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The Repugnicans would say that they have to break a few eggs in order to make a paradise (for themselves?) While we're discussing murderers, let's remember another mass murderer: George W. The Dems are just too genteel to call a spade a shovel.
Awwww...did I hurt your widddow feewings? Gee, I'm sowwy. I didn't know I was going to upset some totally uptight sensitives. It was a joke! Get over it! You know, some of these politically correct fascists just love to make people feel defensive. I'm not one of them!
I obviously do feed the two cats that show up for a handout...they are not my cats but seemed to need to fed. One is very old and limps and was pretty wild and wouldn't let me approach for over a year...but now it let's me pet it and seems to love being petted. But it still, occasionally, hisses at me. Like some people I know! If it wasn't for me they would have to either eat birds or rats or be fed by someone else...if they were lucky..otherwise they would starve. If I didn't care about them...I'd let them starve.
Geeze, some of you people are just so overly ready to let just about anything prick your nerves.
Here's another one: I just love animals....they're very tasty!
Especially chickens. Actually, I wouldn't eat cats unless I was starving. We may all have to eat cats or rats someday in the future if the ruling elite have their way.
Here's another: Nuke a baby whale for Jesus!
Holy flying spaghetti monster...now I've done it...not only to I have Jesus freaks gunning for me, now I have PETA freaks gunning for me too. If God didn't want us to eat meat she wouldn't have given us flesh-ripping eye teeth (ie: fangs).
I'm not anti-vegetarian either and think it is probably a pretty good idea. You're not a vegan are you? I can dig up some good vegan jokes aside from the ones I've already made.
Marc, I agree with everything in this last post of yours except where you state that cats "exist only to be our loving companions". Like all creatures of the world including humans, cats have their own agenda: to survive, thrive and multiply.
I too am a cat lover. I really miss having one or more of them in our sweet home. Soon as we can afford the vet bills again, I will head straight down to the local animal shelter and adopt a couple of kittens.
Even without having cats of our own nowadays, I am immensely grateful to the neighbors' cats who help keep the rodent population under control on our property. There are an awful lot of rats around here, and I'd hate to think how many more there would be without the felines.
My hubby & I have had this ongoing debate about whether our next feline companions should be indoor-outdoor (like all our previous felines) or indoor-only. At this point I'm inclined towards indoor-only. Most of the cats we've had over the past thirty years have wound up dead at the side of the road, hit by cars; or they have simply disappeared. We strongly suspect that our little Tiger was killed by a neighbor's pit bulls. This is not just heartbreaking and deeply upsetting; it gets old. - Aliceinwonderland
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://toolserver.org/~para/cgi-bin/kmlex...
Palindromedary ~ As a cat lover I don't find your joke the least bit funny. Please leave my furry little friends out of mankind's problems. They exist only to be our loving companions and are off limits. Start your abattoir and don't be surprised if you run into some really pissed off kitty owners gunning for you. A word to the wise.
Besides, befriending the little creatures is a far wiser move. Putting out some feed and water bowls and maybe a litter box or two has it's own advantages. First, they take care of your rodent problem for you. Second, they give you reason to stockpile cat food in your shed, basement, or garage. That food, in an emergency, can keep you alive a lot longer than cat meat can. Again, a word to the wise.
How many times do I have to repeat myself? Look at the research by statistician, George Gallup jr., son of George Gallup, founder of Gallup, inc., the polling and demographic research firm, on the near death experience (and that of others). Look into the work of hypnotherapists work researching and documenting past life regression. Look into the documentation of Edgar Casey's clairevoyance and that of others'. Look into the reports of anthropologists studying and observing religion and spirituality in technologically primitive cultures. Do you think you are the first person ever to have this debate with yourself?
From http://atheism.about.com/od/einsteingodreligion/tp/Was-Einstein-an-Athei...
I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.
- Albert Einstein, letter to Guy H. Raner Jr., Sept. 28, 1949, quoted by Michael R. Gilmore in Skeptic, Vol. 5, No. 2
The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer.
- Albert Einstein, quoted in: Einstein's God - Albert Einstein's Quest as a Scientist and as a Jew to Replace a Forsaken God (1997)
I will not repeat myself further. I am beginning to find your religious fanaticism tiresome. I am becoming much uninterested in the argument you are having with yourself. From now on I wish you 'd bring your issues to your psychiatrist rather than here. I know of a good one for religious and other fanaticism if you'd like a referral.
Very excellent points, douglas m, hydroponics is a very good idea that conserves space and conserves water. Now, if we can think of a way to not be polluted by not only the nuclear radiation of past testing and accidental nuke plant accidents but the future ones. The new cold war against Russia that the hegemonic US and Europe has created may very well spark a new era of nuclear bomb testing not only in Nevada but in the Kazakhstan area near Semipalatinsk (Kurchatov City is the Northeastern corner of the test zone. The Rusky ruling elite had even more disdain for those living nearby than the US did in their nuclear testing when they chose test sites. The results of 100 above ground tests and 465 tests in all in the Semipalatinsk area (also called Semey) resulted, over the years in some of the most grotesque mutations of humans and animals and a great many babies born dead. This was a long term effect that is still a problem in the Semipalatinsk area. We don't need this kind of Earth-wide suicide. The isotopes in nuclear waste that gets into our atmosphere and ground...our gardens...can do their long-term damage for millions of years...virtually forever.
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/issue.aspx?y=0&content=true&id=9...
Well said, mikebwesty, those parasites, who like to think of themselves as having earned all their excessive wealth, are really no better than bank robbers. In fact, they are worse than bank robbers because they are sucking the nation dry with their underhanded schemes...and ownership of those "officials" who are suppose to protect us from them.
I think I would also have to add that we all need some very strong "rent control" as well....that should really torque some rich men and/or women rentier's* blood-sucking proboscises.
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*rentier capitalism: Rentier capitalism is a term currently used to describe economic practices of parasitic monopolization of access to any (physical, financial, intellectual, etc.) kind of property and gaining significant amount of profit without contribution to society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rentier_capitalism
I had to go back through the video to find it, but we've gotten several calls asking. His email is a.bolden@sbcglobal.net
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To "Kend:"
The bonuses are given with private funds. It is none of anybodies business what they do with it. I would suggest to quit putting your money into wall street. They would have nothing to bonus Why is it that Thom thinks all money in America belongs to all Americans. It belongs to the Americans that earn it. They choose how much of it goes to the government by elections and the rest is theirs to choose what they want to do with. - Kend
Right, because the corporations, Wall Street bankers, and super wealthy "earned" it by buying politcians and rigging the system in their favor while destorying our economy. There is nothing wrong with, say, a pension fund investing through Wall Street so long as the bankers there are acting in the interests of their investors, and NOT the short-term profit interests of themselves. The "private funds" you speak of are from the people of America who expect that their investments are handled responsibly.
The solution is to tightly regulate Wall Street and prevent them from becoming "too big to fail" in the first place.
Ita amazing what you can do with a 4x4 space and a 55 gallon plastic barrel($10 on craigslist). Slights every other foot apart for a different vegtable and a 6" tube down the middle for worms and compost, drain at the bottom to catch and recurculate water not used. You should put it on a stainless steel rotating stand too. Mulch, topsoil, different mineral dust for optimum vitamins and storage barrels from rain water are invaluable to you; maybe you just havnt relised it yet. Even a small window area for winter.
Meanwhile international corporations feed us ethanol is gas, toxins in our food, and charge whatever price they want to. Whats most amazing is how food gets shipped back and forth across oceans to waste huge amounts of fuel just to make a greedy few pennies inevitable at the long term cost of the customer,us. Ya, they want and everyone to keep watching fox news for intelligence purposes.
We are all individual lemmings unless you do something/anything to better yourself.
Maybe it will catch on. Anyways off to the grocery conglomerate twenty miles away to spend a couple hundred dollars on junk!
In #91, I mentioned the Higgs
In #91, I mentioned the Higgs Boson...you know...the God Particle! Seems that they have now proven that it not only exists but that it looks like there are even smaller particles that the Higgs particle is made of. Science just keeps looking and finding new amazing things. Dogmatic belief systems don't.
But the problem is that the people that don't understand science, eg: "the world is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old", find it much easier to understand superstitious ideas and they really don't accomplish much of anything in the world except mayhem. So, what's a poor particle physicist to do in seeking support in the way of funding? Hey, I know...let's call it the "God Particle" so that the common superstitious bumpkins will be supportive of our research. And, of course, then the superstitious bumpkins try to use that bit of scientific pseudonym as some kind of proof of their superstitious beliefs. See there...even scientists believe...there's the "God Particle"!
By the way, I'm really looking forward to watching the new movie coming out on the 28th of this month....Noah with Russel Crowe. I wonder how true it will be to the original story...in the Epic of Gilgamesh...where Utnapishtum builds this giant ark in anticipation of the coming flood. If the thumpers think that this Noah movie isn't exactly in lock step with the biblical account maybe they should read about Utnapishtum in the Epic of Gilgamesh!
In case you don't know, the Epic of Gilgamesh was written in Mesopotamia way before the Levant Jewish story of Noah. Abraham came to the Levant from Mesopotamia, so it is told, from the city of Ur. And most likely brought this story to the Levant with him and his "flock"...but the story was modified a bit. In fact, there are quite a number of parallels which would indicate that the Jews, or Abrahamic people of the time plagiarized a more ancient story, changed it to suit the believability of the people they wanted to control. And this is only one of many instances where plagiarism of more ancient superstitions formed the successor religions. I think most religious people today would consider all those ancient gods as myths or superstitious nonsense not realizing that their very own religions plagiarized them to begin with. Now, of course, they are the infallible word of God. Duh! ;-p
By the way, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in ancient Mesopotamia flooded the area between them lot of times in ancient Mesopotamia. And if there ever was a real Utnapishtum and his Ark...that area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, flooded would seem, to most in that area, to be a "world-wide flood".
Some of the arguments, by believers, of a "world-wide flood" are the sea fossils found in higher elevations...like mountains. But, I guess if you believe the world is only 6000-10,000 year old, you are certainly not going to be fooled by geographical formation of mountains, upthrusts and downthrust, plate tectonics, etc that takes many millions of years to accomplish. Mountains that once were at the bottom of the oceans. And, you are certainly not going to buy just how long it would take for these fossils to form...or that Dinosaurs lived way earlier than 6000 to 10000 years ago. But you might be tempted to believe that the Devil put all these things here on Earth to fool us into doubting the infallible word of God...as written in the Bible....as written by "inspired" messengers of God whose imaginations conjured it all up to begin with.
That is a good idea unless you are going through a drought and water is being rationed. I'd rather have a garden than grassy lawns any day. I feel sorry for those who are in a drought and cannot grow their own gardens. It's almost impossible to find a tomato that tastes like a tomato unless you grow them yourself. With water costs in drought areas, where they raise the price of water, it might not even be cost-effective to have your own garden. You have to buy the starter plants, or plant seeds (but unless you buy the seeds your saved seeds might have been deactivated), and then after putting in some labor and trying to fight the insects for several months, and using up lots of water, you might have a nice productive garden. I'm not sure if it would be less expensive than going to the dollar store or farmer's market though.
I wonder if I should build an abattoir in my back yard. I know a couple of cats that have been getting pretty fattened up. ;-} Yummy! Cat soup! It's not a vegetable...or is it?
jkh6148: Now, you done it...can't get that tune outta my head...good lyrics though!
I'm sorry, DAnnemarc, but I couldn't help but laugh when I read this. I think your are, perhaps, a little confused! Atheists do not believe in the supernatural. You said "only after challenging their supernatural beliefs". Again, we do not have supernatural beliefs otherwise we would not be Atheists.
We may "scurry away" if we get tired of arguing with superstitious believers who are arguing nonsense and use circular mumbo-jumbo. It really is pretty much a futile effort, after all, to argue with someone who has their heads stuck in the occult or superstitious or religious beliefs because they, by definition, cannot posit sensible ideas.
And our "beliefs" or "non-beliefs" are not hidden, obviously, or I wouldn't be displaying them now. But, of course, when there is a danger of being physically harmed or persecuted, as in the Middle Ages, or in early American history and not so early American History, maybe even today...then some Atheists tend to clam up. But many Atheists realize that you can't have a rational conversation with irrational people....so they don't even bother in the effort.
But with the many books and articles written by Atheists challenging irrational beliefs, and with organizations such as FFRF (Freedom From Religion Foundation) that actively challenges religious organizations who brazenly assault the separation of church and state....bringing sanity into otherwise insane actions of these people, it appears that we are winning.
More people today question religion and superstition than ever before. More intelligent people are dropping out of churches than ever before. And they are not all heading in the direction of equally silly replacements in irrational belief systems. Some do. Some just can't get irrational hocus-pocus ideas out of their skulls. I guess if they want to see demons and devils they are welcome to them. But I sure hope you people wake up before you hurt yourselves or someone else. There have been more than a few exorcisms where parents have killed their children because they thought they were possessed of the Devil. There is a very close relationship between irrational beliefs and insanity. It would be so easy to slip over into that other condition unless you get a grip on reality.
Are you sure you are referring to Atheists? Atheists question everything that superstitious people posit. And they never get real answers...just more bull.So, again...what real proof about the supernatural are you referring to? There is no real proof! It may not be, exactly, organized religion but it is still in the same ball park sans the organized part. There are, of course, followers of the the flim-flammers of superstition that people latch on to almost as religiously as other religious people do with Priests. But, what proofs?
They might say that they have clues, perhaps mathematical equations, that suggest something exists and some may even "believe" that the something might exist because so many clues point to it's existence. Scientific clues, not religious or superstitious mumbo-jumbo and circular double talk rhetoric.
So, just what "evidence" do you think you have that the supernatural...like ghosts, leprechauns, devils, gods, demons, angels or any of those other superstitious ideas exist external to the minds of those who chose to believe them?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Albert_Einstein
Hey Kend, I got something for you http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/4307214-canada-post-s-invented-cris... Seems it's just like I said. The pigs you shill for are just trying to steal the Canadian Postal Service - which, until now, has been a beutifully efficient and profitable operation, just like the USPS until 2006.
I don't know if you just made up half the shit or what.
Hey Kend, I got something for you http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/4307214-canada-post-s-invented-cris... Seems it's just like I said. The pigs you shill for are just trying to steal the Canadian Postal Service - which, until now, has been a beutifully efficient and profitable operation, just like the USPS until 2006.
I don't know if you just made up half the shit or what.
There will be no viable solution to a food crisis without population control. Religion will make dealing with over-population unlikely. Climate change will make an already monumental problem geometrically more difficult. Glory, glory, hallelujah!
mcowley01 ~ I don't have a clue. I imagine that they are just trying to cash in on that little freedom we are supposed to all still share called 'Freedom of Speech' I'm not shilling for the website, just for that one little bumper sticker I mentioned that made me laugh my a$$ off.
BTW I just saw a photo on facebook of a car that had "Obama is the AntChrist" written on the rear window. The slogan below said, "Obama, Savior of Ants." I had to share it recommending that someone put a "FOX NEWS Keeps Me Stupid" bumper sticker below before anyone becomes too confused.
The 'war on drugs' needs to go.
The same web site that sells the Fox News stickers also sells pro Ron Paul and anti Obamacare stickers. How come?
This might be slightly off topic; however, I saw the coolest bumper sticker today... It said, "FOX NEWS Keeps Me Stupid". I laughed my head off. You can order yours today at this web site:
http://www.libertystickers.com/product/fox_news_keeps_me_stupid/
Apropos to #88 ~ Most of these hypocrite believers have two sets of belief systems. The first one is a false facade that allows their acceptance into the Church cult. It is this acceptance that creates the psychological state of "salvation;" which is nothing more than perceiving oneself as being the center of a public spectacle. They perceive themselves as being perceived by their peers as being acceptable in the order. This is all they aspire to. This is their reward.
The second set of beliefs are the same as Palindromedary--they are completely atheist. This set of beliefs are hidden as to not draw attention. They are buried deep down and only through close observation of their behavior can one perceive the truth. Also, only after challenging their supernatural beliefs for some time can you determine exactly what they actually believe in. it is not easy to talk to these people about these subjects. They are used to interacting within their cult which questions nothing. When they are challenged they become quite defensive about the situation and scurry away like frightened rabbits. The same can be said when they are presented with any real proof about the supernatural. This also proves where their true beliefs are.
For that reason I can say with absolute confidence that I prefer an honest atheist to a devout hypocrite any day of the week.
Mark Saulys ~ Well, you certainly said it all. I hope Palindromedary was listening. Very, well said! What can I add? Just this little footnote to Durkheim's definition. Everything postulated by he and many others you quoted can be summed up thusly, most members of religious institutions--cults, if you will--tend to worship idols and graven images more so then exhibit belief in the unseen. In Judaism and Christianity this of course is strictly forbidden in the Ten Commandments. Of course, since true obedience to scripture would cost the church a fortune in profits it is not discouraged. People attribute divine power to inanimate objects and not the creator. I have also noted that such tendencies tend to be more prominent in poorer and more ignorant members of the church community. There is also a lack of any scriptural knowledge in such groups. In essence the Church willfully exploits the ignorance of it's members for profit.
I can't speak much for the Muslim community; however, I can make this observation: Anyone who is capable of strapping a bomb to themselves and blowing themselves to smithereens has definitely proven a belief in the afterlife. I'm not so sure if I can say that about today's Christians--Christians who typically will wear a crucifix when charging into battle in war as a supernatural shield with the hope that it will protect their lives. Not much true devotion there. Certainly more fear of death than any belief in the afterlife.
That brings me to my main point... I will take an honest Atheist anyday over a devout hypocrite. Not all believers are hypocrites--just the ones who say they believe and don't have a clue as to what that is. Belief in what you don't understand is superstition; and, idolatry certainly qualifies as superstition. Any Jew or Christian who believes in idolatry of any kind is a first class hypocrite. They obviously haven't even read the first chapter of the Bible. Unfortunately, churches everywhere are full of such people.
Ding! Ding! Yatzee! Put me down under Hegel's definition. No idols, no church, no nothing' just you and the Divine Spirit. That sums up my belief. If you can sit alone in an empty space and feel connected with the Divine, that is all you need. After that then the scripture makes perfect sense and you have arrived. Everything and everyone that exists in the world is blessed; and, nothing is more sacred than anything else.