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Chelsea Manning has been freed from the Fort Leavenworth military prison, according to a US Army spokesperson:
In January she tweeted that she wanted to move to Maryland after being released, a state where she previously lived. On Monday she tweeted: "Two more days until the freedom of civilian life ^_^ Now hunting for private #healthcare like millions of Americans =P".
Manning will remain on active army duty while her military court conviction remains under appeal. She will have healthcare benefits but will be unpaid, the army says. An online campaign set up by her attorney has raised $150,000 (£115,725) to pay for her living expenses for the first year after her release. If the appeal is denied, she could be dishonourably discharged from the army, US media say.
The mentioned Chelsea Manning Welcome Home Fund. Also at NPR, NYT, and CNN.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 19 2017, @01:07PM (3 children)
Syria only had 20 million people. Even if all of them were refugees in Europe, that's still only 3.9% of the native population of Europe. That's enough to put an end to the EU? It would be all their fault?
The Wikipedia article says 5 million registered, with an estimate million more unregistered. About 3.5 million of the registered ones are in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, countries whose combined population is much smaller than Europe's. Why aren't you pointing out how those refugees are the end of the world for Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan? Because it hasn't been.
But, OK, let's play your game and say that 100% of the estimate unregistered Syrian refugees wound up in Europe. That's 2 million Syrian refugees scattered across the EU, 1 million registered, 1 million registered. It comes to a whopping 0.39% of the native European population. In other words, it's still rounding error.
A rounding error does not bring down a civilization. Blaming that handful of people for the EU's problems is absurd. It's as absurd as saying, "Oh, well, everything was great in Europe before the Gypsies showed up. Then everything went to hell. It's all their fault."
And your whole thing about Islam vs. Christianity. That's a long conversation, but it's kind of futile to have with you anyway because you are prejudiced. You hate muslims, period, and nothing they have ever done or could ever do will ever pass muster with you.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday May 20 2017, @05:14AM
"You hate muslims, period, and nothing they have ever done or could ever do will ever pass muster with you."
I don't really care about the rest of the conversation - fine, immigration is having no impact on the stability of the European block.
But this statement is just fucking childish. I do not hate Muslims because they are Muslims. I hate Muslims because they worship a violent ideologue, and so, inevitably, create societies which promote violent ideologues. Is it a reasonable statement to say that you can get a feel of someone's content of character based upon whom they idolize and attempt to emulate? Is it also a reasonable statement to say that actions speak louder than words? If we can move forward in agreeance, as a militant agnostic, I will take a very no-bullshit look at the lore of the figureheads of Christianity and Islam.
Christ's words: Go in Peace. Do unto others. Let he who is without sin throw the first stone. Generally things of that nature.
Christ's actions: Sacrificed himself to save his people from hell. Never married or had intercourse, apparently. Never attacked anyone but Jews who were being greedy, even then, did not harm them.
Muhammed's words: Peace, faith, take the infidel's children for your own. Tax them for believing other things, or just kill them outright.
Muhammed's actions: Personally led a crusade to slay thousands of pagans. Took a child bride who was 6 when he was 53, knocked her up at 9. She also turned out to be a violent ideological warlord who led a crusade of her own (look it up.) Did not sacrifice himself in any way - he was injured in war, and as a result of his violent crusades, he was eventually poisoned by an enemy. Lived by the sword, died by the sword.
I don't even care about the words really: Christianity worships someone who didn't fuck kids and didn't kill anyone. You can mince words all fucking day, but who would you rather your daughter, or sister, or niece, or whoever marry? A guy who never killed or harmed anybody, or a pedophile who killed hundreds of people? Regardless of how "Nice" or "pretty" their paintings were or how smart they were at math.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday May 20 2017, @05:32AM
To be clear, I am absolutely prejudiced against Muslims of any race, region, or level of involvement in the culture. I have the same prejudice against Christians, the difference is that I do not hold their culture in contempt. Religion is belief, culture is societal.
However, what I actually hate is not them per se, what I hate is that they are going to other already developed peaceable cultures and not assimilating. The ideologies that created the respective societies in which they thrived belong there, and only there. If a Mexican, a Syrian, and a German told me that they hated with a fucking passion the cultural influence that the US has on their countries and proceeded to insult it in detail I would say, "Right the fuck on. We do not belong in your country, and you do not belong in ours." I should hope they are as proud of their cultures and countries as I am of mine, for better or worse.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday May 20 2017, @10:28AM
Took another look at my comment and realized a couple things:
That the difference between a "Christian" MS-13 member and a Muslim charity worker must be due to something other than religion, and that no person who pledges to a specific religion is a total embodiment of what that religion professes.
Were that the case, it would be the world which I previously assumed to exist. I am not sure why, but I think typing that comment out made me realize that.