Ok, as a source of information what are YOU bringing to the table? You did no research, you only offered opinions. On that regard, I give in-- you're a perfectly reliable source on your own opinions.

I know my personal situation vis-a-vis the economy better than you possibly can and my statement about Warren Buffet's position has been in all the major news sources.

Unreliable?

I think not.

A full 70% of Americans, when polled, think America's on the wrong track. That, too, can be checked.

Home starts for the most recent reporting period? The worst since some time in the 60's. Checkable. Unemployment? Checkable.

It takes a lot more than clever naysaying to counter arguments made by people who like to debate. Raise, cover or fold. Let's see your cards-- I'm calling your bluff.


-Kerry O.

There's always Google if one wants to find the statistics. If you pay me to do the research, I'll be glad to supply you with reliable statistics.

With corporate profits up and unemployment still stuck close to 10%, it's pretty clear that many of us are being asked to do more work for the same or less money. American productivity is at an all-time high, yet wages are stagnant, and every year we are asked to pay more for health insurance, food and gas. Someone's reaping the benefit of that.

And it's not the bottom 99%, is it?

Don't take my word for it, Google up what Warren Buffet has to say about it.


-Kerry O.

I read somewhere recently that the top 1% saw their wealth in 2010 increase at a rate that surpasses any recorded since records began being kept.

Never has the old lament that 'The Rich get richer, the poor get poorer" ever been more literally true.

-Kerry O.

John 11:35: "Jesus wept."



-Kerry O.

Jokes that don't stab the very people one is making motions about befriending in the back? Jokes that aren't just more tools to further a hidden agenda?

I believe your Bible has a verse that says "Be not deceived- god is not mocked." The way that often works out is that his 'children' don't take too kindly to being mocked for their faith in him.

Seeing how much of human nature and interaction is based upon reciprocity, do his 'children' get a pass on mocking those who don't believe as his children do?

But let's ask this another way, shall we? You meet this really hot guy and you initially feel some chemistry. But then he starts making really obnoxious jokes, the butt of which are invariably women. He goes even farther by being patronising you about your intelligence and then tells you to 'get a sense of humor' when you raise a 'word to the wise' objection.


How long would you put up with that ?

Poking a little good natured fun at the human foibles of those you are intimately acquainted with can be a sign of brotherly/sisterly love. But it's often HUGELY inappropriate to do so with total strangers.


-Kerry O.

Well, now he's in 'Rate My Profile' explaining his prowess with women.

-Kerry O.

If there is one, I think benign neglect seems the most likely. Really, it's hard for me to believe in a superior being who would be so sadistic as to pull the proverbial wings off insects for jollies.

-Kerry O.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't being a stand-up person for Christ a 24/7 endeavor? It's more than repeating the Creeds and revelling in the Good News on Sunday in Church. Especially after one has been out on a bender in the strip club on Saturday night?

I have a great respect for the Quakers who live near here in Philadelphia. The NEVER proselytize and they would NEVER make this sort of joke. In their cultural memory, they know well what it means to be a persecuted minority for the convictions one holds close. That's why they came to the new world to start over and named their capital city The City of Brotherly Love.

Too, humans of all creeds don't like being made fools of for taking someone at their word who later drops all pretense of sincerity and laffs up their sleeves while saying "Trust me."


-Kerry O.

Just a note to other Unbelievers-- our OP just got done posting a really bigotted joke about Atheists in the Jokes forum.

Sincere dialogue?


-Kerry O.

Sooner or later, many of them drop the mask of lovingkindness. They say they want an honest dialogue, but when the Unbelievers don't knuckle under to being converted, they get passive-agressive abusive.

Fey.


-Kerry O.

You have to love it. The topic should have read "What should we do in Libya and how can we blame Obama for it." LOL!!!!

Maybe the Tea Party can get some more teachers fired to pay for any intervention so as not to raise taxes to pay for yet another expensive war to democratise a region in which we've propped up puppet strongmen since oil became a commodity.


-Kerry O.

But it's an argument that needs to be repeated endlessly because it's about nothing less than the people's right to know. The Founding Fathers themselves said that a free press is essential to the political well-being of We The People. If it's being corrupted into a machine to keep The Few taking advantage of The Many, we need to know that, too.

Margaret Thatcher once said "Being powerful is like being a Lady-- if you have to tell someone you are, you aren't." So it goes with organizations like Fox News who tried to actually trademark the term "Fair and Balanced."



-Kerry O.

I'd say they were playing 'Gottcha', the way lay people often think they can do with the Law. See, they think this like an episode of Perry Mason where the Huffinton Post is their surprise, 11th hour witness who affirms their Kangaroo Court verdict with which they started. Only, in the REAL world, there are processes like discovery and full disclousure. Thing is, we never get to depose news sources like NewsMax, The National Review, WorldNetDaily or The Free Republic.

I'll bet you dimes to donuts that the OP doesn't regularly read The Huffington Post and got the link from somehere along Conservative Tree House network. And the thinking goes, "See!!! Seee!!!!!!!! Even a _PROGRESSIVE_ news source says the whole Pro....errrr... LIBERAL news media is BIASED--- BIASED, I SAY!!!"

To be sure, there are conservative and Libertarian voices who aren't exactly enamoured with the Right Wing Noise Machine and say so if they can get a word in edgewise. I say, "Good for them!" But I don't think it really proves anything.

The 'proof' is in the analysis. One needs to ask themself "Is this news, editorializing or just plain propaganda" when reading from ANY source. Only then can you be an impartial jurist for the crimes of the Body Politic.


-Kerry O.

Pretty weak rebuttal, huh? With a little "Mee TOO!" thrown in for good measure. I guess someone didn't have enough time to do research because the computers were unplugged while the Illegals were cleaning the Conservative Treehouse. :)


-Kerry O.

And in your all-fired cherry-picking rush to tar and feather any media that's not conservative, you completely missed the point of the article AND my post. And that point is that the very objectivity and self-introspection that the article and my post raised is brazenly lacking when the shoe is on the conservative foot.

Further, all one need do to find some of the worst vitriol on the planet is to visit the conservative Freepers forums at The Free Republic website.

-Kerry O.

But isn't the OP just as biased as it accuses 'progressives' as being? If you REALLY wanted to be Fair and Balanced (TM) you would, if at all possible, go over to some place like World Net Daily and find an article that self-chastises Conservative media for pushing just as much FUD and Yellow Journalism.

The other day on MSNBC's news site, they reported on the tragic deaths of 7 children on a Mennonite farm near here. The headline read something like " 7 Children Perish in House Fire While Mother Milks Cows and Father Naps". IMO, this was opportunistic sensationalism at it's absolute worst, and the comments section was steady howl of protests from all sides over this major faux pas. The facts in the article make it clear how utterly misleading the headline really was. There was NO negligence or abuse, just a sad, sad tragedy that probably couldn't have been averted.

I stopped watching TV news many years ago because of the poor quality of journalism and bias on all ends of the spectrum. Before it broke up, the USSR had Pravda (The Truth) as its state run newspaper. See, *I* think we have 2 Pravda's going in this country, a sort of CoTalitarianism if you will, where the reader really has to filter their newsfeed thru a pretty big BS remover.

So if you're going to complain about the bias of The Glass Teat, remember-- there are plenty of boobs to go around. Both sides, now.


-Kerry O.

Well, some of us don't take as gospel much that proselytizing Christians write on the Internet. On the Internet, Anyone can say Anything, including holding false dichotomies held out as religious 'truth'.

One can learn a lot more about the human condition from reading Shakespeare than reading biblical-derived dogma and repeating it endlessly like that's somehow gong to make it profound wisdom.

This isn't the Dark Ages anymore, where things that go bump in the night frighten the villagers into pliable quiescence. As Edward R. Murrow once said, Americans aren't descended from fearful men.

-Kerry O.

As are most atheists and Unbelievers in general. But let it be known that you're an Unbeliever or not a Christian, and right away the militant Christians start ramping up for a battle to the death with the forces of Satan, aka "YOU".

I mean really, I have NEVER knocked on a stranger's door to try to convert them to Unbelief, and upon finding them to be a Christian, started talking down to them as if they were stupid, Communists or axe murderers intent on taking away peoples' civil rights. On the other hand, someone like myself living in one of the 'Bible belts' can probably give you all kinds of stories where this kind of narcissism comes to one's front door all too frequently.

I'd bet that if one went door to door trying to convert people to Satanism, they'd get arrested at the very least, probably physically harmed.




I've taken to just telling them I'm a Secular Humanist if they really press. If they give me attitude, I just shrug, say "It's a free country" and let them watch my back as I walk away.


-Kerry O.

Did you miss the post where a certain militant Christian claimed atheists 'don't think', insinuating they are easily-led fools?


-Kerry O.

As opposed to modern conservatism, which thinks all the money belongs in the hands of the few who will TELL YOU what is best for you and you'll learn to like it or else?

Equating all other political philosophies with the Third Riech is hilarious, because Nazism was/ Fascism is FAR RIGHT.

But hey, as Ronald Reagan, the patriarch of Conservatism Today once said, "Facts are stupid things."

-Kerry O.