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TheLeviathan

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Everything posted by TheLeviathan

  1. TheLeviathan
    This "religion is an excuse" talk drives me up the wall. It's what people say when they're defensive and they don't want their religion being talked down about. Look, I bet you think your religion of choice has inspired some truly amazing things. And I bet it has. Countless things I'm sure. I'm an advocate of keeping religion around, I don't think getting rid of it fixes anything and I think it does often provide good for humanity. But holy schnikes man....comparing the zealotry of religion over human history to sports is just so flimsy an analogy I don't know where to start. Besides, what does it get you if I agree that it's an "excuse". When someone helps someone because they're a Christian, was their religion just an "excuse" for their good deed as well? Or, in a way that perhaps better reflects human behavior, is religion a very powerful cheese? Um....how about that you think you're doing the bidding of your all-powerful god that grants you access to your heaven?
  2. TheLeviathan
    I doubt you truly believe religion is some sort of neutered, powerless effect. Start talking about people's eternal damnation or salvation and you rile the folks up real quick. Yes there are bad people, but there is little else in the world with the capacity to command the same kind of mindless zealotry as a religion can. (And no, I don't think religions are bad, they're just really powerful at making people do all sorts of crazy, stupid, weird, violent, nasty ****)
  3. TheLeviathan
    It might be both, that's true. But it's also a bit of a different question: Are people drawn so strongly to these extreme versions of their religion because of their poverty or because of their religion? As you said, the recent history of Islam coupled with the fact that the religion has struggled to modernize for several centuries makes me wonder. To put it another way: peasant Christians didn't violently rally behind their religions out of some hope of improving their place in the world...they rallied behind their religion because it was their religion.
  4. TheLeviathan
    So rather than going through all the BS to rewrite borders....why don't we just pass them a note during math that it's on for realsies in Syria as soon as the bell rings? I'm joking, but while all the extra crap if you want boots on the ground too? They won't give back territory, if you want to force their apocryphal battle....why not just show up in mass force at their doorstep? It seems to be basically the same idea, unless I'm missing something.
  5. TheLeviathan
    I understand this portrayal and, to be honest, it may be as right as the counter-theory I'm suggesting because these issues run deep in the region. This doesn't strike me as downtrodden citizens finding a cult of Islam to devote themselves too. Rather, the Wahabism these guys openly promote found influence in precisely the resources you cited. The Saudi oil boom allowed them to buy almost complete control of the legal and educational systems and promote their medieval interpretations and hyper violent approach across the Muslim world. No, I think this has more to do with a powerful religious message that is actively attracting people to do horrible things not because of frustration with their plight in life, but out of total devotion to what they think their god commands of them. We have seen how dangerous that is many times in the past from many religions.
  6. TheLeviathan
    Would it be fair to say the "niche" is a cancerous interpretation of Islam? There are socio political factors and economics ones, but at the end of the day what makes this different is the passionate, violent understanding of Islam. The Atlantic article tended to say the same.
  7. TheLeviathan
    Already beat you to this! Trying to steal my thunder.....
  8. TheLeviathan
    In support of this post, ISIS has pretty much stated as such: "The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organisations becomes null by the expansion of the khilafah's [caliphate's] authority and arrival of its troops to their areas." One other thing that is also different about ISIS compared to other jihadist movements is the amount of apocryphal references in their teachings. They truly believe that this is the war to end all wars. This Atlantic article is pretty interesting as well.
  9. TheLeviathan
    If this is an accurate portrayal of his comments, then I'm very irritated.
  10. TheLeviathan
    Starvation vs Terrorism is a false dilemma argument. We could do both. And if you think all they want is just their own country, you may want to look into this more.
  11. TheLeviathan
    In this case it isn't on the table as an option. I tend to be an advocate less intervention as a general rule and would love to see us scale back on military spending. None of that changes the question I posed however, because there are some really negative consequences to walking away completely.
  12. TheLeviathan
    I never "advocated" it and.....newsflash....the Middle East is f'd up for a whole host of reasons that aren't our fault. I asked the question,at what point when we sit back and say " well as long as they aren't raping American women and children its fine" that it says something bad about us. Because it seems to me that one of the chief reasons people advocate non-intervention it's because they hold other lives elsewhere at a lower value. Now when barbaric horrors cross the line into demanding action by those that can protect those at the mercy of the butchers......that's a very hard call.
  13. TheLeviathan
    This sounds good but has consequences too. We seem to forget that while terrorist attacks are horrible, there are innocent men, women, and children subjected to this and worse daily just because of their country, creed, or beliefs. Slavery, murder, forced refugees, chemical attacks, rape, and I could go on. At what point does turning the blind eye to barbarism not say something about us too?
  14. TheLeviathan
    I think it's quite possible that Murphy becomes a capable starting catcher and Hicks is the frustrating player we saw in most of his games with us. In fact, I could see them having a roughly similar OPS next year. In which case I'd gladly take the catcher in that situation.
  15. TheLeviathan
    This is the problem, we can say what we want about minding our own business and staying out of it and being responsible about our role....but at the end of the day some of these bastards just have to die too. And that balancing act is tough as hell.
  16. TheLeviathan
    When you offer players that won't get half that much per year 16M, they'd be fools to decline.
  17. TheLeviathan
    16M to stay in a place you know to rebuild value seems like a no brainier to me.
  18. TheLeviathan
    I have no problem not liking the trade, as long as you go about it fairly.
  19. TheLeviathan
    To me it would seem to be pointing the "Troll" sign in the proper direction. You have demonstrated precious little fairness in your tirades against us dealing Babe Ruth, I mean Aaron freaking Hicks.
  20. TheLeviathan
    Look, if you can't read into your responses that you are giving ZERO latitude for these moves to be successful, I can't help you. There is no point espousing your opinion anymore, you've clearly articulated it as "I don't like Ryan and nothing he does will work out" Ok, noted. I don't like Ryan either at this stage in our team's progress, but I'll at least look at each move with some degree of reason and fairness. If you can't do that, I'm not sure why you're even interested in a discussion in the first place.
  21. TheLeviathan
    People wanted so badly to believe the good glimpses were the "real" Hicks, but by and large - it wasn't. I think we moved on at the right time. Maybe Aaron goes on to have a great career, but if I'm a betting man I prefer someone else takes that chance.
  22. TheLeviathan
    I would suggest the start of this offseason is certainly a change. Ryan is pushing himself out there as someone that wants to get things moving early, when typically he'd sit back until the winter meetings. You don't have to like the moves, but this certainly hasn't been the "same old Terry Ryan".
  23. TheLeviathan
    Yes, in two years it was suggested the Twins do that rather than trade him. Rasmus establishes a line that should have been clearly seen coming: at some point even multi-year deals don't stack up to a 1 year 16M payout. Especially for guys who stand to fetch less than half that per year on multi-year deals.
  24. TheLeviathan
    Clock issues and bad play calling in crunch time are not the same issues. But by all means Mike, point out what clock issues last year should have prepared them for Michigan? What I saw, and I say this having coached on a sideline for more than a few years now, is a guy who overthought things. He didn't do the simple thing to give himself 2-3 shots, he thought he had the perfect one play and didn't even worry about time. It was a bad play call. Not bad time management. (However thin that distinction is here)
  25. TheLeviathan
    Good for him, they have made two top 15 teams sweat in his first two weeks as coach. I think Mason said this on Barreiro and it's true: EVERY coach has messed up and blown wins with stupid decision making. Most coaches just get to do it in high school or DIII schools where it barely gets noticed. Claeys had the bad luck of it being on a huge national stage in his first game. Just don't fool yourself into thinking that is the end-all, be-all of his coaching acumen.
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