.
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Hundreds dead or injured in China quake

April 20, 2013 - 1:38PM

Hundreds of people are dead or injured following a shallow 6.6-magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province, local authorities say.

State-run China News Service, quoting unnamed local media, said more than 100 people may have been killed or hurt in the earthquake, which hit the city of Ya'an, home to China's famous pandas

This was confirmed by the the Sichuan earthquake bureau, which said: "The earthquake in Ya'an, Lushan, has injured or killed hundreds of people," according to an official government website.

Other reports, however, put the death toll at only two.

The US Geological Survey said "significant" casualties were likely and that "extensive damage is probable and disaster is likely widespread".

"Past events with this alert level have required a national or international level response," it added.

The government's seismological bureau said the quake hit shortly after 8am local time on Saturday.

The seismological bureau initially measured the quake at magnitude-7, while the USGS recorded it at 6.6-magnitude, powerful enough to cause severe damage.

Its depth was shallow, less than 13 kilometres, which could magnify the impact.

The official Xinhua News Agency said that the quake rattled buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu 115 kilometres to the east.

The tremors were felt as far as the megacity of Chongqing, home to around 30 million people, several hundred kilometres to the east, with Xinhua showing images of residents outside their apartment buildings after feeling the shaking.

Xinhua said 2000 troops were being dispatched to the area.

In 2008, Sichuan province saw one of the country's deadliest earthquake in more than three decades. which killed 87,000 people, including more than 5,000 children, according to government figures.

AFP, Bloomberg


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/hundreds-dead-or-injured-in-china-quake-20130420-2i6p4.html#ixzz2R05n6Z2k
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Pipe down, Joffa. Don't you know that 3 people died in Boston?
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notorganic wrote:
Pipe down, Joffa. Don't you know that 3 people died in Boston?


Or that Hamas rockets were fired on the Israeli resort city of Eilat the other day?
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A lot of earthquakes recently, R.I.P.
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Aussie4ever4 wrote:
A lot of earthquakes recently, R.I.P.


They always come in sets, don't they?

Blenheim's overdue a big one, I'm worried.
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Half of Syrian population 'will need aid by end of year'

UN high commissioner for refugees says crisis may be worst humanitarian disaster it has ever dealt it.

Martin Chulov
guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 April 2013 13.43 BST

More than half the population of Syria is likely to be in need of aid by the end of the year, the UN high commissioner for refugees has warned, while labelling the ever-worsening crisis as the most serious the global body has dealt with.

António Guterres, who has led the UNHCR through the worst of the refugee crises in Afghanistan and Iraq, said the Syrian civil war was more brutal and destructive than both and was already the worst humanitarian disaster since the end of the cold war.

His assessment came as the UN released new data on the numbers of refugees, which revealed that 6.8 million Syrians need aid. That figure is likely to reach at least 10 million, more than half the pre-war population of the country.

Another UN body, Unicef, says half of those in need are children.

"I don't remember any other crisis where we are having 8,000 per day [fleeing across borders], every day since February," Guterres said in an interview with the Guardian. "There will very likely be 3.5 million by the end of the year. We will have half the population of Syria in dire need of assistance and this is incomprehensible."

With the civil war now into its third year and increasingly taking the shape of a proxy regional war fought across a sectarian faultline, aid groups are making ever more strident predictions of a catastrophic funding shortfall.

Guterres goes further, warning that the modern boundaries of the Middle East and the post-Ottoman agreements that underpin them may unravel if the crisis is not brought to an end.

"The political geography of the modern Middle East emerged from the Sykes-Picot agreement with the exception of the never-resolved Israeli-Palestinian situation," he said of the Anglo-French deal at the end of the first world war that eventually formed the nation states of Syria and Lebanon. "The conflict in Syria might for the first time put that political geography into question."

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, and Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, this week both warned of a partition of the country that would inevitably cause grave ramifications in neighbouring Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan and beyond. Kerry appeared to advance the US position on Syria by suggesting an "enclave break-up" could only be prevented by getting "everybody on the same page with respect to what post-Assad Syria will look like".

Assad, meanwhile, reiterated his earlier warning that no country in the region would be safe if the Syrian war, in which a majority Sunni opposition is fighting a minority Alawite regime aligned to Shia Islam, led to the collapse of the embattled state's borders.

UNHCR figures show that close to 1.3 million Syrians have fled the country in the past two years. The figure is markedly lower than the numbers that have left Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade, but is increasing at a faster rate than at any point in either country.

In addition, there are thought to be at least 3 million internally displaced Syrian refugees, many of whom have limited means to provide for themselves or their families. Communities in Syria's war-ravaged north, west and south are largely without electricity and low on food and running water.

Refugee camps in northern Jordan, southern Turkey and Lebanon's Bekaa valley are overwhelmed with daily arrivals of refugees who have often made precarious journeys to escape nearby battlefields.

"This is the most brutal [conflict], even with very brutal conflicts elsewhere," said Guterres. "If one looks at the impact on the population, or the percentage of the total population in need, I have no doubt that since the end of the cold war it is the worst. And it will become even worse still if there is no solution.

"My belief is that if we take all of these elements, then this is the most dramatic humanitarian crisis that we have ever faced. Then if we look at the geopolitical implications, I have no doubt that this is the most serious that we have ever dealt with."

Lebanon and Iraq are increasingly unable to deal with the Syrian spillover, which is disturbing already fraught sectarian power bases and straining meagre resources during an economic downturn brought on by the crisis.

"There is a real threat to Lebanon and Iraq," said Guterres. "Jordan is under serious economic stress. We have the Palestinian/Israeli question and the fact that the Syrian army has withdrawn from the Golan Heights. In the context of the Sunni-Shia divide, all the key actors are involved. Even compared to Afghanistan, the geopolitical implications and the threat to global stability are profound. It's the most dangerous of all crises."

In an address to the United Nations security council on Thursday, Guterres said there had "not been an inch of progress towards a political solution".

Expanding on that to the Guardian, he said: "It is of enormous frustration that we have come to such a situation in global governance that nobody can address it."

Diplomacy on Syria has failed to bridge a yawning divide in views on what has fuelled the crisis and how best to deal with it. Russia and China, two permanent members of the security council, have blocked moves towards more robust support of the opposition in Syria. The US and Europe have attempted to impose ever tougher sanctions on the Assad regime, but have balked at arming the opposition because of concerns about the influence of al-Qaida groups.

"I lived in a bipolar world," said Guterres. "Until the war in Iraq, I witnessed a unipolar world with one single superpower. Now we are in a clearly established multi-polar world. New actors have emerged – the Brics: China, Russia, Brazil, India. There is no longer a clear set of power relations. There is no way to bring about consensus among global players, or to bring about common action. There is no capacity to produce any solution."

UN appeals for aid to Syria remain desperately under-funded with some agencies, including Unicef, reporting a shortfall of more than 70%. The crisis was eased somewhat on Thursday when Kuwait transferred $300m (£196m) to the UN for Syrian relief. "[It] will be distributed across all of our institutions," said Guterres. Kuwait is the only Gulf country that has honoured its promise through the multilateral aid organisations.

"We can now put some money up front in Syria, but we are all in big trouble. Most of the western countries have huge budget difficulties. Moving towards 3 million refugees, there is no way that this can be dealt with.

"The system is at breaking point. There is limited capacity to take many more. Where are the people going to flee? Into the sea?"

Syrian refugees

1.35m: the number of refugees fleeing Syria who have sought protection in neighbouring countries, according to the UNHCR

48%: the percentage – at least – of the refugee population who are under 18. Some 77% are women and children

$162.4m: the amount pledged by 4 April to Syria's Regional Response Plan by international donors – just 33% of UNHCR's requirements

10%: the increase in Lebanon's population due to refugee movements. Jordan's is up 6%

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/19/half-syrian-population-aid-year

afromanGT
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AJohn wrote:
Aussie4ever4 wrote:
A lot of earthquakes recently, R.I.P.


They always come in sets, don't they?

Blenheim's overdue a big one, I'm worried.

Doubt it. They had a 4.8 in February.
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This video =d> ;

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v486852124qY72Pgy

-PB

https://i.imgur.com/batge7K.jpg

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afromanGT wrote:
benelsmore wrote:
afromanGT wrote:
benelsmore wrote:
afromanGT wrote:
benelsmore wrote:
Don't be dense, the vast majority of attacks that have gained widespread media coverage in the past decade have always been Islamic extremists or groups sympathetic to them. Is it any wonder why people jump to conclusions?

In the past decade there have also been detonations by Israelis, Quebec separatists, american looneys, christian fundamentalists...

Just because you hear hoof beats doesn't automatically mean horses.

Edited by afromanGT: 18/4/2013 02:55:53 AM


Yes but the vast majority shown on TV have been?

.....Islamic extremists.

Welp...ya got me. Hard to argue with Donald Bellisario and the Coen brother.


News buddy, watch the news. We're not talking about fiction.

Can you genuinely quote me a news article reporting a muslim terrorist attack on US soil since 2001?


What does this have to do with US soil?

I'm talking about general prejudice. This has nothing to do with US based attacks. Many people expect it to be muslims because the attacks they see on t.v have been muslims for some time now.

What are you playing at?
afromanGT
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In the last 2 years...
Boston - not muslim
Norway - not muslim
Colorado - not muslim
Connecticut - not muslim
Serbia - not muslim
Joffa
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Joffa wrote:
Most likely, statistically speaking, the terrorists are white Americans who are not Muslim.....



What is it they say about statistics....
GO


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