Isis beheads elderly chief of antiquities in ancient Syrian city, official says

[oberliner]

Islamic State militants beheaded an antiquities scholar in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and hung his body on a column in a main square of the historic site, Syria’s antiquities chief said on Tuesday.

Isis, whose insurgents control swathes of Syria and Iraq, captured Palmyra in central Syria from government forces in May, but is not known to have damaged its monumental Roman-era ruins despite a reputation for destroying artefacts militants view as idolatrous under their puritanical interpretation of Islam.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/18/isis-beheads-archaeologist-syria

[snagglepuss]

1. Their inhumanity and ignorance is staggering. There are just no words.

[Kurska]

2. Everytime I think humanity has hit rock bottom

We keep on falling and falling.

[Coventina]

4. Never underestimate a human's ability to be idiotic, short-sighted, and cruel.

That's the take-away lesson from ISIS.

I hate my species.....

[Nuclear Unicorn]

9. What do you mean, "we"? I would argue these monsters have no connection to humanity.

[oberliner]

10. And yet they do

I mean, they aren't actually monsters. They are human beings. I think their behavior says something very disturbing about human nature. Under different circumstances, would these same people be doing something like this? Are there human beings that are just born to be psychopaths? This many of them?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

12. Maybe they chose to be this way.

[oberliner]

13. For what reason?

I confess to being completely in the dark about what makes these people tick.

[hifiguy]

19. They did.

Religion is a very easy thing to walk into or away from. People by the score do it every day.

They CHOOSE to be barbarians.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

22. I don't see it as a religion thing, it's a power thing.

People who crave power will do despicable things for that power. They may cloak it in any manner of moral rationalization, religious or otherwise. The absence of religion will not result an absence of depravity, i.e. The Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, the Stalinist purges, Mao's Cultural Revolution, etc.

The first guy who steps up demanding power should be the last guy who is given power.

[hifiguy]

23. Totally agree with your final sentence.

The people who want to be president THAT badly should be presumptively disqualified from the office regardless of their party.

Bernie's "hell, no one else is gonna do it, so I guess I have to" is a much healthier outlook.

[smirkymonkey]

24. +1000

I completely agree with you there! The will to power should be an instant disqualification. People should be nominated.

[seveneyes]

17. Most were raised and taught with a sick view of religion

So killing and raping is what they were taught to do. Eliminate the teachers of this shit and it will get better over time.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. I hate them like poison

[Brickbat]

5. Khaled al-Asaad is a goddamn hero. He refused to tell ISIS where artefacts had been put for

safekeeping, even under torture.

[geek tragedy]

6. Yep, that's what a hero looks like nt

[Coventina]

7. Agreed. He was a true man of honor.

I salute him.

[Starry Messenger]

11. I didn't know that.

Jesus. No words. I agree.

[Kurska]

14. Best and worst of humanity in one story EOM

[Number23]

16. I agree completely. I don't know what the UN Equivalent of a Medal of Honor is but I hope he gets it

[hifiguy]

20. That is amazing.

And yes, that is what a hero is, not some punk in a bunker in the US dropping bombs on people half a world away like it's a remote control video game.

[freshwest]

8. They're like Stephen King's 'The Langoliers.' n/t

[etherealtruth]

15. psychopathic monsters

[lpbk2713]

18. Another giant step backward.

These barbarians have their calendars set about 400 years behind the rest of the world.

[hifiguy]

21. About 1300 years, actually.

[Monk06]

25. There is a reason they murdered him. He could identify all the historical artifacts that ISIS will

be selling on the black market. These butchers and pirates are just hiding behind religion.