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Great summary of how Trump looks to the outside world. Someone asked “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, a Brit, wrote this reply: ================ A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: • Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are. • You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' ===========================

I'm glad I have a custom built chopper.

So does that mean I don't need to kill a human to leave the church? And to clarify, I'll need to know this before sunset today. Asking for a friend.

You're not the authority on what it is to have a relationship with Christ and what it is to be a Christian. What you're describing as a "born again experience" is in your world and in your brain, I've never heard someone describe such an event as you do and do not think it has anything to do with an assessment someone's devotion. I did not "simply attend church and participate in church activities". So to answer your question, no I didn't have a acid trip when I decided to follow Christ and the teachings in the Bible.

Yes. Exactly ...and that is of course the case with every worldview and belief system. If you are IN that belief system you cannot generally see anything beyond that. So: If your worldview is dualistic in any kind of "you are either with us or against us" sense, then anyone who isn't "with you" is clearly with "the enemy". You cannot possibly conceive that someone doesn't accept your assumptions and categorizations at all and therefore is neither. (like in your case: You do not even accept the reality of either a god or a devil--while his entire world consists only of the conflict between those two) Your entire world consists of these 2 opposites, there can be no third. Religious views are only the most obvious examples. You can see it on this Forum all the time: Let's say you haven't posted here for a long time (so regular visitors don't already know--or think they know--your political beliefs), and you post something that is perceived to be questioning some point someone makes: You will be immediately assumed to be falling into a specific category, based on which point you were questioning. So: You may question a statistic put up by a gun-rights activist, and in the next post you may be attacked for your (assumed) views on abortion--even though you never posted anything whatsoever about that latter topic. This happens on "both sides", because generally people cannot conceive of a world, where someone does not fall into whatever categories their mind has set up in order to make sense of the world. For an example, look at the thread about car breathalizers, where people who posted completely irrelevant, humorous comments then got attacked for their supposed views on gun-rights. Some world views are narrower than others, for sure--but we ALL do that!

So let me get this straight: If I don't swear allegiance to Ron's imaginary friend, that means I am swearing allegiance to his imaginary enemy???

You folks, and your text, are simply unbelievable. It's as if you wander through life with one hand covering an eye, constantly bumping into reality, unable to perceive the true depth of things, and not allowed to even take a peek because there lay's the work of Satan and perdition will surely be your end. And you think it's we who need new material. Wow.

Not per several of the Burners I talked to. It changed their life forever. Let them see behind the facade of corporate blah blah blah and embrace positivity and whatnot. If it works for them, great. If Christianity works for you - also great!

And there’s the name for my next home brew beer. A coffee stout with a creamy head I think.

1. Denial: "All my life I’ve lived by the creed that they are harmless and not to take it away from them." 2. Anger: "I can't wait for Christianity to DIE!" 3. Bargaining: "we don’t all go off raping and pillaging at every opportunity we get." 4. Depression: "I was/am wrong. They end up breeding terrorists and fucking up people’s heads. But I don’t know the answer" 5.Acceptance: "My only hope is that by our example we can show that it is possible to live and make sense of a world without god. Happily" Congrats on working through your grief! Given that Christianity has survived nearly 2000 years of persecution from the flames of Nero to the gulags of the fucking Bolos and Bezbozhnik propaganda of the LMA and other atheist goons, I think Christianity can survive your level of benign bigotry. Let's just hope you don't start acting on it like they did after growing weary of "waiting for religion to die." I mean, It's not like the soviets suddenly woke up one day and said "hey, let's kill tens of millions of Christians along with tens of millions of other people that are standing in our way of "progress."

I have an update from Jimmy's daughter (October 19th). She said he is making great progress. He is eating solid food now and his trach is out. He is able to walk with the help of a walker. He is anxious to leave the hospital and go home but he still needs some rehab. They are hoping he can head to rehab next week!