I may just be imagining it, but it seems like a significant number of the people I know have an "I don't care" attitude, as in "Me: Your house is on fire... Them: Uh... Ok! Have a great day! I'm off to work!". I sit in meetings where people talk for hours, and hardly anything constructive is said, and God forbid, someone makes a difficult decision.

I wonder if it is just me, or if they are literally unable to be concerned about anything. I think of it as Botox for the mind. Everything is smooth and wrinkle free, even when it is not smooth at all. My father in law is a pastor of a church in a small town. He tells me that he figures about half of his 300 member congregation is on some kind of mood altering drug or sleep medication.

I can find little distinction between the person who uses heroin to dull life's issues, and those who use Xanax, Paxil, etc. to do the same.

What really frightens me is that these drugs seem to make people more easily led. Just the way government likes it.

Poco

"Satan, after all, could not have the middle name of Hussein." Pfft. They hate each other enough to use their women as bomb mules to kill other women and children, and Majd actually expects us to believe they are going to love, or even tolerate a church going infidel. Not hardly. Take advantage of perhaps. Accept, never. It's important to care about what the Islamic world thinks about us. Heck, it's important to care about Castro (if he isn't already dead) thinks about us. But to appease a cro-magnon mindset just because it will make them kill us a little more pleasantly. I think not.

"I want to go before the world community and say, 'America's back, and we are ready to lead.'"

Now, if that isn't just the epitome of presumptuous arrogance. Mr. Obama, just because we have an idiot in the White House doesn't mean that I've gone anywhere. I am America, not some infantile politician. This just demonstrates the "mindset" that really needs to change. The one that thinks that politicians are somehow truly representative of America. Politicians are nothing more than a necessary parasite sucking the blood of the people. They become more aggressive as time goes on. "America is back". Give me a break! Do you really think you are America Mr. Obama?

"A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker." H.L. Mencken

So true of the current batch.

this guy doesn't know what he's talking about (or is purposely "getting back" at someone). He presents such a skewed view of religion in America that I barely recognise what he's describing, and I have been a part of it all my adult life. It's a shame so much misinformation is taken seriously. I suppose it will handily support a lot of biased presuppositions, and that's why it is considered a success.

Rather than go into a lengthy point-by-point, I will offer this one condescending example:

"They look inwards toward their congregations, who are needy at every level and constantly want the support and advice of their pastor."

Needy at every level? Poor pathetic, whimpering individuals that can't get by without a pastor-crutch? Not me. Not my wife. Not my friends. Our pastor is a teacher and co-believer. Nothing more, nothing less.

Are those who call themselves Marxists "needy at every level" because they ascribe to the philosophy of one man? Do the college students and others who learn from teachers of Marxism "constantly want the support and advice of their teachers"? No, this disdain is reserved for those who follow the teachings of Christ. Only Christians are broadly considered crippled and needy by the secularists. All others are on esteemed paths to enlightenment, even if they are recognised as faulty paths.

What is clear is that John Marks has had some disappointments in life and is blaming Jesus.

"Faith is not belief in action.

It is belief without evidence."

Kind of like dark matter. You know, like 90% of the universe. Here's what eminent scientist Robert Scherrer, the professor of physics at Vanderbilt University says:

"It is somewhat embarrassing to have two different unknown sources for the dominant forms of matter and energy in the universe. On the other hand, that may just be the way things are."

Yep, we can't figure it out, but we believe in it because "that's just the way things are". Faith in action.

Most "science" starts with a guess and builds loftily from there. Do you know that Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes died nearly insane from the rejection and scorn heaped upon him by his "scientific" peers for his insistence that doctors wash their hands to avoid spreading infection? Even when faced with verifiable results, the superstitious, arrogant scientists would not swerve from the established practice of going from one infected patient to the next.

Please, please, please, do not give me this extremely arrogant "science is always based on fact" garbage. Most of our modern inventions were a lucky accident. Any honest reader here will admit that. So much for our massive intelligence.

Poco