Biblical "law" does not have a single agenda-- it reflects a politically divided world, and the various political camps of ancient Semitic monotheism have left their fingerprints all over the Old and New Testaments.

Imprecatory prayers were not universally supported by Bible authors; just as modern theologians have been uneasy about them, so were many Bible authors.

The Epistle of James (brother of Jesus) is a particularly good example of a Jewish-Christian document which is absolutely opposed to the use of imprecatory prayers. James' letter is the most "Jewish" document in the N.T., and was written in a Christian context which had not yet diverged from Judaism.

James is adamant that verbal curses (i.e. imprecatory prayers) are improper in all circumstances. It is a sentiment reflected in Jesus' statement "judge not lest ye be judged".

Why does poor ditzy Paula deserve anyone's wrath any more than those other bozos? At least she tries to behave professionally.

If I have to listen randy say "that was a little too pitchy to me dog!" one more time, I'm gonna flip out. What does "pitchy" mean? WTF?

Then there is the new chick, who actually admitted that she wrote that horrible song in the finale this year. That syrupy sentimental crapfest cost Adam the victory (besides the fact that one of his three phone numbers was DISCONNECTED, at least initially).

And then there's everyone's favorite judge, Simon.

Actually Simon is pretty good most of the time...

Except when his British misogynist proclivities show through, and he makes inappropriate critiques of female contestants physical appearances, or simply humiliates them because they show some backbone (i.e. they won't roll over and take his divine criticism).

The worst is when he and randy both tag-team judge with their "other brains".

Come to think of it, why not just scrap the whole panel and start from scratch?

Why hasn't the scandal of several weeks ago made the headlines today?

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/07/31/palin/index.html

She has been under investigation by a bipartisan commission of Alaska officials as concerns the firing of an official who was pressured to fire Palin's estranged ex-brother-in-law.

Do you think this will be swept under the rug now, or will this scandal get legs>

"There are some fundamentalist Christians who have decided that Allah is actually a pagan moon god who was worshiped on the Arabian peninsula before the rise of Islam. But Muslims (and most scholars) believe Allah is the same God that Jews and Christians worship -- the word means "God" in Arabic."

This is because "Allah" is literally derived from the same Semitic root-word as the Hebrew name for God, "Elohim." The word "Yaweh" (a.k.a. "Jehovah") means "Lord." Prior to the codification of the Bible, the Israelite townsfolk worshiped "Yaweh", while the rural pastoralist Judeans worshipped "Elohim" (a.k.a "Eloh" or "Allah").

So when the Hebrew Bible says "The Lord and God are one", it is really saying "Yaweh and Elohim are one." In other words, by declaring the unitary identity of the two fromerly distinct tribal deities of two different Semitic groups (Judeans and Israelites), these ancient tribes were putting all their eggs (deity names) into one basket known as monotheism.

Islam strongly affirms this sentiment. While not denying the Christian view that "God is Love", the view that "God is One" is arguably the most fundamental principle within Islam.

So if the argument can be made that any earlier Semitic groups of the Near East worshipped celestial bodies and referred to them as "GOD" (e.g. "moon god"), then the same must be said of the polytheistic ancestors of those who wrote the Old Testament; they transformed their pagan deities into the unitary God of Western consciousness.

The notion that polytheism is a fragmentary and incomplete form of monotheism is also common to Islamic thought.

The same is true for the European groups who themselves later adopted this Semitic form of Near Eastern monotheism; in English, we have both the big "G" and small "g" god(s). The church Latin form "Deus", where we get "deity" is the same root as Greek "Zeus", king of the gods; the D-Z shift is linguistically common.

Following the logic in the e-mail, does this mean that the fundamentalist Christians who read the King James Bible (translated from Latin) are actually worshipping a philandering old dude who rules from Mount Olympus, throws lightning at people for fun, and likes bowling?

"Feeling down" [as SALON quotes] reads more sexist than just "down," which is what Obama ACTUALLY SAID!!! A comment about reacting to polls has morphed in this context into a gender issue. Obama does not impress me here, but this kind of stupid comment is commonplace between any opposing candidates. By injecting Hillary's "feeling" into the statement, Katharine, you are stoking the flames of conflict between the two camps.

I love both candidates, but I am heartsick over the vitriol in these comments. PLEASE CORRECT THIS MISQUOTE!!!

Obama is not perfect. Neither is Hillary. I will vote for whichever gets the nod.

DEMOCRAT FIRST.