Some thoughts from an old mind...

[sl1966]

just recently someone on my Facebook was telling me how morally wrong I was because I'm not vegan.  They wouldn't respect my life choices, & were trying to shove their lifestyle down my throat (literally in this case)

<br /><br />I knew a guy who died choking on a carrot once. I'm pretty sure he voluntarily put it in his throat, and it was not the work of a militant Vegan though.<br /><br /><br />

 

[mockturtle]

Well, you'll never find me trying to control you or anyone else.&nbsp; No fear on that count. <img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><br /><br />Actually, in Seattle, the Atheists have launched a really aggressive campaign, with billboards on buses, pamphlets, mailings, etc.&nbsp; Proselytizing. <br /><br />It's a free country--thank God.&nbsp; ;-)

 

[josephusminimus]

I try to be as open-minded as possible, but when someone's close-mindedness is taking away someone else's freedoms, then I can't easily stand by &amp; look the other way (I guess you could say I'm a bully to people who are trying to bully others).

<br /><br />PunkHippie:&nbsp; I think we're spoiled by abstractions contained in phrases such as 'taking away someone else's freedoms' and we use them in a cavalier enough fashion so's they lose their meaning.&nbsp; <br /><br />[<em>Incidently, for what it's worth, I'm not of a Judeo/Christian/Muslim spiritual faith.&nbsp; Not a Mormon, either.&nbsp; Nor an atheist.&nbsp; I'm an outsider looking in on all of of the doctrinalized belief systems.]<br /></em><br />But we've grown so accustomed to throwing terms such as NAZI, Commie, Fascist, and&nbsp;slave&nbsp;around they've lost their meaning in any real sense.&nbsp; We are fortunate to live in a time and place where the meanings of those words where the rubber meets the road has been eroded enough so's we don't get to encounter the realities they once meant.<br /><br />Christians had their freedoms robbed from them in a real sense by Romans, once, then spent 1500 years robbing other Christians and Jews of their freedoms.&nbsp; Muslims spent from 500 CE until almost 1000 years later invading Christiandom with every intention of robbing Christians of their freedoms.<br /><br />China, Africa, India - heck, India in the late 1940s when the British Empire was going home, Muslim and Hindi killed one another off by the millions.<br /><br />We don't see much of the reality, religion robbing freedoms from anyone, so I suppose it's inevitable we'd erode the concept by taking something less dramatic and calling it by the name.

 

[sidat202]

<br />Punk.hippie, if someone is shoving religion down your throat, christian is the wrong word for it because&nbsp;A true christian wouldn't do that.<br />I am a christian, and I would love to sit down with you and talk with no motives. Everyone has their own beliefs and I respect that. I would be more interested in why a person believes what they do even if I don't believe that. I believe for my reasons and you believe for your reasons. And I would rather talk about that then trying to change someones beliefs against their will.<br /><br />Everyone has just as much right to believe what they believe, as I have to believe what I believe. And no one has the right to try and force someone to change it. If we did we would be called Iran not america.

 

[josephusminimus]

Making laws that person a can't get married to person b because they're the same gender is taking away those people's freedoms to marry who they want

<br /><br />PH:&nbsp; Thanks for the clarification.&nbsp; I stand corrected.&nbsp; I'd not been aware that previously in the US anyone who wished to marry someone else could do so, and that the freedom is now taken away.

 

[sidat202]

If your hair is really bright. Do you mind if I wear sunglasses?

Sidat, we would get along wonderfully &nbsp;<img src="/images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif" alt="" align="absMiddle" border="0" />

 

[Guest]

Isn't it easy to slip into politics and religion? We are all so affected by them.<br />Again the key I guess, is to discuss civilly and to not be dismissive or to belittle someone else's views....<br /><br />I am VERY interested how the atheists are using buses and billboards to promote their agenda...that has so long been a technique of the Christians...that is how things work,,,what goes around,comes around....<br /><br />If you feel the hand of oppression now PH, you just wait for a while...it will get much heavier...hang on, especially being a woman.....do your homework before voting in November....<br /><br />Bri

 

[sidat202]

Everyone want to follow the US...unfortunately we're going the wrong direction.

oh, I'm Canadian, which means I don't have any say in what happens with your government (luckily, ours isn't as bad, but unluckily ours seems to like copying the US... last I heard, there was talk of gun laws D<img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" alt="" align="absMiddle" border="0" />

 

[josephusminimus]

Getting nitpicky with wording doesn't make things right.

<br /><br />PH:&nbsp; No, nothing 'makes things right'.&nbsp; In fact, there's nothing approaching a consensus concerning the meaning of the word right, here, or anywhere else.<br /><br />A person doesn't need to be nitpicky with wording.&nbsp; All he needs to do is look around him to see that whatever he holds dear and believes as a priority in his life couldn't get a majority vote from the remainder of the population.&nbsp; Which might be interpreted to mean, to the self-examining soul, that self-doubt is appropriate for all of us in most instances.<br /><br />But the truth is, things have a way of coming and going.&nbsp; Next year, if you and I are locked up in a camp somewhere because we didn't agree with some majority of the population about issues we haven't discussed here, we're almost certain to believe it wasn't right for them to lock us up.<br /><br />And the value of our thinking it will be roughly the same as it is now.

 

[Guest]

Nice post Sid. I have great respect for a truly practicing Christian, I have one staying in my wife's studio right now....they really don't have to talk about it...they just live it...very sweet and very humble and very full of peace...<br />Christ's teachings were awesome......<br />Bri

 

[sidat202]

If they would stick to his teachings and not vere off in there own direction, things would be alot better.

Nice post Sid. I have great respect for a truly practicing Christian, I have one staying in my wife's studio right now....they really don't have to talk about it...they just live it...very sweet and very humble and very full of peace...<br />Christ's teachings were awesome......<br />Bri

 

[Guest]

<span id="post_message_1274954884">If they would stick to his teachings and not vere off in there own direction, things would be alot better.</span>

<br /><br />True enough but I would be better off if I stuck to my practices and didn't vere off too..hahaha <br /><br />I mentioned to an Episcopal priest I was doing some volunteer work with one day that I didn't like all the hypocrites in his religion and he gently reminded me there was always room for one more....ROFLMAO...<br /><br />Bri<br /><br /><br /><br />

 

[sidat202]

Christian comedy...I like.

 

[josephusminimus]

The problem isn't that they had the ability in the first place, the problem is that they're being discriminated against because of who they love, &amp; they're not allowed to get married, something that heterosexual couples have every right to do.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<br /><br />I voted for Barry Goldwater in 1964, mainly because he was determined we wouldn't become involved any further in a war in Southeast Asia.&nbsp; But also because he'd rafted through the Grand Canyon on a rubber raft, which hadn't been done many times previously.<br /><br />But I quit voting sometime during the 1990s.&nbsp; Mainly because nobody ever passed laws allowing women to have as many husbands at one time as they might wish.&nbsp; Pissed me off thoroughly and I swore off representative democracy.

 

[mockturtle]

<br />But I quit voting sometime during the 1990s.&nbsp; Mainly because nobody ever passed laws allowing women to have as many husbands at one time as they might wish.&nbsp; Pissed me off thoroughly and I swore off representative democracy.

<br /><br />LOL!&nbsp; I wonder if anyone else sees the ironic humor in your posts.

 

[dragonflyinthesky]

@ mockturtle&nbsp; <span style="color: #0000ff;">LOL!&nbsp; I wonder if anyone else sees the ironic humor in your posts.</span><br />I see it usually but am at a loss for funny comebacks to some of them&nbsp;and not really sure about him yet.&nbsp;<br />Oh wait, he's here and can see what I wrote can't he?

 

[She]

@ mockturtle&nbsp; <span style="color: #0000ff;">LOL!&nbsp; I wonder if anyone else sees the ironic humor in your posts.</span><br />I see it usually but am at a loss for funny comebacks to some of them&nbsp;and not really sure about him yet.&nbsp;<br />Oh wait, he's here and can see what I wrote can't he?

<br /><br />Read his blog I was totally surprised how gentle he is. Really! Maybe not the first post but all the others.

 

[josephusminimus]

Mockturtle, dragonflyinthesky and She:&nbsp; Thanks for the observations and visits to the blog.&nbsp; My attempts at humor don't have a high batting average as a rule, so I'm always gratified when someone notices it for what it was intended.&nbsp; As for the gentle part, I generally just try to behave as though I recognize we human beings have a lot of shortcomings, and unless I manage to not be human, I'd best try to ride herd on my own.&nbsp; Trying to keep track of them in others wouldn't leave me much time to feed the cats and try to get the RV in shape to go down the road.&nbsp; Gracias,

 

[wildmountainhoney]

Is it really against the law to have more than one husband? Man, and here I was worried about where to live...

 

[josephusminimus]

Is it really against the law to have more than one husband? Man, and here I was worried about where to live...

<br /><br />WMH:&nbsp; The legal precedents are ambiguous on the issue because it's never been tried on the radar.&nbsp; But the US government sent the army to UT when the LDS&nbsp;tried it in the other gender.<br /><br />However, seems to me it's the best of all possible worlds.&nbsp; Alternating husbands would have the woman getting roses, chocolates, lots of acknowledgements and attention.&nbsp; Or it would seem so when spread around so thinly.<br /><br />My visualization of the ideal marraige is one woman to eat bonbons, a mechanic, a farmer, a computer geek, a carpenter, a gormet cook, a good musician,&nbsp;and an appliance repairman for husbands.<br /><br />If you try it I'd be obliged if you'll let me know how it works out.<br /><br />&nbsp;