Town Quixote's

[Town Heretic]

Seriously...I can almost see a Gazette now...but not now. Now a momentary response to a friend of mine who began a conversation by wondering if his wanting to walk through Harlem armed was a sign that he might be a racist.


So I said:

Are you racist if you carry a gun passing through a poor neighborhood? Not inherently. Are you if you find yourself carrying a gun because a black family moved into your neighborhood? Probably.

I suppose the question would be if you're that fearful of it why on earth walk through Harlem at all? And the larger point would be are you fearful because you've heard the crime rates are elevated or because you're surrounded by black people? So it would depend on the individual.

Then he suggested racism carries weight and had become a gratuitous assertion as used of late.

I agree racism is an important term and shouldn't be applied willy-nilly. I also think it by and large isn't by most people. How some radicalize it is of less practical importance than how some racists do. It's a thing for reasonable, rational people to understand.

So no, it isn't an entirely or necessarily gratuitous assertion, only one that requires us to consider both the use and source. Doesn't sound like much work and better than pretending its application and the racist can't be determined.

Then he went off with a laundry list of inappropriately mated "things that irk me about minorities without actually calling the card" bit.

I think you lost focus at the end. Gang-bangers are criminals, so that's a repeat and a needless one unless you mean to slant it toward minorities, the largest contributor to that hyphenated particular. Likewise mixing in people who make, to my mind, poor fashion choices with criminals. And it's also popularly perceived as a choice made by minorities. Then pooling that with the ignorant, however you feel about the clothing or music or whatever seems a poor choice on the whole.

Before he suggested racism might be a survival instinct.

Lastly, racism isn't a survival instinct, it's an irrationality hiding behind the appearance of reason, like phrenology or playing the lottery and thinking you might win. I'm glad we're far less racist, but I'm troubled when 33% of Republicans and 12% of Democrats are moving so slowly along that line that interracial marriage is problematic for them...it speaks to a long road left for a great many of us to walk, don't you think?

 

[IMJerusha]

Seriously...I can almost see a Gazette now...but not now. Now a momentary response to a friend of mine who began a conversation by wondering if his wanting to walk through Harlem armed was a sign that he might be a racist.


So I said:

Are you racist if you carry a gun passing through a poor neighborhood? Not inherently. Are you if you find yourself carrying a gun because a black family moved into your neighborhood? Probably.

I suppose the question would be if you're that fearful of it why on earth walk through Harlem at all? And the larger point would be are you fearful because you've heard the crime rates are elevated or because you're surrounded by black people? So it would depend on the individual.

Then he suggested racism carries weight and had become a gratuitous assertion as used of late.

I agree racism is an important term and shouldn't be applied willy-nilly. I also think it by and large isn't by most people. How some radicalize it is of less practical importance than how some racists do. It's a thing for reasonable, rational people to understand.

So no, it isn't an entirely or necessarily gratuitous assertion, only one that requires us to consider both the use and source. Doesn't sound like much work and better than pretending its application and the racist can't be determined.

Then he went off with a laundry list of inappropriately mated "things that irk me about minorities without actually calling the card" bit.

I think you lost focus at the end. Gang-bangers are criminals, so that's a repeat and a needless one unless you mean to slant it toward minorities, the largest contributor to that hyphenated particular. Likewise mixing in people who make, to my mind, poor fashion choices with criminals. And it's also popularly perceived as a choice made by minorities. Then pooling that with the ignorant, however you feel about the clothing or music or whatever seems a poor choice on the whole.

Before he suggested racism might be a survival instinct.

Lastly, racism isn't a survival instinct, it's an irrationality hiding behind the appearance of reason, like phrenology or playing the lottery and thinking you might win. I'm glad we're far less racist, but I'm troubled when 33% of Republicans and 12% of Democrats are moving so slowly along that line that interracial marriage is problematic for them...it speaks to a long road left for a great many of us to walk, don't you think?

So are you stating that our criminal justice system is racially motivated?

Is this a conversation you were having here at TOL?

 

[Town Heretic]

So are you stating that our criminal justice system is racially motivated?

I didn't think I touched on any of that, but I'd say there are and have been systemic and demonstrated problems relating to enforcement along racial lines and even in sentencing.

Is this a conversation you were having here at TOL?

No, it was with a friend of mine elsewhere. He's so far to the right he makes me feel like Stalin, but we've been family for too long to let our politics divide us and he has a good sense of humor.

 

[The Barbarian]

Ted Cruz...for those who still want Pat Buchanan, but without all the warmth.

And the humor. Buchanan, even when he's horribly, horribly wrong, can be pretty funny.

Example of being horribly wrong and funny was his characterization of Capitol Hill as "Israeli-held territory."

Example of being right and funny was his observation that handing him the majority of contested ballots for the 2000 presidential election in Palm Beach County (with something like half the state's Jewish voters) was kinda suspicious.

 

[Town Heretic]

And the humor. Buchanan, even when he's horribly, horribly wrong, can be pretty funny.

True enough. I enjoyed him on Crossfire. Wouldn't have voted for him, but he was interesting to listen to. One of the things I liked about Reagan was his ability to coin a funny and insightful line and the way he found writers who valued humor as much as he did.

That's too absent, especially the self deprecating variety, in the body politic these days.

 

[Town Heretic]

The Thankful Friday Gazette​

Let's see...we had a new NBA champion crowned, with the other team partly in absentia...

Congratulations Warriors !!!!!

Yeah! You managed to beat 60% of the Cavaliers's starters in only six games!

:think: I wonder if the rings on this one will be to scale.

While in the blasphemy thread...

Please, please put me on ignore.

Are you so stupid as to think that a person can vilify reverently? To vilify is to be irreverent.

He wasn't saying that vilification was reverent, but that your definition was incomplete.

Please put yourself on ignore. lain:

And...

Did you get my message today Delmar?

Been sick all day and have not been on line much. Started feeling better after I sarted heaving.

So you did read his message.

Then rainee got half way across the river and...

Well, I'm sorry TH bowed out of his end of the conversation

It was a joke. He did that to an actual conversation we were having in another thread a few days back.

because I think these two really do have something in common - but I can't figure out what it is...?

You should probably think about it some more then...that or just blurt out some insulting bit of unprovoked crap.

Is it an incredible ego combined with unquenchable extrovert desires and no real care for other humans?

Went with the crap then. lain:

Ending with...

...I am sorry you are imbalanced right now,

You're like a fish with a clock.

Answered a good question from a stranger to me...

Town, If it is as you say then why don't Christians agree more?

The easy answer is because we're people. I think it's not so much that we don't agree on more but that we make a great deal out of the little we do disagree on, while the central and crucial centerpiece and point of Christianity isn't uncertain in any orthodox Christian circle.

Then, in the Christianity/Matthew distorted thread...

Possibly, but why didn't Jesus specify? An omniscient God would know of the ensuing confusion v.34 would engender.

I don't see it as a source of confusion, though I see it used often enough by those who desire it to be, always standing outside of the faith and in an attempt to cast doubt and divide. That would happen regardless, in one form or another.

Over in the NAACP leader outed as white thread...

All I can say is that this is going to be a real white mark on her permanent record. lain:

Before welcoming the newest America hater to the fold in his America/Prostitute thread...

The Bible says we are known by our fruits.

Around TOL we're mostly known by our nuts.

By that simple measure can any nation or organization other than the US be the prostitute?

THE prostitute? So you're saying "We're number one!"?

I think not and here are my reasons:

Which is it?

Where Pure said...

Religion doesn't make people good any more than it makes people bad. Good or bad, people's religions are just going to be a reflection of who they already are.

If a person finds that to be true they should either change their religion or their approach to it.

And San was back...

...You say "most churches" don't support this [embracing homosexuality within its body] but how could we really know given the tens of thousands of denominations minimum and logically probably more than a million including those who have their own unique version who aren't part of a "formal" church.

If you can't really know they you can't really make your claim against those same churches, reasonably... Else, most major denominations, that comprise the largest part of Christendom in the U.S. have either not adopted introducing homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle or have seen their ranks sharply divided and lost much of their membership in the attempt...

Noted Delmar's passing of the mod torch back to Knight, with gratitude...

I hope you receive everything you need and find joy in everything you receive. Your steady hand will be missed.

Tomorrow? Divorce, racism and Sancho starts another "We the devil" thread... lain:

 

[nikolai_42]

True enough. I enjoyed him on Crossfire. Wouldn't have voted for him, but he was interesting to listen to. One of the things I liked about Reagan was his ability to coin a funny and insightful line and the way he found writers who valued humor as much as he did.

That's too absent, especially the self deprecating variety, in the body politic these days.

Anyone who enjoys Calvin and Hobbes can't be void a sense of humor...

What Does Calvin and Hobbes Have to do with Obamacare?

 

[Town Heretic]

Anyone who enjoys Calvin and Hobbes can't be void a sense of humor...

What Does Calvin and Hobbes Have to do with Obamacare?

Though lots of people who enjoy great music can't sing or play a lick.

 

[Town Heretic]

Two women who removed a Confederate battle flag from outside of the South Carolina State House are being charged with defacing a monument.

I say let them plead then give them community service counted as satisfied by the amount of time it took them to take the flag down.

 

[IMJerusha]

I didn't think I touched on any of that, but I'd say there are and have been systemic and demonstrated problems relating to enforcement along racial lines and even in sentencing.

I think it was probably your statement about crime rates and black people that led me to connect those dots. Any time someone talks about crime rates, I immediately think of the criminal justice system as that is typically where crime stats originate.

No, it was with a friend of mine elsewhere. He's so far to the right he makes me feel like Stalin, but we've been family for too long to let our politics divide us and he has a good sense of humor.

Bummer. It would make for good thread discussion.

 

[IMJerusha]

Two women who removed a Confederate battle flag from outside of the South Carolina State House are being charged with defacing a monument.

I say let them plead then give them community service counted as satisfied by the amount of time it took them to take the flag down.

How long did it take them to take the flag down?

Do you think Obama is ever going to get some history lessons under his belt?

 

[Town Heretic]

The Thank God It's Monday Gazette​

Hope you're tangentially in love with the Marx Brothers, because you're about to get...A Day at the Racists...

If people were really intent on improving race relations in America, they'd demand that this racist organization [NAACP]be disbanded.

Like suggesting the way to improve crime is by getting rid of the police. Or, we should work together for the day when that organization isn't necessary as a means to protect the black minority from systematic and individual acts of racist nonsense.

And...

So you want to talk about the removal of God from our society?

You mean the appearance of God in our society? Because God is doing just fine in our house. How's he doing in yours?

How about we start with your beloved ACLU?

The ACLU has routinely defended Christians being unfairly denied the exercise of right and people in general, from the guy whose housing association wanted to pull down his American flag to the...you know what, I gave you a laundry list of many, many applications of the ACLU's efforts that demonstrated their point isn't an anti patriot or religious view, but here you are still pounding the drum.

So at this point your ignorance is of the willful sort. You don't have to agree with every stand by the ACLU any more than you have to agree with every idea that passes on the Hill, but both ideas and groups are good to have around. If you don't get that I can't help you.

Sancocho Panza was saddling his anti-American hobby horse...

I'd like to see this historical evidence but still you can't deny that America is lost.

I think everyone already got your disdain with the "US as prostitute" thread. Santigo...As in Chile? Home of human rights abuse on a staggering scale Chile?...America is a mixture of the best (rights and freedoms) that a compact can offer and some of the worst (abortion, racism) that an abuse of law and reason can allow. We always have been. And the only thing I can say in the broader sense is that we compare favorably to any alternative existing on the planet.

While over in the witness thread, GT was hammering home a point...

...we have to ENDURE. Can't you see that?

Well, if conversing with you has taught me anything (and mathematically speaking it had to) it's how to do that.

Then the oft worried response to the latest thread pruning left me speculating...

I'm down to 77 threads and under 20k posts now. At this rate I'll be a newbie by the weekend.

:shocked:

Summed my response to the Confederate battle flag debate...

...The flag needs to go from any government held property, aside from being a museum piece.

Suits me.

The Klan and other violent racist groups have adopted the Confederate battle flag as their symbol and the South, under that flag, was trying their best to preserve the institution of slavery, so all things considered and as a relative of the late General Lee, I think it's time to move on from that one. There's much to admire in Southern heritage. We don't have to drag the disgraceful parts of it that shouldn't be honored forward into the present century. A battle flag that represented slaveholders and the war they started to preserve their interests should be discarded by descendants of the majority who were so poorly used.

As bybee asked... Do You Like Yourself?

I think it's a tough question...I'd say I don't think much of the original building, but I love what Christ has done with the place.

Back in the pruning thread...

Why were hundreds of my posts deleted?

But really, if we have one of them... lain:

Tried to assuage concerns on a point...

...that tiny fraction of the population has just slew religious liberty which was one of the pillars of this nation's heritage.

Not one hair on the head of religious liberty is out of place as a result of this ruling, though more than a few noses might be. No one altered a single church's stance on the morality of homosexuality with this ruling. No one required anyone so offended by the state's sanction to seek that sanction for their own union or to consider their union lessened because of the ruling if they do.

But...

Oh well, the nation is going to hell in a hand basket.

At least it will be a fashionably put together hand basket. lain:

Tomorrow? Oh, lots and lots, I'd imagine...

 

[Town Heretic]

The Hump Day Gazette​

Discussed concerns over the S. Ct.'s decision on gay marriage...

...this decision has the potential far reaching effects that nobody...even you see at this point.

All that exists beyond the truth of the moment is speculation, informed and uninformed. What's foreseeable is challenge. Of course. I and any reasonable person considering the thing should see that. But potential for harm isn't harm itself and it isn't an argument against a thing that doesn't in and of itself work that harm.

...When churches continue to stand in the way of

To no effect. It isn't lost on anyone in that community that a) the public tide has turned, or b) that even churches are split to some extent these days, or c) that the day was won and those churches have no real chance to undo what the Court has accomplished, even with a political and popular will that is missing.

And...

...the Men in Black need not consult you or anyone about the decisions they make. The problem is there is no check and balance to their power.

Sure there is. How do you think slavery was defeated as a legal institution, ultimately? It wasn't by a Court ruling.

Elsewhere, repchk fouled one into the stands with...

i cannot take seriously a grown person who is obsessed with Tigger

___

You're confusing Hobbes with Tigger.

Perhaps your head is filled with Pooh? oly:

Answered a reasonable question about flags...

Slavery continued in some of the Northern states after the emancipation proclamation. How is the US flag not every bit as much a symbol of racisim?

Because the flag of our country represents a larger tapestry, including states and peoples who came long after that conflict, but it is also the flag that flew over those who paid the ultimate price to correct that founding mistake and denial of human dignity. The Confederate battle flag represents those who fought to continue it for men who valued profit over human dignity and has gone on into a modern age as a symbol of hatred and violence in the name of a racist agenda.

While for no discernible reason people were critisizing a Christian for publicly apologizing to homosexuals for giving a poor witness...

That might have been done privately.

What's wrong with the way she did it?

Do you worship late at night at a church where they keep the lights off so no one can see you?

Then...

...what she has done here is publicly groveled for the purpose of "approval" in this rip tide that is assaulting our basic freedoms and liberties and will surely be the downfall of this country as we know it.

How can you know that? And if you are for whatever reason in a position to know, having been there and/or knowing her as a person and what she's speaking to, then why the "if" that would indicate you don't?

Do you think that love demands we think the best or the worst of someone when we aren't in a position to know?

Thank you kindly.

Where was the kindness in that, or the charity?

Talked race under the hood...

As the followers of this thread can see, the real racists choose not to talk about racism

JB is talking about racism. That's the bet. Unless you meant "John Browns".

but instead pursue a personal vendetta against a Christian who started an enormously popular 3 part thread that deals with the recriminalization of a behavior that neither claim to partake in.

You know what's popular on the highway? Wrecks.

Racism in America is only the negative side of like attracting like coupled with an irrational hostility and a dash of self-image issues buried under a projection of unmerited entitlement.

(And who said that his mail-order college degree wouldn't someday pay off?).

I don't know. We can't actually see the voices in your head.

(That's how white guilt-ridden liberals talk).

No, that's how rationalists and people who aren't defending racism talk. How do you?

Are you ready to talk about Barack Hussein Obama and his racist/anti Semitic policies yet TH?

No, not that or unicorns or your days at the police academy. I'm more into non-fiction at the moment. But thanks. lain:

Before the conversation was called on account of...

The first part of this answer is pretty good for one them whatchamacallits that make me just want to chew the flesh right off my arm...
But I fear the second part of this answer (the part about the Confederate Flag)could have risen to a higher truth...

You know what sort of person finds the Confederate battle flag ennobling? The same sort who poison trees because the college they never attended lost an ultimately meaningless game to its rival.

Once again I say I am glad the slavery has been abolished!

You're supposed to be glad.

But I have read of the indentured slaves consisting of poor Irish or Germans when land needed to be worked in the settling of this country...

What do you mean, "But"? Why does that remotely qualify your gladness?

Today our government wants to import poor and wants to give them citizenship, have you thought why?Not because land needs settling - but because a labor force that will pay taxes is desperately needed for the future of this government.

You mean the workers pouring through illegally to work anyway?

Have things really changed that much?

Not if you can't tell the difference between those sold into bondage and divorced from their dignity from people desperate for work and pursuing the advancement of their own.

So it depends.

Ending the day on a note of sorts...

...Uncle Tom is a term used by black people [and as just shown, by white guilt ridden liberals] to try to convince other black people that working, education, living well, and setting a good example for their children is selling out.

No, but it's racist helpful of you to think say so.

No, it's mostly this: a black person who is eager to win the approval of white people and willing to cooperate with them. Merriam-Webster

That you think being hard working and educated, setting a good example for children is an inherently white thing rather underscores part of your issues. Those blacks you sit near in church, they're acting white to you?

I think you're near a breakdown breakthrough.

Tomorrow? More hilarious racial hijinks ensue... lain:

 

[Town Heretic]

Post 4th Gazette​

So the resident good will ambassador abroad was saying...

Nope. This is just you being an arrogant fool.

...You are to humility what Gandhi was to MMA. But putting the fool in there really caps your publicly demonstrated problem.

...The regulations your system makes do not meet God's standards,

Some do and some don't. Depends on how broadly or particularly you mean that.

therefore they are not lawful;

That's a meaningless statement within the context of a discussion of the S. Ct. decision, since its contrary to the fact. As a statement of belief and principle it's understood and has been I suspect by anyone looking on. All you ever had to say on the matter was, "God's law is truth and any law that runs contrary to it has no moral force and is an unjust law."

Took exception to an attempt at parallel on my challenge to aCW's claimed credentials...

...he [aCW] owes you nothing pertaining to his personal life,

...He set himself out the authority by virtue of his professed membership in that profession. When you do that it is reasonable to expect a challenge, especially if your conduct brings it into question. No one forced him to open that window.

No one forced me. But while the people who made accusations regarding my particulars weren't really interested in them, which became the mantra once I'd done enough to establish the truth of my claim on point, I met the charge with answers because regardless of their motivation I'd opened the window and rested some of my argument in that authority. It was reasonable to offer a measure of proof. And I did so without exposing myself to any invasion of privacy, as could he.

...but you have no right to demand evidence of anything about his personal life.

It ceased being private when he made it public to buttress his authority and answers.

Offered my best counsel to the founder of the feast...

More than once I have pondered just what government ruling would make Town Heretic concerned.

All you have to do is ask, but any number, really.

Recently? Expanding eminent domain and conflating money with speech. Those were troubling in terms of what they did to property rights and skewing the chance for people to get an honest look at politicians.

It seems no matter what comes out of Washington it's really "not a big deal".

That's not an accurate reflection of what I've been saying or thinking. This latest one, by way of example, is a historic big deal. What it isn't necessarily is a domino that will undo religious liberty or suddenly reverse protections for kids.

What you mostly hear me say is in response to fears generated by people who don't understand the foundations and process of law.

So when anyone says, "Now pedophiles have a shot!" I know that's unreasonable and I know why.

They don't, which isn't their fault often enough, so I step up and say, "No that would unhinge the entire foundation of contract law, which is predicated upon competence, among other absolutes," and that sort of thing.

Sometimes it's appreciated. Often it isn't. But it's always a measured attempt to assuage needless worry and offer comfort in uncomfortable circumstance.

Then chrys sort of endorsed Perry for the darndest reason...

perry was center seat on fox news tonight except for foreign policy
his answer is let the states decide this
I hope the other candidates pick up on this I like perry and wish him well

:think: How's this for a campaign slogan: Pass the Buck Perry for President!

Maybe a big basin of water as the symbol, Perry's clasped hands just above it.

Then Stripe was back with a complaint...

And yet, the challenge remains.

I know you think that's true. No idea why you think you haven't been answered.

Here's an idea: set out a declarative point you think I haven't addressed and I'll happily do that. Or don't. I'm guessing you won't.

And, son of a gun, he never did get around to it. lain:

Though he did manage...

... It ruled that homo marriage is OK. Homo marriage is not OK.

It ruled that homosexuals have the right to marry. OK is something else. This might be hard for you, but you can be for freedom of speech and assembly without feeling every use thereof is OK, agreeable to you or right. That's the tough part of civil liberty.

Then glory asked, reasonably...

I realize I'm jumping in the middle here, but I have to say that every "court" for thousands of years has had no trouble making the opposite decision. It's interesting that the current court thinks they suddenly have the "answer". Don't you think?

...Let me put it another way, before women were allowed the vote a similar argument could have been made about them and a Court decision that noted the wrong headed exclusion of women from the power structure, owing mostly to religious and traditional pressures.

Meanwhile, chrys was busy insulting one of his award "winners"...

maybe you should ignore her anyway
because she is making you look bad

Maybe this thread, over the years, has made you look like a sore loser taking an easy pound of flesh.

Maybe they'll bring back New Coke, but if they do what would they call it?

Tomorrow? I get called an apologist for the Christian right and other unusualities...well, when you see what Pure does with definitions you'll forgive me. Maybe. oly:

 

[Totton Linnet]

I have never taken offence at Chrys....

 

[Town Heretic]

Gazette Sports Update

Cub Race Report :singer:

July is off to a slow start with small but dedicated field. Down the first stretch and into the turn it's GM and glory neck and neck (4) with a new horse ridden by Interplanner hot on their heels (3). They're closely followed by a number of jockeys: Angel, musterion, gen org, IMJ with several horses just milling at the gate (AMR, Rusha, DR and Stripe).

Things are bound to pick up by the back stretch, so stay tuned.

 

[Town Heretic]

The Thursday Afternoon Gazette​

So aCW said...

Originally Posted by aCultureWarrior
While we're handing our congratulations, I can imagine you were overjoyed with the SCOTUS decision.

Well, if the source material you so often use is proof of anything it's that you appreciate imagination.

But no. It was inevitable and within the context of the law, the correct call, but I'm never encouraged when sin is accommodated. Should they have the right? Yes. Do you have the right to do any number of things I don't actually approve of? You do. Is some of that sinful? It is.

And ultimately we make our choices and answer to God.

Tried to warn Pure about the dangers of zealotism...

...the elites have to humble themselves, and they don't want to do that. And by "elites", I also mean the Christian right who do believe they are morally superior to everyone else.

I think most people believe they're right. If you believe you're right and a competing notion is wrong you're either going to leave it there or let that bleed over into how you see and characterize that opposition. It would be easy enough to characterize your characterization of the right as superior.

I'm left to conclude that there's a common problem afoot...it's well and good, if you believe you have the solution to a public ill, to compete in the public square of ideas and attempt to see your notion advance, but when you can't do that without blaming or demonizing, when you can't see the general good intention and humanity of the other guy and credit him with the same impulse, mistaken as he might be in posit, well, then you've crossed over the rational Rubicon and passed into the infertile land of the zealot.

It's that zealot I mostly combat around here, left or right. Because he's the worst enemy his own ideas will ever have and often those actual ideas are worth hearing.

But...

...I have no doubt whatever that the same could be said for most German citizens during the nazi era.

Listen to yourself. You just compared people who differ with you contextually with Nazis.

And yet those essentially decent people carried out. or allowed to be carried out, a campaign of mass murder and mayhem that covered half the globe.

Anyone who participated in that can't be described as essentially decent. Perhaps at one point, before power could mate their internal corruption with something darker. Racist, hate filled or morally complacent people did and allowed horrific things. Much like those who lynched and raped and mutilated and profited by the slave trade, North and South.

And the beginning of the process of dehumanization that allowed people to justify those acts?

...The difference between you and me is that you think it's enough. It's not. Sure, we're all good guys deep down. That and a dollar will get us a dollar's worth of coffee. Nothing will change until we face our own BS.

But you really mean the people who differ with you have to face it. Surely you don't believe that's what you're advancing. It's the other guy's problem.

And the simple fact is that I can see the BS of the right way better than you or they can.

Yes, you're superior in your insight to those elitists and anyone who can understand them in another light. lain:

...I'm not offended by the words, and I don't write to offend anyone else.

The Nazi comparison was a dead giveaway. :rolleyes

:



And...

...A great many Christians miss the "point of the cross", and of forgiveness, and of turning the other cheek, and of a whole lot of things you and I think Jesus taught. Why is that? Was Jesus that bad of a teacher? Or has the religion created in his name been promoting the wrong ideas?

Or maybe it's my old burning field problem. Seventy seven percent of the U.S. population lay claim to the Christian religion. There are over three hundred million people in the United States. So around two hundred and thirty million people and you've likely met or seen how many of those?

I pointed out that nice people are often complicit in atrocious behaviors.

Okay, I disagree. I think that what you do is ultimately make whatever "nice" is valueless.

It doesn't make me "superior". It doesn't make me think I'm superior. I couldn't care less about being superior.

If you didn't find your position superior you couldn't judge from it and you wouldn't advance its conclusions as anything other than another way to see a thing.

And some of them will probably be true. But that's not really relevant to the point at hand. I don't have to be perfect or innocent to be right about what I see going on around me.

So, "Yes, I may be but that's not important, what is important is the next guy and the new one we should be ripping in him".

Or, everyone wants to change the world one person at a time and that person is always someone else.

While in the chrys zone...

I would like to nominate Town Heretic. If you say anything to him that he can misinterpret as an inference that he is gay

She means like writing, "Yeah, so you like queer men. I get that. I don't." Link

then he goes berserk.

By which she means I reported it and a mod read it in context then set her on the bench for a rest.

I suppose I could have gone the more reasonable, Eeset way and launched a few threads, compared the experience to rape, that sort of thing...but you know me, just full bore berserk. lain:

that sounds like a
I hate town more than you do
award

Could be a real competition this year with the ringer out of town, so to speak (see what I did there?).

you do know he is for same sex marriage

Now that sounds like one for the "I can misrepresent Town better than you" award. And there's some stiff competition for that one too.

I recognize the legal necessity and its conformity to the laws of the compact. I'm no more "for it" than I am "for racism" because I'd defend the right of the Klan to march peaceably.

Then Horn actually suggested...

Pro-choicers aren't opposed to adoption . If a baby is born and placed with good parents , this is very good, but the problem is that it's just uimpossible for every unwanted child to be adopted quickly . We alread y have who knows how many thousands of children, some now teenagers, waiting to be adopted . This is a very bad situation .

Ask one of them if they'd rather be shot in the back of the head. Get back to us.

Answered the latest revisionist approach to Dixie in the not so good ol days...

...The Southern Confederacy was made of people who were about something other than owning slaves.

But the war wasn't. The battle flag of that nation doesn't belong on a flag pole any more than a swastika does.

Before Pure asked the darndest question...

Who needs data?

You do, to sustain your claim.

Gates' story is one in a billion.

Source or are you just making that up?

Re: my note that our economic system works...

"Works" at what?

At providing a higher standard of living than anything in the history of man has ever managed.

Tomorrow? We could be giants.

 

[Eeset]

full bore berserk, now that's clear.

 

[Town Heretic]

And because Eeset is all tingly-trolly for the one liners lately (she senses a return of Voldemort) I'm putting the thread on hold for a day, open again tomorrow for the regulars.

The "What Year is it in Charleston?" Gazette
(happily it's 2015)​

So a magician was pointing to the other hand...

...I am not for anything vile. I am not for slavery. But I am not as bamboozled as I think you are, sorry to say.

You're shilling for a flag that represents one of the worst moral lapses in our national history and you don't think you're bamboozled?

Before fzap wrote...

Well, I think I know you well enough that I should not have to admonish you to cast a little wider net than your TV when educating yourself on a given subject.

Well, when you're four you think the struggle against the violent Indian was darn near a war of liberation. And that puppets can talk, which you realize is a mistake by the time you're six or so and until you're old enough to really study politics.

Elsewhere, following a spate of lawyer jokes...

What do you call a bus-load of lawyers going off a cliff?

I don't know. What do you call Stripe when he says, "I don't know"?

Nobody knows. lain:

Dealt with a peculiar tilt of a windmill...

I can see that your goal is to argue.

No, but it tends to happen when someone speaks a thing contrary to your understanding in a public forum...you have to expect that sort of thing. Else, it's like feigning surprise when at some point in a musical people burst into song and dance.

Took a shot at a problem of sorts...

Is there such a thing as a cult of one? :noid:

(mulls)...Buddhism?

Before rainee asked of the ol' South...

Ok, I appreciate you going out of your way to quote...And this topic is too sad for all for me to stay with it much longer but I have to ask you, who was king? Or rather what was king?

Racism. lain:

Running out the string of side bar counters...

... If you're argument has any validity it will win the day without the help of our vaunted legal establishment or scholastic tenure as it's paid champions.

It might. It might not. But the real question is why should it be delayed if it's just?

The fact that it didn't is telling, I think.

I think the fact you first say a thing will out then call time as though it's settled is telling, and a bit of knot for you.

And...

Outlawing a flag is no different than outlawing a word.

I'm not advocating outlawing either by advocating a lack of veneration and a removal of the symbol from flying over government seats of power.

Outlawing either doesn't erase it from the mind.

The last thing I want is to erase it from our minds. I want it understood and the lesson of it encompassed like any shameful thing from our history.

Said of candidate Carson's President/psychopath comment...

One more reason not to take Carson's run for the White House seriously. Disappointing, but not surprising. I'd seen his comparing our nation with Nazi Germany.

Yeah, he's ready to lead the free world. He can't even govern his tongue.

So repchk doubled down...

how stupid...

It was, right? A medical doctor being that flippant with a psychiatric diagnosis he isn't qualified to make and that no one would without a serious consult.

so i have yet to hear Carson say anything ... crazy

I don't see how you can say that, supra.

i think you may have serious mental issues,

Oh, now I do. You're as irresponsible with your rhetoric as he is. Makes sense.

though... for one, you seem obsessed with Tigger... weird..

And your head is still full of Pooh. That's not Tigger.

And I'll end today's flag waving with...

My point was that the Civil War didn't start out to be about slavery. It started out to be about states rights

No, that was the mechanism, as expressed in the legal right to withdraw from the Union, by which those protecting the long term slave interest attempted to forge a new association. The reason they did so was slavery.

and Lincoln, seeing that he couldn't really start and win a war over that issue, manipulated the issue of slavery into the mix.

Just contrary to the facts...The amendment that ended slavery was unnecessary if all he wanted was to preserve the Union and was ultimately indifferent to the institution.

The Civil War didn't resolve that issue just as the Emancipation Proclamation didn't really get the black community of America what they needed.

The Civil War preserved the Union and ended slavery. So it was a pretty good day, all things considered. Sadly, it took another hundred years or so to seriously address full equality, a thing fought by most of the South, the South that trotted the old Confederate flag out to defy it.

...Let's be sure, too, to deface all the Confederate gravestones bearing the flag they fought for!

No one should deface a grave, but if they drop every Confederate monument into the sea I'll only feel sorry for the sea.

Then there was a THall citing...

You have to be some kind of uneducated twit.

Well, we can't all be the product of your obvious education...not if we mean to remain rational or upright at any rate.

If you believe the Civil war was started over slavery, then you are your own special kind of ignorant.

Yes, the sort that reads and reading understands.

But always a pleasure to see you on the wrong side of history.

And somehow my addressing S. Ct. impeachment became...

...If the Government fining a small baker $130,000.00 for not baking a gay union cake, is not reducing that baker under absolute despotism, I don't know what is

We agree completely, you have no idea what you're talking about. :thumb:

Anything on the actual point I addressed or did you just miss talking to me?

Tomorrow? I'm beating words into plow shears. :think:

 

[Town Heretic]

moved.