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Department of Troll Control | Another Ignorant Troll

[dhls]

Fellow Americans, there comes a time every mans life when we must give up ourselves before we are worthy to recieve. There comes a time in this war on terror when in order to protect liberty, we have to give it up in the mean time for safty. That's right folks. Today, Americans have forsaken the creator for the creation and have decided that they would value our "civil liberties" than protecting western civilization and rich white people from the tender mercies of radical Islamic terrorists. Selfish liberals insist and whine that Bush has no right to spy on Americans and ban certain undesirables from using our airlines. They demand the right to criticize and blaspheeme the name of our supreme commander and cheef George W Bush while forcing multiculturalism down our throats and praising Bill Clinton. We all know however that it's totally Clintons fult for everything bad in america. Now we are at war and we must make a decision. support the safty of America and defeat terrorists, or support civil liberties and give victory to the enemy. Its all because of Bill Clinton and civil liberties that we are in this war so it is only fair that we give it up. no one said life was supposed to be fair you liberal crybabys. Dont give me that rubbish about equality and diversity. WE ARE AT WAR! If your not for Bush and against civil liberties your a terrorist! Your probably even a Communist and should be detained. Therefore fellow Americans we must throw all of our trust and resources behind George W Bush and behind this war with no ifs ands or buts. Be sure to report any and all detractors and freedom supporters to your local military and never question. Bush knows what hes doing and we will win this war once and for all. Thank you and May God bless America.

[Monkey Face]

LOL!
You got it, silly!
Congratulations!

[tuliptree76]

Congrats on the 6000!

And get a good rest so you can feel better.

[A CA Guy]

Hey...

Have one heck of a head cold still, but last night I still went to a great concert.

Lenny Kravitz and Aerosmith.

Long concert.
Both groups were excellent.

[Monkey Face]

I'd almost kill to see Lenny Kravitz...he can put his shoes....never mind...

Hope you feel better soon, Guy!

[tuliptree76]

I hope you feel better. I'm glad you had a good time at the concert!

I need to get some sleep now. Good night.

[A CA Guy]

Thanks, have a good rest.

[King Prout]

completely unrelated question, but it has been nagging at me lately:

what were assassins and assassination -the deliberate murder of prominent or important people for political motives- called in the days before the hashishim of Hassan I Sabbah gave the name of their cult to the actors and action? I would like to know what the Romans and early Byzantines called these people and murders.

[NicknamedBob]

In all languages, their name derived from their usage of Hashish. In Arabic, it was "ha ssasin" -- hashish users.

Evidently, they were unique. All cultures had killers, and names for them. But the combination of pleasure seeking in murder was another transcendently inimitable contribution of Muslim culture.

[Tax-chick]

Interesting question, King. Political murder was quite common in Imperial Rome (among other situations), but since it's unlikely that Tacitus or Suetonius was familiar with Arabic (not to mention their predating Islam by many centuries), they must have used a word other than "assassination" for the concept.

Maybe they just used "kill," "murder," or synonyms, and perhaps "regicide" where applicable.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Looks like I missed you again!!

[NicknamedBob]

The distinction of the word "assassin" lies in the maniacal enthusiasm with which the killer functions.

One assumes that other killers operate on hate, or emotionless indifference, or even with a pride of expertise in their craft, but only in the assassin does one see a rapturous glee for the process. Chemically induced, originally. I don't know if the current crop of suicide bombers is given even that palliative.

One thing is abundantly clear; the epicenter of victimhood is a person inundated and awash in ignorance and false teachings. There is so much concentrated stupidity and weak-mindedness that it is surprising that explosives are needed at all. These pathetic creatures are the very antithesis of our technological "smart bombs."

They function as a new definition for the concept of "dumb bomb." Be careful not to get any of their ill-contained stupidity on ya.

[fanfan]

And you're going offline NOW???? :o0

Sorry Kiddo!

I have a DH to keep happy, you know. ;-)

Anywho, nothing blew, and the fire trucks are gone, so they must have fixed it.


What are you up to today?

[Tax-chick]

The distinction of the word "assassin" lies in the maniacal enthusiasm with which the killer functions.

Good point. You wouldn't find that, I suppose, in the murder of Julius Caesar, for example, and certainly not in the majority of the dynastic murders of Rome.

There's a passage in 2 Kings (I think) about the murder of one of the Assyrian rulers by his sons. I think the English word used for the killing is "slain" or "struck down." It would be interesting to know if the Hebrew term there carries any special meaning vs. any other killing of a human or animal.

[King Prout]

Nnb,

I am aware of the nature of *some* of the killers from the mountain - stoned to the gills and religiously whipped up. Others, however, were quite sane and stable, and wormed their way into the inner circles of their targets as moles, lying low for years before striking.

I will note, in passing, that the Senators who swarmed and killed Gaius Iulius Caesar were certainly whipped up in a quasi-religious ferver at the time of knives, as the Republic was indeed considered a holy and sacred institution and high government positions were also religiously ordained positions. So, really, Hassan didn't contribute anything new to human lunacy.

Today, "assassination" is a term used only for the murders of prominent people and/or for a particular style of killing - close-in, controlled, deliberate, stealthy, unexpected, even skillful. As with much of colloquy, the usage is ill-defined and often contradictory...

We call the shinobi of Japan "assassins" in this light - highly skilled mercenary killers of specified targets.
We call the Project Phoenix and later similar SEAL operations "assassinations" of important political and military figures of the enemy - operations of highly skilled national operatives against specified enemies of the state.
We call the essentially mythical professional hitman of the mob "an assassin" in this light - supposedly highly skilled individual mercenaries or family retainers who kill efficiently, coldly, and leave no useful evidence.
We call modern drug turf-war killings "assassination-style murders" if they are executed in a particularly cold and efficient manner - the subject bound, kneeling, shot in the back of the head, as an example.
Yet, we also call lunatic "lone gunmen" assassins as well - despite the fact that they tend to be incredibly sloppy and tend to get caught almost immediately.

So, again, my question: what were such killers and killings called in Rome and Greece before the hashishim cult gave its name to the subject?

[Tax-chick]

Danged if I know. Do you have available a side-by-side or interlineal Latin-English version of any of the Roman historians?

[King Prout]

nope. most of my latin books are in storage

[NicknamedBob]

All cultures and languages had a distinction between killing and murder.

I don't believe there was a special class or category before the assassins gave us the new word.

But you'll have to forgive me. It's been such a long time, so many languages to assimilate, so many cultures to merge with, and I didn't hang much with that crowd anyway ... I really don't remember.

[King Prout]

assassin: sicarius, percussor
assassinate: interficere, occidere, iugulare
assassination: caedes, parricidium
to kill: interficere, interimere
murder: parricidium, caedes
to murder: interficere, necare, iugulare
to slay in battle: occidere
killer: interfector
murderer: sicarius, homicida, parricida, percussor

I'm thinking that a professional killer might be called a "percussor" - literally "a hitter"

[NicknamedBob]

"Percussion caps" used by "hit men?"

[King Prout]

I'll assume you were making a light stab at humor - rather than dumping upon you a large dissertation on why percussion caps are called percussion caps... ;)