Iggy

Your thoughts are well conveyed. My position doesn't need vindication, and it isn't your posts I dislike. It is you. I hate you to your very core. Let's have that straight. I don't think more conceited words have ever been said. You're alright, but "the world" needs fixing? When you're dead and gone the world will probably stop spinning, eh? Whatever. I can't deal with this nonsense. The best of luck to you,

You did watched and you did not saw? My God, man! If you weren't drunk when you typed that grammatical nightmare, you certainly should have been. Whatever. It's fine. "God TV" broke you. It wasn't your parents. I'm beyond arguing the point.

I don't believe you. Nobody chooses the kind of damage you are displaying for themselves. Sentient choices don't end a person up where you are. Unless you are seriously mental, but you don't seem to be... no... I don't believe you. Your parents were Christian. I'm sure of it.

The future has already happened? The dictionary disagrees with you. Besides, I thought you said you were raised catholic... now you're talking calvinist predestination nonsense. Hum... There's something about you I don't get, Mr. Immortal. [edit... my apologies. I was thinking of Ewmon who said he was raised catholic. So, can I assume, Mr. Immortal, that you were raised in the protestant church?] Well, no, my point remains the same. If you want to lock yourself in a cave and meditate for a couple years that's fine too. My only point is that you can't live there. That world isn't real is my only point.

We don't have a choice Indeed you don't. You can't choose to live in your imagination because it isn't real. It is exactly that simple. One of us is free because one of us is not here to do God's work. I hold no hope that you will unchain yourself from the imaginary concepts you espouse, but at least we both recognize that those concepts strip away your freedom and make you a slave. Yes, you are right, you are a slave. EDIT... as an aside... ketamine isn't a psychostimulant. Caffine is a psychostimulant. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic which is why I mentioned it. It separates a person's consciousness from their senses which is what you've been talking about. "psychostimulant" I wonder if you had any idea what that meant before you typed it.

Don't bring football hooliganism down to the level of religion. That's disrespectful.

You make that other world of senselessness sound wonderful. I don't know why you keep chatting us up in this world. You could choose to live there. I suggest you take a bunch of ketamine, lock yourself in a sensory deprivation tank, and spend the next couple years there. If that world is real and not just 'real to you' then I can't think of anything that could go wrong.

But, religion is not the noumena. Given the map / territory relationship, religion is not the territory. If it is impossible to know what is in a box then it doesn't matter if I use my senses to reason about what might be in the box, or if I use my spiritual non-senses to make up a story about what is going on in the box -- either way my description is not as real as the thing in the box. Creation myths don't transcend explanations, they are just bad explanations.

It could be operating system specific. I just hit print screen while it was popped up.

I feel so warm inside knowing you will pray for me, but I wish you knew your bible. Jesus got angry in Mark 3:5. "He looked around at them in anger, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts". No... Jesus did not say "anger is wrong". If I were your Sunday school teacher I would tell you that the important thing is not to sin while you are angry. Paul said in so many words in Ephesians 4:26: "in your anger do not sin". Your bible is full of the words "slow to anger" and "quick temper" because even its bronze age authors knew that "anger is wrong" is too silly a concept. If you are going to pray for me for patronizing christian reasons, I'd rather they be actual christian reasons. Anger is an emotion without which humans couldn't survive. Personally, I'd recommend Aristotle again on the subject: Anybody can become angry -- that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way -- that is not within everybody's power and is not easy. I am sorry to hear that. I wish the church could rehabilitate itself, but that would take a degree of anger, hatred, and a willingness to be unforgiving that it lacks. I didn't mean "love your enemies" as a euphemism. I mean that Catholics are taught not to hate, not to judge, not to throw the first stone, to always forgive -- and especially all of those things towards the priesthood. You are echoing those same sentiments and they are positively immoral. If the church understood that child rape is unforgivable, and it is every decent person's job to hate its practitioners, then there would be much less of a problem. Take the case of Lawrence Murphy. He was a priest in Milwaukee where he tortured and raped a couple hundred kids. After it became well known what he had done, some bishops wanted him defrocked, but he wrote a letter to the pope saying "I have repented of any of my past transgressions... I want to live in the dignity of my priesthood". It was a get-out-of-jail-free card. He died with full ministerial rights. He rapes 200 deaf boys, and says "I have repented and want to live in dignity". To non-Christians it is laughable, but to Vatican officials it is kryptonite. What could they do? I mentioned hatred because you were talking about human nature. It is difficult to use the word because you have this worldview that love is good and hate is bad. Love everyone and hate no one. It comes mainly from christianity, it is too simplistic, and I don't think it is moral or healthy.

I see what you're saying. All of the formatting options of the thing you copy are carried over into the posting window when you paste (urls, bold, font size...). It's smart copy/paste. So, if you copy large bold text, it will be large and bold when you paste it. To fix... after you paste it, select it then click the "remove formatting" button. It's the second one from the left that looks like a pink and white eraser

What an odd statement. No, I don't think acts of hatred should be abolished... Yes, of course sending murderers and rapists to prison is itself an act of hate. Murderers and rapists are classes of people and like Aristotle said, "Anger is always concerned with individuals... whereas hatred is directed also against classes: we all hate any thief". Perhaps I'm being too cerebral... LOOK... When your roommate brings another girl home and rapes her on your kitchen floor while you're trying to eat breakfast, the correct response is "I *hate* it when he does that". You say "I hate rapists. Somebody really aught to get a pair of handcuffs and deal with these people". Christianity's reaction to rape and rapists is totally different. They see the child-raping priest and think "well, those children really aught to love their enemy". They say, "the parish aught to turn the other cheek", because "who can throw the first stone?" I don't think that is right. I do think, like you say, "sending murders and rapists to prison is an act of hatred", and I think the correct reaction to child-raping priests is hatred. I'm not sure why you were asking that, but there you go.

Absolutely. Metaphorically -- I should say -- your thumb in the ribbon example is the blade in the planner example. They stretch the fibers in each. The explanation in either case, I'm sure, is that you're stretching fibers on one side of the strip.

Human nature would rather do whatever it pleases with only positive, and no negative, consequences Wishing negative consequences on others is perfectly consistent with human nature. It's just good old fashion hatred. Threatening eternal pain for the smallest transgression, or difference of opinion, is the philosophical maximum expression of hatred. I don't follow. Maybe there was a typo. My point was that you are correct, no Christian ever threatened to stone me for sinning as a child. But, they did threaten to burn me in a lake of fire for eternity and I think that is worse.

Cool question. I don't know much woodworking but presumably when it gets stripped away by the planer one side of the strip is stretched longer than the other side making it curl. The same thing happens if you've ever curled ribbon when wrapping a gift (the running it between thumb and scissors thing). Scientific American had a thing on that.

I was threatened with eternal torture in a lake of fire. Good times.

Ouch! The Hitch publicly decried hero worship and demanded that interviewers not shorten his name to "Chris". If you treat your heroes this way I wonder... no... wait... No, I'm sorry. I'm flattered enough by the comparison that I can't find myself forming any kind of counter-argument If that was your plan you've succeeded brilliantly and I'm in a bit of awe! Don't get me wrong, I completely agree with the minimizing part. I have family that has been, and could again be, in Iraq and I have heard stories of this war that shouldn't be forgotten, or unheard, or minimized in any way. I mean to say, it's real to me. I don't want to be suspected otherwise. I just don't know what other option there was. Giving you all that about being poorly executed and the money squandered (granting all that)... I just don't know what other option there was. I have to bet that it will succeed as a democracy. My sensitivities demand that I bet it will come out better as a federalized democracy than it would have as a totalitarian regime. If I can't believe that then I believe nothing.

So don't read my posts. So I'm to understand that you're going to follow me around shouting at me while I don't care what you have to say and I'm not talking to you? That's fantastic. I don't know if you're capable of appreciating this, but most of the criminally insane and the mentally retarded are able to persuade themselves against that idea. Right now... to me... you are much worse company than the criminally insane and the mentally retarded. They are much better people in my view. I know that right now you're looking for some literal mistake in what I just said and unable to grasp the message, but, that's ok.... ...I think there is a way to fix this. I think there is an option to permanently 'ignore' a user so that one doesn't have to read their posts on this forum. I'm going to go find that so in the future while I'm ignoring you it's because I can't see or hear you. Thank you. I wish you all the luck.

I understand what you mean. I simultaneously want to object to the word 'unilateral' because it immediately rules out a lot of groups (like the Kurds) -- they certainly had a stake in excising the baath party -- but, at the same time I don't mind America getting labeled unilateral in doing this. The US led the '91 war. We decided to encourage the people to overthrow Saddam, and we left them there to pay the price at its conclusion. We owed a debt that was being paid every day by the Iraqi people. Trying to fix that is morally correct, and I don't know besides a war how one fixes Saddam.

I probably wasn't clear enough. When I earlier said "fair enough and all that"... what I meant was "please stop talking to me because you are 100% cliched and boring". I appreciate that you might have 'insights' on whatever else whoever else might have to say. But, please, I am not that guy. Your comments don't interest me, and I'm not talking to you...and you are responding to comments not directed to you... so... please.. from my perspective... go the frack away! With sugar on top. Stop responding to my comments directed 100% away from you. Please.

And don't forget that the only other option is to continue letting Iraq suffer under sanctions. The Iraqi people paid the price from '91 to '03. It was headed in the North Korea direction. Strangled by the international castration of its economy and a mad dictator. The people suffer immeasurably under that scenario and it's an indefinite downward trajectory. There were no good options for Iraq. Now that it is a democracy and the market is open people should be willing to bet that the trajectory is good. That isn't dumb luck. That is hard fought and won.

Fair enough. I remembered while reading your response that I called wellbutrin an MAOI. I was pulling that from memory and it was wrong. It's a dopamine reuptake inhibitor among other things. Needed to correct. I can't help but ask, is that a typo? If you mean to say that you doubt he had a negative experience and that was very traumatic... I can't square what you mean.

Can you tell us about it? I hope I'm not out of line to ask. There is a correlation between adverse childhood conditions and the onset of schizophrenia so I am curious. Since they don't know what causes the condition I find it fascinating. I ask inappropriate questions to autistic parents for the same reason

Gotcha. If you feel strong enough about it I'd say talk to a lawyer. Does not appear to be a direct correlation. Effect of socioeconomic status and parents’ education at birth on risk of schizophrenia in offspring

I thought your name was ironic is all I meant. I appreciate your situation. I really do. I can't imagine your situation or how it felt. It is, technically, assault for a doctor to treat a patient against their will if they aren't determined incompetent. "Assault" is exactly what the doctor would be charged with. I'm sure SSRIs are over prescribed. I'm sure, also, that most patients are not adequately informed of even the labeled side effects. But, I also believe that doctors do their very best to live by the hyppocratic oath. No doctor is trying to hurt you by prescribing an antidepressant. While no doctor can say before giving you something what exactly the effect will be on your body, they aren't trying to cause harm by giving it. If a consensus of doctors want to treat you a certain way then I think you should trust the treatment. Welbutrin is not an SSRI. I guessed wrong what drug class you meant. It is an MAOI and has much more complicated side effects. Your early twenties is exactly when schizophrenia would present. Suddenly feeling differently about your parents and apprehensive about doctors could easily be symptoms. If a consensus of doctors diagnose you with that condition then you should absolutely trust the advice they give you and the treatment they prescribe. Even if it is scary. Even if it is difficult. They are trying to help you. Low blood pressure is not dispositive for strokes. Many things... like snake venom.... can cause both.