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@Jamie, its more like Atheism is a religion if bald is a hair style. The belief of "unbelief" can arguably be a religion, its a unique take on spirituality, but spirituality non-the-less. Face it no one knows what actually caused the big bang, the origin of everything. Whether one wants to believe it was the hand of God, an elf fart or just something creating itself from nothing, which is quite a leap of faith in itself, and basically what an Atheist must believe to be honest with their take on reality, well its still faith at this point. We are all creatures that believe in mythologies, because not a single one of us knows the real truth. Like it or not that's the bald facts of reality... no? However at least Atheists are likely to keep digging for the truth, whereas some religions are happy with a six day stint of creation and leave it at that.
N
Jamie, good points in your comment!
Follow Albertism
I follow the teachings of Albert, the insightful janitor on Miracle on 34th Street and agree with the following:
"Yeah, there's a lot of bad 'isms' floatin' around this world, but one of the worst is commercialism. Make a buck, make a buck. Even in Brooklyn it's the same - don't care what Christmas stands for, just make a buck, make a buck."
Why does Thom keep calling atheism a religion? Maybe organized or prominent atheists could be considered akin to religious people, but the very definition is Non-religous.
I really like Thom, but this grates every time he says it. I'm an atheistic-leaning agnostic, and I have NO religion, no dogma, no scripture. Atheism is a religion only if "bald" is a hair color.
Early Christians went to the lions willingly, probably not all of them, but the ones that did are given a special place of honor in Catholic lore.
Also the Christmas we practice now was nothing but a replacement of the ancient Winter Festival of the Romans. I say restore the Winter Festival and remove Christ from it. X-mas just cheapens Christ and glorifies consumerism... better to separate the two as far as I'm concerned. Besides scholars believe that Jesus was born in late spring early summer... perhaps his birthday should usurp Memorial Day, Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day or Independence Day.
Imagine lighting of an M-80 to celebrate the birth of Christ. Of course replacing Fathers' Day has admirable theological arguments, for after all it was at that point in the Bible Judeo-Christians begin to conceive of God as their Father.
Food for thought.
N
CAN ONE BE A CHRISTIAN AND A CONSERVATIVE AT THE SAME TIME?
Two Thousand years ago in the midst of the Conservative, Militantly, Bellicose, Roman Empire and the parallel Rule of the Ultraconservative Conservative Herodian Kings and Priests, where the death penalty was a broadly used as it has been in Texas and Florida since the Bush advent therein, there came a man who opposed all of that for which they stood. He opposed the death penalty and much forgiving of sexual sins. (The woman caught in adultery John 8:1-11)
He despised greed/avarice which the Bushites Gekko say is Good!. Luke 16:19-31 The avaricious rich man
He opposed violence of any sort; he was by his own admission, "meek and mild." He advocated tolerance and acceptance of others. He offered free health care to any who approached him.
He also refused to condemn or judge others except for the rich who were avaricious and the hypocrites. He opposed judging others, a prime factor in the Bush administration IS judging others Luke 7: 37-42- judging others
He was dismissive of sexuality as a major judgmental concern. Luke 4:4-42 Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well
Jesus was, by the definitions, condemnation and attacks on Liberals by the Bushites and the "Christian" Right, a "bleeding Heart Liberal."
They are indeed correct, because in his opposition to everything for which The Conservative Roman Empire and the Ultraconservative Conservative Herodian Kings and Priests, stood Jesus was and remains a Liberal. There is no way the Church can, without being hypocritical wriggle its way around the reality that one cannot be a Christian and a Conservative, any more than one can be a Christian and support the slaughter in Iraq (A nation 12 times smaller than the USA, and lacking air force and navy at the time of the invasion), and the planned slaughters in Iran, and Venezuela.
Therefore, begs the question, CAN A PERSON BE BOTH A CHRISTIAN AND A CONSERVATIVE?
Derrick Jensen: The Dominant Culture is Killing us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nap0LP724ns
http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2010/11/derrick-jensen-dominant-culture-killing-us
FTLOG please start talking more Meta. All this dwelling and pouring over the gory details of our corrupt society IS depressing. Talk about Solutions and most importantly, HOW DO WE GET THERE FROM HERE? Get Derrick Jensen on Please.
deleted comment - reposted in tuesday daily comments - the intended place.
Yesterday a pair of callers called for reducing Federal worker pay in order to "even it out" with private sector pay. Evening out pay would require raises - not cuts. But President Obama has already ruled that out with his just announced 2 year salary freeze.
The rapid spread of the false notion that federal workers are overpaid can be traced to a hit piece published in USA Today which relied on a superficial and biased CATO study:
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
"At a time when workers' pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees' average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-08-10-1Afedpay10_ST_N.htm
The USA Today article is not only wrong, it is a dirty damn lie.
USA Today did an apples to oranges comparison, when you do an apples to apples comparison of workers with similar skills, experience and education, federal workers are making LESS salary than their private industry counterparts, but have better benefits because private industry benefits have been in free fall over the last decade or two.
What USA Today ignored is that most low level federal jobs have been outsourced to private contractors, the janitors and snack shop employees are no longer civil service employees - they work for a private company which has a federal contract and get little or no benefits. The federal government mostly employs professionals and outsources the rest of the jobs.
In fact, just in the last year, even with the economic turmoil of the Great Republican Recession, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/11/federal_salaries_fa... Federal Salaries fell by an average of 2.1 percent compared to equivalent private sector salaries, pushing the salary gap for federal workers to 22% behind the private sector.
A statement from the Office of Personnel Management issued after false stories in the media and from the Cato institute:
********************
OPM Statement on Federal Employee Pay
Recent Comparisons of Federal Pay to Private Sector are Unfair and Untrue[/B]
Monday, August 16, 2010
Washington, DC - Today, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management released the following statement from Director John Berry:
Recent press stories regarding pay for Federal employees compared to private sector workers are unfair and untrue. Simply put, these stories have compared apples to oranges. Federal workers are not paid double the private sector. The Cato Institute and USA Today stories quoting Cato staff (and similar statements from the Heritage Foundation) look only at gross averages, including retail and restaurant service workers and other entry-level positions that reduce private sector average pay in comparison to the Federal average, which does not include many of these categories in its workforce.
The Federal workforce today is highly specialized. Thirty years ago, over 22% of our workforce was in blue collar jobs. Now that percentage has dropped by half while the percentage of IT and Health professionals has doubled. Data clearly show that many of these highly specialized workers - doctors, nurses, cybersecurity professionals - are paid less than their private sector counterparts and are making a significant sacrifice in pay to serve their neighbors.
The wages we pay are fair and the benefits we offer are good. But working for the Federal government is about more than money. People grow up dreaming about working for NASA, or the CIA, or becoming a park ranger, or cancer researcher. We should be applauding these hard-working civil servants - not mischaracterizing them.
It is also worth noting that in this time when so many American families are struggling to make ends meet, the President is committed to making sure the Federal government is spending the taxpayers' money wisely and carefully, and cutting costs wherever possible. Like households and businesses across the country, the Federal Government is tightening its belt. That’s why the President launched the Accountable Government Initiative and has pursued a variety of areas to cut waste and boost efficiency from contracting to improper payments, Federal real property, and unnecessary programs.
- John Berry, Director, United States Office of Personnel Management
*********************************************
When Senator Scott Brown made the claim that federal jobs pay twice as much as private sector jobs, it was rated "FALSE" by Politifact.com http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/feb/03/scott-bro...
The following three paragraphs will convey some idea of the enormity of the indifference of employers for their workers:
Aetna, AIG, Alamo Rent a Car, Alcoa, Allstate, Anheuser-Bush, AT&T, Bank of America, Bechtel, BellSouth, Best Buy, Borden Chemical, Boeing, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Caterpillar, ChevronTexaco, Citigrouup, Continental airlines, Delta Air Lines, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Eastman Kodak, Eli Lilly, ExxonMobil, Fedders Corp., Fluor, Ford Motor, General Electric, General Motors, and Goldman Sachs.
Also, Halliburton, Hershey, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, Illinois Tool Works, ITT Industries, John Deere, Johns Manville, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg, Kerr-McGhee Chemicals, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, Lear Corp., Levi Strauss, Lockheed Martin, Mattel, Maytag, Merrill Lynch, MetLife, Microsoft, Monsanto, Motorola, Nabisco, Northrop Grumman, Northwest Airlines, Office Depot, Orbitz, Oracle, Otis Elevator, Owens Corning, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Polaroid, Pratt & Whitney, Procter & Gamble, and Prudential Insurance.
Also, Quaker Oats, Radio Shack, Rayovac, Rohm & Haas, Safeway, Sara Lee, Seco Manufacturing, Square D, State Farm Insurance, Target, Tenneco Automotive, Texas Instruments, Time Warner, Tropical Sportswear, TRW Automotive, Tupperware, Tyco Electronics, Union Pacific, UNISYS, United Plastics Group, United Technologies, Verizon, Wachovia Bank, Weyerhaeuser, Xerox, and Zenith.
Why hasn’t the Obama administration taken swift and forceful action to relieve the situation?
Yesterday a pair of callers called for reducing Federal worker pay in order to "even it out" with private sector pay. Evening out pay would require raises - not cuts. But President Obama has already ruled that out with his just announced 2 year salary freeze.
The rapid spread of the false notion that federal workers are overpaid can be traced to a hit piece published in USA Today which relied on a superficial and biased CATO study:
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
"At a time when workers' pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees' average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-08-10-1Afedpay10_ST_N.htm
The USA Today article is not only wrong, it is a dirty damn lie.
USA Today did an apples to oranges comparison, when you do an apples to apples comparison of workers with similar skills, experience and education, federal workers are making LESS salary than their private industry counterparts, but have better benefits because private industry benefits have been in free fall over the last decade or two.
What USA Today ignored is that most low level federal jobs have been outsourced to private contractors, the janitors and snack shop employees are no longer civil service employees - they work for a private company which has a federal contract and get little or no benefits. The federal government mostly employs professionals and outsources the rest of the jobs.
In fact, just in the last year, even with the economic turmoil of the Great Republican Recession, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/11/federal_salaries_fa... Federal Salaries fell by an average of 2.1 percent compared to equivalent private sector salaries, pushing the salary gap for federal workers to 22% behind the private sector.
A statement from the Office of Personnel Management issued after false stories in the media and from the Cato institute:
********************
OPM Statement on Federal Employee Pay
Recent Comparisons of Federal Pay to Private Sector are Unfair and Untrue[/B]
Monday, August 16, 2010
Washington, DC - Today, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management released the following statement from Director John Berry:
Recent press stories regarding pay for Federal employees compared to private sector workers are unfair and untrue. Simply put, these stories have compared apples to oranges. Federal workers are not paid double the private sector. The Cato Institute and USA Today stories quoting Cato staff (and similar statements from the Heritage Foundation) look only at gross averages, including retail and restaurant service workers and other entry-level positions that reduce private sector average pay in comparison to the Federal average, which does not include many of these categories in its workforce.
The Federal workforce today is highly specialized. Thirty years ago, over 22% of our workforce was in blue collar jobs. Now that percentage has dropped by half while the percentage of IT and Health professionals has doubled. Data clearly show that many of these highly specialized workers - doctors, nurses, cybersecurity professionals - are paid less than their private sector counterparts and are making a significant sacrifice in pay to serve their neighbors.
The wages we pay are fair and the benefits we offer are good. But working for the Federal government is about more than money. People grow up dreaming about working for NASA, or the CIA, or becoming a park ranger, or cancer researcher. We should be applauding these hard-working civil servants - not mischaracterizing them.
It is also worth noting that in this time when so many American families are struggling to make ends meet, the President is committed to making sure the Federal government is spending the taxpayers' money wisely and carefully, and cutting costs wherever possible. Like households and businesses across the country, the Federal Government is tightening its belt. That’s why the President launched the Accountable Government Initiative and has pursued a variety of areas to cut waste and boost efficiency from contracting to improper payments, Federal real property, and unnecessary programs.
- John Berry, Director, United States Office of Personnel Management
*********************************************
When Senator Scott Brown made the claim that federal jobs pay twice as much as private sector jobs, it was rated "FALSE" by Politifact.com http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/feb/03/scott-bro...
Here is an open confession and my biggest disappointment and worry!!!
My Eternal Destiny
In 2007 I gave our sons a copy of a letter from Doug Soderstrom, “A Letter to My Son Regarding the Problem of War.” The letter elaborates on what kind of person will his son be? For this Christmas in 2010 I am giving our sons an Examination of Conscience (a pamphlet) that highlights our mortal and venial sins in using the Ten Commandments as a guide. As I reviewed the Ten Commandments, I quickly learned that I am a sinner, a big time sinner! Entry into heaven will be very, very difficult for me.
Let me share with you an experience! About two weeks ago I awoke during the night and a sense of panic covered me. Flashing before me were my sins and the realization that my soul is damned. I also realized that God, as a judge, must be consistent. I was hoping for a merciful God to judge me. A merciful God is Jesus but we will be judged by God, the Father, and a God of Justice. God will review our Book of Life with our good deeds and with our sinful ways. My good deeds do not come close for an invitation into God’s kingdom. My fate has been sealed! I do not have enough time to overcome my sinful ways.
Since the sense of a panic attack and my fate sealed, I have been praying to God to let hell have varying degrees of pain and suffering. Although eternity does not have an awareness of time and space, maybe in my case there will be twenty-four hour days with one hour a day to be free of pain and suffering. Will these days be possible for me, I do not know!
The end is near for the Democrats! Loss of Medicare and Social Security will happen as the GOP gain the Senate and the presidency in 2012. RIP Democrats!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/george-soros-obama_n_785022.html
Voting for a weak president is a bad investment.
Obama leaves office on January 19, 2013 with a great pension plan and $170 million in a trust from his 2008 run for the presidency. Obama has ROYALLY screwed working Americans. Obama has always been a closet Republican.
Obama is the failed Grand Experiment. He has never been ready to be president. He has been a BOHICA for average working Americans. I name him - Barak "Bend Over Americans" Obama.
More poverty in the United States of Mortal Sin!!!
http://www.infowars.com/why-poverty-spreads-across-america/
The end is near for the Democrats! Loss of Medicare and Social Security will happen as the GOP gain the Senate and the presidency in 2012. RIP Democrats!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/george-soros-obama_n_785022.html
Voting for a weak president is a bad investment.
Obama leaves office on January 19, 2013 with a great pension plan and $170 million in a trust from his 2008 run for the presidency. Obama has ROYALLY screwed working Americans. Obama has always been a closet Republican.
Obama is the failed Grand Experiment. He has never been ready to be president. He has been a BOHICA for average working Americans. I name him - Barak "Bend Over Americans" Obama.
The FBI is a domestic terrorist organization. J. Edgar Hoover must be given credit for domestic terrorism. I have felt for some time that the FBI is a rogue law enforcement agency similar to the CIA.
Obama has hosed working Americans.
The FBI should turn themselves in for advocating terrorism. They have as much culpability as this kid does.
Your take on the situation is right on...and what has taken place is offensive and counter-productive to our efforts against the terrorists. The big (bigger?) problem is this...While Obama is certainly now the Chief Executive of the USA, he has very little experience as an executive in any arena, much less in the biggest arena of all. He was a great candidate, but is far less effective as President. Yes, he did inherit the most baggage of any President, even more than FDR who did have a similar economic situation, but did not have two wars with which he had to deal at the same time. Obama needs to throw off the "bush burdens" with all alacrity, something he should have done by now.
This investigation into the OSU student was started during the Bush years. It should have gone away long ago. Both wars were stupidly started during the Bush years and also should have gone away a long time ago. As Chief Executive and head of the military Obama should exercise his Executive Powers to end them both and proceed with the war against terrorists, not terrorism, in a covert, NOT an overt, way.
We'll be listening in the morning, Thom. Thank you for being the bright light you are to so many of us.
I think that "A stitch in time, saves nine" is a much better & proactive approach. What good came out of their set-up? None. Instead of helping a confused teen, caught between cultures & loyalties, this scenario seems to have succeeded in perpetrating hatred, creating yet more enemies & (perhaps) ruining a young life. Truly pitiful.
It's like any job out there! How does a person keep their job? They make themselves look important! The FBI is doing like any other Government entity they stick together and make themselves look necessary. Has anyone ever seen the salaries that Homeland Security gets? They start at about $50k! Must be nice for a non-profit Government job! Oh that's right they can rake us over the coals and get more of that money that pays their salaries! I bet the electronics tech job I had and worked 48-52 hrs a week at and got paid no more than $50k would make $100k in the Dept. of Homeland Security.
They're not in the business of doing what is right, just what is right for them!
I can't see how this is NOT entrapment. How many man hours were wasted on this one individual? Were the names of the terrorists in Pakistan given? Were they arrested? So how is the waste of our tax dollars worhwhile?
the kid obviously had too much energy. solution? exercise. get him on a basketball team!
So the FBI even proposed the attack that never happened? Lovely. Just freaking lovely. @@
Lots of people seem to have opted out of flying.
No one was in National Airport, yet Amtrak was fully booked and there were massive stalls on I-81 and I-40.
See empty airport photos from 11/24:
http://tsaresistance.blogspot.com/2010/11/cbs-reporter-peggy-fox-taunts-tsa.html