Cowboy, you're on record here as saying all women undeniably have more ribs than men because Genesis suggested that. You based your whole argument in the debate on 'the Bible tells me so and it's never wrong'.

Well, you were PROVEN wrong and you never recanted. I hardly see your being proven wrong in a debate that you yourself framed for having believed in a fable as being insultive-- it just shows the lengths you are willing to go counter reality so you won't have admit that the Bible is NOT as authoritative as you and some other Christians claim.

Talking snakes? Rabbits that chew cud? Giant floods causing worldwide extinction events? Moses parting the Red Sea?

-Kerry O.

I'm an Unbeliever/agnostic, and I did, in fact, die briefly. And if anything, the experience left me more agnostic than ever.

As to the 'anger' part of your statement, consider that some places STILL have unconstitutional laws that attempt to ban taxpaying atheist citizens from being elected officials. If the atheists tried this, the Christians would be HOWLINGLY MAD at the injustice. But many seem to think this is ok, that it's 'God's Will'.


-Kerry O.

Not surprising, since one of the corporate mafias that fund it is the Koch Bros. One of the Kochs was a Cato 'founding father'. One would think that a truly libertarian organization would support the basic right of association, for people to band together to bargain for a better living.

In most surveys, 70 % of the people asked think what is going on in Wisconsin is just plain wrong and looks like a Machevellian trick to cheat the little guy, keeping him/her living in a malleable state of quiet desperation.

-Kerry O.

Yeah, they could probably hire illegals to do the same job for less than $5 hr. like some people we know.

Now there's an idea for Scott Walker-- instant green cards for any illegal willing to help bust unions by working for a pittance and using social services to make up the difference.


-Kerry O.

How CAN one lie about a bankruptcy???? You have to go public to a courtroom and ask a judge to _protect_ you or your corporation from those to whom you owe money AND CAN'T PAY!!! In Trump's cases, it looked to me like it was a clear example of poor judgement through overextending the finances and letting the chips fall where they may.

I went through 2 major illnesses with inadequate insurance, I was in business for myself for awhile and had the good judgement to move on to the next technological plateau when I saw my business plan was soon not going to be viable. All through this, *I* didn't hide behind bankruptcy or the corporate veil-- EVERYONE to whom I owed money got paid, and got paid on time according to the contracts agreed upon.

I need no lessons from some Dandy like "The Donald", and I CERTAINLY won't vote for him for POTUS. And neither will a LOT of other people.

BTW, I stopped watching television about 3 years ago. It hit me while waking up to 'The Apprentice' for a few minutes one night when I dozed off with the TV on how utterly worthless it all was. 'The Apprentice' was really the last straw.

-Kerry O.

I don't agree at all. The whole idea behind corporations is to limit personal liability, and Trump has repeatedly hidden behind the corporate veil and the bankruptcy laws to remain a wealthy man even as his corporations crater.

In short, he was born with a sliver spoon in his mouth and he stacks the deck so as to limit the amount of skin he has in the game. Contrast him to the average foot soldier who has ALL their skin in the game, and I don't think there's any comparison.

Sorry, IMO, his big mouth, flamboyance and lousy track record make him tempermentally unsuitable for the office he is seeking. He won't be getting my vote any time soon.

-Kerry O.

I agree completely. And I never stopped disliking Bill Clinton for giving progressives a bad name just because he couldn't control his libido.

But that's also why I could never vote for Trump. He has a similar kind of arrogance when it comes to dealing with people who have less power than he does. Even though he's far from squeaky clean himself.


-Kerry O.

Is Cowboy still doing these Genesis seminars? Still insisting that women have extra rib(s), even though that Genesis fable has been shown to hold no water?

And let's not forget the talking serpents! Anyone here ever seen a talking serpent?

Yanno, if something is as hazardous as the Tree Of Knowledge is purported to have been, and seeing as how its existence was allegedly used by the talking serpent to tempt two humans into damning ALL humans for ALL TIME into Original Sin, wouldn't a really smart God have kept it under lock and key? Or not created it at ALL, knowing that his mortal enemy was lurking in the bushes trying to cause mischief?

Occam's Razor tells us that this is just a Straw Man spawned by Judaism/Christianity to indebt the human race into servitude under its chains. To this day, Fundy preachers rail against science teaching too much knowledge, warning that it will be our undoing. Despite the fact that history has shown us over and over again that compliant ignorance is often a capital crime in the rough and tumble Universe we inhabit.


-Kerry O.

So as not to misquote you or put words in your mouth, you think it was none of our business what Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton did in the White House, only that Clinton lied about it when the Republicans made it an issue during their Scaife-financed fishing expedition. No lie, no foul?

Personally, I didn't vote for Clinton in '92-- I voted for H. Ross Perot and really wish he had been elected and broke the stranglehold the two parties have.

I would have very seriously considered voting for McCain in 2000 despite Bush/Rowe's smear campaigns, but didn't vote for him in '08 when I found more out about him, such as his infidelity and his being one of the Keating 5. Also, his cynical choice of running mates pretty much clinched the deal.

Bush was convicted of a DUI, but because of his powerful family, had the record expunged. Which, of course, doesn't mean he didn't do, just that we're all supposed poke our eyes out when it's brought up.

Tom DeLay has been convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison. How do you feel about that?

How about Oliver North? He was convicted of lying to Congress and obstruction of justice for the Iran-Contra affair and left off with a slap on the wrist. I seem to remember his running for elected office recently-- would you have voted for him?

BTW, on the arms to terrorists accusation? There's always Ronald Reagan's famous Arms for Hostages deal and his dealings in Nicaragua.


-Kerry O.

So, you don't care if a candidate has a history of infidelity as long as he's a Republican?

Maybe other voters do, though. And probably enough of them do to make both Gingrich's and Trump's candidacies impossible. But, as they say, a year is a long time in American politics.

Speaking only as a voter who is registered Independent and who won't get to vote in the primaries because of it, I don't think either of these men have what it takes to be the leader of the so-called Free World.

-Kerry O.

And you're not bothered that he cheated on his first wife with Marla Maples, whom he married and also divorced?

I seem to recall Ross Perot once saying "If you'll lie to your wife, you'll lie to me." Donald Trump is also on record defending serial adulterer Tiger Woods.

To be sure, billionaires play by different rulebooks than those of us whose sweat turns the wheels of a nation, but that doesn't mean we have to emulate them and _not_ call them on their hypocrisy. Of vote for them on the basis of their celebrity.

I suspect another Republican candidate is going to feel the heat on the marriage issue, too. It looks like Newt Gingrich is about ready to declare and I already hear the same people who lost it over Clinton's infidelities giving Newt a 'Well, he made a few mistakes' pass on the issue.


-Kerry O.

Why do his companies go bankrupt with regularity, then? That's a fair question.

He once said "If you owe the bank a hundred thousand dollars, the bank owns you. If you owe the bank a hundred million, you own the bank." That quote tells me he has zero integrity when dealing with other peoples' money.

Besides, his motives are just so transparent. He knows he has NO chance of getting elected, this is just a strategic play to enhance his personal 'brand'.

-Kerry O.

Of course. It's like watching hockey-- without the fights, it would be as interesting as the Gardening Channel. :)


-Kerry O.

LOL, I know. It was a real Kodak moment when St. Ronnie committed his famous Freudian slip by saying "Facts are stupid things." About as revealing as the time Bill Gates personally introduced Windows '98 on live TV. In the middle of the presentation, it BSOD'd ( Blue Screen of Death ). Although I think Obama has himself caved to vested interests, I think many people know in their hearts that the economy would have BSOD'd without the stimulus had the Republicans won all the marbles in '08.


-Kerry O.

And people like Carly Fiorina, a leader in the Republican party and the person most responsible for turning HP, the gem of American technological enterprise and the gold standard for by-gone American ingenuity into a second-rate ink vendor, don't?

Do you even know how big her Golden Parachute was? Or what she did before the HP families came together and essentially fired her?

You tea party types are big on union-hating, but you don't know the first thing about how CEOs sit on each others' Boards of Directors and scratch each others' backs in ways that scream "UNION STRAW BOSS" every bit as convincingly as those you constantly rant about.


-Kerry O.

Ok, then try to refute these:

Reagan tripled the national debt from 900 billion to 2.7 trillion, while Bush II doubled the debt. All while Cheney, his VP said, quote," Reagan showed us that deficits don't matter."

Then for extra credit, check to see which income group is making out like gangbusters during this recession and who is hurting the most. And why.

I think the Republicans are in HUGE trouble in 2012 because, as usual, they promised what they can't deliver. They're already backpeddling on their $100 billion deficit reduction, making the usual mealy-mouthed excuses.

-Kerry O.

As opposed to Conservatives who hire illegals and then complain about them?


-Kerry O.

I find it kinda loathesome because this is EXACTLY what the Soviets used to do with dissidents-- classify them as mentally ill because of their political views. All this from the same people who worship 'Tail Gunner Joe' McCarthy as a quasi hero...


-Kerry O.

Ah, heck-- my dance card is empty anyway so admitting I like an occasional chick flick can't hurt. I guess my all time favorite in the category is 'Ghost', with honorable mention to 'Avatar' and the line from "North Country":



-Kerry O.

I spent some of the worst parts of my childhood being terrified by my well-meaning religious fundamentalist elders. My flight to the explanations and insights provided by science were _my_ salvation from a life of anxiety. Later on I learned that death is not some entity who lurks on one's path to keep one in constant terror by 'crossing over' and coming back. Now, I can't imagine why I let the religious fundamentalism terrorize me the way that it did.

We all are part and parcel of a race of beings who LITERALLY sent forth some of our own into the heavens to walk upon a foreign celestial body! That one event defines us as adventurers who have achieved in reality what religiously addled brains perceive defectively-- that we are children of the Universe and we have a right to be here. A right that owes no rental payments to someone else's imaginary landlord.


-Kerry