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28585. PelleNilsson - 9/25/2006 6:09:14 PM What I'm saying, Alistair, is that advertisements and leaflets with extreme right-wing contents appeared in some provincial papers and towns. There is no evidence that this would have cost millions, except, perhaps, in Zimbabwian dollars. The blogger I spoke of found one of the leaflets tucked onto the windshield of his car. He wrote about it and wondered who might be the originator because it was signed by an unknown organization calling itself 'Nordas'. One of his readers suggested the Plymouth Brethren and it took off from there. The tabloid, whose watcher of obscure blogs had picked up the story, claimed to have sent a team to England where they found an abandoned office marked 'Nordas Sweden Ltd.' in a dilapidated industrial area in Liverpool and a purported representative who wouldn't comment on the matter. It was a one-day story. When nobody else took the bait it was dropped.
Personally, I think that the name 'Nordas' associates more easily to Nordic Asatru than to the Plymouth Brethren.
28586. jexster - 10/6/2006 8:17:14 PM The Amish victims of modern-day western values are exemplars of Christian charity....70x7 forgivenesss of the murders of their kids 28587. arkymalarky - 10/7/2006 12:16:01 AM I've just been so in awe of them with all this coverage. 28588. Jenerator - 10/7/2006 6:46:28 PM I just can't believe how much random brutality is going on. The Amish shooting is the epitome of evil. 28589. wonkers2 - 10/8/2006 1:19:17 AM Does that mean you support tighter gun control? 28590. jexster - 10/8/2006 1:24:09 AM I support the right to bear arms in Oakland-Alameda Coliseum for the duration
Don't show your face around here Capn 28591. Jenerator - 10/8/2006 3:17:06 PM Wonkers,
How about we enforce the rules we currently have! 28592. wonkers2 - 10/8/2006 5:59:50 PM I'm in favor of enforcing the current rules as best we can with all the loopholes. 28593. thoughtful - 10/9/2006 3:44:15 PM Interesting 4 part series ongoing in the NYT on religion and government. They are pointing out that, rather than religion being under seige as so many try to point out, religion in this country enjoys extraordinary exemptions from regulations that apply to everyone else.
First part talked about the regulations required of day care centers run privately including requirements for staff training, requirements for a food-only sink, requirements for filing financial statements, etc. vs. those run by a church where none of those regs apply.
Second part covered a nun who was 'fired' as the convent couldn't afford her needed breast cancer treatments. Rules and regs that apply to any employer regarding hiring/firing, nondiscrimination, etc. don't apply when the employer is a religious institution.
28594. jexster - 10/9/2006 9:03:39 PM As a public service Deacon (fomerly Cap'n) Dirty will be recalibrating Grand Old Pederasts Moral Compasses now until Election Day
 28595. wonkers2 - 10/10/2006 12:30:45 AM Deacon Dirty sez, "The GOP moral compass points only one direction--due south." 28596. judithathome - 10/10/2006 1:25:54 AM Yeah, but just watch how they try to deflect all this crap off onto the Democrats to justify keeping their guys in office...they will make excuse after excuse for voting for the party of morals...ha!...because they just can't admit they were used by BushCo...it's easier to keep the guys in office who only use then for votes than to admit they've been duped, big time. 28597. wonkers2 - 10/10/2006 3:38:01 AM Stop GOP Pedophilia! [Credits to Ohio, Jexter.] 28598. jexster - 10/10/2006 6:05:02 PM From a letter written by Episcopal Bishop of California Nichols, dated 8 November 1918, to SF Mayor Rolph:
"Irreligious democracy will be but a poor substitute for pharisaically religious autocracy." 28599. jexster - 10/11/2006 3:36:49 AM Which party best represents your moral values?
Dem 47
Reo 38
Gallup
Deacon do your Dirty Deeds 28600. jexster - 10/12/2006 3:20:58 AM Mark Your Calendars!!!
Laylatul Qadr (the Night of Power) will be October 20th and it is "better than a thousand months!"(97:3).
16 things you can do on the Night of Power
Any action done on this night such as reciting the Quran, remembering Allah, etc. is better than acting for one thousand months which do not contain the night of Qadr. 28601. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/20/2006 4:57:49 PM ZEN JUDAISM
* If there is no self,
whose arthritis is this?
* Be here now.
Be someplace else later.
Is that so complicated?
* Attain Nothingness,
And then what do you have?
* Drink tea and nourish life.
With the first sip... joy.
With the second... satisfaction.
With the third, peace.
With the fourth, a danish.
* Wherever you go, there you are.
Your luggage is another story.
* Accept misfortune as a blessing.
Do not wish for perfect health
or a life without problems.
What would you talk about?
* The journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single "oy."
* There is no escaping karma.
In a previous life, you never called,
you never wrote, you never visited.
And whose fault was that?
* Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.
* The Tao does not speak.
The Tao does not blame.
The Tao does not take sides.
The Tao has no expectations.
The Tao demands nothing of others.
> The Tao is not Jewish.
* Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Forget this and attaining Enlightenment
will be the least of your problems.
* Let your mind be as a floating cloud.
Let your stillness be as the wooded glen.
And sit up straight. You'll never meet the
Buddha with such rounded shoulders.
* Be patient and achieve all things.
Be impatient and achieve all things faster.
*To Find the Buddha, look within.
Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers.
Each flower blossoms ten thousand times.
Each blossom has ten thousand petals.
You might want to see a specialist.
* To practice Zen and the art of Jewish
motorcycle maintenance, do the following:
Get rid of the motorcycle.
What were you thinking?
* Be aware of your body.
Be aware of your perceptions.
Keep in mind that not every physical
sensation is a symptom of a terminal illness.
* The Torah says,"Love thy neighbor as thyself."
The Buddha says there is no "self."
So, maybe you are off the hook.
* The Buddha taught that one should practice loving
kindness to all sentient beings. Still, would it kill you
to find a nice sentient being who happens to be Jewish?
* Though only your skin, sinews, and bones remain,
though your blood and flesh dry up and wither
away, yet shall you meditate and not stir
until you have attained full Enlightenment.
But, first, a little nosh 28602. wonkers2 - 10/21/2006 6:43:51 PM "There is a religious mafia among the priests, they protect each other, they help each other."> 28603. alistairConnor - 10/28/2006 1:23:21 PM In the International thread, Concerned posted :
7890. concerned - 10/27/2006 9:17:33 PM
[quoting me]On the other hand, you don't seem too keen to discuss the bloody verses of Christianity or Judaism.
I have a better idea. Let's discuss the " verses of Christianity or Judaism" that exhort the believer to lie to, cheat, defraud and murder those of other faiths.
Can't find any? Oh, well, there's plenty of them in the "verses of Islam" to make up for it.
This could be a long and fruitful discussion. I'm not intimately familiar with the Old Testament, but this is an interesting opportunity to learn.
I suggest we start with Genesis 34, where the sons of Jacob don't like the idea of their sister Dinah marrying Sechem, a Hivite, on the grounds that he and his people were not circumcised, i.e. were of a different religion.
And we can discuss how they dealt with this problem. 28604. alistairConnor - 10/28/2006 1:48:03 PM How about Numbers 15?
Here we have an explanation that people of other religions are subjected to all the strictures of the Jews when they happen to be among Jews :
15:15 One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD.
15:16 One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
Not, in itself, an injunction to religious tolerance. At best, we can say that it is even-handed.
There follows an explanation that when sins are committed out of ignorance, they may be atoned for by the correct sacrifices. This applies equally to Jews and non-Jews :
15:29 Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.
The next passage, an anecdote, is a little bit puzzling. One would expect it to be an illustration of what has been explained.
15:32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
This guy is presumably a non-Jew : he is not part of the "children of Israel".
So shall we discuss what happens to him?
This is fun. Shooting fish in a barrel.
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