I agree with Servant... the Tea Party has forced the Republicans too far to the right and made them say crazy things.

I agree with the rational republicans... but not the Palins and Perrys so much.

just suicide on them and be done with it. =D

Because the air is thinner? wouldn't that make the speed of sound faster? I dunno.

I understand the appeal of course. I was raised in a deeply religious Mennonite community from birth til the age of 18. I know what it's all about and the euphoria that one can experience from being a part of something you feel is bigger than you are.

I think, more than the "spiritual" element of being part of a church is the "being part of" a community of people who accept you and want everyone to feel welcome and happy. There's definitely nothing wrong with that part of religion... I just don't have any faith and have embraced science and Neil deGrasse Tyson as my prophet.

I'm part of a group called the CFI, Centre For Inquiry/Freethinkers... and there is a group of skeptics who have hymnals full of songs and they congregate and sing songs with NO religiousity to them whatsoever and not with a satirical tone. Personally, Im not into singing but I believe we get that same sense of belonging and community even though it's not in a church or revolving around religion.

I think that religion does more evil in the world than it does good. I think religion is one of those things worthy of mockery to illustrate its absurdity. It's called being skeptical really... and I'm certainly ok with that being a reflection on me.

Wouldn't you mock me for believing that Jack climbed up a bean stalk with magic beans and found a giant and all that? Well, i think Mormonism is just as absurd... just because several million people believe in it doesn't make it any less false. At one point, several million people believed that Obama wasn't born in America (some still do)... why argue with facts?

I'll just quote myself as a defence: "Ok, so polygamy and racism are definitely NOT considered mainstream Mormonism..."

My point is, there are splinter sects that still practice these things. I know this because polygamy happens in a place called Bountiful, British Columbia, Canada.

http://www.cbc.ca/...2/bc-polygamy-ruling.html

This is, by no means, a litmus test for the entire religion/cult (don't worry, I call Christianity a cult too). And, as for there being racist Mormons... there are plenty of racist (insert any religion here)'s which are not considered church/temple/synagogue doctrine (anymore).

So if that's "skewed" then you have just converted me to LDS. =)

Pizza fo sho. of the s and m... i think i'd be an M. Leather, no chains, no ball gags. I want to be able to scream. =)

I dunno Oats. If I were American, I would want a president who is a secular humanist and doesn't believe in fantasy or delusion. Logical and rational instead of wearing weird underwear and believing he will be a God one day with his own planet... So... if you want to think that this is a base discussion or low level discourse, I'd have to point out the deviousness of an entire religious ideology that he has founded his life/family around. It seems kind of important to who you may be electing. Isn't a person's history and belief systems fair game when considering a president?

Ok Sam. I like that you're discussing this with me without ad hominem attacks. Thanks. I don't think you were ranting, I just didnt have time to respond to every point you made. Romney did say that 47% of Americans refuse to take responsibility for their own well being... that's a statement made in bad faith, don't you agree?

http://www.vanityfair.com/...-romney-offshore-accounts

As for his loopholes... $30 million in Bain Capital funds in the Cayman Islands alone. Look up "Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd." also. He has money in Bermuda as well; jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance.

As for the wonders of Bain... "Bain bought companies, loaded them with debt, and paid itself extravagant fees, thereby bankrupting the companies and destroying tens of thousands of jobs."

As for his tax returns and the secrecy that seems to be behind them... I think something will be revealed before the election that will either exonerate Romney or destroy him. Time will tell.

The secret muslim bit was from another poster. I'm not just talking to you ya know.

The difference between Mormonism's racism and some reverend's racism is that it's not part of the Christian doctrine... unlike Mormonism. Honestly, I think all religion is nuts.

Romney SAID I don't care about 47% of American people because they won't take responsibility for their own lives. Is that a decent guy? He uses loopholes in the tax code to make sure he doesn't pay his fair share... he won't change that. Romney is out of touch with normal people. I just can't believe that you don't see it.

The last two paragraphs of your seem a bit rantish so I'll just stay away from that.

But, I'm talking about how crazy!!!!!! Mormonism is... and now there is a possibility that someone who believes it might be your next president. Remember, magic underwear.

I'd like to point a few things out to you Orkinman, just to put this all into context.

When the American economy crashed in 2008, it wasn't just the American economy that was affected. The whole WORLD was affected and damaged by it. If you can feel comfortable with the notion that the American economic collapse affected the entire world economy, then it's not much of a stretch to infer the opposite.

America's economic recovery is partly dependent on the world economy getting better as well... which isn't exactly in the control of any one government.

I'd also like to point out that this recession was worse than the great depression (which lasted 10 years and took WW2 to get out of it). NO LEADER CAN FIX A COUNTRY SO BROKEN IN 4 YEARS. I know you like your fast food and your on demand television, but not everything happens over night and something this huge can't be fixed in 4 years. I hate to say it, but the problem with America is Americans. There is going to need to be an entire paradigm shift through the next few generations that will eventually (hopefully) fix your country. THAT is how countries change... not in 4 years.

It's very fast and easy to ruin a country... it's like getting into a car accident. It takes just a split second and it could take the rest of your life to recover.

this thread took a turn... and im not sure where it's going next. so im just gonna go sleep.

dissident's essay

pen fifteen.

enjoy.

oh wait, i didnt capitalize everything, do i get points docked for not yelling at you?

because i dont have penises for men, im not comfortable with my sexuality? blurgh...

what's a closet?

also, did you see the video where mittens brought in a cheat sheet and put it on his podium at the beginning of the debate? Maybe it was a handkerchief.. maybe there was a handkerchief to mask a cheat sheet... who knows.

Lastly, did you read the lie o meter?

http://www.politifact.com/...nver-presidential-debate/

1. Oversaw the creation of more jobs in 2010 alone than Bush did in eight years. http://bit.ly/hrrnjY

2. 12. Along with Democrats, and almost no Republicans, implemented an auto industry rescue plan, and saved as many as 1 million jobs. http://bit.ly/ibhpxr Many are of the opinion that he saved the entire auto industry, and even the economy of the entire Midwest. http://bit.ly/gj7mt5 This resulted in GM returning to its place as the top car company in the world. http://lat.ms/zIJuQx Willard Romney, on the other hand, advocated for the entire industry to go belly-up.

3. Signed the Democratic-sponsored Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act giving the federal government more tools to investigate and prosecute fraud in every corner of the financial system, and create a bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the financial fraud that led to the economic meltdown.

4. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, saved at least 300,000 education jobs, such as teachers, principals, librarians, and counselors that would have otherwise been lost.

5. Pushed through, signed and demanded the Pentagon enact a repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that forced soldiers to lie in order to be eligible to fight for their country, and put our troops at risk by disqualifying many qualified soldiers from helping. and a lot of same sex marriage stuff.

6. Closed a number of secret detention facilities that used torture. Ordered the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. It was Republicans (and, unfortunately, progressive Democrats) who prevented follow through.

7. Authorized a $1.4 billion reduction in Star Wars program in 2010.

8. Through the Defense Authorization Act, reversed the Bush Administration and committed to no permanent military bases in Iraq... after getting out of there... saving trillions of sheep.

9. Bin Laden

10. Funded Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with an extra $1.4 billion to improve veterans’ services.

11. Provided active combat troops with better body armor.

12. Repeatedly increased funding for student financial aid, and at the same time cut the banks completely out of the process.

13. Created the Race to the Top program, which encouraged states to come up with effective school reforms and rewards the best of them.

14. Restored federal agencies such as FEMA to the point that they have been able to manage a huge number of natural disasters successfully.

15. Reoriented Government to an Adult View on Science, Technology and Health Care

16. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, committed more federal funding, about $18 billion, to support non-defense science and research labs.

17. Oversaw a 50% decrease in cost of prescription drugs for seniors

18. Two weeks after taking office, signed Democratic-sponsored Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which increased the number of children covered by health insurance by 4 million.

19. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act , cut taxes for 95% of America's working families. Tax rates for average working families are the lowest since 1950 http://bit.ly/eSEI4F

20. Cracked down on companies that were previously denying sick pay, vacation and health insurance, and Social Security and Medicare tax payments through abuse of the employee classification of independent contractor.

21. Eliminated federal funding for abstinence-only education, and rescinded the global gag rule.

22. Loosened the rules and allowed the 14 states that legalized medical marijuana to regulate themselves without federal interference. (also admitted the war on drugs is a waste of time and money).

23. Became the first to stream every White House event, live. Now that's transparency.

24. Signed an order banning gifts from lobbyists to anyone in the Executive Branch.

25. Signed an order banning anyone from working in an agency they had lobbied in previous years, and put strict limits on lobbyists’ access to the White House.

Should I continue?

20.

So, this means as long as i buy out my private market before I log off, it doesnt matter how long it is before i log in again?

or does the decay kick in even when im not online?

I'm now a TMBR. When I buy out the private market, is it more efficient to do it often or to do it daily?

Is the replenishing rate different at all or is it uniform until it's full?

Thanks for the help.

You're going to need to provide a link for the CRA bill because when I google it I just get Canada Revenue Agency stuff and bills from the 1700s.

I don't consider banking to be similar to say: teddy bear factories or water and sewer companies. Banking should not be a free enterprise (anyone can open a flipping bank) type of thing in the same way that hospitals should not be free enterprise. You can see the difference correct?

I'm not a Marxist... but you are an economic libertarian. Perhaps you could recommend some Chomsky instead.

" i thought the financial industry was one of the most heavily regulated industries in the u.S. *before* the big collapse. All the regulation in the world isn't going to help, when giant bureaucracies rule the roost. And you bet i hate the fact that my tax dollars went to those companies which should have been allowed to fail."

The thing is, they were too big to fail. You've heard that phrase before right? If you let all those banks and insurance companies die, you'd have been way worse off than you are right now. Also, the banks paid all of that money back already.

But, I'd like to point out that it's an incorrect statement to say the american financial institution is one of the most heavily regulated. In fact, Clinton started a phase of mass deregulation of the banking system that led to prosperity for the financial sector... which continued through Bush... and led to what we have now. It's all documented. A good documentary on this very subject (which I consider to be quite objective) is "Inside Job"... it's on Netflix. I say objective because the film blames Obama and Clinton and Bush... but also gives us faces behind the scenes in Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers, and a whole bunch of other people + their depositions.