I try to become informed on as much as my leisure time allows. Learning is fun. If you read the posts I respond to, you’ll notice a note of provocation, and when the poster gets it back, they cry foul. But your point is well taken. I find your posts inviting a sharp response on purpose. Philosophy has an eliminative functions. I take the calling seriously. Maybe i should stick to the tougher forum, forums.philosophyforums.com. But damnit, Scot, I’ll miss you!!
Let’s be friends.
I had to edit to avoid double posting. I’m going to take this to a new thread. This obviously has nothing to do with which presidents we esteem the most. I’ll keep the thread within Social Sciences and Label it “Islamic Extremism: The Seeds of Terror” Not now, but tomorrow pm. BTW, Harris’ book has no trace of Hegel. You’re thinking of Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations”. edit: Or did you mean Lee Harris’s “Civilization and Its Enemies”, which admittedly is influenced by Hegel.
I’ll wait for the new thread. Though I will say that Harris’s thoughts are extremely influenced by Hegel because he does take an idea-driven model of history and action (that plays a huge role in his criticisms of religion, especially Islam). This contrasts strongly with his postion as a neuroscientist claiming that the human mind can be reduced to physical.
One really can’t have it both ways. Either thought is part of the physical response to a given stimulus (the neuroscientist’s view and one that he has espoused before) or thought is qualitatively different from other responses and is able to be generative in some way. For history to be thought-driven, then you require the latter view.
His views on how thoughts come to be is in direct conflict with how he feels thoughts operate.
As for starting a new thread, it is worth noting that you’ll be shifting the grounds on which this disagreement started (which is fine), however, it doesn’t address the non-sequitur nature of your response. I think the question is interesting enough to persue, so I’m fine with that.
The best president was the president who died the quickest after being elected into office, or who left office the quickest after being elected.
So as a rule of thumb, a good Amercian president is a dead Amercian president.
I really expected you to say Truman Detrop.
[i]
You must have read a short abstract of some piece of Harris’s. You haven’t read the book in question and you’re constantly finding something to snivel about. Make arguments when you address me. Save the snivelling and complaining about ghosts for someone who cares. I like substantive argument, not cries of "OH! He’s Idea driven! Like Hegel!! ’ Read him squash pernicious religions, one of which I suspect you subscribe to, in “End of Faith”. He’s gentler than Dawkins, or is Dawkins “idea driven” and damned too?
Regardless of his Marshall plan and pact with remaining communist countries, which was only a moral front so he would gain allied nations support in establishing capitalism (spreading the disease) in communist countries, as well as a means to hinder Russia’s competition in the cold war, he authorized the use of the atomic bomb on Japan, a country which attacked America because it ordered an embargo on trade in the first fucking place.
I stand by my claims: a good American president is a dead American president.
Dawkins is also idea driven, and as an ardent materialist, completely falls flat on his face because of it.
If you would have read the thread you would have seen that I already posted what you said. It is William Henry Harrison.
I would like to go further down the list of our greatest presidents. The greatest on my list are, for the record:
1.Lincoln
2.FDR
3.Reagan
4.Washington
5.TR
6.Wilson
7.Polk
8.Jefferson
9.Truman
10.Gore
…
- Carter
43.GW Bush
Was Gore president?
Of course I was lightheartedly referring to the fact that he was the real winner of Election 2000. But no one can prove it, just repeat what’s generally admitted. For instance, thousands of Gore supporters inadvertently marked the square next to Buchanan, depriving Gore of more than enough votes to take Fla. Go see my reply to your Royal Rumble of Philosopher Heavies and Kant. I’m posting more philosophy now that I’ve found real philosophy threads. Didn’t know where they were hiding.
There’s no way Gore could take FL. Jeb Bush was the governor!
Indeed, the Sowiets had militant Islam as bitter enemies long before the modern west realized it’s destructive potential. I think there always has been some measure respect between the USSR and the USA - both politically realistic and culturally sophisticated states of science.
militant Islam as a political entity does not relate in any way to the words science or respect. In that sense it is a common enemy to the US and Russia, and will be to the end, if that may come.
I vote for JFK, by the way, because of his balls of steel in the Cuban missile crisis.
Ditto in Spades.
America no longer produces great presidents as she did in the early days
The last good one was probably Kennedy but no one great in my lifetime
Johnson had to retire early because of Vietnam
Nixon still the only one to resign while in office
Ford wasnt expected to became president at all
Carter was one of the weakest America ever had
Reagan allowed the CIA to control the drugs trade
Bush was another weak one as he only did one term
Clinton was impeached and could not keep it in his pants
Bush had a reputation for saying stupid things all of the time
Obama bombed more than Bush did even though he was a liberal
Do any of them compare to those five great men on Mount Rushmore
and who exactly are the “5 great men on Mount Rushmore”?
I’ve seen it and there are only 4 presidents on Rushmore, not 5.
Kropotkin
The rise of Taliban And most of the other Islamic extemist forces is because either of USSR or US.
US the main colprit for the rise of Taliban. taliban got lot of help from US And CIA to counter the USSR invasion (so called) of Afganistan. At that time, taliban were presented as International heros in the western media. Have people fogotten Rambo series! But, the things went out from US hands once taliban realized that US will turn them into like the lame leadership of pakistan. They refused to accept that fate and chose to fight US instead. That is all the story of taliban.
read this carefully-
[quote]
Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program to arm and finance the mujahideen (jihadists) in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, prior to and during the military intervention by the USSR in support of its client, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The program leaned heavily towards supporting militant Islamic groups that were favored by the regime of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in neighboring Pakistan, rather than other, less ideological Afghan resistance groups that had also been fighting the Marxist-oriented Democratic Republic of Afghanistan regime since before the Soviet intervention.[1]
Now, See this picture carefully-
Not only that, Regan publically praised taliban ang called them freedom fighters. I can find that quote too.
With love,
sanjay