WMD? Nope. Oil? Nope. Try Gog and Magog...

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Oh man, how do we walk them through this one...?

HMM.

a. Scripted routines?
b. Patterns?
c. desperately random?
d. all the above.


I'm kinda drawn to mark (a). But that may be just because I don't watch the zombie boob tube(as in television) very much and have always had dreams of doing a little song and dance on Broadway. Ya know, like, lights coming down and spot-light on me doing my do. & all, "We're in the Moneeeey, we're in the moneeey!". . . Yeah, right.

[Deckard]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

Puppet of whom exactly, though, Decks?

Why, Dick Cheney of course!

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Originally Posted by Deckard

Why, Dick Cheney of course!

O.K., yeah, but compliment my singing routine. I've been working on it all week. And my feet hurt too.

[Deckard]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

this post offends me, not only in that you make the implication that all religion is a foolish notion, but that you make the implication that everyone who follows a religion must be a fool.

Don't you DARE put words in my mouth.

I'm SO offended!

Seriously, I did no such thing. I held the notion of Bush's (and Reagan's) apparent beliefs up to that quote from a Greek philosopher, with the only implication being to call one or the other into question.

As it happens I do think believing in such things is foolish. I do happen to think that anyone who believes Jesus to be the son of God, Thor to be the god of Thunder or anything else based on one of the world's many and varied creation myths throughout history (including Gog and Magog) is being foolish. I make no apologies for that. To quote your post, "whether you agree with that or not is irrelevent as it is a personal opinion."

However, believing in foolish things does not make someone "a fool" per se, just like acting stupidly does not mean someone "is" stupid. I don't judge someone's entire being based solely on some beliefs I happen to consider foolish. As such, I do not consider you a fool bryant, I just consider your religious belief foolish.

That distinction is not spurious sophistry or passive aggression, it's how I genuinely try to approach people. It would be crazy to go around dismissing everyone who believes in religion as "a fool".

[//\/\/]

erm; is there another source for chirac's comments, other than this bloke telling us that he's saying it?

[Deckard]

Originally Posted by Strangelet

I've just watched this.

Sends a chill down my (cold, cruel, godless) spine.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

No one ever listens to me...

[Deckard]

I chuckled at your kneejerk quip jOHN.

Everything else you posted went way above my head. (as it were.)

[Sean]

While I won't be shocked if it's a true story, it does seem slightly dubious in it's anectodal nature.

That aside, as an atheist, I personally find the fact that religion is so crucial to holding office in the first place pretty disturbing. As far as I'm concerned, religion is a purely man-made institution that began as a means to provide answers to scary questions, like "what is that big, bright, hot thing in the sky that flies overhead every day?" and "what happens when we die?" In the past, those questions were answered through deities like Ra, Thor, and Zeus. Now it's God, or Allah, or whoever else other contemporary religions worship, but the motivation and concept is exactly the same. Personally, I would love to see a national leader who can check all of this at the door (or even not be religious - I can't imagine that actually happening though), and govern based on reason, logic, and the basic needs of our society - because to be perfectly honest, powerful people who believe in and govern by using this kind of mythology at all make me extremely uneasy. That goes equally for Republicans and Democrats.

So all of that is basically meant to make the point that if this story is true, it's honestly no more scary to me than the fact that all of our political leaders finish virtually every speech with statements like "God bless America", and base much of what they do on what their religion tells them is right and wrong. Nothing that any political leader does in their job should be motivated by religious ideology, because it will inherently alienate and ignore the beliefs of a significant portion of the population while at the very least appearing to cater only to like-minded religious folks.

[//\/\/]

well; didn't that used to happen until regan's mob realised that it was a hitherto unplayed-to audience? a MASSIVE untapped resource. after that proved such a success, there wasn't not a party that dare not woo them as they wouldn't have a prayer (ahem!)