winsor

These appliances, conveyances and systems withstand scrutiny. They do not REQUIRE faith. FWIW, I happen to know the theory, manufacture and inner workings. even if what you assert is true , you did not conceive , make or assemble them. you have to have faith outside yourself . you have to have faith in other drivers on the road. you have to have faith in your pilot , mechanic , bus driver , train engineer , ships captain , dam builders bridge builders architects , you put your life in their hands. total strangers. the list goes on. even if you could invent build and operate it all , you're not perfect, and it takes faith to trust in the imperfect ! Our problem here is semantic, which is pivotal. Semantics is the study of meaning, and we are thus actually talking about two different things. You have latched on to the word "faith," and thereby completely missed my point. Life is a crapshoot, and you point out examples where the odds are less than 100%, which has nothing do do with what I am talking about. I draw the line at a bet where the odds are zero, which is where the "faith" necessary for religion begins. BSBD, Winsor

These appliances, conveyances and systems withstand scrutiny. They do not REQUIRE faith. FWIW, I happen to know the theory, manufacture and inner workings.

Though I support the freedom to burn books in principle, I find the practice repugnant. Putting libraries to the torch is the hallmark of the unenlightened conqueror. Repellent though I may find Dianetics, the Book of Mormon, the Koran or the Christian Scriptures, actually burning them does more to validate them than anything. The Tanakh is a different issue altogether, being but the collected folklore of a big, dysfunctional family. It was not prepared for universal consumption, and those outside the family really don't get it. If something requires belief to be taken into serious consideration, it is not deserving of such. Ridicule is the appropriate response. BSBD, Winsor

to those who are Mormon, the Book of Mormon s a sacred script. To some collectors, comic books are sacred scripts - and a pristine copy of Superman #1 is the Holy Grail. To expand upon the analogy, there is more verifiable truth in any comic book than in the Book of Mormon (not a big claim, since 3x0=0). From the standpoint of market value alone, burning a collection of early Marvel comics would be a much greater loss than putting the Book of Mormon to the torch. In fact, the greatest benefit either the Book of Mormon or Dianetics could provide would be in terms of heat value due to combustion. BSBD, Winsor

In a sense, yes. During Purim we read the Magilla, which purports to relate experiences during the Babylonian Exile. However, independent documentation of the era makes no reference to the "Queen" Esther, nor of Hamen and so forth. Thus, is the Book of Esther factually accurate? Not bloody likely. Does it have some utility from an historical perspective? Yes. It's also a good excuse to overeat (like most of our better holidays - to include Shabbat). Many texts of the Bronze age follow a similar format - inexact accounts with supernatural influence and a poetic use of numbers - but there is much valid information that can be gleaned from the Iliad or the Odyssey, for example. If you buy into the paternal lineage of Theseus to include Poseidon, you don't get it. EVERYBODY was the son/daughter of the diety du jour in that day and age, if they were important enough to be a protagonist. If we get away from the supernatural hokum, and get used to the fact that the accounts are in broad strokes, with very local agenda, there is something to be gained from many old texts deemed "religious" in this day and age. If you want to take much of any of it literally, you are free to do so. Religion is, by its very nature, a disease of denial - of reality in particular - and I am not sure that reality is everyone's cup of tea in the first place. Much reality is nasty, so a warm, fuzzy fantasy may look good from that standpoint. Whatever you think, we are all doomed, so it does not make much difference in the long run whether or what you believe. I, for one, am a skeptic. Dubito ergo cogito, cogito ergo cogito sum and all that. BSBD, Winsor

Sacred script? The outpourings of a convicted swindler, which pins the "plagiarism meter" when subjected to a style comparison against the KJV? EVERY verifiable statement made in the Book of Mormon is entirely false. Native Americans do not have a drop of Hebrew blood, the stated locations of cities with claimed populations of hundreds of thousands reveal no hint of habitation before the arrival of Europeans, and so forth. The Book of Mormon is sacred to the same extent that Bernie Madoff is a financial genius. It is the most definitive collection of baseless nonsense to come along - at least until "Dianetics" showed up. The Book of Mormon is significantly less holy than the phone book. Get over it.

Agreed, but I don't smoke. One Koran can also stand in for an entire roll of Charmin (though it is not quite as sqeezably soft).

FWIW, Judaism is a tribal identity, not a religion. The tribes have strong religious traditions, but these have significantly different meaning than they do to the Universal Religions (Christianity, Islam, et. al.) that have chosen them as a basis. A jew who is a non-believer is still a jew. Rather a few observant jews are also atheists. One can value family traditions without being locked into a bronze-age mentality (three is a rather bad approximation for pi...). BSBD, Winsor

Patience, patience, your proof will arrive. Godot should be here any minute now. Feel free to hold your breath.

Burning the Koran as a photo op is kind of pointless. I find the Koran to be quite illuminating. Specifically, when the pages are torn out and rolled up, they make surprisingly good wicks. When used in conjunction with bacon fat, or just lard, they make very effective candles.

With all due respect, the idea that the collapse of the WTC was staged, and that aircraft flying into them was but a well-choreographed diversion, is one of the dumbest concepts I have ever heard, and I can only conclude that it is being floated to stir the pot. It is often easier to debate against an elegant but slightly flawed concept than one that is so stupid as to beggar the imagination. The Flying Spaghetti Monster has merit as a parody, but "WTC Fizix Made EZ" is the realm of the true dullard. Any third grader who takes this dreck seriously is unfit to advance to the fourth grade. I thus assume the OP is simply putting forth this nonsense for amusement value.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a lot of ignorance is even more so.

Instead, they removed the toilet paper holder and installed a book rack.

He was considered a terrorist then.

Mine does (spreaders at least). I say keelhaul them.

I hope they get what they deserve! Not likely. They appear to still be alive.

They need to save their money to pay settlements for their clergy having a penchant for an activity, the mention of which is banned on this site.

Any problem you have tends to be something you should have learned on Day 1. Keep your head down. Establish the proper lead. Follow through. If you are consistently missing, you are likely picking up your head (at least a little) to get a clear picture of the bird you are missing, shooting behind it, or stopping your gun to take the shot. Another thing that comes to mind is the gun you are using. A Trap gun has a "built-in vertical lead" from a high comb, which makes it a bitch to get a good lead on the bird if it is diving. Thus, with a dedicated Trap gun, you might be shooting over it when it's low and away. The best practice I can think of for Trap is Skeet. With Skeet, unlike Trap, the bird follows the same path every time, so you can get the kinesthetics of a particular angle completely wired. After you can consistently run 25 on the Skeet field, Trap seems a whole lot less challenging. The solutions that come to mind are to: A) Try a different gun. If using another shotgun makes a given shot feel easy, stick with it until your level of confidence on the previously tough shots goes up. At that point, switching back to the gun with which you originally had problems won't be an issue, since you have the shot wired. B) Burn powder. You can have 20% success rate for quite a while - and then it begins to click. You do have to tolerate the period when nothing seems to work to get to the point where it seems natural. Try for 8 rounds a session for a while, and don't let the misses rattle you. C) Don't try to compensate - be as consistent as possible from shot to shot. Even if you miss, focus on doing the same thing again and again and you will quit missing. If you spend your time trying to do things differently, it is hard to nail the feel of the process that gave you the hit. If you are already hitting 20%, by becoming rock-solid in your consistency, it is much easier to approach 100%. In any event, if you go out with the intent to have fun either way, your skills will improve. If you get frustrated and are hating life, you are not likely to stick with it enough to get good at it. So enjoy the hits, let the misses take care of themselves, and have a good time! Blue skies, Winsor

"The truth will withstand any scrutiny." Winsor Naugler III, 1962 Anything that requires belief is most assuredly false.

Ah. You must be referring to the War of Southern Seditious Insurrection. Try the War of Northern Agression. The South did not try to inflict it's will on the North, and it certainly did not try to overthrow the Federal Government. The South freely joined the Union, and freely left. The North then invaded. The sanctimonious tripe which the North puts forth as "history" is revisionist nonsense. Argumentum ad Baculum is the basest of fallacies. BSBD, Winsor Question: Was it really over slavery? I doubt it. Slavery was, indeed, a flashpoint issue. There is, however, a zero likelihood that the institution would have endured into the 20th century had secession been successful. Longstreet's observation that the first thing the South should have done was to free the slaves was on the mark. The existence of said odious institution gave Lincoln the ruse he needed to establish the Confederacy as a pariah state when his military progress was less than advertised. Indeed, Lincoln was ambivalent regarding the status of slaves; the "Emancipation Proclamation" was carefully worded such that it actually applied to nobody at all, and Lincoln's primary approach to liberation involved immediate deportation. Again, everything associated with the actions of the North in that conflict was singularly ignoble. BSBD, Winsor

Ah, Glimmer!

Ah. You must be referring to the War of Southern Seditious Insurrection. Try the War of Northern Agression. The South did not try to inflict it's will on the North, and it certainly did not try to overthrow the Federal Government. The South freely joined the Union, and freely left. The North then invaded. The sanctimonious tripe which the North puts forth as "history" is revisionist nonsense. Argumentum ad Baculum is the basest of fallacies. BSBD, Winsor

Pretty much - that was precisely the origin of the pledge, and it has only metasticized in the meantime. BSBD, Winsor

Being sold into the Presidency. Interesting concept.

Parents and students be warned... During the weekly Pledge of Allegiance, everyone in my class room will stand. You do not have to Pledge Allegiance, but you will stand to show respect for those who have fought and died for your right not to. There are those who will sit out of respect for those who fought and died against the Goddamnedyankee scum who invaded sovereign territory to inflict their notion of "Union." The Union as envisioned by Yankees is like the voluntary lovemaking between spouses. The Union as inflicted upon the Confederacy is more akin to sex violently forced upon a spouse who has filed for legal separation and taken out a restraining order. The North is on a par with the rapist who imagines himself to be the last of the red hot lovers, and sees his screaming victim as simply playing "hard to get." "Come on, you love it!" The Pledge is thus like the errant wife being forcibly kept and told to repeat how much she is in awe of her spouse and will never leave again - lest she have her eyes further blackend and more teeth knocked out. "What do you say to a woman with two black eyes?" "Nothing - you already told her twice!" Yeah, making kids stand will certainly earn their "respect," all right. BSBD, Winsor