Mister P-Mosh

I'm a little touchy on this, because to some people, even mentioning that you are an atheist results in them freaking out and acting like you are trying to sabotage their "walk." That's why the quote from Gervais was especially funny for me. Still, how is talking about atheism evangelical, while Christians are not considered evangelical unless they try to recruit you to go to church with them? For example, if I put up a sign on my desk at work saying, "Atheism is great!" it would be controversial and people would complain that I was pushing atheism in their face, mocking their religion, and crossing the line. However, people can tell me "God Bless You!", talk about their pastor, or put up pictures of angels or crosses at their desk, and I'm not allowed to say anything. I think a lot of what people consider "evangelical atheism" is nothing more than atheists trying to be as comfortable with themselves as Christians are with themselves. There's also the backlash from being repressed by our society. It can be very easy to rant and rave like Carlin did when you look at the hypocrisy and unfairness in much of our society when it comes to religion.

I agree with you on atheism feeling like the obvious answer, but I don't share your view of religion, or Christianity in particular. There are a lot of intelligent, good people that I respect that do continue to have those types of beliefs. While I think they are incorrect, I respect them enough that I know in their minds they feel they are right, and I have no right to judge them badly for it. While the idea of believing in the supernatural does seem like a primitive, outmoded way of living, there are many things we do that could be considered the same. Long term monogamous marriage, for example, serves little purpose in this day and age, yet I still like the idea of being married to my wife for the rest of my life. We human beings often cling to superstition or unnecessary things, but it's part of what makes us interesting. Only when those things become a negative influence on us (such as extremist Christianity like TWI) does it present a problem. My wife is Catholic and believes in Jesus and all that stuff, and I have no problem with it. If she wanted to join TWI, I would have a huge problem with it.

I've read some quotes by him, but haven't been interested enough to read one of his books. I mean, if he writes books about atheism, how much mileage can you really get talking about an absence of belief in something? Does it really require a whole library of books to explain how atheism works?

I've never seen or heard of an evangelical atheist. Do they go door to door? Is there a green card you have to sign and $50 to pay to get a book by Hitchens and a video of an elderly pervert telling you...whatever it is that evangelical atheists are supposed to tell you?

Ummm...this is why Netflix lets you watch those things online, and is working with AT&T (I think it was AT&T) to build a set-top box for your TV to watch Netflix. They're basically leading the way with online movie rentals. The deal Blockbuster had with Enron a few years ago was a bust, but Netflix has a proven model for watching movies online. If you have a new enough TV, you can hook a PC up to it via a monitor cable or HDMI cable, and stream your shows onto there. I do it all the time. Anyway, if you couldn't guess, I use Netflix too and think it's great, especially since we can't go to the movies with a baby around.

Ricky Gervais is a famous actor in the U.K. who was the original writer of "The Office" as well as playing the boss in the U.K. version of that show. He wrote of his conversion from Christian to Atheist: I found that quote after reading some things by George Carlin. According to Carlin, his atheism also came about due to a lot of thinking and logic: Anyone else have any interesting or funny atheist quotes?

I grew up in TWI, and my parents are still in it. Although I was maybe a few years old when my parents got involved, it was most of my life that I was in. My experiences mirror many of those here, although my parents were never in the corps but we were all AC grads and ran home fellowships/twigs. For me, like most of you, I didn't realize it was bad or a cult as a kid. It was just how things were. I did occasionally envy my friends who had more freedom than I did as a kid, but my parents weren't monsters. I got to hang out with friends and do all the stuff kids do, it's just that my restrictions were tighter. My friends and their families were invited to fellowship by my parents, and this did cause some problems, particularly as most people found speaking in tongues to be really weird. The forced witnessing was also bad and embarrassing, but it wasn't anything that compares to the level of things many others went through. There were a few other things that happened that I didn't like and were really bad, but again, being forced to fill out a form to give your Limb Coordinator to get permission to go on vacation is nothing compared to being raped by LCM or physically beaten by an out of control adult. What I would say about TWI now, though, is that looking back, I can see why people were drawn to it. It was a well-organized, friendly appearing group who claimed to have all the answers and could explain it to you in logic and repeatable processes. They claimed to love you and care for complete strangers. New people in TWI didn't see the dark side because the whole thing was a marketing push. The older, more dedicated followers of TWI were taught to devote their lives to outreach, and made many sacrifices to pursue that. There was also a great sense of belonging within the home fellowship. It was truly a family-like atmosphere as opposed to large churches. I can see why this would attract people who are lonely and in need of someone to care about them. The local areas and individual fellowships were not the same as what was going on at HQ, and despite problems down to the local and individual levels, there were enough reasons for people to be attracted to it and stay for long times. Now, I've abandoned religion altogether. You can call me an atheist, I would just say that I have no religious beliefs at all. To me, the god of the bible is just another fictional being invented by people trying to make sense of the world. It's just as useful to me as ancient Greek stories of Zeus or the Roman stories of Mithras (who some of the story of Jesus is lifted from.) I have no ill will towards those that believe in Christianity. However, as a result of my experiences in TWI, I can see how cults are harmful, and I can see how forcing people to adhere to beliefs against their will is a bad thing.

It's too bad we can't have boobytrapped cars. I remember an "alarm" that was in use in Africa that actually spat flames out of the bottom of the car if someone tried to break in.

Gas prices are in the upper $3.80's to the lower $4.10's, depending on where you fill up at. However, fortunately for me, I discovered that my employer pays 100% for bus fares, so now I fill up maybe once a month (although I usually top off my gas whenever prices seem relatively cheap.) So I'm saving hundreds of dollars every month in gasoline, maintenance, and tollway fees. As far as the reasons prices are so high, I see rhino is spouting the typical Republican talking point, but mstar has a point. There's no way that Exxon, Shell, BP, etc. can all be having record profits and be able to say that OPEC is to blame. If all the blame was on OPEC, then you wouldn't see the profit (which is not the same as income) increasing so drastically over the past few years. For those that aren't investors, income is money you take in before expenses (the cost of oil is an expense, as is the cost of refining), while profit is basically income - expenses, so it's what you have left over. The cost of oil should not increase profit for these companies, unless they are price gouging or finding some other "creative" way to screw over the American people. There are other factors, like the oil companies refusing to build new refineries or upgrade existing ones. Why should they, when it would increase availability of gasoline and lower the price they can charge us? Another factor is commodities markets being open to speculators. What this means is that any idiot out there with a few bucks to rub together can buy oil futures, so when Fox News says that the U.S. is going to bomb Iran, these idiots drive the oil prices up even though there is no logical need for it. You'll remember that when oil first hit $100/barrel, it was because an idiot speculator wanted to be the first to pay that so he would be a part of history. That's how easily manipulated futures are. The same goes for other things like corn, gold, etc. There are ways to fix this situation, but it requires government involvement, and by that I mean an FDR style plan until we fix this. We need futures markets to be controlled much better to drive out the speculators in similar ways that the government controls the stock market. We need to investigate the oil companies, because they are all pulling an Enron on us and should be punished. Tax their extreme profits and throw all of that money into public transportation. Control the price of gasoline and oil, and if companies try to withhold supplies to make us think that there is a shortage to try to turn the public against this type of idea, investigate them more and jail the jerks. We need the federal government to improve public transportation by funding it, including rebuilding Amtrak and giving money to cities to build a better infrastructure. We need to start redesigning our cities and towns to be like they were decades ago, without suburbs and without urban sprawl. Everyone should be able to walk to the grocery store, which should be selling local produce and food instead of driving to Walmart who is importing beef from Argentina and vegetables from Australia. We need to start adding extra taxes to SUVs and more wasteful vehicles. We need to fund university-lead teams who find other ways to generate electricity and power vehicles, as well as more efficient engines. We need to rebuild our culture, to where we start acting like most of the immigrant communities in this nation and stick together with family and friends, depending on each other and knowing our neighbors. We have to believe in the value of working together, instead of seeing life as a competition of us vs. them, in order to buy the most expensive poorly built plastic crap from China to make our neighbors jealous. I'm sure what I want is a bit unrealistic, but if we made some steps in those directions, you would see things improve greatly.

My wife's family is really big into plastic surgery (by family, I mean her extended, wealthy family. Not her upper middle-class parents and siblings.) She has some cousins that have had stuff done, some aunts and uncles that have had the gamut from botox to liposuction to nose jobs. Her cousin, the plastic surgeon, is so good at his job that he was able to move up and stop seeing new customers and devote all of his time to an international charity he founded to help children who are burn victims or born with deformities to get plastic surgery to help them. So with all of that out of the way, I have seen the results of very good plastic surgery, and I have this to say: Don't do it. Whatever you think you'll gain by it involves risks and the fact that even if it doesn't go wrong, something may be wrong in the future. If your goal is to lose fat, a good diet and an exercise program will help you and you'll improve many facets of your life at the same time. I'll be glad to offer suggestions on those if you're looking to lose weight, but surgery is not a good option.

I agree with this, but don't understand why people would give Bush any credit for those types of things when our way of life was much better, and people had more money, prior to Bush. That's what my complaint with the original post is. I am happy to be an American and agree that we are better off in most ways than most other countries. I'll gladly praise some of the great people in our history who have made what we have a reality. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, FDR, those are some great presidents who helped make history by going above and beyond. George W. Bush, though, is at least one of the worst, if not the worst, president in our nation's history. It will take decades to clean up the mess this guy has made, and I don't just mean Iraq. He's got the reverse of the Midas touch. Everything he puts his hands on results in people suffering or dying.

I think part of the problem is this idea of trying to get past a death, no matter if it's suicide or not. I haven't had to deal with a lot of loved ones dying yet, but the one who has that bothered me the most is one of my grandfathers. He was very influential in my life, and was like a father to me when my own biological father absolved himself of responsibility, prior to my stepfather coming into the picture. In many ways, my grandfather molded me to be who I am today. He was a WWII vet, a survivor of many deadly things, as well as a father, grandfather, and intellectual. He was a great leader that kept my entire family as much in line as was possible. After he died, I started noticing all the things that reminded me of him in myself and others. By feeling his absence, I felt that I understood more about him than I had when he was alive. I wish he were alive today and would have been able to meet his great-granddaughter and any other future great-grandchildren. I'm glad my grandmother has been able to be around to see everything that is happening. Still, he's gone, and there is nothing I can do. I still feel his loss whenever I think about him, and I will never forget him, or even try to forget. This is part of life. We lose people we love in life, even sometimes in tragic ways when they are too young. It's a horrible thing, and it is not something you can "move on" from. However, you can learn to be ok and you can live the rest of your life. For your sister, I don't think that she can go on with her normal life for quite some time. If she seems to be ok now or in the next few weeks, that's probably going to precede a huge meltdown. I have a friend whose son committed suicide, and she had to try to cope by keeping herself and her other son busy, for her to not drink alcohol for a while, and make a few small changes in her life. She's not perfect, and she is spoiling her youngest son. However, she survived and is able to function in society. She laughs at jokes and enjoys her life. It's just that it takes time to get to that point, and for a parent, it takes time. For me, when my wife had a miscarriage a few years ago, I found it to be devastating. It's good I was already an atheist or I would have been extremely angry at whatever deities I would have perceived to be responsible. While a kid you haven't met and don't know yet was a horrible experience for me, losing a child that you have raised for years much be much, much worse. So I think your sister deserves to have her grief without anyone trying to tell her how to become happy or anything like that. She needs support, and she needs people asking her what they can do to help her, rather than people telling her what she needs or how she will get over it. As far as religion is concerned in this case, I think I'd tell her that I personally wouldn't want to be a part of any belief system where a victim (as I assume something was going on with your nephew that drove him to this) would be punished so severely he would be sent to hell. Actually, I wouldn't want to be a part of any religious group that believes everyone but them are going to hell anyway. What kind of just, caring god would set up a place of torture and everlasting suffering and use it to make threats to coerce you into "loving" him so you don't get sent there? Church leaders that harp on the whole idea of hell (which, as I understand it, the American Christian concept of hell is not biblical anyway) are pushing fear, and are not people that should be ministering to anyone. Anyway, I'll get off of my soapbox for now because I don't think you need it, but hopefully there is something in my words that can help you. You and your family have my condolences.

The Chinese don't have the same "love" for animals that we Americans do. They seem to mostly find the idea of pets to be silly, because why would you keep an animal around that you aren't going to eat? Anyway, there's not much we can do when they don't even value human life.

Actually, it's been found that in many of the cases where the bad e. coli ends up on vegetables, it's because the vegetables are watered with raw sewage water.

According to New Scientist, a major evolutionary leap has been observed in e. Coli bacteria, caused by multiple random mutations in many generations. According to the article: While this is not meant to trigger a creationism vs. evolution debate, I thought this was a topic that would interest people here as it is a pretty big deal that people were able to witness such a major shift in a species' evolution occur like this.

Actually, I'd be curious as to what this "American culture" is as well. I've lived all over the country, on all three of the mainland coasts, and have never seen one unified culture. Even in the same city, there are various cultures.

Wow, the president is responsible for maintaining my HVAC system as well as water treatment in my neighborhood? Who would have guessed? I thought all these things existed long before George W. Bush was even born. Anyway, whoever wrote that email is probably a paid Republican propagandist. I question your judgment in posting it though, as it's a nonsensical, bitter, scolding, steaming pile of crap. It gives Bush credit for things he has nothing to do with, rewrites history, and doesn't mention any of the horrific things he has been responsible for. Seriously though, if we get to a point where we have a president that can keep all Americans from having heat and air conditioning in their houses, I think we'd all be in the streets by that point. This thread was one of the stupidest things I've read on this site in a while, even worse than the hysterical accusations of Obama being a Marxist.

Well, while I'm not going to post photos that I took (I don't want to have my real name associated with my GSCafe nickname) I did a quick Google search and found a few photos from a state park that is about 20 minutes or so from my house. So, these are the sort of critters we have running around down here: If you're curious, yes, that is an alligator right next to the footpath. They're all over the place and you can walk around them without worrying too much. I assume the park rangers feed them or something, because there are no barriers between you and the gators. Perhaps they go to someone's animal farm and chow down at night.

I assume I am from planet Earth, at least that's what my mother told me. When I first came to Texas, I sweated like one of those pigs you all keep talking about. However, I assume my core temperature changed, and now I'm better able to tolerate the heat, but not so much the cold. When it's in the 70's, I have to wear long sleeves to be comfortable now, where that used to mean it was time to wear shorts. Now, I generally don't sweat until it's in the mid to upper 90's, or I'm doing a lot of physical activity in which case all bets are off. As far as the future of Texas is concerned, it's such a huge state that I wouldn't worry about it. While west Texas is already a desert, here on the Eastern side it's the same climate much of Florida has. It's just that our beaches aren't as nice. You could move somewhere around Austin though which is very beautiful country, and not swampy like here. It still gets it's fair share of rain and heat though.

You should try it in Texas. The land is super-cheap, and you get used to the heat. I realized the latter part of that when it was over 90 degrees outside, almost 100% humidity, and I wasn't sweating or feeling too hot. I'm a northerner basically (not completely, but it's complicated) whose ancestors lived in the ice and snow (or perhaps Spain, where the Gaelic people seem to have originated from.) Anyway, my point is that you'll adapt to wherever you go, if you stay there long enough.

Thanks. I've eaten at White Castle when I lived in Ohio, but I didn't know that was the proper name for their burgers. Although I was too young to think about this when I lived there, if we had something like that around here, it would seem like perfect early morning hangover food. Instead, we have 24 hour taquerias, breakfast places, and asian food.

This was before my time, so I haven't looked into it that much. Still, I think that it's bad when science is distorted. Rachel Carson's claims are things that can be tested and determined if they are valid or not within the confines of science. The banning was done by politicians who probably listened to lawyers rather than scientists. The difference here is that the top scientists are the ones informing Al Gore. I see Gore as just a messenger, but the real people behind the research, such as James Hansen, are the ones providing the data. There are enough scientists who have provided research and data supporting the idea that mankind is changing the environment for the worse that I have no problem with their data. Of course, in the media, you never get to see the studies, graphs, or anything scientific. Most Americans have never heard of James Hansen, for example, despite the fact that he was the nation's top climatologist. Part of this may be due to the fact that the Bush administration severely censored his work. All you hear about on the news are people like Al Gore or celebrities who tell you to buy a Prius and use one square of toilet paper to wipe up. There is more oil in the ground, but it might be running out soon in the middle east, and what's left is not as easy to get to. For example, there is a huge oil reserve around some of the former soviet nations, but you'll probably never see it in the U.S. because it's too expensive. Even in the U.S. we have oil sands and other things that we know about but it has been cost prohibitive to gather it and process it so far. What this means is that oil and gas prices will have to continue to increase quite a bit before those become useful. Even then, infrastructure has to be built, and it can take years and years to build infrastructure. At my current employer, we are working on a natural gas pipeline that will be along the gulf coast. It should be finished in about 10 years, and we already have contracts with utility companies that will use it (if we didn't have those contracts, we wouldn't have build it.) I imagine things like building refineries in addition to pipelines is even more time intensive. There are also lots of issues around getting oil out of the gulf of Mexico, because there are decent sized oil fields underwater that are also cost prohibitive as well as off the coasts of nations that don't want to share with us. It's a very complex issue, but there are many factors that will continue to drive prices up, rather than down. Prices could go down, but it's a lot less likely than them going up. A good thing I've noticed is that while you and I disagree on man-made climate change, you do see to be against pollution and against wastefulness. I guess this means that while we might argue over some of this stuff, we probably live similar lifestyles of not being wasteful and living closer to the land than a lot of people.

Rottie, I've lived in many states in the U.S., but I've never heard of a "slider" before. What in the world is that? It makes me think of a slug or something else gross, but I really doubt you'd be eating that.

Thanks. Transportation costs are greatest when you talk about some things that are not grown in the U.S. Banana prices, for example, are transported pretty far away so the huge rise in diesel prices (which have far outpaced gasoline prices) are threatening to cause problems. Of course, food prices have been adjusting upwards as a result, but it could reach a point where it is no longer feasible to import food. I'm not going to defend it because I didn't do it, and just found it via a google search. However, pretty much all the polls done show that the majority see it as a problem. Maybe we have 300 years of coal, but I don't know anyone in the business claiming we have that much oil left. The most pessimistic estimates are that we already reached peak oil a while back, and even the most rosy estimates I've seen recently show us running out within my life time. Right now I work with natural gas so I am not as up on the status of oil as I was when I worked for Ch*vr*n but I still hear some bad things about it from people in the business. There are even rumors spreading of OPEC refusing to give us more oil because they over-inflated the size of their oil fields. I think that's a conspiracy theory, but it's not completely impossible. In any case, I don't think a radical move like you are worried about is even possible. Let's say the Democrats somehow get a super-majority in Congress, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. You still won't see a sudden change like that because it's simply not possible. I think part of the problem is that the media, in their quest for ratings, generates hysteria and always presents science incorrectly for their own gain. Their view of anthropomorphic climate change is not the one scientists have been stating. That is why I get annoyed by people expecting to notice a difference instantly. The media's presentation of it is a joke, and a radical ratings-generating agenda. I don't think anyone but them benefit from it. The scientists and the left certainly don't benefit by having their words twisted by the media and made into a laughing stock for the right to attack. The right doesn't benefit because they see only a twisted view of the problem through the eyes of the media. As far as the book Silent Spring, I have a hard time saying that it is responsible for the deaths of millions. A woman raised some questions about the effects of DDT, and that was it. I think it's a good thing to look at the negative points of things as well as the positive, and know as much as possible to make a logical decision. If the hysteria against DDT went too far, it's not Carson's fault. It's the fault of people who probably didn't even read her book but jumped on the media bandwagon, and made emotional decisions. Knowledge is a good thing, and I don't buy into the biblical view that knowledge brings sorrow.

I think it was stolen by the band Depeche Mode. Someone overheard the group's lead singer telling someone about, "your own, personal, Jesus."