Scaring People to Christianity

Easter Sunday afternoon me and Lay went to his parent’s farm down in Ruskin to hide Easter eggs and eat. At one point, I was running to a nearby Walgreens to pickup a couple of items. I was stopped at the traffic waiting to turn in and noticed a young man on the corner holding a large sign and his Bible. I felt sorry for him, because the picture was one of an angry God, and I have trouble with that image, but it’s an image held by too many on the religious right.

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New Poll at Deep Sand-The 60 Vote Requirement

As most of you know, the United States Senate has a cloture rule which requires at least 60 votes to end debate to then vote up or down on the bill itself. It is important to note that the Constitution says nothing about the rules of the Senate, and does not require such a super-majority. Should the rule be modified to require a lower threshold for cloture, or eliminated all together? Tell us what you think in our poll.

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Would Health Care Reform Help You?

Many obstacles and stumbling blocks remain in the way of health care reform. The House and Senate bills will have to be merged, and then the House and Senate both will vote on the final bill. But just for fun, let’s look at what conventional wisdom says will be in the final bill and see if there is anything in it that will be an immediate benefit to people with mesothelioma cancer and other asbestos-related disease.

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The BS on Reconciliation

Below is a youtube of a segment from Meet The Press this past Sunday in which E. J. Dionne calls out Sen. Orrin Hatch for the Republican’s continuing bullshit about the use of reconciliation to pass things based on a simple majority vote in the Senate. We need to be discussing policy and health insurance reform (or elimination), but instead, all the Republicans can come up with to try to “win” is to run around like Chicken Little complaining that the sky will fall if some Senate procedure is “out-procedured.”

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Keep America Beautiful

Over at One News Now (an ultra-conservative non-news outlet), they published another story this week trying to refute the idea of Global Warming, with what may be the most absurd argument yet. Christians are called to believe that the earth is the creation of God and is a gift given to humans for our care and nurturing. I believe that responsible Christians are especially called on to protect the environment and all in it. So why have so many so-called Christian Leaders and Organizations seen fit to argue over the nuances of data collection instead of concerning themselves with the deterioration of the environment and the ever increasing cost of energy? To whom are they beholding?

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Another Cause of the Gay – Masons

Patrick Strudwick is a journalist for the British paper, The Independent. Strudwick spent some time undercover going to therapist sessions with a therapist who would attempt to convert him from gay to straight, apparently by discerning the cause of his homosexuality.

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Being Friends with God

Today in Sunday School, We still going through the Rick Warren book. This discussion was about being friends with God. The discussion went off in a number of directions, and I’m not sure how much I got out of this week. Today is also the Birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., so I wanted to work in a reference to that in today’s prayer. I heard a great story this morning on NPR about how King had once been asked, in his teenage years, what he was looking at as he stared out the Window. He was watching the gas lamp lighter going along lighting the gas lights. King said he was watching the man, “knock holes in the darkness.”

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The Devil's Advocate – Pat Robertson

I honestly can think of nothing more vile and hateful than the things that come from the mouth of Pat Robertson. Who can forget his blaming feminism and abortion for the attack on the 9/11, and now, as is so often the case, he’s blaming the victims in Haiti for their own misery. According to Robertson, the reason for the earthquake there, and the poverty of the country is because back during the days of French Colonialism, the Haitians made a pact with Satan to get the French out.

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