| Author | Message | ||
     Aesquire |
http://pjmedia.com/blog/5-new-assaults-on-freedom- of-speech-around-the-world/?singlepage=true I hope I don't get deported to Pakistan for posting this. They will kill me. That's not hype. It's the New Normal. | ||
| Aesquire |
Torquehd, The mining in the Americas by "Native Americans" ( the ones who's ancestors walked here ) was often on a solo expedition basis. A guy would take the long trek to the source of good flint and set up temporary camp, for weeks, sometimes, and process raw flint into finished tools. Since he was going to carry it home for sale on his back, ( this is before the Europeans re-introduced the horse ) it made sense to not carry anything not finished and ready for sale. No Ore Barges across Nebraska. I'm not so sure about the copper mining in Michigan, please post a reference. There was extensive Tin mining in Wales over 3000 years ago, long before the Roman days, as part of the Cretan Kingdoms "empire". When they had a major volcano take out the Empire, the Greek city states moved in and trashed pretty much everything. Not having experience running a huge centralized government, things fell apart and the Minoan empire was all but forgotten, except in legend. The Vikings did indeed run home and tell everyone, it's just that "everyone" was pretty darn local, and colonies were established by small groups in Greenland and Vinland, only to be abandoned when the climate changed, and crops failed. One theory is when the wine got ruined by early frosts in Vinland, without booze, no reason to stay. ( not to mention the Skraelings who wanted them to leave ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skr%C3%A6ling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skr%C3%A6ling#mediavi ewer/File:Arctic_cultures_900-1500.png As to Welsh travelers, colonies from Rome or Egypt, it's hard to say. There IS some evidence, but it's been contaminated by later people, so I'm skeptical, but a bit open minded. Copper is a natural need for a Bronze age culture, but Tin is rarer. I'm also skeptical on Vikings reaching as far as Oklahoma, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavener_Runestone but the Great lakes would get Europeans to Michigan with far less effort than crossing overland. You'd be surprised how big a boat you can portage, and how quick you can build small boats with the right skills and tools. Chinese anchor stones off California point the other way as well, But China abandoned external exploration and turned inward, no doubt changing the future in a profound way. by 1500, it became a capital offence to build a seagoing junk with more than two masts If that doesn't sound a lot like turning NASA into a Muslim Outreach program......???? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_exploration | ||
| Reepicheep |
Also note that "mining" in the UP at that time didn't have to be mining. I could have been "pull a boat up to shore, walk through the woods until you find a 500 pound lump of pure copper sitting on the ground, and take sledge it back to the boat". European exploration is perhaps a romanticized historical fantasy. But miners and sources can be pretty cagey even today about where and how they get stuff that is just laying there waiting to be gotten by those who know where and how to get it. | ||
| Aesquire |
That miners must hide their mines is often overlooked. Unless you are operating under a law abiding nation / regime/kingdom that will protect your operation you will get robbed. The Minoan mines in Wales were probably negotiated with local tribal leaders and the entire operation was guarded by the most powerful Empire of the day. A bootleg operation in hostile lands unknown to your own king would be a well kept secret indeed. Good point about the nature of early copper mining. You don't dig a hole if what you want is just laying there. Until they used mechanical well drilling tech in the U.S. how you got oil was to soak up the naturally occurring leaks with an absorbent, ( cloth or reeds ) usually in a swamp. That's how the Romans got it, buying it from the Arabs who did just that. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I highly recommend a motorcycle trip around the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. A really wonderful ride. It's like another planet up there. When you get up to copper harbor, you can literally pick up pieces of copper sitting on the beaches. Mostly attached to rocks still, but some as just nuggets. There are a number of nuggets on public display that are hundreds or thousands of pounds. Really neat history. Billions of pounds of copper came out of there in the late 1800's, it must have been an amazing thing to see (and a dangerous place to work). | ||
| Aesquire |
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/12/14/you-mig ht-feel-sick-after-reading-the-islamic-states-guid e-on-how-to-treat-female-slaves/ | ||
| Blake |
It's a shame Australians are prohibited from carrying handguns. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/12/15/hostage-si tuation-reportedly-unfolding-in-sydney-chocolate-s hop/ | ||
| Torquehd |
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/14/world/asia/australia-operation/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+Most+Recent%29 Quote, "Footage showed them holding up a black flag with Arabic writing on it that reads: "There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God." .... "We don't know whether this is politically motivated, although obviously there are some indications that it could be," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters." Yep, despite the obvious giant red flag (er, black flag) that screams, "ISLAM", we're going to start off by tiptoeing around the issue and blame something less likely to offend a small minority of the population. From what I read, the Australians had a great turn out at "open mosque" day. And this is how islam repays the Aussies' open-mindedness. Islam is "Mars Attacks" all over again. "we come in peace". Photon gun! "we come in peace". Deathray! "we come in peace". Lasercannon! Stupid humans. We just won't learn. (Message edited by torquehd on December 15, 2014) | ||
| Hootowl |
This would never have happened if they had made the city a gun free zone. When will they learn? | ||
| Sifo |
I see the religion of peace is preaching to the French journalists today. http://news.sky.com/story/1403662/gunmen-hunted-af ter-12-killed-at-paris-magazine If only these guns were banned in France so that this sort of attack wouldn't be possible. | ||
| Aesquire |
Spent some time listening to a "Islamic scholar" on tv lie through his teeth about the rules on murdering...... executing..... people who joke about the Prophet and Apostates. These people need to be called on that crap, publicly and on the spot. | ||
| Fast1075 |
#MoSucks, that is all. | ||
| Alfau |
Another part of the world but. Since you prefer to speak the truth. CONUNDRUM Kevin Myers (born 30 March 1947) is an Irish journalist and writer. He writes for the Irish edition of the Sunday Times, having previously been a columnist for the Irish Independent and a former contributor to The Irish Times, where he wrote the "An Irishman's Diary" opinion column several times weekly. Until 2005, he wrote for the UK Sunday Telegraph. His articles criticise left-wing opinion and the "liberal consensus", sometimes incorporating hyperbole,sarcasm and parody. This essay recently appeared in The Irish Independent: Somalia is not a humanitarian disaster; it is an evolutionary disaster. The current drought is not the worst in 50 years, as the BBC and all the aid organisations claim. It is nothing compared to the droughts in 1960/61 or 73/74. And there are continuing droughts every 5 years or so. It's just that there are now four times the population; having been kept alive by famine relief, supplied by aid organisations, over the past 50 years. So, of course, the effects of any drought now, is a famine. They cannot even feed themselves in a normal rainfall year. Worst yet, the effects of these droughts, and poor nutrition in the first 3 years of the a child's life, have a lasting effect on the development of the infant brain, so that if they survive, they will never achieve a normal IQ . Consequently, they are selectively breeding a population, who cannot be educated , let alone one that is not being educated; a recipe for disaster We are seeing this impact now, and it can only exacerbate, to the detriment of their neighbours, and their environment as well. This scenario can only end in an even worse disaster; with even worse suffering, for those benighted people, and their descendants. Eventually, some mechanism will intervene, be it war, disease or starvation. So what do we do? Let them starve? What a dilemma for our Judeo/ Christian/Islamic Ethos; as well as Hindu/Buddhist morality. And this is beginning to happen in Kenya, Ethiopia, and other countries in Asia, like Pakistan. Is this the beginning of the end of civilisation? AFRICA is giving nothing to anyone outside Africa -- apart from AIDS and new diseases. Even as we see African states refusing to take action to restore something resembling civilization in Zimbabwe, the Begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us out of Africa, yet again. It is nearly 25 years since the famous Feed The World campaign began in Ethiopia, and in that time Ethiopia's population has grown from 33.5 million to 78+ million today. So, why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none. To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn't count. One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera, which yet again, captures the tragedy of children starving. Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a low IQ, AK 47-bearing moron, siring children whenever the whim takes him and blaming the world because he is uneducated, poor and left behind. There is no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this predatory and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system but I do not know what it is. There is, on the other hand, every reason not to write a column like this. It will win no friends and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of, well, the self-righteous hand wringing, letter writing wrathful individuals; a species which never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its sneers and its moral superiority. It will also probably enrage some of the finest men in Irish life, like John O'Shea, of Goal; and the Finucane brothers, men whom I admire enormously. So be it. But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention of our own Irish Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no comparison. Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was down by 30%. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules plane, Ethiopia's population has more than doubled. Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness. Somewhere, over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent, AK 47-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts and housing pirates of the ocean. Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive, illiterate indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world or allowances by the semi-communist Governments they voted for, money supplied by borrowing it from the World Bank! This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or commonsense. Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against AIDS infection. Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera. Broad brush-strokes, to be sure. But broad brush-strokes are often the way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters. Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 20th century have endured worse broad brush-strokes than almost any part of Africa. They are now -- one way or another -- virtually all giving aid to or investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS. Meanwhile, Africa's peoples are outstripping their resources, and causing catastrophic ecological degradation. By 2050, the population of Ethiopia will be 177 million; the equivalent of France, Germany and Benelux today, but located on the parched and increasingly Protein-free wastelands of the Great Rift Valley. So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally devastated and economically dependent country? How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-dozen wide-eyed children with comparably jolly little lives ahead of them? Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a prime reason for so much charity! But that is not good enough. For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed. It prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade. It is inspiring Bill Gates' programme to rid the continent of malaria, when, in the almost complete absence of personal self-discipline, that disease is one of the most efficacious forms of population-control now operating. If his programme is successful, tens of millions of children who would otherwise have died in infancy will survive to adulthood, he boasts. Oh good: then what? I know......let them all come here to Ireland, America or Australia! And now, Ebola ! | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
The future is going to play out like some dystopian science fiction movie. | ||
| Aesquire |
See Sam Kinison's bit on feeding the starving in the desert. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Alfrau, we have areas like that in the US. Ferguson, Chicago, Detroit.... (Message edited by ft_bstrd on January 08, 2015) | ||
| Aesquire |
The future is going to play out like some dystopian science fiction movie. You wish! We'll have the retina scanners directing the ads directly to you at all times and the total surveillance of "Minority Report", without the cool cars. Even worse, "Invasion From Mars", but we have to keep Congress. | ||
| Aesquire |
Alfau..... your opinion on the piece you posted? It's an interesting perspective. Much aid props up bad guys. Hostage terrorists in a deli taken down in France. Have they caught the cowards who kill cartoonists? Update. Cowards done. Sucks to be a hostage. Might as well try for hero, can't hurt. (Message edited by aesquire on January 09, 2015) | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Government intervention = Subsidy You provide support, is it any wonder you get more of those seeking support. As an additional example, in the 60's the Federal Government stepped in to take over flood insurance from the private sector. At the time, there had been significant flooding resulting in the insurers refusing to issue coverage for flood prone areas. Instead of allowing natural market forces to determine where people built, the government provided an artificial incentive to build where flooding was highly probable. Now the US taxpayer is on the hook for ALL flood insurance. | ||
| Gaesati |
Boko Haram kills an estimated 2000 people in a township in Nigeria. 4 more hostages and a policewoman and street cleaner by the same cell responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attack. Meanwhile, Islamic representatives around the world renounce the attacks as contrary to the teachings of Islam. What is one to think? | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Denouncements are a rope-a-dope. A third of all Islamic teachings advocate violent jihad against and murder of kafir. | ||
| Alfau |
What hope is there when fools praying for peace carry weapons under their skirt. Blake ? | ||
| Alfau |
Don't tell me your going to fight for peace! | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Regardless of whether a person chooses to be armed or not, there are evil people willing to do evil things. Nice to have the choice as to how onever can face evil threats, as a defenseless victim or not. (Message edited by Ft bstrd on January 10, 2015) | ||
| Torquehd |
Have you ever heard the phrase, "if you want peace, prepare for war?" Choosing to do nothing about violence does not keep it from happening. Placing a hand on the HK under my belt, and telling the young man that he needs to back away, does. Your mentality is like saying that Sheepdogs can't protect sheep because they look similar to wolves. It's like saying if you pray for rain, you shouldn't own a sprinkler. If you pray for food, you shouldn't go to the grocery store. Alfau, what is your alternative? Sit around hoping that no one will ever do anything bad, ever again? And what happens when someone goes on a shooting spree? One competent, upright, armed citizen can stop the madman before he has a chance to murder a multitude. Why do you choose to name-call? This has been brought up several times. Who generally resorts to name-calling on Badweb? | ||
| Aesquire |
Seems to me that someone who desires peace and is armed is an intelligent person. Alfau, since you don't seem to want to answer questions except in fragments of propaganda, I'll have to ask you to reply in haiku from now on.  | ||
| Aesquire |
The motto of Strategic Air Command. "Peace is our profession". Worked, too. Europe and Australia didn't die in radioactive flame the entire 20th century. And we haven't made China, Russia, N. Korea or.....anyone vaporize in glowing plasma in the process. The B-36 & B-47 & B-57 never dropped a bomb in anger. That makes them some of the most successful aircraft ever built. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Criminals attack the weak, the helpless, the vulnerable. Why? Same goes for blood thirsty death cultists. Why? Why was Flight 93 different than the other 3 planes? Why do most mass shootings take place in schools, theaters and on military bases? The guarantor of peace is the habit of vigilance, the instinct for survival, and the practice of providing oneself the opportunity to end a threat should it arise. (Message edited by Ft bstrd on January 11, 2015) | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Lady at my church was recently abandoned and then stalked by her husband. As a result, I am armed EVERY Sunday. I stand at the back, I watch the doors,I walk patrol. Those who know, know what I am doing (at their request). Those who don't, don't. Churches are soft targets. A new mother with an estranged ex-husband is a soft target. One armed, vigilant individual with strong survival instincts may be all that is required to harden both targets. I don't pray for the attack but I am prepared to address the attack in order to preserve myself and others. | ||
| 86129squids |
Good on ya, Jeremy. It wasn't that long ago that some nutjob showed up at a Knoxville Unitarian church with plans to mow everyone down- only due to a couple of brave guys just tackling him did most everyone live. Two died- one choosing to block his shot range did so bodily, another woman died needlessly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoxville_Unitarian_U niversalist_church_shooting Word over the news this afternoon was that several mass gatherings in defiance of the "Charlie" massacres happened today, in Paris and elsewhere in France, biggest in the history of the country. I've been in the habit over the years of saying to friends, "You're a good man, Charlie Brown."- that takes on a new flavor now. Extremism can come in many forms... we must be vigilant against them all. Je Suis Charlie. |
