Campy

On an emotional level, I agree 100%. There is a part of me that wonders what it would be like to be raised Buddhist or Muslem in America though. If the roles were reversed for instance, I'd be none too happy with something like Ramadan being crammed down my throat by a passive endorsement of Islam by the government. On one hand is the freedom of religion versus freedom from religion argument, and on the other is the desire to make sure that we're an inclusive nation, not one prone to exclusivity because of religion. That's a great point you made. I don't think there are any easy answers. Yup. My solution's a lot like yours, but it makes too much sense and is too simple to go anywhere. I always thought that just pausing after "one nation" would do the trick. Don't have the teacher say "under God," but allow the kids to say it if they choose, and make it a non-issue if they'd rather not. Problem solved. I hadn't heard about the Oregon situation, but if that was in my community I'd probably lobby to have the arse of the zoning schmuck who approved that. With all of the freedoms we have, we sometimes forget that they require a great deal of responsibility on the part of those who exercise them. In other words, sex shows by a school is flat out irresponsible. I think the problem may be, or at least my problem is with the people using their religion in arguing their points on moral issues. While I may agree with the person's point, like someone in Oregon who's PO'd that live sex shows take place near a school, they'll lose me as soon as they start thumping a Bible. IMO, their (nor my) religious views should never be used to either restrict rights or to legislate morality. It seems that the Bible-thumping extremists are more vocal than the people with the more secular arguments even though they have the same goal - in this case to put a stop to live sex shows near a school. Legislating morality is tricky business because, as someone pointed out above, the majority of us are Christian. As Christians in a country that promises her citizens the freedom to worship any god as they choose, we have a responsibility to ensure that our faith isn't used to craft law. Good post jshock, I can't say I disagree with anything you said - especially on an emotional level. But hey, sometimes I just gotta' throw my two cents in! And thank you for "fixing" it for me too.

I'd have to say the little riff after the chorus in Breakfast at Tiffany's (by Deep Blue Something) is my favorite right now - It's the only solo I can play at tempo.

I just read it again. Man. That's some moving stuff. I wouldn't mind buying Beck a cold frosty one for all he's doing to help the families of "his" Marines - definitely above and beyond the call of duty. Guys, if you have 10 or 15 minutes, read this.

Not at all. You were describing my Psych and Sociology professors to a 'T'

Wow. A bit on the lengthy side, but wow.

Side 3: Space Truckin'. All 20 beautiful minutes and 3 seconds of it. When I was young and irresponsible I worked at the college radio station. I'd put that song on, run down the hill to a buddy's dorm, take a hit or two off the hookah while listening to it play (to make sure it didn't skip and all), and then run back to the studio with enough time to slap a different record on the second turntable. I'll never forget that album or that song - although I've forgotten many of the things that happened while listening to that album and song.

He's also pimping a communications multi-level marketing company. http://www.5linx.com/

Sound advice. ESPECIALLY numbers 1 and 3.

My first car was a hand-me-down, my brother's "winter car" because he didn't want to drive his Trans-Am in 3 feet of snow. Anyway, it was a '73 Chevy Impala with the "427 Hydrajet" engine. The thing was a lead sled, but man, you could stand in the engine compartment with both feet on the ground while you worked on it. Super easy to work on. My second vehicle was a Toyota Celica GT with some mods - sport suspension, 4 banger out, the Supra 6 cyl in its place. The first time I tried to change spark plugs I damn near killed myself. It was a 5-spd, a real blast to drive but working on it was a knuckle-busting beeyatch.

Thanks for the kind words about ol' Father Bernie. Lord knows I'm not without fault but I think he did a pretty good job too.

It stems from the quasi-theory that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can create a tsunami through a chain of events - one helluva a doppler effect you might say.

I wasn't really expecting a response, but I do follow what you're saying, thanks for dumbing it down. I really like the idea of a flat tax too. Imagine the resources that could be freed up and allocated elsewhere just by simplifying the bloody tax code. Now you're talkin' my language!

Crime is hardly new, but that's an interesting take. Part of it may be an increase in materialism and rampant consumerism - people working more to buy "stuff" they may or may not need and leaving young impressionable minds to be influenced by the wrong er - influences. Some if it may be poor parenting, some of it may be desperation of people in the lower social and economic classes, and a pretty good part of it may be no fear of ultimate judgment, although I do know agnostics and atheists whose actions are more "Christian" than those of many of the people I see on Sunday mornings. I dunno'. But I don't buy that people should get their faith from the government (not that you're inferring they should). Personally, I think it comes from the home and church - but my perception is likely more than a little skewed as my father was an Episcopal priest.

This place would go in to a meltdown if they tried that and failed.

I got my first record - a Kiss album - there too!!!! Too funny! I wasn't sure if anyone besides Dan Gross (we had talked about Twin Fair over plates at Nick's last year) would catch that. We used to go to the one in Batavia on route 5 - mom was convinced she could get enough S&H Greenstamps to redeem them for something other than an oven mitt. They closed when she was within 50 stamps of getting a screen house (you know, those big enclosed thingies so you could eat outside and keep the flies away). Needless to say we never let her hear the end of that one!

I'm sure there's a lot of really good stuff in that post GG, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what the first paragraph means, much less the rest of it. I'm thankful (and so should the rest of you be) that there are people much smarter than me who 'get' this whole finance thingy. *sighs* Next time the Crimean War comes up, let me know, OK?

Will do. There were so many times he'd say something and it sounded exactly like one of your or Ken's posts. I told him about PPP and invited him to check it out but his response was along the lines of "I'm too damn old to try to get people to think for themselves all day at work to come home and do the same with buffoons who've never read the damn Constitution." I told him he was probably right - on both counts.

Exactly. And that's fine. The states had the right to do it, but after the Articles of Confederation were scrapped for the Constitution, the federal government's laws, especially when it came to things like the freedoms of the new nation's (white male) citizenry, were designed to trump state law. I'm not trying to be anti-God by any stretch of the imagination. I believe in God, I believe that His Son died for us. Shoot, I taught Sunday School for crying out loud. But when you look at the history of nations that espouse or promote a state-sponsored religion, I for one, wouldn't want that going on here. It leads to too many problems. Unfortunately for modern-day American Christians, of which the majority of Americans are, that means a total separation of church and state, lest the majority persecute the minority. Being Christian, members of our faith have been on the receiving end of such persecution far too many times to allow even the spectre of Christians persecuting non-Christians, intentionally or otherwise, to rear its truly ugly head.

The challenges we'd run into are similar to what we see happening in other nations. Google "Orange Green Irish" and read about their struggles for example. It's been going on since the Reformation and still isn't resolved. Those are the types of issues our founding fathers wanted to avoid.

The funny thing is that my Poli Sci prof is a moderate-to-hardcore Libertarian, depending upon the issues. I was nervous about taking a Poli Sci class, I was afraid I'd get stuck with some devout socialist and learn nothing, but it turned out to be an awesome class. I guess it's because I'm old enough to be most of my classmates' father, but he had me over to his place a few weekends to meet his wife and kids. We'd have a few "age-appropriate" beverages and shoot the bull. Real interesting guy that can take and/or argue any position when it comes to politics. I got a lot out of his class - he makes you think for yourself and not regurgitate material from a text.

It would be a riot to watch the riot on C-SPAN though, wouldn't it?

You're on a roll today AD!

The as-yet-to-be-discovered-non-Gawd-awful-hip-hop crap, I suppose.

He's playing on a bad wheel. They must believe that a healthy Peters is better than a hobbled MW at RT, but a hobbled MW would be an improvement at LG?

Golden twinkie of judgment?