The Political Discussion Thread

[SoulReaver]

If you swapped out innocent Palestinian civilians for innocent Israeli ones then Israel would not attack as it does, no matter what Hamas was hiding and where. You know they wouldn't.

ah but they would
to their military - as with all armed forces - civilians are the least of their priorities whether it's foreign citizens or their own (who are worth a wee bit more but are still just civies)
that's how it works just about everywhere

[KEK]

Well it isn't clear to me. They seem to be doing more than any other civilized nation to avoid civilian casualties.

Absolute nonsense. You don't bomb schools and hospitals and power plants if you want to avoid civilian causalities. Sending a cheeky text message or warning bomb beforehand hardly does anything to offset the devastation that follows. And where these people are supposed to evacuate to, I have no idea. It's not that Israel's bombings into civilian areas are more brutal than anyone else's, it's that they're not really necessary in the first place. Could you imagine Britain firing air-strikes and shells into Northern Ireland during the troubles? It would have been unthinkable.

[Coco Pops]

Hey does the TPPA apply inside America? Do all your internet service providers (ISP's) have to now clamp down on things like piracy and such?

How does the TPPA affect an ISP?

I think our stupid government has signed onto this irrational legislation.

As of last Thursday all our nations ISP's agreed together to clamp down on piracy and not only remove customers who they suspect are doing this but report them to the authorities for possible prosecution......

[KEK]

Interesting how little is being said online and elsewhere about the 1400 children that were sexually abused by Pakistani rape gangs in Rotherham because the authorities were too afraid to act for fear of being branded racists.

[Gatefan1976]

Hey does the TPPA apply inside America? Do all your internet service providers (ISP's) have to now clamp down on things like piracy and such?

How does the TPPA affect an ISP?

I think our stupid government has signed onto this irrational legislation.

As of last Thursday all our nations ISP's agreed together to clamp down on piracy and not only remove customers who they suspect are doing this but report them to the authorities for possible prosecution......

So, your concern is directed to those who use the net to steal?

[mad_gater]

So, your concern is directed to those who use the net to steal?

I think the concern might pertain to just how many eyes and ears "Big Brother" seems to have nowadays

I for one do not like the fact that various agencies could just go trawling through my computer without so much as a "by your leave"

why else do you think many people are becoming security obsessed? the amount of cyber-spying that goes on makes me wonder if I live in a police state that seeks to know every little detail about how a citizen lives his private life

[Womble]

Absolute nonsense. You don't bomb schools and hospitals and power plants if you want to avoid civilian causalities.

You get bombed out of schools and hospitals but don't you dare shoot back! Think of the children! Any children but yours!

Sending a cheeky text message or warning bomb beforehand hardly does anything to offset the devastation that follows. And where these people are supposed to evacuate to, I have no idea.

The Palestinians do. That message - which is usually a call actually- doesn't just tell them to get out. It tells them where to go.

Could you imagine Britain firing air-strikes and shells into Northern Ireland during the troubles? It would have been unthinkable.

It would have. The Troubles were a minor domestic conflict, not a war, and there wasn't much threat to the British mainland. In The US doesn't use airstrikes in Ferguson, either.

(One must also remember that Britain is far less sensitive to the casualties among its civilians - which is natural, Britain's population being more than 8 times larger than Israel's).

On the other hand, one needs only to look at British air force actions in Iraq - and suddenly one need not imagine anything.

[Coco Pops]

So, your concern is directed to those who use the net to steal?

No...... Not against that at all... Go after the pirates but by putting a blanket ruling on their services brands everyone with some level of suspicion......

I just don't like the way the West is headed.

[Coco Pops]

Well the media can be cruel........ Mike Carlton of SMH got fired for a colum he wrote about Israel..... Nice how if you take sides you can be fired.

http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/med...028S00#playing

[Falcon Horus]

iView's only available to Australian territories. Gatefan will be with you shortly.

[Coco Pops]

iView's only available to Australian territories. Gatefan will be with you shortly.

No doubt he will...........

I just find it interesting but not surprising if you criticize Israel you will get into hot water.

[Falcon Horus]

I just find it interesting but not surprising if you criticize Israel you will get into hot water.

I sure is interesting, on a whole bunch of levels.

[Gatefan1976]

Let me assimilate the information, I have been cooking dinner

[Gatefan1976]

OK..................
Ummmm............
I don't really want to get into this, but if you want my opinion, and ONLY my opinion.
Mike Carlton should not have quit after reading the actual feed. I can see *why* it was considered Anti-semetic, and perhaps it may have been considered "tactless" but anything more?
Twitter to me is like Cold Calling Advertising. No one raises an eyebrow when we tell the caller to F off, in fact, we regale ourselves with stories on how the most fun way to tell the person from the call centre to F off.
Do we destroy people for it?

I found the actual article:
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/israel...724-zwd2t.html

The problem seems to stem from His comment that "Call it genocide, call it ethnic cleansing: the aim is to kill Arabs"
What that DOES NOT address is the entirety of the article, which (OMFG!!!) blames BOTH parties.
This is the other side of the "double standard" defence. Mike did not say that Hamas or Palestine was blameless, in fact he clearly stated that they were, but just because one side has blame, does not mean the other is free of blame.
When my kids get into a fight, it's rarely just one of them involved. Oh sure, one may start it, and the other retaliates, ad infinitum.
As a parent however, I really don't give a TOSS who started it, I want it sorted out. I usually do that by putting both in separate corners and make them think about their choices.

[Coco Pops]

OK..................
Ummmm............
I don't really want to get into this, but if you want my opinion, and ONLY my opinion.
Mike Carlton should not have quit after reading the actual feed. I can see *why* it was considered Anti-semetic, and perhaps it may have been considered "tactless" but anything more?
Twitter to me is like Cold Calling Advertising. No one raises an eyebrow when we tell the caller to F off, in fact, we regale ourselves with stories on how the most fun way to tell the person from the call centre to F off.
Do we destroy people for it?

I found the actual article:
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/israel...724-zwd2t.html

The problem seems to stem from His comment that "Call it genocide, call it ethnic cleansing: the aim is to kill Arabs"
What that DOES NOT address is the entirety of the article, which (OMFG!!!) blames BOTH parties.
This is the other side of the "double standard" defence. Mike did not say that Hamas or Palestine was blameless, in fact he clearly stated that they were, but just because one side has blame, does not mean the other is free of blame.
When my kids get into a fight, it's rarely just one of them involved. Oh sure, one may start it, and the other retaliates, ad infinitum.
As a parent however, I really don't give a TOSS who started it, I want it sorted out. I usually do that by putting both in separate corners and make them think about their choices.

I've been saying the same thing BOTH parties in this conflict are to blame......

However I can't understand why he quit his job over this and why everyone in the media felt the need to sling mud and pillory him