I mentioned it in a thread yesterday.

The US has plenty of its own examples, of less than exemplary crowd behaviour.

Westbourough, and this Pastor Terry Jones. Any number of other hellfire and blasphemy preachers who constantly call for retribution to fall upon the heads of this sinner or that.

Anyone who has ever expressed the sentiment: "Why they oughta..."

Consider just how recently blasphemy was a capital offense in our own not to distant past. And how very recently it WOULD have and DID incite mob violence in plenty of Western locales.


BTW: It's not your "freedoms" that earn you so much emnity. It's the way "The Generic American" brings those freedoms with them when (s)he travels that pisses people off. Deliberately ordering t-bone steak in India; or wearing short shorts and a crop top in Northern Africa. "Over paid, over sexed and over here!" was a common wartime lament about American soldiers. You're not welcome, simply because far too many Americans treat the rest of the world as an extension of their own backyard and ride rough shod over local sensibilities.

But really, we have different cultures. Their religion in very intertwined with their way of life and their government. Thankfully, as much as the right wingers try, religion is not so overwhelming here. Free speech has been with us for so long we often take it for granted. They have never had true "free speech."

that allows us the ability to disseminate Legitimate from Bullshit. We see that video, and say to each other "Really? the guy who made this actually got people to GIVE him 5 million $ as an investment? Hahahaha what a bunch of suckers..." and then we go on with our day. THEY see it, and presume, (as was noted in an earlier thread) that if it's not banned by our Government, that means the Government at least tacitly approves...such is not the case.

Countries where a women is considered second class.
Countries where you can be executed for changing your religious beliefs.

I quit trying to figure them out.

just saying.

stone women.

Moreover, and it goes without saying, you are talking of a billion + people.. these are the actions of a few thousand.

It is like judging all Christians for the actions of a certain preacher who called for the international burn a koran day.

We all have our nutsos...

I would also like to remind you that at one point even Christianity burned people at the stake for having wrong thoughts. And some of our own radicals would not mind going back to that either, IMO.

All religions have a few nuts.

What some of these countries lack is a DEMOCRATIC tradition...

Oh and yes, I have not given up on trying to understand the human condition.

I'm an atheist so you know where that will lead.

But I prefer to look at the big picture. It's the writer in me!

And some of those nutsos though (insert religion here) make for great fiction fodder.



Still trying to figure it out how to bring that angle into the work I am plotting.

novel ?

and that is on top of actual reporting from courts and city councils for one of the local papers...

But yeah, novel

I am creating a whole new religion. It's not on a dare, so it will not end up where Dianetics did. (that was on a dare, no serious)

I'll buy one of your first copies.

autographed of course.

Um, no.

anybody familiar with how media is controlled around the world is not surprised that people in Egypt believe that this movie was approved by vetters in DC. This is the way movies are approved in Egypt, they are vetted in Cairo.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021339892

And I mostly get bashed for it. : )