peacefuljeffrey

That thing is as much an abomination as a device that would decode people's private thoughts would be. The potential to use that as a tool of tyranny and torture is IMMENSE. And I notice they say nothing of what happens when heat penetrates the EYES to 1/64 of an inch... - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

It'd be even cooler if people didn't put so much emphasis on making everyone else aware of their sexuality. Like, who cares? What do you want, a cookie? LOL! Yeah, I guess you're right about that. It's just that since the current reality is that many people feel they need to conceal their homosexuality, I think it's kind of refreshing that some people are just matter-of-fact about it, unwilling to have it treated as a stigma. It's kind of like when Steve Martin made fun of his own nose in Roxanne. If you take what others would make fun of you about, and put it right out in the open, it's gone from their arsenal. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Just a reminder, but the Bible IS NOT an accurate historical document or a "transcript" of events. I'm confused. If it's not accurate or even CONSISTENT, why do people claim to know and understand it and be able to interpret it so well that they can tell others how to live by it? If it's neither accurate nor consistent, why do people live by it at all? I personally think it is a bunch of linguistic mishmash which, if anyone claims they truly understand it, they are simply bluffing and boasting. I've never "read" the bible -- not in a cover-to-cover sense. I don't think you really CAN do that. You try to read that nonsensical prose and you'd finish two pages and not have any idea what the hell you just read, nor what meaning it supposedly had. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

This is all specious above. We're talking about GOD, who has the means to make his rules not only KNOWN by all, but UNDERSTOOD by all. He has the means to have a glowing book of his rules appear in the midst of any human settlement, readable even by the illiterate, if he so chose. He does not do so, though. And we are left with the imperfect leadership of people who actually pursue positions of power and leadership -- which by itself calls into question the legitimacy of all the edicts they issue. I have not been satisfied by any answer to date, to the question, "How are we supposed to know who is following god's true rules?" The prime reason we don't have an answer to this is that there are no "true god's rules" because they were never issued, because the rules we have are man-contrived, because there is no actual god. According to Occam's Razor, this is the most likely conclusion when faced with the mystery of why there are so many "gods" and so many claims of "god's rules." You are plenty correct about how contradictory the bible is, and how bizarre it is that there are hundreds of religions, EACH one claiming to explain (with mutual exclusivity) the origins and nature of creation. I say that it is really freaky that despite all of that, members of each religious persuasion, aware of all the other types of religions, instead of doubting ALL of them, cling to THEIRS and insist it must be the right one. Then there are people I've known who spent years, decades, believing in one religion, only to convert to another -- apparently they think that the new one explains things much better. Or maybe the rules are more comfortable to live by, I dunno. And I have to wonder what they think of the fact that they once thought the first religion had everything truly explained, and now they think that of the new religion. What if ten years go by and they find yet another religion that they think is the "right" one? Suddenly the certainty they had that the second religion was "right" dissolves, and with nary a mention of the error of having been duped by it for so long, all the while proclaiming its righteousness, they switch yet again. OR, they adopt a weird, personalized, customized AMALGAM of the several religions. Now they really can't be said to be of any particular religious persuasion, and how valid is the freako hybrid belief system they now have? That kind of thing just proves it to be a system of convenience, existing merely for mental comfort against the strain of existing on an inscrutable plane and knowing essentially nothing about who we are and why we're even here. Blue skies, - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Nobody's more peaceful than I am... DAMMIT!! -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I certainly am against the so-called "gun free zones." Tell me, does posting a sign outside a school that says, "DRUG-free school zone" truly mean that the school is magically free of drugs now? Why would it be true if the sign replaced "drug" with "gun"? I am in favor of people who are rightly qualified to carry concealed handguns being entitled to carry in a school as well. What are we saying if we allow them to carry at the shopping mall, but then not at a school? That the school kids are more worthy of protection than the shoppers, who also are moms, dads, and kids? If a person means to enter a school with a gun for the purpose of killing people, the fact that guns are not allowed there will do nothing to stop him. BUT, teachers who might have CCW permits and be armed in the classroom could feasibly STOP an armed attack. Probably would have helped in Columbine if an adult, with shooting practice and a shooting hobby, could have had a gun to stop those two maniacs. As it was, all the good people were dutifully unarmed, making them far easier to kill. There have been incidents in which people have stopped school attacks with their own guns -- guns they had to GO TO THEIR CARS TO RETRIEVE. That time costs lives. One was a school principal who went and got his .45 from his car, and confronted a kid who had just shot people. He got the kid to give up without having to shoot him. (That might have been the Kip Kinkel story, not sure.) Another was that Nigerian dude in the law school who shot some instructors because he was failing out. Two guys who had guns in their cars went and got their guns and confronted the maniac. Funny, the news stories around the country, with the exception of something like FOUR news outlets, all reported that "students confronted, tackled and disarmed" the attacker, but did not mention that two people confronted him with DRAWN GUNS in so doing. Guns in schools can stop gun violence in schools. I support permits being honored there as anywhere else. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Nothing in the Bible that I am aware of, but Catholic doctrine states that the 'bread' must be wheat based. The family had gotten her a rice based host and was later told that the communion was invalid simply due to the type of grain the host was made from. Jen If "catholic doctrine" does not come from the bible, or from a burning bush, then it's useless, and just the power-trip of some people who have set themselves up as the "religious elite." If it didn't come from god, how can it be legitimate? It just came from man. Hardly worth treating as divine law. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

This has me baffled. They believe that the bread and wine are actually the FLESH and BLOOD of the man, Jesus Christ? Does that mean they're believed to truly be eating human flesh, transformed from bread and wine? I'd say that fairly makes Christians cannibals, does it not? And the idea that alcoholics can have the communion wafer, and those with the wheat allergy can have the wine, kinda leaves out the possibility of an alcoholic having the wheat allergy as well. What does he do? Try to find a nice cozy spot in hell and make the best of it? - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

The inconsistency of the Church is part of the reason it's such bullshit, all around. If it were God's true rules, they'd be the same all over the place. What if you worship where they don't have the rules quite right? You're fucked for all eternity?! - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Is ROME the focus of worship, or is it supposed to be God and Jesus? Does the bible provide for the creation of a Pope, and say that he will be the final arbiter of the right and wrong way to worship God and Jesus? I'm asking because I honestly don't know -- but I suspect not. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

He probably can't do it on his own initiative exept as a gesture of support, it wouldn't affect what was recorded in the record books. I think the Koreans are in talks with the gymnastics officials at the moment, if they don't work they'll take the case to the court of arbitration for sport. They've already changed medals in the team and individual equestrian events. If he gave back the medal, and in press conferences said, "He is the real gold medalist," it wouldn't matter much whether he's "allowed" to turn the medal over to the true winner. And Almanacs, at any rate, would record the truth of what happened, even if not the Guinness Book. Almanacs have a tendency to try to get at what really went down, and not just the official story. It would be noteworthy to say, "Although the IOC says that the American won, the American himself handed over the medal to the Korean, in a gesture of supreme sportsmanship and honesty." - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Are you saying that even homosexuals are bigoted, and sometimes even turn on their own, if they're not "gay" enough?? For what it's worth, I think it's pretty cool that you're, like, "Yeah, I'm gay, whatever." I don't think it oughta be anything people have to hide. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

And certainly not gays, unwed parents, divorced people, those who have had abortions... - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I long ago stopped expecting anything rational, reasonable, fair, or meaningful from organized religion, particularly the Catholic church. I thought they have a commandment against idolatry. I thought that nothing is supposed to be put before god, no symbols, etc. So here they are, saying that the symbol of this unleavened bread is soooo sacrosanct that it cannot be made of anything else but wheat and still symbolize what it is supposed to. I wonder what the Catholics would do if some worldwide blight killed all wheat in the world. Hmmm? It's not unfeasible. It may not be likely, but it's something that could, technically, happen. Would that mean there could be no communion? I also have a problem with other religions -- I'm equal time. Like this thing about not working on the Sabbath, for Jews. I knew "orthodox" Jews in college, who since they could not operate things like televisions on the Sabbath, would leave the t.v. on their favorite station before sundown Friday. "Oh, gee, what do you know, the t.v. is on my favorite station and I can't turn it off now that it's the Sabbath." Do these people really fuckin' think GOD is FOOLED by their skirting the rules?! Oh, and the idea that "pigs are unclean, so thou shalt not eat pork"... God made an animal that he himself thinks is unclean and unworthy?! I thought all creatures were God's creatures and therefore precious? Cows stink just as bad as pigs do -- they're okay to eat, though? Besides, I'd like to know where it is stated plainly in the bible that people are not to eat pigs. Ugh, ya went and got me started on religion again... - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

You weren't planning on breaking real laws anyway, so what value is there in a law that keeps you and your friends from carrying in a bar? It hasn't stopped a serious crime (which was it's stated purpose) so what good is it? Oh, but Kennedy, it caused him to leave his gun behind so that just in case he got to the bar and then became a raving, violent psychopath, he would be without his gun and couldn't do as much damage. You know, because the government must treat us all based on the worst things we might do. And someone like Douva simply can't control his impulses, and doesn't know himself that he won't just go berserk in the bar if he happened to have his gun. (That's sarcasm, Douva -- it's not meant in seriousness.) - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Believe me when I tell you, 99% of our efforts are indeed going toward correcting the abysmal state of our OWN gun laws, thank you very much. It's possible you hear us cynically telling you how yours should be because it is undeniably true that people of the anti-gun stripe are trying to convince us that what has failed to work in your country should be adopted without question in our own country. It would help in persuading us if there could be a SCRAP of success shown to have come from gun control in the U.K. before we stole the guns from American citizens. edit: And technically, all we're really advocating for the U.K. is to go back to how things WERE; if not all the way back to when gun owners didn't have to be licensed, at LEAST back to where they were allowed to HAVE guns at all. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I couldn't have said this any better. Well, to be a stickler... You could have improved the questionable grammar in this sentence: "My conscience is sometimes overactive, but in this case would force me to give the gold the the true champion. I think there is an "it" needed. edit: AND delete the extra "the." edit: And replace it with a "to." - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I was split between "give it to Yang" and "they had their chance," but I went with the former. I think he'd show that he's the better, bigger man if he could make that noble concession. But this bullshit idea of "make a second medal" is disgusting. ONLY ONE GUY WON THE TOP SCORE, when it is figured properly. Apparently that guy is Yang, even IF the score wasn't protested "in time." Giving a second medal to Yang would be diminishing his win, and mollifying a crybaby Hamm (if Hamm was going to whine about having the medal taken back). I don't think Hamm should keep the medal, because if I were him, I would not feel good about a medal I was given amidst protest and controversy. I would want a clean, uncontested win. (Granted, I think the subjectivity of judging gymnastics with this 10 point system makes any "win" sketchy in the first place. How on earth is a person .12 better than someone else??) This notion of making a second medal for the real winner so that the NON-real winner won't feel "cheated" is just touch-feely everyone's-sense-of-self-esteem-must-be-protected-at-all-costs liberalism. You don't seem conservatives catering to people's whininess. (Yeah, I said it! Come get me!) - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I don't know if I can say truly that the American democratic process has ever NOT been petty, childish, dishonest and deplorable. But it certainly does seem like the process is conspicuously so nowadays, and I also feel there is a parallel between the "anything goes" attitude of political campaigns and the "anything goes" attitude in society in general, be it Hollywood, with actors knocking each other up and then splitting, even without having ever been married, to rampant drug use and everyone and his uncle either in rehab (and failing to stay clean) or heading there, and the unbelievable permissiveness that has replaced any semblance of morality. Now, I'm not a moral preacher and I'm not talking about being all lilly white and virginal, but this is some sort of cesspool we're swimming in lately. It doesn't surprise me that all rational thought has gone out the window. I really believe that if The Rock ran for president in a surprise last-minute campaign, the People are stupid enough that he would win. Or Regis Philbin. I think people are making their decisions these days by thinking with the contents of their intestines. I don't see it getting better, because the behavior keeps getting reinforced. Dumb is cool. Smart is nerdy. Trendiness is god. And it doesn't matter how objective the truth is, nowadays. If you don't like what the actual truth is, simply don't agree to it. Put your on spin/lie on it. It seems no one can agree to any given thing being true, if it will not stand in their favor politically. (The most glaring example, to me, is whether gun control is effective or not.) - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Yeah, well for all the good wishing for that will do, we might as well outlaw dying in skydiving accidents. That'd put a stop to it! Um, haven't we been saying that all along?! Blue skies, - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Woman survives double mal! Crazy, but it's great that she made it! Blue skies, - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Yeah, like the Sony digital Handicam I inherited from my mom, which I'd probably be flying by this point? That "took a walk" from Skydive SoBe back at the end of last year, and never came back. It was suggested that someone associated with a tandem passenger made off with it. No charger, no manual... just two batteries, the camera, a couple of memory sticks and some tapes. I hope it's used by some thugs who videotape their crimes, and the police use it as evidence in their prosecution. (Some people are dumb enough to do that, you know!) - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Anyone who is strongly in favor of "no gun areas" is strongly in favor of "victim disarmament areas" in which the victims have no guns for defense, but anyone strident enough to enter after not respecting the no-gun rules decides to shoot the place up. It is certainly not the case that every "gun free zone" is screened with magnetometers to be sure that no one enters with a gun, so the only people without guns in such areas are those who wish to obey the rules. We typically don't expect that kind of rule-following behavior from our criminal element. NOTHING good comes of "gun free zones" since by their very nature, only the good people voluntarily disarm themselves there. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

So much for permit fees only covering the cost of background checks and administration of the program, huh? The sheriff says, "It's not been anything out of, any tax payers have had to pay for this." Ohhh, those fees can't be considered taxes, then. Nice distinction without a difference. And if the helo is gonna be used for drug busts, why not pay for it out of the confiscated money and cars and planes and speedboats from the drug busts?! Kennedy, are you sure you want to go into law enforcement? A good guy like you, with principles and morals, is gonna be LOST in a soulless world like that. These guys are fuckin' megalomaniacs. I tried to get into law enforcement up in NY a while back, (11 years ago) and it didn't pan out. I'm glad now that it didn't. (And not just because I might have been in the WTC wreckage.) You're right. This shit is disturbing. Not only do they lie about the money for the pistol permits, they don't give a fuck that right out in the open, they're telling the people who paid that permit money, "Fuck you. It's our money to play with now. You don't matter as much as the 'taxpayers' we don't want to piss off." - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Dude, you sound ANGRY. If half the shit you said happened to you had happened to me, I'd be angry as hell too. I just hope you don't go doing something like Colin Ferguson did on the L.I.R.R. back in '93. I don't have a solution to 4-year-olds calling you nigger -- that's some fucked-up shit. I don't have a solution for cops being racist shitheads and misapplying the law to you, either. I hope you can maintain a degree of inner peace, at least, just from knowing how WRONG these people are. It's probably going to take a long while before all this shit is worked out of society. But honestly, do you really think that being racist in the opposite direction (re: B.E.T., NAACP, Affirmative Action, etc.) is a good response that's going to help end this, or just perpetuate the divide between skin colors? I'd bet that a lot of ignorant people who act racist toward you are responding subconsciously to the fact that even as they are told to be color blind toward blacks, blacks are doing all they can, lately, to highlight the fact that they are black and not white, and separating themselves after people worked so hard and gave their lives to tear down the separations that prevented them from being considered equals. Blue skies, - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"