Bangkok bomb, foreigner injured

[yy]

Religion has always been made out to be the source of conflicts. I beg to differ by suggesting that it is the misinterpretation and manipulation of religion that is at the source of all these conflicts.

[paul_au]

Since time immemorial, men have fought each other in wars caused by religion, and it seems that the third major cause of war has been religion.

It would be interesting to to know the statistics of these wars.
(Sorry if this is 'off topic' - but as the subject was mentioned...)

Get rid of religion and you would get rid of 90% of wars. Religious fanaticism is why pawns follow leaders, with out this indoctrination leaders could not control a rational thinking person to commit irrational acts.

[Susana]

Get rid of religion and you still have the same human failings which cause war.

[visionchaser45]

I agree 100% with Susana. Religion is only used as a cloak to conceal the true motivations behind acts of aggression. It is a way for the aggressor to claim he is right and just for committing the act of aggression.

[Curt]

Like I've said before, if Crips and Bloods claimed religious ties, their dealings would become a "Holy War". The powers that be, with the aid of the press, give these clowns credibility and fame.

Not only does religion give then a rationalization, it also helps in recruitment of mindless drones.

[kfchugo]

When it comes to terrorism, religious fanaticism, crimes against humanity etc, sadly I must admit that I favour the "religious" solution.......... shoot them all and let God sort them out.

[paul_au]

I'm afraid religious people are in denial that religion is one of the most potent influences on war as it makes the preaching of peace seem hypocritical, there denial of reality and the support of the irrational has been proven by science time and time again. When there is overwhelming evidence that Apes and humans have a common ancestry millions of years ago and religious people can argue the point to there black and blue that man came from Adam & Eve 7 thousand years ago there there is definitely something wrong. The reality is religious smug moral attitudes of superiority derived from a sense that one's beliefs, actions, or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average person makes them a poor judge of the real world and what is the real course of war. Religious people are in denial religion courses war because it goes against there smug moral attitude of superiority which in reality is a form of discrimination against none religious people.

[paul_au]

I was listening to a moderate moslem leader on the television recently how his religion is a religion of peace. Obviously this man was a decent guy, he wanted peace and to change the attitudes of Islamophobia in the Australian community, but this guy was definitely misguided by religion. One thing he did do is list the things that were good about Islam. By the the end of the list of good things, I realized his perception of what is good had little to do with good but more to do with having a smug moral superior attitude. I give you one example he said. "Moderate dress is a good thing". To me that was an insult to the Aboriginal culture in Australia who's tradition is to walk around naked before British settlement in Australia, so does that make every aboriginal in Australia bad. To me is your going to keep preaching moral superiority, which is a form of discrimination in it's self, which is a bad thing, than it can be used to influence the masses that your religion has a religious moral superiority which in turn is used to influence the pawns to do heinous acts in support of there religion.
I know this guy was not intentionally creating a back ground of war, but in reality comments like this creates divisions in the Australia community, between what they consider as morally superior and what the rest of the community considers as rational morality.
Personally if some one wants to walk naked down the street, I don't consider it immoral or indecent exposure, although I personally prefer clothes but I reserve the right for others to walk naked if they want, I also reserve the right for people to wear clothes for the protection from exposure from the sun and the cold, I considered being naked natural and if hypothetically there was a God, if people walked naked down the street that is what mother nature intended us to do, it's there wearing of clothes that is not natural and to make out your morality is superior because of your clothing is definitely a bad thing.

[paul_au]

Why hasn't any USA administration offered a billion dollar award to the first organization to invent a viable solution to end oil dependence? We managed it with nuclear weapons. There is no excuse, only profit and big money running the show.

A billion dollars is only a drop in the bucket when it comes to replacing petroleum in cars.
So far there are already alternatives and they have already spent billions on research and development and so far they have discovered so many draw backs, nothing is a perfect solution. In the mean time the most viable solution is to make cars more efficient, like with hybrids. Battery electric will always have it's limitations when it comes to range and ethanol maybe a short term partial solution, but the amount of agricultural landed needed to produce ethanol would mean there would be no wilderness, no amazon rain forest because to much land will be needed for fuel production. The only real long term solution is hydrogen because it is an unlimited source of energy, is very environmentally friendly if produced using clean energy such as wind or solar power. The draw back is hydrogen at this point in time is not economically viable when compared with alternatives, The cost of making hydrogen economically viable will be hundreds of billions of dollars over 30 years because the current cost of building a hydrogen fuel cell car is a conservative US$450,000, which would come down if massed produced of course and then you would need billions of dollars in infrastructure to feed those cars. Where a long way off that.

[Khun Don]

Another Iranian national apprehended
February 27, 2012 2:55 pm
THE NATION

Police detained an Iranian national Sunday after raiding a rented room at Nasa Vegas Tower in Khlong Ton district, where another Iranian suspect Leila Rohani, also lived.

Rohani fled Bangkok and is now in Tehran, the capital of Iran.

Police with a search warrant raided room number 21434 on the 14th floor of the apartment building and detained an Iranian, identified as Madani Seyed Mehrded, 33.

The search came after police received information that Mehrded stayed in the room most of the time, while another Iranian provided him with hand-carried food and drink.

Police found no illegal items but seized a computer, a mobile phone and some other items for further inspection.

The authorities later learned that the suspect had overstayed his visa in Thailand, which expired on September 29 last year. He had entered Thailand on July 27, two months earlier.

Police said that they tracked Mehrded from telephone number information found in the SIM cards of two suspects already in police custody -- Saeid Moradi, 28, and Mohammad Hazaei, 42.

Moradi lost both legs from his own explosive device, and Hazaei was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport while attempting to board a plane bound for Malaysia shortly after triple explosions rocked Bangkok on February 14

According to police, the call logs on the SIM cards showed Mehrded had regularly communicated with both suspects by mobile phone.

On February 14, he was allegedly seen in front of the Israeli embassy on Asoke Road.

Police said an Iranian working as a chef at a Soi Nana hotel supplied Mehrded with food and drink. The chef lived in the same apartment complex.

Mehrded was in the room with foreign women. All were taken for questioning.

The fifth suspect is a Middle Eastern man who was captured by CCTV footage walking away from the rented house where the first bomb apparently exploded by accident.