Royd

Don't forget to vote for the new Messiah. He's offering Hope and Change. Whatever the hell that means.

I'm sure you could find hints of it anywhere. Maybe some comment about how Dick Cheney ought to take GWB dove hunting.

He'll bowl a 38!

I thought it was Cheryl Crow doing that. They do sound a lot alike. A unique sound, but not one that would make me drop what I was doing to go see who was singing.

Just from observation, Michelle Obama is an angry human being. She has had oportunities, by whatever means, that few of us can afford or even have the door opened to us. Yet, she walks around with a scowl on her face. Do you believe that Balack is not aware of his wife's bitterness, albiet, unfounded. Once you stand up in a public forum and make some of the statements which she has, you have entered the game, and can expect all kinds of scrutiny. Every candidate has fired people from their staff for making less hostile statements. What pisses me off about Obama is that he thinks all he has to say about any particular topic that it's off limits, and we are supposed to give him a free pass. That seems to happen anytime something comes up that puts him on pins and needles.

If you are right, why are you against drilling domesticaly? You're a man of science and engineering. Do you really believe that the oil industry acts with reckless abandon as they did in the infancy of the industry? What emotional attachment do you actually have with ANWR? Does attaching a name to some place suddenly change what it has been for thousands of years? Once the wells are drilled, the only thing that would remain would be some pump jacks and pipelines. Any new building, housing development or road is an eyesore, and potentially, contributes to the precious global warming, to those of us who love the look of nature. Are you also against these things or is ANWR just a convenient, safe bandwagon to jump on?

Put them in a giant row boat with enough food and water. Give them a map with the Mideast as the only possible destination, and a compass, and send them on there way.

Don't let the gubmint find out. They might run you in for child abuse. Speaking from my own experience, a day long, summer job where a 12 yr. old kid can come home at the end of the week with his own paycheck, is one of the greatest formative experiences they can have. By not allowing children to work, legally, until they are 16, we remove 4 yrs. in which a can do attitude can be taught. By that time, many have already developed a welfare attitude. If a physical task is too hard or too heavy or too boring they think that it is beneath them. We now have kids who refuse a job because they think it's unfair to be paid an entry level wage. Where I am from, in Southern Colorado, our school, which served a farming community, closed down for two weeks in mid September for potato harvest. It was literally a do or die situation. Everyone hit the fields. I spent two seasons picking potatos by hand, right along side the migrant Mexicans and Navajoes. Then, they developed the potato harvesters and things got much easier and faster, but we all still took the break to help get the job done. Great memories, great experience.

Has anyone noticed that slight pause after,"For the first time in my adult lifetime [pause]. I think at that point she realizes that her mouth is running faster than her brain, but to not finish the statement would have caused everyone to wonder what she was thinking. She realized as soon as she said it, that she had stuck her foot in it.

Yeah, Madonna is one I'd like to do, but never tell my mother.

Reply To -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I find this conflict ironic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The struggle that we seem to have over population is ironic. On the one hand, we say that we need to be shed of a few million, and then wring our hands, and act concerned when 1/2 million get swallowed up by the ocean. First, let me say that I do not believe the whole lightning bolt struck a pool a goo, and voila, but using that concept, that things are what they are, by some random roll of the dice, if we TRULY believe that, why should we be working so hard to stay the entire process, if we are truly nothing more than a cog in the wheel? Again, if we are nothing more than a blip on the screen of evolution, why are we so concerned about becoming a dead end? I looked up transhumanism, but being slightly ADD, I only got so far, what with all of those big words.The gist is that "It's all about me." That topic could become a thread in itself. The bottom line is, either we, as humans, are something special; i.e. made by God;[punctuation]and we have been given the responsibility of stewardship of the Earth, or we are a random byproduct of evolution, in which case, we should have a laissez faire attitude about everything, because, in the end, it'll all work out.

So the person burning up scrub trees for cooking and heating is not contributing to global warming, but if I did the same thing here in the states I'm part of the problem. Once again, there's some kind of false guilt going on here. Have you also considered that because of our industrialization in farming, and the resultant commerce, much of the world is able to live a much simpler lifestyle. ------------------------------------------------------------ Evolution would not demand such a thing of us because, by the rules of evolution, the next model is superior to what's currently on the shelf. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nature has been settling its imbalance issues quite nicely for years, now. If an area gets lots of rain for a few years and grass grows, the rabbits multiply. One of two things is going to happen. They will either eat themselves out of food and die off, or predators will increase and keep them in control. If the rain stops, the rabbits decrease, and eventually, so do the predators. Why should we think that we are somehow exempt from this cycle? Unless, of course, we really are something special.

In Reply To -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BTW, I think that is a legitimate question. Why are we so desparately trying to hang on to status quo, if we so vehemently believe in the evolutionary process? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I find this conflict ironic. How many people on the face of the Earth do you think are even aware of this thing called global warming? They are just trying to get along day by day. They need fire to cook, they go get some dry branches and burn them. As I said earlier, it appears to be a sort of penance for being who we are. Some kind of built in guilt for being an advanced society. On the one hand, we fret about the overpopulation of the world, and on the other, wring our hands over 1/2 a million people being killed by natural disaster. Personally, I believe the Earth could sustain quite a few more, but then, we'd all have to go around singing that John Lennon song. Those who are actually worried about the overpopulation just don't want to be the ones to give up their spot at the table. You said,"Will it be a planet we like." I say, arguing from the point of absolute evolution, who are we to demand anything, one way or the other. Maybe deep down inside, there's this little voice that says, "Yes, you are the stewards of this planet. Keep it, tend it and it will serve you well." Evolution would not demand such a thing of us because, by the rules of evolution, the next model is superior to what's currently on the shelf.

Everybody's got to be good at something. BTW, I think that is a legitimate question. Why are we so desparately trying to hang on to status quo, if we so vehemently believe in the evolutionary process?

So you are going to argue that the Earth, as if it is a thinking entity, has the ability to adjust itself to any number of volcanoes, yet it can't do the same to any number of human beings? How is it that those who seriously believe in evolution, and that everything adjusts and accomodates itself to the surrounding environment, suddenly want to live in a state of staticism, as if we are the final chapter in the book?

Exactly, and who are we to think that if we do or don't do one thing, we are going to turn the tide of natural consequences? It only takes one volacano one day to spew more crap into the air than we humans could in a hundred years. Maybe feeling good about doing our part is just the penance for being born human. That old guilt factor at work.

In the Global Warming Religion, this is the altar call at the end of the sermon. Time to abandon all reasons and excuses, and get right with Al Gore. Tomorrow you'll either be dying of thirst, flood or famine. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But to claim that it's the equivalent of living 1 mile downstream of a crumbling dam is nonsensical, at best. I'll put it right up there with Pharoah's army being swallowed up in the Red Sea, just for you unbelievers.

I don't hold your faith against you. Believe whatever you like. I do tend to have a problem when you (or anyone) claims their path to the Truth is the only path. You seem self assured that your interpretation of the Gospels is not only correct, but the only correct one, and if anyone believes them to mean something else, they are wrong. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Reply To -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Christ never taught such arrogance -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The real one or the mythological one? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Would you like to go through this book of mythology and point out to me all of the characters who have no basis in reality? How about Saul of Taursus aka. the Apostle Paul? How about any number of the disciples? Does anyone who was born without a birth certificate or any documentation of any feat in his life fit your mythology test?

Right. You can't stop the tides, which rise a few feet at a time. But you can stop the dam from breaking, which gives you 30 feet of water in a few minutes. All we can do is not force the climate to change faster than it otherwise would. In the Global Warming Religion, this is the altar call at the end of the sermon. Time to abandon all reasons and excuses, and get right with Al Gore. Tomorrow you'll either be dying of thirst, flood or famine.

They are the coolest and some of the smartest of birds, and they are vital for cleaning up roadkill.

Maybe not in this race, but he used his race to get where he's at. His church affiliation was about getting in good with the neighborhood. Either that, or he actually agreed with what was coming from the pulpit, which, as far as I'm concerned stunk of racism.

I don't hold your faith against you. Believe whatever you like. I do tend to have a problem when you (or anyone) claims their path to the Truth is the only path. You seem self assured that your interpretation of the Gospels is not only correct, but the only correct one, and if anyone believes them to mean something else, they are wrong. The real one or the mythological one?

What does one's sexual orientation have to with everyday bs?

: Calling people "hillbillies" simply reveals that you're a Klansman with a different colored hood. It's all in how they let the word roll off the tongue.

In Reply To -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not at all. I'm pointing out the hypocracy of people who choose to embrace every manner of foolishness, just to throw a wrench in the works, wouldn't let their kids hang out with the poor, roughhewn rednecks, down the block, because they are afraid it might contaminate the more finely tuned sensibilities of their precious children. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ah, I see. You were creating a strawman argument. Ah, I see. You hear the word redneck, and you automatically attach hatred and bigotry. How unjudgmental of you. You also associate liberalism with tolerance. I find a whole lot of hate, venom and contempt rolling off of the tongues of the enlightened.