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I think considering running for president because you believe you can "beat the other guy" clearly reveals the adolescent mindset of this person. The presidency of the United States of America is not another "trophy" to be gained, its not a popularity contest..its a tremendous responsibility, a charge given to you by the people who intrust you to lead, govern and represent their country. Not to mention that they don't expect the chosen person to whimp out and quit when the going gets tough. Sure, past performance may be no indicator of future results-- but that's the way the Smart Money bets. -Kerry O. |
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Topic:
Does God even care?
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You survived this tragedy didn't you? You're still alive aren't you? This problem didn't cost you your life did it? So where is it not perfect? It survived the problem perfectly or else you wouldn't still be here. A lot of people don't survive these episodes. I suppose that's God Will, too. Heads, God wins. Tails, humans lose and die or become the walking wounded (after of course, they do enough physical therapy to be ABLE to walk again (which I guess God get's credit for, too)). Besides, you're missing the whole point- it was a identifiable IMPERFECTION that caused all this, not whether I survived it where others haven't. See, for someone who hadn't gone through 8 days of pure hell in a neurological ICU (and that was only last time) in constant pain even though I was on enough killer intravenous narcotics to virtually have shut my body down, this is just a thought experiment that keeps you them in their comfort zone vis-a-vis religious belief. The question you obviously CAN'T ask yourself is "Why would God do this?" You can't because, never having gone through it, it holds no 'shadow' for you-- you have no referents, only your unshakeable faith that was never put to the test by Trial By Ordeal.You're just posting what you believe to be true on the Internet, not what you've _actually_ experienced in this regard. Yes you can give the credit to the doctors if you want. God works through people my friend, he is the one that gives people the ability to do things they do in this world. But again, you're more then welcome to give the credit where you wish. Okay, since you talk to God all the time, ask him the names of the doctors, technicians and scientists and the skills he gave them and get back to us. Then ask him why it took centuries (or six, if you're going to invoke the 'Young Earth' clause). Failing that, ask yourself why such skills would even be needed in yours and your God's "Pefect World". It would arguably be much better for everyone involved if this alleged Creator would have REALLY been able to make things as perfectly as you postulate. -Kerry O. |
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Topic:
Does God even care?
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EVERYTHING substantial in this world is perfect. Substantial as in something physical. People's decisions and choices are not always perfect. But the world itself is exactly perfect. And I noticed a couple posts on things around homosexuality. Homosexuality is a CHOICE. It is not natural and or intended. Yes people may be attracted to the same gender, but that does NOT make them "homosexual". It's their actions of making a relationship with the same gender that is homosexual. So again, EVERYTHING in this world is PERFECT. It's people's actions that are not perfect. I was born with a rare, hidden cranial blood vessel defect that nearly killed me 3 times before human intervention costing me and my insurance company over $100k fixed the problem. I had no choice in the matter. I happened in the womb and there was nothing my mother did that caused it. If indeed there is a 'Creator' that crafts all living things to perfection, you'll have to chalk up this FLAW to his shoddy worksmanship. Likely, you'll say it's a disease that the alleged existence of Satan caused, but that's because you're too inured in your beliefs to see any other points of view. You'll likely cast blame elsewhere despite there being no logic to support it. I think you once told me to quit bringing this up that I was being a complainer. Not so. It's a valid argument based on provable facts to which I can attest having suffered through it. BTW, God didn't teach the people over in Sweden who developed the treatment of it circa de 1985 how to fix these anomalies, they discovered it the old-fashioned way-- a lot of hard work, observation, hypothesis and scientific method. Belief, by it's very definition, rests on the improven. Some situations and dilemmas in life have no resolutions available based on Faith and Belief, and those are the exceptions that prove the rule. -Kerry O. |
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Topic:
Elizabeth Edwards dead at 61
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Why does this have to become something political or religious? A wonderful women has died. It should be lefted at that! In 20 years of discussing politics on the Internet, I've come to the conclusion that it's always the same: "To someone with a hammer, anything that displeases them looks like a nail." Nothing is sacred if it scores points. I watched my Mom die of the same type of cancer and it's one of the most difficult things in life to emotionally process. -Kerry O. |
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Topic:
Does God even care?
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So, if a God or Gods truly exist...what is humanities worth to it/them? What are we worth to a God or Gods in a universe that doesn't flicker when we die, doesn't cry when we are in pain, a universe that if this entire world was destroyed wouldn't shake or tremble one bit. The logical side of me thinks that if a God or Gods truly created everything, I hardly think it or they really care if we die off given that we are such a minimal aspect of the entire universe and that everything outside of this world is perfectly crafted and stands out magestically when compared to earth. As an agnostic, I too wonder if a God really cares, given that Evil and lack of perfection exists. I rather think that if there is a godhead, it just created the universe to see where it would all go. And humanity is just another potentiality in the Great Experiment that will have to prove itself by clawing its way up the ladder of ascendancy to become one with its Creator(s). Or slip back down in the primordial soup of entropy, from which another race of beings will begin its ascent. And maybe God herself is on just such a journey Herself. Whatever is true, I fully feel that religion is just more human narcissism getting its fix by pretending it has to do nothing more than ask for ascendancy in the name of some mythical figures. -Kerry O. |
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Topic:
If Jesus were real....
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you must be a troll. So team troll, to deny factual evidence based on reasons of opinionated credibility is insanity. If my credibility is destroyed with you because I quoted Einstein, are you saying that Einstein was not one of the greatest geniuses to have ever lived? Who has the lack of reasoning now? Me or team troll? The trouble with your quote from Einstein, purportedly a debate with an atheist professor, is that it NEVER HAPPENED. It matters not one whit whether Einstein was the greatest genius of all time or not-- your facts are in error, and following them up with namecalling does your argument exactly NO favors either. -Kerry O. |
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Women do have 1 less rib then men, count them yourself. Sorry, but that's just not true. Although approx 1 in every 200 to 500 people of either sex are born with an extra pair of ribs and this abnormality is far more common in females than in males, the average person on the street has 12 pairs of ribs. Science has verified this over and over through observation using X-rays and cadaver studies. Theologians are just thumping their Bibles on this one. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions; but everyone is not entitled to their own facts. - Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan -Kerry O. |
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PS: The student was Albert Einstein . Albert Einstein wrote a book titled 'God vs. Science' in 1921..... He may have written that book, but he most certainly was NOT the student in the fictional account above nor was that account in the book. He also was not a Christian. This 'confrontation' is pure Urban Legend-- check snopes.com. Sheesh, why do the religious always try to make sock puppets out of historical figures-- it's the absolutely WORST kind of propaganda and so easy to unmask. -Kerry O. |
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Kerry, that was my suspicion too that this is political posturing for 2012. Not a fan of this guy by any means, but if he is sincere in what he is saying he should take it a step further and ask that congress do what msharmony said and be paid accordingly for hours worked. Being a representative of the people was never meant to be a full time job and was never intended to have the perks they've voted for themselves. I don't totally disagree, since it's clear that the Founding Fathers intended the Federal legislative branch to be more like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington than Business as Usual. I'm FAR more worried about the amount of money floating around out there from moneyied interests use to ply legislative favors out of ALL the people in Washington. -Kerry O. |
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Did anyone else find that his arguments made no sense, like he was talking to himself?
That's because he probably _was_. The author of this screed states that he's a converted agnostic skeptic, and we ALL know how most 'reformed' _______s can be super-zealots. Besides, he's in IT, and we all KNOW what Control Freaks they can be when challenged on their opinions. :) -Kerry O. |
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I can't believe it, me and Jindal agree on something. Gov. Bobby Jindal says the United States would be better off if members of Congress spent less time in Washington. In an interview this week with Human Events, the Louisiana Republican, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, said U.S. lawmakers should work part-time, be term-limited and not allowed to become lobbyists once they leave Congress. "When they live under the same rules and laws they passed for the rest of us, maybe you'd see some more common sense coming out of Washington, D.C." he told the conservative publication. "Instead, you got a permanent governing political class." Jindal, who once served as a congressman, cited Mark Twain in his proposal. "We used to pay farmers not to grow crops, let's pay congressmen to stay out of Washington, D.C.," he said. "Mark Twain said that our liberty, our wallets were safest when the legislature's not in session." It turns out members of Congress aren't spending that much time in Washington anyway. Lawmakers work 128 days or less per year and an average of 7.4 hours per day. Rank-and-file members of the House and Senate make $174,000 per year. Based on the average American 52-week year, that amounts to $669 per day but calculated on Congress' 128-day year, lawmakers are taking home twice the daily pay -- $1,359 per day - for about half the working time. Based on a normal 40-hour workweek, lawmakers make $84 per hour. But figuring on their actual 37-hour workweek, they make $90 per hour. Jindal's proposal may not be so far-fetched given the rising cost of running Congress -- more than $5 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to Legistorm, a website that tracks congressional salaries and staffing. Operating costs have soared 89 percent over the past decade, rising three times faster than the rate for national inflation, according to the Capitol News Connection based on data from Legistorm. The publication found that congressional salaries grew 39 percent from 2001 to 2009 and security expenses for the Capitol Police increased 860 percent in the past 10 years. And there are plenty of part-time state legislatures that could provide a business model. In 17 states, including Utah, New Hampshire, North Dakota and South Dakota, lawmakers work part-time, making an average of $16,000 and relying on other sources of income for a living, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In 23 other states, including Alaska, Connecticut, Texas and South Carolina, lawmakers say they spend more than two-thirds of a full-time job legislating, but only make an average of $35,300, forcing them to find other sources of income, the group said. In the other 10 states, including California, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida, lawmakers work full-time or close to it and make an average of $68,600, or enough money without relying on outside income, the group said. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/25/jindal-says-congress-work-time/#ixzz16PTYdTwp Terribly ironic of Jindal, considering that his state feeds heavier from the Federal trough than most. I think the ratio of federal aid received vs. taxes paid is a tad over 1.5 to 1. Mississippi, Haley Barbour's state, is even worse at 2.01 to 1. Louisiana also has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country, with 816 of 100,000 residents in jail. Recently, a huge Federal loan given during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina was forgiven. I suspect most of this is Jindal's attempt to sell books and Palin his way into presidential politics for the 2012 election. -Kerry O. |
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Topic:
Austerity
Edited by
KerryO
on
Wed 11/24/10 08:14 PM
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Last time I looked, 41% of our national budget went to pay interest on the national debt. The number will go up dramatically. Historically, nations like Brazil, Mexico, Greece, etc., have run up huge defecits until no one wants to lend them money anymore. Someone (mostly us) eventually bailed them out. We are too big to bail out. Currently, China and Japan hold huge amounts of US debt (among others) and are thinking that maybe they are holding too much. There will come a day soon where countries like China say no to more treasury bills at their tiny interest rate and, instantly, interest rates will increase dramatically. The percentage of the national budget paid to interest will skyrocket or we will not sell government bonds. I read about a possible scenario as follows: Since the world's monetary system is so closely linked to the US, the world's system will fail. Each country will mostly be independent until a new system can be arranged that will not happen quickly based on the Chinese and European currencies. Some of that is going on now. The US will become a third world country overnight with no products to sell to countries overseas, mountains of genetically engineered corn and wheat that the rest of the world doesn't want and the inability to feed itself due to loss of imports of the food we actually eat. Another scenario is that the liberals are pushed aside in congress in time for the US to make hard choices (like the current debt reduction committee options). The US eliminates many of the social giveaways, foreign aid, reduces benefits, and starts the hard road back to being responsible. Fourteen trillion dollars is a long hill to climb. There is still some noise from the liberals that we should just make the debt bigger. Nancy Pelosi spoke out against the possible reductions. Afghanistan sold mineral and mining rights to China recently. Think about it. Was Reagan a liberal when he tripled the national debt from 900 Billion to 2.7 trillion in his 8 years in office? Was Bush a liberal when he doubled the national debt in his 8? What was Dick Cheney thinking when he said "Deficits don't matter"? All the above facts can be checked-- as to what spin is put on them lies in the eye of the spinner, but if you want to damn Pelosi, she has a LOT of conservative company. I also question the source of the figure of 41% of the budget being used for interest payments. Source? Most of the time, Donald Trump is just shooting off his incredible ego, but he DID have one helluva point when he said this: If you owe the bank $100,000, the bank owns you. If you the bank a $100,000,000, you own the bank. China and Japan may indeed own a lot of our debt, but they DO NOT own enough of it yet to be the tail that wags the dog. If you look at Japan's own government debt, it's over 200% of their GDP, while ours, even in these bad times has not exceeded $100 annual GDP. Japan, really, is still going through their Lost Decade. And China, despite being an emerging economic power, dares not to be the virus that kills its host. I'm NOT saying there is nothing to worry about-- I'm saying it's not doomsday yet. Most likely, someone is going to have to step up to the plate and raise taxes or make cuts that gore the sacred ox. I think it will happen-- there is every reason to believe that if we made it through WWII, we can make it through this and emerge a stronger nation. It will take some sacrifice, but we've been there before. And I really suspect that conservative commentators who spin these disaster scenarios have forgotten recent history and are doing this only for political gain. -Kerry O. |
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"Je souhaite..."
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Topic:
Atheism is a Religion
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I doubt anyone reading these forums has ever had an Atheist 'missionary' knock at their front door trying to convert them to Atheism or asking for money for 'God's Work'. As opposed to Fundies who are constantly being door-to-door pains-in-the-arse.
Believers are FAR too concerned about what Unbelievers do or don't believe and by trying to make them fit into their OWN image of themselves, they are engaging in nothing but narcissism. BTW? "Praying" for the souls of Athiests is ALL ABOUT the militant Christian's self-- it's their form of Political Correctness. -Kerry O. |
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The only thing this lady accomplished was to show the world just how stupid most people are.............we sat back and let her make choices for all of us...and she accomplished that by never being quite........of course she was "athiest"...........a christian would have never attempted to keep prayer out of schools............now we need police officers, metal detectors to protect our children while trying to educate them.......shame on us.....for allowing one crazy woman to do this to us........I will continue to pray for her....and her soul The real culprits here are those heathens known as "The Founding Fathers" and a Supreme Court that consisted of nothing BUT Christians who interpreted their Constitution, NOT as you put it "atheists". Besides, doesn't your own Holy Scripture quote Christ as saying NOT to pray like the Pharisees did, in public making a big show of righteousness? And isn't it the Far Right Christians who want people to be able to have as many guns and weapons as they want? With little to NO regulations about who can purchase and carry them? Isn't it that same group who has created an economic system which pretty much DEMANDS the people raising the children having to work to make ends meet? It's easy to demonize one person or one small group and make them scapegoats for the sins of the majority. It's quite another to actually take responsibility where it's due and actually DO something about the inequities in society. -Kerry O. |
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I personally have no clue who Madalyn Murray O’Hair even was. I'm not defending her in any way. But it's clear to me that this whole article is nothing more than Christians foaming at the mouth to spew their hatred for anyone who speaks out against their stupid religion. What's the purpose of posting this article, and what's up with comparing ALL ATHEISTS with this one woman?  What sense does that even make? This is clearly just propaganda for an artificial "WAR" between Christians and Atheists. Yep, no different than when idiot militant Fundies say all Unbelievers are closet Stalinists. There is a chain of stores in the area where I live that sells overstocked, discontinued or buy-out merchanise for pennies on the dollar. They have a huge book section-- sometimes nearly a full half of the department consists of bargain-bin Christian 'Inspirational' books. -Kerry O. |
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Illegal is illegal.....period end of story and if you are here illegaly then you're children should be illegals too...because if your are here on a work visa or school visa or visitor pass without going through the process of admittance for permanent residency you're children are non-citizens so why should illegals have children get special treatment? If the Republicans wanted a sure-fire way to bring about change in re. immigration, they'd pass a law that would send an extra tax bill to every entity found to have hired illegal aliens and call it Child Support. Oh wait-- that would mean they'd have to hold their best constituency responsible for solving a problem it created. Couldn't have that, could we? -Kerry O. |
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This challenge would be much better suited for Cowboy don't you think? He's the one who seems to always be claiming that the Bible is "God's Instructions and Law's for us to OBEY". Also, CeriseRose seems to be supporting that the Bible has something to do with God as well as she's always quoting from it using chapter and verse numbers. So where in these collections of stories does it predict that they will become canonized as the specific word of God, and that no other stories outside of these should be considered as 'God's Word'? The fact is that it neither suggests this, nor predicts it. Therefore the whole Christian religion is based on an ideal that can't even be supported by the very doctrine(s) it's founded on. It's like devising a simple lookup table and then telling the world you've 'discovered' the penultimate Holy Grail of AI. Or, in this case, Artificial Spirituality. It's a Judgement Machine programmed only with the most simple dogmas, and therefore incapable of rendering verdicts with any degree of emotional intelligence. -Kerry O. |
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Topic:
If Jesus were real....
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awww.... I think its fun when trolls come in here and attack atheism. How is it fun? I wouldn't mind if they had one single intelligent argument. But this guy is a fruit loop. Any sort of recognition - even being totally owned repeatedly, and mocked relentlessly by the good posters here - is maintaining his boner. If we can't find it in ourselves to just ignore him, we should just get his posts removed at admin level. It's not funny. It's not cool. It's just stupid and it's making this thread less and less fun to be in. But it does make for an interesting study, no? On how religious mania is Viagra for those intellectual 'boners'? Living as an agnostic in one of the Bible belts, I can certainly identify with the longing for 'safe space' in the middle of all the arrogant religiosity. But often, one has to keep their rapier-like wits sharpened to deal with the intrusions, and situations like the one we have here make for good practice. If our antagonist gets a bit too randy, we still have the option of calling the mods and having him expelled. They usually work pretty effectively around here if you make your case based on evidence the rules are being broken. -Kerry O. |
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You can search and scratch your head all you can but YOU will never logically, nor rationally figure The Almighty out. There are toddlers and children with more wisdom than you will ever obtain in all your lifetime of reasoning. You are hostle to your maker. I pray for your parents who brought you up in the Church...what relationship you now have with them...I wonder. You despise their faith in God. Happy Thanksgiving, son! It always comes to this when one states to an ardent, militant Christian that one is an Unbeliever. They can't stand it, and usually leave loose an arrogant torrent of abuse like this statement. Then try to cover it up with humility and 'concern' for the Unbeliever they don't even begin to know or understand. Unbelievable. I'm not feeling much Christian love here. And I know that many, many Christians aren't hostile like this. But many are. -Kerry O. |
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