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Yes. You are right. My apologies. I know better than to immediately respond when I am pissed and didn't do so in this case. My fault.

Retracted

Good questions, and not something I've really thought about all that much. So I'll tell you what I think, but since I haven't examined this very much I may change my mind over time. I guess for me a good day is when the people I care about are doing as well as they wish or as well as can be expected. A lot of that is on them but much of it is on me too. My responsibility to them includes things like providing shelter, food, education, emotional support, help, and making sure that they are at least as happy after they've seen me as they were before they saw me. Me being able to do my part has a great deal to do with me having a good day. My kids aren't where they want to be yet, but they are working at it and I am helping them. This leads me to a good day. My mother is elderly and doing poorly, but she is doing as well as can be expected. Knowing that she is doing as well as can be expected makes it easier to not let her condition cause me to have a bad day. Volunteer work always makes me feel like I'm having a good day. I like doing things for myself too, but I'm easy to please. I can be kept happy with good books, good conversation, being outdoors, and being around others. I have significantly more good days than bad, but I imagine I would live my life just fine if it was the other way around. If I could make the lives of others better only 5% of the time, especially the lives of my family, my life would be well worth living.

Yes, the disturbing facts are there, but they only bother you because you think about them. Some disturbing facts can be safely ignored because they will remain exactly the same whether you worry about them or not. You might be bothered that lions kill cubs, but if lions killed cubs and you did not know about it (or think about it), then you wouldn't be bothered. I meant the only 'harm' to you is in your mind. This is different from harm that comes to you whether you are oblivious to it or not, such as the harm that comes from bankruptcy. It may bother you thinking about bankruptcy, but even if you were oblivious to your own bankruptcy it would affect you when you were put on the street. I try not to worry about things I can have no impact on. For example, I will lose exactly the same number of loved ones whether I worry about it or not. The universe sucks or not. My fretting over it will not change the universe, it will only make me have a bad day rather than a good day. If my worrying can have a practical impact then I'm more likely to worry. If I'm worried about going bankrupt, my thinking of it all day may help me come up with some solutions that I can attempt in order to stave off bankruptcy. My view is that 'worry' is something to be avoided if no benefit can come of it.

I guess we see different things in the posts.

Well, I guess there are two things. First, I seem to have a different view of drugs than maybe you do. To me they are a tool, often very effective at addressing certain conditions. I take blood pressure medicine and it works very well. I also recently started taking medicine for anxiety due to issues with my mother. Drinking scotch relaxes me. Caffeine is my favorite drug of all. I readily admit my deficiencies and don't feel bad about it. Second, based on your previous posts, it sounded to me as if you had thoughts and feelings that were weighing on you, and that the only reason they were weighing on you was in your mind. For example, if you were worried about bankruptcy, that is in your mind but something may come from it, such as loss of your home. Being unable to find purpose, knowing someone somewhere will be in an accident, knowing an accident can happen through no fault of our own; these are things that are in your mind only. No harm would come of just ignoring these ideas and you could feel better. I tend to be practical rather than philisophical. If I'm hungry I eat. If I have a headache I take aspirin. If I'm feeling fat I exercise. All of these are practical things I can do to make me feel better. And if I'm anxious I look for a solution to that. I started taking medicine for it and I feel better. I see no reason to avoid practical solutions to my issues. Taking drugs has been a simple solution for certain situations for me. I apologize if I seemed dismissive. Poor communication on my part rather than intent.

That is a shame. If you want to discuss your uneasiness then you should give it your best shot.

Yes. It is also true that people who go by the name of John make massive generalizations about Americans.

No, not at all. If you had a headache I would suggest aspirin. If you were hungry I would suggest food.

I suggest drugs...

And speaking of the conservative Eisenhower, he reduced military spending and federal deficits, opposed Joseph McCarthy, expanded Social Security, sent federal troops to Little Rock to enforce school desegregation, signed civil rights legislation to protect people's right to vote, created the department of Health, Education and Welfare while expanding benefits to an additional 10 million people, and implemented desegregation in the armed forces, saying ""We have not taken and we shall not take a single backward step. There must be no second class citizens in this country." All the while dealing with our enemies with a strong hand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower That is my kind of conservative. In today's world if I had to pick the party more likely to treat its country and citizens in that manner, it would be the Democrats. I know it is a bit of a simplification, but that is why I say the Democrats are more conservative than the Republicans.

You are just playing at semantics. I imagine we are all in agreement as to how the world behaves. You are simply describing the same things using different words. I could just as easily say that time is real but counting is not. There are no such things as numbers and people can't count. They simply have developed a system where a symbol such as '1' represents the fact that a single thing is accounted for. If that same type of things is accounted for again, people simply assign a symbol that looks like '2'. I also realized that Twitter is not real. You cannot measure it, travel it, or seemingly stop it. There is simply a global collection of electrons that move in certain directions, resulting in me knowing that Jennifer Lopez had eggs for breakfast today. Although to make things simple, we could just all agree to be consistent and call these things 'counting', 'Twitter', and 'time'. So we are in agreement!

Sho nuff. You're just full of good news today. I think I'll just go back to bed... Kansas is my next door neighbor. I'm grateful everyday that I don't have to claim their legislators as mine. Although I must admit that Missouri legislators are not much better. I've always been independent but tended to vote conservative. I alway thought anyone who voted a straight party line lacked the ability to think for themselves. During Bush I started voting more liberal, and the last few elections, with only minor exceptions, I've voted straight party line-Democrat. Not that I'm particularly thrilled with Democrats, I just couldn't stand the Republican form of hypocrisy, which included taking in less money while spending more, knee-jerk support of those least in need of it, and calling for less intrusive government while getting more and more involved in people's personal lives. I say in all seriousness that I started voting Democratic because I felt they were more conservative than the Republicans.

By linking the two in this statement you are implying causation. Is there indeed causation? I had no idea. Pathetic was the perfect word to describe this situation. I don't run into these people much so I guess that is why I'm so flabergasted.

Actually science has come up with a device to do just this sort of thing.

I had a similar problem and it was due to an add-on I had installed (sorry, cannot remember which one). Try getting rid of all your add-ons and see if that makes a difference.

Just wanted to clarify the bolded part a bit. Are you saying that if someone claims to have faith, that you feel they do/should believe in God with certainty? Is it possible for someone to have faith without certainty? For example, you definition seems to exclude an agnostic theist from having faith.

Wait, what? Don't you think it is illogical and contradictory to say a book is the product of an illiterate society? Furthermore, how is the bible 'self-evidently' the product of an agricultural society? And so what if it is? Why the implication that there is something negative about an agricultural society? And while I'm at it, can you back up this 'fact'?

Recent picture of Phi for All

Some friends of mine have had girlfriends like that. Just sayin'...

Jeez Louise!! That was TWO YEARS AGO!! And I offered you my Little Orphan Annie Secret Society decoder pin!!!

Well, among other reasons, a staff member is liable to call it silly and lock it. You are welcome. I've found that speaking on a forum like this takes some time getting used to. One of the biggest problems I've found is that it is difficult to convey tone of voice and body language and it is therefore easy to misinterpret people or be misinterpreted. I've learned the hard way on most of the suggestions I've made. No matter how hard you try you will find that sometimes you will annoy someone, and someone will annoy you. It's no big thing. If you just drop it and move on you'll find this site to be a great place to learn and sharpen your skills. It's been that way for me.

There are several things that could help. 1. Don't pretend like you are just trying to improve communications when in reality you are simply looking for a way to yell at others. 2. Know your audience. If they know more than you do try not to let your communications sound like you know more than they do. If you are unsure who is more knowledgeable, instead of speaking with absolute confidence, speak in terms of 'it seems to me' or 'I read somewhere'. 3. Don't call things 'facts' unless you are confident you have the references to back it up. 4. Don't ask questions on a science site that could be answered by someone in kindergarten. 5. Be the bigger person. If someone is rude to you and you are rude back, you both look immature. If they are rude to you and you overlook it, they look immature and people think more highly of you. 6. When someone apologizes, accept it with grace. 7. Probably the best way to keep someone from saying you are asking silly questions, is to NOT ask silly questions. If someone says what you are saying is silly, your first step should be to look at what you said with a critical eye and see if you can determine why the person said that. If you think they are wrong ask them to clarify why they said that. If you still feel you are right defend your position. 8. People on this site expect you to be accurate in what you say. 'Never' means never. It does not mean 'hardly ever'. Be precise. 9. Make sure your words have meaning. If you use a term like 'pure darkness', it should either have a widely accepted definition, or if the term is only meaningful to you, then define it in your post. These are just some ideas of course, but you get the idea.

Is this a trick question?

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