Look, I'm an atheist, so, to that extent, yeah, we're kindred souls.

But, when the worldwide religiousity figure seems to hover around 93%, are you willing to write all of them off as whack-jobs? Maybe they are, but they've got us outnumbered, if nothing else.

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Oh, so that's what that was. I guess it makes it easier to pick his coat out of the pile on the bed at the end of the memorial service.

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[IMG]http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=arctic+seal/v=2/SID=e/l=IVS/SIG=12efhqqvm/EXP=1107018713/*-http%3A//www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/arctic/sea/harpseal.jpg[/IMG]

Just the ones who claim the Almighty speaks through them. I call them "zealots".

Courage, Bilmore.

Where's pony to say that every Muslim is a ratbag psychopath who should be nuked 'till they glow? That should put a dent in the 93%. Then, just between you and me, I think we can take the Buddhists, passive bunch that they are. Who's left? Shinto? Bunch of interior decorators. Santeria? Well, yeah, they kind of scare me, too, but there ain't that many of them. The Catholics are in disarray, but The Tribe (hi paigs!) has nukes. But I'll have tea with a vicar any day.

When you get right down to it, the only ones that really bother me are the ones that think God talks to them and tells them to do stuff. It seems like we've got one of those in the White House, and a good few more around him who probably believe it even more strongly than he does.

ETA: SHP invented my post.

Quick Question -- Who was Speaker of the House in 1995?

eta: And who is House Majority Leader today?

S_A_M

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The current VP would probably prefer one with an axe sticking out of its head, and an oil rig in the background.

Please Lord. Give me the strength to ignore this troll.

Did He/She/It get back to you ? What did Em say?

"What is Hank doing in Nebraska?"

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/28/cow.fire.ap/index.html

There was a time in my life when I, too, was convinced that gawd was speaking to me. But I quit using the shrooms, and the blessed silence returned.

If you are an infidel, is there a long distance in the sanity continuum between believing in Thor, and believing that Thor speaks to you? I think you draw a distinction that is more centered on how you would like to perceive Bush than on any substantive difference in wackdom.

Field guide to Socks-

When nfh posts under her primary the news articles are typically quoted, and she sticks comments right in the middle so you have to be careful. When she uses her SS sock to post news articles she typically separates the commentary and the article.

You city boys just don't recognize that cow poop fires, like peat bog fires, are serious shit.

"Allowing"? Who failed to exercise their power to keep her from asking some very pointed questions to an NSA who is getting a promotion after a, uh, less-than-undefeated record in office?

By the way, I was on a jetblue flight last week and since there was nothing on I stuck with the news channels for a while. Both O'Reilly and Scarborough pulled out that Rice-as-parrot cartoon we discussed all those weeks ago to ask "why is the democrats' opposition to Dr. Rice so predicated on race, as shown by this cartoon and others*." It was kind of fun to see them have the same stupid discussion that we had here on the PB, with a little extra slant.

Is there a reason why Gonzales wouldn't meet with the Hispanic caucus? Is it because they're all Dems like the black caucus is, or something else?

*they never showed any others.

edited to make grammar marginally better.

Are you kidding me? A pile of crap 100 feet long, 30 feet high and 50 feet wide that has burned out of control for 2 months terrifies me. It's like The Blob, but smellier.

Bilmore on shrooms - does not compute. Does not compute. Logic error.

The difference is between those who believe the Almighty Em speaks TO them (i.e., "harmless kooks") and those who believe the Almighty Em speaks THROUGH them, and that gives them the right and duty to tell us all how the world should be and how we should behave (i.e, "zealots", "jihadists", "fundamentalists", "anti-abortion protesters", "creationists", etc.).

And to answer your next question, link.

How do they compare with tire fires?

Good lord, where have you been? Heavy drug use has formed the very basis of my personality.

Damn. You're right - they are all wackjobs - all 93%.

I will pray for them. To Loki. Thor is a pussy.

http://pc59te.dte.uma.es/cdb/series/...tmaps/loki.jpg

Tire fires smell bad.

They are more authentic, and morally valuable, being from the Midwest and all.

It took me until well into my twenties to figure this out, but I've been more serene since I did. Life makes more sense. Days are more pleasant. Fish taste better.

I don't see what the big deal is. I don't believe a word that comes out of W's mouth. When he says the Lord speaks to him, he's just lying (again).

Head down, working. I'm the burp gun of posters.

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Cheney prepares for his redeployment to a weather station in Antarctica?

As the local representative of the on-topic FB, I think his wife should have slapped him.

However, I must take issue with this quote from the article: "Some might argue that Cheney was the only attendee with the smarts to dress for the cold and snowy weather. But sometimes, out of respect for the occasion, one must endure a little discomfort. "

I reject the idea that appropriate attire and complete physical comfort are at odds, with very, very limited exceptions (e.g., formal daytime diplomatic functions requiring morning suits with hat and gloves held outdoors in Dubai in August). Certainly not in this case.

Of course, the idea of the WaPo having a "fashion and beauty section is pretty goddamn funny.

BR(Given his ticker, I think avoiding an elevated heart rate to keep warm would have justified a breach of sartorial etiquette. It just wasn't necessary, though.)C

It's this kind of thinking, presumably, that permits you to roll your eyes at the Buchanans, and to pretend that the DeLays aren't wackos (because they ARE setting legislative agendas, and, by definition they can't be on the fringe, can they?) but still allows you the freedom to recoil in horror from the Boxers, because the number of people who would have the temerity to call out Rice is somewhere south of that 93%.

Congratulations.

You misunderestimastand.

Buchanan and Delay aren't going to cost the R's anything. My point is, Boxer and Dean and Kerry are going to cost the D's, big time. For some reason, the inclusion of Delay seems to get out the R votes, while a move to a more extreme position will not help Ds. R's still occupy a large middle portion, while also encompassing the Buchanuts. D's are simply narrowing their tent.

And, no, it isn't the serenity that allows that outlook. It's the drugs.

Oh, this is so sad - bilmore got into his daughter's mushroom stash again.

Big time? Are the Dems going to lose their majority on The Today Show now too?

I still don't understand what is so wacko about Boxer asking Rice some questions about her performance as NSA. The GOP had a very successful election, and congrats for that. Even so, something tells me that I don't necessarily want my party heading in the direction you or Hank think it should because of that victory.

Following up on my earlier post about the parrot cartoon, I see in today's paper that Oliphant has another one out. This one I don't get. Maybe the problem is not that the guy's racist but that he's not very good at his job.

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I think they club them. To avoid slicing the fur.

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Sure, if they're on a reality-based seal hunt. But in the faith-based seal hunts, they use axes and M16s, the seals are actually al-Qaeda operatives, and the background is thick with oil derricks pumping limitless oceans of Canadian light sweet crude at $55/barrel.

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Mmmm, sweets.

That's the ticket! Change "racist" to "biased" and you have Rather's story.

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What is the "racist" version of religious hatred? I can't remember the term.

Look, I'm an atheist, but you've really captured the essence of what I speak. "Faith-based" means, well. what you said?

Wow.

Prepare for Naderism. At best. Imagine your party begging Nader to let your candidate into the debates.

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You've already started drinking for the evening, haven't you?

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Yes. he's an inverse chicken little. The Dems will pull 30-40 % of the vote into the forseeable future. You'll have at least 25 -30 Senate seats etc. You have your loyal base- no need to worry. And since you have Hollywood- well there will be $$$ for really good commercials and documentaries about oil wars.

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See, I'm teasing Bilmore about taking a SHP post so seriously that he's apparently convinced that the party's headed to the left of Nader. I figured he's just drinking again.

Your inspiration seems to be something more profound, an embrace of Michael Moore hatred that you'll be hanging on to for a good decade, coupled with the sweetness of a cleansed political memory that comes after your party's victories, but before the majority party's infighting and overreaching begins.

Your more expansive worldview is harder to attribute to having one too many at the Adam's Apple downtown, Hank, if you know what I mean. But it's bold. I like it! Hang onto it -- it'll keep you warm during the cold nights of the Congressional investigations that are the staples of second-term presidents.

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Alas, no, I haven't even stopped teleconferencing yet.

It just seems to me that youze guyz are going quite overboard on the demonization of an influence that I think is way overperceived. Note how I keep pointing out "me atheistic" - I have less love for the sinbots than you, most likely - but with your constant snide "faith-based putzoids" this and your "Jeezuz-howls-on-the-train" that, you just seem so horridly bitter that you're gonna shoot yourselves all in the feet. Maybe better to wash them?

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As I recall, this conversation started with youze guyz telling us that because Boxer wrote a letter to a liberal blogger, it portended the complete Marginalization of The Democratic Party, Home of the Wackos.

Seemed a silly premise to me. Perhaps even snide. In any event, I'm a bit baffled at your surprise and disappointment that others would point out this Administration's, and your party's, special relationship with the Lord as counterexamples. Trust me, we hear you each and every time you proclaim that "you athiestic" and that you not like them.

Nevertheless, bilmore, it's you're party, and you got to dance with them that brung ya, even if the partners are not always to your liking.

We in the newly-formed minority understand the deal. And, as a matter of perspective, I'd imagine that you in the majority would remember the GOP's colorful history during the bomb-throwing days of the Gingrich Era. Beyond the ultimate truth of whether the Godliness of the GOP will bring your party political deliverance or exile, making these arguments are what political minorities do. Where, exactly, in your lively discussion about political wackos did you think this conversation would go?

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And here I am at the dance, dressed to the nines, and I see you looking in through the drapes.

This wasn't about "do I love our religio-centrics". This was about "D's need to determine which way, if any, they want to or need to move to rebuild a viable winning base." My Boxer point was, she and others of her ilk (that's like a social club in California) are stepping up and assuming the "face" of the D's right now. I doubt that's a good move for the D's. If anything, I think there are more votes to be mined by moving D's slightly center than by moving left. Come up with a candidate less fulsomely and historically liberal than Kerry, with the same ideas and plans, and I think the D's win. A candidate, and a party, that responds to the more extremist left view, while being more satisfying for the hardcore activists, marginalizes D's to a smaller and smaller vote.

We seem to be able to survive our Buchanans. Can you survive your Boxers?