Biting the hand that feeds them?

[sandyRoe]

http://uk.news.yahoo....d-dead-115243701.html

[naomi24]

//Are some subjects, and people, too serious for humour or irony?//

No, Sandy , they are not – but in this instance there is no humour, and if there is an irony, it’s that if you were talking about any group of people other than atheists, you wouldn’t have dreamt of posting – or dared to post - such an appalling suggestion. Clearly that plain truth is above your head.

[NOX]

I can see the humour and irony knowing Sandy's usual gentle, rational posting style. It'd be like someone having an Oliver Cromwell avatar on an Irish Republican message board. Working on your theories here, The Life of Brian ought to have been banned, along with Alexis Sayle dressing up as Mussolini when he was pretending to be a policeman and a whole raft of other things. Having someone who is known for the Inquisition as an avatar when you usually post in R & S is pretty damned funny to be honest and no, that doesn't mean that I am in favour of the Inquisition and torturing people, just means I get what he was trying to do.

[naomi24]

He wouldn't do it to the religious though, would he. That wouldn't be funny at all.

[emmie]

perhaps some didn't read the link i provided, too squeamish maybe, to know torture methods were alive and well in the olden days. Anyone who could laud this odious man must be bonkers.
As to biting the hand that feeds them, then stop doing it.

[sandyRoe]

Naomi, have you ever thought that I did post that because of the high regard and affection that I give the AB atheists?
In my minds eye I see you all as the antithesis of 'muscular Christians', an AB rugby team prepared to enjoy the rough + tumble of debate and dismiss the occasional thumb in the eye as something that comes with the game.

[jno]

to turn your argument around, naomi, you mock the religious 24/7 but I have never seen you turn the same venom on the self-righteousness of atheists. Presumably "that wouldn't be funny at all."

But it's up to sandy to choose the targets of his gentle wit, not you. You just carry on with your own denunciations of the fools who disagree with you, and leave sandy to muse over the discomfiture of his chosen targets.

[naomi24]

Sandy, this is not the rough and tumble of debate. Your post, if aimed at a religious group, would have been deemed unacceptable – there is no doubt of that - and their apologists would have been out in force on their behalf. Furthermore, suggesting on a thread that deals with a man who’s been beheaded by religious maniacs that another religious maniac would give atheists ‘short shrift’, really is, in my opinion, in the very poorest taste.

jno, nice try, but it doesn’t work. Had that ‘gentle wit’, as you call it, been aimed in another direction, you wouldn’t have considered it ‘gentle wit’ – you’d have been among the first to object - so your duplicity here does your reputation no favours whatsoever. Shameful as it was, you’ve said what you’ve said and it therefore comes as no surprise to discover that your only recourse is to attack the messenger.

[humbersloop]

Imo, stopping aid plays right into the Taliban's hands, although this awful killing may force the ICRC into making very difficult decisions.

Sandy, straying off the op, for what it's worth, I agree with nox and found it funny. I enjoy crosswords set by ximenes, torquemada and azed too.

[bazwillrun]

"your only recourse is to attack the messenger. "

Same ole same ole

Dont worry Naomi you'll get used to it.
theres a small band on here that always use this tactic when in a hole, that and/or resort to pedantry , semantics and name calling

[sandyRoe]

[i] cast out first the beam out of thy own eye: and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of the eye of thy brother...[i]

For believers R&S can sometimes seem like a bearpit where they go at their peril. They bear their metaphorical cudgellings with stoicism and, some might say, Christian Fortitude. Would that others could do the same.

[birdie1971]

Jno - "... to turn your argument around, naomi, you mock the religious 24/..."

You crass comment is rather reminiscent of another you made some time ago when you compared (without a hint of irony) the late Christopher Hitchens with Pol Pot. You completely failed to see how insulting and inappropriate it was then and you still seem unable to grasp how grossly inappropriate and insulting your recent comment is now.

Mocking someone for their beliefs is one thing. Singing the praises of a person directly responsible for mass murder simply because their religious convictions coincide with your own is quite another matter.

[naomi24]

Sandy, it appears to have escaped your notice that the only motes cast around here have been cast by you and your cohort – in fact it was the bloody great beam you lobbed that started this – so let’s have no more of your phoney, sanctimonious, self-pitying sermons. Get it right!

[ludwig]

I'm thinking of getting a Fred West avatar. Going on body count he was a much nicer guy than Torquemada.

[sandyRoe]

West is too recent to be joked about. Torquemada is on a par with Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan, half lost in the mists of time.

[ludwig]

Not quite so lost in the mists of time. I'd say the attrocities committed on behalf of the church he represented resonate down the years much louder and clearer than Gengis or Attila. The church is alive and well, and there are parallels with current brutalities being committed in the name of other religions.

[craft1948]

I thought Sandy was being ironic..................and found Naomi's comment about the poor atheists utterly hilarious.

[emmie]

No i don't think Sandy was being ironic, and if anyone cares to, though as i said it's pretty vile read the link i provided to Thomas Torquemada, he wasn't really a nice person. And as others point out these type of atrocities are still being committed in the name of religion. Though the poor chap that was beheaded was for the bloody ransom, not some half baked ideology. So money and no ideals, great. What is even worse, how could it be i ask myself, he had converted to Islam, so you would think the elders might have shown him some respect, but all he was in effect was a cash cow. No one paid, so they slaughtered him.

[NOX]

So nothing to do with religion at all then Em, so the fact that they were Muslim is a moot point, and I don't think you can say whether anyone else is being ironic or not, surely they would know better, but the thought police are out on force lately on AB threads and tbh it's getting fecking tedious as it's always the same people.

[emmie]

and you are just as tedious with your constant rudeness.. to me, naomi or anyone that has a different opinion to you.

[emmie]

the beheading of the Red Cross worker doesn't appear to be a strike against the west, capitalism, or indeed interference in their affairs, they asked for a ransom, it wasn't paid, and so they killed an innocent man, who was doing his level best with humanitarian care. So why do people go to these places, to help is the answer.