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religionisgood's Advice
"I don't believe in well fair" I hate be a stickler for spelling (love it actually) but it's WELFARE. Anyway, your characterization of welfare recipients is very broad and ignorant. While welfare fraud exists and there are people who take advan...
More details are necessary about such a force. I know Obama proposed it, but its purpose and scope were not really well defined. I don't think the US needs a national police force, though. A National Police Agency, similar to what Japan has, wouldn'...
The place is really doing more harm than good. No evidence is required to bring people there, or hold them. No formal charges have been brought against anyone there. Some people are there simply because they were turned in by rivals seeking reward m...
Yep. The Federal Reserve has been an economic dictatorship, and an incompetent one at that. There's nothing to be gained by keeping this institution around. Time to dissolve them.
A guy by the name of Ron Paul :) introduced just such a bill over a year ago to the House: H.R. 2755. It seems to be stuck in committee at this point, but one can only hope it will come to a vote, giving Americans the chance to write their Congresspeo...
I don't think all jobs will be lost to technology, but it's true that factors like automation are causing the job market to shrink in many sectors. Combined with the growth in population, this is a serious problem. Has anybody ever read "The Feel...
The term "pagan", from a Western perspective, is not always an accurate term, because as others have pointed out, it encompasses a very broad, diverse spectrum of belief systems, some of which bear little resemblance to each other. Christians, Jews, a...
Continue reading, phrannie. I made mention of shooting for sport. But it's not a necessity, it's a hobby. And people who do it will still be able to even if there is stricter gun control.
The reason I favor strict gun control has nothing to do with preventing crime. The availability of guns is only one contributing factor in violent crime rates, and it's up for debate what kind of impact gun control legislation would have on crime. ...
I'm an atheist, mainly because I learned to apply critical thinking skills to religious beliefs and texts.
seao2florida, in arachnid's scenario, there are five embryos in the dish. Five potential human lives. If each of those embryos is the moral equivalent of a birthed human, you would be saving more lives by grabbing the dish. You chose the 5-year old,...
"but a already fertilized egg IS already a child!!! " So you believe there is no difference between a child and a zygote? You realize a zygote is a cell?
""Spiritual" is the wrong word in the case of athiests..." Which is why he put quotes around it :) Fair enough, you're an agnostic. The fact remains, you claim that atheists have nothing in their lives larger than themselves. You have yet to explai...
Yeah, I agree that the "what if" scenario is irrelevant to the abortion issue. What if you and your wife decided to have sex one night, and then at the last minute, decided you both weren't in the mood? It's possible you just prevented a healthy, hap...
seao2florida, The username is a joke. Lighten up. And, with all of the other discussions about religion that take place on this board, why are you singling me out with such ridiculous accusations?
phrannie, most atheists I know are well aware of how much greater the ecosystem and the universe are than any one person, including themselves. It's religious people that tend to exaggerate the place of the human race in the universe. I'd also point ...
As I said, I don't know what Obama's religious convictions really are. I can only hope he will rely on reason, rational thinking, and the will of his country, rather than "God's will" in making decisions. However, if Obama is an atheist or agnostic a...
It won't be Palin.
Outside the US, I would have to say Luxembourg.
The US is one of the first countries to elect an ethnic minority president, but many other countries have already beaten America to having a female head of state. It will eventually happen, it will just require the right candidate with the right circu...
rickd, enough with the rhetoric. Nobody said Iran is a more preferable place to live than the US, and that their leaders are better than America's. In fact, jimahl's point was that many Iranians are actually fond of American culture and, now, the pol...
"So you think he has been a liar for the last 20 years, and is also willing to pull his children into that lie to "fool" Americans who are "supersticious" into his camp?" Oh for crying out loud...go back and look at the statement to which I posted t...
No responses yet, huh? OK, well my favorite book would have to be "The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon" by Hal Lindsey. It may be 178 pages of misinformation, false prophecy, and outright fantasy portrayed as Bible-based world events, but the anti-Ch...
Actually, the only First Lady who is confirmed to have had actual seances in the White House was Mary Todd Lincoln. What Hillary Clinton did was not a seance.
And how do you KNOW that, phrannie? On top of not being able to know, doesn't it seem to be a rather vindictive way of looking at the world?
Questions like this arise so often that they used to bother me. Then I realized, it's only 2008! We've got another four years of questions about the Mayan calendar and 2012, so it's only going to get worse. Might as well just accept it. So, check...
The Partridge Family...riding around the country on tour all the time, with a hippie Mom...what life could be better than that?
"Part of Obama's plan is a tax credit for every American job created. This could change the economics of outsourcing a bit." One can only hope. While international reaction to Obama's election was mostly jubilant, the governments of India and China...
"Oh, religionisgood -- You and jimahl are such leftist radicals, it removes all credibility to your postings." This may sound strange to you, but I used to be a very conservative Christian. Then I got an education. You should also know that I am...
We live in an age when many state governments are very dependent on the federal government for at least part of their income. The federal government has basically become a cash pinata that the states, and even cities and counties, can whack open when ...
Immigrant Song
I don't have a problem with people using "chatroom English" or "text message English" as long as chatrooms and cell phones are the only places where such language is used. Speaking and writing that way in general society just makes you look like an im...
Completely hammered.
It's going to sound strange, but I highly recommend Turkey. It may also sound sexist to a Westerner, but the Turks tend to view single female travelers as vulnerable and in need of care. As a result, people will go out of their way to take care of yo...
What does this have to do with environmental issues?
Direct democracy, like socialism, works very well on a local scale. On a larger, national scale, I am less certain. Taking the pragmatic view, I don't like it. The average representative doesn't take the time to read every piece of legislation that ...
It's a joke, for crying out loud.
toadaly, I think the reason you got invited to both is because you're on me and arachnid's friends list. But kudos to you for your enthusiastic posting! I have no idea whether all the people on my friends list are beer drinkers or not (nor do I car...
Karma is a man-made concept. It doesn't really exist. There is no divine principle guiding the universe. There is, however, cause and effect. But it's not based on any moral code...it's simply action and reaction.
There is no grand, over-arching meaning or purpose behind life. Life is what you make of it, and the stuff that happens to you. That doesn't devalue it in any way...it's still something to continue doing, and enjoy, if you can.
"and says he is a Christian" Really? Because a lot of Christians swear he's a Muslim... "I'm trying to remember a President in the last 60 years (maybe ever) who didn't at least SAY they prayed" Well, Americans are superstitious...I mean, er, relig...
McCain is better as a Senator. I actually like John McCain and had a tremendous amount of respect for him, prior to his 2008 presidential campaign. The true John McCain, at least the one who has served in the Senate over the last several years, was n...
"Let's hope that Barack has such a relationship with God." We need the most powerful man in the world to be talking with a mythical being in the sky about as much as we need a giant thermonuclear weapon shoved directly up our collective hindquarters.
It slays me how so many people think an Obama presidency will ruin the United States...it's as if they think the last eight years have been some kind of Golden Age.
On what criteria are we ranking these countries? For example, if it's environmental friendliness, the US is not in the top 10. If it's willingness to accept refugees and asylum-seekers, the US is #1...by far.
Changing the US health care system is probably Obama's most daunting task, and I agree it's something that likely won't happen, at least not completely and not in one term. The US health care system already has a lot of money being thrown into it...mo...
I live in Germany. Many of my neighbors stayed up all night to watch the elections, and others would get up several times throughout the night to get updates (many Germans wouldn't stay up all night to watch their own elections). On my way home that ...
"taking away the freedom of the Americans." No, that would be your current president, George W. Bush.
"Israel will attack Iran as America pulls out to put pressure on Iraq, the US will side with Israel, the nuclear defense in Alaska to protect us from missiles from Iran has Russia pissed, so they're flexing their nuclear muscle too. Don't forget about ...
Climbing mountains. There's something about reaching the top of a mountain and looking out over everything that is very calming, and very rewarding.