'Blasphemous' balls anger Afghans

[__Kratos__]

Bush is either a chimp or the great master mind who fooled everybody into Iraq... Gosh darn it... Which is it?

Bush is also such a chimp he earned his MBA from Harvard and made millions of dollars working. God dang! I wish I was a chimp that made millions of dollars!

[Pinky Floyd]

Bush is also such a chimp he earned his MBA from Harvard and made millions of dollars working.

Last I heard, Harvard wasn't giving them away either..

[KyrusRose]

Bush is either a chimp or the great master mind who fooled everybody into Iraq... Gosh darn it... Which is it?

Bush is also such a chimp he earned his MBA from Harvard and made millions of dollars working. God dang! I wish I was a chimp that made millions of dollars!

Who said he earned it? They won't give those transcripts out.. He comes from money, and money buys everything, including grades.

[__Kratos__]

Who said he earned it? They won't give those transcripts out.. He comes from money, and money buys everything, including grades.

Yes, that must be the case... Clearly anybody going to Harvard to earn their MBA with money never worked a day in their life because money does it all for them.

Anyways, I think Pinky already addressed that one in his post right above your's.

[KyrusRose]

Anyways, I think Pinky already addressed that one in his post right above your's.

Oh we're not going to start this crap again are we Kratos? I figures being a year older would make you a little more mature, guess not. You'll devolve into personal attacks within a page... so I'll just pretend ya not here, kay?

[Pinky Floyd]

See he FINISHED Yale.. and THATS IT.. his grades where poor, barely passing, he got by on his fathers money. He was in trouble with the law much of the time and had a horrid drinking problem. He was much more interested in sports then academics. Football, basketball, baseball and rugby.. Have you SEEN his grades?

While the general impression during the 2004 presidential campaign was that Democrat John Kerry was the intellectual superior to President Bush, it turns out that their grades while undergraduate students at Yale were remarkably similar.

In fact, Bush's were a tad higher. His four-year average was 77; Kerry's 76. Both were C students. Kerry graduated from Yale in 1966; Bush in 1968.

source

In his sophomore year at Harvard, Gore's grades were lower than any semester recorded on Bush's transcript from Yale. That was the year Gore's classmates remember him spending a notable amount of time in the Dunster House basement lounge shooting pool, watching television, eating hamburgers and occasionally smoking marijuana. His grades temporarily reflected his mildly experimental mood, and alarmed his parents. He received one D, one C-minus, two C's, two C-pluses and one B-minus, an effort that placed him in the lower fifth of the class for the second year in a row.

duh..

If Bush is a chimp, what are these nimrods then?

[__Kratos__]

Oh we're not going to start this crap again are we Kratos? I figures being a year older would make you a little more mature, guess not. You'll devolve into personal attacks within a page... so I'll just pretend ya not here, kay?

I'm 21, your profile says you're 29.

No, I was merely being sarcastic at the fact that because the records haven't been released, you automatically assume he didn't earn his degree because he came from money. There are many many many people who come from money and still earn their way in this world.

[Pinky Floyd]

Who said he earned it? They won't give those transcripts out.. He comes from money, and money buys everything, including grades.

So when Chelsea Clinton graduates from Oxford, we are to assume what?..That she made the grades on her own simply because her parents are notable dems or would the 'GWB rule of privalege' apply to her as well?

Edited August 26, 2007 by Pinky Floyd

[KyrusRose]

source

duh..

If Bush is a chimp, what are these nimrods then?

Dun really like Gore or Kelly either *nodnod* wonder what Lady Clinton's grades where like... >.>

Which brings me to my point.. WE COULD DO A LOT BETTER. Screw Bushe's grades, I dun care if he made straight A's. Hes still a tool.

[questionmark]

So when Chelsea Clinton graduates from Oxford, we are to assume what?

Nobody gets an Oxford diploma 'cause his got money. Almost everybody there has money.

Edited August 26, 2007 by questionmark

[Pinky Floyd]

Nobody an Oxford diploma 'cause his got money. Almost everybody there has money.

Same applies to Harvard and Yale. While all 3 have a percentage of lower to moderate income students, most of the student body is composed of the upper crust economic tier..

[KyrusRose]

So when Chelsea Clinton graduates from Oxford, we are to assume what?..That she made the grades on her own simply because her parents are notable dems or would the 'GWB rule of privalege' apply to her as well?

Yep. Unless they're earning the money and going to Oxford or Yale on their own without the family backing.. YES. They are BORN into power, they didn't EARN it, they might AFTER they get the degree (which Bush hasn't yet) but unless they're working 4 jobs and pinching every penny, yeah, they're privileged little brats who got it handed to them, and I can think of a lot of poor people who would LOVE the chance they had, and make a LOT more out of it. Bush and Kelly and Gore HAD it, they had EVERYTHING and what did they do? Drank it away! They didn't give a crap about school or they would have done better, and don't give me no crybaby store about pressure, they where pampered and you know it.

Show me one elective officials in the white house who wasn't born with money.. who grew up in a trailer park or an apartment building and earned his way into collage, got a scholarship. No, really, cause if you can find a few, I know who to keep my eye on for the next election.

[questionmark]

Same applies to Harvard and Yale. While all 3 have a percentage of lower to moderate income students, most of the student body is composed of the upper crust economic tier..

Yeh, but to the contrary of other universities it has a 500 years of excellence reputation to loose.

Edited August 26, 2007 by questionmark

[ships-cat]

Sorry to interupt this fascinating dicussion, but I'm going to make a post relating to the OP.

Ultimately, no matter what you do, your actions will ALWAYS be criticised by SOME section of the Islamic Caliphatists. (read Islamic fascists)

It doesn't have to be careless footballs. (although this helps).

The Islamic scriptures require that Islam conquer the earth.. in both Secular and Spiritual terms.

There is no point apologising for the footballs, and correcting your mistake.

Your mistake is being non-muslim.

If you correct the 'football' mistake, then the next complaint will be about.. dunno.. clothes, food, television, parking.. the wedge just keeps on going in.

Google "caliphate", and weep.

Meow Purr.

[questionmark]

Sorry to interupt this fascinating dicussion, but I'm going to make a post relating to the OP.

Ultimately, no matter what you do, your actions will ALWAYS be criticised by SOME section of the Islamic Caliphatists. (read Islamic fascists)

It doesn't have to be careless footballs. (although this helps).

The Islamic scriptures require that Islam conquer the earth.. in both Secular and Spiritual terms.

There is no point apologising for the footballs, and correcting your mistake.

Your mistake is being non-muslim.

If you correct the 'football' mistake, then the next complaint will be about.. dunno.. clothes, food, television, parking.. the wedge just keeps on going in.

Google "caliphate", and weep.

Meow Purr.

Nothing is more important than to defend one of my three alma-maters.

Having said that, the Caliphate is one of the sectarian aberrations of Islam. Something like the Guerilleros de Christo Rey at a bigger scale.

[SnakeProphet]

Exactly. How is that even relevant, it's certainly not an accurate portrayal of reality. That muslim family living down the street. I don't know, maybe they're just incredibly cunning, but I really doubt they're bent on world domination. Hey, empress what do you say? Any uncontrolable needs to conquer the world for Islam yet?

… I am ignorant of religion thank you – it’s all a bunch of nonsense dreamed up by cave-men to explain things that can now be explained by science and I don’t care to be en expert is its dribble.

However, if you think that throwing a fit every time the west does something that ‘insults Allah’ is not thin skinned you're naive, and just making excuses for these people who need to get out of the stone age.

Well, first, that's a pretty simplistic view of religion, and second, no it's not thin skinned to throw a fit about something that you think of as existential. You do that as well, you simply have a different idea of what is existential to you. This is not about tolerance, that you despise so dearly, it's about understanding.

[Talon]

Well, first, that's a pretty simplistic view of religion, and second, no it's not thin skinned to throw a fit about something that you think of as existential. You do that as well, you simply have a different idea of what is existential to you. This is not about tolerance, that you despise so dearly, it's about understanding.

I think you misunderstand what thin skinned means. It means ‘Oversensitive’ and whether you like it or not, throwing a fit over Mohammed cartoons or balls with the word Allah on it and so forth is being over sensitive.

Any mature and rational adults would simply ignore it as a stupid thing to do, or have their leaders peacefully say to the Americans ‘look I know your trying to be nice, but in our culture this can be misconstrued as you asking to kick our god around’ – certainly mature and rational adults do not hold demonstrations in the streets over footballs – those are for important things.

Also you can whinge about me not liking tolerance, but it is not intolerance to simply pointing out that crying foul at every little thing another culture does that you find offensive is not mature. In fact despite your insinuations it’s your friends in Afghanistan who are showing intolerance every time they carry out a demonstration attacking the west for cultural misunderstandings – if they were tolerance they would see this as a stupid cultural misunderstanding and not the deliberate insult their thin-skins have taken it as.

And if they are so eager to b**** for the sake of it, they should go do it to the Saudis, their the ones with the name Allah on the flag to start with.

[EmpressStarXVII]

Why would they drop footballs with the Saudi Arabian Flag in Afghanistan?

I think it was a stupid idea. I can see reason to be upset. It's like the equivalent to having the lords prayer put on a football. Such things shouldn't be on objects meant for kicking drrr.

[Lt_Ripley]

By ticking of muslims who we're trying to work with due to someone's ignorance?

This is really more of a clear sign that we need to recruit more people with a better understanding of the middle east and islam. We all know how seriously muslims take their mythology...

true. how would we feel if they put the face of Jesus on a soccer ball and kicked it around ?

it's us thinking our culture is the only one we need to know about. boy how we complain 'they better learn English' if they want to come here. Yet we are there and feel no need to learn theirs except to wonder why they are mad.

we are not the center of the universe.

[Lt_Ripley]

Sorry to interupt this fascinating dicussion, but I'm going to make a post relating to the OP.

Ultimately, no matter what you do, your actions will ALWAYS be criticised by SOME section of the Islamic Caliphatists. (read Islamic fascists)

It doesn't have to be careless footballs. (although this helps).

The Islamic scriptures require that Islam conquer the earth.. in both Secular and Spiritual terms.

There is no point apologising for the footballs, and correcting your mistake.

Your mistake is being non-muslim.

If you correct the 'football' mistake, then the next complaint will be about.. dunno.. clothes, food, television, parking.. the wedge just keeps on going in.

Google "caliphate", and weep.

Meow Purr.

kinda like no matter what you do some christian somewhere will be annoyed.

[Raptor]

A demonstration has been held in south- east Afghanistan accusing US troops of insulting Islam after they distributed footballs bearing the name of Allah.

So were the children demonstrating or what? I can't believe any adult would be legitimately offended by it to the point of holding a demonstration, it's ridiculous.

"Sticks and stones..."

[__Kratos__]

true. how would we feel if they put the face of Jesus on a soccer ball and kicked it around ?

it's us thinking our culture is the only one we need to know about. boy how we complain 'they better learn English' if they want to come here. Yet we are there and feel no need to learn theirs except to wonder why they are mad.

we are not the center of the universe.

Why would I care? I'm an atheist. I'm sure there are soccer balls with Jesus face on them. Jesus is on other balls. I've seen Jesus footballs before, so I doubt it's a problem.

They've know why they're mad and they've admitted it's the mistake. Nice try.

[Fluffybunny]

While I think that the mistake was a dumb one in hindsight I think that the reaction was over the top, but that is nothing new. It isn't as iff they airdropped pork rhinds on them...something that would be pretty obvious based on the training that is given before going in the region.

I don't think that the idea of having a football with a countries flag on it has to run too far up the chain of command to get approved and I would imagine that everyone thought that they were doing something that would make them happy. It is unfortunate that it happened but it seemed like it could have been dealt with with a bit more tact on their end, but I giess that is just too much to ask from folks that are so sensitive about that kind of stuff.

[libertyworld]

File this under “No good deed goes unpunished” by the Religion of Perpetual Outrage:

A demonstration has been held in south- east Afghanistan accusing US troops of insulting Islam after they distributed footballs bearing the name of Allah.

The balls showed the Saudi Arabian flag which features the Koranic declaration of faith.

The US military said the idea had been to give something for Afghan children to enjoy and they did not realise it would cause offence.

The footballs were dropped from a helicopter in Khost province.

Some displayed flags from countries all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, which features the shahada, one of the five pillars of Islam - the declaration of faith.

The words, which include the name of Allah, are revered, and Muslims are very sensitive about where and how they can be used.

As we’ve learned from Rushdie Rage, MoCartoon Rage, Burger King Ice Cream Cone Rage, Koran Flushing Rage, Valentine’s Day Rage, Veil Rage, Pope Rage, Fallaci Rage, Miss World Pageant Rage, and Rushdie Knighthood Rage, they’re pretty damned “sensitive” (read: ready to riot) about everything.

For crying out loud:

Mullahs in Afghanistan criticised the US forces for their insensitivity, and around 100 people held a demonstration in Khost.

Afghan MP Mirwais Yasini said: “To have a verse of the Koran on something you kick with your foot would be an insult in any Muslim country around the world.”

A spokeswoman for the US forces in Afghanistan said they made “significant efforts to work with local leaders, mullahs and elders to respect their culture” and distributing the footballs was an effort to give a gift the Afghan children would enjoy.

Instead of taking Allah’s name off its flag, Saudi Arabia is whining about football manufacturers putting the flag on its balls. But do you have any doubt in your minds that those manufacturers would be damned by the Islamophobe card-playing rabble-rousers if they purposely left the Allah-bearing flag off its balls?

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

http://michellemalkin.com/2007/08/27/behol...asphemous-balls

[questionmark]

we had this before... when it was news... without a spin