Senate approves Syria, anti-BDS[*] bill
The Senate passed legislation on Thursday breaking with President Trump's Syria policy. Senators voted 77-23 to send the legislation to the House that includes a provision warning Trump against a "precipitous" withdrawal of troops from Syria and Afghanistan. It also asks the administration to certify that certain conditions have been met "for the enduring defeat of al Qaeda and ISIS before initiating any significant withdrawal of United States forces from Syria or Afghanistan."
[...] In addition to the Syria amendment, the bill also included sanctions against the Syrian government, increased support for Israel and Jordan and a provision that would let states penalize businesses that take part in boycotts or divestments of Israel.
Both the Syria amendment and the anti-BDS provisions sparked division among Democrats. [...] Democrats had raised First Amendment concerns about the anti-BDS provision, which splintered most of the party's 2020 contenders and caucus leadership. "While I do not support the BDS movement, we must defend every American's constitutional right to engage in political activity. It is clear to me that this bill would violate Americans' First Amendment rights," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement last week.
[*] BDS: boycott, divestment and sanctions.
Also at NYT.
See also: Is the Anti-BDS Bill Constitutional? Yes, But...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 07 2019, @08:08PM (21 children)
Well, if they're actually the chosen people then by definition, Christ is not the messiah, right?
But, much more importantly: Criticizing the actions of the theocratic nation of Israel is not the same as criticizing Judaism itself or being anti-Semitic.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday February 07 2019, @08:15PM (18 children)
> Well, if they're actually the chosen people then by definition, Christ is not the messiah, right?
The timeline is this, God chooses the tribe of Abraham (given His hindsight, it is obvious He likes to play in hard mode), prophets write about the messiah, Christ arrives. so the two things are independent.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 07 2019, @08:35PM (17 children)
But the messiah is supposed to convert the chosen. That didn't happen. So either they're not the chosen or he's not the messiah.
(Or, god is just a liar and a douchebag. Which, if he existed, is what I would believe.)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @09:00PM (10 children)
Ah! Religion is fun! Can we get some arguments about obscure symbolism?
So what actually happened is that Yahweh did not anticipate that Mary was already a Red Dress hybrid and one of Ishtar's as well. As fate would have it, Jesus gained enlightenment and transcended spacetime, becoming one with the Source, and so he is not really part of the conflict between Yahweh's Army of the Apocalypse and the Anunnaki Expeditionary Group (latter often identified with the "whore of Babylon," which seems to be Yahweh's Trumpian nickname for Ishtar).
Though of course people need to listen to what Jesus, Siddhartha, and the other spiritual masters throughout the galaxy have to say. (We can throw gender angst in here as well. An enlightened being is a being who has experienced millions of past lives, some male, some female, and so it would be incorrect to say that Jesus and Siddhartha are only complete men, because they are also complete women.)
See also the thing with the snake and Eve and original sin. It's another example of Yahweh's propaganda against Ishtar (snake == goddess worship) and the pretext for his systematic subjugation of human women to human men for thousands of years.
Still needs a few tweaks yet before I submit my manuscript to Atlus.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @09:08PM (2 children)
Forgot to back this up with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas [wikipedia.org]
also here http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html [gnosis.org]
It's a bit jumbled, but we have to remember who this remark was likely directed at: Yahweh's Red Dresses, the scribes and pharisees, the very people responsible for the historical subjugation of women.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:43PM (1 child)
If the amount of collective mental effort wasted on these religions was put to useful purpose, we'd probably have colonies on Mars or cold fusion or at least something other than impenetrable gibberish.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @12:04AM
Humans are still chimps, just now learning how to speak and write. Give us a few hundred thousand more years. We might even acquire NI (Natural Intelligence)
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:53PM (6 children)
The funny/sad thing is, that *still* makes more sense than the shit that Bot spews.
Also, if this is going to Atlus, make sure someone in your protagonist's party is capable of casting Megidolaon and someone else has Mediarama or Salvation. Several incarnations of the YHWH fight also include him being able to straight-up insta-kill a party member so be ready for that too.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday February 07 2019, @11:18PM (5 children)
In this instance he sent an angel, and 185,000 enemies just didn't get up after going to bed. 2nd Kings 19:30-35 "30And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 31For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. 32Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. 33By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. 34For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. 35And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses."
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 07 2019, @11:56PM (3 children)
[citation needed]
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday February 08 2019, @04:01PM (2 children)
Assuming, you're not just trolling, I included the citation, before the quotation.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday February 09 2019, @06:06AM (1 child)
...you. Cannot. Use. The Bible. To prove. Something. The Bible. Says.
EVIDENCE, Freeman. Archaeological or textual evidence. A massacre like that ought to have made waves through the entire region and left impressions on hostile historians.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday February 11 2019, @04:39PM
What makes you think, a ruler would want to record such an event? An event that would mark a blight upon their rule. https://listverse.com/2014/09/14/10-people-who-were-erased-from-history/ [listverse.com]
The only difference between taking a random etching on a cave wall as truth and taking the bible as truth is perspective. Nothing has proven that what's recorded in the Bible is false. Yet, to the contrary, archaeology has only proven that what has been written in the Bible is True. http://truthisfree.org/2018-biblical-archaeological-evidence-archaeology-findings-prove-bible/ [truthisfree.org] https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/110014/christian-archaeologist-battling-for-the-bibles-truth-in-israel/ [breakingisraelnews.com] https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/learn-about-the-scrolls/introduction [deadseascrolls.org.il]
Fun facts about the Dead Sea Scrolls https://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-dead-sea-scrolls [history.com]
Of course, you have the other side that is definitively against the Bible as Truth. "William Dever, like other academic scholars, uses the term B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) instead of B.C. (Before Christ)." https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/archeology-hebrew-bible/ [pbs.org]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday February 08 2019, @03:59AM
Objection, hearsay!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @09:03PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday February 09 2019, @12:15AM
>Israelites can always say that they haven't needed the conversion
And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:12PM (1 child)
You don't seem to see any other options?
He is the messiah, They are the chosen, They rejected their own messiah (at least the religious leaders did). But in the end they will recognize and accept him.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:27PM
There is no God but the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Anonymous Coward is his messenger.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:56PM
Are you just making stuff up, or what?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday February 08 2019, @03:27PM
> But the messiah is supposed to convert the chosen
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
but
The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
also:
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’
also:
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday February 07 2019, @11:36PM (1 child)
I don't know about JC, but Paul definitely wasn't the messiah. Or an honest follower of same. And let's not even talk about the way documentation of that period was altered. (See Council of Nicea for one example out of many.)
FWIW, the actual followers of JC were massacred by a Roman army lead by a "Christian" [i.e. Paulist] general. They were called the Nazarene, but don't confuse them with the modern church of the same name.
So any claim about what the authentic doctrine of Jesus of ? (It wasn't Bethlehem, that was one of the changes) is, is at best, dubious.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @12:08AM
That is fairly obvious. Paul was the first rebel among them. Both were eventually written off by UNATCO, but only JC went through the final fight with Bob Page.
:-)