Spyke

Replies

world

Comment on

German woman's body paraded naked, spit on by Hamas fighters in Israel

Gladly most muslims selectively do not follow the parts of the Quran which advocate violence, but it is definitely in there. Islamic extremists are basically literal interpreters of certain parts of the book, mostly those written by Muhammad himself, who was a warrior/aristocrat LARP'ing as a spiritual guru.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad

"Subsequent to obtaining a divine instruction to battle the polytheists, Muhammad dispatched his followers to perform raids on the Quraysh's trading caravans. Certain Meccan followers of his were reluctant to partake, as it would mean attacking their own tribespeople. This vexed Muhammad, resulting in the revelation of Quran verse 2:216, among others, which asserts that fighting is good and has been made obligatory for them. After several months of failures, Muhammad managed to achieve his first successful raid, at Nakhla, during a month that the pagans forbade themselves from shedding blood. When the bountiful plunder was being brought back to him in Medina, Muhammad was met with censure from the locals. He contended that his followers had misconstrued his command, and he postponed taking his one-fifth portion of the spoil until a verse was ultimately revealed, legitimizing the attack.

In the early stages of his time in Medina, Muhammad was optimistic that the Jewish people would acknowledge him as a Prophet and strove to obtain converts from their community. However, his efforts were unsuccessful and even faced ridicule, as the Jews perceived inconsistencies between the Quran and their own scriptures. Consequently, the Quran accused the Jews of hiding and modifying parts of their holy texts. The Jewish criticism and refusal presented a danger to his prophetic claims, and, as a result, the views of Muhammad and the Quran towards them worsened. This then led to the reorientation of the Muslim prayer direction, the qibla, from Jerusalem to the Kaaba. Following the Battle of Badr, Muhammad revealed his intention to expel the Jews from the land. Once the ransom arrangements for the Meccan captives were finalized, he initiated a siege on the Banu Qaynuqa, regarded as the weakest and wealthiest of Medina's three main Jewish tribes."

These terrorists wouldn't hesitate to slit your throat if you didn't pledge allegiance to Muhammad, and even if you did they'd probably still murder you. And that's why they all need to be sent promptly back to Allah to check in, permanently. It's really sad that some of their normal/moderate compatriots will be joining them, but unfortunately, that's their whole plan. Use the palestinian people as a gigantic group of hostages which they can slowly sacrifice on their altar to Muhammed. And don't make the mistake of turning this into a class war about "oppressed people". Muhammed filled palaces with treasure he stole from the people he murdered.

Comment on

Amazon Prime Video is able to remove a video from your library after purchase.

well, at least they paid you back for it. that's actually quite respectable of them. and if they didn't, it would have been a class action lawsuit, so kind of a moot point all around. You got your money back. I recommend using it to obtain several tiers of backup hard drives and make sure you have two physical copies of every piece of media you feel is not replaceable. Because some day, you won't be able to replace it. the corporate dream is nobody owns anything, you just have to jack into their "stream" and consume whatever they feed you. the funniest thing is, people are already getting a head start on that dystopian future. they're doing it to themselves, by actually paying for shitty streaming services. You really shouldn't do that, as it only emboldens them.

Comment on

‘COME AND TAKE IT’: Congressman Introduces Amendment to Ensure ‘Access to Delicious and Nutritious’ Chocolate Milk

so weird. i'm a conservative christian. i grow a lot of my own food. chocolate milk in schools is absolutely insane and needs to be gone. the republicans stopped being my party a long time ago.

i had to write a letter to my kid's principle to stop them from giving my kid shitty candy all the time at school. wtf is up with people these days? how did people come to conflate "independence" and "freedom" with junk? kids should be getting water at school. how is this a controversial opinion?

Comment on

FTC files “the big one,” a lawsuit alleging Amazon illegally maintains monopoly

Reply in thread

fair enough. i found that it was mostly a scam. they hook you in with "free" prime in college, then it just keeps re-billing forever until you finally realize "do i really need this package in 1 day as opposed to 3-4?" in my case, i virtually never need something instantly. so why pay the $170? its clearly very profitable for them, judging by how desperately they try to get me to re-sign up.

world

Comment on

Hundreds dead in Israel and Gaza, thousands injured after Hamas launches rockets, Israel declares war

badly drawn maps are a major culprit. its clear many commenters are young and don't know the actual history. i'm a bit surprised by just how many pro-hamas posts ive seen. its a little disturbing. read your history. there is very little that the modern state of Israel could have done to prevent any of this. these extremists want total annihilation of israel. what can israel do against terrorists whose stated goal is to participate in a holy war which they believe is their ticket to heaven? it's an unwinnable conflict. peace talks only work if all sides actually want peace (and just disagree about how to accomplish it) every insane group of extremists across history has had to be dealt with forcefully, at some point, in some way or another, for all of human history. the japanese, germans, soviets, koreans, all needed to be dealt with, and in all cases it required overwhelming force sustained by wide coalitions over many years.

this is no different. if you are young, don't know the history, and are sitting in your room thinking there is some special concession Israel could give, that would turn this all around, its time to hit the library. The reality is that there isn't really any land in the area that would work for that. The available land that is compatible with human civilization in that part of the world, is completely full. There is no "amazon" that could be cut down to build new areas for Palestinians to live. It's a hot, arid, inhospitable part of the world, and civilization is clustered around natural rivers and mountainous locations. There's no place for anyone to go.

And then there's the ideology. Even if Israel and some broad coalition decided to invest trillions in some massive infrastructure project to make Gaza the best place in the world to live, the terrorists would still do exactly what they're doing today. The point you have to understand, is that Hamas does not care about Palestinians. Repeat that to yourself 10x and commit it to your brain forever. Islamic extremists do not care about achieving peaceful cooperation with people of other faiths and ideologies on planet earth. Nor do they even care about their own people.

People in the west are extremely soft and ignorant in some ways. They've grown up immersed in a culture of relative stability, judeo-christian ethics, etc. They have no concept that there are people out there who share none of that. They literally don't care. And the proof is all over twitter. Go watch, let it soak in.

Only a broad coalition with massive force can end this, just like every other time. otherwise its just on an endless cycle.

news

Comment on

America's nonreligious are a growing, diverse phenomenon. They really don't like organized religion

is this the part where twenty somethings on the internet gather to exclaim loudly "I hate hypocrites too"?

then you should love jesus, because he hated religious hypocrites just as much as you do. In fact, it was those hypocrites who killed him.

If jesus returned today, he would be killed at a MAGA rally, probably.

i'm a christian in SPITE of the church, not because of it.

world

Comment on

Zelensky: Israel has ‘indisputable’ right to defend itself from terror

Of course it does, just like any other nation. In this case, the extreme islamists don't care about geopolitical resources like land or oil. They care about exterminating Jews. Plain and simple. If Hamas had free reign, they would execute every last person on planet earth, including you, unless you converted to Islam. It's in their ideology--dying in a holy war against non-muslims is the ticket to eternal life. That's literally what they believe. And because of that, they sew chaos and terror wherever they go.

Clearly the large majority of muslims do not believe this way. But the extremists do, and that's how history is made. The peaceful, normal civilians who'd rather just live their lives, aren't the decision makers. And of course this all traces back to a long series of stupid decisions and badly drawn maps after the world wars. But make no mistake, Hamas is no different than Nazi Germany in their desire to exterminate Jews, and eventually they will need to be dealt with in exactly the same way.

news

Comment on

Grizzly bear kills couple and their dog at Banff National Park in Canada

a shotgun is probably the only thing that would've saved them. or, just choosing not to hike in bear country at this time of year. This is when the more desperate bears will eat anything that moves. They aren't picky, and playing dead will not save you if a bear is extremely hungry, as they are in drought conditions. just a tragic reminder that bears can and will kill, and eat you under certain circumstances.

stocks

Comment on

Dividend vs Growth Stocks

in the US, those dividends arent qualified, so they will be taxed at your normal income tax rate, not 15%. If you're a very low wage earner, there may be no difference, but for most people, you want to be earning qualified dividends not unqualified. That means big companies that make their dividends from free cash flow from business operations. That's why people pile into dividend ETFs like SCHD, VYM, etc. nearly all the dividends are qualified so especially in a taxable account for high wage earners, buying stocks like these are considered much better than say, bonds/real estate.

world

Comment on

Hundreds dead in Israel and Gaza, thousands injured after Hamas launches rockets, Israel declares war

Reply in thread

Why leave out the fact that the Jews also have an equally legitimate claim on the land, in addition to having been taken close to the brink of total extermination by circumstances completely beyond their control? A normal, compassionate individual would welcome these people in, make room for them, and live at peace under a stable society, tolerant of different points of view. However, that is not what the Jews encountered upon the creation of Israel. It was just a continuation of the campaign to exterminate them, from a different group. Are you going to argue that it's bad for Germans to murder Jews, but it is okay for Muslims?

news

Comment on

'Power to communities': Chicago considers city-owned grocery store to address 'food deserts' after giants like Walmart and Whole Foods shutter stores

Reply in thread

good question, im not an industrial farming expert, but i definitely grow a shit ton of food on my own 1 acre property, using only hand tools. One reason small scale farming is more efficient is that the areas planted do not have to adhere to dimensions that will fit industrial farm equipment. For example, think about a grape plantation on a rough hillside. its simply not possible to use industrial harvesting equipment there, so it must be done by hand, yet still produces massive amounts of nutrition/calories off rough land. This applies to individual/family plots too--they aren't all just flat farmland, they are on hillsides, uneven terrain, etc. An example would be in the third world like in south africa, there are vast neighborhoods of small two-room family shacks, with a bit of land to the side. Each family there produces an unexpectedly large amount of corn, sugar-cane, root veggies, etc on very tiny plots. No industrial equipment could ever fit there or farm there. They produce a large amt of food right next to their shack, and virtually everyone does it because its cheaper and more efficient than walking (yes, walking, they don't own cars) to the store a few miles away. And another reason, kind of hard to explain, but individual people doing individual farming on their own land tend to take better care of their plants. Pests have a much more difficult time in situations like this, because where they really thrive are gigantic fields of monoculture crops. for example, corn. An industrial corn field often allows weeds and pests to take over the undergrowth around the corn, which significantly limits crop returns, but there are just so many damn corn stalks that can be harvested industrially, that it doesnt' matter and the end result is still a huge amount. But in relative terms, growing your own corn next to your own house, and paying more individual attention to each plant, results in better actual yields.

Industrial farming relies on complex equipment, and the fact that there is just so much flat land available, that they don't "need" to be efficient. Take a look at how much diesel is used on industrial farms, and it kind of shows the point. It's a lot. In general, human bodies doing manual labor are extremely efficient compared to other forms of work, provided they have the knowledge and appropriate context. It takes 3-4 miles of walking to burn off the calories in two slices of bread. Humans are very efficient when working with their hands.

I mean, you're right. We can grow a shit ton of potatoes on flat land with modern methods. And we do. But that absolutely does not mean individual/small scale urban farming couldn't do just as well. This year I grew 8 roma tomato plants in a 4ft by 10ft garden. They provided enough tomatoes (400-500) to make over 50 jars of tomato sauce, enough to supply our household for a year. I don't live on flat or even fertile farm land. My terrain is rocky sandstone, uneven. No mechanized farming could ever be done here. Yes I had to work and amend the soil. Yes it's hard work for several days of the year. But I need exercise anyway. I don't buy a gym membership because of the garden work I do. The seeds and plants were free because I save seeds. The total cost of the tomatoes was just my own labor, the water (around $10 worth), and misc costs. The sauce is far cheaper than anything I could buy at the store, since I supplied all of the raw material.

The point is, anyone with even a small plot of land is able to grow large amounts of food, probably a lot more than they think. And most of those places are places that without small-scale/individual gardening, would never see any food production. The issue is, it takes time, knowledge, and special care, and many people aren't able to pull that off. I realize that, and it's fine. That's why big farms exist. But the truth is that there are a large number of people out there who have the time, and ability to do it, but they just don't know how, or even believe it's possible. Even just one apple tree can provide a huge amount of nutrition and calories if well cared for and placed correctly.

Wheat and rice? Yea, those don't lend themselves well to small scale farming. For those things, you are absolutely correct. However, don't assume those things are necessary. It's just carbs. I have beets growing in my back yard (enough to last an entire year) that contain more carbs, and more importantly, vastly more nutrients, than a much larger field of wheat or rice. Don't get me wrong, I love me some pizza and bread, and I buy lots of wheat flour from local farms around me. But those types of crops are NOT necessary for people to eat. They're luxuries. The proof? Africa and other arid zones. People subsist on small scale farming (and foraging) of root vegetables (casava is the most well known), not vast plantations of rice and wheat. and they do just fine. Root vegetables are often a lot more nutritious than grass seed (which is what rice and wheat are). You just can't make pizza out of it due to no gluten :(