en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/312302 Comments by Chevy http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/06/12/snowdens-quest-isnt-about-civil-liberties/#IDComment660114263 You know, I subscribed to Commentary not too many years ago, back when I thought we WERE the freest country on Earth and no one -- liberal, libertarian, or otherwise -- was right in comparing us to China or Russia or Nazis or some such. But tell me, right now, what makes us any more free than most of the other countries in the world? We're spying on our own people like the Chinese do. We're just as bad as them. We got secret courts and tribunals, with secret decisions and people in permanent detention with no rights to lawyers, just like they do. We got secret agreements with Jihadis in Syria just like they got secret agreements with the North Koreans. We got a government that persecutes groups it doesn't like, through the IRS and the media. Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:31:37 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/06/12/snowdens-quest-isnt-about-civil-liberties/#IDComment660114263 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025301.php#IDComment17222888 Alright. Wow. I'd like to rescind my post. It didn't enter my mind that this guy had actually pulled all his posts off his site and left only this one up. That's pretty dramatic and, credit where credit is due to Mr. Spencer. I won't delete my last post as a point of honor, but will humbly apologize for it; I stand corrected. Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:21:37 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025301.php#IDComment17222888 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025301.php#IDComment17222585 This is the silliest thing I've seen all day. Once again this site takes a worthy cause and lowers the level of debate to sheer idiocy. Is this a way to test the intelligence of your readership? If so, I have bad news... This guy's blog has one post on it -- one. Which happens to be an apologia written yesterday and republished immediately here by Spencer, with no further details. This blog was set up less than 24 hours ago and probably only appeared on Google searches in the last 6 to 12 hours. It could just as easily have been set up by someone who writes for this site -- only, one would imagine they'd go to greater lengths to make it look legitimate. But even assuming this brief message was written by someone not affiliated with this site, Spence would have to be googling himself four times a day and reading to the 20th page just to have been lucky enough to come across it. So what is it? Are you guys tired of making a case for the merits of western civilization and the fight against Islam? Is this whole site just about self-gratification and rousing the rabble at this point? Get out of the echo chamber! Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:13:12 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025301.php#IDComment17222585 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025164.php#IDComment16723887 "Would you argue that I was cruel to laugh at a Nazi for his silly walk?" Right. You make a good point. In that light, it's fine to make fun of the beard. The thing is... and here with the self-doubt... lots of people think my people are wicked and trying to take over the world. If this is going to turn into a superficial issue about a style of clothing or facial hair, and conforming to anglo norms, then we're in trouble too. Then it's back to being banned from the country club. I know I got a lot of negative feedback here, the thing is, my views aren't really different from those of most of the people on this site. It just bothers me that the debate gets dragged down to this level. Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:28:46 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025164.php#IDComment16723887 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025164.php#IDComment16720851 Oy vey. So anybody who disagrees with you is suspected of being an undercover muslim? What on earth is wrong with you people? Take apart Islam for what it is and what it seeks, not for their funny customs. Having a laugh at this guy's beard, the comments on this site are starting to resemble what you might see on an aryan nation site with white guys laughing at a picture of a Jew with peyos. Why do I keep harping on Jews? Because I'm JEWISH you freakin' jerks. I'm not a muslim, I have no sympathy for their ideology; I can, however, identify with being discriminated against and being the only guy in the room who's different, and overhearing people use nasty language about my people and some of their funnier customs, and I don't like it. I think it lowers the credibility of this whole site. Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:10:38 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025164.php#IDComment16720851 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025164.php#IDComment16705150 Not too bright, are you? There wasn't a logical fallacy or generalization; I didn't say "all Europeans...". You're the one who took something I said, changed the words, and now you're accusing me of arguing poorly? I was saying that as an American Jew -- and one without a beard -- I would be sensitive to hearing about a Jewish cop who no British cop wanted to go on patrol with, because he had peyos. I would think, that's really sh*tty of them, especially if they called him a ****ing k*ke or something. I'm saying, I could see having empathy for his situation if he was Jewish -- if he was one of my people. And I can project that empathy onto a member of an outside group in this case, whereas you rabid beasts can't step back long enough, or are otherwise missing the empathetic part of your brains. It's sad that you're such a bunch of followers. Spencer makes lots of great points, and that's why I read the site. It's too bad his fans are a bunch of hate filled, pitchfork-waving peasants. Come to think of it, it's a lot like the crusades after all... Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:57:37 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025164.php#IDComment16705150 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025164.php#IDComment16682798 "You said it yourself, you're the one that's afraid." Dude. Read. What. I. Wrote. Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:46:21 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025164.php#IDComment16682798 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025164.php#IDComment16680798 jews wear ridiculous beards sometimes, too... and europeans have been known to discriminate against us for it; and, occasionally, to believe that we're a religion bent on world domination. wild, really. Yet...for some absurd reason, they've found a basis to fear us for millenia. How's that possible? Is it impossible to give the guy a pass on the grounds that an observant Jew would probably receive the same reaction, and respond in the same way? Would giving him a pass undermine the general thesis here that there's no such thing as extremism, that all members of a billion-person group are equally extreme by default unless they renounce their beliefs entirely? If so, I'm afraid the opinions here leave no option but to engage in world war three. The thing is, you old men don't have much life left to look forward to. Easy enough for you to say there's no third way between submission and Armageddon. As tempting as your gestalt is to absorb, it's still based on fear and hate. Look to your friend Reagan, hell, even Nixon; act like statesmen for a change instead of jihadis under a different-colored banner. Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:22:24 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025164.php#IDComment16680798 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025093.php#IDComment16140879 Why isn't the US offering them political asylum...? I certainly know a lot of people who'd offer them a job and a place to stay if they managed to get out of that hell hole. Wed, 4 Mar 2009 05:12:57 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025093.php#IDComment16140879 http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/024762.php#IDComment15146578 Does it seem to anyone else that it would be impossible for so many disparate sectors of the British bureaucracy to all, with equal animosity, go so far, and to commit such absurdly undemocratic, pro-jihad acts whenever possible, unless the Crown were backing the endeavor behind the scenes? The House of Windsor is behind this wave. I can't see the reasons why, but there can't be much doubt about it now. Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:47:00 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/024762.php#IDComment15146578 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024645.php#IDComment14660683 This isn't really the right forum for this discussion, abscedere, but I feel sorry for anyone who's been brainwashed by the big organized religions, which are one and all headed at present by manipulative hypocrites who abuse our basic urge to understand what's going on in the world -- and to feel a part of something larger than ourselves -- in order to control and extort money and blood from 90% of the human race. Having said that, I've got nothing against people who practice this stuff without trying to tell me how to live my life. I draw the line when they say my unbelief is somehow "hurting their feelings". Fuck them. And, while it's true that religions today are controlled largely by no-good buffoons, at least most of them were started by well-meaning, righteous individuals like the Buddha or Jesus. The reason Islam has failed to moderate its medieval viciousness is that it was cynical and corrupt from the very beginning. And as for the alternative, that belief in a supreme Being that falls in line with no group ideology, or what hippies refer to as "spirituality," there's nothing de facto wrong with it, any more than there is with shooting heroin or taking Prozac. As an atheist, I personally came to terms with the pointless and ugly nature of the universe a long time ago, through regular intake of large quantities of alcohol, and far be it from me to deprive anybody of their crutch of choice. Just realize that it's a crutch and keep it away from me and from my kids; just like I wouldn't go telling your kids that alcoholism is a better solution than religion, even if I think it is. Mon, 2 Feb 2009 09:18:34 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024645.php#IDComment14660683 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024645.php#IDComment14508879 These are all really good points. The lack of evidence or thinkers capable of refuting Botros' claims -- and instead the mass of violent threats -- speaks volumes about the nature of Islam in itself. It's hard to imagine Jews threatening death to the neo-Nazis who run hate websites that far more slanderous and totally untrue; and yet simply showing a film like Fitna, which is just Muslims in their own words, or Botros repeating what's written in the Koran, is grounds for death threats from a broad swath of Muslims. And given that's what we're dealing with today, I guess true-believing Christians and Jews are wonderfully open-minded by comparison. But "by comparison" only goes so far. And I think that "deprogramming" is a great idea, as long as the intent isn't "reprogramming" into some other form of sky-God worship; because let's face it, they're all deeply susceptible to being corrupted for mass mind control whenever the next Mohammed (or David Koresh, or Joseph Smith, or whoever) comes along... Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:15:49 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024645.php#IDComment14508879 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024645.php#IDComment14506907 The one thing that disturbs me about this type of stuff is, it reminds me of the way hate groups cherry pick from the Talmud to compile lists of obscene religious decisions reached by 14th C. Jewish authorities. Mixed in there are things that are made up, but it becomes difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. Now -- the fact that most modern Jews don't believe millenia-old stories should be imposed to override the laws of the nations they live in, doesn't mean that those things aren't out there. So the trouble is that religious authorities, Jewish or Christian, really aren't credible sources when they pick gems like Fr. Boutros does out of each other's scriptures and commentary. The only people qualified to tell all of you how f*cking idiotic it is that you're all fighting over these books are atheists. And yeah, we can recognize that certain religions like Islam tend to be more brutal and authoritarian than others. But ultimately, the problem is intractable until the disease of religion, which causes so many weak-minded people to seek group safety under the arms of callous and hypocritical madmen, is cured from the human mind. Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:07:43 +0000 http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024645.php#IDComment14506907