I often wondered about "in vain" and I've taken it to mean, "Don't beseech God for those things that you ask in vain."

So, poor people who pray for wealth use God's name in vain, which makes sense, given that the Bible is quite clear that the poor will be rich in Heaven and the rich will be humbled and likely damned, given Jesus's parable about the rich man who went to Hell, which was the only time he mentioned Hell. Why would God answer a poor person's prayer for wealth, knowing that the answering would damn them.

I've talked to a few people who were in the trains at Auschwitz and they witnessed praying for divine intervention and then they watched those praying people go into the gas chambers.

There are perhaps only two possible explanations:

There is no God.

Jesus didn't die to suffer for our sins, which suggests a God who isn't all-loving. Rather, Jesus was the template for suffering, for forgiving our enemies even as they torture us and kill us.

Elephantman won't be commenting. He's finally in Iraq. He realized that he better pony up some of his blood since he voted for the bloody W. Right now, he's got a saw in each hand, a knife in his mouth. and he's on the hood of a Hummer, driven by Rush Limbaugh.

how many more tax cuts would the rich get? Another five? Can't McCain trump Bush and give the rich another six? Why not seven?

This is what Obama opposes. I do too.

That's it!

This isn't the time for snark.

You're smart enough to realize this and to further affect more than snark in your positions and prose.

So, what does matter to you? You're reminding me more and more of those people I've met who's sarcasm or snark precluded anyone ever discerning their values.

I know, I know. You like to watch. But why not take a position and be a participant?

He's probably another Republican operative who's cobbled a narrative of a Harvard student who was the only one brilliant and brave enough to see through Castro. It's likely a Young Republican, pudgy and pale, hiding from Iraq in some third string college. If it is a hoary and whoring Harvard grad, then he's a legacy grad, ala W, who gained entry by birthright rather than what's right: merit.

Anyone who ever disagrees with me is going to Hell!

Hell, if I even contradict myself, I'm going to Hell!

We've all been warned.

To knock out Lotus Feet's teeth, you'd have to fly to Iraq. Like all Bush voters, he's over there. Freedom is on the march and he's marching with it.

You are over there, aren't you, Lotus Feet? You voted for blood and you wouldn't leave someone else to bleed, would you?

Regarding gross sexual acts, I just discovered that men PEE out of their pensises! And that's what they want to stick into my vagina and my mouth? Eek! Eww!

So, their CAPS didn't convince you?

Here's why I can't ever take any Republican seriously: they voted for Bush. Twice.

Once a Bush voter, twice a Bush voter, always a Bush voter. That's what a McCain voter is: a Bush voter. I don't just blame Bush for all that has befallen America: Bush voters are equally to blame.

Well, if Christianity isn't African in origin, it's close: only a Red Sea away.

However, I take your point: today's conceptualization of Christianity was foisted upon black people by white people and those white people used the Bible, as you know, to justify slavery.

And I hate economic inequity. As a white woman, I'm embarrassed to drive through suburbs populated only by lighter skinned people. I wish more Americans were ashamed of race-based economic inequity. For this reason, I choose to live in a multi-racial neighborhood.

However, I must differ with you as regards preaching against LGBT people, but not urging violence. I don't think such preaching precludes violence. I think it sanctions it. Therefore, I think Matthew Shephard's blood is on such preachers' hands. Such preaching is verbal violence. Some people act out that violence, but the preachers are complicit.

Damn!

You repeated the same message three times!

That forces me to comply.

I will vote yes on Prop 8.

I will vote yes on inequality.

I will drink the Kool-Aid.

I will vote for Bush Part II.

I will torture for Jesus.

Yes, yes, yes.

"...a grown-up discussion...."?

But you're Mr. Ad Hom.

...knit us together. Our fingers would twine and then our interior tendrils. First, our affection, followed by the confections of faith and fidelity.

Let us knit, my darling nitwit!

I don't want to waste any more words on it except to say that perhaps Ms. Hepola should be writing for World News Daily.

There are only small souls.

And congrats to the newlyweds!

@ hyblaean

I love this line: "it was hard for them to give up the dream of me for the reality of me."

Happy to do it!

Thanks your telling your story, Allie.

On average, tall people don't live as long. So, chemically ratchet your kid a few inches and (s)he'll likely die sooner. Considering how long we're dead and how briefly we live, this is a Faustian bargain.

The other thing is that while Europeans are still getting bigger, generationally, Americans aren't. You see the discrepancy at NATO exercises where American soldiers, on average, look a little runty. This is due to diet. Kids can't reach the upper shelf on a diet of corn syrup and MSG.