Does the Vatican openly place a bounty for killing someone that doesn't like catholicism?There's no such large organization for Muslims (nor for Protestants for that matter). A Pakistani politician is not comparable. There's plenty of Christian hate groups trying to kill muslims:
terrorism by other factions was common in the past, but what about recently?Everything above is quite recent. Anders Breivik's rampage was just back in 2011.
in 2013, there were 152 terror attacks in Europe. Only two of them were "religiously motivated," while 84 were predicated upon ethno-nationalist or separatist beliefs..
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In December 2013, FLNC terrorists carried out simultaneous rocket attacks against police stations in two French cities. And in Greece in late 2013, the left-wing Militant Popular Revolutionary Forces shot and killed two members of the right-wing political party Golden Dawn.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/14/are-all-terrorists-muslims-it-s-not-even-close.html
Why don't islamic countries want islamic refugees?Turkey is taking responsibility for fully HALF of Syrian refugees, at great expense. Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt are home to nearly all the rest. The number going to Europe is miniscule by comparison:
His treatment of women, though, is strictly for personal enjoyment.Unlikely. In just about every film, a Bond Girl is a crucial tool to help him accomplish his ("government agent") goals. In at least a few films, he gets tacit approval to pursue one woman or another.
Bond doesn't exactly shy away from assault... in fact he murders people. Which one would you say is worse?Bond is a government agent. As far as I can recall, he's never killed someone out of mere personal dislike. He kills people, but I don't see that Bond is any more a murderer than is an honest soldier. (Ignoring little things like jurisdiction and international law, that is.)
So it's just a coincidence France lets a bunch of muslims in...and now has terrorist problem...right?France has had "terrorist problems" for CENTURIES... And Germany has just as many Muslims as France, with far fewer incidents of terrorism. All those Syrian refugees aren't going to France, so Germany should have a significantly larger Muslim population in a few years.
Want to guess what percent of the terrorist attacks there were committed by Muslims over the past five years? Wrong. That is, unless you said less than 2 percent.
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We are talking about groups like France's FLNC, which advocates an independent nation for the island of Corsica. In December 2013, FLNC terrorists carried out simultaneous rocket attacks against police stations in two French cities.
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one of the worst terror attacks ever in Europe in 2011, when Anders Breivik slaughtered 77 people in Norway to further his anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and pro-"Christian Europe" agenda as he stated in his manifesto,
- http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/14/are-all-terrorists-muslims-it-s-not-even-close.html
- http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/01/08/3609796/islamist-terrorism-europe/
I'm not sure I get the distinction between protecting forest ecosystems and desert ecosystems.Compare the density of plant and animal life in a desert, with a forest. Deserts are necessarily sparse, and so you can develop far more desert land while doing much less damage. Since development isn't going to stop, the LESS destructive method is preferable.
I can tell you there are lots and lots of plants in the "mostly-empty" desert.We won't run out of creosote bushes.
The whole idea of protecting individual animals and plants is that all species play a role in the ecosystemActually the popularity of the endangered species act is all about people wanting to preserve their childhood, and the animals they remember. The smaller and less significant the animal, the less public interest in protecting them. In truth, many species go extinct all the time, their impact on the ecosystem is low, and nearly nobody cares when it happens. It's only when large animals disappear that people bat an eyelash.
taking one species out threatens others in ways that are often unpredictable.That sounds a little too much like the fear-mongering mantra of anti-chemical/vaccine/GMO/nuclear groups to me. The ecosystem of Arizona didn't collapse when the Santa Cruz Pupfish (Cyprinodon arcuatus) went extinct. In fact, can you point to ANY ecosystems that collapsed as the result of a few minor plants or animals going extinct? Particularly when we're talking about one endangered minor sub-species of an animal that's otherwise doing fine, it's hard to justify all the expensive efforts to preserve it. And in the deserts, too, there are state and federal parks and preserves which will provide sanctuary for endemic species.