All Four of my grandparents were immigrants. Listen, as the plane was going down didn't the black box reveal the terrorists shouting Allah Allah (911 White House target)?
I don't have time to fact check right now. I will say if I was on a flight and someone yelled out Allah Allah I would at least poke my husband. Am I against Muslims? Yes? No? I'm against Radical Islmac Terrorists, a situation like this is unfortunate. Could he been trying to draw attention to prove a point? Maybe. Bottom line RIT hate Americans. Yes or No?

There are many Christian Arabs. Allah = GOD in all Arabic dialects.

I guess I am riled up today. A question? How in the world can Ted Cruz say that gay marriage should be a state's only issue according to the Constitution? We tried that. It did not work which is why they brought it to the courts. I live in CT where gay marriage has been legal for a long time. But, if the married couple has to move to say Georgia for work and they don't have a gay marriage law on the books, doesn't that mean that their very legal marriage in CT is now illegal? Can you see the illogical nature of that? http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/18/politics/ted-cruz-same-sex-marriage-question/index.html

Can someone of the mind-set that gay marriage should not be legal explain to me why when a couple who spends 30, 40, 50 years together and one of them dies, they should have to fight with relatives on the other side to get the house or any of the possessions? Things like that happen all of the time when people are not legally married, especially if they were not savvy enough to do a will.

There was an episode of "All in the Family" years ago that dealt with this issue. Edith's cousin died and she was next of kin. Archie was chomping at the bit to take her possessions out of the apt. she shared with her "roommate" when the roommate explained to Edith they were more than just living together. Edith told Archie they were leaving and not taking anything. Archie said "Why not" and she responded with because it does not belong to me or something like that. That was the 1970's! Yet we are still debating this issue? Really? Why in the world do some people discourage love? Isn't there already too little of it in this world? BTW, in case you are wondering, I am straight and have 2 kids and a husband. But, I can see when something is just not fair! We can't legislate what we don't like or we don't believe in religion wise. It is not what America is built on!

Off my soapbox for the rest of the day.

Yes, Allah is simply the word for G-d. It's used not only by many faiths in Arabic countries, but in Turkey, Indonesia, India, to name a few.

Chi, Please don't preach to me... I am educated on who Allah is. I think it's time for me to take a break from this board. I can't give an opinion of why I may have seen this differently than any of you and because of that, I get a lecture on Muslim Christian and Jews- and where it is used and not used. I stand by on my opinion on why this lady was paranoid.

It’s a damn sad state of affairs when speaking Arabic in public is an acceptable ground for detaining someone. What’s next, WWII-style internment camps?

This sounds like it would be an interesting and informative program to watch:

"Why do they hate us?" has been the question asked since the 9/11 attacks 15 years ago – and again in the wake of terrorist attacks in Boston, Brussels, Beirut, Paris, Mumbai, Ft Hood, San Bernardino, and beyond. CNN's Fareed Zakaria explores what is fueling the rage – and challenges intelligence experts, religious scholars, policy influencers, and even the very men who want to kill us – for answers to whether America and the rest of the West can do anything to stop the bloodshed. He looks at one Muslim community in the U.S. for what makes America's challenges different from Europe's and those in the Middle East.

A new hour-long primetime special, WHY THEY HATE US, will premiere Monday, April 25 at 10:00pm Eastern on CNN/U.S.

What makes seemingly ordinary people turn against their own countrymen to commit murderous attacks? Zakaria challenges violent jihadis about the reasons why they hate the West – and gets rarely heard answers.

Why do others committing this carnage come from nations once thought to be allies of the West? Zakaria details the unlikely origins of this searing anti-Western hatred to Greeley, Colorado in 1949. Sayyid Qutb, a puritanical, conservative Muslim was so horrified by his experience in America he returned to Egypt to advocate a return to Sharia law by Arab nations, the rejection of modernization and democracy – and violent retaliation against America and the West for 'corrupting' the Arab World.

Is Islam an inherently violent religion? Zakaria seeks answers for what attracts extremists to the medieval, barbaric terror of a violent interpretation of Islam from author and scholar Reza Aslan (No God But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam and Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in the Age of Globalization); neuroscientist and chief executive of Project Reason,Sam Harris; anti-Western British cleric Anjem Choudary; Columbia University professor and Co-Director for the Center for Palestine Studies, Rashid Khalidi, DPhil.; and author and Muslim reformer Irshad Manji (Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith and Allah, Liberty, and Love). Astonishingly, Manji describes the scholarship behind the true meaning of a widely popularized mistranslation of the afterlife promise of "72 virgins" to actually be a reference to…"raisins."

Though dead for decades, Qutb's violent admonitions inspired Osama bin Laden, today's radical clerics from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, and even an influential American cleric whose seductive sermonic fragments were found scrawled inside the boat where one of the Boston Marathon bombers was found, as well as in messages exchanged by the San Bernardino jihadis. Zakaria concludes with proposed solutions to defeat this infectious ideology currently posing a global security threat – and even shaping the most controversial points of debates for the U.S. elections, and influencing European and American policy on refugees, immigration, privacy, and the rules for armed conflict.

Yeah--I’m getting electionitis earlier & earlier every four years.

Saw this op-ed by Dick Cavett the other day:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/opinion/trumpo-t...

ChiSandy, I, too, loop the Shema during take-offs, landings, and turbulence. I hope if my lips are moving nobody will think it's an Arabic prayer and boot me off the plane!

Maltese, I really hope you won't take a break. Not many could hold their own as you have been on this thread. We need you to bounce things off and we need YOUR point of view to make us think. It makes us better. I hope you will reconsider.

I identified my sexual orientation as straight because I posted the piece on Ted Cruz and gay marriage being left to the individual states. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew I didn't post that to further any agenda other than I find it repulsive personally that anyone would discourage love and marriage of ANY persuasion. I had an uncle who was gay that was the most amazing person I ever met, so early on my opinion was formed about this particular group and in a very positive way. We were very close and I still miss him every single day even though he passed in 2008! He was one of my best friends. He did not live to see the gay marriage law passed nationwide which is so sad to me.

Thanks to all for a lively thread and for making me think beyond any election in my more recent memory. Thank you to all who post interesting articles that inform and help me. I appreciate ALL thoughts here.

For you Hydranne - hoping you can see it despite being over. I think I am about there myself this month.

The Opinion Pages | Contributing Op-Ed Writer

'Trumpo,' the Unfunny Marx Brother

Dick Cavett APRIL 15, 2016

Continue reading the main story Share This Page Continue reading the main story

• Share
• Tweet
• Email
• More
• Save

372

It's no surprise, and no fun, hearing that our country has become a laughingstock abroad. The laughter is mixed with a dose of panic.

A friend in London writes: "We are rubbing our eyes in disbelief at the frightening spectacle of the American political scene. It seems to be a nightmare from which the United States cannot awaken."

Yet here we are, having to endure Donald Trump. Limited space prevents the inclusion of a complete (or even partial) list of transgressions, but let's just point out that this is a man who claims he can get along with everybody, yet managed to have a tiff with the pope.

Many of the people who like Trump are people who have been brutally ignored by the government and the media for a long, long time. We have failed to cover that part of America that is struggling, bitter and seething. We spend too much time talking to senators and other bores, and not enough talking to the jobless.

Many have legitimate gripes. Those who were granted a mortgage they couldn't afford on a house they couldn't afford and then lost it to foreclosure in 2010. Those who had health insurance but were bankrupted nonetheless by one serious illness in the family. Those who lost children in the Middle East, and then realized how unnecessary the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were, or desperately need to justify them. Those who have been adversely affected by affirmative action (or think they have).

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

Hard-working people in non-glam jobs and humble living quarters might well be attracted to a man who promises to change everything. And the less specific he is, the easier it is for them to fantasize about the how. They love Trump because for some reason they see him as the embodiment of the entrepreneur in America — rising from nothing to become "yuge." (Ironically, they might have been looking at President Obama that way, if his skin were fairer.)

These are the disaffected. The disenfranchised. The disdainful. The disillusioned who awoke in a cold sweat from the American dream and are ripe and vulnerable to an American fantasy.

Continue reading the main story "" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border: 0px currentColor; border-image: none; vertical-align: bottom;">

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

"" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border: 0px currentColor; border-image: none; vertical-align: bottom;">

"" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border: 0px currentColor; border-image: none; vertical-align: bottom; display: none; visibility: hidden;">

But Trump doesn't really respect them. They are to him the little people who boost the ratings and populate the events. They are the backdrop for the racist and sexist innuendo in his starring role. You don't hear him, beyond a pandering nod, ever mention their plight. He is not subject to the same laws that govern them, and that's O.K. with him. He thinks they are there at the rallies to see a serious candidate for president. But mostly they are there to see a reality TV star and to vent their anger. What do they see in him? Themselves, perhaps? After they win the lottery?

Each new awful atrocity or pettiness by "Trumpo" (the really unfunny Marx brother) just cements the allegiance of those followers who jeer and give the finger and worse to anyone who doesn't agree with him, or them. Like Donald, they find fault with the questions and questioners, but not with his often incomplete, erroneous or ever-changing answers. (Bob Schieffer of CBS tells us: "I'm not sure more fact-checking would have changed that much. We're in a new world where attitude seems to count more than facts.")

Photo Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times

Speaking of the Marxes, let's look at Trump as an actor. A stage performer.

First, the onstage look he has chosen. To me, the mystery about the famous hairdo is not so much its construction but its existence. The wearer is clearly averse to exposed bald patches of the pate. But can you picture any pattern of baldness that could look worse than that layer of frayed golden carpet sitting on top of the head? Don't even try.

Obviously his mother's milk — probably his ultimate joy — is standing onstage before a cheering mob of worshiping Trumpites. But, sadly for him, Donald lacks the skills that make being "up there" fun. Humor, primarily. Answering hecklers is one of the great pleasures for a stand-up performer. You get credit for it because it isn't planned.

Hey, Cavett. That's one of my father's jokes.
What are you? One of your mother's?

Isn't that sort of thing a lot more fun, if one is being heckled, than the less than Groucho-like "Throw 'em out!" and the humor-free "Punch him in the face"? Trump is a good celebrity, but if he were a good entertainer, he'd vary his strokes. It must be hard to adjust, having been enveloped in a comfy luxury world of your own in which "You're the boss" and "Yes, sir" is the background music.

Would a copy of "The Trump Wit" fit easily into your shirt pocket?

A question for Trump's interviewers and hosts: Aren't there a lot more things you want to ask him? And then hold him to the answers, and show his previous answers that are contradictory? For help in this, see Stephen Colbert interviewing Trump v. Trump.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

Keep asking where he gets his information when he says we in the United States pay the highest taxes. (We don't.) When he says he heard from five top generals this morning, couldn't we ask for names, please? (And contact information, so we can confirm what Trump said they said.) When he claims a hundred women have written him, could we ask to see the letters?

(Oh, and do be a good chap, Mr. Trump, and give us those tax returns.)

But these observations would just be interesting dinner conversation if he didn't frighten us so much.

When he told Anderson Cooper that Cruz "started it" about the War of the Wives, Cooper responded that that was the reaction of a 5-year-old. And we wondered, If the issue were a nuclear exchange with North Korea, would Trump say, "Gee, Mom, Kim Jung-un started it"? Suppose a terrifying crisis were to explode in, say, the Middle East. The Donald, with his demonstrated lack of world knowledge, wouldn't know Shiite from Shinola.

Lee Iacocca, a truly successful businessman by any standard, declined to run for the highest office, because he knew that there was a fundamental difference between big business and big government. In government, the successful leaders can't just walk out, or sulk when someone disagrees. To be successful in government, a leader has to build a strong, inclusive coalition. Conversely, in big business, ultimately, the lead dog has to take responsibility and make a decision, and then everybody else has to follow. It's not a democracy. And America won't be much of one if Trump takes over.

Actually, I don't think he even wants to be president. His life is only about winning. The job itself would be a bore.

Write A Comment

After his first couple of astounding gaffes, the experts said: one more like that and he's through. Since then, it's been like watching a man trying to self-destruct, but nothing he tries works.

Maybe next time?

Continue

I do hope Maltese continues to post here, as I keep trying to understand the appeal of Donald Trump, and likely she is the only "poster" here to try to explain it to me.

I certainly support her right to her opinion, I just can't connect the dots between her reasons and the reality of her candidate.

This past week was his FIRST visit to the 9/11 memorial, complete with a photo entourage, and he gave a $100,000 contribution.!!!!! None of that demonstrates to me a caring, compassionate, generous person who cares about the little guy.

He LIVES AND WORKS in NYC, he is a native New Yorker, and that amount is pocket change to him. While the entire country, and much of the world was shaken and forever changed by that day, it apparently didn't register with him until he wanted the image "spin"?

My sister worked in NYC at the time. One of those people you saw on TV, covered in smoke and dust, running for her life, was my sister. She is now a strong advocate of support for Syrian refugees. She truly understands the difference between that act, and someone who practises the Muslim Faith.

His despicable use of such a horrific event to generate votes for himself and to promote hatred of millions of peaceful Muslims is beyond wrong.

On this NY primary day, I hope and pray for my home state, my family still there and for the end of rhetoric and return to reason and respect in American politics.

Hydranne, I am 61, the same age as you are. It was common for people to beat up on young gay men and particularly verbal assaults when we were of high school age. But, one thing was clear to me early on. It was usually done by boys that were trying to show off or make darn sure everyone knew they were "macho" guys, not by the boys who were secure and intelligent.

I was lucky that I did not witness too much of it, but I do remember going off on one kid who was relentlessly teasing this boy on my bus. I told him that if he did not stop it, I was going to "kick his ass" and I meant it!

I grew up in a kind of a rough section of the largest city in CT (Bridgeport) and learned to stick up for myself and so it came natural to me. By the time I was in high school, my parents had done the "white flight" thing and moved us to the burbs. I felt like I had landed on the moon!

By the way, I work in Social/Human Services. It was inevitable...lol

Just an aside...My brother is a staunch Republican and even he thinks DT is over the top and is supporting John Kasich. Not sure what womb that boy came from but he has been conservative and a Republican since he was a little boy. He worked handing out flyers for Richard Nixon's campaign!!! My father was in shock...lol

The word I couldn't think of earlier when I posted is "trademark". Trump's trademark is his hair. I'm sure I read that somewhere long ago and realized its true. Many celebrities and other icons have them, think of Barbara Bush's pearls, Crystal Gayle's ankle-length hair, Slash from Guns n Roses with his curly mop and top hat, Michael Jackson's glove, Cindy Crawford's mole and so on.

April, I read about the story you mention, Trump's plastic surgery to correct a bald spot; he came home in pain and so angry at Ivana because she'd recommended the doctor and he violently assaulted her (sexually). This was what she wrote in her book.

I've been physically assaulted for being lesbian. That's enough to influence my votes.