Maybe we should just elect Trump president

Carlos wrote:
As diplomatically as you framed that, Hutch, stating religion should be a credulity test to enter the United States of America is appalling.

Do you think Communists should have been allowed into the country during the Cold War?

Space wrote:

Carlos wrote:
As diplomatically as you framed that, Hutch, stating religion should be a credulity test to enter the United States of America is appalling.

Do you think Communists should have been allowed into the country during the Cold War?

Communism is a religion? And, yes.

Hutch, the role of Rhett is already being played by, well, Rhett.

Carlos wrote:

Space wrote:

Carlos wrote:
As diplomatically as you framed that, Hutch, stating religion should be a credulity test to enter the United States of America is appalling.

Do you think Communists should have been allowed into the country during the Cold War?

Communism is a religion? And, yes.

I don't know if Communism is a religion, but in many parts of the world Islam is a political system.

I think Ali Rizvi said it well on November 14:

https://www.facebook.com/ali.a.rizvi/posts/10102746230703608


The failure of Western liberals to honestly acknowledge the problem of Islamic jihad only strengthens Marine Le Pen & the National Front. This is not good.

I hope my fellow liberals will do more from here on to align themselves with their counterparts – the dissidents in the Islamic world. The fight against Islamic jihad should come from a position of moral strength, not xenophobic bigotry. This is a fight that liberals should take on themselves before it's hijacked by the far right.

Kudos to Anderson Cooper for having Maajid Nawaz on tonight, and to Bill Maher for having Asra Nomani. These are the kinds of voices liberals should be boosting as the future of the Muslim world we want to see.

Carlos wrote:
As diplomatically as you framed that, Hutch, stating religion should be a credulity test to enter the United States of America is appalling.

Well I don't think I exactly stated that Julian.

First of all, this is a discussion..there is nothing wrong with having it.

It doesn't have to be religion.. it can simply be most people from certain places who will of course happen to be of a certain religion…

This type of thing goes on all the time…

I don't think saying "we will not allow muslims in the US as immigrants or tourists" is possible or productive…but cutting down substantially over a few year span on the amount of foreign people from countries where large majorities of the people seem to despise us is doable…Government doesn't have to announce its discrimination policies.. it discriminates all the time on how it awards visas, permits etc…. in fact, arguably, that is one of its major roles…

I mean take Saudi Arabia.. do you know what kind of country you are talking about? We are supposed to go out of our way to take in Saudis when they won't let Israeli and arguably Jews into their country? When American women who go to Saudi Arabia with Saudi husband can only leave the country without their children?? Do you think the Saudi government does anything to help these American women?

Its very simple… every year for the next 10 years you lower the amount of people being let in from these places by say 10% per year (both as immigrants and tourists)… at the end you should maintain some token -very seriously checked out- cases admitted so that people can't say we don't allow muslims or people from these countries…

Now of course if Saudi Arabia, Turkey and many other of our friends in the region want to crack down on ISIS and somehow in the Middle East all of a sudden these "few radical extremists" disappear then we can reconsider our immigration/tourist levels… Doesn't seem like such a strange measure to me .. Plenty of people from Latin America more than happy to come in to the US legally.. never heard of international terrorists from these countries..that should count for something in their favor vis a vis their Middle Eastern brethren I should say unless we don't consider terrorism a threat.

walk,on,by wrote:
. . . but good lord, man.

kinda felt the same way

another thread bites the dust, another thread….heeey eeya eeya eeeaya eyeaaaah

Sidehatch wrote:

walk,on,by wrote:
. . . but good lord, man.

kinda felt the same way

another thread bites the dust, another thread….heeey eeya eeya eeeaya eyeaaaah

What thread bit the dust? Did I miss something?

hutch wrote:never heard of international terrorists from these countries..

what about this cigar lover

although some might consider Sartre an international terrorist too

Space wrote:

Sidehatch wrote:

walk,on,by wrote:
. . . but good lord, man.

kinda felt the same way

another thread bites the dust, another thread….heeey eeya eeya eeeaya eyeaaaah

What thread bit the dust? Did I miss something?

Koz most likely hasn't had a chance to catch up on todays musings

Sidehatch wrote:

Space wrote:

Sidehatch wrote:

walk,on,by wrote:
. . . but good lord, man.

kinda felt the same way

another thread bites the dust, another thread….heeey eeya eeya eeeaya eyeaaaah

What thread bit the dust? Did I miss something?

Koz most likely hasn't had a chance to catch up on todays musings

Agree with him or not, but bravo to Hutch for at least attempting to have a dialogue. Are you suggesting that the proper reply is to simply delete the thread?

come on Kosmo is cool as a cucumber.. stop trying to make something out of nothing Sidehatch.

I hear two main arguments for why limiting the number of muslims coming in to the US is a bad idea

1. Its against who we are blah blah…this is the same argument we hear very often when there is no good argument….I really don't get this one…I mean I get that for the populace we pretend we don't discriminate but when we consider who to take in from where we do it all the time… heck, we even have countries from which people don't require visas to visit the US ..so we do discriminate plenty..we may not think about it in such terms but we are always picking who gets to come in… .I don't know if it still exists but in the 80s and 90s if you pledged to invest a certain amount of money in the US (say starting a business) you got your green card like snap…pretty sure program still exists.. if you're poor: tough shit. These are the kinds of things that happen every day in America but people don't know or don't talk about them.

2. The more compelling one - and I am unclear on what it is- seems to go something like this.. "Muslims are going to be so pissed off (and we know they get ticked off real easy) that they are going to join ISIS in droves and start blowing shit up….also it will drive a wedge between American Muslims and American non-muslims…..and the American muslims will presumably start blowing shit up because they get angry real easy"…. I find this one difficult to swallow.. I mean if you're going to get pissed off that easily that you go join ISIS and start beheading people we probably don't want you in our country anyways…presumably

Anyways, regardless of how people may not feel it lives up to our Americanness you better believe women seeking to come to America from Saudi who met their husbands online dating ain't coming to no more. And any that already came in during the same time frame as this piece of shit are probably being questioned as we speak or being put on a plane back to Saudi….

How do you screen for Muslim?  Do you just know them when you see them?  Do you rely on them to report their religion accurately?

jaded wrote:
How do you screen for Muslim?  Do you just know them when you see them?  Do you rely on them to report their religion accurately?

I think James will have an answer shortly

Jesse LaGreca
‏@JesseLaGreca
New test: replace the word "Muslims" with "Jews" and then ask yourself "Do I sound like a fucking Nazi?"
https://twitter.com/JesseLaGreca/status/673280186083840000

sweetcell wrote:
Jesse LaGreca
‏@JesseLaGreca
New test: replace the word "Muslims" with "Jews" and then ask yourself "Do I sound like a fucking Nazi?"
https://twitter.com/JesseLaGreca/status/673280186083840000

Isn't it the Saudis who most closely resemble modern day Nazis?

Sidehatch  wrote:

jaded wrote:
How do you screen for Muslim?  Do you just know them when you see them?  Do you rely on them to report their religion accurately?

I think James will have an answer shortly

There are 26 countries that have Muslim populations of 95% or more, including 18 countries with 98% or more. Citizenship in those countries might be a good indicator.

Estimates vary widely as to the number of gay men imprisoned in concentration camps during the Holocaust, ranging from 5,000 to 15,000, many of whom died.

http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/fivmil.htm

Some human rights activists and opponents of the Iranian regime claim between 4,000 and 6,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed in Iran for crimes related to their sexual orientation since 1979.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Iran