Posts Made By: Russell Cole

I am not against churches getting involved in these things, and even suggesting prayers for cures or whatever. But once they start advising against professional help, it begins to bother me. IMO God put the professionals here to help us. To suggest seeking professional help, psychological, medical,, or otherwise, is somehow not having faith in God, is ridiculous. God works in many ways to provide us the help we need.

The only way is to "rob from Peter to pay Paul" (i.e. increase the national debt).

Government, or people in general, are just too inefficient. I work for the government, indirectly, and I do not want my project funding cut, nobody wants theirs cut. So big moves towards more efficiency is probably not going to happen.

Tax cuts are part of politics to get into office, and to keep the economy "liquid". So I don't see this going away either.

The result will be an ever increasing national debt.

Business as usual...

My first time was this weekend. Tried the old tomato juice routine, before I learned of the peroxide and baking soda. He still smells, but it is bearable. I am all stocked up on peroxide and baking soda now.

I guess as much as he chases stuff that once in about seven years is a pretty good record.

What is amazing is how after I washed him, I could no longer smell the skunk until I was away from the smell for a few hours. Then I could slowly begin to smell my own hands. Ewwwww! At least the folks at the office say they don't notice.

Our lines are over an 1 1/2 hours long. My company only gives 2 hours to vote. It is going to be hard to find a time to vote. I'm not thrilled with any of the choices. Maybe I'll just hole up and gripe from the back seat for the next 4 years. :S

jeff glancy said:

Nice post. Very gracious.
However I would beg to differ with you on what I feel is a significant point. To characterize Republicans, especially Republicans of the past 8 years as conservatives is absurd. A party taken over by small men, driven by greed and self interest is more to the point.

Unfortunately this is true for both parties, and why the change has to go deeper than the president or a change of party.

I have a similar setup, and recently purchase an ASGT as a more portable replacement for my LX200.

My portable hardware is:

Celestron C80ED
Cannon 40D (piggyback when guided)
Meade DSI for guiding
Celestron ASGT

I am interested in the guiding software you will use. I have PHD and GPUSB I use with my LX200, and am wondering if this software and/or hardware can be used with the ASGT.

Also what "starmap" software to use to point to an object.

Mark Norby said:

I brought up the subject of the book/story of Job for a reason. Some believe that every story in the OT is true, and literal. The fundamentalists usually don't have a very good knowledge of the history of the individual books, their place in the timeline, reason for being incluced, etc. Therefore, Genesis is true, Noah is true, etc. It's ironic that Jews don't take these same stories literally. At least according to some speakers I have heard. Any thoughts on the subject?

I would argue that there are many fundies with very good knowledge of the history of the books in the Bible. I know there are those who act like the King James was handed out of the burning bush, but there are many who know better.

Personally I read as much as I can about each book. Job is an example of a book that I believe to be a story and never intended to be true. Genesis, I believe, was intended to be factual. IMO, even within the "intended to be factual" there is a lot of room for discussion as to what was really meant and/or who wrote the text.

I do not know what Jewish people think is fact or not. I would assume that the opinions are as mixed as any other religion, but in general they think the Canon is factual, which includes the creation and flood accounts. Any Jewish folks out there that want to comment?

The Genesis creation story cannot be literal. I do think it is more than just nomadic tribe stories. There is truth about creation and history in these books.

The KJV was a decent version of the Bible for its time, and changed the way people were able to read the Bible. It was not handed out of the burning bush to Moses. Most folks I know use the NIV translation. I've read about four translations. The translations do not matter without a proper understanding of the material. We used to get some good posts going about this.

Was the first person named Adam? Adam was the father of Cain and Able (or the equivalent name in whatever language they spoke). Was this the first man? For the purpose of the Bible this is who God called the first man. To me it seems there were other humans on the planet at the time. It would appear that God did not consider them to be man.

Yes, to all of the above. Not all are good arguments, but there are good arguments for both views.

I know I get it all the time, if the logic seems contradictory then it isn't true. Still I believe in an all powerful and knowing God, and that our choices matter. I just attribute this to a finite mind cannot comprehend an infinite mind.

I think C.S. Lewis compared God being out of time, as an author of a book is outside of the pages of the book. Time and actions for characters in the book move as expected and with consequences. The author is free to travel anywhere in the book at any time, and is in complete control of the whole mess unknowing to the characters in the book.

Or, Man, like, maybe we are residue riding on energy wave, that happen long ago and far away.

Okay, enough of that, now to freewill...

I think genetics, physical environment at different stages of life development, and social environment all go into the choices we make. We are chemical, and that governs much of who we are and how we will act. Parents and where we were born start the ball rolling, and at least contribute in part to our political and religious affiliations.

It is possible that freewill is not only our own choice, but the chaos that goes on around us. How much control do we really have over our choices? We pretend we do, but the breaking point is probably not that far away. We may not all be president, but I think the truth is we are all just one step away (so to speak) from stealing a loaf of bread to survive.

I don't think that either view point matters in the end, I take what Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's", or Paul, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, ...". No matter the rule set, I hope I could/would live my life with compassion and respect for my fellow man.

lol, ar ar ar...

about 4)

or mention it when we see each other at the golf course with a beer

or when we see each other buying " cooking " wine at the liquor store

I like to smile before the weekend, good post.