Moose

"As usual", huh? How condescending of you. Your point was that what we are doing in the Middle East is "making them hate us", to paraphrase. My point is that they hate us no matter what we do and what we support.

You know, if we just quit supporting Israel and change our foreign policies toward islamic countries, quit our decadent lifestyles, quit drawing cartoons of mohammed, and quit "breathing while infidel" - then maybe, just maybe, they'll quit hating us and trying to kill us.

Maybe they should do a poll on how Americans trust the media, too...

Methinks it is more a suicide than an assassination...

The number of centuries is arbitrary - the point is that it's CENTURIES, never fairly recent history. Whenever you consult your "islam-good/Christian-bad" bizarro history book, you have to dig way, way back to find your pithy examples. Look, chicot, we can carry on this debate forever - but you have obviously made up your mind about these things and no one is going to change it. I sincerely hope that you, your children or your grandchildren never have to live under sharia law. Good luck with everything. Signing off...

No kidding. Please tell me why all your apologetics for islam have to invoke what happened over three centuries ago? Some cultures don't seem to have progressed much, eh?

Perhaps you are referring to the "Christian-initiated" Holocaust in WWII, in which the "Christian" Nazis regularly quoted the New Testament to justify their acts and were heard to shout, "Jesu Akbar!"??? If so, then, of course muslims had no part whatsoever in that; they probably helped Jews escape from the evil Christians:

And out comes the "racism" slur so quickly bandied about these days. Maybe what you've been told is inaccurate. As an aside, how much do you want to bet that there are more Arabs living in Israel than there are Jews in Saudi Arabia... or that there are more mosques in little tiny Israel than there are synagogues in Saudi Arabia? Maybe that's a good question to ask Hezbollah these days... Having their arsenal allows Israel to continue its other achievements in the face of surrounding hostile nations that seek to "wipe them off the map." Anyway, here's your chance to list all the "achievements" of the arab/islamic states in the region, chicot.

# Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world. # Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. # In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews at risk in Ethiopia to safety in Israel. # When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times. # When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day - and saved three victims from the rubble. # Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship - and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world. # Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. # Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free." # Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books. # Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert. # Israel has more museums per capita than any other country. # Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well. # Israel has the highest per capita ratio of scientific publications in the world by a large margin, as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed. # In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech). # Israel is ranked #2 in the world for VC funds right behind the US. # Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita. # Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies # Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 is over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK. # With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world (apart from the Silicon Valley). # With an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16s, Israel has the largest fleet of the aircraft outside of the US. # Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined. # The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola-Israel. Motorola built its largest development center worldwide in Israel. # Windows NT software was developed by Microsoft-Israel. # The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel. # Voice mail technology was developed in Israel. # AOL's instant message program was designed by an Israeli software company. # Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel # The city of Beer Sheva in Israel has the highest percentage in the world of Chess Grand Masters per capita – one for every 22,875 residents. # On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech start-ups # Israel has the largest raptor migration in the world, with hundreds of thousands of African birds of prey crossing as they fan out into Asia. # Twenty-four percent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees -- ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland -- and 12 percent hold advanced degre And all of the predominately islamic countries in the Middle East combined have (besides oil and terrorism) accomplished... what exactly?

Gee, that's admirable! How about beheading, disembowelments and other islamic favorites that mesh more with the koran than the Geneva Convention?

Never said you did. BTW, have you ever directed any criticism whatsoever at any islamic-majority state? I haven't visited the Wall in a long time, so I was just wondering...

Are you saying that islam does not indoctrinate its followers to hate the Jews? That was my only point. I never said anyone who criticizes Israel is anti-semitic. Nor, necessarily, is anyone who criticizes EVERYTHING Israel does... like you do! I did not call you anti-semitic. I simply said that the indoctrination of islam - where everything is the fault of the Jews (or anyone who is a friend of the Jews for that matter) - seems to have taken some hold on you.

Probably true enough. Yet, if you could pick just one for starters, which elimination would have the greatest and most immediate impact? It isn't a tough choice.

Islam: It's the ideology, stupid! And the reality is that, over the long haul of history, it has hurt its practitioners more than anyone else - and that's saying a lot, given its multitude of victims from Armenia to Somalia. And Chicot, ever the atheist islamic apologist - it appears that the "hate-the-jews" indoctrination stuck in spite of your rejection of islam. (BTW, you are aware that the sentence for leaving islam is death, aren't you? I wouldn't go telling that to too many jihadi wannabees, even in Britain. Some nut is always looking to get a few brownie points with allah, most merciful, by beheading a muslim apostate.) If islam - as a religion/ideology - no longer existed (or never existed in the first place), would this be a more peaceful world?

The "Just Give it to Them" game! (It may qualify as more blood-vessel-popping than heart-breaking, though.) A couple of years before, with Todd Collins at QB, I had begun to hate the Patsies when Poodle Pete ran up the score against Marv in his last year of coaching. Then, the Just Give it To Them game sealed it. Die, Patsies! DIE! DIE! DIE!!!!!!!!

I heard that Michael Moore will deliver his eulogy.

WOW! Did he rehab his brain, too?

I can think of a better one: Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl in Popeye.

I hope we're not too tempted. Leinart is the next "Ryan Leaf" IMHO.

Interesting... but what I really want to know is when does "Mexico über alles" come out?

Great explanation! Thanks! But isn't there some "sweet spot" by which someone with an extraordinarily high income would actually pay less - total - by donating the right amount?

But is that $540 not in addition to having reduced one's taxable income by $2000?

Simple answer: no. From what I understand, the more taxable income you have, the more charitable donations you need to make in order to keep your total output (donations plus taxes) at a minimum. That is the "magic dollar amount".

When discussing Gates' charitable contributions, they never discuss how much money he gives away above and beyond that magic dollar amount he needs to contribute to pay the least amount in taxes. Then maybe I'd be more impressed with his "giving". (The same goes for anyone, not just Gates.) As for Kraft, let's not forget his generous yearly contributions to the NFL Officials! BTW, this whole topic is very sad indeed. If the Bills leave Buffalo, I'm done with NFL football forever.

Yes, that's very true. I highly recommend that anyone interested in dog - and dog OWNER - behavior watch the Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic channel on Friday nights at 8:00 PM. Fascinating stuff!