Open Thread

Gem, park slope and cobble hill.
Slice is large enough for two people; altho I never share.

I’m not saying the Romans were perfect, of course they weren’t. They could be as bigoted as the next bunch. I also said slavery for Roman slaves was no fun. The Christian/lion “entertainment” was less about slavery, more about getting rid of Christianity. There were plenty of documented cases of Roman citizens being tossed to the lions, as Christianity was seen as a major threat to Roman authority.

Lechecal, while some professors may be overly smug, I don’t think it’s out of order to try to teach a different point of view of history besides the Eurocentric, “we came, we conquered, and everyone is now better off”, which has been taught for the last several hundred years in the West. I don’t believe in changing facts, but there is always a back story, the other side of the coin, the opinion and experiences of the “other”. If we are now exploring history with them in mind, it makes for a more rounded and complete experience. Speculating as to whether Africans, Native Americans, or anyone else would have done the same thing is just speculation, and a rather wasteful intellectual fiction.

dibs, thanks for recipe, will use soon. Also heartily agree with 11:04 on RTDH.

Blood tests ok or did Dr change meds?

Expert-taht sounds GOOD – and you are talking about the Chocolate Room in Park Slope, right?

Holy $hit!!

A “blame the US (and the Western world)for everything” feast on the OT. Incredible. We have Montrose stating that the pre-colonial Indian tribes didn’t engage in war-like behavior and we have Hugo Chavez being lauded .

I have only a few statements to make:

a) this is pure navel-gazing/blame America first-ism. To read the thread above, one would believe that only the Western countries engaged in the slave trade, when in fact every civilization engaged in it up until recently and it existed on the African continent until very recently.

b) threads like the one above is why the Left continues to marginalize itself. I don’t know what to call it: self-hate, moral equivalence run wild, hate for America’s moral authority, whatever. Most folks see it, and don’t like it.

c) Does anyone above realize how much more advanced the US is in terms of race relations and the equitable treatment of all its citizens? What country would you like to discuss? The “sophisticated” Western European countries like France and Germany that disdain and LEGALLY marginalize their Muslim immigrants? How about Malaysis, where ethnic Chinese, who have lived there for centuries, are prohibited from holding any type of political office? How about Japan, where ethnic Koreans and the indigenous Ann people have virtually no legal rights and are treated like pariahs? We can also see what a lovefest many of the sub-Saharan nations of Africa are having.

Unbelievable. There’s only one cure for this type of thinking, and its coming on November 2nd.

Finally: Slopey – where is your call for “reasonable” dialogue? I’ll take a Carl Paladino rant any day of the week over the fever swamps above.