Man, would there be a teacher brave enough to go "today we hold one minute of silence for the victims of sexual assault", "today we hold one minute of silence for the victims of racist violence by cops", "today we hold our one minute silence for all those wrongly imprisoned", etc?
Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
- Thread starter GasBandit
- Start date
The MAGA crowd only likes the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th amendments. They also really like one sentence from the 13th, but hate the rest of it.
People like that make it hard for me to hold on to any of my old Christian faith.
Long ago I started calling myself agnostic, because I do feel there is something greater out there, and that having some faith is a good thing, but that I could no longer accept that any one religion had the monopoly on God. My faith has held long enough that I even sent my kids to a Christian preschool so they would understand some basics of theology, while teaching them myself on matter of keeping an open mind and acceptance of other beliefs.
Now, I just don't know. More and more I feel like "God" as we have come to know him, through all faiths, feels more like a construct idiots in power have been using for centuries to keep their old vapid and damaging beliefs maintained, and that half of those people don't even actually believe in the teachings of Christ, but instead just want all that sexy untaxed profit that comes with being a "Prophet". (har har)
I don't think I will ever become a full on atheist, because I will always believe something exists beyond the pale of this existence even if not something as driven like Heaven or Hell, but I really am at the point I want organized religion as a whole to just wither and die, because everywhere I look, whether the restrictions of women in Iran, the apartheid happening in Israel, to the purges happening in Africa, to the bullshit we see with Evangelicals here in the states, I am starting to feel organizing religion as the core behind any specific banner brings nothing but pain in the long run.
Long ago I started calling myself agnostic, because I do feel there is something greater out there, and that having some faith is a good thing, but that I could no longer accept that any one religion had the monopoly on God. My faith has held long enough that I even sent my kids to a Christian preschool so they would understand some basics of theology, while teaching them myself on matter of keeping an open mind and acceptance of other beliefs.
Now, I just don't know. More and more I feel like "God" as we have come to know him, through all faiths, feels more like a construct idiots in power have been using for centuries to keep their old vapid and damaging beliefs maintained, and that half of those people don't even actually believe in the teachings of Christ, but instead just want all that sexy untaxed profit that comes with being a "Prophet". (har har)
I don't think I will ever become a full on atheist, because I will always believe something exists beyond the pale of this existence even if not something as driven like Heaven or Hell, but I really am at the point I want organized religion as a whole to just wither and die, because everywhere I look, whether the restrictions of women in Iran, the apartheid happening in Israel, to the purges happening in Africa, to the bullshit we see with Evangelicals here in the states, I am starting to feel organizing religion as the core behind any specific banner brings nothing but pain in the long run.
Dave
Staff member
I went down a similar path and did go full atheist. I share your disdain for organized religion. Sucks that such a potential force for good is nearly 100% of the time used for selfish and evil purposes.
I believe organized religion was created (either on purpose OR just came about accidentally/spontaneously/organically) as a means for older people to maintain control over younger ones. The 16-35 demographic is more physically capable and could easily impose their will upon those younger or older than them, but with religion, the elders in a community have a bit and set of reins that can be used to persuade the younger generations, provided that the indoctrination phase is successfully applied over that 1-15 range. See also the movement to introduce religion into public schools, funnel students into parochial instruction, and the recent uptick in efforts to discredit institutions of higher learning.
And I don't necessarily mean that's WHY it was created, but like @Dave says above, that has become how it is USED.
--Patrick
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He honestly scares me the most. He reminds me of what Trump could have been had he not been an old senile idiot. Remember when he got that woman who kept updating the COVID numbers arrested? The dude has shown he is more then willing to stomp on anyone's rights for his own ends, and do so openly and without regret. I hope to all the gods he does not run.
Of course he is. Desantis is a very smart man. He's not a good man, not even a little, but he knows exactly how to position himself so that the worst people love him. Everything he does is theater to present himself as the next Donald Trump. He has no convictions beyond what he thinks will get him power, and he's smart enough to know that he can't do it legitimately, so right wing republican grifters is where he's at.
Hey Governor Abbot, people are still paying off massive utility bills from the deadly freeze, and now ERCOT tells us we still have to conserve power as the heat builds up because our grid is still a fucking joke and has not recovered. Can you do something?
Gov Abbot : "How about now everyone can carry a gun anywhere they want, no permit or training required, and I am stealing $250 million dollars in tax money to keep building Trump's border wall. BTW please donate to my GoFundMe and give me your land too for said wall, thanks."
Sometimes I really hate this state.
Gov Abbot : "How about now everyone can carry a gun anywhere they want, no permit or training required, and I am stealing $250 million dollars in tax money to keep building Trump's border wall. BTW please donate to my GoFundMe and give me your land too for said wall, thanks."
Sometimes I really hate this state.
It's literary criticism but geared towards RPG core books. "these race rules allow for a half-elf half-orc half-werewolf half-vampire! That's totally just populist people pleasing without thinking about the consequences and balance!"
Get with the times, man. At least teach LCD. Perhaps OLED, if you want to get a bit ahead and prepare them for the future.
Top half, bottom half, right half, left half. Simple! There's even two left over!
--Patrick
"In a nutshell, Critical Race Theory is the fact that white people have been very very bad to black people and other people of various colors for a very long time - and it hasn't stopped, just changed how it's done."
Catholic bishops advance effort that could deny Biden communion
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has voted to proceed with drafting a formal statement on the meaning of communion, which will include whether President Biden and other politicians s…
thehill.com
Apparently their numbers aren’t low enough, so why not try to alienate even more of their members.
As Gaetz investigation ramps up, feds mount sweeping probe into Central Florida political scene: Sources
The federal probe into sex trafficking allegations involving GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz has engulfed the tight-knit Central Florida political scene, sources tell ABC News.
abcnews.go.com
Things are getting interesting in Florida.
I mean, things are always interesting in Florida...they just don't usually involve an elected official who looks like he's trying to birth a volleyball through his forehead...As Gaetz investigation ramps up, feds mount sweeping probe into Central Florida political scene: Sources
The federal probe into sex trafficking allegations involving GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz has engulfed the tight-knit Central Florida political scene, sources tell ABC News.
Things are getting interesting in Florida.
So, the Supreme Court doesn't care about child slavery.
*Jake Peralta mode* Cool. Coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool.
They might care, but they are shrugging and saying, "It's out of our jurisdiction. We can't do anything about it here."
I guess I get it, even though it is such a shitty situation to prove the point on. In the UK you can be sued for defamation even if you aren't in the country defaming someone and that doesn't feel right either. I don't know what the answer here is, really. We need a way to sanction these multinational corporations as if they are governments but the law doesn't exist to support that.
I guess I get it, even though it is such a shitty situation to prove the point on. In the UK you can be sued for defamation even if you aren't in the country defaming someone and that doesn't feel right either. I don't know what the answer here is, really. We need a way to sanction these multinational corporations as if they are governments but the law doesn't exist to support that.
Apparently this exclusively affects people who opted in to an energy saving program.
*edit* In exchange for a free smart thermostat, no less. It is literally the point of the program of giving out these thermostats.
GasBandit
Staff member
I've also heard of other, less scrupulous ways to get people to "opt in" to the programs.
And I've also head of another manufacturer that accidentally changed all their thermostats lower instead of higher
Nefarious methods should be subject to their own scrutiny, I suppose. As for the success of their program, bureaucracies' gonna bureaucracy.
I mean the ruling makes sense under the current paradigm they've been using this century. It's also what makes Guantanamo "not count" as breaking that stuff in the Constitution about due process.
The fact that they're also ignoring the treaties that are supposed to deal with stuff that's "outside the US's jurisdiction" is the actual problem, as Bubble181 so rightly states.
The fact that they're also ignoring the treaties that are supposed to deal with stuff that's "outside the US's jurisdiction" is the actual problem, as Bubble181 so rightly states.
It still weirds me out. Like, most of my family used to never be super into politics. Even when the whole Bush / Gore shit was happening none of them really said anything because it mostly didn't matter to them. They of course wanted Bush to win, but they were not like wishing for Al Gore to be eviscerated on television.
They were mostly the same during the Obama years. They just never talked about it much. They wanted McCain or Romney to win but when they lost it was better luck next time.
Then Trump came and it was like a full moon came out and has not gone away. Absolutely loved him in 2016 and scream about him losing 2020 and I just don't know where these people came from sometimes. Like, I know they were conservative as I used to be, but the anger and fear and need for him specifically, it just has always bugged me and probably never will stop.
They were mostly the same during the Obama years. They just never talked about it much. They wanted McCain or Romney to win but when they lost it was better luck next time.
Then Trump came and it was like a full moon came out and has not gone away. Absolutely loved him in 2016 and scream about him losing 2020 and I just don't know where these people came from sometimes. Like, I know they were conservative as I used to be, but the anger and fear and need for him specifically, it just has always bugged me and probably never will stop.