Politics

RLD said:

Do you realize that there is a world with literally billions of people in it outside of the Christian west that have never used those terms you want to claim was the global standard?

Do you really believe that for "a millennium" people in China, India, Japan, Africa, South America and Australia used the terms BC and AD? Mongols, Persians, Vikings? All using AD. Seriously man wtf?

I bet you would be a tad offended if some low brow fanatic was insisting that you should count time by the number of years since the migration of Mohammed the Chosen? Would you like your history books full of that term? Or how about the years from the Inauguration of the Yellow Emperor?

Would you be comfortable using a system that required you to write and say that Mohammed was the one true prophet as part of your work or studies or publications?

I guess if your society is mighty small, and mighty closed, and likes to pretend different people don't exist than a large segment of society might be offended by those terms, but that would just be a small group of ill informed people who chose to ignore the broader world.

So unless you define "global use" as "Christian West" you are simply wrong in your assertion.

Even in the Christian West those terms have not been universal for a thousand years. The reason the term Common Era was first used was to make it simpler to communicate on time than a very widely used system of counting years from the birth of various kings in Germany. Eastern Orthodox and Russia adopted it much later too. The C.E. system is not a 2026 thing, it has existed for centuries.

The only offensive thing going on here is the level of ignorance and ethnocentrism your post shows. I guess it is de rigueur for angry uneducated people to cry "woke" or babble about "the extreme left" is in some great conspiracy against them, but dude this one is so pathetic you won't even get an invite to the oppression olympics let alone a medal.

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mdwest said:

Even Al Jazeera gets it (and they have historically been biased against Israel and the US on matters regarding the Middle East)…

The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working. Here is why

Every aspect of Iran’s ability to project regional power is being successfully degraded.

www.aljazeera.com

I’m sure @Pondoro won’t bother to read it or attempt to understand the realities of the situation however since the article counters his agenda and unsubstantiated beliefs lol…

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mdwest said:

Even Al Jazeera gets it (and they have historically been biased against Israel and the US on matters regarding the Middle East)…

The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working. Here is why

Every aspect of Iran’s ability to project regional power is being successfully degraded.

www.aljazeera.com

I’m sure @Pondoro won’t bother to read it or attempt to understand the realities of the situation however since the article counters his agenda and unsubstantiated beliefs lol…

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mark-hunter said:

Meanwhile in Belgium:
qoute/unqoute:
"Given that we are unable to pressure Putin by sending weapons to Ukraine, and cannot suffocate his economy without US support, only one method remains: making a deal," he said.

Belgian PM De Wever calls for talks with Russia to end Ukraine war

Belgian PM Bart De Wever says Europe must negotiate with Russia to end the war in Ukraine and restore cheap energy access, as EU leaders remain divided on engaging Moscow. #EuropeNews

www.euronews.com

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fourfive8 said:

And to the original premise. So, @RLD, exactly what event should we use to index year zero? Perhaps BGK/AGK, before/after Genghis Khan. Or you pick it… maybe some early Chinese emperor like BHC/AHC, before/after Hung Cao. Good grief, why suffer such a stupid debate!

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fourfive8 said:

So for the self-proclaimed scholars… exactly what historical marker should be used to index or reference year zero? BCE is simply a pseudo term invented to stand in place of BC by rare air secularists of the intellectual class in a thinly veiled attempt to avoid some straw man argument about a religious inference that didn’t exist to begin with.

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fourfive8 said:

@RLD, well BC or AD are only religious if you choose to make to them so. BCE is simply a construct to sound non-religious. Only a luya from Canadia could get so wrapped around the axle on such things. Since BCE is, no more, no less than a substitute term for BC, please tell us the historical context for BCE. What event exactly is represented by BCE? We’re waiting, and still waiting …… Exactly what event is described as “Current Era”? The only circular logic, typical for luyas, that you come back with is since Christ is viewed as a religious figure, He can’t be used as an historical figure, since all religious figures should be viewed as fictional figures, especially by enlightened sectarians such as yourself. Yikes, and to think, some luyas become judges.

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Pondoro said:

Top counterterrorism official resigns in protest of US war against Iran

www.foxnews.com

The nation's top counterterrorism official resigned Tuesday in protest of the U.S. war against Iran, saying Tehran posed no imminent threat.

"After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today," Joe Kent said in a post on X.

"I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

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fourfive8 said:

@RLD, well BC or AD are only religious if you choose to make to them so. BCE is simply a construct to sound non-religious. Only a luya from Canadia could get so wrapped around the axle on such things. Since BCE is, no more, no less than a substitute term for BC, please tell us the historical context for BCE. What event exactly is represented by BCE? We’re waiting, and still waiting …… Exactly what event is described as “Current Era”? The only circular logic, typical for luyas, that you come back with is since Christ is viewed as a religious figure, He can’t be used as an historical figure, since all religious figures should be viewed as fictional figures, especially by enlightened sectarians such as yourself. Yikes, and to think, some luyas become judges.

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mdwest said:

I like Joe.. he's a member of my particular tribe...

but..

as stated at least a couple of dozen times in this thread by more than a handful of people over several years.. wars arent always about imminent threats... they are often about strategic, long term threats.. and those threats arent always conventional military threats.. they are often economic, asymmetric, nonproliferation, and/or many other things..

Venezuela also was not an imminent conventional military threat.. but.. removing Maduro from power was absolutely in the US's national interest (and I'd argue in the interest of the entire western world as well as most Venezeulans interests)..

Arguing that Tehran posed no imminent threat is a) short sighted, and b) lacks an understanding of "threats" beyond his particular office (counter terrorism)..

and.. while I do indeed like Joe.. I honestly thought he was the wrong pick for the job as the director of the national counterterrorism center.. he lacks the level of experience and background for that job..

Hes a former Army SF warrant officer and former Ranger Regiment NCO that did a few years in the field as a paramilitary officer with the CIA.. The National Counter Terrorism Center has more than 1000 employees and an undisclosed budget, but the budget is believed to be well into the hundreds of millions..

Prior to his appointment the largest organization he ever led was less than a dozen people..

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