12 killed in shooting at satirical newspaper office in Paris

We already live in your free society ... the majority already live as I suggest. We don't walk on eggshells. And we're great neighbours.

 

According to some people we are not good neighbours

 

Hi I'm from Belfast!

On a more serious note, I've been lurking this thread for the last few pages and I can no longer NOT post this - http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/not-a-very-pc-thing-to-say.html

 

Guardian clicky

What the actual fudge is that about?

 

Don't you know we live in a surveillance state.
But don't worry if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.

 

Sticks and stones will break my bones but draw a cartoon I don't like and I will ****ing end you!

 

I'm surprised the welsh police can even read

 

They can't. They just look at the pretty pictures.

Let's protect free speech and civil rights by carefully monitoring their exercise. Looks like the terrorists are winning.

 

Virus had travelled to Copenhagen

Copenhagen hit by second deadly shooting http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31475803

 

I know it's a slight digression, but hasn't that "fact" been proven to be a myth?

 

Welcome to my working day.

Not an entirely accurate report there. I could say more on the matter, but being that we live in a surveillance state I worry I'll be silenced...

I'd say it's pretty accurate, having seen it first hand many times.

 

IIRC the stats around this, 15% of those who have been abused become abusers themselves. Not surprising really, if that is the norm that they grew up with. To complicate matters, some people alternate between being abused and being the abuser, often in the same relationship.

Yeah, I refer you to the T-shirt in post #241...

 

Ok, so more abused become abusers than religious people become terrorists. And I'd still argue that having 15% of one demographic overlapping another does not actually demonstrate the one being the cause of the other. Else how do the ones who were NOT abused get explained? Yes, it's more complicated than that, because the question is not so much how many abused became abusers as how many abusers were themselves abused. Unless the nature of the abuse is being continued, of course, but is that part of the statistic gathering? And of course, the gathering of statistics to turn a linear question into a set of numbers itself only tells a small part of the story.

Yes, it's more complicated. I should hope so too. In terms of "terrorists", while in many cases (lets use NI as a good example that fits), many acts of violence were a fairly predictable cycle of retribution, but e.g. some guy in the UK becoming a muslim and within a year deciding to kill, follows a completely different line, doesn't it?

 

I've just come home from a long day at work and a martini has just hit ground zero (nucleus accumbens is partying like it's 1999), so I will come back to this some other time. But the abusers who were not abused in a blatant, physical or sexual manner still suffered a quite dysfunctional and damaging childhood. A very small minority are born psychopaths.

Terrorism being in many cases a predictable act of retribution illustrates nicely how the abused can become abusers in turn.

EDIT: sober now. I wonder if you are conflating two different issues. When I mentioned Israel as an example of an abused child growing up into an abuser in turn, I was not making a statement about how many abused children become abusers and whether or not that's inevitable. It occasionally happens, and there are reasons for that, and it happens not only at an individual level but also at the level of communities, institutions and nations.

Some guy becoming 'Muslim' and within a year deciding to kill follows another (if not entirely distinct) line of psychopathology. It is not about the religion --it never is just about the ideology. It is about lonely, alienated and suggestible minds finding a group to belong to, one that shares their feelings of alienation and narcissistic rage, and the extremists' doors are always open. But then again, most religious groups looking to convert target the weak and vulnerable.

"Hell is always open. Even on Christmas" --Lucifer, in The Prophecy

 

I come from a protestant/catholic mixed family, but I'm an athiest. I do respect those who hold religious beliefs though and I don't find it funny when others mock their beliefs or belief systems. It's something I may not avoid or condemn, I just personally feel that if someone feels strongly enough about something, poking fun isn't really an option for me. Much the same as if someone made lewd or derogitory comments about my children, in an attempt to be humourous, I wouldn't be laughing.

Those of us here in the west who may have had a Christian upbringing should remember it wasn't that long ago we would face torture and death for heresy. Even questioning the Churches teachings could result in the same. The Christian faith has just as much blood on it's hands as the extremist *******isation of Islam has. While I respect religious beliefs, I do believe that religion causes more problems than it cures, very much so.

One thing that gets my goat is the sheer hypocrisy of the extremists and terrorists. They twist and contort their chosen religion to suit their intent, whilst claiming it is the same religion that guides them and justifies their actions. It's not just a bad segment of "Muslims" who do this, there are quite a few religions that attract nutcases who want justification for their inhuman acts. I wonder when our civilisation will truly become civilised? I don't see it happening in my, or my children's lifetimes.