Oh Boaz. It's sad that you have to scrape the barrel so hard, to find something to whack me with.

Such a pity it turned out to be a piece of wet straw.

>>From another thread you posted: "Similarly, the cutting off of hands is absolute insurance that we the community are protected from any possible repeat crimes by the person concerned.".. Yet in this thread you are mocking Suz online and myself..using the same logic to persuade people of the wisdom of banning a burqa which is the very distillation of symbolism for the cutting off of hands.<<

In the other thread (context is everything, Boaz) I was comparing the chopping-off of heads with the chopping-off of hands, by way of deterrence.

It's often called s-a-r-c-a-s-m, old chum.

Banning the burqa is not going to deter anyone from a life of crime.

The "symbolism" of the burqa has nothing to do with criminal acts.

>>"No face coverings in public places except for helmets or welding visors (or similiar safety devices)" full stop. Let's just vote on it and it's a done deal.<<

Why, when it is only in specific places that face-covering can compromise security, do you require a universal ban?

I know the answer, of course. And so do you. You just don't have the courage to articulate it, because it is embarrassing to have to admit it in public.

But you come very close, don't you...

>>The Burqa, to me..is the moral equivalent...<<

The moral equivalent of what, we ask?

>>>...some bloke walking down the main drag in a Hitler Youth uniform, complete with swastika's and jackboots<<

Yep, that's our Boaz.

Nazi uniform, Jackboots? Sounds like someone's channeling Keith Moon.
Anyone who says Hitler is dead needs their eyes checked, he's bigger now than he ever was in real life.
I have been corresponding with an Egyptian Nationalist of late and he's fighting against a "Hitler Was Right" campaign in his country, the Fundies are all going around filling kids heads with stories about WW2 and exhorting them to massacre Jewish people.

Ever heard of the Ba'ath movement?
They're dyed in the wool National Socialists for the most part who oppose fundamentalism, so it's coming from both sides.
Once you start taking a Macro view of these issues it becomes a weird, bewildering mess, Banning Burqas is just like dropping a pebble in a pond, ripples go out and you can't predict where it'll stop.

Jay

Shhhh must not say nasty things about the dear old Muslims. Of course we all know they want to massacre Jews but we don't say it in polite company.

Anyway it's all Israel's fault, don't ya know? If it weren't for those nasty Israelis the Muslims would be the Jews' best buddies.

[Deleted for abuse. Excessive use of capitals.]

@Stevenlmeyer.
Oh it be, it just be, how much coverage did the attack on the Chabad centre during the Mumbai outrage get? I doubt most people would even know what went on outside the Western death toll.
I'll admit I'm not Israels number one fan but it's nothing personal, not on the level the Islamo Fundies anyway.
As you can imagine I get into endless debates about whom we should hate and why, my rule of thumb is if they've done unto us, do unto them, which in the case of my people, at this period in time is restricted to a minority of Muslims, (a minority of Muslim hardliners at that, they're not all violent insurgents)

Socratease, I swear when reading your words, your fluency, your coherence, your mastery of the keyboard, comes across as almost poetic. I can almost imagine I am listening to your namesake in 406BC, standing there all alone as he demands fair trial for the generals, being scapegoated after their bittersweet victory against the Spartans at Arginusae.

The story of the generals - six of whom were executed in a democratic fit of rage without even individual trials as the law required - reminds me of how easy it is to dream up all sorts of rationalisations when what you really want to do is lynch somebody.

But even the Athenians when looking for someone to lynch did not sink so low as to pick on a bunch of women. Or to then try to backtrack, claiming that it's gansters in hoodies that one has been after all along, and the women in traditional headdress are just being caught up in an issue of public standards which is not targetted at them.

"Whadda we want? To stick it to Muslims. When do we want it? Now. How we gonna do it? Tear the clothes off their women."

Very sophisticated, as the Sophists would say. And Socrates would be so proud of you adopting his name.