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Unread 11-06-2004, 12:32 PM   #432
nexxo
Cooling Savant
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Brimingham, UK
Posts: 385
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Quote:
Originally Posted by unregistered
abortion is (presently still) legal in this country, and I suspect will remain so

discussions about outlawing it are vote pandering by the religious and such
Yeah, but gay marriage is not legal. Thin end of the wedge?

Although religion is forced on people in extreme Islamic states, and not in the US, I don't think that's the point Cathar tried to make. The fact is that religion (and its specific values) are used as an argument for voting for one candidate and not the other. It is such statements that make the whole war against terror seem like a religious war, extremist vs extremist, rather than a conflict between those who believe in personal freedom and democracy, and those who don't. As you said, the two opponents are not comparable, but to all appearances they make very similar noises.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe
not being a gambler I am hessitant to bet my life on some good thing in the afterlife... yet 72 virgins soulds like a a worthy gamble, I am just waiting for the WI Jihad to kick off
Don't get your hopes up. The 72 virgins may have been a mistranslation. The famous passage about the virgins in the original Aramaic texts is based on the word hur, which is an adjective in the feminine plural meaning simply "white." Islamic tradition insists the term hur stands for "houri," which means virgin, but that may be a forced misreading of the text. In both ancient Aramaic and in at least one respected dictionary of early Arabic, hur means "white raisin". So the reward in the afterlife is a nice bowl of white grapes, not virgins.
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