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gerald:
Have you ever gone beyond reading the bible in seeking knowledge that might tend to challenge the bible? Or are you intimidated by the idea that it would be Satan challenging you to do so and so therefore you would avoid any, or all, such endeavors?
I remember hearing a woman trying to convince her young son that he had better be good or the "boogie man will get you!" I often wonder if that young son ever grew out of the "boogie man syndrome".
I believe there are a lot of people who still believe in "the boogie man" whatever form he takes...and, of course, to counter the "boogie man" there has to be a "Savior" that people can use to ward off the "boogie man"...at least that's how it is all supposed to work (in their minds)....but "really terrible things quite often happen to 'good' believers" despite the conviction and loyalty the believers had shown toward their mythical beings. It didn't work so well for the ancient polytheists either. They too would have to ignore that fact that "nothing fails like prayer"..being no better than chance (50-50). They too had their non-sensical and illogical quips in trying to assert that they weren't all just a little bit crazy. And the priests, purveyors of lies and myths to control the masses, used their devious means and powers to keep the believers believing them. One tool is to get people to believe that unless they too believe, as everyone else appears to, they would be considered heretical outcasts. So many people just go right along with the dominant paradigm of lies and myths afraid to challenge any.
It looks to me like those who are public personalities often have to walk the tightrope and try not to offend anyone....especially if the public person has his own tightrope of ideas that would not pass the scientific method way of thinking. I can often hear the overtones and the underlying messages that cannot really be hidden. For instance, Acharya S. at www.truthbeknown.com has a wealth of knowledge about the history of myths and the bible. And she asserts that many of these myths are based on ancient astrology and the modern myths (the bible) are based on these ancient astrological myths. I find it fascinating and it is very believable....but I tend to believe that she is not really a full fledged atheist but more of a mysticist herself. It looks to me like mysticism is just another form of religion...not that it is anything new. Mysticism, astrology, palm reading, tea leaves, salt over the shoulder, flying spaghetti monster, religion...they are all variations of the same overactive imagination in "just pretend" belief systems.
As an atheist, I find it quite amusing that after all that these idiot televangelists (and their "flocks") have creamed in their britches over terrible things that happen to those they see as "non-believers" (in their particular religion). We all laugh and sneer at how ridiculous these brain-dead thumpers, with over-active imaginations, are....especially now that the "bible belt" is continually being pelted "by the hand of God". It gives the "believers" a challenge to continue to support their ridiculous positions by using equally ridiculous and worn out old saws like "god works in mysterious ways" and "god is testing us" ....whatever.
While I think it is extremely important to drill our own oil and stay out of the problems of other countries while we develop natural energy sources that is affordable for all and environmentally friendly, I agree that "special judges" should be kept out of the equation. But I also feel that "special interest groups" should be kept out as well.
dnarnadem:
"....it is all in your imagination! It must be, as you NEVER provide any facts to support your contention. It is all visceral, emotional and incipient Maybe unconscious rascist rhetoric!"
Sorry, but I'm not the one with an errant imagination. You imagine that Obama, as President, is in the best interest of the country, or at least, in your best interest. Did you not read comment #10? The one that said that even Cornell West (an obvious black man--I say this in rebuttal against your hint that I may be a racist...which is absolutely not true), who had fiercely supported and campaigned for Obama, now sees the light and the truth about Obama. Obviously, those of you who have not supported Obama to the extent that Cornell has, and who still believe in Obama, are greatly compromised in their ability to see reality. It is incorrigible useful-idiots that will continue to be fooled by slick tongued politicians that say one thing then repeatedly do the other.
Have you ever read Michael Hudson (at www.Michael-Hudson.com), or Max Keiser, or many other people who know a lot about economics that indicate, to me anyway, that Obama has either been a complete dupe, or an opportunist, or for whatever else reason, has not lived up to most of what he preached to the people when he wanted their votes. No, Obama is not suitable to be "our" President. He is not one who will fight for the promises he made to the people.
I wouldn't care if our next President was another black, or a brown, or a yellow, or even a Muslim. I'd prefer it if he were an atheist because atheists don't have their heads up their butts believing in stupid make-believe myths.
And again, as I have said before (and I know you still don't believe me) I am progressive...a liberal....and abhor the criminal Republican right-wingers. You see, after all I have written condemning and berating the ruling elite and Republicans it takes a run-away imagination to think that I am some kind of plant, or agent, of the wealthy elite or anyone other than just someone who got suckered in (yes, a temporary use-full idiot) to vote for Obama thinking, and believing, that he would be good for the country...good for us, the majority of hard-working or retired citizens instead of continuing to overwhelmingly enrich that tiny 1 or 2% of the population who have greedily hogged it all.
The sure sign of a Man's Hand.........
It is interesting that in the world according to according to Evans, gay pride and gay marriage are not OK, but multiple incest is just great. Back to what I wrote in this eddy of thought yesterday: seem like it is all more about male control of breeding stock. The disobedient wife. Possession of the young daughters --- sorry, I've had my share of visions, I've seen my share of men. And that there was writ by a man.
What I ask of similar minded folk is this: How exactly did the complete and inerrant Bible get here? Via Fedex? To whom was it handed? Since the Bible, as one book, did not exist at the time of Christ, but was assembled from various leaves of papyrus over many years, by many different committees, much of it written in stages long after Christ had gone back home, by many different men (and at least one woman) -- were all the men involved infallible also? Some of the records of those meetings and those changes made to the Bible survive, and the men involved hardly stand up to the test of infallibility.
If we take the single notion of inerrancy away, then the problems associated with fundamentalism go quietly away also. You lose nothing in terms of faith, love or mercy -- you lose nothing of divine grace when you stop idolizing a piece of paper, a book. Jesus did not bring a book. He did not write a book. He did not even bother to dictate a book. He said, "Love each other."
Get it yet?
Texas has passed a bill to protect its citizens from the total violation of their civil rights at our airports, which should be protected by the 4th amendment. In response the TSA has used the supremacy clause to say that states have no power to protect themselves from a tryannical Federal government. This is the serious problem with Ian's interpretation of the Constitution: it opens the door to an all powerful central government that has no restrictions on its power.
“Blogger Bob” writes:
“What’s our take on the Texas House of Representatives voting to ban the current TSA pat-down? Well, the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article. VI. Clause 2) prevents states from regulating the federal government.”
The reason the Right labels liberals as America-haters, is because they can't sell their ideas in a fair market of ideas. The way they try to win in this situation is to delegitimize the competing product. If the prospective 'buyer' of ideas hears often enough that the ideas coming from liberals are ideas coming from 'America-haters', then they will be more inclined to buy the ideas coming from the Right, regardless of whether those ideas are contradictory to their own best interests; they'll buy it because there is no 'legitimate' alternative.
The 'hate' lable all started shortly after 9/11. Anyone who critized Bush or anyone in his adminstration, for any reason, were labled "America haters,' or unpatriotic, and the gopers have worn it out ever since. The right wing talk show hosts were always asking the 'why do you hate America?' when bashing liberals in general while on the air... They started it...
This is one of MANY things that Obama is letting slip through the cracks in the hope that he will get the huge donations for 2012 from the Corporate Masters... Calling the White House comment line and my Senators' and Reichwing Congresswoman's offices do no apparent good... Do we need another March on Washington?
On another topic--unsure how else to approach this--I've been to Havana twice and know my way around... I can help you get there if you're okay with going around the State Department...
The repubs are at it again with their threats "If you do not..........." I say do not cave in to them AGAIN or they will keep up with their threats. They have lucked out so far with those threats, but I for one wish this would stop.
I believe that the tax rates should be upped on the upper 2% who have been getting away with murder at the expense of the low/middle/labor classes and it is about time that they sacrifice something for a change. The crooks who are getting rich off our backs need to pay for their machinations for self. Getting blood out of a turnip does not work after a certain length of time. The coldness of the richies is hard to handle when one is scraping the bottom of the garbage pile to feed his/her families.
I am ashamed for my country, as every citizen of conscience should be.
The above sentence is from the above article.
Here is another comment from Thom's show that discusses creationism and evolutionism. John Paul II, as pope, said that evolution has a place in education. The problem with education is that our schools do not have educational leaders. School administrators are functioning more like politicians.
The grope-anator admits to a secret love child with a household staffer. I love these Anti-Life Party politicians for their family values spewing as b.s.
Oh Thom! You missed a chance to skewer him on the definition of "theory!" You had me yelling at my radio :) What string theory does, and what makes it a theory, is that it makes predictions about the nature of the universe which can be tested and observed. The only "problem" that string theory has is that it's nested inside quantum and relativity physics so it's not clear if predictions made by string theory couldn't have also been made using those two theories. Quantum physics and relativity WORK, but what makes them theories is that they aren't absolutely proven. In science, a theory is just a step below a "law." These theories are tested, retested, they make predictions about what we ought to find and are right, that's why they work.
His statements about how sciences has changed over the last century (etc) is true, but it's gotten better, made better descriptions, and explained more. Newton wasn't *wrong,* you can use Newtonian physics at our quantum and it will make predictions and describe the behavior of physical bodies just fine. But it's when things get very large, very small, or very fast that we see it doesn't work.
You cannot test creationism. It doesn't do anything for us. Maybe there is a deity who started the whole thing, maybe not, but that can't tell us anything about the behavior of a quantum particle or anything about the age of the universe that can be proven or tested-- we just have to accept it.
"Is New Jersey ever going to prduce good scientists?"
The funny thing about that is that when Albert Einstein came to the U.S., he became a professor at Princeton.
The Anti-Christ is a terrorist nation.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/US-Gets-Bad-Marks-in-Amnes-by-Mary-Shaw-110516-329.html
Reflection of the week: “I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that God didn’t trust me so much.” -- Mother Teresa.
There's not a better bunker than their own bunker mentality. BTW, we've criticized the right for confusing "weather" with climate. Aren't we now doing the same?
The Marianas Trench- nestled on the botttom in diatomaceous ooze- would provide an excellent storage facility for those with waterpoof bunkers, with our prayers that they will soon be subducted beneath the Pacific Plate.
XXXXX
"LACK OF DREDGING. My Uncle
LACK OF DREDGING. My Uncle worked for 30 yrs in the Army Corps of Engineers. He has compained for years about the Federal Govt. cutting back on $$ for dredging. Yes Thom it is partially the climate but mostly LACK OF YEARLY DREDGING OF OUR RIVERS BIG AND SMALL.... You figure it out.."
If that were the case, the rivers would flood every year and every year it would get worst. This year it was a LOTS and LOTS of rain that has caused the flooding! Don't know about you, but 15-20 inches of rain over a few days is NOT normal rainfall!!
Based on your premise then, if the rivers are not dredged this year, then next year the Flood will be worst then this year.
I don't think so.
LACK OF DREDGING. My Uncle worked for 30 yrs in the Army Corps of Engineers. He has compained for years about the Federal Govt. cutting back on $$ for dredging. Yes Thom it is partially the climate but mostly LACK OF YEARLY DREDGING OF OUR RIVERS BIG AND SMALL.... You figure it out..
I can see it now, in a frightful moment of kharmatic justice, Cheney, the Koch brothers and many of their oil executive buddies scurry to a bunker in their posh, gated community. Flood waters due to extreme out of control climate change are rising fast. Unfortunately, as the electronic hatch closes behind them, all back up power systems go down, and the hatch becomes inoperative.
Entombed in the bunker together, a terrifying reality quickly becomes clear; Haliburton constructed the bunker using the same flawed cement technique that caused the Gulf oil spill. Water begins seeping in with no escape possible.
However, lacking a sadistic personality disorder, I must end this yarn on a hopeful note. Instead of their fate being a dark, watery grave, just as the water almost fills the bunker, the power comes on, the hatch opens, and they all swim to safety.
With this close brush with death, there miraculously emerges a collective epiphany and all realize the shallow pursuit of money and power is truly meaningless without a balance of humanitarian compassion in their hearts.
As a result, they all get together and form a media network, with shows promoting green energy, universal health care, the science of climate change, affordable education, and all things connected to progressive democracy.
HOLD ON A MINUTE, WHAT AM I SMOKING? Just end it at the dark, watery grave part. “We the people” can handle the progressive democracy part without the help of big oil.
BILLIONAIRES targeted
This is a simple one - maybe he could not keep his primeval urges at bay and he DID attack the Maid! This is a French Cliché!
And then there is the DNA. But then, when it confirms the obvious, that he did attack the Maid, the Conspiracy Theory (CT) will then take a turn and we will then be subjected to and hear that the CT has to be extended to the NYP and the Lab scientists!
You can never argue a CT and Negative Evidence - a CT can NEVER be disproven as it is not fact and therefore un-falsifiable!
That is why CTs are so Popular – it is the lazy persons way to avoid all the work required to raise the facts and then prove or disprove them. It is also the best way to immune ones beliefs against reality – the CT always wins out as it can never be disproven.
"So why are some of you people still supporting the turn-coat, sell-out and traitor to his prelection convictions and to the people who voted for him?"
Because he isn't - it is all in your imagination! It must be, as you NEVER provide any facts to support your contention. It is all visceral, emotional and incipient Maybe unconscious rascist rhetoric!
I'm beginning to believe that you have an agenda on Obama. Maybe you are a planted lobbyist from the Right?
Must be because no intelligent American would have voted for Obama and then turn around and use such ultra-right mumbo-jumbo! Prove us all wrong! If Obama is to the Right of the Right I would Like Some FACTS! So would a lot other readers of this blog! I've had enough of this hate speech! Put up or go peddle your nonsense on right-wing blogs who would welcome your sordid nonsense!
Could it be that all of this unusual amount of rain is due to the melting of the ice caps? Increasing world temperature not only melts the ice caps but increases the moisture in our atmosphere. Is this just the beginning of worse things yet to come? I know that there are cyclic occurrences of really bad flooding...like 100 year floods...and maybe that is what is happening. But the melting of the ice caps will not only make beach front property of inland real estate but will continue to flood the main arteries such as the Mississippi because of the added moisture in the air. Also the ice caps have helped reflect a lot of the suns energy back up into space which will lose that effect causing further global warming. I think it is non-stoppable and a runaway situation...nothing now will stop it..and we are all doomed. So Carpe Diem everyone. We're all gonna die! But let's have some fun and get out your cans of Raid and go after the Koch-roaches before they can scuttle away to their bunker nests.
The Twain Report
All The News That Mark Twain Says He Would Report If He Were Alive Today
NEW YORK (Twain Report) IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn attempted to rape a chambermaid in a New York hotel on Monday. And unlike the last time he did that to a woman in a New York hotel, this woman pressed charges. Strauss-Kahn, a Frenchman, protested his innocence. The French Consul in New York and the French ambassador casually puffed on cigarettes and said, "So he raped a woman. He's a Frenchman, she enjoyed it. You must release him from jail immediately, so he can be President of France."
Police detained Strauss-Kahn while they had a dentist match the deep toothmarks on his, ah, member, to dental X-rays of the chambermaid whom he forced to perform oral sex on him. Finding a match, the police congratulated him because the chambermaid is quite attractive, commisserated with him over his nearly-chewed-off member and had medics put a bandaid on it, and then arrested him.
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) is basically the same as the world bank, in that it gives or lends billions of dollars every year to various dictators with the understanding that the dictators will steal approximately half of the money and give the rest to Bechtel, Halliburton, and the other international corporations that control the IMF, in the form of contracts for un-necessary construction projects that displace and destroy the cultures of vast numbers of indigenous people and then bankrupt the countries, which subsequently become wholely-owned serf kingdoms run by the corporations. But this new development has put a monkey wrench in the IMF's plans, as dictator after dictator has released public statements which read, "We simply cannot believe that the head of the organization that put us in power so we could rob, defraud, persecute, falsely imprison, torture, and murder with great abandon among our own people, would rape a woman. This is an outrage! Sir, henceforth you may keep your filthy bribes."
Then, of course, they said, "Hey, we were only joking. Where's the guy with our monthly bribes?"
In court, Strauss-Kahn said, "I was not attempting to flee the country when you arrested me on an airplane that was about to take off for France. The less cultured among you may not be aware that I earned my fame as a gourmand long before I became the head of the IMF, and I heard that they have cream cheese on bagels on that particular flight, which of course I could not resist, so I boarded the plane simply to obtain a bagel, at which time I was arrested by your police. I would have returned to the hotel to rape that maid again- I mean to pick up my cell phone, suitcase, and other belongings."
Bill Clinton immediately came to the defense of Strauss-Kahn, who is a close personal friend, saying, "Mr. Stauss-Kahn did not have sexual relations with that woman," and, "It depends on your definition of the phrase, "Matching toothmarks."
The chambermaid, who was interviewed outside a New York bank, said, "I have been traumatized beyond belief by that monster. Now if you will excuse me, I have to deposit the bribe I received from the man who is next in line to be head of the IMF."
Strauss-Kahn, who gained renoun when he was the French Minister of Finance by selling off French utilities and properties to corporations whose officers were personal friends of his, said, "This baseless accusation of rape is nothing less than an outrageous attempt to put me- a Frenchman- in jail where I will be forcibly prevented from drinking wine. Wine-lovers all over the world, this is your wake-up call and your call to arms! Allow them to imprison me and the next thing you know you too will be prevented from drinking wine, and I will be unable to assist you!"
When they heard Strauss-Kahn's statement, men all over France left their jobs and homes, saying, "Come on mes ami, it is our duty to treat this situation with the same patriotic fervor that we bravely exhibited during the second world war. We are off to the Maginot Line to drink wine, eat cheese, and grope women!"
In court, the prosecution said that Strauss-Kahn has been accused of raping at least one other woman. Strauss-Kahn's attorney replied, "Yes, certainly, but the only crime that was committed was when she pretended that she did not enjoy it."
News of Strauss-Kahn's arrest threw the French Socialist Party into disarray, as other Socialist leaders attempted to also get arrested for rape, saying, "Of course he is a real man, but we are real men, too!"
We should raise the taxes on the wealthy and the corporations who use our commons . Followed by first freezing then cutting the defense budget by 30%.
Whether to waste time addressing someone who felt it necessary to couch his or her comment with such an infantile precursor, gave reason for pause. However, it seems as though you suggested the article in good faith, so, here we go. A college, university, or anyone else, for that matter, who obtains money with unacceptable “strings” attached, bears the lion’s share of responsibility for their actions – not the one making the gift. Only very naïve individuals would believe that enormous financial contributions do not routinely incorporate unpalatable quid pro quos. The recipient, however, is always the controlling party; the one with the authority to accept, or reject, conditions triggered by their action of accepting a donation. For example, if Adolph Hitler proffered a large financial contribution to a university contingent upon the recipient promising to teach that the Holocaust never occurred, would your only criticism be of Hitler? Of course not; you would also look askance at the entity enriching itself by taking the money (and thereby agreeing to the condition). No one is forcing the universities to take the money. It seems that the real underlying problem has to do with the nature of capitalism, far more than the restrictions and conditions imposed by a benefactor. If conditions imposed by Koch require the recipient to acquiesce to anything illegal, it would be void as a violation of public policy. It seems that a challenge against the recipient, in court, seeking to void the gift as “against public policy”, would be far more effective than a weak, emotional attack, on billionaire Kochs.