Lawyer: I Have Proof Meg Whitman Is Lying About Immigrant Maid (VIDEO)

There are a lot of reasons to not vote for Meg Whitman. However, I've always thought the witch hunt to find out if politicians used illegal help for housework or yard work was ridiculous. I thought it was a foolish issue when its applied to democrats so I think the same for Republicans. Most professionals in major cities, especially in places like California, use house cleaners and other help without being all that diligent about checking if they are documented.
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Why Johnny Can't Program: A New Medium Requires A New Literarcy

I agree this is a major problem. I think there are two causes.



The first is just the decline in funding for anything but the basics, and often not even that, in most schools. When I grew up our high school had a computer club and we went on field trips to see computers (this was in the 70's) and we even experimented building and programming computers using kits. This wasn't a school for gifted children. It was just your average middle class suburban high school. Now I doubt you would have any support for these kinds of programs in anything but the most elite schools.



The other cause I think is that more and more there is an emphasis on schools to train people for jobs. So that is why when high school kids do get training its for things like MS Office. Those skills are the most likely to get them an entry level job. And once in college the vast majority of the best American kids go for the careers likely to lead to management careers or other things seen as higher status and better paying than software engineering.
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Robert Gates: Too Few Americans Bear The Burdens Of War

"Too few Americans bear the burdens of war"



So true. How sad that so few people see the obvious answer: don't increase the number of Americans sharing the burden, simply decrease the unnecessary wars.
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Katy Perry On SNL: Cleavage & An Elmo Shirt (VIDEO, PICTURES)

Hey, this is the Internet, don't you know the rules? If we don't agree you are supposed to insult me. Seriously, though thanks for the reasonable reply. Regarding your first response, that happens a lot.



That is an example that I agree with where we are losing freedom, see this for more info: http://reddogbear.blogspot.com/2010/05/free-speech.html
About SNL
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Katy Perry On SNL: Cleavage & An Elmo Shirt (VIDEO, PICTURES)

I agree with you there are a lot of awful things going on in this country. But I think saying we've lost our freedom because a pop singer got her spot cut from a children's show because her outfit was too provocative isn'tone of them. I saw the original clip and her outfit totally made me hot and if it totally made me hot I can see a reasonable argument that it might not be appropriate for a kids show.



And I'm sure at this point you think I'm some bible thumper but no. I'm an atheist hippy living in San Francisco and I've personally induldged in things that... well never mind that. But I've also raised a daughter who is now in college. I've spent many nights with her talking about, listening to her cry about, hearing about her friends who were on medication or hospitalized over body image. Girls in our culture are bombarded from the time they can speak with countless messages that tell them they are only worth while if they are concentration camp thin and sexualized. So as much as Ms. Perry makes me hot I can understand people wanting her to tone it down for a kids show.
About SNL
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Banned Books Week 2010: 10 Graphic Novels And The Shocking Reasons They Frequently Come Under Fire (PHOTOS)

That made no sense to me either. Unless they are concerned with the Ethnic pride of Nazis.
About Press Freedom
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Ruth, Judith and the Power of Women in the Work of God

These examples are a bit later than the Gnostics but they certainly demonstrate that the Catholic church was fond of burning heretics:



From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_burning



"In 1184, the Roman Catholic Synod of Verona legislated that burning was to be the official punishment for heresy, as Church policy was against the spilling of blood. It was also believed that the condemned would have no body to be resurrected in the Afterlife.[dubious – discuss] This decree was later reaffirmed by the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, the Synod of Toulouse in 1229, and numerous spiritual and secular leaders through the 17th century.



Civil authorities burnt persons judged to be heretics under the medieval Inquisition, including Giordano Bruno. Burning was also used by Protestants during the witch-hunts of Europe.



Among the best-known individuals to be executed by burning were Jacques de Molay (1314), Jan Hus (1415), St. Joan of Arc (30 May 1431), Savonarola (1498) Patrick Hamilton (1528), John Frith (1533), William Tyndale (1536), Michael Servetus (1553), Giordano Bruno (1600) and Avvakum (1682). Anglican martyrs Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley (both in 1555) and Thomas Cranmer (1556) were also burnt at the stake."
About Christianity
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Ruth, Judith and the Power of Women in the Work of God

I don't see any hypocrisy at all. There is a vast difference between saying someone has the right to do X and saying that X is a good thing to do. I think flag burning and book burning are foolish but I defend them as legitimate acts of free speech.



Also, there is an immense difference between someone burning a Qur'an now and what the Catholic church did to Gnostic texts around 200 AD. Both are wrong but burning a Qur'an is not going to eliminate the Qur'an from the sum of human knowledge. When the Catholic church burned Gnostic texts they attempted, and almost succeeded, to eliminate them from our intellectual history.
About Christianity
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Ruth, Judith and the Power of Women in the Work of God

How many words of the Bible are devoted to describing all the effort Mary put into raising Jesus? I don't recall any. Its been a while since I read the New Testament so perhaps I'm forgetting a passage here or there but as I recall it essentially jumps from his birth to when he is a man, except for the wonderful story of chasing the Capitalists, sorry I mean money changers from the Temple.
About Christianity
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Hell And God's Love: An Alternative, Orthodox View

The point I was trying to make was that first we have to determine does Hell really exist or not? If we have good evidence to say it does exist then we can have rational discussions about what kind of place it is. But to say "Hell is just a metaphor" and then to argue about whether it is a place where people are tortured or some metaphysical state of separation from God's love is pointless.
About Christianity
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Bill Clinton, Ken Starr and Grace Through a Shared Faith

What counts as being Christian isn't so black and white. I was raised a Catholic and was an altar boy. For us confessing to the priest and meaning it (and doing whatever the priest gave you for penance) was required for forgiveness.



Your model of forgiveness seems more in line with that of The Family as documented in the book: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlett. In their version of Christianity those chosen by Jesus are designated by their wealth and power. Those who are chosen can murder and torture with impunity and be forgiven because they are the chosen. Its no accident that Gary Bauer, John Ensign, Hillary Clinton, and I wouldn't doubt Mr. Starr and you yourself Mr Osler are members of or at least sympathetic to The Family.



BTW, they also hold up Hitler and Stalin as models of great leadership.
About Bill Clinton
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Bill Clinton, Ken Starr and Grace Through a Shared Faith

I am currently reading Backwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercinary Army by Jeremy Skahill. A big part of the book covers the death of four Blackwater contractors in Falujah.



The four that received world wide attention as their bodies were desecrated by a mob. The evidence is overwhelming that Blackwater cut corners in order to save money and that this led to the death of the contractors. E.g., not providing them with armored vehicles as was SOP for the military or other contractors but instead sending them through one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq in SUV's.



Blackwater stone walled the families as they tried to uncover the truth so the families sued blackwater to reveal it and to get some justice for their sons who were killed. And who did Blackwater hire to defend them against these grieving families? Ken Starr. So he may say that he wouldn't do it again but his actions show that he has no conscience or ethics and will do anything to help the powerful.
About Bill Clinton
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Jodie Foster Stands By Mel Gibson

I don't normally recommend vilifying people but there are exceptions. Wife beating anti-semitic racists? That's an exception.



Theocratic women hating reactionaries? People who want to make their religion the law of the land? People who want to persecute gays and make sure women stay in their place? People who want to deny basic human rights to others? That's an exception as well. BTW, that applies to Tea Baggers and Al Queda. Funny how their fundamental values aren't really all that different.
About Mel Gibson
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'Without Cunning a Nation Shall Fall' (Proverbs 11/14)

The moral hypocrisy of the west knows no limits. If Iran were caught sabotaging US or Israeli facilities or committing "targeted killings" they would be denounced as terrorists and their would be a demand from the right to immediately go to war. But here the option can be discussed openly as just one more method and even justified by the bible no less. Pathetic.
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Hell And God's Love: An Alternative, Orthodox View

I've never understood why mystics are somehow granted special knowledge when it comes to the spiritual. Because you don't have sex and fast and essentially don't do anything constructive in society that somehow gives you special spiritual knowledge? Why?



And when you say "The spiritual concept of Hades served the Greeks at that period in time. " to me that's a round about way of saying that "the Greeks believed in this thing that didn't exist because it helped make people moral and gave them a shared mythology that made their society more cohesive" Of course that last part -- as to why humans actually seem to need to believe in myths is still something we don't fully understand. Its an active topic in anthropology and other sciences.



But for me the important thing is I think we've come to a point in history where facing the world as it really is would be better than making up stories about. it. I agree I could be wrong. It could turn out that humans are just constructed so that to have order and people feeling they have meaning they have to make up stories like hades and hell. I guess you could say that is my leap of faith, to believe that ultimately looking for the actual truth, without made up stories will lead to a better world.
About Christianity
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T-Mobile Sued For Allegedly Censoring Marijuana Service

I'm all for legalizing it. But I find i depressing that with all the issues facing this country: Repubs who are to the right of Goering, global warming, jobs, economy, mideast wars, that this is the only issue that a lot of people get excited about. Oh well whatever gets people out to vote is good.
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Bad Faith (in Science): Darwin as All-Purpose Boogey Man?

Sorry, I don't follow what you are saying. My point is that scientific truth doesn't depend on the character of the people who discover it. Whether Darwin was a saint or a jerk makes no difference to whether his theories stand up to repeatable, empirical validation. Which they do amazingly well.



You can't say the same thing for those behind the pulpit. There is no objective way to analyze whether the Eucharist actually physically becomes the body and blood of christ as some claim or whether its only a metaphor as others claim or whether the spirit of Jesus enters as others would say.



Of course you could test the wine just before its consumed but those who argue for literal transubstantiation find ways around that. What the people behind the pulpit believe is all based on faith and so absolutely is not objective nor testable.
About Evolution
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U.S. Army Discusses Ditching PowerPoint, Internet Explorer

I agree. And I think are current military is insanely large. We spend around the same as the rest of the world combined. But I wouldn't go so far as to say we should have no military. History does have examples where countries were attacked because their military were or seemed weak. WWII has some of the best examples. The problem with our politics now is that those examples are the ONLY ones that most people, especially on the right, ever seem to know about. They ignore all the many more examples of when nations and empires went corrupt and bankrupt as a result of too much power and reliance on the military.
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U.S. Army Discusses Ditching PowerPoint, Internet Explorer

I was in a tech group that literally banned powerpoint for internal presentations. At first I thought it was a great idea. But there were times when I had to describe a software architecture and having to draw the thing from scratch on a white board, especially since I can't draw worth a damn, was a pain and there were all sorts of confusions that would have been cleared up if I was able to bring in a simple picture already created.



The thing is there was just as much BS in this group in fact in some ways more. The guy in charge really had no clue about the technology. He had read some things about techniques for collaboration which is where he got the idea to ban powerpoint but ultimately his lack of knowledge led to people kissing his @ss in meetings rather then actually communicating.



Then I was in another group. The guy who led this one allowed but discouraged Powerpoint. He also was very technical and hated to have people suck up. When he didn't know something he asked questions rather than try to hide it. If someone started going off on a tangent he would cut them off and get the group back on track. For him a good meeting was one that ended early. Now those were the productive meetings.



That's my point. Banning Powerpoint is just a gimick, the real problems are leadership and a corporate culture that frowns on BS.
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Hell And God's Love: An Alternative, Orthodox View

I agree with you that your interpretation of Jesus sounds much more reasonable to me as well. I'm not one of those atheists who thinks there is no value in religion. I think the story and teachings of Jesus are inspiring, poetic, etc.



But, my point is that there is a fundamental difference between questions of faith vs. questions of science. Science has metrics for evaluating competing theories. Thats why it makes progress. There are no such metrics with religion. Its all about how you interpret one or more holy books. And interpretation all comes down eventually to your faith, what you believe in your gut and there is no way to debate gut feelings.



As for the bad Christians going away, well that may be your faith but there we can evaluate facts and they don't support you. The vast majority of Christians have supported imorality: inquisition, slavery, genocide of indigenous americans (north and south), torture in the name of anti-communism, invasion of Iraq, persecution of Muslims.



The list of evil done in the name of Jesus is quite lengthy and if we had to go with the evidence I think The Family are in the majoirty. Keep in mind they aren't some fringe group. They include some of the best known congressmen and church leaders: James Dobson, Gary Bauer, John Ensign, ...
About Christianity
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Hell And God's Love: An Alternative, Orthodox View

That's the difference between being a Captain as opposed to a theologian. There are debates of course and different approaches but ultimately there are objective ways to evaluate if someone is a good captain or....



There are no such evaluations for being a Christian. You say Jesus said X and its all perfectly clear to you. But The Family thinks its perfectly clear to them as well. And the Catholics in the inquisition who tortured heretics to death thought it was clear to them. Unlike being a captain there is no external thing we can check and say "can you steer a ship out of a harbor" because there is no objective definition. Its all based on a book written a long time ago and various peoples interpretation of that book. Saying "by their fruits you shall know them" is of no value because what that sentence means can be interpreted many different ways. To The Family it means that people who have wealth and power were selected by Jesus as indicated by their wealth and power and thus they can murder and torture with impugnity (The Family has supported dictators who do just that)



And as much as its obvious to you that all those Christians are wrong its just as obvious to them that you are wrong and none of you can do anything but point to the book and say "this sentence means X" you have no objective way to validate who is really correct.
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Internet Explorer 9 Beta Released: REVIEWS Of Microsoft's New Browser

Its interesting to read these. Reminds me why I've never thought that much of the popular tech press. So many generalities. Its a "quantum leap forward" "very impressive" etc. but the actual new things new features I could get from these reviews are:

1) its faster

2) you can pin things (which if I understand the feature you can already do with any browser in Mac OSX

3) the UI is simpler
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Hell And God's Love: An Alternative, Orthodox View

I can't speak for chappal but just because I don't believe that God exists doesn't mean I don't think its an interesting and important question. There are a lot of related questions to the question of God that IMO are some of the most important questions people can ask: what is the meaning of life, the nature of good and evil, etc. We can't set out on the path to find those answers until we get rid of old superstitions. Its similar to the way we had to dispense with the idea that the sun revolves around the earth (as stated in the bible) in order to start doing real astronomy.
About Christianity
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Hell And God's Love: An Alternative, Orthodox View

That's a flawed argument and it doesn't matter if the issue is God or anything else.

If X isn't true then we don't know how Y happened.



So what? There are a lot of things we don't know the answer to. And we don't find answers by being afriad to reject flawed hypothesis or being unable to admit we don't know everything.
About Christianity
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Hell And God's Love: An Alternative, Orthodox View

So with all the substantive comments here that's the one you choose to respond to?
About Christianity
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Hell And God's Love: An Alternative, Orthodox View

"Since we know that cultivating a heart of good will, forgiveness, compassion and love of truth is the best way to spend our time on earth"



The thing is we don't really know that. A lot of us believe it. I'm an atheist and I believe it. But a lot of people don't. A lot of Christians don't for that matter, read The Family, those guys worship power and consider moral behavior something only important for those not selected by Jesus.



One day I think we will know it or we will find out the real truth. But for that to happen people have to stop this artificial divide that says questions of good and evil are for theology not science.
About Christianity
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Hell And God's Love: An Alternative, Orthodox View

Well said. I find amazing is that the author can speak with such authority "Such descriptions are at best figurative" and later "Hell, then, is not primarily a place where God sends people in his wrath," as if there is some scientific method for determining the truth and falsity of such issues. There is no such method. Hell has no evidence and most theologians scoff at the idea that evidence should even be provided. When you "know" things based on faith each person is free to believe what they want, which makes it a very funny kind of knowledge.
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Towards A Just Communications System: Pacifica Radio and the Never-Ending Battle

I used to consider myself a hard core progressive. The democrats and republicans were essentially the same. I voted for Nader rather than Gore because I was tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. Then I saw how much worse the other evil really was. Faith based initiatives, incompetence on a massive scale, endless and pointless wars, the end of basic human rights going back to the magna Charta.



I haven't changed my opinions. I agree with you Truman was wrong with the bomb and JFK was wrong in Vietnam. But I have grown to be disenchanted with most progressives. I've come to see that most of them are more concerned with "being right" then with making real change. They would rather win an argument than a vote.



For me KPFA and especially WBAI are excellent examples that demonstrate this. Endless bickering about who is more politically correct, diversity quotas, and threats to sue each other.



Pacifica may be at a crossroads but so is this country. We have some of the most extreme theocratic reactionaries in our history ready to take power and all progressives can do is whine that Obama never did things that he never promised he would do. He campaigned as a moderate democrat and that is what he's been. He's made amazing progress given the insane opposition he's faced and for all his flaws he'll get my complete support in November.
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Towards A Just Communications System: Pacifica Radio and the Never-Ending Battle

There aren't alternative truths or alternative science. The earth either revolves around the sun or it doesn't. It doesn't depend on whether you are a shaman or a western scientist. What I find so offensive about your point of view is that it marginalizes things like the environmental movement. There is no new age thinking required to realize that the Earth is facing a crisis and that we better do something about it ASAP. Its cold hard science.
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Towards A Just Communications System: Pacifica Radio and the Never-Ending Battle

I've lost track, and frankly most interest, in who is who in the various factions. All I remember is no one seems to last as a program director because they can't do anything that offends anyone without getting threatened or actually sued for sexual harrasment or some other reason. And that many people seem a lot more concerned with getting the exact right ethnic/gender/orientation balance (we must have 2.1 gay pacific islanders, and 1.5 transgendered albinos, ...) than with actually creating good programs or actually helping progressive movements.
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Are We 'Cramming Religion Down Our Children's Throats?' or Creating Good Citizens

Its easy to select an incendiary phrase here or there and make a big issue out of it. But please do you think atheists couldn't do the same thing in return? How many quotes could we easily grab from Dobsen, Gary Bauer, etc. that demonize secularists? I think the important point is to focus on the arguments not a few bits of incendiatry rhetoric. And in this case the real question is why do we take it for granted that parents have the right to instill their religious beliefs into their children? Religious people are always talking about how important it is to "teach the controversey" in terms of evolution vs. creationism but why don't they do the same with religion? Why not expose their children to all different religious beliefs (including atheism and agnostocism) and let them make up their own minds?
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Towards A Just Communications System: Pacifica Radio and the Never-Ending Battle

Thank you. I just posted how I think Pacifica is becoming irrelevant but that comment was so inane I'm going to come to their defense. A good rock station? If nothing else just for broadcasting democracy now! Pacifica is worth more than a good rock station. Not to mention they are the ONLY station that ever broadcasts things like interviews and talks by people like Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Michael Parenti, Normon Sollomon, ...



Why do you even need an FM rock station? You can get a sattelite station or hook your iPad into your car stereo.
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Towards A Just Communications System: Pacifica Radio and the Never-Ending Battle

I was very involved in the Pacifica conflict many years ago. When it seemed that the board led by Mary Frances Berry might sell off some of the stations. i donated money, went to fund raisers, wrote letters. Then we actually won and I was ecstatic. And then... It all seems to have degenerated into various factions arguing who can be more politically correct. There are IMO just too many people who can't let go of their identity politics issues and focus on stuff that really matters. I still listen to Pacifica in my car but all the shows I really care about: Democracy Now, Michio Kaku, I get on podcasts. I fear Pacifica has become mostly irrelevant. I hope I'm wrong.
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Clinton the "Perfect Republican" with Obama Soon to Follow?

"Not nominating Hillary was decision we may come to regret for what we believed so passionately about Obama has not come to pass. "



Please give me a break. Are you seriously claiming that Ms. Clinton would have been some glorious progressive? How soon we forget:



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/hillary-clinton-slams-mov_b_97511.html



As for "what we believed so passionately about Obama" it doesn't matter how passionately you believe something that doesn't make it true. Obama never campaigned as a progressive. He was always honest about being a middle of the road democrat. He has been amazingly consistent for a modern US president in doing what he said he would do. Its not his fault if some progressives had fantasies about what they dreamed he would do.



I wish we could have elected Dennis Kucinich or some other real progressive but I live in the real world. Obama was the best we could hope for and given that he inherited a country broken by 8 years of the most corrupt and incompetent president in history I think he has done an amazing job so far.



But by all means liberals keep on whining and you will get a congress controlled by people who want to force women to have their r@pist's babies and eliminate social security.
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Nazi Book Reveals Detailed Plans For Invasion Of Britain

This article did not "state the obvious" at all. Nowhere in the article did it imply that the discovery of this plan was somehow a great revelation that informed us that Hitler was going to invade England. Of course we've known that for decades and we've known that the plan was called Sea Lion. This article didn't imply anything different. What the article said is that for the first time we have detailed plans for exactly where the invasion was going to take place. Which coastal towns, the plan to get to London, etc. For those of us interested in history I think that rates more than a "Next".



However, I do sincerely apologize for my initial comment. I am dense and had no idea you meant it as a joke. Perhaps in the future you could prevent further confusion by prefacing your witticisms with something like 'THIS IS A JOKE!" Either that or you could say something that is actually clever and funny.
About United Kingdom
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Pope's UK Trip (PHOTOS): Pope Benedict XVI Makes Controversial Visit To Britain

"Pope Benedict...acknowledged Thursday that the Catholic Church had failed to act decisively or quickly enough to deal with priests who rape and molest children. He said the church's top priority now was to help the victims heal."



Am I the only one who finds that a bit odd? First of all if I were a victim of the church they are the last place I would trust for healing. Second, while healing is important isn't it more important to bring criminals to justice and to make sure that future crimes don't occur?
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New Book Says President Bush Broke Laws On Torture: The Abuses Were 'Disgusting And Terrible And Degrading'

"considering that the deficit ballooned to outrageous proportion the previous year that's nothing to celebrate."



The reason the deficit ballooned is that the official numbers didn't reflect the actual deficit. Bush made the deficit seem lower than it was by never including the Iraq or Afghanistan war funding as part of the deficit. Think of how criminally irresponsible that is. For all the years of the wars under Bush they were funded via "emergency" funding which wasn't recorded as part of the budget. When Obama did the correct thing and put the wars on the budget the deficit seemed to balloon.
About George Bush
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UFOs 'On The Record': Original Drawings From Eyewitness Accounts (PHOTOS)

"I really don't understand why people are so opposed to the idea that aliens could be visiting Earth"



I'm not opposed to it. I think it would be amazing. What I'm opposed to is sloppy reasoning. I don't plan on reading the book because I already have read several books on UFO's and they all are pretty much the same. Very unscientific. They remind me of a lot of 9/11 Truth Movement books, they start out with something they believe to be true and then cherry pick information and reject any alternative hypothesis. Here is a template for a particular type of reasoning I've seen hundreds of times in Truth Movement and UFO books:



"The government is not telling the truth in situation X, thus situation X proves that [UFO/controlled demolition/missile hit the pentagon] happened and that the government is covering it up.



Ignoring the fact that there ALL KINDS of reasons that governments lie and withhold evidence. For example to hide incompetence, to hide some secret aircraft, to hide info about a nuclear test,...
About Bestsellers
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Tom Ross, Delaware GOP Chair, Threatened With 'Bullet In The Head'

I agree with the second part but I'm not so sure about the first part. You are assuming that the Koch's and the other funders will see reason and do the rational thing. I'm not so sure. I think people like the Kochs for all their disgusting greed, are also true believers. They really believe the nonsense they spew. Don't forget one of them went so far as to run for VP on a 3rd party ticket. That's the action of a true believer, not a machiavellian looking to manipulate people just to jack up the profits of his company. I think there is a good chance that they may still continue on.
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Five Progressives In Swing Districts Are Bucking The Tide

To all you people on the left who constantly whine about the democrats not being progressive enough -- here is a chance to do something more productive than whining, contribute money and time to help elect some real progressives. If enough of these people win it could be the beginning of some real change.
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Joaquin Phoenix BACK On Letterman

Oh yes, acting getting high or acting as if you are and acting like a jerk. Such a work of art.
About Joaquin Phoenix
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What Is Shariah and Why Does It Matter?

I mostly agree but I think there is an important way that the Shariah law "issue" is different from all those other ones. Abortion, gay rights, and even Willie Horton were all real things. Women were getting abortions, gays were demanding (quite appropriately) more rights, and there was a guy named Willie Horton who got paroled and then committed more crimes. All those things had at least some basis in reality. The reaction and attention to them was completely out of proportion but at least there was some real issue there. With the Shariah law nonsense that isn't the case. There is absolutely no chance of Shariah law being implemented in the US. No serious sane person is advocating it. There isn't a single case where it has ever been or ever could be considered in the US. Yet people like Jimmy Boy are afraid of it. It shows how completely brain washed and fearful a segment of our population is. That the right wing propaganda machine can get them so fearful over such a complete non issue.
About Islam
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What Is Shariah and Why Does It Matter?

First I think far too much is made out of the cases in the UK and Canada. But those are the UK and Canada. Neither of them has as the first part of their bill of rights the following: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" I.e., you can't use any religion as a basis for US law. Period. If this can be used to prohibit things like displaying the ten comandments in US courts it certainly would prohibit basing any US law on Shariah. I feel foolish even arguing against it its so obvious. As I said there is no sane and serious person advocating for this and even if there were it would never have a chance. Its one more example of wing nuts creating false issues out of nothing.
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SHORT AND TWEET: Top 7 Tweets Of The Week From The Fringe And Famous (PICTURES)

Oh... it was "also" of course we can't pursue a suit that is also, thanks for clearing that up.



As for "using valuable resources" that's what law suits do. That's why high priced attorneys take them for a percentage and invest person hours worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, because of the potential pay off. In this case "also" or not there was a huge potential pay off.
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SHORT AND TWEET: Top 7 Tweets Of The Week From The Fringe And Famous (PICTURES)

True. But I think its always worth remembering that one of Schwarzenegger's first actions as governor was to kill the lawsuit California had going against Enron (what was left of it including the personal fortunes of their executives). Remember all those brown outs and the way they gouged CA tax payers for energy? Grey Davis was trying to get some of that money back but Arnold stepped up for his Republican buddy Ken Lay and squashed it. Whatever money they might have gotten wouldn't have solved the deficit problem but it would have helped. As well as giving some satisfaction to Californians who suffered constant brown outs and black outs.
About Sarah Palin
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What Is Shariah and Why Does It Matter?

Professor Jackson I think you left out the most important point of Shariah law as far as the public debate goes. What it actually is has virtually no relevance for the vast majority of the debate going on in the US today and in many places on this site. Its being used as a buzz word to scare Americans. Fear mongers are putting out lies and making declarations about how the US can NEVER HAVE SHARIAH LAW!!! Well guess what folks, there is absolutely zero chance of Sharia law replacing US law ever. Period. End of discussion. No serious person is proposing that and even if they did there is something called the first amendment that says we don't use religious laws in this country.
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Sex Movie Worm Spreads Worldwide

I think you are mostly right. I certainly wouldn't put this on Best Buy, they aren't in the business of installing and maintaining an OS.



But I would ask a related question: why isn't there some value added reseller (something like Red Hat) teaming with Dell to offer computers with Linux already installed and customer support for using it? To me that seems like an awesome idea for a startup or an existing vendor like Red Hat but I would bet that the agreements Microsoft already has with Dell, IBM, etc. prohibits them from selling their hardware pre-bundled with an alternative OS.
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Russia Uses Microsoft To Suppress Dissent

Huffpo have you no shame? Come on this headline was outrageous even for you. It implied that Russia was somehow exploiting Microsoft software or teaming with the company to suppress dissent. Would it kill you to have added "as a pretext" or some other clarifying words to the headline?
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9/11: 'Flashlight Worthy' Recommends 9 Unforgettable Books About September 11 (PHOTOS)

I don't know about totally ignoring them but the attention we give them is completely dispraportionate to the threat. Several people died in a gas explosion in Northern CA a few miles from where I live the other day. If that had been a terrorist bomb we would have the Republicans screaming for us to spend billions more on the military and security to make sure it never happens again. But because it was due to our decaying infrastructure, which we have been neglecting since Ronald (make government so small you can drown it in the bathtub) Reagan people shrug it off as an "act of God". The same goes for people who die in preventable mining accidents, preventable oil drilling accidents, etc. No screaming about those victims and how we need to invest more to make sure basic safety rules are in place and in force. Those people are just as dead as people killed by terrorists.
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9/11: 'Flashlight Worthy' Recommends 9 Unforgettable Books About September 11 (PHOTOS)

I read it. I was ready to be convinced. I believe in conspiracies: JFK, MLK, Operation Gladio, Northwoods, I'm a big conspiracy guy. But I also believe in reason and the scientific method. Griffith's book was full of shoddy reasoning. Again and again he points out some fact where the government screwed up and says "this proves that it must have been a conspiracy" He ignores other equally likely theories such as incompetence. He assumes that every time the Government lies it means there is a conspiracy, ignoring that the Bush administration lied just out of habit not to mention to cover their @ss.
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Why I Didn't Attend the NLGJA Convention -- They Failed Us on Prop 8

I empathazie. There is a lot of that kind of behavior that goes on here as well: http://reddogbear.blogspot.com/2010/05/free-speech.html
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How Evolution Gets Used and Abused in the Science-Religion Debate

"I cannot stand it when the likes of Dawkins like to harass, mock, make fun, smear a person's character, etc, "



I agree those things are terrible. The problem is Dawkins never does any of them. I've seen him in many public debates and once in person. He is always civil, polite, and I've never once heard him utter a personal attack. The same is not always true for the people he debates. Can you site just ONE concrete example in book, audio, or video where Dawkins harrases, mocks, or smears someone's character?
About Evolution
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Qur'an Burning: The 5 Steps that Brought Us to this Point and Why Religious Communities Must Resist

Just because something is legal doesn't make it the right thing to do. The Nazis had the right to march through Skokie, a town in Illinois that had a huge Jewish population, many at the time were Holocaust survivors. At the time I supported the ACLU in giving the Nazis that right. That hardly means I ever thought it was the right thing to do.
About Sarah Palin
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Qur'an Burning: The 5 Steps that Brought Us to this Point and Why Religious Communities Must Resist

I liked the article but I think you have ignored a critical issue: this is not only, I would argue not even primarily about religion. Religion is the catalyst that both sides use to inspire further hatred but IMO the reasons for the initial Islamic hatred toward the US, the reasons for the 9/11 attack, are about much more than religion. There is a long list of crimes that the US has committed against the Islamic world since the end of WWII. These crimes were driven by the cold war and by US imperialism, the desire of the US to control the world. Virtually any educated person in the Islamic world could list them off for you but unfortunately the same is not true for US citizens, many of whom are blissfully unaware of what their government had done. They include: overthrowing the democratic secular government of Iran and installing the Shah, supporting Sadam Hussein as he used chemical weapons against his own people, the Iraq embargo after the first gulf war that resulted in thousands of deaths due to lack of food and medicine, a US destroyer shooting down an Iranian passenger plane -- in that case not only did we refuse to apologize we gave the war criminal captain a medal.



Until the US opens its eyes to the legitimate grievances that the Islamic world has real peace will never happen.
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Morrissey: Chinese People Are A 'Subspecies'

Yes, and Mel Gibson didn't mean that all the Jews control Hollywood and he only hit the mother of his child because she had the nerve to not provide him oral sex. Please don't make excuses for people just because they are celebrities.

I actually am a major fan of Morrisey. I saw the Smiths live several times and they were among the best concerts I've seen ever. But this statement was pathetic racism.
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Morrissey: Chinese People Are A 'Subspecies'

No. The statement is wrong and anyone who knows the basics of biology could tell you why. I'm very much for animal rights. But using racism to insult people is hardly a way to advance the cause. This was more about Morissey working out his inner demons or trying to get in the news or who knows what. Its too bad, I really like The Smiths.
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Jan Brewer Admits She Was Wrong About Beheadings

Do you have any evidence to back that up or are you just making it up or quoting something you heard from Glen Beck?

But for the sake of argument assume its true. What are you saying? Its OK for Brewer to lie because liberals lie? Is that really the standard you have? I call out people who lie no matter what their politics as do most people on the left. Watch Rachel Maddow some time. She has an amazing attention to detail and on the rare occasion when she makes some error she corrects it ASAP.
About Arizona Politics
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Does the Past Exist Yet? Evidence Suggests Your Past Isn't Set in Stone

Another article from Dr. Lanza that conforms to the template: http://reddogbear.blogspot.com/2010/05/template-for-huffington-post-article-by.html

I wonder if he is actually a real person. At this point I think a good computer scientist with a knowledge of AI could use that template and create a Lanza Huffpo article generator.
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Stephen Hawking to God: Your Services Are No Longer Needed; God to Hawking: You So Don't Get Who I Am

"while [faith's] components may be reshaped by evidence it is a belief that transcends the evidence. " This the issue I have never understood. Why do we elevate belief without evidence to somehow be a good thing. If the history of the human race tells us anything its that humans are prone to believe things that aren't true but that in some way fit in with our preconceived prejudices. We do this even when we TRY to find the truth and reason based on evidence. So why in the world for what are arguabley the most important questions of all: does God exist?, what is the nature of morality?, what is the meaning of life? why in the world would we want to say on those questions its better to believe based on no evidence? Doing that will ensure that we believe whatever is comfortable, what we are taught by our parents and what helps us fit in with our society. To me finding the truth is more important than those things, even if it may be an uncomfortable truth and the only way to find the truth is via reason and evidence.
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Stephen Hawking to God: Your Services Are No Longer Needed; God to Hawking: You So Don't Get Who I Am

"Beyond all doubt, God exists -- in the minds of his (or her) followers. Whether God is more than a belief is itself a question of belief "

No its not. You are just playing semantic games. Of course a lot of people believe in God. That in no way implies that God actually exists (i.e. is more than a belief). A lot of people believe in Ghosts, the city of Atlantis, Sasquatch, etc. Whether those things existed is not a question of belief its a question of fact. They either do or they don't. God is no different. Its one more empirical fact that is or isn't true.
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Off-Hollywood: The Five Indie Films Worth Seeing This Month

Ebert has come a long way in the last few years. He has risen above his illness and I think really matured as a writer, no longer just an excellent film critic.
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13 Books Nobody's Read But Says They Have (PHOTOS)

I completely agree with you. I read it a few years ago and thought it was a very mediocre book. I think its a good example of how censorship can work in reverse. If no one had tried to censor Catcher I don't think it would have gathered anywhere near the notoriety and popularity it achieved.
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