I think that an insecure man (regarding his sexual performance) would not want his partners to have anything to compare him to, to probably have experienced something better than what he was able to show them.

so true, db. it takes more than my poor communications skills to get even a very few of the masses moving. my brothers (5 out of 6) and my sister (1 out of 2) understand, but their mates do not. they, like i, try to teach their kids to think, not just to accept what pap is spooned out by most of our information sources. my kids feel the same, although my son's wife is still learning, but at least she TRIES. the floor came out beautifully, thank you, even if i did most of it--manual nailer--and the time spent was well worth it. just a few more fall projects to complete and i will have a bit more free time to get active in the Gulch again. i wish we could have seen ASIII, but we'll have to wait for the dvd. we did have AS movie night and enjoyed 1 and 2 all over again on 3's opening night.

Sounds like quite a challenge. I hope the floor turned out as you were hoping.

As Sam Adams said "It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." Most people are passive. Most people want to concentrate on their on life and their family and that is not unreasonable. I see some small brushfires. Physics in the early 1900s tried to abandon philosophy ( or at lease western philosophy consistent with science) and actually came up with results that are inconsistent with the very basis of the science of philosophy. However, I see more and more people criticizing the present direction of modern physics. I know this seems to be an obscure area, however I think it is a sort of a canary in the coal mine. Now I doubt we will see a real change in my lifetime, but I am hopeful that easily within my children's lifetime. I think it is a mistake to put too much hope in the immediate political process or popular press or Hollywood, but I think there are signs.

The goal is not to convince the impassive majority, but the irate minority or more importantly those who are interested in ideas. Unfortunately, we may not see or reap the rewards of our labors.

You are correct about the Inquisition killing Christians. Actually, it was Vlad the Impaler that prevented the muzzies from taking over, in least in the eastern europe area.

hi db--I've been very busy with laying a new hardwood floor with my Alzheimer's hubby, so it's been several weeks since i was able to sit down and actually read the Gulch and have missed a lot. I agree that reason is not possible with these extremists, and I go along with Ragnar--if they feel they can control me with force, then let them see what force with a mind and logic behind it can do in return. The threat is indeed immediate here in the lower Great Lakes. I am very much afraid for our country if the people don't wake to a real threat right in their backyards, but most don't want to listen, nor do they seem to care... just call me Cassandra... My question is, how do you win a battle of ideas if no one cares to listen?

No problem. I kind of suspected the sarcasm, but didn't mind either way.

My guess is that with all the rapes so common in that culture, they tried to keep the STD's under control, so virgins had extra value, up to half a camel, I believe.

I was being sarcastic about Islam being a "peaceful religion" or, quoting one of a series of our highly qualified and educated presidents, "A Religion of Peace. "

Hmmm. IDK. Virginity is over-hyped. I really wouldn't want, as my every experience (if I wasn't married) to be with someone who's completely void of any intimate experience. What's so wrong about being with someone who knows what they like and how the like it? Why is that such a bad thing? Ah, this is yet another topic NOT discussed by mo-mo (that's my moniker for him) in the triad ~ koran, Sura & Haddith's.

My comment here concerning your first comment up to the comma is: uh, sure, provided somebody completely erases what mohammed did & said, post-mecca. THEN you'll have your peaceful 'religion' ~ the bastardization of 2 religions, Judiaism & Christianity and 1 pagan ~ Zoroastrianism. I say bastardization because mo-mo couldn't read DESPITE being "squeezed" 3 times. Thus, it was his misunderstanding and misinterpretation due to the way things were communicated back then ~ verbal. Written was useless to the 'prophet'.

Nope, I`m pretty sure they just become part of your harem for all eternity, groomed from virgins to become infinitely-pleasuring courtesans. ;)

I completely agree with you - religion is not the cause; power hungry people are. However, religion (most religions, to be exact) provides an easy excuse for the power hungry and a dumbing down for the masses to follow. This includes Marxism, Environmentalism, Political Correctness... Anything that the masses can blindly follow.

The point I was making is that some pretty horrible things have been done in the name of organized religion. The guilt lies entirely with human beings who simply cannot tolerate those who do not completely agree with them.

Speaking of the infamous Inquisition: do you know how long it took the muzzies to conquer Spain? 10 years. Do you know how long it took the Spaniards to kick their arses out? 700 years. Can you guess where the Spaniards learned the methods they employed in the Inquisition? In a related fashion - can you guess where Vlad the Impaler learned his heinous ways to torture? What's the commonality here? Uh, the freaking muzzies. BTW, Vlad's twin brother was a sex slave.

Do you know what the Spaniards had to do, to get the muzzies who didn't want to move near the end of their re-conquest? Yep, use the exact same tactics as was done on them. The point is that the Spaniards mainly did what they did to take their country back & less about Christianity. It also about the $$. Yes, the Vatican was losing out of a lot of cash thanks the muzzies raking in the hoard.

So, before you start blaming Christianity for all the violence that occurred during the Inquisition and the Crusades, consider the facts I have given.

Oh, the Salem witch trials. It had nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with a couple of girls who saw some pompous local government jackarses doing something they shouldn't have been doing in the first place. I'm sick of Christianity being the blame. It's old. Personally, I think you know better.

Any "Christian" who kills someone else and PROCLAIMS (like the muzzies do ~ for 'allah') their doing it in the name of Jesus, is NOT a Christian at all. Now, if you'd like to fully engage in this, let's do this on a separate post about the 'evils' of Christianity. Yes, I know you'll gravitate to the Crusades, on the behalf of the muzzies. Oh the horror.

Bravo. If we were at a bar, I'd slide one down to you. What you said is spot-on accurate.

Perhaps. I think Islam and all religions I know are inconsistent with peace, because they eliminate reason as a means of settling disputes. But both Christianity and Islam have had periods where they did not require everyone believe their dogma literally and then science and reason sprouted.

I think that Islam can be a "peaceful religion," but only under the conditions where it is absolute. In the 10-11th centuries, when Islam flourished in terms of advanced development (as compared to Christian Europe), it had no enemies (it conquered all nearby societies), very limited contact with others (long distance caravans) and bounded by georgraphy for the purposes of expansion. Likewise today, when we all become part of the Islam Collective, no doubt that peace will be upon us.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but most of the Inquisition's killings and persecutions were directed against other Christians, not Muslims. So, I am not following your claim that the Inquisition kept Europe from Islam. The Muslim invasion of Europe, except for some parts of Spain, was well over by the time the Inquisition came to flourish.

I hope you have more historical evidence than a couple of cases of "workplace violence..." The facts are, however, that although Judaism does not, in general, tolerate reforms, it is mostly non-violent towards outsiders, preferring their god do the final punishment as opposed to both the Muslims and the Christians who elect themselves to be god's apostles while doing the killing.

Without the Inquisition, Europe would be Muslim. The Spanish fought a bloody civil war over it. And I'll just throw in the Crusades here as well. I'm not saying war is a pretty thing, but much of what happened in the past ended up preserving what freedoms were available and came to a culmination in the Constitution. You might be interested in the history of the Ottoman Empire for starters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_war...).

The Salem "witch" trials were absolutely wrong on many levels. The perpetrators used the public fear of the devil to persecute and execute their own neighbors so they could steal their land.

That is why part of Islam's doctrine enshrines his position as the ONLY and greatest prophet of Islam - if it didn't come from him, by definition it comes from an impostor, and that impostor is quickly sentenced to death as a heretic - about the only charge worse than being an infidel. It makes change to the fundamental doctrines of Islam impossible.

There might have been some wiggle room if there was a clear line of succession, but this is why there are branches of Islam (mainly Sunni and Shia) because they individually claim the mantle of authority to lead Islam in general. It's the main reason Iran and Iraq fought each other for thirty years and one of the main sources of animus for the terrorists from Iran who kept attacking the Americans and Iraqis after the US invaded. It's just generational sibling rivalry that has been going on for 1500+ years.

More reading if you're interested.
http://www.biblestudyauthor.com/early_ch...

The Book of Acts is hardly what I consider a reliable source of history. That being said, all religions are capable of horrific behavior in the name of their god. Need I mention the Inquisition? The Salem "witch" trials?