Larry Kuperman

Reply to The Inexplicable Liberal Defense of Islam in Politics JoeUser Forums

Leauki said: "That's because they are uneducated." All of them? Kind of a sweeping generalization, don't you think? What do you call it when one makes a sweeping generalization that encompasses almost 2 billion people? "They don't know about the history of the crusades and they ignore what is actually going on in Iraq." They don't know the history of the Crusades? Any support for that? Among those that "ignore what is actually going o

Reply to The Inexplicable Liberal Defense of Islam in Politics JoeUser Forums

Oops! Sorry for the double post. JoeUser was being naughty again.

Reply to The Inexplicable Liberal Defense of Islam in Politics JoeUser Forums

The Siege of Jerusalem 1099, part of the First Crusade: Once the Crusaders had breached the outer walls and entered the city almost every inhabitant of Jerusalem was killed over the course of that afternoon, evening and next morning. Muslims, Jews, and even any remaining Christians were all massacred with indiscriminate violence. Many Muslims sought shelter in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where, according to one famous account in Gesta, "...the sl

Reply to The Inexplicable Liberal Defense of Islam in Politics JoeUser Forums

The Siege of Jerusalem 1099, part of the First Crusade: Once the Crusaders had breached the outer walls and entered the city almost every inhabitant of Jerusalem was killed over the course of that afternoon, evening and next morning. Muslims, Jews, and even any remaining Christians were all massacred with indiscriminate violence. Many Muslims sought shelter in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where, according to one famous account in Gesta, "...the slau

Reply to The Inexplicable Liberal Defense of Islam in Politics JoeUser Forums

Gideon, may I ask a question? If Liberals are defending Islam, are Conservatives then attacking Islam? It would seem implied. Islam is generally defined as a religion, but may also refer to the people that hold to that religion. In the context of your cited arguments, it may also apply to those governments that hold to Shariya, or Islamic law. It is also a cuture. So, which of these am I, as a Liberal, defending? Which are Conservati

Reply to Noooo....It's Only Ok When WE Leak Classified Information in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

In answer to the question, documents are typically declassified manually, after review, or at the end of either a 10 or 25 year period, depending on sensitivity. (Source: WikiPedia) Documents considered vital to National Security can be classified forever. On April 1, 2003 the Bush Administration issued a new executive order that delays the automatic declassification of documents for more than three years and makes it easier to reclassify some papers a

Reply to New Twist In the Cartoon War in Current Events JoeUser Forums

From Wikipedia Link : ************************************************************** Laws against hate speech In many countries, deliberate use of hate speech is a criminal offense prohibited under incitement to hatred legislation. Such prohibitions have parallels with earlier prohibitions on such issues as obscenity and blasphemy, which are or were also prosecutable offenses.

Reply to New Twist In the Cartoon War in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I would agree with you in theory, but not in that theory being applied to this situation. Teach Mein Kampf in a classroom and you do a good thing. Publish an anti-Semitic cartoon and you don't. "Hate is a natural instinct." No, its not. The capacity for hate may be intrinsic to the human condition. But Palestinian kids aren't born hating Jews. They are taught that. Germany was one of the most accepting countries in Europe for Jews...before Hit

Reply to Sabbath At Chabad House in Religion JoeUser Forums

Oh yeah. B'Not Mitzvot is the plural, encompassing both Bar (male) and Bat (female) Mitzvahs. Mitzvah means "good deed." At thirteen, you are considered old enough to read Torah (a good deed) as part of a congregation. In 1922, in New York, Rabbi Kaplan called his daughter to the Torah to read. That was the first B'at Mitzvah. We say that at thirteen a child is old enough to begin contributing to his community. One of the co

Reply to Sabbath At Chabad House in Religion JoeUser Forums

I'll be happy to expand. At various times over the past 6000 years, being a Jew has meant belonging to a tribe (or group of Twelve Tribes), being a citizen of the nation of Judea or belonging to a religion. The religion itself is so diverse, as a result of the Diaspora. Separated by thousands of miles and time, beliefs and practices changed. Think of Jews from Russia and Ethiopia, for example. "We believe that a Jew is one who, re

Reply to IE 7 Beta 2 Review in Internet JoeUser Forums

"If you go to Google, it will prompt you to download a patch that makes Google the default search engine." Even if you have already chosen it as the default. Which is kind of obnoxious, don't you think?

Reply to New Twist In the Cartoon War in Current Events JoeUser Forums

No irritation, BakerStreet. Free debate is healthy...unless you create a racist cartoon about me! Ted, no actually, you don't get it. There are laws governing private property, always have been, always will be. You go outside your house and put up a sign on your lawn that says "The President must die!!!!" and see what happens. That speech isn't protected. The classic example is that you can't shout fire in a movie theater. Ever hear of incitem

Reply to New Twist In the Cartoon War in Current Events JoeUser Forums

"Once we have such laws here, I guess we'll need a ministry of comedy to decide what is funny and what is denigrating. I'm sure the folks in such positions will have one hell of a sense of humor." You DO realize that such a ministry has been in place for years? We just bleeped (actually silenced) Mick Jagger during the Super Bowl? See Link We refuse to air

Reply to New Twist In the Cartoon War in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I think that we need to agree to disagree on this. The original printing of the cartoons was freedom of expression, the subsequent reprinting was intended as inflammatory. I don't really care about what the artists were thinking, I know what the papers were thinking based on what they have said. I also think that we need to distinguish between an intellectual discussion and a hateful cartoon. One begins a dialogue, the other has no such purpos

Sabbath At Chabad House in Religion JoeUser Forums

Anyone who reads my blog with regularity knows that I teach Sunday school at the Jewish Cultural School, a Jewish secular humanist school and congregation. I teach the 7th Grade, the last year of education before the kids have their B'not Mitzvahs. As an important part of this education, we study how religion in general, and Judaism in particular, are practic

New Twist In the Cartoon War in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Well, the cartoon war just won't go away. "An Iranian newspaper says it is going to hold a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust to test whether the West will apply the same principles of freedom of expression to the Nazi genocide against Jews as it did to the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed." It is not as if anyone should be surprised. At th

Reply to IE 7 Beta 2 Review in Internet JoeUser Forums

Fourth Letter, you are probably right and I simply was not aware of that feature in IE6. The new security features can best be summarized as follows: Add-ons Disabled Mode To help troubleshoot difficulties launching Internet Explorer or reaching specific websites, you have the ability to start in "No Add-ons" mode, where only critical system Add-ons are enabled. ActiveX® Opt-in Disables nearly all pre-installed A

Reply to Five Years at Stardock in OS Customization JoeUser Forums

Shadesofgrey, "worked" might be too strong a statement. They let me hang out......

Reply to Five Years at Stardock in OS Customization JoeUser Forums

Email me at work or come into #stardock during the day. We'll chat.

Reply to Five Years at Stardock in OS Customization JoeUser Forums

Hey, Dave! Good to see you and thanks for the first reply. In case some of the youngsters are not familiar with your work, check out Link Sophont, always my favorite skin of yours, is one of the greats. Clean and beautiful. Any chance of you doing an update? Skinning friends are friends for life. <BR

Five Years at Stardock in OS Customization JoeUser Forums

February 5th, 2001 was my first day as Sales Manager at Stardock! It has been a great adventure and I am grateful for the experience. In early 2001, Microsoft was about to release a new operating system called Windows XP. We were unsure how that would effect us and tension was high. We worked with Microsoft, the release of WindowBlinds 3 was announced at Mi

Reply to IE 7 Beta 2 Review in Internet JoeUser Forums

Those that had troubles with running the Beta, were you running XP SP 2?

Reply to Freedom or Hate Speech? in Current Events JoeUser Forums

For other thoughts, you might visit these blog sites: Gideon MacLeish ""Religion of Peace" Burns Embassies" Link BakerStreet "Imposed Respect: Put Up or Shut Up" Link EmperorofIceCream "Muslims, Cartoons and a new Age of Religous Wars" L

Reply to Freedom or Hate Speech? in Current Events JoeUser Forums

" I'm manhandling the converstaion, and I apologize. I feel strongly about this." No you're not and never have. You are always welcome to comment. Hey, Gideon! Piss Christ, by "artist" Andres Serrano, is tasteless (don't you dare comment!) pseudo-crap art. (Puns intended.) I consider it distasteful in the extreme. But not hate speech. But let me play turnabout. Here's a link to cartoons that appeared in Der Sturmer before WW II: <

Reply to IE 7 Beta 2 Review in Internet JoeUser Forums

Whiterabbit007, I will probably continue to use two browsers for quite some time. I have a "professional" interest in software and need to stay current. Again, IE7 is the browser that will ship with Vista.