KartMan

BJean, I agree completely. We have touched a lot on the tax benefit to legalizing prostitution. While I think there is a huge benefit to taxing it, I think we should also address the public health issues. If prostitution were legal, the prostitutes could be licensed and be forced to get checked regularly. There could also be rules about condom use with strict penalties for violating the rules (not sure how to enforce this though). Pimps would be taken out of the mix, which in and of itself should make the act safer for all involved. The bottom line for me is that the only real argument against prostitution is based on the moral perspective of the group that wants to keep it illegal. I guess you could make the point that there is also the fact that the act is in many ways derogatory to women, while I recognize this – I think legalizing it would empower them more than they are today. When you take out the seediness of the pimps and drugs, it is just another business transaction. If you don’t believe in the religious hype and just for a second realize that sex is nothing more than a bodily function like farting and going to the bathroom, you realize the silliness of trying to condemn it. Both of those functions are things we don’t usually talk openly about, but they are nonetheless “normal” everyday bodily functions.

Well no, that’s not the logic at all. Congress is there on our behalf. They should be held accountable to what they do. If they are failing in our expectations, we should vote them out - period. It certainly doesn’t help that we have an apathetic electorate that would rather complain about the shortcomings of government rather than actually go out and vote on Election Day. In my opinion elected officials should only be paid a stipend, cut “fact finding junkets” drastically, not be allowed to lobby for 10 years after leaving office, and be held to reasonable term limits. Smoking is bad and cost the nation billions of dollars to address the health care costs. Taxes are applied to cigarettes to help curb those costs and to reinforce anti-smoking education. The same thing occurs with liquor and gambling (and should for prostitution and marijuana (oops, totally different topic)). I think Sin Taxes are a good thing, but only if the tax collected is actually paid back into the system where the “sin” is occurring. As I said in my previous post, I am and have been a loyal customer of fast food chains. I have no problem putting my money where my mouth is (pun intended).

I don’t know about taxing all food based on fat content – it seems like it would be hard to judge what is and what isn’t. I would be in favor of a percentage tax on fast food that goes directly back into health care or prevention programs. It would be like the federal gas tax, added right into the cost of the purchase. Fast food is definitely a prime contributor to obesity (it certainly was for me). Full disclosure: I still go to fast food joints, but I eat way differently. For example in the past if I got breakfast at McDonalds, it would be two value meals (which means 2 sandwiches, two greasy hash browns, and 2 drinks). Now I get a single Egg McMuffin and a fork. I can barely eat the one egg and the piece of ham – no cheese and no English muffin – oh, and no drink:biggrin:

I think this says it well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWqgD7lGneU

I was banded February 18, 2009. I started at 285 and am down to about 202. So that’s about 83 lbs in just over 5 months. I have gone from size XXXL shirts and 44 pants to L shirts and 36 pants. I don’t exercise much. I eat between 900 and 1500 calories each day with three meals and rarely any snacks – my hunger and energy levels are fine most of the time. I have 3.6cc in a 10cc band and currently feel great (maybe a little too tight) restriction. I started with a BMI of just over 37 and am striving to get to 24.9, which is in the normal range. At the rate I am going, I fully expect to be at goal within the next 2 months.

Kat My hat is off to you. What a powerful and insightful post. I hope your nephews can find the peace that they deserve, it is sad they may have to leave home to do that. I had a similar experience as a child. I grew up very poor in a predominantly Black and Mexican neighborhood. I saw the ugliness of racism from the other direction. I was teased, picked on, and beat up by the Blacks and Mexicans because I was White. There were some White kids (from the better part of town) bussed in and I was ostracized by them too because of where I was from. Being the subject of this racism helped shaped who I am today. It was a difficult childhood, but one that I would not change for an instant. I learned that given the right scenario, any majority can and often does take advantage of the minority. It is why I feel so strong about equality now. I voraciously fight racism, bigotry and religious intolerance now because I think they are at the root of so many of society’s ills. If we could embrace our differences rather than alienate each other we would all be better for it. Again, thank you for your post – it really touched me.

Are you serious Patty? I’m going to do something I don’t do often, and talk about the ¼ of me that is Indian. It’s not that I am in any way ashamed of that part of me, it’s just that I don’t know much about that part of my bloodline. My father was half Indian (my mother never knew what tribe), but I didn’t know him – so I don’t know that side very well. But I digress, the point I’m trying to make is that I don’t think you can say that Christianity or any thing else the Europeans brought to them made their lives better. We (the Europeans) completely decimated whole cultures, killed thousands (millions?), and uprooted almost every single tribe on this continent. “Giving” them religion is hardly payback for all of that. I’m not one of those that believes that we should leave or give the land back, the past is well behind us. But to sit here and pretend that we did a good thing for the Indians with all of those injustices is lunacy and insulting. Sometimes the things you say are truly disturbing.

Well, not exactly. The Church of England was the religious power in England at the time (and still is). The Church of England has many things in common with the Catholic Church but it is a distinctly different offshoot.

Uh huh, and that just makes the argument even more compelling. You Christians can’t even agree amongst yourselves what is and isn’t supposed to be in the Bible:rolleyes:

I haven’t, somebody told me I should check it out though. I’ll have to give it a look see.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find this whole passage and the history behind it to be a tad elitist. Did the “true” religion that we brought the Indians make their lives any better? It doesn’t seem so. Most of them were killed off or evicted from their ancestral homes. I’m still trying to wrap my head around why on the one hand God blessed us (by us, I mean the Anglo European pilgrims and their descendants) with this wonderful country and in the same stroke cursed the Indians.

If Isaiah wanted to avoid confusion and be more accurate, he would have written “God sits enthroned above the sphere of the Earth”. Mathematically speaking, a circle is two-dimensional or flat whereas a sphere is 3 dimensional.

You don’t see the humor and duplicity of this. I guess not because you are a believer, for me I just irony. Moses was mad because they were worshiping another God, one that they just made up as opposed to the one that he made up. Don’t you see that to an unbeliever, the God of Moses is no more relevant than the golden calf they were worshiping.

I’m sure lots of guys would line up to participate in a study to contribute to this valuable research. I would suggest a 6 week double blind study with multiple “recipients” of the nutritional deposit. Anything for science, right Plain?

The trailer for Assassins Creed II, which is supposed to come out in November. I don’t think they called them Illuminati though, I think they used the term “Templar”.

I don’t see why you think this is significant to your argument Patty. They are actually making the point that BJEan and I have been saying all along – that is that the Bible has changed and that whole portions have been added and left out over the years. Here are a few references from the site (their words, not mine): - A glance at the transcription will show just how common these corrections are. They are especially frequent in the Septuagint portion. They range in date from those made by the original scribes in the fourth century to ones made in the twelfth century. They range from the alteration of a single letter to the insertion of whole sentences. - By the middle of the fourth century there was wide but not complete agreement on which books should be considered authoritative for Christian communities. - The Greek Septuagint in the Codex includes books not found in the Hebrew Bible and regarded in the Protestant tradition as apocryphal, such as 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach. Appended to the New Testament are the Epistle of Barnabas and 'The Shepherd' of Hermas.

Actually, I was talking about this: http://assassinscreed.uk.ubi.com/assassins-creed-2/

Pro Golfer John Daly had it done John Daly's Redemption Project for Real? -- Golf FanHouse

Funny, this topic came up back when I was on Atkins. Only back then the concern was carbs rather than calories. As I recall. semen is both low in carbs and calories (and doesn’t have as much protein as you might think). According to this http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_calories_are_in_semen , about 5 calories per ejaculate. But for Plain’s wad, it is about 3000 calories.

Gloucester, In that case you must be anxiously awaiting November??

I’m not sure if Fox is making a big deal about it but the tone of the piece I saw they other day gave me the impression that they were feeding the fire. Honestly, I can’t watch Fox or MSNBC for more than an hour without getting pissed off. I try to stick with CNN, but flip over to the other 2 during commercial breaks. Olbermann and Maddow on MSNBC annoy me just as much as Hannity and O’Reilly on Fox, both sides are little too far extreme in their views and too in your face about those views for my tastes. The illuminati are definitely running the world though:biggrin:

I’m with you on Tort Reform.

Happy, I think there are 2 things that cause what you went thru. One is fear of litigation. They feel compelled to run every possible test just as CYA even when they know that the tests won’t show anything. The other problem is that we have procedure based payment system rather than a results based payment system. Both of these issues should be addressed in any sort of reform that we adopt. The second issue is the one that really drives up the costs in our system and a lot of the fraud if you ask me. It is really a crazy concept if you think about it. There really doesn’t have to be much justification for the hospital to run a whole host of “tests”, then you and the insurance company just pay for them even though didn’t actually “solve” anything.

Thanks BJean, I wanted to say that but it just seems like that argument falls on deaf ears with some around here :bored: To suggest that the Bible has not changed since it was first written is just complete and utter nonsense. For a person to even suggest that, it calls into question everything else that they say.

Great post HappyHome :smile: I couldn’t have said it better. I too have been all over the world and have had medical care for myself or my kids in at least 3 other countries and couldn’t agree more with your experiences. In all cases, the care was excellent and the costs were reasonable. I think sometimes we get caught up in the “not invented here syndrome”. Many Americans just can’t fathom the idea that somebody else in the world might have a good idea. I certainly would not say that every other country’s solution to this dilemma is perfect, but there certainly seem to be some better ways to handle it than we currently have at our disposal. Why can’t we take a good hard look at the top 20 solutions around the world and fashion a solution for us here based on proven programs?