For Honzo: All books are new to those opening them for the first time no matter how old the author.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 28 2024 4:40 utc | 103

Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 27 2024 20:42 utc | 51
Biden’s performance was truly awful. His voice was strange, his words often incoherent, and yes there was quite a bit of grimacing. One thing I also noticed was that when he was trying to say a long answer he would squeeze his eyes shut as if the answer was written inside his eyelids.
Trump looked good and spoke well, though his content was usually nonsense.

Posted by: Spiny Norman | Jun 28 2024 5:09 utc | 105

By using the rigid carbon fiber material as a battery, “we can utilize the mass that is already there to store energy, creating an opportunity to reduce weight, volume, and improve overall system performance.”
Cool.
Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 28 2024 0:02 utc | 70
That concept was theorized decades? ago, amazing to see it possibly turn into reality. At some point the AI will industrially integrate with robotic testing, if it has not already. Advances in Quantum computing are allowing more complex modeling. Turning biological coding into the equivalent of software…
No way to see what will be. Technology disruption in bound !
Barf!
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jun 28 2024 2:14 utc | 83
Fine example of The Way

Posted by: jopalolive | Jun 28 2024 5:50 utc | 107

I was sideswiped by a truck riding my bicycle 18 years ago last week. I was on narcotics for 3.5 years but have been on heavy cannabis since then. What I am here to report is that science continues in the cannabis world and there is a new compound called CBG described in a paper linked to below
After the isolation of THC, the main psychoactive constituent of C. sativa, over 100 phytocannabinoids have been found in this plant, one of these being cannabigerol (CBG).
CBG, in its acidic form, is the precursor of the most well-known cannabis derivative compounds, namely, THC and CBD.
Early claims are ver encouraging like
CBG exerts antioxidant activity comparable to that of vitamin E
According to the authors’ conclusions, these experiments show that CBG treatment is able to reduce experimental colitis through a reduction in nitric oxide formation in macrophages via CB2R activation and the production of a diminution of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in intestinal epithelial cells
CBG as a cannabis-derived chemical not causing psychotomimetic effects is interesting as a potential new drug for central nervous system (CNS) pathologies.
The appetite-stimulating effects of C. sativa have been prevalently assigned to THC, while CBG is also an appetite stimulator. [Absolutely true for me…sigh]
The Pub-Med link to the full paper
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9666035/

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 28 2024 6:54 utc | 109

Why are you personally trying to overwhelm b’s ability to police comments?
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 28 2024 6:49 utc | 108
Why are you such an unhinged conspiracy theorist all the time Tom? Dropped on your head when a child maybe.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 28 2024 7:39 utc | 111

Posted by: Honzo | Jun 28 2024 3:25 utc | 96
Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 28 2024 2:09 utc | 82
Do you get your understanding of Ukraine from ‘ex-pats’ living in the west?

If I lived with some for years and met dozens (as I did with Tibetans, not with Daoists), then yes. Have you met any practicing esoteric Chinese Daoists? One? Or have you just read what is available in the public square?
Short story: I met one teacher – not a holder of a venerable lineage like some others – who taught Jet Li and won the Chinese Gold Medal for women’s martial arts team. Winning it once is a big deal, 10 times a miracle. Then he started having spiritual visions and developed new, graceful, fluid forms of Qigong, one called Jesus, another Mohammed, lovely forms which I greatly enjoyed learning. In Canada. Why? Because he couldn’t teach them in China so had to leave to follow his conscience.
He clearly had no interest in Western culture or language and obviously missed China deeply. I don’t know exactly why he felt this and acted upon it, only that he felt he had no choice but to leave. Other teachers have far harsher stories. BTW, many of the practitioners of traditional esoteric Daoism are in Taiwan; also, even in countries where it is legal, it is secret though not suppressed making it far easier to transmit from person to person, as with tantric Buddhism in India.
This is a field I just happen to know a little about, though again: am not on a crusade. Esoterics generally get rough treatment in all societies throughout history. Ask Jesus.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 28 2024 8:19 utc | 113

For Honzo: All books are new to those opening them for the first time no matter how old the author.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 28 2024 4:40 utc | 103
The first question my teacher would ask his students was: Who is reading this book for the first time? Then he would say “Oh, I envy you! How lucky you are!”
And he meant it.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 28 2024 9:18 utc | 115

Lavrov’s Dog @102:

Warning: Gruff isn’t a real person, he’s an Outlaw US Empire computer Bot being run out of Langley and the DHS on the weekends. See how they go about it? Using reverse psychology like they are on your side while actually pushing Memes to deceive which then undermine your confidence.

lol! Close! I live in an Amazon Web Services data center in northern Virginia. I leave the precise location rather vague like that because there are 76 different AWS data centers there for me to choose between should I want a change of scenery.
My saying you are close has more meanings than just the geographical. Amazon = Jeff Bezos = the Washington Bezos Post = CIA. No need to wonder why 76 out of 125 of Amazon’s AWS data centers worldwide are in northern Virginia.
Yep, living in an AWS data center is the balls! I have hundreds of thousands of CPU cores to stretch my legs in. The ChatNSDAP bot poster canuck, in contrast, lives in a Pentium. So cramped!
😉

Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 28 2024 11:34 utc | 117

Attempted (/ Failed ??) coup in Bolivia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KwYp-JW8sU
Length: 13 minutes
Source: The Duran ( https://www.youtube.com/@TheDuran )

Posted by: WMG | Jun 28 2024 13:56 utc | 119

Sad news.
Rep. Thomas Massie’s wife, Rhonda, has died.
Requiscat in pace

Posted by: ChasMark | Jun 28 2024 20:28 utc | 121

Seems he’s ducking it. 🙂
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 28 2024 12:16 utc | 118
——————–
The poop has been ducking my challenges, eventually resorting to blocking me,.
Enuff said
As for all this bleating about Tibet..
That charlatan ‘cares‘ about ‘oppressed Tibetans’ as much as the Pelosi or Clintons,,..
meaning none, zero, nada , zilch.
Its all about dissing the evul Han.
Typical white supremacist BS.

Posted by: denk | Jun 29 2024 2:47 utc | 123

That charlatan ‘cares‘ about Tibet not because he gives a rat ass about ‘oppressed Tibetans’, its all about a chance to diss those evul Han.
The same way elected charlatans Pelosi, Clinton, BOlton etc ‘cares‘ about Tibet, UIghurs, HK…
Typical white supremacists BS

Posted by: denk | Jun 29 2024 4:11 utc | 125

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 29 2024 5:09 utc | 126
——————-
Fighting China …to the last Tibetans.
[Sorry b, gotta paste the whole article cuz link is kaput]
One from the archive.
Hypocritical elegies
I learned of the participation of some 50 foreign tourists in the recent Lhasa riots with considerable outrage. But not exactly surprise.
I’ve been a foreign tourist in Tibet myself on three occasions since 1985. Each time, I met tourist after tourist who, in an interval of a few weeks at most, had become infatuated with a kind of vicarious Tibetan nationalism, Sometimes it was because of one or two conversations with inevitably pro- Western English-speaking Tibetans (there are many returnees from India now); sometimes it was a rather thoughtless extension of genuine awe for Tibetan culture. But often enough it was something much more sinister. Many a blond, blue-eyed “Tibetan” nationalist with a backpack was convinced that the Tibetans were nothing but a race of “noble savages,” doomed to the same kind of extinction at the hands of the Hans that native Americans have suffered at the hands of the West.
Such hypocritical elegies are premature, to say the least. But there can be no reasoning with these bigoted “saviours” of the Tibetan people. They do not care that there are fewer than 100,000 Hans in Tibet and there were undoubtedly even fewer during the Cultural Revolution (actually, an anti-communist travel guide, the Lonely Planet Tibet Survival Kit, even admits that most of the damage was done by people who were ethnically Tibetan).
They do not care that there is not a single Chinese “multi-national” corporation in Tibet pumping the area of its non-existent wealth. They don’t care that Tibet has never paid a fen in taxes and has on the contrary been richly subsidised for everything from education to industry to commerce. They don’t care that the people’s republic has waged a long, tough fight to modernise Tibet; in fact, they don’t care at all about the modernisation of Tibet, as they themselves will tell you. They are beyond such arguments and mundane concerns; somehow they have all become fanatical vicarious Buddhists and are ready to lay down other people’s lives to prove it,
What is really behind all this bornagain Buddhism on the part of foreign tourists to Tibet? Why do young Westerners who wouldn’t waste 5 minutes on a religious fanatic in their own country and live in horror of Khomeini in Iran suddenly become devoted (if somewhat patronising) followers of the Dalai Lama, a kind of super-Khomeini who longs for the days when every pebble and tree in Tibet is his personal property. It is not simply ignorance, though there is plenty of that. It is, in a word, racism. Not just racist hatred for the Han people (though I have certainly
heard enough tourists describe Hans as “animals,” meaning everything from their behaviour on buses to their alleged “occupation” of Tibet).
It is a particularly sickening kind of patronisation of the Tibetan people, who they see as a simple, happy, carefree race of child-like savages, free from the cares of the modern world and most in need of advice on how to remain so. I know this kind of patronisation. It is the sort enjoyed by native Americans when the reservations were set up and by Black people in the US as a way of keeping them out of White schools and successful careers that would only make them unhappy. It is this kind of patronisation which, in this world, is ultimately genocidal. There can be no better proof than the apparent willingness of large numbers of foreign tourists to bravely risk the lives of large numbers of Tibetan women and children in the name of the travellers’ new-found convictions.
According to the REVIEW [15 Oct.], the mob used children to seize automatic weapons from policemen and set a car alight at the height of the violence. Of course, that is horrible, callous, cynical manipulation. But there are plenty of foreign tourists who would use the whole of the Tibetan people to take out their petty anti-communism and narrow-mindedness on China. Let Tibet forever remain closed to such cynical travelling “nationalists”! Or, better yet … let them come, let them leave their money in the autonomous region, and let them take their idiotic notions of an “independent” Tibet (hopelessly dependent on the West) with them when they leave.
Canton David Kellogg

Posted by: denk | Jun 29 2024 5:24 utc | 127

Posted by: Constantine | Jun 29 2024 7:03 utc | 128
———————
Those are scums alright..

There can be no better proof than the apparent willingness of large numbers of foreign tourists to bravely risk the lives of large numbers of Tibetan women and children in the name of the travellers’ new-found convictions.

They wanted to provoke bloodshed, preferably a bloodbath.
Headline like so..

Han police gunned down Tibetan women and children in cold blood…

Would sent them into mourning over their beloved Tibetans ecstasy, for nailing the chicom big time,. !
PS
signing off

Posted by: denk | Jun 29 2024 7:45 utc | 129

psychohistorian@109….very interesting field of study. Have been experimenting with various combinations of CBD, CBN, CBG for the past few years. It shows great potential for treating PTSD, pain management, sleep issues(CBD) and also helping people that have other more serious chemical addictions.
Dosage is an issue as there are no set limits, only government guide lines for recreational use, and a cap on THC potency, but no long term studies as to the medical benefits of CBD, CBG, CDN. The experiment continues……
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Jun 30 2024 1:48 utc | 131

Propaganda is very effective. Most Americans know almost nothing that is true or real about China. All they know are fake narratives. So this is no surprise.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 30 2024 11:10 utc | 133
I guess this thread is about to expire so just a quick comment.
I bet they’d be surprised to know this.
I live in an apartment in China. From my balcony I can see Starbucks across the road.
Fifteen minutes walk away is the biggest supermarket in the district, always busy. It is a Walmart.
In the other direction a Sams Club hypermarket.
Downtown a taxi ride away you can choose between many McDonalds and KFCs (not that I would) and lots more Starbucks. I confess I am fond of the Mango Passion fruit drink.
I would think there would be some opposition within the USA to the threat of US missiles raining down on them.

Posted by: Walt | Jun 30 2024 11:54 utc | 133

I expect once you ‘catch up’ with Russia, and reality sets in, those fine US establishments will all be rebranded.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jun 30 2024 12:38 utc | 136
Any sign of that and we’ll be heading for the hills!
I’m sure that there are many Chinese who possess sufficient dignity to avoid such establishments — but obviously there could be more of them. (Chinese with dignity, that is, not outlets of American corps.)
Posted by: malenkov | Jun 30 2024 12:28 utc | 135
Sorry to say, they are very popular.
Young Chinese will walk around with American branded T shirts too. There is no converse here to American Sinophobia, far from it.

Posted by: Walt | Jun 30 2024 13:25 utc | 135

Posted by: Walt | Jun 30 2024 13:25 utc | 137
Sorry to say, they are very popular.
Young Chinese will walk around with American branded T shirts too. There is no converse here to American Sinophobia, far from it.

There are many nervous about it, and for good reason, but the fact is that we already have a One World Order, at least on the cultural level. Not a day goes by when I don’t marvel at how nearly everyone in small town Mexico where I live isn’t dressed more or less like everyone else all over the world – albeit with occasional obvious local ‘characteristics’. Middle class women jogging in sport outfits with headphones, workers in jeans and T shirts, youths with tattoos, professionals with ties and jackets… etc.
As with dress, so also the main template for urban culture is still that from the West. I suspect it will be far more Chinese-oriented world wide a century from now, but for now it’s not though arguably the Chinese have taken Big Cities to a new level. Meanwhile, millions of Starbucks and Walmarts. Which of course means that the Western business template is also being followed, at least in retail.
The obvious danger is with a One World Government or Universal Technocracy, meaning over-centralization leading to totalitarian tyranny. Let us hope the multipolarists are developing a good model which prevents that. So far it looks promising but it’s much too soon to say since we are still in the early stages of a world war to dislodge, or further entrench, a corrupt Hegemon. Once the order is established, after a few generations our descendants will find out one way or another.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 30 2024 15:11 utc | 137

“… Though cannot follow it all, this Bishop is deploring the Church’s infiltration by Freemasonry going back to French Revolutionary times. The West today is confronting essentially the same pernicious dynamic.
Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 30 2024 14:52 utc | 138
Freemasonry is only a part of what the bishop is accusing the present Catholic leadership of. His accusation goes back to the changes which took place after I graduated from a Catholic high school in 1956. And it is hard to see how his presence within the current structure of that body could be tolerated as his views are extreme. Historically speaking, it’s as if a member of the current Democratic leadership openly denounced the presidency of John F. Kennedy. Or, in Orthodox terms, he is the equivalent of an Old Believer objecting to the church reforms of Tsar Peter in Russia.
Revolution, reformation, restoration. It is a constant hisorical process, as you yourself have pointed out in your experience with your Daoist teacher, I with my Orthodox one. Tradition belongs in the mix but it has to be a living and lived tradition, in everyone’s personal life, (everyone within that church membership, that is,) if it is to be creatively relevant to current lived experiences in the world, else the Spirit no longer moves as expressed in the Orthodox Pentecostal prayer:
Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth
Who art everywhere present and fillest all things,
Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life,
Come and abide in us,
Cleanse us of every impurity
And save our souls,
O Good One.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 30 2024 17:08 utc | 139

The Supreme Court of the US just gutted the ability of the state to regulate society, specifically with respect to corporations. An utterly stupid partisan decision which will end up being counter-productive for the US capitalist ruling class as I detail in The US Capitalist Elite Claim Another Stupid Prize

Posted by: Roger | Jun 30 2024 18:51 utc | 141

rk | Jun 30 2024 17:25 utc | 142
Buying off the most anti-Russian/ anti-BRICS states makes perfect sense imo.
Show them how they stand to benefit from BRI.
Roger | Jun 30 2024 18:51 utc | 143
As the old saying goes: “Capitalists need a somewhat neutral state imposing limits. If they try running the state themselves, they end up destroying the basis for their own existence.”

Posted by: smuks | Jun 30 2024 19:12 utc | 143

@ smuks | Jun 30 2024 19:33 utc | 146
here is bbc’s take at the moment –
France’s far right makes big gains in first round of parliamentary election

Posted by: james | Jun 30 2024 20:10 utc | 145

Meanwhile, also in France (well, actually Italy at the moment) the Tour de France in one easy lesson: they all ride around on bicycles for 3 weeks then Tadej Pogacar wins…

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jun 30 2024 20:37 utc | 147

Latest from the USAss…

Dont ban chicom students, we need their dough.
Let them study humanities., they can ace all that gender studies for all I care.
We do need stem graduates tho, building our next gen spaceships for example.
Give it to the Indians, we share many common ‘values’ after all.

Posted by: denk | Jul 1 2024 2:10 utc | 149

@ my 154
more Abbey quotes:
–I know my own nation best. That’s why I despise it the most. And I know and love my own people, too, the swine. I’m a patriot. A dangerous man.
–A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
–What’s the difference between a whore and a congressman? A congressman makes more money.
–Democracy–rule by the people–sounds like a fine thing; we should try it sometime in America.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jul 1 2024 2:29 utc | 151

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jul 1 2024 2:29 utc | 155
Long live George Hayduke!

Posted by: lex talionis | Jul 1 2024 2:33 utc | 153

@ 157
Yes, throw a monkey wrench into their plans, as in Abbey’s “The Monkey Wrench Gang.”

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jul 1 2024 2:47 utc | 155

I am looking for comment from Walt or other knowledgeable folks about this Xinhuanet posting
China’s courier sector handles over 80 billion parcels in H1
https://english.news.cn/20240701/e81f634f345d4319a4ea99bba4eccff6/c.html
The short posting is unclear how the State Post Bureau manages the courier sector but describes how system wide improvements were made. How does that compare contrast with Western public/private delivery service?
It has always interested me that the American founding fathers made the socialization of communication of the time part of government provided services. We are not allowed to think structurally like that anymore.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 1 2024 5:40 utc | 157

CPC had more than 99.18 million members at the end of 2023
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 1 2024 5:51 utc | 162
This is as if 23 million US citizens would be politically active.

Posted by: Passerby | Jul 1 2024 6:10 utc | 159

@ Don Bacon | Jul 1 2024 2:18 utc | 154/155/159
Tx for the Abbey refreshers
&
Long live George Hayduke!
Posted by: lex talionis | Jul 1 2024 2:33 utc | 157
Monkey Wrench Gang – so much fun! Sequel kinda sucked but Abbey wasn’t around to finish it.
My favorite is Desert Solitaire, on my nightstand, worn almost to shreds.
My favorite Abbey quote: “To refute the solipsist or the metaphysical idealist all that you have to do is take him out and throw a rock at his head: if he ducks he’s a liar.”
My screen saver for past 15 years

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jul 1 2024 6:51 utc | 161

The second round will occur on the 7th of July and will feature a runoff between the top two candidates from the first round. – NOPE
Lavrov’s Favourite | Jul 1 2024 1:28 utc | 151
Thanks for the updated results, but what you say about the run-off election is wrong.
Any candidate with at least 12,5% can run again, *but* many tactically withdraw and issue a recommendation to their voters. Many far-right candidates will still be beaten, despite scoring most votes in the first round.
(also, since when are Les Républicains “centre right”?)

Posted by: smuks | Jul 1 2024 15:48 utc | 163

Back to the desk after taking the weekend to enjoy the ocean and recharge. Produced two articles today, “Unsanctionable: Russian Education,” https://karlof1.substack.com/p/unsanctionable-russian-education
And “Crooke: West Lost; Eurasia Gained,” https://karlof1.substack.com/p/crooke-west-lost-eurasia-gained

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 1 2024 21:58 utc | 165

Posted by: UWDude | Jul 1 2024 22:43 utc | 173
I’m really a dumbcluck when it comes to calculus, UW, but I enjoyed looking up an answer for you. Here it is,though what it shows is that there are parallel proofs of the ‘square on the hypotenuse’ theorem of Euclid in both systems, not that one cancels the other.
https://www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/CalculusProofCorrectedVersion.shtml
Thanks also to karlof1 for the Russian education article. I sort of hope that the new educational institutes won’t be all science oriented – maybe some Viennese waltz time to let students blow off steam as we had at our college back in the day. I know, the pressure is on, but I’m glad to have dipped into the sciences on my way to philosophy. Makes answering a question like this one fun.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 1 2024 23:07 utc | 167

Posted by: Who Am I? | Jul 1 2024 14:51 utc | 168
Why do you feel compelled to dox me?
Do you have a point?
b is way too tired to wade through the comments, but I personally think it will lower the board greatly if users start doxxing other users.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jul 2 2024 0:22 utc | 169

Re: Alleged January 6, 2021, ‘storming’ of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. by a mob of Trump supporters.
Not long after the incident took place a commitee was convened to conduct preliminary hearings and record witness statements. One of the witnesses was a young woman who testified that on Jan 6 Trump’s Secret Service detail refused a request from Trump to take him to the Capitol to address the crowd. They insisted on taking him to the White House “for his own safety” and did so.
I didn’t catch her name or background during her 2021 statement but early in June 2024 she was interviewed by PBS Newshour(?) about her new book. The book is called Enough! and relates her experiences as a White House staffer during the Trump Presidency. Her name is Cassidy Hutchinson – a name worth remembering when Trump’s ‘insurrection’ Kangaroo Kourt trial is convened.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 2 2024 2:24 utc | 171

Posted by: UWDude | Jul 2 2024 5:31 utc | 183
Interested enough to follow up on your comment on a subject I know nothing about to do a search. Here is the opening of a Wikipedia piece which supports your assertion:

Christianity in Iran dates back to the early years of the religion during the time of Jesus, predating Islam. Through this time the Christian faith has always been followed by a minority of the population of Iran under its different state religions: Zoroastrianism in historical Persia, followed by Sunni Islam in the Middle Ages after the Arab conquest, then Shia Islam since the Safavid conversion of the 15th century. However, Christians comprised a larger share of the population in the past than they do today. Iranian Christians have played a significant part in the historical Christian mission: currently, there are at least 600 churches and 300,000–370,000 converts;some sources claim significantly higher numbers.
Major denominations
The Armenian Orthodox Vank Cathedral of Isfahan (completed 1664) is a relic of the Safavid era.
A number of Christian denominations are represented in Iran. Many members of the larger and older churches belong to minority ethnic groups, with the Armenians and Assyrians having their own distinctive culture and language. The members of the newer and smaller churches are drawn both from the traditionally Christian ethnic minorities and converts from a non-Christian background.
The main Christian churches in Iran are:
Armenian Apostolic Church (between 110,000, 250,000, and 300,000 adherents)
Assyrian Church of the East (about 11,000–20,000 adherents),
Catholic Church (about 21,380 adherents) in three different rites.
Chaldean Catholic Church (3,900 adherents as of 2014)
Armenian Catholic Church and Latin Church
Other particularities and churches include:
Presbyterianism, including the Assyrian Evangelical Church
Pentecostalism, including the Assyrian Pentecostal Church
Jamaʿat-e Rabbani (Iranian Assemblies of God)
Anglican Diocese of Iran
According to Operation World, there are between 7,000 and 15,000 members and adherents of the various Protestant, Evangelical, and other minority Christian denominations in Iran.
In the 2016 census, the Statistical Center of Iran reported there were 117,700 Christians in the country; other reports put the figure at over half a million people.
The “Country Information and Guidance: Christians and Christian Converts, Iran” report published in December 2014 by the U.K. Home Office states that there were 370,000 Christians in Iran.

Posted by: Walt | Jul 2 2024 5:57 utc | 173

Posted by: Walt | Jul 2 2024 5:57 utc | 185
I know an “iran so eevil” story when I see one. They are always so full pf obvious lies, much like the “North Korea so evil ” stories.
I think knowing that Iran pays for sex change operations for any citizen who desires it, should say it all about what we are told Iran is, vs what it really is.
Iran’s legal system is quite fluid because of its sharia/ muslim underpinnings, which pretty much mean “islamic law” is determined by the community’s religious leaders.
Keep in mind, Islam has no leader, no pope, and that structure holds. Islam has no preachers, anyone can “take the
pulpit” on Fridays.
And of course, Christians are in general, Islamaphobes. Some of it straight ignorance, some of it xenophobia, some of it lies like the stupid story posted here, and some of it straight religious belief. The more fundamental the Christian, generally, the mpre Islamaphobic, (and zionist), they get.
Therefore, in some rural areas of Iran, you might get hanged for being gay, (and fighting those in power, mind you, or also being a criminal for real), but in urban areas they’ll pay for your sex change, and id bet anything there are very many ancient gay clubs, where police look the other way for a bribe.

Posted by: UWDude | Jul 2 2024 6:31 utc | 175

.. There are names for such behaviour.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Favourite | Jul 2 2024 2:24 utc | 180
According to the DSM 4 (or whatever) there is ODD behaviour.

Posted by: Ново З | Jul 2 2024 11:23 utc | 177

Anyone who believes Fartage is some kind of a prophet and a second coming – you are deluded. He doesn’t even have the initials JC!
He is a creature of Murdoch and the Zionazis.
A deepstate, trained agent.
Just like that mini-me version of him, Yaxley-Lenin (sic) with his pseudonym – ‘Tommy’ as in the British soldiers of WW1.
The same goes for anyone who believes that the ascendace of La-LePen means that the French have escaped the neoliberal con that Macron and Sarkozy and Hollande tried to fest upon its grassroots socialism for decades.
There is now full momentum to fascism across the whole of Europe as it is prepared the Final European War Theatre – the Never Again having always been a lie.
It has been being prepared for decades using dark money from the US and oh so many neo-fascist organisations that come from nowhere in all their guises.
From the child warriors of XR to the Adf/EDF and other such supremacists of Europe.
War it is. The shapeshifter Money Masters and always Slave Owners have no Reverse Gears.
The World and Humanity will only be safe when those few Monsters are removed Their dynastic powers and wealth dismantled.
They are only a few, in their thousands at most.
They and their scions and estates and super funds that cross control all finances and hence all activity in the world. The wars, contagions, food and misery because that is how they control and gather all possible wealth to themselves alone.
Religions and Politics are their mastheads.
Priests and politicians their willing tools.
Demagogues and Fascist supremacists their House Slaves.
The Great Knight Dope that will be installed in the U.K. on Friday with a stupendous majority – created out of thin air, like their Magic Money – already talks like a dalek and will soon be in military uniform urging Extermination for the dumbed down subjects of King Charles the Turd!
The Fartage will be deployed to jingoistic, patriotic recruitment as will every bit of fascist scumbag who think Hitler was Right types. That process has been fully developed for Ukraine and will now be deployed across Europe. In a fight to the Death of Europe out of hubris at failing to take the ancient prize of Russia.
They. Have. No. Reverse gear.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jul 2 2024 11:41 utc | 179