The following Dodgers have been smited by the JDK for their crimes against Jam:
All the girls! for picking on the JDK and damaging his already delicate self esteem!
The Basserd Who Nicked Copper's Stuff For the offense of nicking Copper's stuff. You are a tw*t, whoever you are and we all hope you get run over by a tram in Nottingham. Or Liverpool. Or whereever else they have trams!
Copper For the crime of playing with her Wii instead of her Jammie pals!
This is a tricky one for me. In the UK I'm clearly a Conservative. I dont like poor people or paying tax, so that's a no brainer and I get seriously pissy when the state starts paying for things like healthcare and flats for pregnant teenage girls because its not the state paying for it really, its me and if I can go out and get a high paid bloody job then they all can!
But having said all of that - I just CANT support the Republican party. They are way too right wing for me - anti-abortion, too religious (I couldnt believe it when Bush said he prayed over whether to invade Iraq - why didnt he just ask his astrologer or Santa? would have been as much use)
In the end, I got my understanding of American Politics from the West Wing and in that, the Democrats were the good guys - so that must mean the good guys are back in office and all power too em!
Partisan stuff aside - even though I'm quite a fan of the US already, it wont have done their international reputation any harm to elect a black President - about time too.
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I'll take arrogance and the inevitable hubris over self-doubt and lack of confidence.
"Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face" - Mike Tyson
It's without a doubt a historic time for the U.S...I was not in favor of either candidate and wound up voting against Obama rather than for McCain...My choice of candidate this go-round would have been Fred Thompson but he chose to not campaign...I fear for America's future once Obama's agenda is put into motion with the backing of a Democrat Congress...We lost enough freedom in the Bush administeation, I think we'll see even more erosion of liberty in the coming four years...
Jon, would you rather have a leader that makes his decisions on the fly simply as knee jerk reactions or one who would pray to God for guidance on matters of such importance...Think of prayer as a time of thought, introspection and meditation before action...I pray daily and find the majority of my decisions are of greater benefit than if I had acted on the spur of the moment...Whether you believe or not that God's hand guides us, is there any harm in contemplation?...Ben
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"It must be mounted on a tripod!...It must be mounted on a tripod!" - Cmdr. Frederick Mohr
There's nothing wrong in thinking through the consequences of your actions before deciding whether or not to go ahead.
Personally I think things through quietly by myself or talk it through with a friend whose opinion I trust rather than waiting for the answer to reveal itself to me through fate or asking for intervention from a holy being.
In my case losing someone very close killed any chance of me believing in a kindly overseer.
I'm not sure God has ever been been depicted as a kindly overseer. Certainly not in the Bible, anyway. He spent most of the Old Testament being a dick (promised to clean up his act with Noah, then promptly started being a dick again) then sent Jesus down, to whom he was particularly dickish to, before continuing to be a dick to all the people that did his dirty work in the New Testament.
He's only slightly more of a dick in the Qu'ran.
Anyway... the story of Noah's Ark is the get-out clause for God allowing bad things to happen. Something along the lines of 'Oh, sh*t. I went and killed everything on the planet and now I feel bad. I promise not to get involved in stuff any more... honest...'
As for Democrats and republicans... the Rebublicans always struck me as batshit crazy, so I was kinda pulling for Obama on this one... all though he strikes me as kinda special as well...
I don't think he's got some magic wand shoved up his sleeve that's going to magically fix everything that's wrong right now.
At the very least I think we've stopped digging the hole. We are all going to have to figure out how to climb out, but at least we've tossed the shovel.
This is the first really new person in office in almost my entire life. There's always been a Bush or a Clinton in office. I think it was time for some fresh blood in there. People like to cling to his inexperience as a shortcoming... I actually see that as a benefit. He hasn't been there long enough to be completely consumed by the machine
When I was born, Harry Truman had taken office but had not yet been elected...Senator Obama will be the first President whose associations truly scare me...Known terrorists and radicals such as William Ayres and Louis Farrakhan have clear agendas which call for an America I am not willing to live in and I am sure they will be calling in their markers for their suppoert in his campaign...Ben
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"It must be mounted on a tripod!...It must be mounted on a tripod!" - Cmdr. Frederick Mohr
Truckman wrote:Jon, would you rather have a leader that makes his decisions on the fly simply as knee jerk reactions or one who would pray to God for guidance on matters of such importance...Think of prayer as a time of thought, introspection and meditation before action...I pray daily and find the majority of my decisions are of greater benefit than if I had acted on the spur of the moment...Whether you believe or not that God's hand guides us, is there any harm in contemplation?...Ben
No harm at all in contemplation prior to action Ben, I agree. Consultation is also recommended on the big issues.
I can also understand why, in the past, the world seemed such a scary and unexplainable place that it made sense to believe that a higher being was behind it all. If you showed a PDA to Iron Age Man he'd treat you as God - but we know how the PDA works now and its pretty much the same for the world.
If meditation helps centre the mind thats fine - all power to you -
What I dont want though, is World leaders pointing at the sky and saying "I asked him and he said I should do it" - its a cop out, its caused more death and destruction than anything else in world history and I didnt vote a mythical deity into office. I voted in the man behind the podium asking me to vote him in so now I expect him to make the decisions and be accountable for them.
That's my view :)
__________________
I'll take arrogance and the inevitable hubris over self-doubt and lack of confidence.
"Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face" - Mike Tyson
JonnyStead wrote:If you showed a PDA to Iron Age Man he'd treat you as God - but we know how the PDA works now and its pretty much the same for the world
Heh. I picture the conversation something like this:
Stead: Look at my PDA, Iron Age Dude. IAD: Wow. That's pretty nice. What's it do? Stead: Well, it stores all my phone numbers... IAD: Right. What's a phone number? Stead: It reminds me of all my appointments. IAD: (Glances at his wife) Uh huh... Stead: It's got lots of productivity tools - I can check my e-mail, look at spreadsheets, write reports. That kinda thing. IAD: Are you high? It sounds like you're high. You're gibbering. Stead: Never mind. It lets me surf the internet! IAD: Surf? Net? For catching shallow water fish? Stead: No no no. Look, I can even take photos with it! IAD: Great. Can I eat it?
