Search Results for 'nA'

[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!

[Findlay]

Ken,

I would just say that you shouldn’t focus on what the “religious right” does. We are fallen people who follow are own way. Our actions are not obvious God-like as I’m sure your personal actions are sometimes not.

I would just listen to the message of the Gospel and make up your mind on where you stand.

The Gospel (�Good News�)

There is one God who created everything (Heaven and Earth). That God is all powerful and is without sin.

God created man who fell, by trying to be God (worshiping creation rather than creator). In other words, we create idols (house, car, vacation, family, job, intellect, etc.) that lead us away from God.

Man is eternally separated from God in a state of rebellion. Man will die, permanently separated from the God of the Universe without a plan for salvation.

God so loved the world that he created that he sent his own son (Jesus) into creation to take on our sin so that we may be reconciled to him.

The Holy Spirit purpose is to convict us of our sin and to point us to Christ. By turning towards Jesus, God removes the sin the separates us from him.

The Bible was divinely inspired by God to allow us to learn about Jesus and the perfect plan of redemption.

If you doubt that God could do all such things, then your God is too small!

The New Year would be a perfect time to turn from your current ways (if not a Christian), keeping your eyes on eternity, with a new life of meaning, living for the God of the Universe rather than yourself.

This has nothing to do with elections, a Christion-nation, homophobia, men/women domination, abortion, etc.

It is just figuring out that you are not the center of your universe and that there is an eternal being that you need to be justified with.

As C.S. Lewis said, was Jesus was either a lunatic or a liar or Lord. You must make a decision!

[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.

[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!

[Ken]

Cingular AT&T merger created nearly overwhelming coverage in West Seattle. The original AT&T sites were first leased by cingular before the merger and filled in by Cingular in the months leading up to the merger. Cingular was much better at camouflage than AT&T so they got approved with few problems.

That said, the model of phone it self is often the issue. Some have better reception and reach than others.

There are also traffic issues around certain times due to so many people using them during morning and afternoon rush, sometimes you will get “network unavailable” errors along some of the commuter routes due to cell traffic overload.

Those NIMBY’s who proudly fought cell towers in residential areas in the late 90’s can claim at least partial credit for some of the remaining dead or low signal spots.

[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]

http://seattle.craigslist.org

The search lets you check a box for cats or dogs.

Searching for “West Seattle” narrows it a little but still includes listings from other areas that use either word…

[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)

[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.

[jayman]

My contract is up with Qwest and I’m looking for alternatives to cell service with good West Seattle cell reception. I’ve read the news on Clear Wire moving into WS, so they may be a choice. I’ve heard T-Mobile, Cingular and Virgin may be good? I live in the Admiral District and would like the same good coverage we have experienced with Qwest but with better Nationwide service and phone options.

Please offer your cell coverage experiences in West Seattle.

[cjboffoli]

I just had Paul Lewan from Stalwart Plumbing out yesterday to change out some fixtures for me in my new house. I have to echo the other recommendations here about him. He was a great guy. Pleasant, smart, efficient and reasonably priced. I’m already planning to have him do some more work for me.

[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)

[WSB]

I have just one thing to say:

Glad about Tuesday night’s results mostly because they ran counter to the polls.

My second-to-last boss in the TV business was a very wise man who decreed that we would not cover polls in our newscasts – the horse race was meaningless, he declared, just takes us away from the issues. As the political-coverage manager, I completely agreed with him, and despair as I listen to so much “conventional media” spend so much time on polls. But tonight it was sweet to know that the polls were wrong … because that might force some of my former “old media” colleagues to stop putting quite so much of the spotlight onto them. Talk about facts, talk about crowd sizes at rallies, talk about vote counts, but polls? Methodologies are fallible. Among other problems.

[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]

[Ken]

http://www.ronpaulfacts.com/facts.htm

Just for fun.

If anyone wants to really really discuss why Ron Paul is almost as dangerous a loon as Huckabee, then this seems to be the place, but do your own research first. There is plenty of time before the next primary where they go head to head for the 15th century vote. (South Carolina)

[FreeRangeAuthor]

Well, the traditional way is to investigate what the candidate says and advocates …

http://www.ronpaul2008.com

Life is a self service proposition.

[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.

[WSMom]

I think that Senator Hillary Clinton would make a wonderful president of the US. I think she’s smart, organized, experienced and forthright. I agree with her positions on issues and I believe she has a good plan for turning our country around. Also, I would love to see a woman in the Oval Office. So why am I still undecided and flirting with Obama? I worry that if she’s the democratic candidate we could end up with another four years of a Republican presidency. So, Hill-raisers and Hill-haters out there, let’s start talking. I’m curious as to your real opinions regarding Sen. Clinton.

[credmond]

Ken,

The advisory board members all live west of 35th from North Admiral down to Fauntleroy. That was the intention since the RR route follows the 54 (not 54X). However, we – all 19 of us – have pushed continuously for loop bus systems to join up with the RR and to extend the 21 and 60 so they better cover both White Center and Arbor Heights. Metro does plan on a second round of community involvement once the primary route is decided. That second round would include what additional local bus links (or loops) would be necessary to link everyone in WS with the RR route.

Delridge is an exception since the 120 serves the Delridge corridor (down to the Burien TC) on 15 minute centers Monday through Saturday. Delridge bus service has improved and that improvement shows in ridership – the 120 is now one of the top-ten buses in the entire system for ridership. Proving that if you actually provide service, people will use it.

[Ken]

While the recent House of Representatives “Christmas resolution” was being covered in the PI generating 5 pages of condemnation of Jim McDermott for voting against it, another far more disturbing resolution was introduced, one which, does not appear to have been noticed by anyone.

On December 18, 2007, Congressman Randy Forbes (R-VA) introduced H. Res. 888, a resolution “Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation’s founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as ‘American Religious History Week’ for the appreciation of and education on America’s history of religious faith.”

This resolution, which purports to promote “education on America’s history of religious faith,” is packed with the same American history lies found on the Christian nationalist websites, and in the books of pseudo-historians like David Barton. It lists a total of seventy-five “Whereas’s,” leading up to four resolves, the third of which is particularly disturbing — that the U.S. House of Representatives “rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such history from our Nation’s public buildings and educational resources,”

This is historical revisionism on a grand scale and it looks like it will slip through congress with no notice by the press busily baying like a pack of dogs across New Hampshire.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.RES.888:

For debunking of specific “whereas” see this book/website:

http://www.liarsforjesus.com/

Many people here in WA have told me that the takeover of the Republican party in the 80’s by fundamentalist, was repulsed and corrected. Informed people know better. The stealth use of steeplejacking of existing churches, using fake history in homeschools and christian schools, and the appeal to authoritarians of the dominionist, punish everyone world view, has all but wiped out moderate republicans in the WA GOP.

The Theocratic wing of the Republican party is driving now and with Huckabee’s rise in the primaries, they will only get bolder.