I think the whole thing is bizarre, what is with the cops over there?Quote:
Originally Posted by talaniman
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I think the whole thing is bizarre, what is with the cops over there?Quote:
Originally Posted by talaniman
It's very simple. A sizable fraction of police (maybe 15-20%) are outright racist. The rest see the racism but are hesitant to rock the boat by snitching on their brother cops. It's called the Blue Wall of Silence and is the determining factor in police brutality and the ensuing racism (and corruption). Change that culture and the problems disappear overnight.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
It's not easy to change that culture, but it IS necessary to make a start.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Jesus said why do you call me good? If he would not call himself good, what man has right to the title. The problem is men are only good in their own eyesQuote:
Originally Posted by Athos
Cops need only be good in the eyes of the law, so should not be above the law.
That's a very strange read of what Jesus said. I suggest you go back to the drawing board and work out a better solution.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
The saying about the triumph of evil is about as accurate as is possible. I'm sure Jesus would agree.
I wonder why Jesus called the Samaritan good? Or the shepherd?
Relying on the words of ancient man is a dubious venture in the first place. Humans have been known to be flawed, and have proved through history they can screw up anything, even the notion of god.
From Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible:Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
Various alternatives have been suggested for what Jesus meant by this question. They are of varying quality.
1) Jesus meant, “You must not call me good unless you recognise me as God. If you can see my goodness, learn your lesson from it as to Who and What I am.’
2) Jesus is indicating that His goodness is dependent on the Father’s goodness, (see John 5:19) so that the title of absolute goodness belongs only to the Father.
3) Jesus was not prepared to accept the title of good until His probation was past. Until His life was complete He would not have earned the honour.
4) Jesus is taking the attitude of a man towards God, as He always did. He was here as a man among men pointing them to God. They were not to look to honour Him, however good He was, but to honour His Father.
5) He is stating a recognised truth and rebuking the man for his casual attitude towards goodness, revealed by his using the term ‘good’ without thinking it through.
6) He recognises that the man sees Him as uniquely good (as a rabbi) and is seeking to imitate Him in order to receive eternal life (compare in Matthew, ‘what good thing must I do’). He realises that the man is therefore aiming to be like Him, and really thinks that he can be. But He does not want him to try to imitate Him in this way. He wants him to look to God as his standard. So He is seeking to turn his thoughts away from Himself as the standard of goodness to God.
Certain conclusions must be drawn. Firstly that only God Himself can be seen as truly ‘good’. Secondly that Jesus does not vociferously deny the appellation, which He would have done had He seen it as totally unfitting, but wants the man to think through what he has said. When a Rabbi asked questions of his hearers it was in order to expand on the idea under discussion. Thirdly that He is unhappy about the way that the man is using the idea of goodness, and wants him to be more careful in his use of the term.
I don't think anything is written in stone, nor accepted as fact by a few without the many questions being answered. Can't modern man question ancient man without the backlash? Does holding a bible (Koran or Torah) make a loony nut legitimate and all knowing? If it does then Antifa, ISIS, and White Supremists have a legit cause, message, and method to their madness.
That doesn't sound very good to me.
Yup, we can debate (until the cows come home) the words and meanings in any holy book. It still always comes down to the Golden Rule, how we treat each other.Quote:
Originally Posted by talaniman
You mean I have to suffer those loons with the chaos stick?
Tal if I recall, the Ten Commandments were written in stoneQuote:
Originally Posted by talaniman
And Jesus broke those two rigid stones into two dynamic ethics.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
No, that isn't what he did, he explained them in a simple way, love, but, he didn't supplant them, he couldn't change the Word of GodQuote:
Originally Posted by Wondergirl
Before Moses wrote on stone tablets for his flock, those commandments and many more were already written in many cultures in that region already.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
Or the ancient teachings before there was Christ, and Christianity. The message is a universal one common to many cultures both before and after Jesus.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
I didn't say "supplant"! I said Jesus (who is God) gave them a dynamic meaning. The Ten Commandments are no longer negatives, but are now positives.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-just...d-open-debate/Quote:
But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity. .......censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty. We uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter-speech from all quarters. But it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought. More troubling still, institutional leaders, in a spirit of panicked damage control, are delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of considered reforms. Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes. Whatever the arguments around each particular incident, the result has been to steadily narrow the boundaries of what can be said without the threat of reprisal. We are already paying the price in greater risk aversion among writers, artists, and journalists who fear for their livelihoods if they depart from the consensus, or even lack sufficient zeal in agreement.This stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time. The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation. The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away. We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other. As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes. We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences. If we won’t defend the very thing on which our work depends, we shouldn’t expect the public or the state to defend it for us.
From the left .... you would think that arguing in favor of the free and open exchange of ideas would be a good thing. But the furious reaction from the left base has been swift .Why the gratuitous & irrelevant lines about 'right-wing demagogues'? Conservatives love a free and open exchange of ideas . We may drop the occasional name calling on them . But that is about it .
The liberal inquisition has already passed judgement ...
Chomsky...cancel him ! JK Rawling cancel and burn Harry Potter books ! Salman Rushdie, burn any of his books that the Muslims forgot .Gloria Steinem,you just lost your feminist cred . Randi Weingarten kick her out of the union . Robert F. Worth your words are not worth the paper they re printed on. Fareed Zakaria you are cancelled too.
[Trump address at Mt Rushmore ]Quote:
One of their political weapons is ‘Cancel Culture’ — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America.
... It appears some pretty prominent lefties agree with him
This article blames Trump for the lack of civility and the illberalism in the public square.
Because the right-wing demagogues are gratuitous and irrelevant.Quote:
Why the gratuitous & irrelevant lines about 'right-wing demagogues'?
Where have the conservatives gone? They have been replaced in the US Senate by right-wing demagogues.Quote:
Conservatives love a free and open exchange of ideas .
I suppose making Obama a one term president the day he was inaugurated was one of those conservative free and open exchange of ideas right Tom? Hard to tell the fringers from the conservatives sometimes.
In what way were then ten commandments negative but then I expect you think any curtailment of your freedom to kill, steal, have intercourse, covert, disrespect God or parents or others negativeQuote:
Originally Posted by Wondergirl
He wasn't was he ? Just the opposite . Racist white majority America voted him in for 2 terms . But yeah I was opposed enough to his policies and his abuses of power that I did not want him to have a shot at the damage he did in his 2nd term. His one big legislative 'achievement ' was a dubiously and unconstitutional restructure of the American health care system. And it is just historically wrong to suggest that opposition to him was racially motivated . Oh I'm sure there was some of that. But the fact is that he went in with his agenda and the attitude of an imperial President . He not only had issues with Republicans. But even the Dems on the hill had issues with him (although that was not widely reported by the compliant press)Quote:
I suppose making Obama a one term president the day he was inaugurated was one of those conservative free and open exchange of ideas right Tom?
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/2...t-talk-to-themQuote:
Some are scratching their heads why, after nearly six years in office and a reshuffling of his legislative affairs team, Obama's working relationship with Congress remains prickly.
“It's hard for us to fathom; I mean, is it just lack of full staffing and resources? [Is it] professional commitment? Is it a disdain for the legislative branch? I mean, what is it?” asked Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). “People like me want to be allies — I mean, I am an ally. So work with us, reach out to us; you know, we're not the enemy.”........Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, lamented what he characterized as a history of the White House dropping its plans on congressional Democrats without warning.
“Not being consulted ahead of time — that just makes people crazy,” Grijalva said. “Let us know ahead of time. Call us in when you're developing something so we can give you our ground-level reality check about how this is going to work.”
Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) likened the relationship between presidents and their Capitol Hill allies to that between quarterbacks and the offensive linemen charged with protecting them. Some quarterbacks, he said, simply manage that alliance better than others.
Think about it . He went into his Presidency with super majorities in Congress and instead of working on a real recovery to the global recession he got a poorly thought threw pork laden "stimulus" package and then used the next 2 years to destroy the health care system . Large numbers of insured people were forced out of sensible private plans into a typically heavily subsidized that are substandard to what they had . It basically was"screw the market, screw economics, I'm setting these standards because it's the right thing to do... deal with it. If you don't like it ,take the red pill .
He was such a bad domestic agenda President that he got his party drubbed in the mid terms . Truth is that it was good that his agenda failed . Cap and trade was a disaster waiting to happen . So he did EOs . Immigration went no where .So he did more EOs He did enough after that to secure a 2nd term . And then spent his 2nd term destroying America's foreign policy and using the Intel and investigative agencies of his executive dept to go after political opponents . Honestly the only way you could not call his presidency a failure is if you assume he meant to put the practices of 'Rules for Radicals ' into practice . In that regard he was a success.
Thou shalt NOT vs. LoveQuote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
They start with thou shall
Nope. Thou shalt not.... All are orders: fear God and keep His commandments.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
@Tom.
Good thing repubs outlawed a third term because Obama would have won that too, and we wouldn't be watching the dufus screw up the world with his paper tax fueled Wall Street windfall money giveaway, and scandalous domestic and foreign antics. Maybe then we would be doing what we should be doing to manage a pandemic, and preserving a healthy economy instead of sucking profits, and forcing the slaves back to the fields during that raging pandemic. While people are still enrolling in Obama Care after losing health insurance the dufus is still repealing and not replacing the ACA, and repub governors are expanding Medicaid because they have no better options and good thing as the pandemic rages and ravages through the country.
Aintcha glad it's OUR turn to try and make the dufus a one term president Tom? If we win the conservatives do too, and they can finally free their heads from the shoulder deep arse of the dufus to breath the fresh air of freedom again. After a nice long cold hosing of course, so we can drag you by the ankles into the future. Joe wouldn't be the first dem to save the country from repubs screwing up everything you know, but you guys are making a habit of screwing things up when you get the chance. At least from Pappy Bush on.
The daily virus cases are rising to 60,000 cases a day and the positives for the virus is higher than 25%, and the testing lines here with an 8 day turn around are miles long in 100 degree heat. Great job the dufus is doing, and we should vote him out tomorrow, because we may all be too sick and broke in November.
There's so much in this paragraph that speaks volumes, I felt the need to jump in.Quote:
Originally Posted by talaniman
The Republicans have been the worst thing to hit this country since Nixon. From that traitor's attempt to sabotage the Paris Peace Talks simply so he could have a better chance at being elected and causing the death of untold American GIs - to Reagan who could deliver nice platitudes but didn't have much going for him above the shoulders and had to backtrack his Laffer tax nonsense - to George I and "read my lips" - and then to George II, the worst monster of the whole crowd.
Bush 2 invaded a country on evidence that he knew was false and caused over one million casualties. His cohorts in crime were Cheney, Tenet, and, sadly, Powell, a good man who was betrayed by his military obsession with loyalty. All should have been tried for war crimes.
Then we come to the present occupant of the White House. Trump is the worst president in United States history. Number 2 worst isn't even close. His idiocy is so well-known, there is no need to repeat it here. November cannot come too soon.
Nothing like a looming election to charge hyper partisanship to a fever pitch. Add to that an economy destroying pandemic ravaging everybody and taking no prisoners, we have exposed yet another repub president for his incompetence as he flails away with noise and lies.
Love to see the look on his face when he looks out of the front window of the building that bears his name to the street below painted with the words Black Lives Matter in large letters.
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.RqHu0n...r=1.91&pid=1.7
Juvenile poking by Sandinista Bill . That is a heavily travelled road . it will look like splotches of bird poop on the road in a matter of days. They had hourly reports on the progress this morning . Seems they tied up most of rush hour doing the stenciling so Bill wouldn't paint outside the lines. They were ready to paint by lunch time which was perfect for the part time mayor . The dope from Park Slope doesn't wake up that early anyway . He has to come down from his night buzz first if you know what I mean . There are two lawsuits pending against the painted words on the street in Washington DC. Of course NYC has the funds to spare to defend this childishness in court now that they are cutting a billion from NYPD budget in the wake of the biggest crime and murder spree we have seen in NYC since the days of Dinky Dinkens .
Stunt or not it was still great.
For weeks we heard the part time mayor crying about the need for Trump to bail out NYC . Good luck with that . I wonder if he knows that Trump has already moved out of NYC and established residency in FLA. The thing is that Trump Tower and that area of 5th Ave had stopped being the tourist go to place that it had been . But now with the mural ,a crowd of sightseers have shown up .There is a mini street festival right now that will last through the weekend because Sandinista Bill wants people to admire his paint by numbers project .He shut down traffic in that section of 5th Ave for the weekend . Don't know if that will continue beyond that . The rest of the merchants on 5th are not happy campers . Tourist are taking selfies in front of the "mural" and Trump Tower ;and of course going into the lobby to buy Trump merchandize .
We don't hear all that crying this far away and have our own idiots to contend with. Conservatives are jumping all over Abbott.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...d-15397875.php
Hubris to think he can control Texans . I look at masks like speed limit laws .Either people are going to obey them or not . Almost impossible to enforce if enough people decided they won't wear them . So the alternative is to now punish the rest of the state ? I don't care which party they are from . I don't like these tin pot power hungry governors who think a crisis gives them the authority to be absolute dictators . There are going to be a lot of court and constitutional challenges that come out of these arbitrary lock downs . It aint ending when the virus goes away.
I would imagine it's quite hard to balance public safety, and election year politics, so no wonder we have confusion and chaos amid this economy destroying pandemic. That seems to be the biggest difference between our response to the virus, and the rest of the world. You don't think people will see that as we roll through this summer, and the virus has not slowed down?
that is not the balance . the balance is between pubic saftet and personal liberty .Quote:
I would imagine it's quite hard to balance public safehe balance is between public safety and election year politics
Good thing the 2009 H1N1 pandemic was not in an election year ....
This from when CBS had a smidgen of integrity left " "In late July, the CDC abruptly advised states to stop testing for H1N1 flu, and stopped counting individual cases. The rationale given for the CDC guidance to forego testing and tracking individual cases was: why waste resources testing for H1N1 flu when the government has already confirmed there's an epidemic?Some public health officials privately disagreed with the decision to stop testing and counting, telling CBS News that continued tracking of this new and possibly changing virus was important because H1N1 has a different epidemiology, affects younger people more than seasonal flu and has been shown to have a higher case fatality rate than other flu virus strains.
CBS News learned that the decision to stop counting H1N1 flu cases was made so hastily that states weren't given the opportunity to provide input. Instead, on July 24, the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists, CSTE, issued the following notice to state public health officials on behalf of the CDC:
"Attached are the Q&As that will be posted on the CDC website tomorrow explaining why CDC is no longer reporting case counts for novel H1N1. CDC would have liked to have run these by you for input but unfortunately there was not enough time before these needed to be posted (emphasis added)."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/swine-f...overestimated/
Nope. It's between public safety and election year politics.Quote:
Originally Posted by tomder55
Good thing the Bubonic Plague in 1348 AD didn't cross the ocean to North America.Quote:
Good thing the 2009 H1N1 pandemic was not in an election year
Too bad the virus doesn't care about what anyone feels about their personal liberty. It won't be stopped with principles and platitudes, or ignoring it either.
it won't be stopped until a vaccine is created ;a treatment is created ,or we achieve herd immunity .
It's here to stay and will mutate, as it has been doing already. Welcome to the new normal.Quote:
Originally Posted by tomder55
There are effective treatments, otherwise why has america cornered the market on anti virals, but it won't be stopped until common sense prevailsQuote:
Originally Posted by tomder55
What are the effective treatments?Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
Now I understand you and the dufus. Let everybody catch a dose and the herd immunity can be achieved. The numbers will be VERY ugly though. I doubt if sacrificing that any people for something that may not happen will be a good outcome, so the pain of that business as usual approach may not go over so well.Quote:
Originally Posted by tomder55
We have two that while not 100% or even widespread effective, are better than none, an anti viral, and steroid, as yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Athos
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