And in some states they won’t even have to force it. The problem for them is that regular every day people are not interested and won’t even know what they are talking about. It would be like trying to force everyone to be Amish.
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lol,i had a norwegian elkhound…a great kids dog…told the kids they could name her, many heated arguments later…she was named PUPPY…
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in Canada,they still wear poppies and some call it Armistice day…i can still recite Flanders Fields; in the usa, it is mostly s day of retail sales; and we elect a man who callled them all 'losers and suckers; for enlisting.
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to hear this read with a soft bagpipes and muted drums, is chilling.
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Isn’t that just one deeelicious irony? Holy – forgive me – shit.
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he undrstands the parades and the medals…he so desparately wants some of that for himself…that the men and women who have the parades and medals…mostly went thro hell to ‘earn’ them…it is all a mystery to him.that some do for others, freely, with no award/money, in it for them… and he despises that he was forced to acknowledge injured soldiers…suckers , all.
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As I have said…
Thank you Ethiopia for coffee
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Now, yes, but don’t have to, and it will not always be that way.
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Surprise, NAR! Your guy is the Antichrist!
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That is nonsense. What are you talking about?
In any case, I’ll take Dr Elaine Pagels’, the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University, word over yours, and expect you’ll reply with some right wing nonsense about “elites” or “pointy headed intellectuals” a la Mao’s disastrous and perversely tragic Great Leap Forward.
The logic of such nonsense is explained in Orwell’s book, 1984: Up is down.
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I remember the book Brave New World and Huxley’s vision of the individual’s fight for freedom. Quite prescient in his time, the 30s, when the book came out. He foresaw flying cameras able to surveil you all the time. But these folks, they are so upside down only the bible has the right words to describes them. Beware false prophets. Many will be led astray.
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Not only is sanity not a top priority, it will disqualify anyone from consideration. Just look at Mike Huckabee for ambassador to Israel.
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The thing that bothers and confuses me is why they think they have to drag me into their fever dreams in the first place.
What gives them the right to impose their stupid beliefs on me?
Some stupid book written by a bunch of two bit users and abusers who managed to get their “lord” killed in a most gruesome way?
So he died for our sins. But we’re still sinning so what did that accomplish? Pre and post crucifixion or did that cover just those that sinned previously?
I worked for a born again Xian many years ago, he spent a lot of his time in his office studying his bible. Well, he needed a bunch of other books and weekly bible session’s with his better bible understanders to try to make sense of that book of his.
So what makes that damned book so great? All the beautiful stuff is in the old part they say, and that’s the part these assholes seem to like the best anyway.
Jeebus, what a mess.
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Books of poetry by Frost and Yeats are far superior to the incessant drivel in that book of violent idiot fairy tales.
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Which famous Greek or Roman said that religion was “useful for the rulers”?
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Just look at Pete Hegseth for Defense. Unbelievable. I had never heard of him. The man has only a few years of thin executive experience while, as the WaPo reports, “The civilian leader of the Pentagon oversees 2.8 million people, including active duty personnel, and a budget of more than $900 billion.” I suppose the good news is that, since he won’t know what he’s doing, sane people at the Pentagon might have an easier time circumventing him.
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Not here to start this all up again. Just some thoughts.
When we look at the period of Constantine through the lens of Christianity, we get a very partial and distorted view of the period. First, let me just point out that Constantine did not require of or impose upon the people of the Roman Empire (such as it was then, a divided empire – Constantine sat in Constantinople, having divided the empire into east and west) that they be Christians, though he certainly promoted Christianity.
But just as important, the Roman Empire (east and west) was still vast, with a great deal going on that had nothing to do with religion. And to the (not minor) extent that religion did play a role, keep in mind that rabbinical Judaism was forming in this period. And that many Christians had been Jews (and didn’t necessarily see a problem there, though Christian bishops often did – a lot of Christian theologians and bishops figure in this period.) Meanwhile, Mithraism, for instance, among soldiers. Greek and Roman deities continued to be worshipped. I mean, this is a very complicated landscape. Shall I add that Jerome consulted Jews when he composed the Latin bible?
In this landscape, the so-called Gnostic Gospels play a role, but not the simple one you’ve laid out. Pagel’s work has been important, but it should not be taken as (she would not offer it as) some kind of final word about this transformational period.
Let’s not even get into the question of whether Peter ever even went to Rome. Or the role of ascetic monks and all that. Or the whole martyrdom thing (martyro = I bear witness) and the saints.
All of this: there’s a good reason “Byzantine” has come to mean incredibly complex and hard to follow. None of it is reducible to “Constantine did this” or “Gnostic Gospels are some kind of lynchpin.” “Late Antiquity” in the Mediterranean is an astoundingly complicated place.
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Has this not always been the role of the “church” ever since Paul invented the RC church?
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Well, the Cathars certainly got the shit end of the stick on that whole re-edit.
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