Thing is; Jesus said not to preach, but to live as another may want too. By example. He said to be kind and helpful, showing love, concern and moral living.
Anger begets anger, fear evolves harshness and pain. Love is kind.
When the student is ready....the teacher appears. Not until then.


Kat

I hope nobody dies in prison

I have a pair of magic anti-terrorism pants.

I bought them from a traveling salesman right after Sept. 11. He told me that as long as I own them, the United States will not be hit by any terrorist attacks. So far, he's been right--we haven't. A lot of people say that it's because of the policies implemented by the Bush administration, but really, I know for sure it's because of my pants.

You can't prove otherwise--I still have the pants, and we've had no planes crash into any buildings in New York or Northern Virginia. My pants are doing a great job, if you ask me.

Some people say--that's one of the president's favorite rhetorical constructions, and if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me--some people say that it's the job of the president to guard the United States, and he says he's successful because so far al-Qaida hasn't been back. Well, for starters, I've read the Constitution, and I've read the president's oath of office, and nowhere in either one does it say that it's the president's job to protect America. The oath of office says it's the president's job to protect and defend the Constitution; when it comes to how well he's done that, I believe the jury might still be out.

First Amendment? Well, they were locking people up for protesting outside the president's rallies when he ran for re-election in 2004. Fourth Amendment? Well, there's that matter of warrantless wiretapping where the government and the phone companies were colluding on violating your privacy (the Democrats and, specifically, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, as it stands currently, are helping acquiesce on that one right now when it comes to the "compromise" on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act).

Fifth Amendment? Well, the Military Commissions Act gave a good shot at eliminating the right of habeus corpus for anyone the president decided was an "enemy combatant," no matter where the "battlefield" happens to be, much less that business about "due process of law." The Sixth Amendment deals with the right of a speedy trial and to confront witnesses against you; there's a bunch of people, including American Yasir Esam Hamdi, who never got a "speedy trial" much less a chance to confront his accusers, so that goes right out the window.

And of course, there's the matter of the Eighth Amendment, where the phrase "cruel and unusual punishments" almost perfectly describes waterboarding and the other "enhanced interrogation techniques" better than anything Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton might have thought up in any fevered historical dream.

So for the job the president's supposed to be doing, he's not really doing all that well at it. And the job he claims to be doing is being handled just fine by my magic pants.

Sadly, I didn't pick up the salesman's magical Constitution-protecting pants that day, but then again, I didn't think I'd need them, because the president swore he'd protect it, and he said when he first ran for office that he was a uniter, not a divider, and that he didn't believe in nation-building.

Back in the 1990s, I didn't have a pair of magical anti-terrorism pants because Timothy McVeigh was caught, tried, and executed. Ramzi Yousef, who planned the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was caught, tried, and is serving life in prison without parole. Same for Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh: tried, convicted, sentenced to life in prison. The president didn't send them to Gitmo, waterboard them, hold them without trial for years or deny them lawyers, and the Constitution managed to survive. I don't even think the magic Constitution-protecting pants were even on the drawing board back then. But there they sat on the shelf of the salesman's cart back in late September of 2001, and I didn't buy them. I feel pretty bad about that now.

I figure they would have helped blow the smoke from the eyes of Democrats in Congress who caved to the administration's warrantless wiretapping plan, especially since it relies on the courts saying, "If the president told us it was okay, then it must have been okay." The way the new law is written up, even the lawsuits that have already been filed against the telecoms would have to be thrown out if judges are told that the Bush Justice Department--heretofore known as an open, accountable, self-regulating institution--approved the wiretaps. Never you mind that it's already been shown that those self-same patriotic telecoms were more than happy to shut them down if the bills weren't paid.

So unless Senate detractors like Chris Dodd and Russell Feingold can overcome those like Sen. Mikulski who have already signaled that they'll give in to the president, it looks like it will have been my mistake not to have bought those Constitution-protecting pants after all.

But so far, my magical anti-terrorism pants have been working like a charm. What's that you say? We were attacked since Sept. 11? What about the anthrax attacks?

These pants suck.
About author
Brian Morton is a columnist for the Baltimore City Paper.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/15501

I would say not a religion but a way of thinking....maybe to some a religion. I think you would have to ask them.

Atheism = non beliefs of godsrmation of the nonexistence of gods

Pantheism = believes that the trees are god, the mountain is god...that my dog spot is god.

This is what came to me regarding this thread.

Matthew 13

10 His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”

11 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets[a] of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. 12 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. 13 That is why I use these parables,

For they look, but they don’t really see.
They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.

14 This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says,

‘When you hear what I say,
you will not understand.
When you see what I do,
you will not comprehend.
15 For the hearts of these people are hardened,
and their ears cannot hear,
and they have closed their eyes—
so their eyes cannot see,
and their ears cannot hear,
and their hearts cannot understand,
and they cannot turn to me
and let me heal them.’

16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.

dont hand it over star - you have to "turnover" the crown - and no it was not a freudian slip - it was a fraudulent statement - the only bubba i know is bubba gum - youn know the stuff you used to put on the end of your nose or in your nose to make everybody laugh. - ok you can resume your duties as jizzter now -

hey,hey,hey, - i'm the comedian around here!! not star - turnover!!

It's not genocide, that's a lie. Watch Pallywood. The Israelis attack IN RESPONSE to attacks from the Palestinians.