251. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196262 by TeraBrat on June 19, 2008 at 2:34 pm

am going to ignore the fact that you think murdering civilians is a deterrent to violence, because you seem like a pretty bright person and you know better.

I am not defending murdering civilians. That's what terrorists do. The houses are evacuated before they are buldozed. I saw your comment about the disabled boy and I agree that that was tragic and most probably a mistake if it did happen.

Woh woh woh, not so fast sparky. The Deir Yassin massacre, where the Stern Gang, along with others massacred hundreds, gutting pregnant women with swords, and then throwing corpses into the well...

Are yousure that it was Israelis who commited that massacre? I've never heard of it.

The Stern Gang and other terrorist groups were outlawed by the Yishuv. I admit that those terrorsit groups did some pretty horrible things but they were never condoned by the Yishuv or the Hagana.

The Arabs weren't worse they were MUCH worse. None of the wars that have occured there would have happened if they weren't so obsessed with "pushing the infidils into the sea". The west bank, gaza strip and golan heights would still belong to Jordan, Egypt and Syria. If they had sat quietly and allowed Israel to exist peacfully then none of this would have happened.

252. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196250 by TeraBrat on June 19, 2008 at 2:09 pm

Even worse and less noted, is that Sharon led

the force that perpetrated the massacre at Qibya in 1956. This raid was in response to a series of terrorists attacks carried out by Arab fedayeen (specifically one on a bus killing 12 civilians). They detonated explosives with people in their homes, and if they tried to run out before the explosives went off, they were shot. This to me is far more damning, as he personally led the operation.

I can't comment on that as I wasn't in the country at the time and have no information.

Sharon became Prime Minister inspite of Sabra and Shatila. It happened because people were fed up with all the bombings and were hoping he would be a deterant and he was.

What happened during the British Mandate was a totally different story. There were rogue terrorist groups but they acted indepentanly of the Yishuv and the Palmach. Most of the Yishuv was against it. On the other hand the Arabs organized several massacres that the British turned a blind eye to. And they would attack the ultra orthodox who had no weapons and no training and no way to protect themselves. They never dared attack one of the kibbutzim who could have fought back.

As for the UN declaring that there was no massacre in Jenin, you can laugh, but it's true. And the fact that they hate us so much makes their decision all that more conclusive.

BTW I'm a woman.

253. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196234 by TeraBrat on June 19, 2008 at 1:41 pm

I can't get into that site at work I'll look at it when I get home. I'm sure it's got as much truth to it as the massacre in Jenin.

I live in Israel for 30 years. I was there in the 1990's and 2002. Were you there?

Those are not myths those are facts.

How crowded do you expect their house to be?

The people are given plenty of time to move themselves and their posessions out of the house. n the event that they do not leave they are removed. No one has been killed in any of these events.

Are the bombers plotting to bomb their own houses? Unless that answer is "yes and only their house they'll be Allah damned if some infidel is going to live right next door to their house" Then that is perhaps the worst justification for government sponsored acts of terror I have ever seen.

The fact is that when we didn't bulldoze the bomvbings continued to get worse. As soon as we started bulldozing again they slowed down significantly. Call it what you want but it was effective and saved lives.

*cough cough*kingdavidhotel*cough cough*

I'm sorry, irony tickles my throat.

I was there. I witnessed it. Are you calling me a liar?

Yeah it was make-believe just like the Sabra and Shatila massacre....wait a minute...

Are you calling the UN liars?

Sabra and Shatila was a massacre. Israel did not participate in that massacre. Ariel Sharon tipped of the Lebanese Christians about the terrorist camp locations and they commited the massacre. Technically Israel was behind it, but, if the hatred between the Lebanese Muslims and Lebanese Christians was not there the massacre would not have happened.

I realize you are going to say it's a myth. I know what happened. Ariel Sharon was impeached from his position as Defense Minister because of that and was not allowed to serve as Defense Minister since (ironically he turned out to be a great Prime Minister many years later). But, not a single Israeli actually killed a single person in either of those camps. I'm not condoning what Sharon did or the massacres. Massacres are always wrong. Shall we discuss the massacres of the Jews by the Arabs in the 1920's?

254. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196219 by TeraBrat on June 19, 2008 at 1:22 pm

One more thing. The UN investigated the claims of massacre and decreed that they were a lie. There was no massacre in Jenin.

255. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196216 by TeraBrat on June 19, 2008 at 1:21 pm

Ah, so all those Palestinian boys who throw rocks at your tanks to keep you from bulldozing their houses are persecuting you. Interesting perspective. Care to compare Israeli/Palestinian deaths and expulsions since the founding of Israel?

I knew someone would try and say something. We bulldoze houses of bombers to prevent bombings. What is worse bulldozing a house a setting off a bomb in a crowded place killing and wounding dozens of innocent civilians?

Are you aware that during the early 1990's when Rabin and Arafat were having their biggest progress towards peace and founding Palestinian autonamy in the West Bank and Gaza strip the suicide bombings started? Are you aware that they got progressively worse as the concessions on Israels part got bigger?

Are you aware that when Israel went into Jenin in 2002 the arabs claimed massacre. The terrorists booby trapped homes making it impossible to walk into them without killing everyone in the house. The terrorists hid behind women and children they held hostage to stop the Israelis from killing them (do you think that killing a terrorist is a crime?). They later on staged mock funerals and invited the press to watch them walk their dead through the streets. Unfortunately for them a journalist in a helicopter caught them dropping one of those "dead" and the "dead man" got up and climbed back into the stretcher.

Learn the issues and the history before you comment on what a sensationalizing reporter tells you.

256. Breaking the Silence

Comment #196209 by TeraBrat on June 19, 2008 at 1:10 pm

So does she remain either too scared or intellectually unprepared to go the almost inevitable extra step to realising it isnt JUST about vile medieval interpretations being wrong and wicked, but about the whole underlying edifice being nothing but nonsense?

Do you realize that comments like this make you seem as bad as a religious fanatic?

257. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196152 by TeraBrat on June 19, 2008 at 11:14 am

I prefer the term Jewish People or People of Israel. Because it was as Jews and Israeli's that we were and are persecuted ad I want to keep my identity as a Jew as a tribute to my ancestors that kept our race alive.

It was never an issue for me until I moved back to the US. I grew up in Israel from the age of eight, and never concerned myself with the question of whether or not I was Jewish after I dropped the religion in my twenties. When I moved back here a few years ago I suddenly found myself facing the question of what it meant to me and to my great surprise I found out that it meant a lot.

258. It Doesn't Take an Einstein

Comment #196101 by TeraBrat on June 19, 2008 at 9:50 am

I'm a Jewish Agnostic and no that is not an oxymoron to me. Like Einstein I consider myelf a part of the Jewish People while I don't believe in "God". However, Judaism has brought a lot to the world. The idea of seeking knowlege and learning for the sake of learning has long been a Jewish tradition that started long before even the Greeks. Maimonidis, one of the greatest Jewish philosiphers of all time, goes as far as to say that the religion is based on learning and that when you learn you aer worshipping god(I can't give you the exact quote because I don't have the book with me right now). The Talmud is a great example of the desire to learn and understand for the sake of learning and understanding. It is no more than a battle of witts between the best Jewish minds of the time. They often reached no conclusion and the debate was merely for the sake of the debate. And their arguments were later commented on and discussed and written down as a commentary by the great minds of that time. And it is all continuing to be debated to this day.

So while I agree that we are not "chosen" because there was no one to choose us, I am proud of my ancestors and I do think that they contributed a lot to our evolution into the thinking humans we are today.

259. Richard Dawkins Interview on TVOntario

Comment #195782 by TeraBrat on June 18, 2008 at 7:32 pm

I just watched the videos for the first time.

Dawkins missed the most important argument when it came to morality. Since god doesn't exist people wrote the bible, therefore, any morality that is in the bible comes from people. The morality in the bible probably represents some of the most enlightened morality of the time in history it was written in. This is probably what drew other people towards it, that and the promise of a reward for listening to god. After all the ancient gods had their own moralities and that obviously came from people too.

What Richard explained was correct but it was missing that as a starter. Morality has evolved over time based on our experiences and the moralities of the holy books represent how people viewed morality when they wrote those books.

I loved his answer about what science knows and doesn't know "science thrives on what we don't know"-so true.

260. We Urgently Need Your Help Now!!

Comment #195575 by TeraBrat on June 18, 2008 at 2:09 pm

I guess he never heard of information theory.

261. We Urgently Need Your Help Now!!

Comment #195549 by TeraBrat on June 18, 2008 at 12:56 pm

I wonder if they realize that inteligent design includes the theory that we were created by aliens. Anyone ever read the book Intelligent Design?

You can find it at:

www.rael.org

It's hysterically funny and somewhat alarming at the same time. The fact that people believe in this proves that some people will believe anything with no proof.

262. Diamonds unlock secrets of early Earth

Comment #195434 by TeraBrat on June 18, 2008 at 8:12 am

Diamonds are compressed carbon. Carbon 14, the radioactive isotope of carbon has a half life of 5730 years. Carbon is usually used to date things up to about 30,000 possibly 40,000 years. Older fossils are dated using longer lived radioactive isotopes like argon.

I'm wondering what radioactive isotopes they used to date these diamonds as 4,000,000,000 years old. It seems highly unlikely that it could have been carbon.

Anyone know what the peer review paper this article is based on is? I'd like to see how they did this.