Okay, that might be kind of interesting. I would say I am game for at least seeing how it works out.

Oh, Oh!! Pick me!! I know this one!!

Ah, yeah, I be sayin dat probably be the best idea. Dat man has more stones in his head den a mountain giant!

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Anyway, me lunch break be over. Time ta get back to da shop!!

*Tihalan jumps off his stool and throws a few gold pieces on the bar before waddling out of the inn*

BAH! Ye be da son of Rinkardor...? Well fer da sake of ye be the one given me me ale I will keep some o' me words to meself. Although I don't tink a partnership between me an that one be workin. A bit o' bad blood there. I'm surprised he ain't never told ye...

Aye, but it be in da back part o da town so not many people make it back that way. It was all I could afford when I first got started. What I be needin' is ta get me metals into da royal district! Dat be where the good money is!

*The dwarf looks at Boromirs outstretched hand and raises an eyebrow a bit. He extends his hand out with an empty beer mug and hands the mug to Boromir.*

Names Tihalan

*Tihalan raises an eyebrow at the man but then kicks back off his stool. He goes behind the bar and finds a big bucket and fills it with water as the boy is still screaming*

Bah, Quiet down a bit, I be tryin ta help ye. Listen ta ye bellowin' like a baby over a little fire.

*As the bucket gets to the top he takes it over and drenches the boy with the water putting out the fire. Before he leaves the back of the bar he grabs himself another meade and goes back to his seat.*

*Tihalan bounces into the inn with a gruff look on his face. He stops and scans the area quickly but doesn't notice anyone around. He quietly sneaks up to the bar, well as quietly as a dwarf can anyway, which consists of lots of squeaks and groans coming from his rusty and barely used armor. He struggles a bit as he climbs up onto one of the stools at the bar, grumbling to himself all the way about how they need to make stools more suitable to someone of his size. When he finally makes it up he orders a dwarven meade and sits to enjoy his drink in silence. After all with his line of work it is very rare for him to sit in a room without fires blazing and metal echoing against metal.*

LoL John! You must be bored today.

Anyway keep the posts coming. I am enjoying them.

No, unfortunately too much corruption and drama for me. I am much to laidback for that line of work.

Also for all you people who I know will still argue about how this was illegal and what not. Even if you feel it was a legal issue, (Which it really isn't) the Constitution and the bill of rights has nothing to do with the issue. The only thing they may have been able to be charged with is Trespassing, (Not likely though as they had a reasonable reason for entering)

But don't try to pass this off as a 4th amendment issue because it is not the same thing at all.

Sorry would have commented earlier but I was away. The 4th amendment has no standing in this case. The 4th amendment only applies to unlawful searches and seizures of evidence. Since the cops were not entering the house on the grounds of trying to search or seize any property of the home owner. The fourth amendment rights of the individual were not violated.

Alyssa Milano

Think they will take credit?

Morning Tribo

And point well taken

Yeah, I believe you are right spider. I apologize as well, that post I made was out of pure sarcasm as opposed to what I actually believe. I thought the connection she was trying to make was extrememly off base.

"The very existance of flamethrowers, means that at sometime, someone, somewhere said to themselves. "You know, I would really like to set those people over there on fire but I am just not close enough to get the job done." ~George Carlin


He will be missed.

See that's where you are wrong. The badge they carry is to symbolize their duty to PROTECT and to serve. They do have more power than a typical civilian. It is their job to protect the people. Federally it was not illegal for them to enter. They felt the circumstances were suspicious. It sounds like a high crime area to begin with and there was a truck in the garage with keys in the ignition but no one was answering the door. Would you prefer that they just say to themselves. Oh well no one is answering. I guess everything is okay and they move along leaving you and your family in a totally unsafe situation?

The suspicious circumstances were enough for a probable cause to enter the residence and check things out. Now no one is saying that they were allowed to go opening drawers or cabinents or anything. They were not looking for anything against the homeowner. They were just making sure the family was safe. In addition to that BECAUSE they had probably cause to enter the building. Anything they saw or found that was in plain site would have been admissable in a court setting and would have allowed them to attain a warrant for the rest of the house.

Basically. I think the way she phrased the title of the thread was way to general to get the kind of response I think she was looking for but at least it made things interesting. :-D

Okay, so I am a little confused here. In these bible phrases where God is talking about bringing these towers to the ground and people are saying how God will bring these towers to the ground it seems a little contradictory to what actually happened. See I remember a couple of big planes ramming into these buildings, and I remember those buildings being filled with tons of people. A lot of whom were Christian, and I remember that the people who crashed into the buildings were not followers of the Christian God and did this Kamikaze mission for the promise of being rewarded by their God in the afterlife.

So all I can interpret from what you are saying is that God and his followers predicted that the Christian God would bring down the towers. Although he couldn't even bring them down himself (Or he didn't want to himself) SO he then enlisted people of an entirely different religion to hijack some planes and crash it into those towers. Killing thousands of people. I don't understand why he would do that though. If he and his followers prophecized it would happen wouldn't he want the credit for it?

Sorry for the copy and paste but I don't have a lot of time to write out my own answer today.. LexM5 is correct that originally the term pagan was used as a deragatory term against people that were not Christians, Jews, or Muslim although not necessarily made up by them. When and where it became a culturally acceptable term for pagans today I am honestly not sure but this is the origin of the word. Starting most likely in Rome.

As for JB's other question in regards to why paganism is called a religion if they don't believe in God. Some pagans do believe in God. Maybe not the Christian God. But they believe there is a creator. Other believe it is the earths energy controlling everything and others believe in multiple Gods. The definition that I choose to use for religion purposes is.

"1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs."

Not necessarily believing in a God to be determined a religion. Now on the flip side of that not all pagans consider themself religious but rather spiritual. Paganism is not actually an accepted religion. Wicca is the legally accepted religion but so many people use the term interchangeably that it gets confused sometimes. Paganism can't really be accepted as a religion because it doesn't follow just one religious path. It is whatever you make it out to be. It's your religion whether you believe in a god or not. But Pagans are far from Atheists.



Origin of the term: PAGAN


There is general agreement that the word "Pagan" comes from the Latin word "paganus." Unfortunately, there is no consensus on the precise meaning of the word in the fifth century CE and before. There are three main interpretations. 16 None has won general acceptance:

Most modern Pagan sources interpret the word to have meant "rustic," "hick," or "country bumpkin" -- a pejorative term. The implication was that Christians used the term to ridicule country folk who tenaciously held on to what the Christians considered old-fashioned, outmoded Pagan beliefs. Those in the country were much slower in adopting the new religion of Christianity than were the city folks. They still followed the Greek state religion, Roman state religion, Mithraism, various mystery religions, etc., long after those in urban areas had converted.

Some believe that in the early Roman Empire, "paganus" came to mean "civilian" as opposed to "military." Christians often called themselves "miles Christi" (Soldiers of Christ). The non-Christians became "pagani" -- non-soldiers or civilians. No denigration would be implied.

C. Mohrmann suggests that the general meaning was any "outsider," -- a neutral term -- and that the other meanings, "civilian" and "hick," were merely specialized uses of the term. 17

By the third century CE, its meaning evolved to include all non-Christians. Eventually, it became an evil term that implied the possibility of Satan worship. The latter two meanings are still in widespread use today.

There is no generally accepted, single, current definition for the word "Pagan." The word is among the terms that the newsgroup alt.usage.english, calls "skunk words." They have varied meanings to different people. The field of religion is rife with such words. consider: Christian, cult, hell, heaven, occult, Paganism, pluralism, salvation, Witch, Witchcraft, Unitarian Universalist, Voodoo, etc. Each has so many meanings that they often cause misunderstandings wherever they are used. Unfortunately, most people do not know this, and naturally assume that the meaning that they have been taught is universally accepted. A reader must often look at the context in which the word is used in order to guess at the intent of the writer.

We recognize that many Wiccans, Neopagans, and others regularly use the terms "Pagan" and "Paganism" to describe themselves. Everyone should be free to continue whatever definitions that they wish. However, the possibility of major confusion exists -- particularly if one is talking to a general audience. When addressing non-Wiccans or non-Neopagans, it is important that the term:

Be carefully defined in advance, or that
Its meaning is clearly understandable from the text's context.