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<title><![CDATA[Comments for entry "The Religion War" at Dilbert.com Blog]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/809]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Regular thoughts and updates from Dilbert.com]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from kingkingg]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1754240]]></link>
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<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuPMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Samanjj]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1741059]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@phantom ii
'Toward that end, they are using their birth rate and immigration into other countries to use the system in those countries to meet their goals'

Dude. That's low down paranoia and racist. You don't even talk accurately about the real motivations of the people who follow the terror leaders. Terror leaders have talked about a caliphate but most followers want more freedom for Muslims in all countries especially the middle east and north Africa. Also Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and actually allowed terrorism to blossom in Iraq. Get your facts right.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[FriPMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Samanjj]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1741057]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@kingfisher I totally agree with your first post on this topic. As lasting as Jesus' memory has been his true values were never really embraced by the faithful.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[FriPMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from callcopse]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740957]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@Kingdinosaur

I think this is an exceptionally loaded view of the term 'progressivism' (&quot;progressivism is the accumulation of power for it's own sake&quot;). It's a little bit dismissive of a lot of movements that have done a lot of good. Here is a less biased view:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivism

I can clearly accept that the outcome of a lot of well meaning ideas has often been less than ideal - that is perhaps the Iron Law of Oligarchy at work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy

But let's put this simply - if you like how the world exactly how it is then you will not want any progress. That is the 'I'm alright Jack, sod you' view of the world. Personally I cannot deny I am doing alright - or indeed very well. However I would like to improve it for those less fortunate and I believe this will be good for everyone and furthermore I think it is possible.
]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from gamcall]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740951]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[As per jlamp8, I'm not buying books in physical format anymore (well, certainly nothing like The Religion Wars, anyway). Pain? Have you heard of this? -&gt; http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/. Anyway - let us know when you do get around to it, 'cause I'll buy it when you do. Hell, *I'd* do it for you...]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Kingdinosaur]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740673]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[copse: the extremes in both groups will attempt to hijack said groups for their own purpose.  That's what progressivism is: accumulating power for the sake of power.  It has nothing to do with party.

But according to NPR adbusters did have a link in OWS:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/20/141526467/exploring-occupy-wall-streets-adbuster-origins
Even the wiki page says as much:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street

So unlike a political hijacking, the koches, OWS was the brain child of the far left to begin with.  They saw the arab spring in action, got envious (in terms of media attention and power), and created OWS.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from callcopse]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740500]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@kingdinosaur

That is an interesting opinion Dino - most people not involved in the movement or not in America (who are at all interested) consider that the Tea Party is simply the corporate attack dog arm of the Koch brothers, created simply to get at the POTUS. I would personally say it is interesting that there are really actual people taken in by such rapacious greed - I'd not believe it if I didn't read it here - you're not one of the Kochs are you?

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/13/tea-party-americans-for-prosperity

]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Quinnce]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740497]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[This post appears to me a blatent advertisement for Scott's previous work. Come on.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Kingdinosaur]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740473]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[I don't think a &quot;prime influencer&quot; needs to have a lot of friends: he just needs enough friends in the right places to get the ball rolling... aka a domino effect.  Example: the tea party came about because of a rant on one of the cable networks and then adbusters created OWS as a left-wing response.  Theoretically all you'd need is to be friends with the ranting guy and someone with pull in adbusters, put in a word with both of them, aka moist robot programming, and you'd have been responsible for the two biggest political movements in the last few years.    Or if you could reasonably predict a left-wing response, you'd just need a word with the ranting guy so he'd go off on TV and let the other side take care of itself.

So you wouldn't need the talents of a rush limbaugh or a howard stern, you'd just need pull with them.  Ideally you'd want to have pull with both sides so you can manipulate them both in a direction you want.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Therion]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740471]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[I don't think it's as easy as you say. It's hard enough to to build a toy helicopter that flies 10 km, especially in an urban area where there's lots of interference. 

Even if they can get a range of 10-50 km, I don't understand what tactical advantage you're proposing that makes it more of a threat than old-fashioned suicide bombing. 

Anyway, it probably wouldn't be that difficult to enforce a ban on long-range toy aircraft and develop signal detection technology to counteract such attacks.

Sending drones over the Atlantic or Pacific would be a huge technical problem for governments, let alone terrorists working out of their garage.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from jakesdad]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740412]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[terrorism already is unstoppable - the only thing limiting it is the (lack of) skill &amp; discipline of the terrorists.  yes, we've raised the bar for success somewhat with improved intelligence but I think the more interesting question is where's the tipping point where mainstream society decides the cure is worse than the disease?  personally, I'm astonished (&amp; frankly depressed) that we tolerate grouping children in airports but I want to believe there's still a limit out there that once crossed will force people to accept the fundamental reality that no matter what we do the risk will always be non-zero &amp; the incremental cost (both in $ &amp; civil liberties) of incremental reduction in risk is severely hyper-linear.  in other words, every zero you want to tack on to the denominator of that risk is enormously more expensive than the previous one (&amp; that's ignoring all the worthless theatre like e-strip search machines &amp; grouping children/elderly).]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from ricobarnez]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740370]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Lumping together anyone we don't like as &quot;terrorists&quot; is highly simplistic. I doubt that Martin McGuiness (current deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland) would say he was ever a terrorist, even though his organisation (the IRA) carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations etc.

Terrorism never achieves its goals - so-called terrorists are either hunted down, or eventually realise that they will have to compromise and join the democratic process - the IRA are a great example.

Maybe I'm being hopelessly optimistic, but global capitalism and democracy will slowly, but surely, wipe away notions of violent revolution. The fact is, where you have democracy and free market economics, you have higher standards of living and far less impulse to see violence as a way to improve your lot in life.

On another note....
&quot;What I didn't predict is that individual authors can't easily publish e-books. It's doable, but a pain. I never got around to it. -- Scott&quot;

Scott - it's a piece of cake to self-publish an ebook on Smashwords - even I managed it. Seriously Scott - put &quot;The Religion War&quot; on Smashwords, it will be a huge boost to indie writers to have a big name like you on there. Now go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/178959 - and buy my book. There, shameless plug done.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from RavenBlack]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740350]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[[Good question. Ten years ago I cleverly kept the digital rights to that book, and God's Debris too, because I believed one day e-books would rule. What I didn't predict is that individual authors can't easily publish e-books. It's doable, but a pain. I never got around to it. -- Scott]

Scott - there are three options none of which are much of a pain.

1. Amazon will give you something like 70% of the set price per sale provided you set the price higher than $2.99. It doesn't take long to put it in their system (less than half an hour probably) provided you don't only have it in a terrible file format. kdp.amazon.com
2. Lulu gives you 90% of the set price, and recommend you price lower than $2.99. Getting it in there is easy from many file formats, easier than Amazon's system.
3. A little more work, you (particularly as someone with an internet presence) could sell the book directly, taking Paypal payments, keeping 100% (minus the 3%ish Paypal fee) of the price you set. I'd set up a system like that for you for $200, you could probably find someone cheaper, it's pretty easy. The downside is doing it this way you'd forego any sort of DRM, but I honestly don't believe DRM does anything to prevent book piracy anyway, and your exposure would probably be less than via Amazon (but people might be more inclined to buy direct rather than pay a publisher). The software &quot;Calibre&quot; would readily convert from whatever file format you have to all the common ebook formats, so you could easily sell appropriate for any reader, which is an advantage over Amazon.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Phantom II]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740329]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[OK, so there's no question here.  So let me discuss the terrorism aspect.

One of your statements about &quot;The Religion War,&quot; which I find interesting (if somewhat internally contradictory), is this: &quot;. . .what happens to democracy and freedom when terrorism becomes unstoppable and intolerable.&quot;

See if this hangs together, logically: if terrorism becomes intolerable, then we'd either have to surrender, or find a way to stop them.  Terrorism needs to keep from being intolerable to continue.  The events that terrorists plan need to be costly but not either too horrible (which turns public opinion against them) or so impactful that the actions demand a military response.

To the former point, consider the public beheadings that used to be a terrorist staple. You haven't heard of a lot of them lately, have you?  The reason is simple: it turned public opinion strongly against the terrorists. They realized that such actions were counterproductive, and stopped them.

To the latter point, consider 9/11.  That led to our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Whether you are for or against those wars, the terrorists don't like them.  I've read reports that say that internally, terrorist leaders wish 9/11 had never happened.  Not only did the wars happen, but America woke up to the danger.  This lead to a much stronger intelligence network, including forensic financial agents tracking down, and cutting off, the terrorists' funding.

So the goal of terrorism is to make us spend a lot of money (think TSA), and cause a lot of inconvenience (think TSA again), without becoming so horrible or so impactful that it becomes either a complete turn-off in public perception, or it demands another military response.  

Now, unlike Scott, I could be wrong.  Remember the goals and patience of militant Islam: they want to turn the Earth into a huge caliphate under Sharia law.  Toward that end, they are using their birth rate and immigration into other countries to use the system in those countries to meet their goals. The last thing the long-term Islamist planners want is to have an event so big that defeating them becomes the civilized world's number-one goal.

Yet, they're not a group with a true central leader, nor do they all believe that slowly but surely wins the race. We've still got to consider the possibility of nuts with nukes.  But I don't think that's the real problem.  The bigger fear is using our tolerance against us to demand more and more balkinization, leading to radical takeovers of cities, counties and, ultimately, countries.

If you'd like to read a very interesting book that explores this theme in a fictional future, I'd recommend Dan Simmon's book &quot;Flashback.&quot;

Ultimately, though, my position is that terrorism is only one aspect of militant Islam, and will most likely be self-limiting as only one of the many strategies of the Islamists.  But we have to be prepared for anything, lest we be guilty of what the 9/11 Commission called the failure of imagination.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from sivartius]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740325]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[haha I just wanted to point out that the ad which showed up in my rss reader under this post was for World Class Psychic Norah who gives &quot;Shockingly&quot; Accurate Insights]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from delius1967]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740323]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[I'll give you the one about drone terrorist attacks, but the concepts behind Big Data have been around for ~40 years.  It wasn't just a no-brainer 10 years ago, it was already happening.  I'm just waiting for Asimov's prediction of psychohistory to come about.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from isonno]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740322]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;...is written with movie pacing in mind...&quot;   So have their people called your people yet?]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Mark Naught]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740321]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[I don't think there can be a single Prime Influencer as you describe, but the opportunities to fill that role shift from person to person and place to place at the speed of the World Wide Web.  

It's like a butterfly effect, which may be magnified a million times, rather than a single person unwittingly holding the reins of power.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from webgrunt]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740301]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[hhskandymon:

Terrorists don't normally bomb things because it pays well.  Their primary motivation isn't income, so it's very unlikely they would be bribed to stop bombing.  They'd probably accept the bribe money under false pretenses and just use the money to buy more bombs.
]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from webgrunt]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1740300]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Kingfisher makes a very astute point: the prime influencer might not necessarily influence people to think the same way he or she does.

For example, when I read about Jesus in the Bible, He went out of His way on more than one occasion to tell people not to judge others--but it seems that many of His more outspoken followers not only disobey this command routinely, they actually go out of their way to judge others.  Jesus obviously influenced these people, but not in the way He was apparently trying to.

I'm not sure whether or not this applies to people who are around today.]]></description>
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