0787: "Orbiter"

[Kisama]

Why would anyone want any part of Texas?

Research on fundamentalists and their effect on the local environment.

Evidence indicates they invoke negative emotions -- such as irritation, rage, and depression -- in other local bioforms.
They still do not reach the national impact level of the Westboro Baptist Church.

I have wondered whether the WBC might just be executing an elaborate satire intended to show us all why fundamentalist interpretation of religious texts is not a good idea.

[mousetrap]

I'm stationed at Vandenberg and from Texas. This comic was made for me.

[AlexanderRM]

This is the map of Israel as it should be, everything inside the red border lines:

'http://img294.imageshack.us/f/greaterisraelmap.jpg

Anyone who says anything else is either a defeatist, or an enemy. Probably both.

Or maybe someone with basic knowledge of geography who realizes that rivers like the Euphrates (not to mention the Nile) would make utterly ridiculous borders, especially since this would presumably relate to ethnic borders. Seriously, I don't care about your political ideas (I'm fairly certain this wasn't entirely serious), but it saddens me how utterly people fail at geography. Seriously, the Nile? Seriously?

[davnic]

This is the map of Israel as it should be, everything inside the red border lines:

'http://img294.imageshack.us/f/greaterisraelmap.jpg

Anyone who says anything else is either a defeatist, or an enemy. Probably both.

Or maybe someone with basic knowledge of geography who realizes that rivers like the Euphrates (not to mention the Nile) would make utterly ridiculous borders, especially since this would presumably relate to ethnic borders. Seriously, I don't care about your political ideas (I'm fairly certain this wasn't entirely serious), but it saddens me how utterly people fail at geography. Seriously, the Nile? Seriously?

I think he's referencing Genesis 15? In which case you may have to take up your complaints with God/Moses/anonymous ancient Hebrew scribes...

Just sayin'. :/

[Rincewind]

It was rather a funny one, me being Israeli and all.

Without trying to provoke a lengthy discussion, I just wanted to point out the fact that there is no state of Palestine (and never were) so it can't be called that.

[Quizatzhaderac]

"America" means a particular set of continents in many languages (mainly Spanish), not including modern English.

You are right, if "a particular set" is an expression you can use when you actually mean "the whole set except for - maybe - one element".
BTW, in most languages (also those not included in the "particular set") the USA are improperly called "America". It's just because they are quite an important country in that continent and they do not have their own name, which is weird indeed. Since the EU was formed, we have a similar case in the Old Continent too, with many people using "Europe" as a shorthand for "the European Union".

A particular set of continents, not languages. I'm just treating English as special because it's the language this conversation is in.

I'm betting most of the rest of the anglosphere is similar.

You shouldn't be implicitly calling a few hundred million people ignorant. It's mean.

Unless you're counting English as a second language, that's far less than a 100 million people left after the USA, Canada, Britain, and Canada. If you're counting as a second language then I know "America" means "USA" in India.
It's also not a question of ignorance, it's a question of values. English speakers (especially Americans) place little value on linguistic tradition. It's not that we don't know what the word "America" meant 400 years ago, we just don't care.

[J Thomas]

It was rather a funny one, me being Israeli and all.

Without trying to provoke a lengthy discussion, I just wanted to point out the fact that there is no state of Palestine (and never were) so it can't be called that.

I feel kind of silly responding after a year and a half. But the state of Palestine declared its independence in 1988, and 2/3 of the nations of the world recognize it.

I suppose it could be argued that they aren't a real nation because they don't have an army that can defeat the Israeli army, just like Poland is not really a nation because they can't beat Russia.

On the other hand there's a big difference between saying "I can beat you up" and saying "You don't exist". Unless you're ready to say "Agree that you don't exist or I'll genocide you". I hope it doesn't go that way.