On Nov 29, 2005, at 8:32 PM, Warren Ockrassa wrote:
On Nov 26, 2005, at 11:51 PM, Dave Land wrote:
On Nov 26, 2005, at 9:47 PM, Warren Ockrassa wrote:
On Nov 21, 2005, at 2:05 PM, David Brin wrote:
Two very strong points. Though please remember there
are some honest and intelligent Republicans. I even
know a few.
FWIW, my state has McCain, and my stepfather is without question
one of the most upstanding men I've ever known — and as a County
supervisor, does his best to be a damn good Republican too.
There are a few, but they're the ones who have not been polluted
by religion.
That's the difference.
Rather a simplistic formulation, wouldn't you say?
Probably I'm confusing correlation with causation again. It does
happen to me from time to time. Maybe a better formulation is that
those who are vicious, money-grubbing bastard Republicans who weep
crocodile tears *after* getting caught (as opposed to those who try
to bareface their way through it by denial, denial and denial) are
not too dissimilar from those who have been thoroughly polluted by
fundamentalist Christianity; and that there seems to be a rather
large intersection between those groups.
The "simplistic formulation" I thought I smelled becomes clearer
here: I distinguish between "religion" and "fundamentalist
Christianity". I may be more sensitive to this conflation because I
am a Christian who hates seeing something I believe in being harmed
by the disease of fundamentalism.
There does seem to be a common ground in both groups apparently
mourning a Golden Age that never was.
Right: fundamentalism is an extreme form of romanticism.
Then again, this, too, shall pass.
The problem is that a lot of innocent people will suffer and die in
the process. I guess that's why I vacillate between disgust and
intolerance for such idiots, but never anything like a quiet shrug.
So on my good days I'm often tempted to advise them to shut up; and
on my bad days I'm more tempted to advocate firing squads.
I think there are a lot of people who advertise under the name of
Christianity who need to be fired, and a fairly high percentage of
the present administration as well. :-).
Thanks for your plain-speaking.
Dave
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