My favorite post, ever...revisited...

[Mythsaje]

I'm sick of listening to the lies. I'm sick of reading the lies. I'm sick of trying to refute the lies.

Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11. Saddam and OBL hated each other. Saddam was an asshole, but there are a LOT of assholes out there.

Telling the truth is not treasonous. It's telling the truth. Something more politicians should try now and again.

The "liberal" media is anything but liberal. It's beholden to the advertisers, who have their OWN fucking agenda. It's entertainment, and not even GOOD entertainment. It's not remotely connected to the truth anymore. It's all about ratings, and ratings are all about commercials, and commercials are all about corporate advertising. THAT'S a no brainer.

People need the help of their community to succeed. There's no such thing as bootstrap levitation. No man or woman is an island, and without community support, people are lost...or crawl off into the woods to mail letter-bombs.

Everyone deserves decent healthcare, and socialized medicine actually works! The ONLY flaw in the system at that point is if fewer people can afford to become doctors because they go into debt trying to pay their way through medical school on student loans.

What part of "you can't fight an enemy you can't even identify" don't these people get? Not all Iraqis, Arabs, or Muslims are the enemy. The enemy is a mindset--and it's the same goddam mindset our current government seems to embrace. Violence is rarely an answer to anything without sincere attempts at diplomacy and compromise to go along with it.

People who've never been to war should not be allowed to play army with REAL SOLDIERS.

Gay marriage is only a threat to people who don't understand that marriage is a partnership, not a ownership contract.

The PEOPLE own themselves--their bodies and souls do not belong to the State, their employers, their church, or anyone else.

Freedom of speech is sacrosanct. Mess with it at your peril.

We OWN the government. Not the other way around.

You can oppose abortion or effective birth control and sex education. Pick one.

If I want to hear about Jesus, I'll ask.

Higher wages for the lowest classes means more money to spend. More money for the upper classes means LESS money spent. Which do you really think stimulates the economy?

Marx called religion "the opiate of the masses." These days in America, it's probably sports. Religion is more like a hullucinogen.

"Don't do drugs. Except these. And these. And these. And these."

"Alternative energy is a pipe dream." Yeah, kinda like the moon landing.

"America. Love it or leave it." You first.

The Death Penalty is retroactive abortion.

If this administration gave a SHIT about education, they'd fund it. Talk is cheap. Education isn't.

People shouldn't have to go deep in debt just to become more productive members of society.

Minimum wage jobs do not contribute to the tax base.

A stellar teacher is worth a hundred times more than a sports star. It would be nice if they made even a tenth of the salary.

A tiny fraction of the population is getting a free ride on everyone else's labor. And complaining about everyone else while they're getting it. Must be nice.

"Freedom isn't free." As soon as someone explains to me how killing and dying in a dusty place across the ocean contributes to OUR freedom, I might be inclined to agree. Near as I can tell, with illegal wiretapping, illicit surveillance, and 'free speech zones,' we're paying one hell of a high price for increased restrictions on freedom. Tyranny isn't free either, apparently.

What makes some people think big business is more benevolent than 'big government?' Were they repeatedly dropped on their heads when they were little?

Okay, I agree with you. Bush isn't stupid. He's just an asshole. Feel better?

If unscrupulous employers didn't HIRE illegal immigrants, they wouldn't be rushing the borders. Who do you think's really to blame? People who will risk everything to have a better life, or those who already have everything but want cheap labor to exploit so they can have more?

The political divide in this country will never be healed as long as people like Ann Coulter are running around spewing shit. Maybe if she actually ate something once in a while she wouldn't be so damned nasty all the time.

Hey, if the CEO of Pollution Inc. wants to take a crap in the corner of his own living room, that's okay with me. But the minute he tries to crap in my house, I'm going to smack him in the head with a big stick. I don't care WHO his friends are.

I'd rather be friends with a spotted owl than an ignorant logger.

I'm more worried about Grand Theft America than Grand Theft Auto. Call me crazy.

I don't know if this administration had anything to do with 9/11. But I do know they've screwed up just about everything they'd done since. I've never seen any bunch of people more deserving of walking papers in my entire life. And I've worked with some real losers.

If we're depending on the Supreme Court to defend the Constitution, we are in some DEEP shit.

[texpatriot2004]

1. Excellent nm

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. I can see why it's your favorite

:applause:

[applegrove]

3. You are on FIRE tonight... err.. the night you wrote this.

[blm]

24. Myth's on fire most nights from what I read. ;)

,

[applegrove]

25. I've noticed that.

[Gregorian]

4. I have the pleasure of sending this off to the greatest page.

It's nice to know we aren't alone. This post makes me feel like I have company. Wow.

[ms liberty]

5. K&R, and bookmarked...

I remember this one from before - I really liked it then, and I like it even more now!

[longship]

6. Is this your own post?

If so, kudos to you. It is excellent.

If not, attribution would be appropriate.

Recommended and kicked.

[Mythsaje]

7. Yep...it's mine. :) n/t

[Lugnut]

9. It's excellent

I missed it on the first round. Those who also missed it need a second chance.

[Mythsaje]

10. Thanks...

That's what I was thinking. People would enjoy seeing it again, or seeing it for the first time.

[Kerrytravelers]

8. Applause!

:applause:

[Duppers]

11. bravo!

Original date posted?

thanks.

[Mythsaje]

16. Sometime in June, I think...

I can't find the original posting. Sorry.

[LSK]

12. K&R

[raccoon]

13. K&R. This one's a keeper. nt

[Sequoia]

14. We need to hear people like you on talk radio.

Sure would be more refreshing than those hateful right wing talkies who think everyone hates 'Merica if they don't lock step their way.

[Mythsaje]

17. I wouldn't mind that job...

I would probably even be better than a few of the AAR hosts.

:)

[Sequoia]

26. You bet!

[donkeyotay]

15. Thanks for that.

:applause:

[onecent]

18. L O V E this post. Wow. Thanks for sharing. n/t

[petunia.here]

19. Fucking Awesome!

K&R

[Joe Chi Minh]

20. I thought your jibe about Christ was characteristically puerile for

an atheist, but your line:

"What makes some people think big business is more benevolent than 'big government?" should become part of the national consciousness, a universally known adage, such as, "A stitch in time..," etc. Like some of Shakespeare's sayings we trot out without realising who coined it.

I have been trying for a while now to nail it with something approaching that kind of clinical precision, disparaging the right wing's allusions to the so-called Nanny State, which is no more than the antithesis of the Psychopathic State that they favour. But it was going nowhere. This, however, nails it pefectly. And it is so elementary. What's more, it can be adapted for Democratic politicians to the detriment of the Republicans, to something like, "Why should people think big business...etc. Finishing, ideally, with the words, "... you morons!"

[Mythsaje]

22. I'm not an atheist...

My problem is that some folks seem to think the rest of us grew up in a cave somewhere, and are therefore completely ignorant about the whole Jesus story. So they come along and try to witness to us as if we actually want to hear it AGAIN.

[No Exit]

23. I hear you! I went to religion class every day for 12 years of school

(Yeah--Catholic school.) So I DON'T NEED TO BE TOLD ABOUT JESUS, THANK YOU!

As you said, if I want to know about Jesus, I'll ask!

[Joe Chi Minh]

28. If I want to be given my marching orders by you, I'll ask. Not.

[Joe Chi Minh]

27. Just a story to you, eh? Like any other. You've sure given the impression to me that you're

a militant atheist in your posts.

You seem to forget or be ignorant of the fact that Christian's don't have the right in the eyes of the God that they believe in, to make no outward reference to their convictions concerning the whole Christian story. We don't believe in this open-ended definition of freedom, as a licence to do whatever we think is OK, i.e. the freedom of Lucifer. We believe (as I strongly suspect you do, despite our arguments), that freedom implies responsibility. This enormous domestic and geopolitical debacle your country is undergoing at the moment is a direct result of the "Freedoms" venerated and preached by your far-right capitalists. The freedoms to downsize and outsource on the most specious of rationales, for example.

The American Dream (I should say "erstwhile American Dream", since, thanks to our friends, the corporatists, the US is lagging far behind in terms of life opportunities) is not a million miles from building your house on sand - as an earlier set of Republican miscreants found out not so long ago. Though some, to their immense credit, saw the light. Unfortnately, the Christian Church has historically tended not heed Christ's parable of the dishonest steward, and been ambiguous, to say the least, in its commitment to God in terms of in its relationship to Mammon, with the result that ambition has arguably come to at least seem to be the sovereign virtue.

And if you think your legal system could be any kind of substitute for an over-arching national mainstream religion, you're living in a fool's paradise. Just as mankind's most dangerous miscreants tend to rise to the top of societies, they are the ones who finally decide what the laws should be. Take the Supremes. No, better not. But unfortunately you didn't have a choice in 2000.

We believe that Christianity is of the greatest relevance to improving the lot of mankind in an increasingly insane world. Like it or lump it.

I regularly read thread-headers of loony posts in worshipful praise of a militant atheist character called Dawkins, but I don't feel threatened by it, so I'm happy with it. Go for your life guys and gals!

On the other hand, it's evident that you feel threatened by references here to Christianity, which is why I simply responded, "Good for you!" in reply to an earlier post of yours, in which you said something like I'm convinced there is no God in a challenging, combative kind of tone. Why do you think Christians want to hear about your lack of belief, any more than you want to hear about our belief? Were we supposed to take your opinion as authoritative? Or argue with you? That was the what your tone suggested. Forget it. Your antipathy or indifference to Christianity is of very marginal interest to us, if at all.

It's likely to be a phase you're going through. People change their beliefs for or against at different times of their lives. You might never change yours, but you might well, at some time in the future. But unless this board becomes the exclusive preserve of atheists, no doubt you're going to continue to hear Christians mention some aspect of their faith, as well as many agnostics, for that matter.

Christ's socio-economic teachings are timeless, because ambitious and materialistic human beings have turned upside down the true spiritual priorities, and made the world in their own image. "Man is only a breath. Great men are nothing; they weigh less than a breath." And of course you'll hear some people who believe in something - which I'm not clear about. Maybe a guiding spirit - say, "I'm sending good thoughts your way", when the person has said that they or a loved one is sick or otherwise suffering.

[Mythsaje]

29. I don't know whether there's a "God" or not

or, rather, I'm pretty convinced that even if there were, humans are fumbling in the dark trying to explain God. The Bible is a contradictory, often violent, book of theory, history, and plain fiction wrapped in iconography.

I DON'T need to be preached to. I spent most of my childhood years in bible study and attending various churches looking for something that made sense to me. In the end, it didn't. It comes across as pure superstition based on nothing but conjecture and wishful thinking.

Revealed religion, at best, is an illusion. At worst, it's a scam. Even if there IS a God, I think anyone who actually believes he or she knows anything about God is deluding themselves. All the holy books in the universe can't change that, particularly since all of them have been written, edited, and printed BY MAN.

Am I hostile to religion? I suppose you could say that. I think it's disgusting to have religious hypocrites (usually those who trumpet their religiousity the loudest are hiding some pretty repellent demons in the back of their heads) trying to manipulate our political system to put THEIR religious view front in center.

Religion, historically speaking, has been no more a benevolent steward than government, and, in fact, just about every time in history when the two have been wed, it's been to the detriment of the common people.

So, NO, I don't want to fucking hear about Jesus. I know the damn story already and I can't separate fact from fiction and neither can anyone else.

Stop pretending you can and we'll get along just fine.

[QuestionAll...]

21. what a great read! thanks, Mythsaje. Rec!

""I'm more worried about Grand Theft America than Grand Theft Auto. Call me crazy."""

so many good zingers!