Scary stuff going down in India

Something struck me as odd today. The news kept describing the Lubavitcher Jews as "ultra orthodox". I follow religion somehat and I was not previosly aware of such a classification. And when I hear something like that I wonder about motives. You could almost translate the word ultra in this context as "these people are crazy too". Strange.

Update: Apparently the term "ultra orthodox" has been used to describe the Lubavitch though they understandably consider it to be pejoritive.

From a linguistic standpoint the phrase is certainly redundant if not absurd. It's like saying "ultra pregnant". (I'm surprised the Palin daughter didn't get this designation) Orthodox is a word that has meaning and this seems to be lost on news people and other secularists. Again, when I hear such terms in the press I interpret them as an attempt on the part of people to whom religion is completely foreign to basically say "people we don't like and we don't want you to like them either".

Oh come on. You can't sit there and pretend the US is just as bad. We don't have militant insurgents walking down streets with AK-47's in their hands, I mean yeah we have gangs and criminal organizations that use criminal tactics to get what they want, but the death rate cannot be as bad as some of the countries where bloodshed is an every day occurence. Now I don't have statistics to back me up on this, but all the same I feel that the United States is a lot safer than countries like India.
See that is the problem people just ignor the high murder rate in this country becasue it is mainly one person at a time and not mass murder. We are ranked in the to 50 of countries and its scary some of the ones that have a lower murder rates. List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate)

See that is the problem people just ignor the high murder rate in this country becasue it is mainly one person at a time and not mass murder. We are ranked in the to 50 of countries and its scary some of the ones that have a lower murder rates. List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate)
ok, so i looked at your link, not sure what you feel it proves, but 5.5 /100000 is not equivalent to walking down streets and having roving bands killing innocents. And as the article itself states
The reliability of underlying national homicide rate data may vary.[1] A comparative analysis of homicide data must be conducted carefully. This is because the legal definition of ‘homicide’ differs among countries. Homicide may or may not include assault leading to death, infanticide and assisted suicide or euthanasia.

Homicide demographics are affected by changes in trauma care, leading to changed lethality of violent assaults, so the homicide rate may not necessarily indicate the overall level of societal violence.[2] They may also be underreported for political reasons

I hate when people portray America as a place to live in fear. American society has gotten worse because fear has been used as "propaganda" to make government more invasive. but that probably is:offtopic:

ok, so i looked at your link, not sure what you feel it proves, but 5.5 /100000 is not equivalent to walking down streets and having roving bands killing innocents. And as the article itself states


I hate when people portray America as a place to live in fear. American society has gotten worse because fear has been used as "propaganda" to make government more invasive. but that probably is:offtopic:

Agreed. Stats don't tell the whole story. I understand your point Firstdown, but all I'm saying is that America is nowhere near as bad as those countries where fear dictates what you can and can't do.

FD, you're making it sound like you can't let your child play outside for fear that some radical with an assault rifle will gun them down for living in a household that caters to a different religion. If you are one of those type people, then ok w/e I'm not telling you how to live. But I don't necessessarily agree with your train of thought.

America is getting safer.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/totals.png

Bureau of Justice Statistics Homicide trends in the U.S.: Long term trends and patterns (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/hmrt.htm)

Or did i just use my last EKG to validate an argument?

:Smoker:

Seriously, when is there not some scary shit going down in India? Just a few years ago I read a piece recounting the number of murders there committed on the basis of the caste system (usually a person killed by his/her own family). How f'd is that?

Almost as effed as honor killings around the world perpetrated by muslims, oh sorry, are part of a culture, not a religion, and occur in Arab communities in the United States and many countries, according to this chick.':

An honor killing occurs when a male relative decides to take the life of a female relative because, in his opinion, she has dishonored her family’s reputation by engaging in an "immoral" act. An immoral act could be that she was simply seen with a strange man or that she slept with a man. In many cases, women are killed just because of rumors or unfounded suspicions.

PBS-Speak Truth to Power-Telling Stories (http://www.pbs.org/speaktruthtopower/rana.html)

Almost as effed as honor killings around the world perpetrated by muslims, oh sorry, are part of a culture, not a religion, and occur in Arab communities in the United States and many countries, according to this chick.':

An honor killing occurs when a male relative decides to take the life of a female relative because, in his opinion, she has dishonored her family’s reputation by engaging in an "immoral" act. An immoral act could be that she was simply seen with a strange man or that she slept with a man. In many cases, women are killed just because of rumors or unfounded suspicions.

PBS-Speak Truth to Power-Telling Stories (http://www.pbs.org/speaktruthtopower/rana.html)

If you're going to condemn the act by all means do so and I'm with you. It's abhorrent and evil, and should not be tolerated. Do us a favor though and get off that Muslims suck ark, m'kay. It wasn't too long ago the hooded White Knights of America a.k.a. KKK were lynching and hanging black men for simply looking at a white women all under the umbrellas of the cross.

I would agree that radical Islam is a big cause for terrorism but again to me that is all about education. Most Muslims don't really carry those beliefs and those that do are unfortunately brainwashed at a young age.

Kind of like what goes on at Jesus Camp, but they are taught to kill.

If you're going to condemn the act by all means do so and I'm with you. It's abhorrent and evil, and should not be tolerated. Do us a favor though and get off that Muslims suck ark, m'kay. It wasn't too long ago the hooded White Knights of America a.k.a. KKK were lynching and hanging black men for simply looking at a white women all under the umbrellas of the cross.


So you're saying that it was religiously motivated? They hanged them and shouted the christian equivalent of 'allah akbar'?

Your analogy is sadly inadequate. Did we see thousands in the streets celebrating a hanging? No, because rightfully most people were appalled. Contrast this to the reaction around the ME in predominantly muslim countries where they handed out candy and held parades when the towers went down.

Any religious group that sets themselves up as 'holier than thou' suck, but then I'm an Atheist, what would I know.

Here's a few very obvious resons why I am disgusted with the death cult of islam:

It is a muslims duty to fight until their opponents submit to islam (surah 9:29).

A muslim must not take a jew or a a christian for a friend (surah 5:51).

A muslim apostate must be killed (surah 9:12).

Resisting islam is punished by death, crucifixion or the cutting off of the hands and feet
(surah 5:33).

Done, thanks for discussing it.

Thread Hell?