Search Results for 'Ba'

[JanS]

Wes, I think we can definitely agree that we need to not take anything we read like this on it’s own basis. Yes, we need to research it ourselves, get what information we can, and then decide what we believe…..on either side…

[Wes]

Ken, you starting to make me think you are bit of a conspiracy theorist….

So people are not perfect and when any religion has too much power abuse begins, I agree. People have agendas? Most people do. But this swings everywhere, not just the “religious right”. Almost everyone in politics, or it seems, does things that some people do not like.

Do you like Dave Barry?

“The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated time and time again that they have the management skills of celery. They’re the kind of people who’d stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow manage to set your car on fire. I would be reluctant to entrust them with a Cuisinart, let alone the economy. The Republicans, on the other hand, would know how to fix your tire, but they wouldn’t bother to stop because they’d want to be on time for Ugly Pants Night at the country club.”

Soo good, everyone is guilty, everyone is fallen, just like Findlay said.

Findlay, email me sometime!

[JanS]

Wes…absolutely…there is always the chance that a belief/feeling will influence their decisions. This particular belief/feeling…the separation of church and state…is kind of important.

Even we will use our personal feelings/beliefs to make this momentous decision.

“It’s interesting that what I was taught about those that were coming to America to settle, were those that were being oppressed by religion in their countries. They wanted to worship freely.” Absolutely on that one, too, Wes…freedom from religious persecution….I suppose that’s why I have a difficult time with people who want to cram their religion down my throat. I even had the woman who stood up for me at my wedding tell me that if I didn’t believe as she did (her version of being “born again”) that I was going straight to hell. She sat in my living room with a straight face and told me that…I showed her the door, and never invited her back again.

So… a little insight into where I’m coming from, I suppose…

We just need to read, read, read some more…and make the best decision that’s right for us based on our beliefs….

Wes, you almost sound like you’re mellowing a bit :)

[Wes]

Again, the writer of the book “Liars for Jesus” makes some claims without basis himself and tells stories without citing references. Those things that he does cite seem true enough, though looking up those documents yourself seems to be what the book is calling on us to do ourselves. So they too have an agenda and a presupposition and I suppose if we wanted to know the truth we too can search those documents as well, right?

Case in point “Not all Americans during the Revolutionary War were the virtuous, Christian citizens portrayed in the religious right version of American history.”(Liars for Jesus, Chapter 1, Congress and the Bible, pg3, 3rd para). Who has made this claim for the author to refute it and why is he not citing a source for this? Also how does he know? He must be assuming, becasue a)as far as I know there is no time machine invented and b)it’s historical and can not be repeated exactly. It may be true or not but make your case Chris Rodda, so we don’t think we are beliving in more lies about suspected lies! And we as individuals should ask and look for these things too. Would you not agree?

[Wes]

Kayleigh, (I really like that name by the way) what date does science give about the age of the Earth today anyways? I think it just got bumped up last month to almost 1 billion. It seems that both have no clue how old the earth is.

Good stuff Ken, but as always I have to take this with a grain of salt, considering daily kos does have it’s own biases about how they think things should be too. But I would agree, what does our military have to do with evangelism?

Also the other article by the kos points out particulars about this very weird house resolution, and says, “It’s a lie.” Ok, show how this is a lie. In all fairness for me to find something you have written and then write in response, “It’s a lie.” would not be just. If it’s true let’s see it. Just because they say it doesn’t make it true, and that goes the same with those pushing for the bill. It still doesn’t seem like theocracy, which I would again assert has nothing to do with the New Testament or Jesus in any way.

As far as Rushdooney’s quote, and I have no idea who he is, what was the context for that statement?

Gary North’s comments are not at all correct biblically and is quite laughable.

It’s interesting that what I was taught about those that were coming to America to settle, were those that were being oppressed by religion in their countries. They wanted to worship freely.

Jan, would it be fair to say that every canidate, despite what they say, will make decisions based of their own presuppositions and beliefs that will affect us daily?

In the end I am still undecided, just like last time.

Good times neighbors!

[JanS]

there you go…WSB getting people together again…:)

[JanS]

Wes…I don’t like the way Mr. Romney has flip-flopped on quite a few things to satisfy different constituents over time…simple enough.

Mr. Huckabee? He can tell us all he wants that his religion will have nothing to do with his being president, but, let’s face it, he is more than just a lay person out there. He’s a Baptist minister…and I think there’s a side to him that he’s not quite being honest about. I think he would have a difficult time keeping the gov’t part and the religious part separate. I have no problem with him or anyone labelling themselves Christian. I do have a problem with my country’s leaders telling me that I have to believe that way, too…having it influence what would affect me on a daily basis…..and it’s just my opinion that ultimately he would do that.

On a political level, I’m not sure that either has the experience of dealing with foreign powers to be sufficient to deal with the things that we’re involved in right now in the world.

Ken…thanks for the very interesting reading…

[WSB]

thanks! good reminder. it’s been a few years since we ourselves had to do major huge in-depth school research. the tricky part here is going to be including all the private schools – we know most of them off the top of our heads but we’re sure we’ll miss somebody inadvertently … everybody check back in the morning and see what we came up with :) (3 AM ADDENDUM, that will be more like LATE morning – about 2/3 of the way there tho) 6:20 PM PPS, still working on it! I never learned the lesson about “underpromise and overdeliver” …

[Ken]

Frank Schaeffer son of theologian and Presbyterian pastor Francis Schaeffer, was pivotal in the creation of the Religious Right

Quotes below taken from a Rob Boston book review at:

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/8/103830/9285

(excerpt)

Consider these choice quotes from Schaeffer’s recently published book,

Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back:

“What I slowly realized was that the religious-right leaders we were helping to gain power were not `conservatives’ at all, in the old sense of the world. They were anti-American religious revolutionaries.”

—-

“Pat Robertson…would have had a hard time finding work in any job where hearing voices is not a requirement.”

---

“Dad could hardly have imagined how they would help facilitate the instantly corrupted power-crazy new generation of evangelical public figures like Ralph Reed, who took money from the casino industry while allegedly playing both sides against the middle in events related to the Abramoff Washington lobbyist scandal.”

---

“Long before Ralph Reed and his ilk came on the scene, Dad got sick of these idiots' as he often called people like Dobson in private. They wereplastic,’ Dad said, and `power-hungry.'”

---

“There were three kinds of evangelical leaders: The dumb or idealistic ones who really believed. The out-and-out charlatans. And the smart ones who still believed – sort of – but knew that the evangelical world was sh*t, but who couldn’t figure out any way to earn as good a living anywhere else.”

---

“Dad seemed lost in a depressed daze. He had recently been saying privately that the evangelical world was more or less being led by lunatics, psychopaths, and extremists, and agreeing with me that if `our side’ ever won, America would be in deep trouble.”

---

[Ken]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/30/12918/167/526/427649

Well here is a story of recent evangelizing of active duty military.

It is quite possible this is more of a convenient method of parting separating soldiers from their GI education benefits, than a takeover of the military, but the pressure at the Air Force academy is very real and has resulted in a decade of fundamentalist who believe the world is supposed to end in fire PDQ, having control of the largest nuclear arsenal ever assembled on the planet.

Note this is posted at the Great Orange Satans site DailyKos…

For more fun, read Bruce Wilson’s, How Fake American History Feeds Christian Nationalism

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/5/155457/0298

(excerpt)

Step 1: Change Beliefs About Origins of US Government. Step Two: Theocracy !

The easiest way to make the US into a Christian theocracy is to just re-write American history so that Americans grow up believing that the founders intended the US to be a Christian theocracy.

The problem with ignoring this fake history is that it then gets enshrined as “legitimate” and if House Resolution 888 gets passed, a whole mess of the worst history lies of the American Christian right will get entered into the Congressional Record and then people who push the “Christian nation” alternate version of American history can point to the Congressional Record and say “see ? it’s in the Congressional Record ! It must be true !” That’s how PR and propaganda work.

H. Res 888 is designed to make the history lies, cooked up by historical revisionists of the Christian right, more respectable. And, to the extent Congress members vote for it they become caught up in a web of complicity – the overwriting of American history.

---

The church today has fallen prey to the heresy of democracy.

— R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: Craig Press, 1973), p. 747.

---

The long-term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise. Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to His Church’s public marks of the covenant–baptism and holy communion–must be denied citizenship, just as they were in ancient Israel.

Gary North, Political Polytheism: The Myth of Pluralism (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1989), p. 87.

[WSB]

I am working on that but will probably take me till late tonight to finish it. I’d like to create a separate schools page, and hopefully will be able to create room for it with the tabs above. Anybody who sees this between now and say midnight, sending your link would be helpful, otherwise I will be pulling ’em all up off the web.

[ToddinWestwood]

Sure, let me see what kind they are first. Email me at the_vanmatres@msn.com and get me some contact info. Maybe I can have them out this weekend.

Thanks,

Todd

[swimcat]

We just upgraded to an HDTV and have debated switching to a dish from Comcast. We’re at the top of Gatewood Hill, and our Comcast service is generally pretty spotty. Can’t tell if it’s the signal or crappy interface, but we’re getting tired of turning on the TV and seeing a blue screen or else hitting pause during a show and then the whole thing freezes up. The only reason we are keeping Comcast for now is On Demand. We use that feature a lot and it’s not available with dishes from what I understand. monopoly!

[acemotel]

Another note from the 34th district meeting last night: the speaker for Edwards was greeted with cheering and wild applause from most of the 100+ people there. There was no speaker for Obama.

[Ken]

Wes. Do you know anything about the history of the Southern Baptist convention and the changes made to it when it was taken over by Dominionist and Reconstructionists in 1979-1980?

Do you understand they forced out theologians and teachers that allowed any variations from the literal interpretation of the Bible, young earth creationism, and the paramount importance of the Old Testament and especially Leviticus?

The Baptist used to vary greatly since one of the tenants of their faith was that God revealed his message to each minister and member through his or her own study of the Bible. This “free will” was a core value of the protestant reformation since it took power from the feudal catholic church’s authoritarian abuse.

Here is a link to two of the better history and time-line pages.

http://www.mainstreambaptists.org/mbn/sbc_changes.htm

http://www.mchorse.com/sbcchronology.htm

Huckabee may not have been in on the takeover but he has continued to adhere to its message which will lead inevitably to a theocracy.

Gimme a mainstream Christian of any denomination and you will hear nothing from me on their religion until they too start mixing church and state.

[Wes]

In reference to the Rolling Stones article, I wonder how one might feel if a report was done that we shouldn’t vote for Hillary becasue she is a woman, or Obama because he is african american? But this article has taken the task to make judgement calls and some pretty harsh words to go along with it against Huckabee and that he is a christian. Should not the criteria for our president be one who has a good political track record and seems to have the most reasonable policies and not what they believe or what gender and color?

Andrea, what part of his right-wingedness do feel goes over your rational mind?

And Jan what does it take to lead this country that those two do not posess?

I am not trying to be snarky just wondering what my neighbors think.

[Ken]

Just a note from the 34th district meeting last night. A speaker for Hillary was greeted with 3 people applauding loudly followed by a room full of laughter by the other 100+ people in the room when the anemic smattering was recognized for what it signified.

These are all people who will be out dorbelling for her in the rain if she is the nominee, but also the same people who are the most informed and attuned to the details and process of election year politics and the relative strengths and weakmnesses of primary candidates.

---

We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

— Carl Sagan

[Ken]

I have defended Ron Pauls consistency in other forums. It is his world view that is flawed.

As far as those currently running for the Republican nomination, he is also the least hypocritical. Of course that bar is set by some world class hypocrites…

I am happy to see Fox shut out and smear one of the candidates from the right, only because it was apparently required to break through the cognitive dissonance of Libertarians who had been strolling along unconcernedly on a steady diet of Fox propaganda and fear-mongering.

Too bad the skepticism had to be kick-started in this manner but the Libertarians will probably emerge from this battle a little more relevant and focused.

Democrats will applaud the return of the constitutional powers to the balanced powers of co-equal executive, congressional and judicial branches, but will fight the theocratic, militant paranoid and “privacy for me but not for thee” branches of the libertarian political movements.

Hell, I might vote for him in the primary just to annoy the WA Republican party. The WA republicans are choosing half their delegates in the primary and the Dems are choosing all of theirs at the caucus. (note: Feb 9th, 1 pm at a school near you)

[acemotel]

I recently switched to ATT and I’m a happy camper. Reception is great everywhere, no dropped calls. The customer service is excellent. The sales person even gave me his private cell phone number to call in case we had trouble setting up one of our phones. He also worked to get us a special refund when the price of the phone dropped a few weeks after we bought it. I’m so happy to leave Verizon, where I had been a customer for years and years. One of my kids’ phones malfunctioned four months after he got it, and they were NO HELP at all. All those many years of faithful bill-paying were worth nothing. Of course, now that we’re all gone, they want us back, desperately.

[credmond]

Cingular seems to have a good signal anywhere I’m at in West Seattle or other parts of town. It gets a little weird down in the valley between Gatewood Hill, and the highlands of Westwood to the north and Arbor Heights to the south, and by weird I mean two cell conversations, mine and another one I can hear. But that’s the only spot where Cingular/AT&T Wireless seems to have a problem and I attribute it to too many cell towers trying to cover the hills. I believe they’ve got repeaters all over West Seattle. Service is fine in Admiral, the Junction, Pigeon Point, Genesee, Delridge, Alki and Endolyne (a tough spot for some carriers) and elsewhere. I’d opt for the “no roaming charge” plan since that way you’re bound to get a carrier no matter where you are – that’s my plan and I think part of why I have such good “coverage.” Plus, Cingular/AT&T have rollover minutes – that’s a very handy thing if you only talk in batches and not continuously. YMMV.

[hopey]

From the link posted above: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/walk/Images/CrosswalkLaw1.jpg

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/walk/Images/CrosswalkLaw2.jpg

Those graphics make it pretty darn clear: drivers are not required to stop for a pedestrian standing on the curb. You don’t even have to stop for a pedestrian not in your half of the roadway.

for the moderator: markup doesn’t work in these posts, even when you use backticks.

[Trick]

I agree with Credmond on Obama.

#2 Edwards (definitely being left out of the media discussion)

#3 Clinton ( I don’t dislike her, I think she’s smart as a whip, I just think she’s following the centrist path and I personally think she’s too compromising)

[Ken]

I like Hillary. I don’t like some of her voting record or her current triangulation . I liked Bill but I recognized the terrible future that both NAFTA and the various deregulation bills would bring.

I don’t trust her judgment, and her top advisor has lied to me face to face concerning touch screen voting.

Other than that I am undecided :)

Edwards is not the orator that Obama is but he understands the difference between health care and health insurance.

I also hope that Obama understands that Bipartisanship means different things to Republicans and to Democrats. Some Democrats still think it means compromise, while Republicans have redefined it to mean “Stand aside plebeians! I am on imperial business” (Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!)

However, if any of the three are the nominee, I will work my ass off to get them elected since they are all far more likely to “First, do no harm” than any of the Republican gang.

“The way to make money is to start your own religion.” [L. Ron Hubbard, 1954]

[JayDee]

Thanks to all. I am really in a dilemma; half the Direct TV/Dish Subscribers really like it, no problem. beachdrivegirl had some really negative experiences with Direct TV, and Comcast has a spotty rep, some good, some bad, but generally higher prices.

Now Ken tells me that I will lose my local Weather Channel station input if I upgrade to satellite…This is the one thing that may keep me from switching–As a weather foamer (being rabid about it, that is) I switch between whatever station I am watching and the weather channel for a local radar/forecast shot when a commercial hits . While it seems obvious that I would miss this with satellite, I’d overlooked it.

I may just remain with Comcast for awhile, get a few upgrades from my current package, and see how this whole HD thing sorts itself out. However, for those doubting the move to HD: Do it, it is truly amazing what the quality difference is. My old TV was a stunner in it’s time, but 14 years later is nearly Jurassic Park for TVs.

Thanks all – JayDee

[Kayleigh]

I caucused for Edwards last time and will caucus for him this time, too.

I like Obama, but I am less impressed with his rhetoric and emotional appeal than others seem to be (I’m pragmatic and skeptical. I want concrete plans for things like health care reform, voting records that support progressive causes, etc.)

Hillary engenders hatred in a lot of people. I don’t really understand why, and I don’t hate her myself. But for this reason alone, I do not want her to be our nominee, because I think it’s imperative that we win–and protect the country from further damage by the right wingers. Beyond that, personally, she is too conservative for me.