"What is bad is use of any religion in political purposes." - bonzi

What about devil worshipers? They like murder. Should laws against murder be thrown out?

All laws are created on the beliefs of the people that created them. To say that a person in politics shouldn't do what they feel is right is just ridiculous.

And just remember this, Asscroft lost an election to a dead guy....I kid you not, the people is his own state did not want him in the senate. I'm now of the feeling that the AG possition needs to be an elected possition, not an appointed one, so people who can not uphold the constution, or even what they believe in (Ashcroft is very "states rights", unless what they do offend him, then he'll run roughshod over the rights of the states) can get into a position of high power. Ok, I've vented enough, back to work.

Oh, and yes, I'm an American, I love the country, but starting to loath the people in power.

Oh, and why would we want to throw the Swedes out? Their women are very pleasing to the eyes

"What is bad is use of any religion in political purposes." - bonzi

What about devil worshipers? They like murder. Should laws against murder be thrown out?

All laws are created on the beliefs of the people that created them. To say that a person in politics shouldn't do what they feel is right is just ridiculous.

Man, do you read what you write!? What law forbids is murder, not devil worshiping, and it should stay that way. If your AG happened not to be Christian, but of some other religion, would it still be OK for him to 'do what he feels is right', and not what Constitution and law say? Are 'persons in politics' above law? Always, or only if of the right faith? Should Americans only apoint Christian Attorneys General? If so, how is that different from, say, Iran?

Asscroft lost an election to a dead guy....

Ah, yes, to the guy who got killed in a plane accident. IIRC, his widow 'succeeded' him...

Ever read The Satanic Bible? I'm guessing, yet again, no. It also explicity forbids killing. It even forbids killing animals except for food, IIRC. Okay, so Anton LaVey is not exactly everyone's Satanist, but still....

(I don't mention the obvious break in logic in your statement. It's been covered elsewhere.)

I'd like everyone who's casually observing this thread to note that a Croat knows more about being an American than an actual citizen of the United States. Draw your own conclusions.

In keeping with my philosophy that everything in life can be represented by a Simpsons episode, this reminds me of "Much Apu About Nothing" when Apu is studying to become an American citizen and Homer knows far less about the country than Apu.

And I know for a fact that the Koran states straightforward that it is the duty of Muslims to kill the infedels.

I have reason to suspect that you've never actually read the Koran except in out-of-context quotes. I'm sure the same applies to other religious texts.

Don't worry, I haven't, either. I'm just making a point.

You're young. Even though your BBS profile is blank, I can say this with near certainty, based on the things you've said here. I'm guessing you're between 18 and 25.

I'm not much older than you (i'm a mere 34), but I'm going to give you some sagely advice that you should heed carefully as your progress through life. This is just advice, and you can take it or leave it as you please: Don't start, or get sucked into, discussions about politics, race, or religion unless you specifically want trouble. Especially if you hold minority opinions on those subjects. You will almost always piss off the people you're talking to.

You've just done all of those things in the same thread, practically in a single sentence.

Okay, I agree that you didn't start the discussion ("Osama" did), but you just took something that was meant to be an offhand joke and tried to make something serious out of it-- and managed to alienate just about the entire clientele of this BBS in the process.

Now, if it were any other online forum, no big deal. And it may not be a big deal to you. But you just purchased a really neat gadget (perhaps one of the neatest gadgets you've ever owned) that's been End-Of-Lifed. After its warranty runs out, this BBS is your only chance of getting support for the thing. I seem to recall someone else telling you "don't sh!t where you live" in another thread. You didn't seem to be listening.

So far, I've been trying to give you the benefit of the doubt as I've read your posts. I've been trying to be gently supportive and helpful, and respond in a positive fashion as much as possible. But there's only so much energy I can expend in this manner before I give up.

So I recommend that you try to restrict your posts to discussions about the car player. Again, this is just advice that you can take or leave as you please.

I just want to tell Bonzi that the Zero or null notion didn't come from Islamic civilization but From India.

The Zero or Zephirum in latin or Zero came from an indian religious notion from the nothing but Arabic scientists used it , translated it and brought it to Europe.
Even actual numbers came from Indian system.They are Indian letters that Arabic scientists used also and transcripted its with their alphabet ...

But I could even agree with him when he says that many Arabicic Mathematician brought to us :

An other example is Algorithmic:
The word is the name of his creator , A Mathematician called Al Qawarizmi , lived in the City of Bagdad ;-)
He created a method to resolve Equations with Algebra , an other Arabic Word of his Creator : Al Zaebra ....
Those word were translated iin Greek, and in Latin ...

Arabic astronoms made Ptolemae works on solar system (He gave a model of the rotating Sun and Moon) false because of their knowledge of stars and astronomics that position of the Moon at certain periods wasnt good by the Ptolemae's model.

Later Nicolas Copernic brought this theories in Europe in the book De Revolutionibus orbium colelestium libri in 1543 that rotation of planets are freee and not perfect around the Earth ....

Perhaps I was not clear, but I believe that's what I said (that we got positional numeric system with zero through Arabic translation of Indian mathematicians).

Sorry to repeat what you said in a bad english ....

You added interesting details and clarifications. Anyway, the main purpose of my original post was to show to our (presumably young) friend that Muslims are not inherently 'savages' and that so-called Western Civilisations owes them a lot.

Cheers!

Bad English was mine .... (proved by my sentence)

Tony - I don't have moderation rights on this forum, you do. Any chance of freezing the thread now? This is CLEARLY off topic. If people want to fight in the "Off Topic" forum then fine, it's easier to ignore. Frankly the last thing I want to do when I read this BBS is trawl through pages of political debate.

A lot of people at empeg have already stopped reading the BBS due to the sheer volume of traffic, but some of us will keep at it if we can at least keep everything on-topic and as flame free as possible. I can see that an "ignore user" feature might be handy soon, which is something I'd never have dreamed I'd be saying until recently.

This used to be such a friendly place!

Rob

(Great.. Now I'm starting a civil war with Canada...

If past performance is anything to go by then I wouldn't do that if I were you

Rob

Rob, you are correct.

Everyone: Please understand that I am locking this thread for one reason only: To encourage people to take the discussion over to the "Off Topic" forum. I am not attempting to censor anyone's opinions and I have not (so far) deleted any posts or banned any users. If you all still want to pound on this topic, please do so in the "Off Topic" forum.

In the past, off-topic threads have been tolerated (and even encouraged) here, but the amount of traffic on the BBS has recently increased to the point that strictness-of-topic is becoming a necessity.

Locking thread now. Thanks everyone for your understanding.