Discounts for folks 50+ & up...

[Three Valves]

"Pre-1930s liberty" The good old days we never experienced. Always a better, more idyllic time than anything we've lived through.

(Isn't it that sort of thinking, and modern weaponry, that drives the Taliban and ISIS?)

Tell us about their establishment of Government by the People, free of an official State religion before your analogy falls to pieces!!

If anyone over there wanted either of those, that would be a more sensible objection.

...and the proposed analogy to the Taliban and ISIS wouldn't be so ridiculous.

Exactly!!

[alfredr]

I was referring to the idea that times we didn't live through were better than now. Their thinking is that sometime in the past there was golden age for Islam before all the corrupting ideas of the west invaded. Not that they want pre 1930s liberty. The times they want to return to have little to do with america's liberty. That is one of the ideas they want to get away from.

"Bomb them back to the Stone Age". That would be closer to their ideal time, at least with regard to the power that religious leaders have over the lives of their subjects.

But that they view some previous time that they never lived through as having been "better" is what I was saying. But they are willing and able to use any and every new technology to force a return to that better time on their subjects.

Does this help clear up the analogy?

[Three Valves]

Does this help clear up the analogy?

No.

You attacked someone who innocently referred to a time in American History that existed before a Federal Income Tax even existed, and falsely equated that thought to murderous, backward terror organizations.

Not all nostalgia is equal.

[Donn]

Not all nostalgia is equal.

Well, thank you, this goes directly to the conceptual difficulty you're having here. When we, by example, suggest that nostalgia can sometimes severely misguided, we are in fact saying that all nostalgia is equal in this particular respect: that it can sometimes be severely misguided. This is what we call the "point."

One can easily object, that the Middle East differs in many ways from the US before 1930. The music is different, for one thing - I dare say tubas were much more popular in the US at that time. My grandmother doesn't live in the modern Middle East. Etc. This we call "beside the point."

alfredr doesn't say this, but for me the point of analogy may also be seen to include a political element. Both of these are good examples of nostalgia made to serve as a very good business for a gang of politicians and the interested parties that back them.

[alfredr]

Backward looking, backward thinking. Yes, the times they are looking back to are very different.

One thinks they have the right to impose its view on its share of the world; one is not as dangerous. I get that part.

The similarity is in the backward looking-ness. And, yes, it does get political, doesn't it?

[alfredr]

I think bloke's 15 per cent is referring to social security, not the income tax. And I think it is more like 30 per cent if you are self-employed.

(Has bloke ever "innocently" referred to anything? I believe he always does it with a purpose.). (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

[michael_glenn]

I noticed that you said banana republic is 30% off. I work at the outlets and its 10% off on Tuesdays. Maybe it's just different between retail store and factory store.

[Three Valves]

Backward looking, backward thinking. Yes, the times they are looking back to are very different.

One thinks they have the right to impose its view on its share of the world; one is not as dangerous. I get that part.

The similarity is in the backward looking-ness. And, yes, it does get political, doesn't it?

When YOU stirred the pot it did!!

[alfredr]

A chicken in every pot!

[alfredr]

Thanks, bloke. My memory was fuzzy. I haven't had to deal with self-employment income for years.

Warm and fuzzy memories of a chicken in the pot, nine days old.