So... the First Great Atheist Holy War, who's up for it?

[piscator]

PigeonStein Yellowgrass, alas, has flown blown roan cone home.


But 90% of Egyptian Muslims would see our little homey dead before he left Islam. Pew pew pew!

[JimC]

You don't have to be Ein Stein to work that out...

[piscator]

...but a literStein of Spaten helps...

[laklak]

OK, lets get back to the Holy War thingy. Do we get to take trophies? I've always quite fancied a dried ear necklace, or pair of eyetooth earrings. Plus, I hear you can use knuckle bones to tell fortunes.

[JimC]

Scalp them!

[Brian Peacock]

No, that's just what Harris-et-al want you to do! If you truly wish to follow the path to peace you must turn from their sinful ways...

[piscator]

OK, lets get back to the Holy War thingy. Do we get to take trophies? I've always quite fancied a dried ear necklace, or pair of eyetooth earrings. Plus, I hear you can use knuckle bones to tell fortunes.

According to Pew: In 74% of drone Hellfire shots into sleeping family homes, it's hard to find a whole tooth or ear left in the rubble.

[pErvinalia]

According to 74% of Pew polls, 74% of respondents said 74% suffices for any and all statistics.

[piscator]

[pErvinalia]

[quote="piscator"]

Even though Mayer and Harris annoy the shit out of me, I agree with the basic premise that many "liberals" are hypocritical when it comes to Islam. I've got radical friends exactly like that. I've stood next to them facing off the police in protest rallies, these are strong principled people. But they've lost the plot when it comes to this issue. The line of reasoning is basically: We're not perfect in the west, therefore we can't criticise the Islamic world. That's crap reasoning. It's entirely possible to criticise both. I get in arguments with these people (who share fully my beliefs about capitalism, the oligarchy and the over-reach of the state) on facebook all the time. They shit me to tears (on this particular issue).

[piscator]

It's a logical implication for those who consider "spirituality" sacrosanct...

[pErvinalia]

Yeah, very true. Usually it is the hippies that show this trait, but I've also got some non-hippy mates (one guy is a raging atheist commie) who show it.. Actually, another former mate of mine (he defriended me because I relentlessly attacked his Marxist ideas) is the same too. He reckons it's all the fault of western imperialism (historical and present) which doesn't let the Muslim world experience the change it needs to experience. There might be a shred of truth in that, but it still doesn't negate criticising Islam as backwards.

[piscator]

Saudi Aramco's origins trace to the oil shortages of World War I and the exclusion of American companies from Mesopotamia by Britain, France, Italy and Japan at the San Remo Petroleum Agreement of 1920. The US Republican administration had popular support for an "Open Door policy", which Herbert Hoover, secretary of commerce, initiated in 1921. Standard Oil of California (SoCal) was among those US companies seeking new sources of oil from abroad.[14]

SoCal through its subsidiary company, the Bahrain Petroleum Co. (BAPCO), struck oil on Bahrain in May 1932. This event heightened interest in the oil prospects of the Arabian mainland. On 29 May 1933, the Saudi Arabian government granted a concession to SoCal in preference to a rival bid from the Iraq Petroleum Co..[15] The concession allowed Socal to explore for oil in Saudi Arabia. SoCal assigned this concession to a wholly owned subsidiary, California-Arabian Standard Oil (CASOC). In 1936, with the company having had no success at locating oil, the Texas Oil Co. (Texaco) purchased a 50% stake of the concession.[16]

After four years of fruitless exploration, the first success came with the seventh drill site in Dhahran in 1938, a well referred to as Dammam No. 7. This well immediately produced over 1,500 barrels per day (240 m3/d), giving the company confidence to continue. On 31 January 1944, the company name was changed from California-Arabian Standard Oil Co. to Arabian American Oil Co. (or Aramco).[17] In 1948, Standard Oil of New Jersey (later known as Exxon) purchased 30% and Socony Vacuum (later Mobil) purchased 10% of the company, with Socal and Texaco retaining 30% each.[18] The newcomers were also shareholders in the Iraq Petroleum Co. and had to get the restrictions of the Red Line Agreement lifted in order to be free to enter into this arrangement.[19]

In 1950, King Abdulaziz threatened to nationalize his country's oil facilities, thus pressuring Aramco to agree to share profits 50/50.[20]

A similar process had taken place with American oil companies in Venezuela a few years earlier. The American government granted US Aramco member companies a tax break known as the golden gimmick equivalent to the profits given to King Abdulaziz. In the wake of the new arrangement, the company's headquarters were moved from New York to Dhahran.[21] In 1951, the company discovered the Safaniya Oil Field, the world's largest offshore field.In 1957, the discovery of smaller connected oil fields confirmed the Ghawar Field as the world's largest onshore field.[13]

In 1973, following US support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War, the Saudi Arabian government acquired a 25% stake in Aramco. It increased its shareholding to 60% by 1974, and finally took full control of Aramco by 1980,[22] by acquiring a 100% percent stake in the company. Aramco partners continued to operate and manage Saudi Arabia's oil fields.[23] In November 1988, a royal decree changed its name from Arabian American Oil Co. to Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (or Saudi Aramco)[22] and took the management and operations control of Saudi Arabia's oil and gas fields from Aramco and its partners. In 1989–90, high-quality oil and gas was discovered in three areas south of Riyadh—the Raghib area about 77 miles southeast of the capital.[24]

In 2005, Saudi Aramco was the world's largest company with an estimated market value of $781 billion.[25]

[piscator]

[DaveDodo007]

The rate the religous are killing each other there will be none left for the rest of us. It's the lack of concern for atheist genocidal maniacs that gets me, it's truely heartless. If they could only get together and decide which is the one true god (fuck off Hindi bastards) and which holy book is the right one. Then we can just get on with the great (holy) war.