"Since I first realized that fundamentalists actually existed among us in our modern western culture, I've always been amazed how small they make the God they glorify."

-- Typesbad

Even so:

"Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child."

- Lazarus Long, Time Enough for Love

It's like this.

If God exists and is benevolent, then he'll forgive me for not having believed in myths invented by ignorant shepherds 3000 years ago.

If God doesn't exist, or is not benevolent, then it wouldn't matter anyway.

'Nuff said.

"It's a bit distressing how glibly so many people here celebrate the deaths of the davidians."

-- Tyler_Mason

Wrong again, neocon. Nobody here 'celebrated' the mass suicide of the Branch Davidians. Show otherwise. You can't.

"How can you object to gitmo when you applaud what happened in waco?"

-- Tyler_Mason

Aside from the violence-for-pleasure principle in operation at both locations, what makes you think the two situations are in any other way comparable? The Koresh compound was a vicious mind-control rape cult; Guantanamo Bay is a fascist concentration camp.

Do you really not see any difference?

"To enter this temple of knowledge . . . will cost you $19.95. And, funnily enough, they don't offer a student discount."

-- Mr. Smitty

It's an expensive operation with an expensive facility and expensive exhibits. Maintenance will therefore also be expensive. So will personnel expenses, even if they don't keep the armed guards and the concertina wire. It's not like it's actually going to make any money, so it'll get dowdy and fewer will come every year.

In a couple of years the organizers' Unchangeable Beliefs will get revamped, and they'll quietly remove the bristling canines from the carnivore models, the ones strangely purported to be vegetarians, just to quiet the contradiction. They'll be sure to downplay this absurdity eventually, just as the religious have downplayed numerous of their other absurdities over the centuries.

They always do.

Remarkably, fundies insist the bible is exactly true - even though they can't even agree on exactly what it says.

"In one case, a democrat saw to the killing of people you don't like. In the other a republican sees the the torture of people you might like."

-- Tyler_Mason

Wrong again, neocon. The Branch Davidians committed mass suicide, exactly as your hero David Koresh threatened to do. In this instance the Democrats didn't kill anybody.

At Guantanamo, you Bushites are torturing people into committing suicide on the pretext that they're 'criminals' when you have no evidence.

Pol Pot had people tortured.

Stalin had people tortured.

The Nazis had people tortured.

Bush has people tortured.

You see a pattern here?

"The pattern, psychopath, is that they all didn't like others and saw to their decimation. similarly, you revel in the deaths of people you don't like. After all the nutjobs got what they deserved. You're no better than sober bush and worse than drunk rambling bush."

"Hey - why ya reading this? Don't you need to call the cops on your neighbors? You don't like them, they're up to something, and they deserve a beat down."

-- Tyler_Mason

You discredited yourself several posts ago, neocon. And now you're ranting. But you're a Bush brainwashee, and not expected to notice.

But we have.

Pol Pot had people tortured.

The Nazis had people tortured.

Stalin had people tortured.

Al-Qaida has people tortured.

Bush has people tortured.

Anybody see a pattern here?

"He's killed over 3400 U.S. servicement, manifold that number others in other counties, given us a $trillion or so in economic damages, trashed the U.S. Constitution and human rights, and turned "American" into an epithet that makes me glad I carry a red passport when I have to do business abroad...."

-- Arne Langsetmo

It becomes obvious why there hasn't been another attack since 9/11: why should bin Laden bother when Bush is doing a better job than he ever could?

What does "al-Qaida does it too" mean? It's really quite simple. They're saying that two wrongs make a right.

And that they're no better than al-Qaida.