I made an assertion. You took exception to it. I clarified my rationale. And your response begins with words like "hubris?"
the first rule of the contest of wits is this: when they insult you, they're finished.
none of the issues you raise counter me directly; instead, you try to pull intellectual rank, further indicative of the weakness of your position. I take no pleasure in parrying reason with rage.
Spare us the vapid prevarications. You threw your two cents into a discussion where the ante is measured in dollars. Now you're trying to preserve a measure of dignity you don't deserve.
the first rule of the contest of wits is this: when they insult you, they're finished.
Do you store these half-witted aphorisms in your poop chute for easy access, or do you just make them up at need?
The first rule of ANY contest, wits or otherwise, is "have the ability to, in fact, contest!" You are being insulted because you presume to contest issues you not only admit self-imposed ignorance of, but brag on the moral superiority of that ignorance because you've invented a rule that says "knowing nothing of islam, and giving the benefit of doubt is superior to knowing something of islam, and forming an opinion."
Furthermore, if I'm "finished," why have you not answered a single one of my numerous questions?
No, you are attempting to declare victory, and run away, just as soon as you can do so with your dignity intact. Unfortunately for you that's no longer an option. I will continue to dissect your chattering until you skulk away from the discussion, tail to legs.
none of the issues you raise counter me directly; instead, you try to pull intellectual rank, further indicative of the weakness of your position. I take no pleasure in parrying reason with rage.
Everything I've written challenges you directly! If my position is so weak, why have you not answered a single question, but rather attempted to derail any useful discussion into a "you say tomato, I say tomahto" pastiche?
You may take no pleasure in parrying, but it's obviously all you've got.
I on the other hand, do not suffer fools easily... particularly when their foolishness serves to weaken the defensive posture my fellow Americans *should* be adopting.
This is not a frickin' TV show, where everything turn out fine when we all learn to get along! You want to make it a morality play for "tolerance." These barbarians have been slaughtering their rivals for well over a thousand years, and the only thing that kept them in check for the last three hundred is the technological superiority of the west.
In case you haven't noticed, we've shared much of that superiority with them, assuming the long peace meant they wanted peace too when what they really were doing was avoiding a challenge that would lead to defeat. Immediately after the first defeat of a modern army at the hands of islamic forces (the Russians in Afghanistan) in hundreds of years, those same soldiers started laying the groundwork to resume the expansion of islam by the sword... just as their forebears did.
If you want to avoid rage, learn to use "reason" instead of invoking it like some magic incantation to transform your ignorance into insight.