I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Medigal -- I agree; the President has been treading a very fine line indeed -- he's thinking with his head and not his guts.

p.s.  You're not considering an invasion of CANADA, are you? LOL  It's true we have a lot of what you guys need, but you'll have to get by our Mounties and raging grannies first!

For those who cannot get Al Jazeera on cable, here is their online news.  http://english.aljazeera.net/  I find Al Jazeera to be a reliably neutral source for what's happening in the world.  Reading more than one POV can be very enlightening and I recommend it.  The Tea Party is starting up an online news site and when it is up and running, I'll post a link.

Here are some links to other news sources:

Rolling Stone (politics) http://www.rollingstone.com/politics

BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Politico http://www.politico.com/

National Review http://www.nationalreview.com/

Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/

Here are some fact checking sites for both political statements and urban legends

PolitiFact (they have the pants on fire rating for political lies) http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/

FactCheck.org http://www.factcheck.org/

Snopes http://www.snopes.com/

We aren't that great at it Lassie.  I believe many pretend to have tolerance because it's politically correct.

Where I lived in Utah, there was a Mormon church literally on every corner.  One Christian church and one small Catholic church.  They weren't that friendly with the Christian population.  The Salt Lake area is different, as it is larger and more consmopolitan.

And then there's the atheist, who nobody much likes.

Bren

Blue .. you always make me hungry.  Yesterday it was carmel donuts! 

Welcome White Rabbit!!

The green in the "deleted" avatar gives me a headache so I thought I would try this red one instead.

Barbara - I had no idea your brother was still on a respirator. Do you care to tell us about him while we wait for him to get better? I remember you saying you had two brothers?

Barbara A -

My dh was on a respirator a few years ago and it took almost ten days to wean him - so don't be discouraged - prayers going your way.

Sandy

Thanks and hugs to you, Bren....

I am willing to bet I know significantly more about Islam than the majority of people on this board.  2tzus you forgot to mention that when those few extremists performed those radical acts against Egyptian Copits, regular Muslims stood up for their Coptic neighbors and called for Muslims to gather around Coptic churchs to protect the Christians who were celebrating Christmas.  Sadly enough it was the Egyptian government as represented by the police in those neighborhoods, the police who were supporting the then exisiting Egyptian government aka Mubarak--that ordered the regular Muslims home and declared them to be violating the rules about public gathering.

I always find discussions of populations as in how many Christians here/there/whereever in the middle east amusing in as much as all of the borders in the region were carefully hand drawn by a bunch of Europeans its a bit hard to say X country [which didn't exist as such] was full of Y popluation.  Some how the fact that the borders in the Middle east are so relatively new [by comparasion, consider how long there has been the border between Spain and France] and hand drawn with little regard to who liked who always gets forgotten.  Someone mentioned former Yugosalvia a while back---another instance where the borders were drawn by people unfamiliar with the realities of the land and the history.   Another place, I might add where Christiam majorities did not do a very good job of adhering to WWJD.

But hey, every country needs the boggy man, right?  Watch out you wicked wicked Canadians!  We know what you are up to.

Religous tolarance in the US is not so great as far as individuals are concerned--better than many places but we can definitely aspire to being better still especially to minority religons like Buddhism, Islam and Judaism.  Of course, we aren't always so hot with the tolarance on the various Christian sects either.   I always remember going to visit my grandmother and attending church with her and being introduced to some protestant missionary newly back from Peru where he had been saving the heathen and I am not refering to people believing in native religon.  Yargh. 

The very reason that Christian holidays don't get attention in the schools is because Christianity is the presumed norm---why teach something that will inevitably be taught at home?  As for bombings, what does "regularly" mean?  There are often attacks on synagogues now as well as long ago but it makes local press not national news.  Same with attacks on Mosques---one was attacked in Oregon recently and set on fire.  And in the past there were attacks on different types of christians by other christians.

Can one count intolarance towards atheists as religous intolarance?  I am thinking thats just intolarance towards different which--of course!--gives support to my basic premise about fear!

I am happy for the Egyptian people that Mubarak has stepped down.  And I hope that they get the democracy that they want and deserve to have.  However like Shirley, I hope for the best but fear the worst.  I fear that the Egyptian people's revolution will end up much like the 1979 Iranian people's revolution.  It might take longer to happen because the Muslim Brotherhood are not as significant a force in the Egyptian revolution as the Islamists were in Iran but I still think the risk is high. Prior to the Iranian revolution, the Shah ruled Iran with an iron fist but he created a modern, relatively free and open society.  They had freedom of religion and women had equal rights and opportunities.  Now Iran is.... well, we know what Iran is. I wonder how many of the protesters from 1979 would choose what they have now in Iran under Khamenei and Ahmadinejad versus what they had before under the Shah. For the the Iranians I know here in Canada it would be an easy choice.  I hope that in 5 years or 10 years we are not saying the same of Egypt.

And then there is Israel.  Will the future Egyptian regime - whether it is Muslim or secular - support the peace agreement?  And if not, what will happen to Israel?  

I am happy for the people of Egypt but I am worried for what this might mean for the West and for Israel.  To say that doesn't mean that I don't support the people of Egypt.  I hope more than anything that they get a true democracy.   

Blue

I love your avatar

White Rabbit

I believe you asked a question and my answer would be go ask Alice...

Loved the video.  Brought back fun memories!  I could use one of those pills now on this headache I've got.  Maybe a red one .. or a blue one would do the trick!

Bren

Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill?

Tukey sounds good for dinner too.

I had ful madammas once this week already. 

On the topic of mosque bombings and vandalism . . . it happens quite frequently.  A planned attack on a mosque in Dearborn, close to where I live, was thwarted very recently.

L

Yay for you Blue ... I bet that felt wonderful to shower on your own.  What an accomplishment .. I'm so happy for you!

love ya,

Bren