MORE annoying? There truly is no god.

but it turns out there is a hell!

IRL LOL

Just FYI, I will be in Japan for most of the rest of the month, with only intermittent internet access, so play nice. Jibninjas and Zeno are of course still here and will deal with any problems.

Also, I know I'm in the middle of a couple conversations right now, and I'm sorry to leave them hanging, but I'll (probably) pick them up again when I get back.

Travel safely!

Don't drink too much sake!

Man, been lurking/posting in the Politics forum the last few weeks and it really made me appreciate the civility and ability to use reason and logic in RGT. Those things are basically four letter words over there, lol.

I liked the idea of an unchained one. But it got a little chained.

Yeah, sounded nice. No one tries to argue in the forum, they just spew insults basically. Things like logical consistency are not even considered or cared about.

I read most of your posts I believe. Politics is less "polite" than RGT, but I think a lot of that is a function of the number of posters.

On the other hand, you made several polemical statements that are very provocative, for example that taxes are theft, that black culture is a primary cause of urban poverty, and that liberals don't care about history. I don't believe you were at all successful in providing reasonable justifications for those views.

I definitely made posts that could be considered polemic to some, but if you did read all of my posts you would see that I attempted to have a structured logical/rational conversation and attempted to draw out what the core of people's beliefs were. When this was met with poo flinging I responded in kind. Then I just stopped.

And I would have to go back and look, but I don't recall any opportunity to actually have a conversation where we could get to the point of justification.

also, it has nothing to do with being polite. Responding to everything with "you're an idiot/racist/etc" is a conversation stopper. I would mind if someone called me an idiot and followed that up with "and here is a rational argument as to why", at least then we could talk about something.

Cool. My wife and I get exchange students from Japan periodically that stay with us. We get a new student in a couple weeks so that is always interesting. From what I have learned so far I appreciate many aspects of their culture.

What do you do for work ? or is it a holiday? ... just curious.

anyway have fun. (uber jealous on my part...)

Would it be inappropriate to have a politics thread here in RGT (perhaps named imaginatively so that random posters from elsewhere don't jump in willy nilly?).

I would be fine with that if that is what people want.

I thought that forum would be a good place for me to learn a little more about American politics, and how American's think, but I got run out of there pretty quickly. Apparently I'm a racist. I think, in the end, I learned more about Americans and their politics than I bargained for...

Is it any wonder why our political system is so gridlocked?

Any of the Christians here familiar with Richard Rohr? I just randomly came across a few of his talks on YouTube and he seems to be on the path. I'd rec the 'Finding God in the Depths of Silence' one for those interested.

I have one of his books IIRC. I never really got into it, but it didn't seem like it was a question of seeing things very differently from him, but just not enjoying his writing style very much.

watching now...

I am 25% finished watching the video. Wow, he is blowing my socks off....so good.

ps. thanks for sharing this.

Of course, glad it had value for you.

It is as true in 2014 as it was in 1994 that my house is never as clean as it is when I have an essay to submit.

I can confirm this to be true. Ironically procrastination is a great motivation (to get other **** done)... lolz.

One of my english teachers made a good point back in University. Even when we are not writing our minds (even subconsciously) are percolating thoughts and getting "work done".

I always seemed to work in short productive spurts (with lots of cleaning and whatnot in between).

Word. You still blog writing as well?

No, as much as I wanted the opportunity to practice writing properly I find it so time consuming that it's all been focused on the actual paper. I'd hoping to when done but I'm mindful of having something worth saying.

If only I employed those standards here