On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 5:25 PM, Robert Munn wrote: > On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 4:05 PM, denstar wrote: >> On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 12:12 AM, Robert Munn wrote: > Do I think that an existential threat to our >>> civilization merits a "special circumstances" exception? Absolutely. >> >> An existential threat? Dude, you have gone Stockholm. > > Al Qaeda has specifically said their goal is to destroy Western > civilization and impose a worldwide Islamic state like what the > Taliban had going in Afghanistan. You don't see that as an existential > threat?
So what, Al Qaeda (or is it terrorists in general?) is Eurasia, and congress is the Ministry of Truth, or some such? I mean, if both Republicans and Democrats agree, it's got to be good, as you've stated previously. =] There are hundreds of movies out there that have plausible doomsday scenarios-- what do you propose we do? Besides the obvious, like hardening our water supplies and whatnot, of course. Shit, man. :) >> Are you telling me that people bent on killing other people (even >> great numbers of other people) is somehow new? > > What is new is mass-murder by non-state actors across international > boundaries. The reason everyone is so scared of WMD falling into the > hands of terrorists is that they have no restraints on their actions. > They don't care about retaliatory strikes, collateral damage, or > anything else that would normally prevent someone from actually > carrying out a WMD attack. Al Qaeda and its affiliates are just as > likely to set off a nuclear weapon in Beijing or Moscow as New York or > London. Are you arguing that people with no conscience is a *new* concept? Technology is just going to get sicker and easier to obtain, dude-- fighting things the way you seem to want to fight them is a loosing battle. Think of it sorta like how you think about Social Security, neh? It'll have at least as much of an impact on us, believe it or not. Or I could just be full of a particular brand of shit, ya know? Like, so what if Bruce Willis* routinely defeated terrorist plots without the aid of an All Seeing Eye, that was before 9/11, right? *shameful admission: I haven't seen the latest die hard movie, so I hope this example isn't ironic. I could just be naive, too, for all I really know. There's always a lot more going on than you think, it seems. -- When all actions are mathematically calculated, they also take on a stupid quality. Theodor Adorno ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:270304 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
