scandal

I consider myself quite fortunate that in my everyday real life, I've had very little direct experience with antisemitism. Certainly nothing overt. My father recalls, as a young kid of about 5 in Montreal walking home from school in the 1940s, being pushed into the street and having his nose bloodied and being taunted "sale juif de merde" by a pack of French Canadian teens. That was overt. He also faced the Jewish quota at McGill - there was a time when it was 'acceptable' in polite society to restrict the number of Jews admitted entrance to universities, medical schools and the professions.
These days that sort of overt antisemitism is largely a thing of the past. Where I do encounter antisemitism is online. People have a tendency to show their meaner, darker, more vicious selves when hiding behind online persona. What that's taught me is that antisemitism has not vanished, it has simply ceased being socially acceptable in real life. Online you get a better perspective on how it lies just below the surface. Not just antisemitism, mind you, but other forms of bigotry and prejudice as well. Homophobia, racism towards blacks and Latinos and other people of color, anti-Islamic tendencies, and more. All of these thrive online. Right here on this very website, in fact.

Watching you Marc is a little like watching untreated sewage flowing down the estuary.

You don't hate, right?

You mean, like can a male RCMP officer wear this uniform or this cap on the job?


The answer to these questions is no. Gasp. You mean, they actually design customized uniforms for male/female officers? And Sikhs/non-Sikhs? Yes, they do. Imagine that. The travesty that Canadian police forces do something you don't approve of. And you not even a Canadian, at that. I'll make sure the RCMP Commissioner checks in with you, stat, to correct this.

You mean, like can a male RCMP officer wear this uniform or this cap on the job?


The answer to these questions is no. Gasp. You mean, they actually design customized uniforms for male/female officers? And Sikhs/non-Sikhs? Yes, they do. Imagine that. The travesty that Canadian police forces do something you don't approve of. And you not even a Canadian, at that. I'll make sure the RCMP Commissioner checks in with you, stat, to correct this.

I've never heard Lockheed-Martin referred to that way before.
Is that like Walmart for your everyday military shopping needs?

I don't have a problem with loan guarantees or subsidies for energy programs that create jobs and produce energy. That can be solar or other renewables, or it can be fossil fuels.
The criticism I have about the Solyndra mess wasn't that it got government loan guarantees. The problem with the Solyndra deal was that the due diligence either wasn't done, or was ignored. And apparently for political reasons. The warning signs of Solyndra's financial condition were known before the loan guarantees were made, yet they were made anyway.
If a company that got loan guarantees ultimately fails after making an honest attempt at getting a business of the ground, I don't blame the company or the government. Sometimes businesses fail. The idea behind the loan guarantees is to seed the marketplace with new entrants, I get that. But intentionally backing a company that already has a weak balance sheet and questionable business model? Somebody didn't do their homework. Or worse - they did it, and ignored the results.

I don't think anyone should be mocked for their beliefs. I certainly don't mock you, if you present yourself as a person of Faith. I don't share that Faith, but that's me. We can have an intelligent discussion while respecting the fact that we're going to disagree. People have a propensity to both good and evil, and that's true regardless of whether they profess Faith or do not. No one has monopoly on ethical behavior. We all as individuals aspire to the Golden rule- treat others as you would have them treat you. That is equally true for the religious and for those of us without religion.
These are good questions, and they do have answers. What you believe is up to you, of course, but physics does lay out a framework for understanding these deep questions. I've posted this several times previously in similar threads, but since the questions are good ones and come up repeatedly I don't mind answering again (yes, I know you did not address them to me but rather to Nathan).
In short, general relativity tells us that the very fabric of the universe itself - space-time - is inherently tied to the matter and energy within the universe. The universe contains matter and energy, and the matter and energy distribution shape spacetime, by requiring that all energy (photons) travel along geodesics (shortest-line segments in 4-D spacetime).
The Big Bang was the singularity at which this state of affairs came to be. At the instant of the Big Bang all of the matter and energy the Universe would ever hold came into existence, and it all obeyed the laws of physics which themselves came into existence at that time. The sudden existence of matter/energy (equivalent under special relativity) is what created the geometry of the containing Universe - spacetime. The universe immediately began expanding from that singularity and is doing so until this present day - an accelerating expansion, it is now known.
Hence, one needs to be very careful when discussing the concept of "time" and temporal words like "before" and "after" in relation to early Cosmology. Time itself, as we know it, only comes into existence after the Big Bang has happened, and there is a matter/energy distribution which can in turn create a containing geometry. So the word "after" Big Bang has meaning, and brings us to the present day. But time (as we know it) did not exist "before" the Big Bang. There was no matter. No energy. No space. No time. No universe. Nothing at all.The word "before" simply does not apply.
That's as far as physics will take you in answering these questions. I, personally, am content with that. I don't need any further metaphysics to allow my mind to create a meta-concept of meta-time which allows me to have a meta-before where I can instill a meta-creator who engineers the Big Bang for me. I'm content that the Big Bang happened (it clearly did - the astronomical data from quasars and background radiation is unshakable) and I don't need a magician in the corner to operate its mechanics. However I don't begrudge those who want to speculate on such a metaphysical.
What I would say, however, is that the mainstream religions as practiced by humans do NOT have creation stories compatible with the cosmological account we now have. For example, the Judeo-Christian story of creation simply does not fit. Nor is it alone, for obvious reasons. None of the world faiths take into account the actual creation of our universe because all of them were imagined by humans with no knowledge of this actual creation story. For that reason I have no use, personally, for any of them.
Now if someone purported a Religion (BigBangism?) in which the Deity of the story were in fact the magician who created the laws of physics and the material universe at that exact moment 14billion years ago, then at least there would be a Religion consistent with science. But we have no such Faith as practiced on Earth, and the Faiths we do have crash pretty hard upon those rocks. In my estimation, at least.
Peace.

I don't think anyone should be mocked for their beliefs. I certainly don't mock you, if you present yourself as a person of Faith. I don't share that Faith, but that's me. We can have an intelligent discussion while respecting the fact that we're going to disagree. People have a propensity to both good and evil, and that's true regardless of whether they profess Faith or do not. No one has monopoly on ethical behavior. We all as individuals aspire to the Golden rule- treat others as you would have them treat you. That is equally true for the religious and for those of us without religion.
These are good questions, and they do have answers. What you believe is up to you, of course, but physics does lay out a framework for understanding these deep questions. I've posted this several times previously in similar threads, but since the questions are good ones and come up repeatedly I don't mind answering again (yes, I know you did not address them to me but rather to Nathan).
In short, general relativity tells us that the very fabric of the universe itself - space-time - is inherently tied to the matter and energy within the universe. The universe contains matter and energy, and the matter and energy distribution shape spacetime, by requiring that all energy (photons) travel along geodesics (shortest-line segments in 4-D spacetime).
The Big Bang was the singularity at which this state of affairs came to be. At the instant of the Big Bang all of the matter and energy the Universe would ever hold came into existence, and it all obeyed the laws of physics which themselves came into existence at that time. The sudden existence of matter/energy (equivalent under special relativity) is what created the geometry of the containing Universe - spacetime. The universe immediately began expanding from that singularity and is doing so until this present day - an accelerating expansion, it is now known.
Hence, one needs to be very careful when discussing the concept of "time" and temporal words like "before" and "after" in relation to early Cosmology. Time itself, as we know it, only comes into existence after the Big Bang has happened, and there is a matter/energy distribution which can in turn create a containing geometry. So the word "after" Big Bang has meaning, and brings us to the present day. But time (as we know it) did not exist "before" the Big Bang. There was no matter. No energy. No space. No time. No universe. Nothing at all.The word "before" simply does not apply.
That's as far as physics will take you in answering these questions. I, personally, am content with that. I don't need any further metaphysics to allow my mind to create a meta-concept of meta-time which allows me to have a meta-before where I can instill a meta-creator who engineers the Big Bang for me. I'm content that the Big Bang happened (it clearly did - the astronomical data from quasars and background radiation is unshakable) and I don't need a magician in the corner to operate its mechanics. However I don't begrudge those who want to speculate on such a metaphysical.
What I would say, however, is that the mainstream religions as practiced by humans do NOT have creation stories compatible with the cosmological account we now have. For example, the Judeo-Christian story of creation simply does not fit. Nor is it alone, for obvious reasons. None of the world faiths take into account the actual creation of our universe because all of them were imagined by humans with no knowledge of this actual creation story. For that reason I have no use, personally, for any of them.
Now if someone purported a Religion (BigBangism?) in which the Deity of the story were in fact the magician who created the laws of physics and the material universe at that exact moment 14billion years ago, then at least there would be a Religion consistent with science. But we have no such Faith as practiced on Earth, and the Faiths we do have crash pretty hard upon those rocks. In my estimation, at least.
Peace.

I don't think anyone should be mocked for their beliefs. I certainly don't mock you, if you present yourself as a person of Faith. I don't share that Faith, but that's me. We can have an intelligent discussion while respecting the fact that we're going to disagree. People have a propensity to both good and evil, and that's true regardless of whether they profess Faith or do not. No one has monopoly on ethical behavior. We all as individuals aspire to the Golden rule- treat others as you would have them treat you. That is equally true for the religious and for those of us without religion.
These are good questions, and they do have answers. What you believe is up to you, of course, but physics does lay out a framework for understanding these deep questions. I've posted this several times previously in similar threads, but since the questions are good ones and come up repeatedly I don't mind answering again (yes, I know you did not address them to me but rather to Nathan).
In short, general relativity tells us that the very fabric of the universe itself - space-time - is inherently tied to the matter and energy within the universe. The universe contains matter and energy, and the matter and energy distribution shape spacetime, by requiring that all energy (photons) travel along geodesics (shortest-line segments in 4-D spacetime).
The Big Bang was the singularity at which this state of affairs came to be. At the instant of the Big Bang all of the matter and energy the Universe would ever hold came into existence, and it all obeyed the laws of physics which themselves came into existence at that time. The sudden existence of matter/energy (equivalent under special relativity) is what created the geometry of the containing Universe - spacetime. The universe immediately began expanding from that singularity and is doing so until this present day - an accelerating expansion, it is now known.
Hence, one needs to be very careful when discussing the concept of "time" and temporal words like "before" and "after" in relation to early Cosmology. Time itself, as we know it, only comes into existence after the Big Bang has happened, and there is a matter/energy distribution which can in turn create a containing geometry. So the word "after" Big Bang has meaning, and brings us to the present day. But time (as we know it) did not exist "before" the Big Bang. There was no matter. No energy. No space. No time. No universe. Nothing at all.The word "before" simply does not apply.
That's as far as physics will take you in answering these questions. I, personally, am content with that. I don't need any further metaphysics to allow my mind to create a meta-concept of meta-time which allows me to have a meta-before where I can instill a meta-creator who engineers the Big Bang for me. I'm content that the Big Bang happened (it clearly did - the astronomical data from quasars and background radiation is unshakable) and I don't need a magician in the corner to operate its mechanics. However I don't begrudge those who want to speculate on such a metaphysical.
What I would say, however, is that the mainstream religions as practiced by humans do NOT have creation stories compatible with the cosmological account we now have. For example, the Judeo-Christian story of creation simply does not fit. Nor is it alone, for obvious reasons. None of the world faiths take into account the actual creation of our universe because all of them were imagined by humans with no knowledge of this actual creation story. For that reason I have no use, personally, for any of them.
Now if someone purported a Religion (BigBangism?) in which the Deity of the story were in fact the magician who created the laws of physics and the material universe at that exact moment 14billion years ago, then at least there would be a Religion consistent with science. But we have no such Faith as practiced on Earth, and the Faiths we do have crash pretty hard upon those rocks. In my estimation, at least.
Peace.

I don't think anyone should be mocked for their beliefs. I certainly don't mock you, if you present yourself as a person of Faith. I don't share that Faith, but that's me. We can have an intelligent discussion while respecting the fact that we're going to disagree. People have a propensity to both good and evil, and that's true regardless of whether they profess Faith or do not. No one has monopoly on ethical behavior. We all as individuals aspire to the Golden rule- treat others as you would have them treat you. That is equally true for the religious and for those of us without religion.
These are good questions, and they do have answers. What you believe is up to you, of course, but physics does lay out a framework for understanding these deep questions. I've posted this several times previously in similar threads, but since the questions are good ones and come up repeatedly I don't mind answering again (yes, I know you did not address them to me but rather to Nathan).
In short, general relativity tells us that the very fabric of the universe itself - space-time - is inherently tied to the matter and energy within the universe. The universe contains matter and energy, and the matter and energy distribution shape spacetime, by requiring that all energy (photons) travel along geodesics (shortest-line segments in 4-D spacetime).
The Big Bang was the singularity at which this state of affairs came to be. At the instant of the Big Bang all of the matter and energy the Universe would ever hold came into existence, and it all obeyed the laws of physics which themselves came into existence at that time. The sudden existence of matter/energy (equivalent under special relativity) is what created the geometry of the containing Universe - spacetime. The universe immediately began expanding from that singularity and is doing so until this present day - an accelerating expansion, it is now known.
Hence, one needs to be very careful when discussing the concept of "time" and temporal words like "before" and "after" in relation to early Cosmology. Time itself, as we know it, only comes into existence after the Big Bang has happened, and there is a matter/energy distribution which can in turn create a containing geometry. So the word "after" Big Bang has meaning, and brings us to the present day. But time (as we know it) did not exist "before" the Big Bang. There was no matter. No energy. No space. No time. No universe. Nothing at all.The word "before" simply does not apply.
That's as far as physics will take you in answering these questions. I, personally, am content with that. I don't need any further metaphysics to allow my mind to create a meta-concept of meta-time which allows me to have a meta-before where I can instill a meta-creator who engineers the Big Bang for me. I'm content that the Big Bang happened (it clearly did - the astronomical data from quasars and background radiation is unshakable) and I don't need a magician in the corner to operate its mechanics. However I don't begrudge those who want to speculate on such a metaphysical.
What I would say, however, is that the mainstream religions as practiced by humans do NOT have creation stories compatible with the cosmological account we now have. For example, the Judeo-Christian story of creation simply does not fit. Nor is it alone, for obvious reasons. None of the world faiths take into account the actual creation of our universe because all of them were imagined by humans with no knowledge of this actual creation story. For that reason I have no use, personally, for any of them.
Now if someone purported a Religion (BigBangism?) in which the Deity of the story were in fact the magician who created the laws of physics and the material universe at that exact moment 14billion years ago, then at least there would be a Religion consistent with science. But we have no such Faith as practiced on Earth, and the Faiths we do have crash pretty hard upon those rocks. In my estimation, at least.
Peace.

1. You wrote "All atheists should convert to being agnostic, as they are a paradox". I'm still not seeing any paradox. Nor the grammatical structure of that sentence, but that's another matter.
2. An atheist is - literally - one without theology. Without religion. One can entertain concepts of a greater power while being firmly irreligious and subscribing to no form of organized religion, and hence an atheist. That's me, by the way.
3. Scientifically there is always a possibility that monkeys will type the Complete Works of Shakespeare. But that isn't a topic that merits much consideration. All you've stated is that inductive logic can't prove a thing true or false. So what. If that were the standard for science we'd be in heap big trouble.
I think I can judge for myself what possibilities I should realistically remain open to, and which I can safely say are outside the realm of my needing to entertain. I don't tell you what to believe in or what to call yourself, and don't particularly feel I need anyone to tell me whether I can be an atheist or not.

Some say drunk.
I think psychotic.
Comes to about the same thing, in the end.

Good post. I thought these two, above, were interesting. Both use the word "liberal" and both imply by that word a truer, more elemental concept that the limited, one-dimensional and often derogatory modern definition of 'liberal' in vogue today.
Liberalism, to both Washington and Cronkite, evokes notions of freedom and unshackling of prior constraints. A 'liberal', after all, is one who cherishes his liberties. It's etymologically derived from the Latin root of the word 'liberty' i.e. freedom. Washington stresses the civic nature of liberalism: the participatory aspect of a citizen free to take part in his nation's affairs. Cronkite stresses the freedom to seek truth, to use the senses and intellect of a free man in choosing his path and opinions. Both are different dimensions of liberty and hence liberalism. Both are freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
To all who sneer at 'libs' as some misguided naive fools ready to bankrupt their souls and their nation, I suggest liberating your mind. How is it that Liberty is a word of virtue in American political discourse but liberalism is so often a taunt? In fact, the two go hand in hand.

Good post. I thought these two, above, were interesting. Both use the word "liberal" and both imply by that word a truer, more elemental concept that the limited, one-dimensional and often derogatory modern definition of 'liberal' in vogue today.
Liberalism, to both Washington and Cronkite, evokes notions of freedom and unshackling of prior constraints. A 'liberal', after all, is one who cherishes his liberties. It's etymologically derived from the Latin root of the word 'liberty' i.e. freedom. Washington stresses the civic nature of liberalism: the participatory aspect of a citizen free to take part in his nation's affairs. Cronkite stresses the freedom to seek truth, to use the senses and intellect of a free man in choosing his path and opinions. Both are different dimensions of liberty and hence liberalism. Both are freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
To all who sneer at 'libs' as some misguided naive fools ready to bankrupt their souls and their nation, I suggest liberating your mind. How is it that Liberty is a word of virtue in American political discourse but liberalism is so often a taunt? In fact, the two go hand in hand.

Some say drunk.
I think psychotic.
Comes to about the same thing, in the end.

Officially the most moronic thing that you've ever posted, thanks for the laughs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Bolshevism
"According to the 1922 party census, there were 19,564 Jewish Bolsheviks, comprising 5.21% of the total. Jews made up 7.1% of members who had joined before October 1917."
In 1907, the number was 10%.

Good post. I thought these two, above, were interesting. Both use the word "liberal" and both imply by that word a truer, more elemental concept that the limited, one-dimensional and often derogatory modern definition of 'liberal' in vogue today.
Liberalism, to both Washington and Cronkite, evokes notions of freedom and unshackling of prior constraints. A 'liberal', after all, is one who cherishes his liberties. It's etymologically derived from the Latin root of the word 'liberty' i.e. freedom. Washington stresses the civic nature of liberalism: the participatory aspect of a citizen free to take part in his nation's affairs. Cronkite stresses the freedom to seek truth, to use the senses and intellect of a free man in choosing his path and opinions. Both are different dimensions of liberty and hence liberalism. Both are freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
To all who sneer at 'libs' as some misguided naive fools ready to bankrupt their souls and their nation, I suggest liberating your mind. How is it that Liberty is a word of virtue in American political discourse but liberalism is so often a taunt? In fact, the two go hand in hand.

Good post. I thought these two, above, were interesting. Both use the word "liberal" and both imply by that word a truer, more elemental concept that the limited, one-dimensional and often derogatory modern definition of 'liberal' in vogue today.
Liberalism, to both Washington and Cronkite, evokes notions of freedom and unshackling of prior constraints. A 'liberal', after all, is one who cherishes his liberties. It's etymologically derived from the Latin root of the word 'liberty' i.e. freedom. Washington stresses the civic nature of liberalism: the participatory aspect of a citizen free to take part in his nation's affairs. Cronkite stresses the freedom to seek truth, to use the senses and intellect of a free man in choosing his path and opinions. Both are different dimensions of liberty and hence liberalism. Both are freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
To all who sneer at 'libs' as some misguided naive fools ready to bankrupt their souls and their nation, I suggest liberating your mind. How is it that Liberty is a word of virtue in American political discourse but liberalism is so often a taunt? In fact, the two go hand in hand.

Many Americans today tend to take the past for granted, and with that, we also tend to take the words of past leaders for granted. We forget what they told us, and as a result we lose our identity, we lose the values that make us who we are. Below is a list of quotes spoken by American leaders, heroes, journalists, and others. You'll find common themes throughout this list. These are the messages from the American past that we should all remember if we hope to solve our own problems and bring America forward to a better future. The future that these people envisioned. 1.) "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."
~John F. Kennedy
2.) "We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both." ~Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
3.) "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
~John F. Kennedy
4.) "The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
5.) "I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil."
~Robert Kennedy
6.) "A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
7.) "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
8.) "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
9.) "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."
~Abraham Lincoln
10.) "Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired."
~Robert Kennedy
11.) "It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."
~Hubert H. Humphrey
12.) "I believe that there should be a very much heavier progressive tax on very large incomes, a tax which should increase in a very marked fashion for the gigantic incomes."
~Theodore Roosevelt
13.) "To impose taxes when the public exigencies require them is an obligation of the most sacred character, especially with a free people."
~James Monroe
14.) "The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for … the protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use."
~Theodore Roosevelt
15.) "The laboring classes constitute the main part of our population. They should be protected in their efforts peaceably to assert their rights when endangered by aggregated capital, and all statutes on this subject should recognize the care of the State for honest toil, and be framed with a view of improving the condition of the workingman."
~Grover Cleveland
16.) "It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize."
~Theodore Roosevelt
17.) "Today's so-called 'conservatives' don't even know what the word means. They think I've turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That's a decision that's up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right. It's not a conservative issue at all."
~Barry Goldwater
18.) "The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."
~Thomas Jefferson
19.) "Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
20.) "Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others."
~John F. Kennedy
21.) "America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal – to discover and maintain liberty among men."
~Woodrow Wilson
22.) "If capitalism is fair then unionism must be. If men have a right to capitalize their ideas and the resources of their country, then that implies the right of men to capitalize their labor."
~ Frank Lloyd Wright
23.) "I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education."
~Thomas Jefferson
24.) "While I am a great believer in the free enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment."
~Barry Goldwater
25.) "Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism."
~Hubert Humphrey
26.) "In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
27.) "As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality."
~George Washington
28.) "The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
29.) "Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost."
~Ronald Reagan
30.) "Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice."
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
31.) "We establish no religion in this country. We command no worship. We mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are and must remain separate."
~Ronald Reagan
32.) "Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
33.) "Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
~Dwight Eisenhower
34.) "The Social Security Act offers to all our citizens a workable and working method of meeting urgent present needs and of forestalling future need. It utilizes the familiar machinery of our Federal-State government to promote the common welfare and the economic stability of the Nation."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
35.) "Few nations do more than the United States to assist their least fortunate citizens–to make certain that no child, no elderly or handicapped citizen, no family in any circumstances in any State, is left without the essential needs for a decent and healthy existence. In too few nations, I might add, are the people aware of the progressive strides this country has taken in demonstrating the humanitarian side of freedom. Our record is a proud one–and it sharply refutes those who accuse us of thinking only in the materialistic terms of cash registers and calculating machines."
~John F. Kennedy
36.) "But let us begin. Now the trumpet summons us again – not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need – not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"- a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself."
~John F. Kennedy
37.) "We all agree that neither the Government nor political parties ought to interfere with religious sects. It is equally true that religious sects ought not to interfere with the Government or with political parties. We believe that the cause of good government and the cause of religion suffer by all such interference."
~Rutherford B. Hayes
38.) "The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community."
~James A. Garfield
39.) "You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break."
~Harry S. Truman
40.) "I think that being liberal, in the true sense, is being nondoctrinaire, nondogmatic, noncomitted to a cause but examining each case on its merits. Being left of center is another thing; it's a political position. I think most newspapermen by definition have to be liberal; if they're not liberal, by my definition of it, then they can hardly be good newspapermen."
~Walter Cronkite
41.) "No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level – I mean the wages of decent living."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
42.) "Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation."
~John F. Kennedy
43.) "For all my years in public life, I have believed that America must sail toward the shores of liberty and justice for all. There is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make."
~Edward Kennedy
44.) "We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security."
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
45.) "Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
46.) "The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations."
~Noam Chomsky
47.) "The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands – the ownership and control of their livelihoods – are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease."
~Helen Keller
48.) "I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes
49.) "Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them."
~Barry Goldwater
50.) "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
You'll notice that the quotes by American politicians were not solely from one end of the spectrum. Quotes from Democrats and Republicans were included. There are even quotes from our Founding Fathers. Certainly there are more quotes that could be added as is the case with lists of this kind. But the fact remains that we must remember the words of our past and keep them with us as America carves out its future.
http://www.addicting...hould-remember/

Conclusion: Someone is hanging out on Facebook too much ....

That's fine. How about we just let his words speak for themselves.
In a thread entitled "Germany reopens hundreds of Nazi probes", he responded:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/332849-germany-reopens-hundreds-of-nazi-probes/page__view__findpost__p__4937398
Readers can draw their own conclusions about who this person really is and what his beliefs are, about Nazis and about Jews.

I'm a "Degree 4" on this scale.
I think it's fair to say I've never had faith, as far back as I can remember. My parents enrolled me in Talmud Torah day schools and after my Bar Mitzvah I was quite observant for several years - from about 13 to 16. I kept kashrut and Shabbat strictly, davened daily and was externally frum to all appearances though internally did not believe in any of it. I was miserable. I kept thinking I'd "find" faith by observing the rituals. It was never there to be found, for me. I slowly stopped observances and have been a happy and content atheist ever since.

I'm a "Degree 4" on this scale.
I think it's fair to say I've never had faith, as far back as I can remember. My parents enrolled me in Talmud Torah day schools and after my Bar Mitzvah I was quite observant for several years - from about 13 to 16. I kept kashrut and Shabbat strictly, davened daily and was externally frum to all appearances though internally did not believe in any of it. I was miserable. I kept thinking I'd "find" faith by observing the rituals. It was never there to be found, for me. I slowly stopped observances and have been a happy and content atheist ever since.