Wednesday, December 8, 2010

OBAMA SUCKS!

Well, as it turns out, he does. The results are in. There can no longer be any doubt.

So, what is he? What's his scam? Just the old 'quest for power and glory?' Wouldn't that motivation necessitate him actually PERFORMING well?

I can't believe that he's so unlike his campaign platform. His first DCC convention speech was amazing, his oratory inspiring and moving throughout the rest of his campaign...

What the hell is he? SATAN?

A mole? A closeted republican? An 'agent of the New World Order?' An 'Illuminatus?' Just one of the muppet pastors, er, puppet masters?

Another black lap dog, like Michael Steele?

Or a really incredibly well-spoken moron? Like, the bestest, most well-spoken moron that ever lived on the planet? The ultimate drooling idiot-savant of politics, if you will?

Or hey, conversely, is he just SO much smarter than all of us poor knuckle-dragging huddled masses types that somehow he's merely seeing the larger picture here whereby he clearly perceives a path to actually accomplish the optimum amount of good in the world by playing it as if he were a fucking turncoat ball-less uncle Tom village idiot now? Play the game that way (and play it so very well) and thus somehow against all 'common sense' actually manage to WIN in the end, perhaps years from now, through his a almost-scary Capablanca-like understanding of the game of politics?

Sure, that must be it... Sure it is. His intellect is too godlike for the likes of us poor cretins. I'm just not smart enough to grasp his breadth of vision. His perception is so much more holistic and global than anyone else's is... why, he's some kind of supergenius polymath president, that's what he is. Maybe even from Krypton.

Yeah, right. Sure, that has to be it. That's how I'll sleep tonight.


***

So obviously, color me disillusioned here.

And hey, by the way, you christian republicans voodoo-worshipper mumbo-jumbo types, your guys are still no better, and considerably more overtly EVIL. They don't even try to hide it anymore. They're like Palpatine in that third movie. They've really let themselves go, and they just don't give a fuck anymore, because they know they hold they winning cards. Which is all they care about in this sad world.

Of course, upon reflection, perhaps overt evil such as they exemplify is actually the lesser of the two kinds, in that the evil which is not overt and obvious but instead is subtle and inspiring, that kind of evil more easily gets in the door to REAL POWER, where it can thenceforward really fuck things up in a much more global way.

***

Right now, the nightly news is like a ridiculous tragi-comedy. If Obama is as fake as he seems now, then who to ever, ever trust again?

What a life, huh? I guess I'm still learning just how very unbelievably extremely DEEP the river of eternal bullshit runs in this reality. Hell, we eat, drink, sleep and breathe it in every second of our lives, few ever ever realizing how much more complex reality is than they imagine it to be. And perhaps it is better to sleep thus, than to awaken to truth such as this.

I'm sure that the lowly rat-tail maggot never realizes that it's natural habitat is liquid raw sewage, either. Why, if one of them ever did, it'd go insane, wouldn't it?

Welcome to my reality. Hi, howarya?

***

On a more positive note, my personal life is incredibly SWEET right now, in the new house with baby and wifey, got it just where we want it and we're really happy with it, and of course the previously mentioned terrarium is absolutely amazing, looks better than most zoo exhibits I've seen showcasing similar biota, and it is a living, respiring, (and unfortunately excreting) work of art. One that consumes like, sixty individual cricket lives every day. As it turns out, I'm like, the Klaus Barbie of the Gryllidae. All of them sitting there in their little cricket cage, not unlike a shower stall.... awaiting their fate, all unbeknownst.........

God, I'm sick.




But then again, it's a sick world, as it turns out.

169 comments:

  1. I've decided that Barrack is a Republican Manchurian Candidate, and really wasn't born in the usa. He was created in a lab. Somewhere within his inner ear is an implant that only John Boehner has the whistle for, and when he blows on it, Obama caves to Johnny's demands. Sarah American Idiot Palin was just a distraction to make sure McCain, who the Republicans dislike anyway, didn't win.

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  2. Nothing new here.

    I told you guys he'd be a modern-day Jimmy Carter before he was elected.

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  3. Hey, he is a politician. Just that. I voted for him in the hope that he would end these stupid wars, but he sucked into whatever corporate stupid Afghanistan has become. I am disappointed in that, but not much else.

    If we are lucky, they will continue to keep each other busy so that we can continue our little lives with minimal disruption.

    How often have we been lucky in the past?

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  4. Well, I think all presidents have some obligation to move to the “center” since they are the President of the country and not the President of their party. Given how polarized we are right not, it stands to reason that the “center” is a good place to be if you want to not please almost everyone.

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  5. Given how far right this country is now, how very far right the right wing has moved the goalposts, the very concept of a balance, a balance between liberal AND conservative values, an equal balance, is itself now generally considered a 'liberal' idea and not just common sense. And of course, the very word liberal itself is now a pejorative.

    I wonder if Amsterdam is looking for more citizens...

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  6. I think that the big disappointment for the left is that the right had their turn, for 10 years, warmongering, doing their best to disenfranchize everyone who doesn't count in their books and such.

    Obama was supposed to be a voice of reason, against pointless wars, against the pure greed, against the LIE that the right are fiscally responsible when it comes to social safety nets and pro-war for anything less than ideological reasons.

    The right want the country broke, too broke to pay pensions etc. and they're willing to keep it broke by 'solving' international problems using force.

    I think that they're a bunch of glory hunters. And there is only the two ways to achieve glory, Mega-building projects, including empire building, and war.

    Stablizing the economy doesn't make the rich richer, they want to kick the economy in the teeth 'til the dollars spill out.

    Still, you know the government has been paying their workers too much when said workers HAVE good enough wages and pension plan to HAVE the exact ideology that will ensure future generations don't get those same benefits.

    Just saying.

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  7. Given how far right this country is now...

    Ask a teabagger and they'll tell you how far left the country is.

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  8. Ask a teabagger and they'll tell you how far left the country is.
    -------------
    That's different, Ryan. They're mentally ill.

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  9. And I can prove it. The teabagger list of things they want their candidates to be, their checklist, is a list that Ronald Reagan would have failed at miserably, and you can't tell me that HE was a lefty. Sure they would SAY and even THINK that I'm the one that is wrong here and it is they that are in the right (pun not intended) but that's just because they've been so very thoroughly brainwashed that by now they can't even tell black from white, much less left from right. They're a herd of brainwashed little sheep, who alas, vote.

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  10. I told you guys he'd be a modern-day Jimmy Carter before he was elected.
    -----------
    Yes, but you seemed so wrong at the time...

    Crap.

    ***

    Tbrough, show him the red queen, and tell him to keep his promises, hurry!

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  11. I think that they ought to let the Bush tax cuts expire.

    There's no way in HELL that shoving the country into trillions more debt can possibly fix the economy, unless by 'fix' you mean 'kill'.

    I don't know how any supposedly 'fiscally responsible' person could propose this as any kind of solution so that some unemployed people with get another year of subsistence money and so that the lowest paid workers will not go back to 15% payroll tax.

    The right are at work making money worth less by inflation anyways, so the few dollars that a minimum wage worker has to pay out would be chicken-feed compared to the billions that the rich would contribute towards the debt.

    The entire financial system needs to be based on real worth, real value, instead of this semi-magical hocus-pocus that we have now.

    The entire system seems to be contrived to make it impossible for anyone to really understand and we end up with silly crap like companies which are too big to fail.

    Overseas tax shelters? WTF?
    So the so-called bastions of our economy are actually 'rooting for' failure???

    It's not surprising to me at all that the right and the religious are practically synonymous, all waiting for that magical cheque to appear in the mail, just when they're 'needing it'.

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  12. He’s one of you guys…lol Suckerssssss!

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  13. He’s one of you guys…lol Suckerssssss!
    --------------
    Yes, and that's his problem. Democrats are too NICE to you republicans. I mean, what are they thinking? That you're actually going to play fair? That you actually care more about the country than your own careers? I agree with you, he's a terrible president, but only because he's a sad fool who is for some reason into having 'your guys' kick him over and over again in the balls and just keep on smilin'.... What a schmuck. He should know that in order to deal with people whose priorities are their own wealth and power, it's pointless to point out how much their policies would hurt the country, it's pointless to offer up anything for free, and frankly, it's pointless to be NICE. Being nice to humans is always a good thing, but these are subhuman bullies who'd happily see the country burn as long as they could keep (or better yet, enhance) their power and wealth. You don't 'be nice' to people like that. They won't like you for it, they won't respect your humanity and openness, they won't 'deal' with you... what they WILL DO is think you're just a sad little pussy, and laugh at you and demonize you 24/7, because that's what subhuman bullies do. If Obama did the equivalent of punching one of them in the nose, they'd respect him more, not less. They're not working on 'human' rules, so demonstrating your humanity to them is just baring your jugular to a wounded animal.

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  14. What a schmuck you are Observant. Obama is so wrong in your eyes he isn't even right when he's siding with you.

    Is it that your guys are all wrong now, must, in fact be all wrong now, 'cos THEY'RE siding with Obama???

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  15. I used to think you were a smart person but obviously I was mistaken.
    You sound like a school boy who just let some bully take your lunch money.
    The fact is this. If you raise taxes then job growth will cease. The more people that are out of work ,the less tax revenue is generated.
    Obamas health care will do nothing more than cause monetary waste and raise the deficit simultaneously.
    More tax burden for the poor and middle class.
    His ambition to tax the rich just because they have more money is unjust. In fact it is socialism.
    Why don’t your idiots in office try reducing spending that will both lower the deficit and fix the economy.
    Or, how about this. Why don’t they sur tax every working American $5.00 a week for three years and apply that money to the deficit… That would work too. You think?

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  16. If you raise taxes then job growth will cease.

    Cease is a strong word, please substantiate this assertion.

    Obamas health care will do nothing more than cause monetary waste and raise the deficit simultaneously.

    Nothing? Please substantiate this assertion.

    His ambition to tax the rich just because they have more money is unjust.

    Please substantiate this assertion.

    …reducing spending that will both lower the deficit and fix the economy.

    Please substantiate this assertion.

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  17. "I used to think you were a smart person but obviously I was mistaken."

    That's funny Mike, 'cos I never thought you were smart at all.

    It would go a long way to getting rid of the debt by putting the taxes back the rates they were before the Bush era.

    The supposed reasons for those tax cuts no longer exist. The rich have never been richer and the poor are doing nothing but getting poorer.

    Regardless of Obama's reasoning or Boehner's reasoning(such as it is), shoving debt on your kids and grandkids doesn't seem like any kind of solution to me.

    Socialism, as you think of it, is when the people rise up and kill the rich because they are being oppressed.

    I really don't think that raising the tax rate on the stinking rich by a few percent to allow the poorest workers to have a couple of hundred extra dollars to spend, is any sweat off their(the rich) brow, while it does stimulate the economy, which is, after all, the circulation of money.

    It's very simple really. The economy booms when people have money to spend, the rich invest in business to skim off this excess cash, OR, businesses simply raise prices.

    The latter is called inflation, and doesn't benefit anyone if everyone's dollars are worth less.

    Seems to me that if you fear socialism, as you imagine it to be, then you'd be wise to not provoke a dire situation which creates oppression of the masses.

    Your poor are armed to the teeth, don't forget and there's always those 'Second Amendment solutions.'

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  18. It's not that deep Ryan, Try taking your head out of the sand.

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  19. So you can't substantiate anything you asserted. OK.

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  20. I mean you should at least try if you are going to make statements like that. Come on!

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  21. Ryan
    You know Observant just likes to shoot his mouth off without knowing what he is talking about. He will never back up his unfounded assertions as you well know. Just plain BS is all he knows.

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  22. Jerry; oh I know, but no reason not to call him on it.

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  23. I agree with that. One would think that sooner or later he would come out from under the ether and try to learn something. I guess there is never total loss of hope until death.

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  24. If you raise taxes then job growth will cease.

    Cease is a strong word, please substantiate this assertion.

    Obamas health care will do nothing more than cause monetary waste and raise the deficit simultaneously.

    Nothing? Please substantiate this assertion.

    His ambition to tax the rich just because they have more money is unjust.

    Please substantiate this assertion.

    …reducing spending that will both lower the deficit and fix the economy.


    ----------------
    California’s high taxes cause of companies relocation = job loss.

    Health care fraud is no secret and very easy when Federal Gov. is in control of writing the checks.
    No worries though they will just add it to the deficit.

    Common knowledge, no substantiation needed on the last two.

    Jerry, glad to see your not dead yet.

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  25. He's just a miserable holier-than-thou cunt who cares nothing for the old, the poor, the working class or the ill.

    These fuckers know exactly who the non-religious are, they're working class people who look to the government for a fair deal and not to God for a better afterlife.

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  26. Well Floyd it’s low life lazy pukes like you who for some reason feel as if the Government owes you something like a free handout… Maybe you would feel different if you had to work and earn your living and then watch the so called educated fucks as yourself in Washington try and take it away from you just because they can. You talk of fair, Hell you don’t understand the concept. The rich already pay more taxes then you could imagine. You jealous cunt. That’s right, you’re jealous of those that have. I tell you what when you file your taxes this year go ahead and send in an extra thousand so you can feel good about your self righteous self. Loser.

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  27. Mike said "Well Floyd it’s low life lazy pukes like you who for some reason feel as if the Government owes you something like a free handout…"

    Well you idiot tax revolting teabagger moron, wouldn't the government owe Ian, at a minimum, the taxes he's paid out?

    You do realize you've yet to actually substantiate anything that I requested of you. Hint: you can't just make assertions to substantiate assertions... You know what "substantiate" means, right?

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  28. Seriously, Brian, I don't tink anyone who might change things too radically can ever get elected. The power elite just won't let it happen.

    Call them illuminati, New World Order, Corperate Overlords, or whatever you want. Just know that we selct who they want us to select. No one will get too far without their approval, be it republican, democrat, or independent.

    Sure, we vote...we vote for the ones they approve for us.

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  29. Observant, you'd do well to read up on your Bible before you start calling folks out for socialism. As it turns out Jesus had some socialist leanings too!

    How might you explain this?

    "When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
    Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." - Matthew 25:38-41.


    Seems like we should take care of our sick, weak, and the lazy cunts as well.
    But, hey, it's your god to obey or not.

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  30. Well you idiot tax revolting teabagger moron, wouldn't the government owe Ian, at a minimum, the taxes he's paid out?
    ---------

    No! No free rides for anyone you stupid jerk.
    I all for paying taxes… I’m against wasting tax dollars.
    The rich pay more taxes and give more money to charities then you ungrateful fucks ever thought about. You claim to care about the less fortunate but in deed your just a lying hypocrite… you use them for a banner to rob the rich… You want to help the poor? Then do something about wasteful Government spending and create jobs.

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  31. Observant, you'd do well to read up on your Bible before you start calling folks out for socialism. As it turns out Jesus had some socialist leanings too
    -----------------------------------------
    Come on mac, the rich give more to help the poor then anyone. They call it tax shelters…
    I did notice one other thing in your comment. You said ,Jesus said The “LEFT “ will be cast into hell.
    I believe that…

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  32. I don't think you know what term "tax shelter" actually means.

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  33. Sorry Ryan, I should have said "poor shelters" for floks like you.
    Poor guy! and I dont mean poor as in income.

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  34. Here ya go Ryan, I thought I would spell this one out for you as well. lol I think Jesus meant the "FAR LEFT" as well as the "LEFT". get it?

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  35. I don't care what you think of me Observant.

    I'm getting nothing from your rich whatever they make the tax brackets in the USA.

    All this 'you're just lazy' is a silly diversion from the economy and the right-wing neo-con agenda.

    We know you don't give a crap about your National Debt, your old, your sick, your poor, your minimum wage earners, so it's talkin' to people like you when I wish there were 'magical forces' watching over us, prepared to meet out justice to you when your sneering days(your whole life) were done.

    No-one 'earned' billions of dollars, and anyone who profits millions per year cannot afford to not pay a few percent more taxes to ensure that the country doesn't go bankrupt.

    With bankrupcy there's rampant inflation, which means that money becomes worthless.

    You don't seem to understand that, if that happens, the entire capitalist system is in a state of collapse, society grinds to a halt, there's nothing being made, so there's nothing in the stores. The bastions of capitalism, big coal, big oil, insurance, pharma, the food industry, EVERYONE, won't have any customers, so unless there is another planet with a good economy, where they can take their gold to spend, there'll be nothing for them to buy either.

    You're so stupid, you'll just imagine that God is bringing a curse down on us, testing your faith, or somesuch drivel, won't you?

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  36. I admit my Sunday School days are long since past, but when did Jesus start hating the poor?

    Oh well, it is interesting how the notion of intercessory prayer has mutated into this current Christian strain of blaming the victim for lack of success. Or praying to God for consumer goods - more like a capitalist Santa I suppose. You didn't pray hard enough or have enough people praying for you - so you have to die. I imagine God holding a plate over each of those in need and listening for the degree of applause, but I digress.

    Apparently the eye of a needle has grown exponentially over the last 2000 years.

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  37. Guess guys like Mike just wake up every morning and congratulate themselves that they're one step closer to 'eternity with God' ready to laugh at all the poor suckers who believed the wrong version of Jesus.

    End of the World as we know it, due to war, economic collapse, whatever, just another sign that he's right!

    Mike looking in the mirror each morning, "YAY! I'm right, and most everyone else is so wrong! Can't wait to look down at them writhing in agony for eternity!"

    What a goof.

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  38. Left wing pundits are sure spin-spin-spinning for Obama.

    Now this shite is 'his stimulus package'. HAH!

    This whole thing is a set up. Obama didn't need to inject this idea that the middle class taxes had to remain at Bush levels at all. This is exactly the 'chess game' that we've been hearing about, but it wasn't played against the GOP, it was played against the left.

    Why will the taxes, ALL the taxes going back to pre-Bush tax cuts levels cause this supposed 'devastation' now?

    I don't understand this. I'm trying to recall the awful 'bad old days' under the tax code that they had under Clinton.

    No, don't recall that. Do recall that Clinton got supreme shit for raising the taxes though, as though it was expected to cause some horrible outcome.

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  39. I admit my Sunday School days are long since past, but when did Jesus start hating the poor?

    Oh well, it is interesting how the notion of intercessory prayer has mutated into this current Christian strain of blaming the victim for lack of success. Or praying to God for consumer goods - more like a capitalist Santa I suppose. You didn't pray hard enough or have enough people praying for you - so you have to die. I imagine God holding a plate over each of those in need and listening for the degree of applause, but I digress.


    ------------------------------------------
    Who said Jesus hated the poor?
    Who in your opinion should shoulder the blame for John Do’s lack of success? I was taught as a lad that hard work was rewarded. When I failed there was NO ONE to blame but myself.

    I don’t know what kind of Sunday school you attended , but why did you believe God is the one who provides for all the little boys and girls? According to the Bible Jesus did feed the poor and heal the sick along with many other miracles , but he did these things to prove He was the Christ.
    The Bible also teaches it is a mans responsibility to work and provide for himself and his family.

    If your going to blame someone for this recesion blame Bush, Obama, Clinton, “For it was Clinton who suggested that lenders lend money to those who were not credit worthy” and H W Bush / Clinton for NAFTA. These all played a role in our economic woes. And let’s not forget 9/11 which I suspect was a plan to target our economy in the first place. And let us NOT forget the cash for clunkers brain storm of the Obama administration. Another failed program to revive the auto industry and help the poor of our nation.

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  40. Also, don't you think you're being way too rash in your judgements of our president?

    Man, you can sure turn on a dime.

    Why not see what actually happens during these next few years, eh?

    Obama's nobody's dummy....

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  41. Seriously, you should watch what you say in reference to the highest office in this great nation!

    Don't be acting like fair-weathered friends/citizens, now...

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  42. Reading through the posts, I'm detecting some paranoia and conspiracy theory.

    Also, if the non-religious are the poor, down-trodden who look to the govt....and it doesn't ever seem to happen for them, perhaps they should try and look to God..and not just for the superficial, wordly,materialistic things--note I said "not just"--- remember the Israelites in the desert or pick any other group in history who suffered loss of homes and comforts and loved ones.


    Just sayin' is all.

    I'm wondering how many people here believe that our country can get socialism right after it's failed so many times throughout history.

    To keep wishing for something to change its nature smacks of mentally ill thought process. (tainted wishful thinking included there).

    Keep the focus of the Season: "...unto us a Savior is born!"
    Merry Christmas!

    Something to ponder: history gone unacknowledged tends to repeat itself.

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  43. I'm wondering how many people here believe that our country can get socialism right after it's failed so many times throughout history.

    People trot out this claim pretty often, these are the same people who are apparently unaware of the existence of Europe, China and Cuba.

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  44. Really, Ryan, really?!

    Why not educate us all on Europe, Cuba and China?

    Why not substantiate your above made assertion..............?


    Idiot.

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  45. So, MI, are you saying China doesn't exist or Communism has failed there?

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  46. "According to the Bible Jesus did feed the poor and heal the sick along with many other miracles , but he did these things to prove He was the Christ."

    Yea, Pliny, what the hell is wrong with you? It's not as though he's supposed to love us or anything, other than that, I'll put you in Hell if 'you' don't, kind of way, totally different from what you think.

    What? You expecting Jesus to do miracles 'all the time'? Well he DOES TOO. He visits the mind of Mike, all the time! So there!

    As far as Mike knows, he's the only one really being visited by Jesus on a nightly or bi-weekly basis, I don't know, I'm not privy to Mike's thoughts.

    But the Mike in my mind gets visited by Jesus all the time. He's constantly, miraculously turning food into poo, just for Mike.

    Case closed.

    Help the sick and the poor, HAH! He just did THAT to prove a point, you see. You guys just don't 'get it', like me and Mike. The poor and sick are better off dead, don't you see? They got no message of the blessings of Jesus, so they're fucking useless in this world.

    They get their vision of Jesus or Mary on their toast, and that should be enough for them. What the fuck, they're lucky they HAVE toast, that's a fucking miracle right there isn't it???

    Betcha Mike had to chip in for that fucking toast too, or at the very least some employer gave the poor person money to buy that toast, for somethng he/she did!

    Shit, Pliny, that poor person wasn't doing nothing else anyways, can't you see that?

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  47. "Why not see what actually happens during these next few years, eh?"

    And here's MI speaking the same kind of sense as Mike.

    Hey, if you don't believe the Scripture, you must be reading it out of context, so you really ought to give it another go, read it through from front to back AGAIN!

    And AGAIN, if you have to! You're just waiting to see if this sell out, I mean 'stimulus package' of Obama's works anyways, right?

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  48. Hey Mike and MI.

    Question.

    You guys believe that the Bible contains Divinely Inspired Knowledge.

    There is no way that the universe came into being in the manner described in Genesis.

    But the manner described in Genesis is the most Divinely Inspired of Divinely Inspired Knowledge because there were certainly no eye witnesses there to see these imagined events, therefore God must have spoken directly to Moses.

    But the story is all mixed up. We have the all encompassing creation of the whole thing, fair enough. Then we have God separating the waters from the waters and such things that we don't need God to do, they just didn't know that in them day.

    Then we have God fixing the stars to a firmament, a dome of the sky, which didn't happen.

    Point is, this drivel, this nonsense, passes for Divinely Inspired Truth, and can best be described as poetic metaphorical analogy, at BEST!

    This doesn't bode well for any other Divinely Inspired Knowledge through the rest of the book, now does it?

    The very best we can say of the your book is that it is a 'vehicle' whereby you can all claim to be 'on the same page' when it comes to what you yourselves are Divinely Inspired about!

    None of it has to have actually happened at all, none of it, for each and every one of you Christians to claim your Christitude or whatnot, it's just a focal point, something you can all point to and say, "It says here in this book.... and that is good enough for us."

    There IS no list of absolute morals and values in there.

    Don't even 'start' with the Ten Commandments 'cos you then have to go ahead and start making excuses for all the killing in the name of God, killing in war etc. just for ONE OF THEM.

    You can't say that killing another human being, another person, is absolutely wrong, absolutely absolutely wrong, EXCEPT in war, or for killing another person or because the Bible says they've committed a religious crime.

    The question?

    In the face of what I wrote here, how can you believe that nonsense?

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  49. Hey Mike and MI.

    Question.

    You guys believe that the Bible contains Divinely Inspired Knowledge.

    There is no way that the universe came into being in the manner described in Genesis.

    But the manner described in Genesis is the most Divinely Inspired of Divinely Inspired Knowledge because there were certainly no eye witnesses there to see these imagined events, therefore God must have spoken directly to Moses.

    But the story is all mixed up. We have the all encompassing creation of the whole thing, fair enough. Then we have God separating the waters from the waters and such things that we don't need God to do, they just didn't know that in them day.

    Then we have God fixing the stars to a firmament, a dome of the sky, which didn't happen.

    Point is, this drivel, this nonsense, passes for Divinely Inspired Truth, and can best be described as poetic metaphorical analogy, at BEST!

    This doesn't bode well for any other Divinely Inspired Knowledge through the rest of the book, now does it?

    The very best we can say of the your book is that it is a 'vehicle' whereby you can all claim to be 'on the same page' when it comes to what you yourselves are Divinely Inspired about!

    None of it has to have actually happened at all, none of it, for each and every one of you Christians to claim your Christitude or whatnot, it's just a focal point, something you can all point to and say, "It says here in this book.... and that is good enough for us."

    There IS no list of absolute morals and values in there.

    Don't even 'start' with the Ten Commandments 'cos you then have to go ahead and start making excuses for all the killing in the name of God, killing in war etc. just for ONE OF THEM.

    You can't say that killing another human being, another person, is absolutely wrong, absolutely absolutely wrong, EXCEPT in war, or for killing another person or because the Bible says they've committed a religious crime.

    The question?

    In the face of what I wrote here, how can you believe that nonsense?

    ReplyDelete
  50. Ah the internet gods liked my comment so much they printed it twice!

    But there are no gods, not even one.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Hmmmm, I suppose after reading some excerpts from one of the parts edited out in Nicea, this makes more sense.

    From the lost book of Disgustus:


    Remember yea, The poor are but props. They are to be used to prove the divine. And to show you what can happen if you don’t shape up and fly right.

    God helps those who help themselves - with both hands

    Alas, Only so many prayers can be answered. With the divine inbox filled with requests for Porche’s He may not get around to curing your cancer. If not then you did not pray hard or correctly enough.

    God created everything including gays. Which he created because pulling the wings off of flies gets old fast.

    Yea may seek to ask, "Am I my bother’s keeper?" No as it turns out.

    Fear not the righteous, for Only through faith can you find the answers. If you don’t, just keep massaging the question or tweaking the answer until it fits...

    ReplyDelete
  52. But the manner described in Genesis is the most Divinely Inspired of Divinely Inspired Knowledge because there were certainly no eye witnesses there to see these imagined events, therefore God must have spoken directly to Moses.

    But the story is all mixed up.


    They (creationist) get around this by saying that they story conforms with modern scientific theories if you consider that god was showing Moses (or whoever) the creation event so it's written from the observers perspective. This is how they get around the fact that Genesis has plants existing before the sun is said to have formed. Something about the thick primeval atmosphere would have prevented an earth bound observer from being aware of the sun until the atmosphere cleared out.

    Still total nonsense for many reasons and doesn't conform to modern theories, but what do you expect?

    ReplyDelete
  53. Nono, Pliny, American Christians understand that the money says, "In God we trust."

    Now trusting in God is 'faith'.

    With enough faith, that is, with enough paper notes saying, "In God we trust.", practically anything can be bought that is buyable, including the best medicine.

    Sadly, the poor don't have much faith, you see.

    ReplyDelete
  54. So, Ryan, you jumped from Socialism to Communism.

    So, you're pro-communist, eh?

    And, if everyone here's pro-communist ----

    THEN, why in the good Heavens are you COMPLAINING?!

    Isn't this what you've been wanting all along .... or has the Kool-Aid finally worn off??

    ReplyDelete
  55. Tell the truth MI, you're thinking that the End of the World is coming as foretold by Jesus and the Mayan calender, right?

    Why not give the rich big tax breaks to make them feel good before Jesus shows up and sends them to Hell???

    They're gonna need that extra money to buy supersized needles to demonstrate how easy it really is to walk a camel through it's eye, right!!

    ReplyDelete
  56. So, what you're saying Ryan, is that while maintaining deniability, they imagine Moses having a vision of how events went down that coincided EXACTLY with word of mouth stories built up through the ages.

    What would be the point OF Divinely Inspired Knowledge if it amounts to a Bronze Age explanation?

    Excepting the obvious, "Well FUCK YOU, asshole, it's DIVINE, so THERE!"

    ReplyDelete
  57. I think that Jesus must have been misquoted there.

    He likely said, "It's gonna be real easy for a rich man to get into Heaven. The poor, on the other hand, have as much chance as getting a camel through the eye of a needle! 'Cos there's a cover charge!"

    ReplyDelete
  58. Ian; they imagine Moses having a vision of the creation and his misunderstanding of what was actually happening is what genesis was supposed to tell.

    Never mind that it still doesn't fit, it's a classic case of goal post moving.

    ReplyDelete
  59. "What would be the point OF Divinely Inspired Knowledge if it amounts to a Bronze Age explanation?"

    Divinely Inspired Knowledge = D.I.K.

    Hence the Christian statement to atheists:

    "You don't know D.I.K."

    ReplyDelete
  60. Thought it was Divinely Inspired Creationism Knowledge, Ed.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Still, I prefer to think of it as Christian Rhetorical Analogical Poetry or

    C.R.A.P.

    ReplyDelete
  62. So we're supposed to imagine Christians believing that Moses got it all bollocksed up?

    Once again, what use is Divine Truth if the scribe(or scribbler) or such 'truth' gets it so buggered up that the Church feels that it needs to squash new ideas on pain of death?

    Seems obvious to me that at least around the time of Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Tycho Brahe, Keppler, Bruno and them, the folk who really truly believed that their Sacred Scripture told the absolute truth and nothing but the truth, were the Church hierarchy, the guys PREACHING this drivel.

    They were, at the time, constrained to believe that the Church hierarchy had deep understanding of truth or at least that they could have you burned for trying to spread any different ideas around.

    Which brings us to modern day USA, and the backward gazing yokels who only want their freedom to force their children to learn this absolutely useless Divine Knowledge in science class, no doubt preparing them to be Christian apologists showing up university professors.

    Somehow imagining that you can be a 21st. Century doctor of medicine while imagining that Evolution is controversial.

    What? No one forces the kids to believe anything at all. You simply learn the correct answers to the material to pass the exams, much like if I were to go to a seminary. If I wanted to pass, I'd be expected to give the 'correct' answers.

    What kind of a retard do you have to be to imagine your kids winning bonus points for wasting his/her professors time arguing the point?

    Enlighten us MI and/or Mike?

    ReplyDelete
  63. Well, I've come to believe that only a small fraction of christians believe in a literal interpretation of genesis, but the internet has a way of making small fractions seem very large.

    I'm still baffled though that a majority of americans belive 1) Adam and Eve were not real people and 2) we are not apes.

    We need some serious middle school science education in this country or we'll be bowing to our Communist Chinese overlords before we know it.

    Yes MI, the Chinese are communist.

    Idiot.

    ReplyDelete
  64. I hope none of us end up in one of those tax shelers, Mike.

    Seriously, Dude, I never mentioned one thing about rich people. I merely pointed out that Jesus advocated taking care of the less fortunate among us.

    I don't think Jesus meant that it was the rich man's job. He meant it was OUR job, yours, mine, all of us.
    I don't believe Jesus was a god (if such a person even existed), yet I can read his words and glean something from them.

    And, MI?
    Is it wise for a schizophrenic to call someone paranoid ? Or is this your way of transference - calling others on your delusion ?

    ReplyDelete
  65. "According to the Bible Jesus did feed the poor and heal the sick along with many other miracles , but he did these things to prove He was the Christ."
    ---------------
    Blind fuck.

    Your whole life, is a lie. How sad.

    ReplyDelete
  66. So Jesus helped the poor and disenfranchised not out of love, but out of a need to prove that he was a god.

    No better way to do that? Like, as in smiting a few romans?

    MI, you consistantly push the borders of idiocy to their limits. You've just totally discarded Jesus' core message.

    So that's what you did with it. I wondered how you explained it to yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  67. So Jesus helped the poor and disenfranchised not out of love, but out of a need to prove that he was a god.

    Depends on who you read. Mark, Matthew and Luke say no, Jesus refused to perform miracles to prove he was god. John of course says the exact opposite.

    No doubt Mike has some slippery reason as to why this is not a contridiction (they always do!), but it is nice of the bible to give him the two options so he can better follow his natural inclination.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Ryan, you act like we're not about to be even more beholden to our Communist overlords in China.

    You initially asserted that China, Cuba and Europe do socialism "right" and yet you have not answered my inital q to you about providing evidence to back up your assertions!

    So, you actually *like* revolution, you say???
    (A for Anarchy: right up your misled and mis-educated alley).


    Ah, but, yes, you've gotten one thing right: socialism leads to communism.

    All you guys have got is half-baked religious stereotype scenarios to dust up the clouds...

    It took you 2 years to realize what everyone else has been trying to tell you!
    I was waiting to hear y'all turn against your Messiah-pres! How shallow and hypocritical of you to speak such trash against the President of the United States!

    So whatcha gonna do now? You gonna say "off with their heads"?

    Wait until the s*&% really hits the fan; are y'all going to go crazy like animals in the street??
    'Cause that's what the machine wants from you! Wake the f up, you tools!

    And you want to sit here and jack off to semi-discussions about the end of the world and about a Savior whom you have rejected -- does that really solve anything?

    Of course not!

    People really get tired of all of your whiny bloviating.

    Really, Ryan-- so tell us how China, Cuba and Europe got Socialism "right".

    Yeah, China exists.
    Yeah, you *really* want to live that lifestyle -- NOT -- oh, no, you're too spoiled living here.

    Man it up: learn, know, acknowledge and correctly *understand* your history and really, what the hell's going on in the world at this present time!

    You've spent way too much time trying to pull people away from God that you've become drivelling fools who've been "played" and I'd say heads-up, but at this point- butts-up: it's coming and you're "screwed".

    Whah whah whah.

    Everyone's tired of your whining!

    The sheer nerve of you to even utter "Obama sucks".

    How dare you.

    ReplyDelete
  69. The sheer nerve of you to even utter "Obama sucks".

    How dare you.
    ------------------
    I'd say 'blow me' but you'd likely exhale forcibly into your mouse.

    ------------------
    And Observant, I'm happy to hear that you plan on refusing your Social Security benefits (the portion contributed by your employer, of course; you can keep the part you paid in) and medicare (a free ride, and socialized medicine.)
    Are any of your parents on medicare? Filthy commies.
    --------------
    Too bad we don't have any real christians commenting today. Hmm.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Yeah, Brian, that's rich. Should've figured you didn't have anything else but some stupid 2-bit hedonistic come-back.

    Yeah, you got nothing against an educated Catholic. We've known this for quite awhile now.

    I'd say blow yourself, but you probably already do that and then spit it out on that folded up nasty tarp in your dresser drawer...

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Hey, Ryan -- what's going on in Europe? Huh? Huh? Huh?

    Greece?

    Iceland?

    Germany

    (make sure to ignore the fact that they've been working hard over the past several years to have democracy!)

    Britain?

    Ireland?

    Communistic China?
    (Oh, right--- the oppression of the peoples over there's going *really* well...)

    Mm-Hm.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    ReplyDelete
  71. floyd: you appear to be struggling with believing in God and in needing Him as well.

    I think any answer you so inquisitively seek could be found in sincere quiet (and dare I say it) prayerful time.

    For real.

    No pun intended.

    ReplyDelete
  72. Observant - You Rock ;)

    I've been meaning to tell you that...


    Have a blessed evening!

    MI

    ReplyDelete
  73. Mac, I bet you watch and believe! Jesse Ventura's Conspiracy Theory show!

    Here's an article to add to your conspiracy theories:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/business/12advantage.html?_r=2&hp

    ReplyDelete
  74. You initially asserted that China, Cuba and Europe do socialism "right"

    Nope, just that they haven't failed as you wrongly claimed all previous attempt at socialist/communist had.

    Idiot.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Really, Ryan, Really?

    That's all you got, huh?

    Really?


    W O W.

    Oh, yes, you, Ryan wowed me...


    Mm-Hm.

    ReplyDelete
  76. MI, hedonistic?

    You really think I meant it literally?

    As a child, was it fun to ride the short bus? Just wondering...

    ReplyDelete
  77. I mean, your argument with ryan is a lot like watching a spoiled little girl trying to play the adult, and failing comically.

    However, don't ever leave. It makes the place more interesting to have the occassional lunatic show up.

    ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  78. I think any answer you so inquisitively seek could be found in sincere quiet (and dare I say it) prayerful time.
    ------------
    Is it 'be a dick to the atheists week' at your church, MI?

    Pray for a brain. Maybe Santa will bring you one. And then molest you.

    Ho ho ho...

    ReplyDelete
  79. This is what I'm talking about. Obama, as it turned out, sucks. It's that simple, really.

    (Paul Krugman article, NYT)

    ReplyDelete
  80. Ryan, understood. No need to keep the spotlight on your ignorance.


    Stay nebulous enough so that you and your buddies think you're actually pertinent!

    LOL!


    I will certainly pray for you and for your buddies here.

    I feel sorry for you guys.

    I mean, what do you have going for you: you're poor, you're undereducated and you're pawns for the elite.

    And on top of that, you're not exactly happy people.

    Who in their right minds spends their entire life moaning about this, that and the other?
    Who in their right minds expects the gov't to take care of one's own responsibilities -- at the taxpayers' expense?
    Who in their right mind would applaud the trampling of human rights and dignity in places like China and Cuba?

    Dumbed-down atheists! That's who!

    I mean, really, have you a clue what's happening to people in the world?

    You claim they haven't failed Yeah, Sure: China's a success!! If Ryan says so!!

    LOL! Do YOU have a Mao Tse Tung or Fidel Castro ornament on YOUR festivus pole??

    It's only a success from an enslaved-capitalistic view.

    What kind of warped mind do you have to have, Ryan?

    Oh, yeah, that's enough,MI because I can't handle the truth! I can't engage in a lucid, adult conversation! I'm only good for perky little quips! I wasn't really asking for a REAL conversation; especially not when I'm going to look like an ass, MI, c'mon,have a heart....

    ReplyDelete
  81. Is it 'be a dick to the atheists week' at your church, MI?

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Funny you should ask: actually, it's "reach out to a couple of dicks" week at my Church.

    ;~)

    ReplyDelete
  82. Funny you should ask: actually, it's "reach out to a couple of dicks" week at my Church.
    -----------------
    Just remember, it's suck, not blow, even though they call it that...

    (Low hanging fruit award)

    ReplyDelete
  83. U like a jilted girl who cannot undahstan uh de eengliss. Sto wid da whiny whiny thingy.

    Suk Ah Rown Dik.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Holy Shit!

    They (the Chinese)really ARE hacking into American sites!

    :XD

    ReplyDelete
  85. I have no comeback to that idiocy. Well done. You've gone completely over the edge. I like to think I had a part in it...

    ReplyDelete
  86. The funny thing about arguing with a christian is that you win the argument right away, but of course they never realize it (having been programmed not to,) so you can spend infinite time explaining it to a totally programmed remedial-reading jackass...
    And yet, it's fun somehow. Why, I wonder?

    ReplyDelete
  87. Who in their right mind would applaud the trampling of human rights and dignity in places like China and Cuba?
    ------------------
    In Cuba... Oh, yeah, you must mean Guantanamo.

    ReplyDelete
  88. LOL MI.

    "Nya, nya! You're a bunch of atheists, nya!"

    (There, that got 'em back, wonder if they'll notice that I completely dodged those questions.)

    That Obama sucks has absolutely nothing to do with why MI thought Obama sucks('cos she was told she should), is apparently neither here nor there to MI.

    ReplyDelete
  89. MI, "Know what pboyfloyd, if you think that the story of Genesis completely blows 'cos it's not realistic that Moses got that 'word from God' and it happened to be the same story as all Bronze Age people had, which is totally unrealistic, which makes Divine Revelation total horshit, you should maybe meditate."

    Great advice MI. If I meditate for a bit, maybe I'll somehow be able to see why God might want Moses to think that everyone else got it right, you know, why God would bother telling Moses anything at all about 'The Beginning', since it no doubt matched the general consensus exactly!

    God is full of shit? God is a comedian? A test of faith? God wasn't aware that we'd ever find out any different?

    God thought saying, "Hey Moe, you live on a giant ball! ", just wouldn't 'fly'?

    ..or last, but not least, Theological TRUTH has absolutely nothing to do with facts, truth or knowledge. God wanted to 'get that over with' from page 1?

    I'm going with, 'There was/is no God to get it wrong in the first place.'

    ReplyDelete
  90. Here's a fun exchange. Jeremy is trying to get tough.

    "@pboyfloyd

    Having trouble reading mate?
    I do not believe that the notion of heliocenticity in any way calls into question the validity of some verses in the Bible.. I am at loss to know what you meant by Divine Knowledge but maybe you are waffling on about Gnosticism or some such thing. Nothing to do with orthodox Christianity.
    The fact that some people in the 17c RC church in Italy in particular [which is not the same/equal to/equivalent to Christianity in general now or then] may have had problems withe heliocenticity is absolutely irrelevant to me.
    With respect to Paula? anyone can find oddball extremist views on the internet on almost any subject inluding but not limited to religion, atheism, eugenics, aliens, chanelling, sex, man-boy love etc. SO WHAT?"

    I replied...

    "@Jeremy.

    You ask, “Having trouble reading mate?”

    Thank you for your concern, my eyes are a bit blurry tonight. I put in some eye-drops and sprayed my eyeglass lenses. I’ve even upped the magnification of my page to 125%, that ought to help tremendously.

    “I do not believe that the notion of heliocenticity in any way calls into question the validity of some verses in the Bible.”

    Ah well, my friend, it’s too bad that that is neither here nor their in this semi-digression into whether the Church, the one and only Church which condemned Galileo is concerned, because obviously THEY DID.

    ” I am at loss to know what you meant by Divine Knowledge but maybe you are waffling on about Gnosticism or some such thing.”

    No.

    “The fact that some people in the 17c RC church in Italy in particular [which is not the same/equal to/equivalent to Christianity in general now or then] may have had problems withe heliocenticity is absolutely irrelevant to me”

    Right. So you just put your two cents worth in because your fingertips where a bit itchy then?.

    “With respect to Paula? anyone can find oddball extremist views on the internet on almost any subject inluding but not limited to religion, atheism, eugenics, aliens, chanelling, sex, man-boy love etc. SO WHAT?”

    Jeremy, we’re discussing the trial and conviction of Galileo for heresy by the Catholic Church. Paula is a Catholic and a Geocentric apologist. What a bonus, like a twofer one there! I apologise that she didn’t want to discuss sex and man-boy love with you. Not my call Jeremy.

    I’d like to finish responding to your wonderful comment, Jeremy, but these drops, the clean specs and even the magnification are just not cutting it.

    Thanks again for your concern about my eyesight and my advice to you is to stay away fromthose man boy love sites. Judging by Dateline NBC’s, To Catch a Predator, they are quite serious about putting people in prison for even thinking of such an offence these days.

    Plus, in general, you wouldn’t want some old geezer taking after your kin, would you? ‘Nuff said."

    ReplyDelete
  91. Well, floyd, you're right about one thing.

    I had to be told.

    Yes, indeedy, the day after your mesmerized and intellectually uncomplicated, yet greedy pie-in-the-sky dreamers-ilk voted in Obama, whom you now say he sucks--

    I had to be told - it was on all the airwaves - couldn't really get away from it even if I wanted to-

    I had to sit and be told that

    "We are just five days away
    from fundamentally transforming this country!"

    Admittedly, though, I saw that coming way before he got in. I kept up with my history and politics and kept my eyes open to what was in the pipes so to speak concerning this FUNDAMENTAL change.
    I hadn't been asleep at the wheel for the past 20 years,you see.
    So, I knew what was coming.
    I even remember posting on here that he was a turtle on a post; nobody knew how he got there...remember that??

    I knew what your ilk did by voting in a man, whom you say isn't even a natural citizen of your own country, to be President.

    But, what the heck, I'm not going to get angry or feel like throwing a revolution or anything crazy like that....

    I'm just biding my time out over these next two years to see the very same undereducated, poor, woe-is-me peoples once again vote to further fuck this country up.

    The only difference between your ilk and mine is that mine are ready to accept it.

    Sure, healthcare will come.

    Observant, tell them that their medicaid will no longer be free under those proposed laws just jumping at the bit to be passed.

    Tell them how many people will die and even more will die earlier due to the "standards" of care proposed.

    Tell them to muster up all of the patience they can get so they can play the waaaiiiiting game for an appt, a call back with results,or (with an authorization on those precious refills.

    Oh, and tell them that the poorest of the poor aren't included in this proposal; after all, the govt has already admitted that they just aren't able to cover EVERYbody! (But, those at the very bottom rung most likely won't notice), or atleast that's the hope.

    Oh, that will make them the maddest, eh? that last part?

    You know, because everybody's supposed to be equal and get equal benefits, ya know!

    These poor, undereducated, mentally ill, whiny,narcissistic atheists really care for their fellow man, don't you know! Right?
    Don't you see them in droves out there with the poorest of the poor; caring for them and fighting for their rights?!

    Well, actually, if you read their posts here, they are actually beginning to puppet what the rest of the country has been saying for quite a while now.

    Shit! they sound exactly like those teabaggers they've made so much fun of: Oh, Obama's the manchurian candidate, he isn't even a real citizen of the us, he's not fulfilling his promises, he's a sell-out who's trying to fuck this country at every turn...

    Only, they're in the "slower-bus" to Washington...for these delayed intellects! Ha Ha!

    Oh, good, gracious me; what are these guys going to do when martial law comes to their town?
    A dreadful thought, indeed.

    All we can do is pray, Observant, that they wise up and get hip to reality...and that they stop unwittingly contributing to the demise of this once great nation.

    ReplyDelete
  92. Well, floyd, you're right about one thing.

    I had to be told.

    Yes, indeedy, the day after your mesmerized and intellectually uncomplicated, yet greedy pie-in-the-sky dreamers-ilk voted in Obama, whom you now say he sucks--

    I had to be told - it was on all the airwaves - couldn't really get away from it even if I wanted to-

    I had to sit and be told that

    "We are just five days away
    from fundamentally transforming this country!"

    Admittedly, though, I saw that coming way before he got in. I kept up with my history and politics and kept my eyes open to what was in the pipes so to speak concerning this FUNDAMENTAL change.
    I hadn't been asleep at the wheel for the past 20 years,you see.
    So, I knew what was coming.
    I even remember posting on here that he was a turtle on a post; nobody knew how he got there...remember that??

    I knew what your ilk did by voting in a man, whom you say isn't even a natural citizen of your own country, to be President.

    But, what the heck, I'm not going to get angry or feel like throwing a revolution or anything crazy like that....

    I'm just biding my time out over these next two years to see the very same undereducated, poor, woe-is-me peoples once again vote to further fuck this country up.

    The only difference between your ilk and mine is that mine are ready to accept it.

    Sure, healthcare will come.

    Observant, tell them that their medicaid will no longer be free under those proposed laws just jumping at the bit to be passed.

    Tell them how many people will die and even more will die earlier due to the "standards" of care proposed.

    Tell them to muster up all of the patience they can get so they can play the waaaiiiiting game for an appt, a call back with results,or (with an authorization on those precious refills.

    Oh, and tell them that the poorest of the poor aren't included in this proposal; after all, the govt has already admitted that they just aren't able to cover EVERYbody! (But, those at the very bottom rung most likely won't notice), or atleast that's the hope.

    Oh, that will make them the maddest, eh? that last part?

    You know, because everybody's supposed to be equal and get equal benefits, ya know!

    These poor, undereducated, mentally ill, whiny,narcissistic atheists really care for their fellow man, don't you know! Right?
    Don't you see them in droves out there with the poorest of the poor; caring for them and fighting for their rights?!

    Well, actually, if you read their posts here, they are actually beginning to puppet what the rest of the country has been saying for quite a while now.

    Shit! they sound exactly like those teabaggers they've made so much fun of: Oh, Obama's the manchurian candidate, he isn't even a real citizen of the us, he's not fulfilling his promises, he's a sell-out who's trying to fuck this country at every turn...

    Only, they're in the "slower-bus" to Washington...for these delayed intellects! Ha Ha!

    Oh, good, gracious me; what are these guys going to do when martial law comes to their town?
    A dreadful thought, indeed.

    All we can do is pray, Observant, that they wise up and get hip to reality...and that they stop unwittingly contributing to the demise of this once great nation.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Oh, a double post: that must mean God's really trying to make sure you "get it" and finally start wising up!

    See! There's always hope,guys!

    ;~)

    ReplyDelete
  94. Brian said,


    Blind fuck.

    Your whole life, is a lie. How sad.
    -----------------------------
    You spend your days in denial searching every goggle site you can find looking for any and all theories of conformation that will support your atheistic views.
    I still contend that you were more than likely raped as an alter boy by a wolf in sheep clothing… your vehement attacks on Christianity is brought to the surface because of the rage that posses you.

    Your Jeckle and Hyde closet Christian lifestyle must be hell.
    -----------------------------



    MI,
    If I Rock, you must be Roll… Because you are definitely on a ROLL.. lol
    Love your work.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Yeah, Observant, you rock and that nutty chick (or chicks and dudes), MI, rolls.

    But, you should also admit that she is going straight to Hell with the rest of us heathens because she's(?'s) not a KJV following Baptist like you are.
    I mean, she's not a "real Christian", right? We all know you have to be a "real Christian" to get in too heaven.

    Or does her hatred and really nasty attitude get her a pass on the realness of her Christianity?

    ReplyDelete
  96. One has to wonder why the folowers of Jesus stray so far from his messages.



    ______________________
    (JV just for Mike):
    "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
    Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
    But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
    That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
    For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
    And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
    Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"
    - Mathew 5:42-48
    ______________________


    MI is lost in her Catholic dogma, Mike. But you have that instruction manual you like so much. Read it, take heed to your master's teachings.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Mac said,
    One has to wonder why the folowers of Jesus stray so far from his messages.



    ______________________
    (JV just for Mike):
    "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
    Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
    But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
    That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
    For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
    And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
    Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"
    - Mathew 5:42-48

    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    And which one of these do you find me lacking in? JUDGE YE…

    It is my understanding that MI is catholic, and I am Baptist!
    Jesus was Jewish. And ye are Atheist. Who do think “WONT “ be in heaven out of all four of us?

    ReplyDelete
  98. Mike and MI patting each other on the back because they imagine that we're saying what they've been saying all along?

    See this is what happens when you use magical thinking.

    The leadership of the GOP, the TeaBaggers, and the country all seem to be in agreement that trickle down economics will work like it never worked before.

    It's just sad that you imagine you care for the poor and the sick while just a few comments ago you were excusing Jesus for that faux pas by saying he only did it to prove he was God.

    I've never actually seen so much jumbled up nonsense all together in one comment MI. Well done!

    There's an insight into the thinking of a Christian, and as you noted, old Mike was right there with you on it!

    This is typical Christian thinking, imagining that no matter what happens, they've taken both sides of the issue and the outcome will back them up.

    Everything that we have been saying to MI is mirrored back at us as though her and Mike have always been saying it to us.

    The sad thing is that no doubt she really believes it.

    Apparently it's us saying that Obama isn't a citizen of the USA. It's us who are against the poor having decent health care, and on and on.

    You guys and your Holy Spirits should get together and come to a consensus about it 'cos you seem to think that you can jump from side to side of any issue at will.

    This is magical thinking.

    ReplyDelete
  99. Observant, You might try looking in a mirror to see you are lacking in all that Mac aimed in you direction. You are following a bunch of old Jews that did antiquated thinking in relationship to what we know today. Every time over the last several months that I or someone has pointed out what Jesus said or did you acknowledge you go the opposite direction. You have constantly put down the liberal thinking people regardless of what they think, yet you would have us believe that you are following the greatest liberal that ever lived, Jesus. (I do think you have bs'ed yourself into believing you don't put down the thinking that Jesus did) You are a total phoney that says he followers Jesus, and then disregard his advice. Your main concern seems to be to get into heaven, not to help your fellow man, but to save you own ass. The thing I find most amazing about you is the antiquated thinking you do, and when it is pointed out how false many of your ideas are you refuse to acknowledge the truth that others show you. Your rooting section is a person on the blog that follows the most degenerate group on the planet today. Jesus made it plain what would happen to those that screwed over children. I would think just having a rooting section that follows degenerates would make you stop and examine you thinking but it seems you have swallowed the myths of the bible hook line and sinker. To bad you do not understand what Jesus had to say. Maybe I am giving you to much credit considering you ignorant while you may well turn down what Jesus taught knowing that you are doing so.

    ReplyDelete
  100. We can only imagine MI and Mike arriving home at night to quiz their families about that they think.

    "NyaHAHA! You're all wrong! BwaHAHA! You're going to HELL! Waiting for me do die to get my money? HAHAHA! I'm taking it with me! Gonna have it converted to gold and shoved up my dead ass!"

    ReplyDelete
  101. Jerry,
    I’m glad to see you’re not dead yet…. You’ll be in hell soon enough, because you rejected the blood shed sacrifice of Jesus that could of wash clean your sin stained soul.
    You follow your made up booklets trashed with your modern opinions.
    And you are just as guilty as anyone that doesn’t keep the word to the jot and tittle.
    And by the way ,your knowledge of scripture is very elementary, as is your understanding…

    ReplyDelete
  102. Mike; religion has made you a terrible person.

    ReplyDelete
  103. See this is what happens when you use magical thinking.

    The leadership of the GOP, the TeaBaggers, and the country all seem to be in agreement that trickle down economics will work like it never worked before.

    Where have you been, in a bottle I suspect… Ragan said it would take about 10 years for his economic plan to repair the economy that your lefty liberal democrat Carter sabotaged with his no vision plain t5hat nearly destroyed us.
    -------------
    It's just sad that you imagine you care for the poor and the sick while just a few comments ago you were excusing Jesus for that faux pas by saying he only did it to prove he was God.

    No, What’s sad is, you actually believe you care for the sick and poor when in fact you just happen to be in the same predicament… so you rally behind them to benefit your own selfishness. I didn’t say the “only” reason Jesus did those good things was to prove he was Christ. Jesus himself said if you believe not because of my words then believe because of the works that I do. “ the works proved that he was Christ”
    ----------------


    There's an insight into the thinking of a Christian, and as you noted, old Mike was right there with you on it!

    True, there is an insight, you’re just blinded to it.
    ----------------

    This is typical Christian thinking, imagining that no matter what happens, they've taken both sides of the issue and the outcome will back them up.

    Not true. We’ve already seen your position and defended ours.
    --------------------

    Everything that we have been saying to MI is mirrored back at us as though her and Mike have always been saying it to us.

    Again not true.
    ------------------


    The sad thing is that no doubt she really believes it.


    Apparently it's us saying that Obama isn't a citizen of the USA. It's us who are against the poor having decent health care, and on and on.

    Some people do not believe Obama is a US citizen, I for one do not really know for sure, do you? We are not against the poor and sick having health care in fact I am in favor of it I just don’t believe I should be obligated to furnish it for them / you.
    --------------------

    You guys and your Holy Spirits should get together and come to a consensus about it 'cos you seem to think that you can jump from side to side of any issue at will.

    This is magical thinking.

    Only magical thinking going on here is your far left world views…

    ReplyDelete
  104. See this is what happens when you use magical thinking.

    The leadership of the GOP, the TeaBaggers, and the country all seem to be in agreement that trickle down economics will work like it never worked before.

    Where have you been, in a bottle I suspect… Ragan said it would take about 10 years for his economic plan to repair the economy that your lefty liberal democrat Carter sabotaged with his no vision plain t5hat nearly destroyed us.
    -------------
    It's just sad that you imagine you care for the poor and the sick while just a few comments ago you were excusing Jesus for that faux pas by saying he only did it to prove he was God.

    No, What’s sad is, you actually believe you care for the sick and poor when in fact you just happen to be in the same predicament… so you rally behind them to benefit your own selfishness. I didn’t say the “only” reason Jesus did those good things was to prove he was Christ. Jesus himself said if you believe not because of my words then believe because of the works that I do. “ the works proved that he was Christ”
    ----------------


    There's an insight into the thinking of a Christian, and as you noted, old Mike was right there with you on it!

    True, there is an insight, you’re just blinded to it.
    ----------------

    This is typical Christian thinking, imagining that no matter what happens, they've taken both sides of the issue and the outcome will back them up.

    Not true. We’ve already seen your position and defended ours.
    --------------------

    Everything that we have been saying to MI is mirrored back at us as though her and Mike have always been saying it to us.

    Again not true.
    ------------------


    The sad thing is that no doubt she really believes it.


    Apparently it's us saying that Obama isn't a citizen of the USA. It's us who are against the poor having decent health care, and on and on.

    Some people do not believe Obama is a US citizen, I for one do not really know for sure, do you? We are not against the poor and sick having health care in fact I am in favor of it I just don’t believe I should be obligated to furnish it for them / you.
    --------------------

    You guys and your Holy Spirits should get together and come to a consensus about it 'cos you seem to think that you can jump from side to side of any issue at will.

    This is magical thinking.

    Only magical thinking going on here is your far left world views…

    ReplyDelete
  105. Ryan said,
    Mike; religion has made you a terrible person.

    ------------------
    Yeah, well what has made you so terrible.

    You want to stone Christians with your words and expect us to like it. I'm not Jesus, and I'M not one to turn the other check when people like you are stoning me.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Mike; sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Grow some thicker skin, turdmonger.

    ReplyDelete
  107. Did you notice the two-step about face there?

    Left, right, left, right,(your stoning us with words), (I'm not standing for you stoning us), left, right, left right.

    LOL.. what? In your magical mind you can come on an atheist blog, defend a totally ditzy bitch, not for what she says, but for who she is, THEN, pull this wordmagic where you're 'not Jesus' so you don't have to put up with OUR bullshit???

    Jesus told YOU to turn the other cheek. Apparently Jesus is just some philosopher giving you mildly decent 'in principle' advice now?

    You are so funny Mike.

    OOO.. feeling 'stoned' now?

    Dickwad.

    ReplyDelete
  108. Mike, "I'm not Jesus(as if we didn't know), so I'm not even going to try!"

    You could have fooled us Bub.

    ReplyDelete
  109. Mike's got it in his head that I'm poor and I'm ashamed of it.

    The Christian thing to do would be to rub it in.

    Did I ever tell you guys about how I got robbed by a Christian? It's TRUE!

    He took my money, got a lawyer to help him keep my money and to keep his business. A proud Christian. Likely 'typical' too, what Mike???

    ReplyDelete
  110. Which brings up the question, Mike, is there anything that you wouldn't do for God?

    What if God told you to commit genocide? Seems that they were willing to do that in the Old Testament!

    What if God commanded you to kill your own son?

    Apparently THAT happened too.

    Oh, the story says that God was just 'foolin''??

    Big deal. Would you do it, or do you really think that that isn't gonna happen. i.e. there is no God really, so God didn't command anything so horrible as genocide and son-i-cide(I'm not looking up that word, you know wtf I mean.)

    ReplyDelete
  111. I'm tryin' hard to imagine being in actual contact with what I consider to be the epitome of goodness, as these Christians claim to be, guided by him in their daily lives, and yet at the exact same time, willing to admit that they're 'not really' guided by that epitome of goodness at all.

    They're just lying.

    Their book is vile. Imagine, with all your heart believing that you are in contact with the epitome of goodness and it speaks to you and says, "Take your son up to a mountain and sacrifice him to me!".

    Y'see, right there I'd be thinking, "Wait a second, is that the epitome of goodness?? No, that cannot be the epitome of goodness talking to me, I must be ill or something."

    "God was trying to what, you say?" Bullshit, and you know it.

    ReplyDelete
  112. What if God commanded you to kill your own son?

    Apparently THAT happened too.

    Oh, the story says that God was just 'foolin''??

    Big deal. Would you do it, or do you really think that that isn't gonna happen. i.e. there is no God really, so God didn't command anything so horrible as genocide and son-i-cide(I'm not looking up that word, you know wtf I mean.)
    --------------------------------------------
    Too funny, you have “NO” understanding what so ever when it comes to scripture.
    YOU totally missed the whole point of God asking Abraham to offer his only son.
    It was a test of Abraham’s faith…. God promised Abraham that through his seed “Isaac” ALL the families of the earth would be blessed …he was speaking in reference of the birth of Jesus . Abraham knew God could not lie and he knew if he did in fact sacrifice his son to God that God would give him back to him alive before he came down from the mountain. Abraham told the men that came with him to wait at the foot of the mountain while he and the lad went to offer the sacrifice “ Isaac” saying that he and the lad would come again. “ DID YOU NOTICE” what Abraham said? “HE AND THE LAD WOULD COME AGAIN” When the lad and Abraham journeyed up the mountain the lad asked his father where is the sacrifice, and Abraham said God will provide for Himself a sacrifice. So you see, you don’t know what you are talking about.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Mike; sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Grow some thicker skin, turdmonger.
    --------------------------
    I can take it ,and I can dish it out … shit head!

    ReplyDelete
  114. Mike said "YOU totally missed the whole point of God asking Abraham to offer his only son."

    I doubt Ian totally missed the point of Genesis 22:1-24. The fact is you are blissfully aware of only the latest edition of that story. Familiarize yourself with the documentary hypothesis as it relates to the binding of Isaac and get back with us.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  115. Incidentally, I'd study Genesis and the various authorship theories in college, but it wasn't until Somber (or was it GoddessPrevail?) brought up the documentary hypothesis and the implications for the bind of Isaac that I truly understood the horror of ancient Palestine.

    I miss Somber and GoddessPrevail.

    ReplyDelete
  116. It was godless prevail ryan.
    And “NO” I don’t think you get it.
    Good luck you need it.

    ReplyDelete
  117. On the subject of universal healthcare

    I have a more than passing knowledge of the healthcare system and feel compelled to correct a pretty common misconception about it.

    The US has had a socialized healthcare system for the duration of the industrial age. In the beginning this socialism was enforced by professional ethics and cost shifting. Indigent care was provided by what was essentially a tax on those with means. A person with Blue Cross would end up paying a slightly higher amount than otherwise would be the case in order to cover the poor. The government also payed training hospitals an amount each year to offset the cost of training new MD's who also provided a lot of indigent care during their residencies. Worked well for a long time until 'capitalism' put a stop to it. The ensurer's continued to cut reimbursements for services and this eliminated the payment for indigent services which was not made up by medicare and medicaid programs.

    The system is no longer payed like a socialist system but it continues to have to operate as such.

    Imagine for a moment what a true capitalist healthcare system might look like. Think legal services.

    For example: Joe Blow needs an operation. He contacts a surgeon who charges him for 15 minute blocks of his or her time. This is expected as an up front payment. Joe Blow has his Medical credit rating accessed before the surgery. Turns out he stiffed a doctor 5 years ago. joe now has to pay in full before the surgery or no deal - Doesn't matter what the surgery is. After all doctors aren't obligated to give away their skills for free. If he has insurance - well dealing with them is his problem - the clinicians after all expect to be payed. Or a lien can be taken out on Joe's house up front, etc.

    Every time Joe has a question it's pay up for every 15 minutes at $250 dollars an hour. No bundled services. If Joe wants the best surgeon well that costs extra just like a better lawyer or ball player. Or maybe Joe has a good job and the surgeon agrees to take 50% of future earnings since he's saving Joe's life.

    If Joe needs surgery at night, well that's double - triple for weekends and even more for holidays. Joe wants follow-up for his surgery so that's billed at $250 dollars an hour. Or maybe the surgeon just wants to stay home - it's not like there is any social obligation to provide service. If Joe needs a trauma surgeon then look out - with only 800 or so of them in the country they can demand a very high fee. They stopped being so involved in prevention of injury as well because why kill the golden goose.

    One day Joe gets really sick and needs to go to the ED. Only problem is that the ED is closed for the holiday. The hospital just doesn't make enough money to stay open at night. Not healthy to the bottom line. In fact they decide to close the ED entirely because the profit margins for really sick patients is much lower than elective surgery.

    A bit of hyperbole but not really that much of a stretch. The problem is that all the conservatives who don't feel compelled to pay for care of the poor have no problem benefiting from the existing socialist structure that is required to provide them aid in times of emergency. And which imposes no restrictions on their behavior or willingness to pay.

    ReplyDelete
  118. On the subject of universal healthcare

    I have a more than passing knowledge of the healthcare system and feel compelled to correct a pretty common misconception about it.

    The US has had a socialized healthcare system for the duration of the industrial age. In the beginning this socialism was enforced by professional ethics and cost shifting. Indigent care was provided by what was essentially a tax on those with means. A person with Blue Cross would end up paying a slightly higher amount than otherwise would be the case in order to cover the poor. The government also payed training hospitals an amount each year to offset the cost of training new MD's who also provided a lot of indigent care during their residencies. Worked well for a long time until 'capitalism' put a stop to it. The ensurer's continued to cut reimbursements for services and this eliminated the payment for indigent services which was not made up by medicare and medicaid programs.

    The system is no longer payed like a socialist system but it continues to have to operate as such.

    Imagine for a moment what a true capitalist healthcare system might look like. Think legal services.

    For example: Joe Blow needs an operation. He contacts a surgeon who charges him for 15 minute blocks of his or her time. This is expected as an up front payment. Joe Blow has his Medical credit rating accessed before the surgery. Turns out he stiffed a doctor 5 years ago. joe now has to pay in full before the surgery or no deal - Doesn't matter what the surgery is. After all doctors aren't obligated to give away their skills for free. If he has insurance - well dealing with them is his problem - the clinicians after all expect to be payed. Or a lien can be taken out on Joe's house up front, etc.

    Every time Joe has a question it's pay up for every 15 minutes at $250 dollars an hour. No bundled services. If Joe wants the best surgeon well that costs extra just like a better lawyer or ball player. Or maybe Joe has a good job and the surgeon agrees to take 50% of future earnings since he's saving Joe's life.

    If Joe needs surgery at night, well that's double - triple for weekends and even more for holidays. Joe wants follow-up for his surgery so that's billed at $250 dollars an hour. Or maybe the surgeon just wants to stay home - it's not like there is any social obligation to provide service. If Joe needs a trauma surgeon then look out - with only 800 or so of them in the country they can demand a very high fee. They stopped being so involved in prevention of injury as well because why kill the golden goose.

    One day Joe gets really sick and needs to go to the ED. Only problem is that the ED is closed for the holiday. The hospital just doesn't make enough money to stay open at night. Not healthy to the bottom line. In fact they decide to close the ED entirely because the profit margins for really sick patients is much lower than elective surgery.

    A bit of hyperbole but not really that much of a stretch. The problem is that all the conservatives who don't feel compelled to pay for care of the poor have no problem benefiting from the existing socialist structure that is required to provide them aid in times of emergency. And which imposes no restrictions on their behavior or willingness to pay.

    ReplyDelete
  119. Observant says,
    You want to stone Christians with your words and expect us to like it. I'm not Jesus, and I'M not one to turn the other check when people like you are stoning me.
    December 14, 2010

    This is the point, you think more of your ego reactions than you do to what Jesus said about turning the other cheek. You do this ego first over Jesus, and his ideas in most of your statements. Can you not wonder why you duck owning this truth?

    ReplyDelete
  120. It was godless prevail ryan.

    Are you merely making a lame joke about her screen name or do you actually remember the conversation?

    If so, please share with us what the implications of the documentary hypothesis are to the story of the sacrifice of Isaac.

    ReplyDelete
  121. What you're suggesting Mike, that God was testing Abraham, doesn't work if Abraham knew that God didn't intend Abraham to go through with it.

    This now becomes a trip up the mountain for a 'show' of faith(as you say).

    As for the 'faith' thing, if God is talking directly to Abraham, there is no need for a test of Abraham's faith anyway. Apparently God is TALKING to Abraham and faith is the hope for things unseen(and unheard no doubt).

    The entire idea that Abraham ought to have faith that God wouldn't let Abraham's son die when Abraham is being told to go up a mountain and sacrifice his son is ludicrous.

    Basically, it becomes a scenario that Abraham could have faked, just a 'show'.

    Shit Mike, even if God were real and took part in this ridiculous affair, it WAS just a show anyways.

    Saying, "It was a test of faith.", doesn't work if you think Abraham knew the outcome, it would only be a test of faith if Abraham thought he was going up a mountain to kill his son.

    In that case, once again, no 'LOVING GOD' would do that. You wouldn't do that to someone you loved.

    If I were some kind of authority and told you to bring your son to be killed as a test of your faith, I KNOW that you would FAIL, unless you KNEW for a fact that it was just a 'test'.

    ReplyDelete
  122. oh yea, the name you guys are looking for is
    goddess1prevail

    ReplyDelete
  123. Seems to me Mike that you have to be set up for this in your mind with the idea that this is the kind of thing that God does and this is the kind of thing that a really really faithful person would do.

    But it's not true Mike. Someone who really loves you does NOT test their child like this.(technically God would be our dad, right? I mean if HE, you know, were 'real' and that?)

    Seems to me that the Bible is setting us up to believe that a loving God WOULD be inclined to leave us in the 'midst of evil'(a la Garden) for the Hell of it.(to make the story work the way it did, I suppose). Once again, not much 'loving' going on there.

    "By the way, watch out for the snake, he's a bit of a bitch!", might have been a nice heads up."

    Seems to me, if we're willing to read anything into the story, it's that God was jealous of the woman, God wanted Adam to pick 'another' of HIS animals as a mate, and was a bit peeved at Adam for demanding another human being.

    Then when God is done making her, HE kind of shrugs and warns them not to eat the magic fruit and thinks to himself, "Got a bad feeling about this, but that's what the ungrateful shit wanted, sooo.."

    Can you not imagine this story being told around the desert fire at night and them all laughing at the punchline, "Then God takes a day off... (much laughter)"

    ReplyDelete
  124. Come to think of it Mike, you claim that the Holy Spirit reveals itself to you, so, what do you and other true Christians need faith for???

    I know if I was being 'guided by the Holy Spirit, I wouldn't need any faith at all to believe.

    Or is it just that you have faith that you ARE being guided by the Holy Spirit then?

    'Cos the first 'case' is you just preaching to people, knowing damned fine that they're not really true Christians if they're not being guided by the Holy Spirit like you.

    The second 'case' being that you just hope you're being guided by the Holy Spirit and are really as in the dark(looking through a glass darkly) just like those who you'd convert or bring back from backsliding and whatnot.

    BTW, is the Holy Spirit guiding you to come to this blog and be a bitch? Does it 'understand' that you(as you're willing to admit) are no fucking Jesus!?

    ReplyDelete
  125. @ryan.
    Quote:
    We are back, then, to the original problem: are there perhaps before us two distinct religious layers, one from the stratum of ancient idolatry where the sacrifice of human first born was practised, and the other from biblical religion which put an end to this cruel practice and substituted animal sacrifice (Spiegel)?

    ReplyDelete
  126. BTW, is the DEVIL guiding you to come to this blog and be a bitch? Does it 'understand' that you(as you're willing to admit) are a fucking Devil!?

    ReplyDelete
  127. Observant isn't your name, it's the Artful Dodger.

    The Devil, hah! Isn't that just an evil God? Thought there was only one God, Mike?

    ReplyDelete
  128. Seems to me that your notion that you have to have faith that there IS a God is turned upside down for the Devil.

    Apparently it's better for the Devil if we atheists DON'T believe that he exists.

    This is just another 'Heads we win tails you lose' bullshit for logic that makes you guys feel smug. More magical thinking.

    ReplyDelete
  129. Maddow is telling us that the GOP, surprisingly(to who though?) still doesn't want to do anything even after they got their tax breaks for billionaires.

    Who, exactly is supposed to be surprised by this?

    Again, who, in their right minds is going to be surprised, next year, when the GOP thinks it's only fiscally responsible to kick all the grammas and granpas out onto the street??

    Anyone?

    ReplyDelete
  130. It looks like within the next two years the GOP will be quite different. Their may be a power struggle coming to try to overthrow the present tactics but not the basic ideology.

    ReplyDelete
  131. I was dissing the Teabagger majority in Texas, on my game, and of course a Texan came on and tried bullying me! LOL

    She, got that SHE's all Texas no likey Obama, Texas don't have no debt and on and on.

    A couple of google searches and apparently she 'wins' by dint of, "I'm a WANKER!"

    LOL

    If you show them their delusion it just makes them madder.(as in insane, not angry)

    ReplyDelete
  132. OK, very good Mike, you seem to be acknowledging that books of the bible can be composites of different works that were layered and built upon each other over the course of time; besides Genesis, Isaiah is another good example of this.

    Now, take it a step further, what does this say about who the “real” Abraham probably was?

    ReplyDelete
  133. Anybody but me amazed that anyone can doubt Obama's citizenship status after he has produced documentation sufficient to prove his birthright beyond any reasonable doubt, yet not understand how some of us have our doubts about the truth set forth in centuries old texts passed down from nomadic tribesmen 2000 years ago for which we have no proof save word of mouth and the rabid adherence of those who choose to accept it at face value?

    Seems terribly inconsistent to me.

    Or is it just me?

    ReplyDelete
  134. Jerry,
    I’m glad to see you’re not dead yet…. You’ll be in hell soon enough, because you rejected the blood shed sacrifice of Jesus that could of wash clean your sin stained soul.
    -----------------
    I do so love it when this comes out. It invariably goes there eventually. They can't win an argument so they decide to openly relish the thought of your eventual damnation. This is primitive, atavistic thinking, our 'animal mind' allowed to rule over our human one. IT's the 'bully mind;' the 'narcissistic asshole mind' if you will...

    Mike, the above paragraph ABSOLUTELY PROVES that you are a shallow, self-centered small-minded little boy. Sorry, but it just does. Bwaaaaah!

    Truth hurts, huh? Well, just deny it to yourself, as you usually do. You'll be fine.

    ReplyDelete
  135. This is primitive, atavistic thinking, our 'animal mind' allowed to rule over our human one. IT's the 'bully mind;' the 'narcissistic asshole mind' if you will...

    Probably why Mike "needs Jesus" and why he can't understand why many, many people don't.

    ReplyDelete
  136. And apparently Jesus told us that he himself 'turns the other cheek' but not to even try it for ourselves, it's just too darn hard. After all, what, is he expecting us to be like him or something? Huh? Of course not. That's just silly, isn't it? Why would he ever want us to be more like him? He obviously only meant that stuff for himself, not us. Although it's funny, why then did it get written in the bible like as if it were indeed meant for us? Ahh, nevermind, too hard to think about...
    Therefore, we are free to just allow our most selfish impulses to rule us, secure in the knowledge that somehow after we die Jesus will make it right for us. Yeah, that must be how it works.

    ReplyDelete
  137. As I stated earlier, I don't think Obama sucks nearly as much as everyone else here does, apparently.

    But either way he's still better than the republican alternative, so this is encouraging.

    ReplyDelete
  138. Ryan, I don't think Obama sucks either. I think his biggest problem is that he couldn't imagine that the Republicans would actually burn down the house rather than collaborate with him to address the many problems this country faces - many of which are the fault of those same Republicans. Nor did he imagine the the American people would fall for a political strategy essentially adopted by any two year old when they don't want to go somewhere and they dissolve their bones and plop on the ground in a screaming heap.

    Sadly he was mistaken.

    ReplyDelete
  139. Sadly he was mistaken.
    ------------
    And how.

    Still though, he couldn't tell after say, one year? Everyone else with a brain could. He always went into 'bargaining situations' with the republicans leading off with a huge sacrifice, leading right off by giving stuff away. It's too fishy for me. He's part of the game now. I think he's into it. And that he's forgitten about the poor and middle class in all the glamour and fast life of Washington. Sad.

    ReplyDelete
  140. http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2010/review-of-science-and-religion-a-very-short-introduction/

    I think this is a very good essay on a lot of the apologist arguments.

    ReplyDelete
  141. Good one Pliny. Of course the apologists have their usual 'thing' going for them. The complexity of the scientific being compared to the totally different complexity of the religious seems to be harking towards some kind of Intelligent Design synthesis?

    The Catholic Church are great synthesizers.

    Too bad, like the man said, they cannot see how Evolution is science's great synthesis, no gods required.

    The 'field' of science and religion. What a laugh.

    Seems to me to be the same old bullshit, them willing to agree that they're right and that we ought to agree with them too. Good compromise, what?

    ReplyDelete
  142. Science compromising with religion is by definition a dilution of science. Science is truth. Religion is falsity, mere human superstitions and belief systems not based in REALITY.

    How does the truth compromise with the lie?

    ReplyDelete
  143. Great article Pliny.

    People who are trying to say that science and religion are similar, are pandering to the religious side, because as noted, science is just fine without religion. Religion is anti-science. It absolutely has to be. Science reveals the truth that religion spins tapestries of lies about. Science, because it is truth, naturally kills religion every time. Not by intent; by accident. By revealing its lies. Oopsie.

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  144. Does anyone know if Abraham was a fleece the flock type of guy?

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  145. I don't mind if Observant tells me I'm going to go to Hell simply because he's not my Judge nor my Creator. (btw, I do read Scripture, only not the KJV). I attend Mass and worship God and give Him many Thanks. And I try my best to keep His Commandments.

    But, it's very hard to do around Heathens, lol!

    At the end of the day, what really matters is that we as a people love one another and seek the fullness of Truth with the utmost of sincerity and authenticity.


    This is what we all must strive for.


    Everyone here is a beautiful child made in God's Holy Image.

    We are at different stages of the Journey.

    I don't mind exhcanging some light-hearted banter....even if we don't agree on things. Hey, it's what makes the world go 'round.

    I love everyone here and wish the very best for all and indeed, keep all in my heart and in my humble prayers.

    Anything I ask God for in your name, I ask for myself as well.

    I do hope you all enjoy a blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  146. Pliny -- this is NOT a Science Fiction Novel!

    Hyperbole, indeed!

    You act like poor ol' Joe Blow can't find a doctor out of the millions we have in this country who work weekdays. As for stiffing the doctor; that shit's all a really wierd science fiction novel made up in your head, (were you high at the time?) We don't ask for science fiction, we just want to keep the status quo insurance that we pay for. How do you pay for the poor you say? Well, I'm sure the $timulus Bill could've covered a good amount of the poor in this country!

    Let's talk reality, should we?

    The only time the ED loses money is WHEN the patient has no insurance because otherwise, they do megawork-ups for fear of being sued by lawyers.

    Ah, lawyers.

    Congress is full of them!

    Remember ANYthing the gov't touches, it turns to shit--the anti-Midas touch...

    The poor? GIVE THEM INSURANCE!!

    But, leave the people who already have insurance alone!

    This would be cost-effective: give only those who need insurance--- insurance !

    And we're talking about real healthcare here, not simply population control through population sterilazation via contraception and abortion mills then targeting the poor and indigent, (they're a burden on the State--Nancy Pelosi) and death panels for the elderly since they've already "lived a fruitful life" (Obama).

    Obama got one thing right: when he exempted himself and his family from the healthcare insurance: because he wants to keep his insurance.

    If it's good enough for the almighty messiah, then it's good enough for me, too!

    It's not really Obama who sucks, but rather all of you tools who fall for the rhetoric hook, line and sinker.

    Get real.

    If you were a real doctor, you wouldn't be talking like this because you would realize that you have a family to tend to above and beyond your patients and that you deserve your paycheck just lik the next Joe does. And, certainly , doctors, especially are to be lauded for all of the indigent work that they do for the people ---- quite unusual in a capitalistic system, eh?

    Thank God for all of the God-fearing physicians who do this out of the goodness of their hearts.

    Because otherwise the poor would be screwed,

    Remember whom to really thank in reality versus whom to thank the next time you're absorbed in a science fiction dream.

    Be careful what you ask for -- you just might get the plan that Obama and his family and all of Congress and their families are exempt from!

    Poverty should never keep you from being a productive and mature thinker and reasoning patriot.

    ReplyDelete
  147. Pliny -- this is NOT a Science Fiction Novel!

    Hyperbole, indeed!

    You act like poor ol' Joe Blow can't find a doctor out of the millions we have in this country who work weekdays. As for stiffing the doctor; that shit's all a really wierd science fiction novel made up in your head, (were you high at the time?) We don't ask for science fiction, we just want to keep the status quo insurance that we pay for. How do you pay for the poor you say? Well, I'm sure the $timulus Bill could've covered a good amount of the poor in this country!

    Let's talk reality, should we?

    The only time the ED loses money is WHEN the patient has no insurance because otherwise, they do megawork-ups for fear of being sued by lawyers.

    Ah, lawyers.

    Congress is full of them!

    Remember ANYthing the gov't touches, it turns to shit--the anti-Midas touch...

    The poor? GIVE THEM INSURANCE!!

    But, leave the people who already have insurance alone!

    This would be cost-effective: give only those who need insurance--- insurance !

    And we're talking about real healthcare here, not simply population control through population sterilazation via contraception and abortion mills then targeting the poor and indigent, (they're a burden on the State--Nancy Pelosi) and death panels for the elderly since they've already "lived a fruitful life" (Obama).

    Obama got one thing right: when he exempted himself and his family from the healthcare insurance: because he wants to keep his insurance.

    If it's good enough for the almighty messiah, then it's good enough for me, too!

    It's not really Obama who sucks, but rather all of you tools who fall for the rhetoric hook, line and sinker.

    Get real.

    If you were a real doctor, you wouldn't be talking like this because you would realize that you have a family to tend to above and beyond your patients and that you deserve your paycheck just lik the next Joe does. And, certainly , doctors, especially are to be lauded for all of the indigent work that they do for the people ---- quite unusual in a capitalistic system, eh?

    Thank God for all of the God-fearing physicians who do this out of the goodness of their hearts.

    Because otherwise the poor would be screwed,

    Remember whom to really thank in reality versus whom to thank the next time you're absorbed in a science fiction dream.

    Be careful what you ask for -- you just might get the plan that Obama and his family and all of Congress and their families are exempt from!

    Poverty should never keep you from being a productive and mature thinker and reasoning patriot.

    ReplyDelete
  148. Pliny -- this is NOT a Science Fiction Novel!

    Hyperbole, indeed!

    You act like poor ol' Joe Blow can't find a doctor out of the millions we have in this country who work weekdays. As for stiffing the doctor; that shit's all a really wierd science fiction novel made up in your head, (were you high at the time?) We don't ask for science fiction, we just want to keep the status quo insurance that we pay for. How do you pay for the poor you say? Well, I'm sure the $timulus Bill could've covered a good amount of the poor in this country!

    Let's talk reality, should we?

    The only time the ED loses money is WHEN the patient has no insurance because otherwise, they do megawork-ups for fear of being sued by lawyers.

    Ah, lawyers.

    Congress is full of them!

    Remember ANYthing the gov't touches, it turns to shit--the anti-Midas touch...

    The poor? GIVE THEM INSURANCE!!

    But, leave the people who already have insurance alone!

    This would be cost-effective: give only those who need insurance--- insurance !

    And we're talking about real healthcare here, not simply population control through population sterilazation via contraception and abortion mills then targeting the poor and indigent, (they're a burden on the State--Nancy Pelosi) and death panels for the elderly since they've already "lived a fruitful life" (Obama).

    Obama got one thing right: when he exempted himself and his family from the healthcare insurance: because he wants to keep his insurance.

    If it's good enough for the almighty messiah, then it's good enough for me, too!

    It's not really Obama who sucks, but rather all of you tools who fall for the rhetoric hook, line and sinker.

    Get real.

    If you were a real doctor, you wouldn't be talking like this because you would realize that you have a family to tend to above and beyond your patients and that you deserve your paycheck just lik the next Joe does. And, certainly , doctors, especially are to be lauded for all of the indigent work that they do for the people ---- quite unusual in a capitalistic system, eh?

    Thank God for all of the God-fearing physicians who do this out of the goodness of their hearts.

    Because otherwise the poor would be screwed,

    Remember whom to really thank in reality versus whom to thank the next time you're absorbed in a science fiction dream.

    Be careful what you ask for -- you just might get the plan that Obama and his family and all of Congress and their families are exempt from!

    Poverty should never keep you from being a productive and mature thinker and reasoning patriot.

    ReplyDelete
  149. Obsservant-- that post came through in threes.


    Hmm.



    Interesting, wouldn't you say?


    ;)

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  150. MI.. Pliny's a doctor, you twit.

    Why don't YOU pray for sanity? Let me know how that works for you.

    ReplyDelete
  151. Yes the post came through in threes - unfortunately the rule of wit is an implacable law of the universe - The end result of combining fractions of wit is a multiplier not a sum.

    As for the rest, well, I've been practicing for a long time and been involved in policy and public health. Had you read the thing you might have noticed that I was referring to an example of what a purely capitalistic system might look like NOT (I hate caps but sometimes you just need the added ummph) what we have now. We have a socialized medical system that differs from what I put in the story.

    The point - sorry for others that I have to spell it out - is that all this fear of socialized medicine IS the true hyperbole.

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  152. I think it is very strange that we seem to be stuck with these 'narratives' that the government, the party machines, the press and the church machine push on us.

    There are trends that we can look at and, I suppose, accept as normal. One might notice them because they are personally consistently offensive from whichever point of view that you subscribe to.

    MI, for example, and I mean no offense to you at all by saying this MI, consistently regurgitates the 'crazy Christian right' paradigm, which says, "All government is bad, but the right wing is, what I call, "Collective individualism".

    She'd imagine, "We are the 'heart' of America. We despise government interference. We are totally skeptical of ALL government. We make decisions based on gut feeling and perhaps a quote from the Bible interpreting that as God's Will. How could somone who is an admitted Atheist make any kind of decent decision, since they don't base their decisions on gut feeling and cherry-picked quotes from the Bible?"

    And so on. They have no definition of 'life' that doesn't include 'God', which is totally circular.

    MI, "I define life as the creation of an eternally living being. And I see nothing at all wrong with this, you're just trying to trick me."

    They despise secularism as anti-religion and not a compromise at all.


    I kind of went off on a weird diversion there, because it was not my intention to try to fathom the unfathomable 'mind' of the 'crazy Christian right'.

    It may be that I feel that they are at the root of it all although not entirely to blame for it. The right wing political machine which, often successfully controls them, and the media which influences and is influenced by them, with they themselves dictating to the others this general gut feeling du jour, all mixing and matching like some directionless, headless monster with only their seething hatred of all things deemed 'socialist' simmering in the background.

    There's certainly a giant conflict going on inside their heads that goes, "I want to be good and Godly and I believe that if I'm Godly then I'm good, but what's mine is mine and atheists and socialists are out to take it away, or share it out to the unworthy and the ungrateful."

    ReplyDelete
  153. MI:
    I have managed to refrain from any comments on your recent string of posts, but, at this point, I find myself driven to make an observation or two.
    If you had even the least actual understanding of the realities of the healthcare delivery system as it now exists in the U.S., you would never have made the ridiculous responses to Pliny that you have done (in triplicate!!)
    I have been in the practise of medicine for over forty years now, in four different population centers, varying from the east coast to the midwest, during which time we have gone from so-called fee for service with "free" indigent care (on a catch as catch can basis), through the first stages of paid healthcare insurance, to and including the advent of Medicare, Medicaid, etc., etc. I am still in practise at a County Hospital that serves the most populous city in my state and which provides the vast majority of uninsured and underinsured health services to this large population.
    ALthough it is true that the poor patients in the large city where I went to Medical School were generally well cared for without means to pay, there were many who did not get even the most basic of needed services, often because they could not readily get to the Hospital for such "free" care and, often, had no choice but to frequent the Emergency Department, even when their illnesses could have been managed much better (and more economically)by some type of ongoing relationship with a Primary Caregiver. Moreover, they were often undertreated because they could not afford tyhe medications, rehabilitation, or extended care visits that could have greatly diminished the ongoing effects of their often myriad health problems. Let us not even speak of those poor patients who lived in more isolated circumstances and who were not near any large hospital or medical center that would provide such care (largely in return for the patient's willingness to be managed mostly by medical students and residents in various stages of training).

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  154. MI: (continued)
    Our current healthcare system, forty years later, has barely scratched the surface of this problem, despite the fact that many working individuals now have access to at least some form of paid insurance. Certainly, the addition of Medicare, Medicaid, Aid to dependent children, VA benefits, workmen's compensation, and the continuing decreases in reimbursement for these services to hospitals and healthcare professionals (who have borne the brunt of this financial "squeeze"),
    etc., has helped to diminish the problem, but, with the exponential growth of our population, its aging, increased mobility from one part of the country to another and the general economic situation in this country, the fact that approximately 30% of our population remains un- or underinsured, seems unacceptable to me (and, I would have thought, to a caring Christian like you).
    The only issue to caring Christians and other well intentioned right wingers like you seems to be who should pay for it. Certainly, all of you seem to agree that it would be a good thing if poor people could get at least minimal adequate care, just as long as "you" don't have to pay for it. The irony is that "you" (and all the rest of us) are paying much more for spotty and generally inadequate "catch-up" and emergency care right now, than any of us would if there were some universally available healthcare, especially if it could include preventive and timely management (which even paid insurance rarely does until quite recently). We already have "socialized" healthcare, but it needs to be much more efficient than it has been in a system wherein private, "for profit" insurance companies are able to set standards and decide who, if any, should be able to obtain, let alone afford access to healthcare.
    Having said all of this, it is clear that the recently passed healthcare legislation, as mired as it has been forced to be in political infighting, right wing "talking points" such as "government takeover" of healthcare, "death panels", opposition to such issues as to whether birth control measures and/or abortion should be included, is at best a small first step toward and eventual, much neede overhaul of how we obtain and provide basic healthcare to our population.
    As a caring, well-intentioned Christian, who "prays for all of us" as she does for herself and who wants to follow the teachings and examples of Christ, it is hard to understand how you simply accept the right wing "talking ponts" as gospel and fail to see all of our personal responsibilities in helping to "care for the least" of God's children.

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  155. And, MI, I am neither a Christian nor a believer, (not to mention that my income as a physician has been disproportionately squeezed through all of this).Yet, even I can see that we all hyave a responsibility to see to the well being of our fellow human beings.

    ReplyDelete
  156. Nope, I think you're talking to a brick wall there Harvey.

    MI is likely to imagine that you must be lying about your qualifications, since if you weren't you'd be on the side saying, "What's mine is mine to share only if I see fit."

    We can see this in all children at some point in their development, the little tyke grabs a toy from a sibling and says, "MINE!", and the authority says, "Share now."

    But there's a mixed message because, at the same time, if (likely a bit bigger) tyke comes home without his jacket or a toy, the authority puts him on trial and scolds him for not looking after his own property!

    So 'gut feelings' can work both ways here, depending on who is involved.

    MI, going with her authority, the powerful and wealthy, is bound to rail against the 'foreign' THEM!

    THEY don't deserve healthcare because THEY don't work hard to earn the money for it.

    'THEY' may be Mexicans breaking their backs to put cheap fruit on the displays at her grocery store, but it's the land-owner who is the 'real' hard-worker, you see. It is HIM who is 'us' and 'THEY' are undeserving.

    Shit, the owner might be a raging libertarian atheist, willing to scream about being overtaxed while collecting a cheque from the government to leave vast acres untouched, but MI is on his side because he has demonstrated that he has the fruits of labour even if he didn't labour for them at all.

    Anyone who objects to this position, the gut feeling goes, must be one of 'THEM' too. "You bleeding heart liberals who rail against oppression of the poor, the old and the sick, MUST BE poor and/or old and/or sick yourself, so shut up!"

    How do I know this is true. There was absolutely not one peep from the 'crazy Christian right' when it came to the Bush government doling out taxes for Faith-based Initiatives.

    "For fiscal year 2005, more than $2.2 billion in competitive social service grants were awarded to faith-based organizations."

    You see, they don't object to the government giving money and services, just so long as it's to them.

    Gut reaction to this, "We pay in, it's our own money back anyways."

    But according to themselves, something like 90% of the poor, the old and the sick, ARE Christian, ARE themselves, ARE indoctrinated by the wealthy to despise themselves for being poor, old, sick.

    My mind boggles at this huge disconnect. You'd imagine that government programs had a 'tick box' asking for your religion and if you tick Christian, that was a good reason NOT to give you aid.

    Still, it's obviously not the government aid per se, it's aiding some nebulous 'them', that's the problem.

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  157. Oh, and yea MI, Obama, that dirty liberal, changed the name of the program, but it's still, essentially a program that panders to Christians and gives money to Christian organizations to bribe people to become Christian.

    Too bad you can't give Obama credit for throwing cash over the supposed 'wall of separation' of church and state.

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  158. Also - anyone who refers to the 'death panels' cannot actually have any real association with healthcare in any form.

    This term and the implication was a fabrication of right wing extremists and business factions that opposed the bills.

    Again as one who has actually cared for patients (trauma surgery isn't pay as you go by the way) reminding clinicians to have difficult conversations about their end of life desires is very compassionate - as opposed to those who vilely misrepresented the facts.

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  159. as opposed to those who vilely misrepresented the facts.
    ---------------------
    Vilely is the right word for it. They are vile, loathsome people who pretend their entire lives, lying to everyone they talk to. They have no morals whatsoever except 'all for me and screw everyone else' and yet pretend to be christians so well they fool most of the sheeple into voting for them and actually thinking well of them as people, actually even believing that they are working in their (the common people's) interests.
    Not that they're very hard to fool. Just look at MI for example. I mean, if I'd never discovered the internet here, I doubt I'd ever have met such a fool in real life. What an education. She's dead-on convinced that she's right no matter what stupidity she spouts, all verbatim off fox news and right-wing talk radio and websites, not a thread of sense in any of her rantings, just paranoid stupidity.
    Sad. I wish she'd have some 'logic epiphany' or something. Hate to see a life wasted like that. I wish her brain would turn on.
    Of course, more interesting if it stays off, I guess. Entertainment at its finest.

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  160. I said, on the MandM blog, “You cannot blame science for pointing out flaws in some people’s religion.”

    To which Matt replied, “You Can’t blame Christian religious instruction for pointing out the flaws in someone else’s religion.”

    So, of course, I replied, "What? Are we living in a world of Matt’s total fantasy now? The definition of science is not hard to find in a dictionary, so it is very disingenuous of you to paint it as telling ‘the truth’ opposing Fundamentalist Christian’s ‘truth’.

    It’s so easy to play with words and imagine that science teachers are pretending that they aren’t teaching science, but ‘the truth’, on account of that ‘dirty secularism’.

    No one cares if your little darlings don’t know the scientific consensus on Evolution, although I, for one, would be less than impressed if it turned out that they became my doctor AND rejected the scientific consensus on Evolution and Biology and Genetics and so forth.

    No one ought to be trying to teach your kids science as ‘the truth’ because science is a ‘work in progress’ and it will ALWAYS be a ‘work in progress’, as it ought to be.

    Nevertheless, I don’t think that the onus is on science teachers to point out the ‘scientificness’ of science all the time, or to point out religious ‘truth claims as alternative truth’ which science only incidentally happen to debunk hare-brained, ignorant religious points of view.

    Seems to me that this, putting the onus on science teachers to become religious apologists, is what you desire.

    We can only imagine Home Ec. teachers having their students scream, “It’s a MIRACLE!”, every time they pull a baked cake out of the oven, simply to appease the extreme fanatics who want them to learn, not only baking but, that God is involved in every aspect of their lives?

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  161. Watching a show on Antarctic dinosaurs where the question arises, how could dinosaurs and the plants and insects and so on survive at the South Pole, what with their horrendous conditions in the winter.

    Seems to me that they ought to get together with the plate techtonics guys here.

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  162. Ian; I think the problem with Matt is that although he’s fairly smart (Madeline, not so much), he thinks that he knows that his religion is THE TRUTH, which means everyone else is wrong. Additionally, he sees secularism as a "belief", so that “belief” is wrong as well. He doesn’t see secularism for what it actually is, a neutral system that is merely trying to accommodate the views of most everyone in the system, including his views.

    Secularism is not a “belief” because it doesn’t explicitly make any claims about any of the many Christianities, whether they are right or wrong, but it, by necessity, has to recognize that there are christianitIES as well as other religions (and the non-religious) in our societies. Secularism doesn’t say that the doctrines of the “Reformed Baptist Church of God Reformation of 1915” cannot be part of our system because they are wrong, it says they those doctrines can't be part of our system because other sects have contradictory doctrines so it’s best for everyone to keep it all out of the government. They don’t get that very important distinction, because they think they know that the doctrines of their sect are THE TRUTH. This would lead them to believe that supporters of secularism don’t see what they think they know to be THE TRUTH or they think we do know THE TRUTH and we don’t like it so we want to suppress it. The reason we’ll never see eye to eye with folks like Matt and will continue to argue past each other is not because we share different beliefs, but because we have different epistemologies. And that creates an even bigger gulf than the difference between a member of the Reformed Baptist Church of God Reformation of 1915 and a Wahbist.

    Obviously, it’s a mess for these people when policies concerning things like reproductive rights are directly opposed to their beliefs or when science directly contradicts their beliefs, but that’s their problem. They can go live in a commune if they really need to*. Seriously.

    * but rarely do they really need to, instead they just like to whine about being persecuted…

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  163. Brian said "OBAMA SUCKS!"

    Well, he did just repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell...

    ReplyDelete
  164. "National Inquirer"

    'Extraterrestrial LIFE, claimed to be found my millions!'

    In a stunning announcement by leaders of various clubs across the world, they claim to have actually discovered extraterrestrial, non-biological life.

    We put it to the Director of SETI, who was less than impressed by this announcement, "We at SETI have been aware of these clubs for quite some time, and are less than impressed by this announcement."

    When asked, a spokesperson for Christian Science Monitor simply sneered, "See?, We told ya!"

    An actual scientist has made an attempt to study this phenomenon, how it works, if a purported 'spiritual connection' was detectable or measurable, but was suitably mystified by the total affront of adherents who sneered, "You have to 'know' BEFORE you know! You know?", before knocking him over and kicking teh everloving crap out of him, punctuating their kicks with remarks like, "Peace and goodwill to all men, muthafucka!", and, "Here, have some GOOD NEWS, atheist asshole!"

    The scientific consensus is that we are constrained to 'play along' or they will 'fuck you up'.

    Merry Christmas everyone, and a happy Winter Solstice, the natural new year and the rebirth of the Sun.

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  165. Yes Ryan, you are very correct in pointing that out. I had noticed.

    Which brings us to my new post, it being up, is the point......

    ReplyDelete