Reason Morning Links: Obama Mulls Bank Tax, Americans Stop Getting Fatter, Text Message Aid to Haiti

• Obama wants to tax banks to recover bailout money, including banks that didn't receive any help.
• "Welcome to Al Qaeda airlines…."
• U.S. obesity rate plateaus.
• So far, text messagers have donated $2 million for relief in Haiti.
• "It's quite clear that he is 8 years old, and while he may have terroristic tendencies at home, he does not have those on a plane."

Comments

[Suki]

Obama wants to tax banks to recover bailout money, including banks that didn't receive any help.

But AIG and GM get a pass and the banks that paid back all their loans, even the ones who did not want loans, are in the tax them list.

Why? Because some bonuses are too big for the taste of the President.

[ben tej]

Because some bonuses are too big for the taste of the President.

This sentiment drives me goddamn crazy. I heard an interview on NPR the other evening where an economist was patiently trying to explain to NPR douche why the labor market works better with the bonuses than without them.

After listening for a while, the host finally sputters out "But, but, but ... don't you find the size of the bonuses troubling?"

[Suki]

I must confess, I used to have that mindset too. reason cured me.

[MNG]

It's a stupid tendency among liberals, this is true (though the only Presidential campaign ad I saw last year saying "excessive" executive comepensation would be combated was a McCain ad).

I can understand wanting to reform corporate law to increase the actual ability of shareholders to control compensation and choice of executives, but when an enterprise voluntarily decides to pay an executive some compensation then it is nobody's business but theirs. The executive may be worth it, and if he is not then they will suffer for their stupid decision. Government should stay out of it.

[capitol l]

Slowly but, surely you're coming around.

MNG, we are gradually enfolding you into our individualistic collective.

[Citizen Nothing]

Gooble gobble One of us One of us

[hmm]

Was waiting for the But, but it never came.

[Emperor Norton]

Bollocks.

Every large financial institution benefited from the bailouts. That was the POINT! Furthermore, living in a fallen world as we do, one in which bailouts are more or less bound to happen now and then, we should be relatively happy to see some or all of the industry's gains from moral hazard taxed away.

The idea that it's somehow wicked or punitive to tax an institution such as Goldman Sachs comes less from reasoned analysis of the situation, and more from the preconceived notion that nothing that the Democrats ever do while in office can possibly be correct. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[hmm]

Why not just let them fail in the first place? Instead of saving them just to punish them? That seems pretty silly.

[Suki]

+1

[Gilbert Martin]

Meanwhile Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to get a blank check from the government with no plan for any "recovery" for the taxpayers from those institutions.

And no oversight from Obama's "pay czar" for compensation for their executives either - they are outside the scope of his authority.

[JB]

I say we start by taxing that cunt millionaire Obama and his cunt wife.

[hmm]

I want a pay amendment that reduces pay of elected federal officials according to their wealth. A progressive tax for wealthy elected officials.

[Pat Robertson]

Money sent for Haitian relief is only going to go into the pockets of Satan.

[wylie]

Nah, they'll blow it all on zombies.

[Pope Jimbo]

I say it is about time that Satan called in that marker. How long were the rest of us supposed to sit around watching those Haitians living the high life with their ill gotten riches?

Don't they know it can't be all peaches and cream all the time?

[Suki]

But AIG and GM get a pass, and but the banks . . .

ftfm

[Mad Elf]

Why does the government need to tax banks to get back losses on the bailouts? All my liberal acquaintances are telling me that the bailouts worked and we got all our money back.

[DJF]

They want to tax the banks so they can give more money to the banks so it will be an even bigger success.

[Suki]

No, they want to get the undeserved excessive bonuses out of the hands of evil people who make more money than the President. They don't even work for the government!

Those greedy bankers would be exactly the same people who paid their loans back early . . .

[Brett L]

You seem to think the tax will expire when the dollars received by the government equal the dollars loaned by the government. Please contact me about a wonderful opportunity to purchase a bridge in NYC.

[Suki]

Any word yet on how the Bush administration caused the earthquake?

[mitch]

I'm pretty sure Bush either invaded Haiti, which was racist, or ignored the plight of Haitians, which was racist, or encouraged free trade with Haiti, which hurt Haitian merchants, or put an embargo on Haiti, which hurt Haitian merchants.

[OBL's Grandkid]

A spokesman for the T.S.A., James Fotenos, said that as a rule, "there are no children on the no-fly or selectee lists,"

Cool.

[Suki]

Silly poser. He wouldn't use his own grandkid. He'd use the kid of some idiot from that Virginia Mosque.

[Mad Elf]

Does anyone else automatically read Barney Frank (Dumbass) instead of Barney Frank (D-Mass.)?

[Suki]

LOL, I wasn't but I will be now.

[hmm]

I have a hard time reading past Barney since what comes next is usually something so stupid my blood pressure rises.

Thanks to you I will now always read the D Mass instead of just to Barney.

[Fluffy]

If you guys want some hits this morning, you really should put up a post about Pat Robertson's comments, so that we can all go at it.

[John]

Yeah. I thought that old bastard was dead. I really did. Not only am I subjected to his lunacy, but also I have to live with the disappointment that he is still alive. What a bummer of a morning.

[Suki]

I got beaten to the punch on that one too.

[Nyarlathotep]

Robertson made a deal with me.

Don't worry, folks. He'll get his.

[Fluffy]

I thought Teddy Prendergrass was already dead too.

[SugarFree]

Well done.

[John]

He isn't?

[brotherben]

He is now.

[John]

What a shame I liked him. And always felt bad for him after he was paralyzed. It is bad enough to be paralyzed but to have it happen in an accident involving a transsexual nightclub singer you were "casually acquainted with" in the words of wikipedia, is really too much for anyone.

[brotherben]

He died from colon cancer. 59 years old. RIP.

[The Grim Reaper]

Just a second, let me check my list... Yup ... Pendergrass, Teddy.

[Tulpa]

Sounds like Robertson has been hanging out with this guy.

[Rich]

The new "financial crisis responsibility fee" ... would be logistically difficult to impose on a manufacturing company, the administration official said.

But quite easy to impose on the govt.

"There may be, in some of these financial govt institutions, people capable of playing Major League Baseball. I'm not aware of any," [Barney Frank] said. "

FTFB.

[FrBunny]

At some point, someone named Michael Hicks made the Department of Homeland Security suspicious, and little Mikey is still paying the price. (His father, also named Michael Hicks, was stopped for the first time on the Bahamas trip.)

So the fucking kid has been hassled for six years, but the adult with the same goddamn name keeps sliding on through?!?

Someone please stop the ride.

[Pope Jimbo]

If the terrorists were smart they would start using common names as their official handle.

Think of the outrage when John Anderson and Jean Smith got added to the no fly list.

It isn't as if the TSA would be even slightly curious about a swarthy terrorist showing up with a passport that said "Frank White".

[Xeones]

Having met Pat Robertson, i can say, with certainty: no human being on Earth has a larger head.

[Vanna White]

I do.

[mr simple]

Under the new system, airlines will collect every passenger's birth date and gender, along with their names. The T.S.A. will cross-check all that with the watch lists. Previously, the airlines cross-checked the lists themselves, using only the names.

Why don't they just install a chip in everyone and track out movements at all times? Then we'll be really safe.

Mrs. Hicks said she wanted to take pictures of her son being frisked but was told it was against the rules.

That's why I never ask first, though it could cause me a lot more trouble when they try to take the camera from me.

[P Brooks]

the adult with the same goddamn name keeps sliding on through?!?

You can't expect those TSA agents to take on a big scary adult, can you?

[P Brooks]

Money sent for Haitian relief is only going to go into the pockets of Satan.

There are just so many directions you can go with this....

I nominate the American Red Cross for the role of Satan.

[John]

Yes, because we all know Satan is short on cash and depends on donations to get by.

[MNG]

Did he say that, really?

[SugarFree]

Heir

[John]

Apparently there is a Hatian folktale about the leaders of the late 18th Century slave revolt (the only successful slave revolt in modern history) making a pact with the devil to defeat the French. That is where Robertson got this. It is about on the level of talking about Blues being the devil's music because blues musicians used to go to country crossroads and get their guitars tuned by the devil.

[robc]

Hey, I saw the documentary on the Blues thing, you saying that wasnt accurate. Ralph Macchio wouldnt lie to me.

[SugarFree]

Transcript

"And you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it.

"They were under the heel of the French, uh, you know Napoleon the 3rd and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the Devil.

"They said, 'We will serve you if you'll get us free from the French.'

"True story.

"And so the Devil said, 'Okay, it's a deal.'

"And, uh, they kicked the French out, you know, with Haitians revolted and got themselves free.

"But ever since they have been cursed by, by one thing after another, desperately poor.

"That island of Hispaniola is one island. It's cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti on the other side is the Dominican Republican.

"Dominican Republic is, is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etcetera.

"Haiti is in desperate poverty.

"Same island.

"They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God and out of this tragedy I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now we're helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable."

[John]

"They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God and out of this tragedy I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now we're helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable"

80% of the population is Roman Catholic. But, I guess Robertson thinks they are satanists to.

[robc]

Roman Catholics who also practice voodoo. Im not catholic, so correct me if Im wrong, but, ummm...it doesnt really work that way.

The loas may be connected with catholic saints, but that doesnt mean they are.

[John]

I am sure Robertson considers them Mary worshipers.

[SugarFree]

The loas may be connected with catholic saints, but that doesnt mean they are.

True, but that also doesn't mean they are demons either.

[robc]

I wasnt going that way with it. I was just questioning the "80% roman catholic" bit. Maybe it comes from my protestant mindset...from my 5 minutes of research, the protestants in Haiti arent voodoo practictioners...the dual religionists are catholic/voodoo. And Im fairly ecumenical, Im not one of those baptists who says catholics arent christians, but catholic/voodoo practictioners? Yeah, I have to draw a line somewhere. Well, I guess I dont have to, but internally, that seems to be where my line is.

[Andrew Lynch]

You lost me at 5 minutes of research. That's really only 4.5 minutes longer than it takes to tweet somebody.

[T]

While the Catholic Church doesn't think things work that way, the people do. There is no dichotomy in the minds of believers between going to Mass on Sunday and visiting a houngan on Wednesday. If you ask the majority of people on the island if they are Roman Catholic, they'd say yes. And if you asked whether they believed in or practiced Voodoo, they'd also say yes.

[robc]

Exactly, and I happen to agree with the catholic church over the people on this one.

To each his own ... but self-identification isnt always accurate.

[T]

Some libertarian you are. Shouldn't the people be free to decide upon the terms of their religion?

I kid. Voodoo is an odd duck, but conceptually, is perfectly compatible with Catholicism if you accept that some of the Voodoo practices are de facto sinful. So, supplicate the loa and then ask the Church for forgiveness. What's the problem?

[SugarFree]

robc,

I was chiding Robertson much more than you. Sorry it came off that way.

Syncretic faiths are interesting to me. Some, like voodoo, see themselves as part of the dominant mother religion, and others like Bah?'? claim a completely new revelation.

If course, the demon inside me compels this question: Who do you believe more, voodoo practitioners who say they are Catholic or Glenn Beck when he calls himself a libertarian?

[John]

I have never watched Beck. I can't stand screamers. But, what positions does he take that are not libertarian? Seriously. I have no idea. Is just that he is not cool, or does he actually have any non libertarian positions?

[Fluffy]

I would argue that many voodoo practices are, like many "primitive" religions, just really bad science.

And that people approach them in practical terms not unlike people in our country who think herbs will cure their cancer or depression or that wearing some stupid bracelet will "change their ions with its charge" or something.

And that the reason the people don't see a contradiction between Catholicism and voodoo is the same reason people here don't see a contradiction between being Catholics and believing that colon cleansing will cure their cancer, or that Positive Thinking will make them win the lottery.

[Suki]

I think he was off by two Napoleons.

[Ska]

Satan's pocket? Is that like a prison wallet?

[hmm]

I bet satan's prison wallet is fucking huge.

[SugarFree]

Under the new system, airlines will collect every passenger's birth date and gender

But will they have all the categories? Genderqueer? Genderfucking? Neuter? Polyandric intersexed drag king? Queer femme pre-op trans man crossdresser trisexual?

[Colonel_Angus]

Omnisexual? Zoosexual? Testicularly feminized?

[P Brooks]

We should all fly as "Barack Obama".

[FrBunny]

Good luck stabling all those unicorns.

[robc]

The unicorns make me wonder who the father of his wife's kids are.

[JB]

I read that as 'stabbing' all those unicorns.

[John]

Anyone remember Scott Ritter? He is apparently at it again.

http://www.poconorecord.com/ap.....WS/1140319

[Suki]

How was he "framed" this time?

[MNG]

"You know ... something happened a long time ago in Haiti. ? They got together and swore a pact to the Devil," Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club" Wednesday.

"They said, 'We will serve you if you get us free from the French.' True story."

That's right: Robertson suggests the Haitians brought the earthquake on themselves, in a deal with Satan.

"And so, the Devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' And they kicked the French out," he went on. "You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another."

Oh Lord, that's great!

[MNG]

The best part is the "True story" part...

[Atanarjuat]

My thoughts exactly. How exactly did he verify the truth of that tale? Were traces of sulfur found in the room or something?

It's like saying, "The Virgin Mary appeared on a pancake in Little Rock. True story."

[brotherben]

I find it curious that a man whose preaching career is over half a century long so far finds it necessary to include those two words in anything that he says. Is he saying that sometimes he doesn't tell the truth?

[T]

Usually anytime someone throws in the "true story" qualifier, it isn't.

[MNG]

How can he blame them? I mean if you had to choose being under the French or Satan wouldn't you choose Old Scratch too?

[John]

Satan is a charming guy. And wouldn't have to listen to all those Edith Piaf records or watch Jerry Lewis movies.

[MNG]

And the chicks in Hell are less hairy than the ones in France.

[SugarFree]

Robertson's perception of Haiti is a bit skewed because all he really knows about the country comes from watching the torture scene in The Serpent and The Rainbow over and over again.

[P Brooks]

Wait- Angel Heart was a documentary?

[P Brooks]

You know, a really effective "punitive tax" on bad business practices is to let the motherfuckers go bankrupt, and see their stock holdings go to ZERO.

[Michael]

Uhh...

The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried.

Who the fuck is suggesting procedure for the TSA?

[brotherben]

An old dude with a walker. Name of Herbert.

[FrBunny]

"Whoever swallows the most Tylenol PMs wins!"

[SugarFree]

BB, if you are referencing Lolita, then it should be "Humbert."

If not, please advise on the kiddie-diddler Herbert.

[brotherben]

Here, watch this It is pedo humor. May be NSFW.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

He is referencing Family Guy. Big fan of manatee writers, our BB.

[SugarFree]

Ah, my blindside of reference humor that I refuse to correct.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

You must love Family Guy, SugarFree. Your sense of humour is very similar.

[SugarFree]

I hates it.

It tells you when to laugh and then chides you when it knows you aren't. Blah.

[JW]

No, no, it goes like this:

FG tells you when to laugh.
And then again.
Again.
Again.
Did you get it yet?
Again.
Again.
As soon as you get it, we'll stop the bit.
Again...

FWIW, Family Guy has it's moments, without a doubt, but it's just not worth the investment of time.

[brotherben]

Nah, they'll blow it all on zombies.

Zombie hookers. (hint: don't ask for a bj. not a happy ending)

[Citizen Nothing]

Aren't they into cranial?

[R C Dean]

Obama wants to tax banks to recover bailout money, including banks that didn't receive any help.

One of his idiot staffers (Jarrett, I believe) was saying that its no biggie, because they were going to have to pay it back in 2013 anyway. Either she's too stupid to understand that not all these banks got the bailout, or too evil to care about lying through her teeth.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

Why can't she be both? Anyway, isn't she the one who said the Obama Administration was "speaking truth to power" to Fox News?

[ed]

Both, definitely.

[John]

Theft RC. When talking about Obama it is always about theft in favor of his cronies. This bank tax is beautiful. The big banks got TARP to bail them out. Now we get this tax which will affect the small banks more than the big banks giving the big banks a competitive advantage to go with their bailout. Meanwhile, Obama can claim he is taxing those evil bankers who looted the treasury (with Obama's permission). It is brilliant in a really sick sort of way.

[brotherben]

somebody's got a man-crush;P

[brotherben]

BTW, if one of you is looking for a charlie foxtrot to write about, the whole electronic bingo mess here in Alabama is getting pretty exciting. It's got southern politickin, big money, charity, immorality, WWJD and country music all wrapped into one. Country Crossing in Houston county is the development on the hotseat right now.

[John]

"the whole electronic bingo mess here in Alabama"

That sounds like a good treatment for a screenplay.

[Ska]

Only if the Cohen brothers do it in a Miller's Crossing sort of way.

[Deb]

My immediate thought when President Obama told us to go to the Fed website (gov.org or whatever) to find out how we could help those in trouble in Haiti during his remarks yesterday and today was...what a great way for his team to capture more email addresses. Better to go directly to the relief agency of your choice.

[brotherben]

Anybody have a linky supporting the rumor that Bush was in Alaska Tuesday for a demonstration of the HAARP device and that he was allowed to hit the switch to trigger the array to start up?

[P Brooks]

Having met Pat Robertson, i can say, with certainty: no human being on Earth has a larger head.

What about that human bobblehead chick who does the cooking show?

[John]

I assume you are talking about Giata. I keep hearing that but I have never stopped staring at her boobs long enough to really notice. But some people I guess don't really go for that sort of thing. Not that there is anything wrong with that of course.

[SugarFree]

But she's really tiny. I think the the Robertson assertion is that he has the largest head, not the greatest head-to-body ratio... something she might have a lock on.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

She has a really wide mouth too - it makes her look like one of the monsters from Coraline. But yes, the tits completely distract you from all that, so it's ok.

[P Brooks]

I watched her for about five minutes, one time; it was literally spatially disorienting. I kept expecting her head to just fall off, right into that big cauldron of soup.

[John]

It is actually an optical illusion. It is not that her head is so big, it is that her body is so small and her forehead is so high. The really high forehead and her tiny body combine to make her head look bigger than it is. If you ever see her from the back, her head doesn't look that big. It is only from the front where you can see her forehead that she looks like a bobblehead.

[SugarFree]

That's not a forehead. That's a fivehead.

[brotherben]

My favorite recipe of hers was the one where she stirred it in the oven with a whisk. That's just good teevee.

[JW]

I will you end you all for this unprecedented slander of my Giada.

[John]

Big head or not, I really don't see much not to like here

http://www.esquire.com/women/w.....is0807#img

[Fluffy]

The thing about the Robertson story that is interesting to me is that everyone thinks [correctly] that he's crazy to believe that something done by Haitians 200 years ago could create a "curse" that can be passed down from generation to generation, leading to earthquakes hitting the present occupants of Haiti.

But Christianity and Judaism are based on the idea of a blood curse to begin with. The idea of original sin was originally conceived of as a corruption of the blood initiated by Eve's act and passed on from generation to generation. [That's why Mary had to be immaculately conceived - to exempt her from that blood curse so that she could serve as the vessel that bore Christ.] The idea was modified over time, to try to make it less literal, but the Genesis story is pretty straightforward on this score.

So everyone is laughing at Robertson, but if what he's saying makes no sense, then neither does pretty much the entire theological history of either Judaism or Christianity.

[John]

That is true only if you have a five year old's view of Christianity. The idea of "original sin" is not that we have sin floating around our blood like some kind of parasite. If that were true, we would still be sinful even if we didn't actually sin.

Instead, the idea is that original sin creates the human state. The human state is that all of us sin no matter how hard we try. We just can't help ourselves. It is our nature to do so. We can't help ourselves because we are away from God. It is not a curse in the way Robertson is talking. It is instead a human condition created by being away from God.

[Citizen Nothing]

John, your view is acknowledged by only some of the Christian sects. Others hold to the Fluffy-ish view (to use a technical theological term).

[John]

What I wrote is pretty much the straight line Calvinistic view of sin and pre-destination. I was always under the impression that evangelicals claimed to be Calvinist. But, I will admit, I don't keep up with new developments in snake handling.

[Fluffy]

So Catholicism has a 5 year old's view of Christianity?

Here's why it has to be a literal blood curse under Catholic theology, John, however much they may try to hide it these days or use euphemistic language: Man had to be created in a perfect state, because all of the original creation has to have been perfect, or you run into "God brought evil into the world" problems. That means that there had to be a moment of literal Fall, after which we were no longer perfect but were marked by Original Sin as the result of an act of choice. And that mark has to then pass on from generation to generation and never disappear, all as the result of a moment in real, historical time when we "fell". If it didn't happen that way [leaving all the personal names like "Eve" out of the story and using whatever kind of time frame the Church needs to use] then a huge wing of their theology falls apart. And that's a blood curse by definition.

[robc]

Not all evangelicals are Calvinist. Free-will baptists, for example.

Im a southern baptist, and while it tends calvinist, the convention as a whole makes no claims on that. And Im not very calvinist.

[robc]

Section V, from the Baptist Faith & Message 2008, doesnt sound very Calvinist to me actually:

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.

All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

[Fluffy]

John,

The idea of literal blood curses was very common in Mediterranean basin cultures when the stories that make up the Old Testament were being composed.

And the Genesis story of the garden is not the only blood curse that appears in the Old Testament. The tribes placed under "the ban" that the Hebrews were ordered by God to exterminate would STILL be under the terms of their blood curse, if any could still be found today. And a blood curse was placed by God on anyone who would dare to rebuild Jericho. Not to mention the fact that the Jewish festival of Passover is a celebration of the enactment of a blood curse on the Egyptians.

It is unreasonable to argue that the Eve story does not reflect a literal blood curse in the face of these other examples.

The "rationalization" of original sin to reflect merely a weakness in Man's nature was superimposed over the original story. In fact, it's really not that much better, because for the theology to work there still has to be an unFallen state that we possessed before we Fell, and the difference between that UnFallen state and our current state must itself be seen as a heritable curse or punishment.

[John]

You don't think the human existence is cursed? We are born into a world where we have no idea up from down and have to work it out ourselves. We are also born into wildly different and unequal circumstances. And as we navigate all of this, we are of such a nature and weakness that we cannot help but commit mortal sin and all sorts of evils no matter how hard we try not to. Anyone who doesn't think the human condition is cursed, hasn't lived much or known much beyond their comfy corner of the world.

Further, the curse was not "super imposed over the story". Yes, we are all fallen from God. The old Testament examples you give are all examples of people defying God and paying a price for it. It is not like the first born of Egypt sill die today. Only the generation that defied God and enslaved the Jews.

[Fluffy]

The blood curse that was placed upon Jericho was carried out 500 years later.

The ban placed on the tribes of Canaan specifies no time limit.

It was only one generation of Egyptians, true. But if the infant children of the Egyptians could be struck dead for the sins of their parents, why not the great-great-great-great grandchildren of the Haitians? Once you jump a generation with this sort of thing you've pretty much accepted the notion of blood crime.

And I didn't say the curse was superimposed over the story - I said that the "philosophical" understanding you're talking about was superimposed over a literal tale of a blood curse starting with Eve. And that when you're dealing with a society that believed in heritable curses [and that had the institution of heritable slavery, for example] it's not reasonable to point at the story of Original Sin as presented in Genesis and say, "No no no, they didn't mean it the way that it sounds." Sure they did. It sounded reasonable to their ears, because that view of "blood corruption" was ubiquitous in their culture area and would have not appeared odd or unfair to them in the least.

[John]

I think you make a good point. God just couldn't reveal himself and be heard. He was certain people in a certain time who had a set of ideas. He therefore spoke to them in terms they could understand. But as we have advanced as people and our understanding of the world and of God as advanced, we know understand what God actually meant. There is nothing that the understanding of God as known to people five thousand years ago was the final say on the matter. It wasn't.

[robc]

I compare it to the "the bible says Pi is 3" idiots. To a 1500 BC (or whenever) temple builder, 3 was close enough. Pi is 3, to 1 significant digit.

Now, we know better. We know Pi is exactly 22/7. 🙂

[Butts Wagner]

Now, we know better. We know Pi is exactly 22/7. 🙂

well, not exactly....

[robc]

From the "Baptist Faith & Message 2008":

Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation.

[brotherben]

You make a great point Fluffy. If the Haitians haven't rescinded their deal with satan, there is nothing stopping God from punishing them. As he did in Sodom and Gomorrah and, and as Robertson suggested a few years back, New Orleans. If a person believes the Bible to be true, there shouldn't be anything unsettling about Robertson's statement other then the ungodliness of the U.S.

[R C Dean]

I'm pretty sure there's nothing stopping God from punishing anybody for anything, brotherben.

[T]

If one does what God does enough times, one will become as God is. Commence to punishing, I guess.

[Invisible Finger]

The credit bubble created obesity.

[highnumber]

From the al Qaeda Air story:

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been held responsible for car and suicide bombings in Algeria and Mauritania.

They have a stock ticker?!

[brotherben]

I predict explosive growth for the company in the future. A wise investment IMO.

[alan]

Pat Robertson|1.14.10 @ 8:33AM|#

Money sent for Haitian relief is only going to go into the pockets of Satan.

Pat is just worried that those old ladies that send him money every month might be tempted by compassion to send it to Haitians instead, and thus, cut him out of the loop.

I think it wold be the height of hilarity to see some Haitians take machetes to his ass. Machete, it is French, bitch, and it hurts like a motherfucker.

[alan]

Got 'machete' correct, but the common 'would' wrong? It is gonna be one of those days. Thank God I still have plenty of Drambuie back at the house.

[alan]

Thanks for that link, John.

http://reason.com/blog/2010/01/14/reason-morning-links-obama-mul#comment_1527547

That photo of her sprayed with tomatoes works for me. Normally, with the exception of that twisted shit involving a slice of Key West Lime pie that is part of my regimen, I don't like anything that involves mixing food with sex. They are two separate pleasures and the resulting synesthesia of mixing them can be sharply discordant, but here, that elegant dress, her delicate figure, that ecstatic expression on that face worthy of a Rossetti, and I'm sold.

[B.P.]

"Under the new system, airlines will collect every passenger's birth date and gender"

See, the problem with this is the TSA itself has cornered the market on androgyny. Ever take a good look at all of the 'Pats' that work for TSA?

[alan]

Speaking of androgyny, I was flipping through the channels late Saturday evening when I thought I came across the horror of my UNC losing to University of Connecticut, Big Time. On closer inspection it was the women teams that were meeting. On even closer inspection those UCon girls are incredibly ugly. Wasn't that the team that got the morning disc jockey guy fired for his comments?

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