The real story is how the British (and Europeans in general) are taking it up the ass in order to avoid “giving offense”.

Oh, fuckit. I don’t feel like constructing an argumentative response just to advance a dialectic about the limits of western neo-liberal ideals of cultural diversity.

I’ve never eaten dog. I might just pay your hypothetical Korean restaurant a visit.

I neglected to mention that the restaurant has a lobster tank-type setup.

The real story is how the British (and Europeans in general) are taking it up the ass in order to avoid “giving offense”.

That’s bullshit. The real story is that the vast majority of the British (whether muslim, christian, jewish, wiccan, jedi or atheist) are just getting on with their lives pretty much like before. However, the press like a bit of controversy and have no qualms about stirring whatever pot they can reach.

For all the current furore, we in Britain have suffered a lot less ‘terrorist outrages’ from islamic fundamentalists than we did from the christian terrorists such as the IRA - who, of course, were notably co-funded by groups as diverse as NORAID and Muammar al-Gaddafi (interesting bedfellows, methinks).

As for this earlier statement:

As soon as the Jewish community threatens to get violent if their ridiculous demands aren’t met.

Are you, then, unaware of the history of Jewish groups such as Irgun, Haganah and Lehi and the numerous acts of terrorism they embraced in trying to have their demands met?

What, too, of the christian Phalangists, and the various massacres such as that at Shabra and Shatila?

The acts of a few crazed fundamentalists, it seems, are only enough to condemn the whole of a faith if they happen to be muslim.

The acts of a few crazed fundamentalists, it seems, are only enough to condemn the whole of a faith if they happen to be Muslim.

How easy (and how tedious) it is to accuse someone of bigotry.

Speaking for no one else, I disagree with the whole of Islam for the same reason I disagree with the whole of Christianity: they both fail to provide convincing evidence for their extraordinary claims.  As condemnations go, that’s pretty mild. 

I reserve much stronger condemnation for the subset of both those faiths which seem to demand everyone else live by their (often violent) rules.

Elwed- showing why you shouldn’t let extreme Christian fundementalists interbreed for 400 years.

RB writes…

Now, consider for a moment that you’re fortunate enough to find yourself living in a prosperous community of liberal non-religious western intellectuals. What if a Korean family opened up a restaurant in your neighborhood and had dog on the menu? What if dog was their specialty?
Furthermore, what if they held a huge grand opening and sent out flyers sporting high-quality four color photos of their signature dish? What if they set up a grill on the street corner and gave out free samples?

What would the reaction be among that community of enlightened western non-religious intellectuals?
My feeling is that it would be the same sort of culturally engendered visceral disgust that led you to dismiss the muslim community as irrational and delusional.

I’ve had dog before at an ethnic pavilion back in my teens. Didn’t know it was dog at the time. I thought it wasn’t bad. And, yes, it was a free sample.

Your mistake here is thinking that my reaction is centered on the dog part of the issue and that’s not it at all. I’d have said the same thing if it had been a basketball or a moose. Though, for the record, I’ve never accidentally eaten either of those objects.

It’s not the object they were freaking out about that made me say what I said, it was the fact they were freaking out about it.

I’ve had dog before at an ethnic pavilion back in my teens. Didn’t know it was dog at the time. I thought it wasn’t bad. And, yes, it was a free sample.

Well then I hope you learned your lesson about trying new things.

Your mistake here is thinking that my reaction is centered on the dog part of the issue and that’s not it at all. I’d have said the same thing if it had been a basketball or a moose. Though, for the record, I’ve never accidentally eaten either of those objects.

That’s not what I thought, though I might have been more clear. My use of dogs in my example didn’t have any bearing on the point I was trying to make.

I don’t think anyone would disagree that eating dogs is considered wrong in our culture. We even make laws about it. And I assume that if a restaurant with dog on the menu were to open in most neighborhoods, in this country, the result would be outrage and revulsion. Someone might even break in after hours and free the dogs from their lobster tanks, damaging the restaurant in the process.  This needn’t be done by PETA, it could have been carried out by average citizens (atheists, even) who happened to love dogs. So in this case, this has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with cultural acclimation.
Just speaking for myself, my first reaction would not be “those irrational, delusional western dog lovers are at it again.”

RiB writes…

Well then I hope you learned your lesson about trying new things.

I suppose that depends on what lesson you think ought to be learned from it. As I said, the dog didn’t taste half bad and it’s convinced me to try many other foods that I might not have previously.

I don’t think anyone would disagree that eating dogs is considered wrong in our culture. We even make laws about it. And I assume that if a restaurant with dog on the menu were to open in most neighborhoods, in this country, the result would be outrage and revulsion. Someone might even break in after hours and free the dogs from their lobster tanks, damaging the restaurant in the process.  This needn’t be done by PETA, it could have been carried out by average citizens (atheists, even) who happened to love dogs. So in this case, this has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with cultural acclimation.
Just speaking for myself, my first reaction would not be “those irrational, delusional western dog lovers are at it again.”

Why not? My first reaction to people breaking in to free lobsters is that it’s those irrational PETA folks again.

First off, the trying new things comment was a joke.

Secondly, we’re talking about people breaking in to a business to rescue dogs from being slaughtered and eaten, not lobsters. The dogs being on display in a lobster tank was also a joke.

Also, you keep using the word “irrational” as a pejorative. Should no one ever take any action without first coming up with a rational justification for it?

Wouldn’t that pretty much by definition preclude any unselfish act of charity or kindness”

It can be hard to tell when you’re joking in a text only environment. When in doubt I assume you’re serious.

I never said all actions have to be rational, but it does help. And, no, there’s nothing necessarily irrational about unselfish act of charity or kindness. There’s plenty of good reasons for both of those actions.

I’ve had dog before at an ethnic pavilion back in my teens.

Any chance they’re still in business?  The dogs on my street are undisciplined and stupid to boot.  Such a pity that cooking their equally undisciplined white trash humans would be illegal…

Mr Mook writes:

Dog is good, much, much better than cat.

I’m reminded of Joan Rivers request to Johnny Carson, “You want to pet my pussy?”, referring to the cat in her lap. Johnny’s reply, “Yes, if you’ll get rid of that damn cat.”
And, why does religion require such emotional responses to non-emotional subjects?

(How did the vicar get on with the asterisks at the baptism, we wonder)

I think “Ekke Ekke Ekke F’tang F’tang Olé
Biscuitbarrel” got shortened to ***Dave.

It actually all came about through a typo in the local paper reviewing baptisms (it was a small town with a 5,000 watt radio station).  Mine was a modest affair with a reasonable but not elaborate production values, and the sermon stretched on a bit, so it only got a score of three out of five.  The newpaper inadvertently dropped a line from the review, and conjoined the name and review score.  The rest is tag-line history.

Cute dog, btw.

I like that idea- wonder if the Bucks Herald will do it.

“
Deaths
John Smith, who died at the age of 92, was buried today in a small family affair ****, (Wake ***)

Births
To Jack and Jill Updehill, a daughter, **.