This will be a good decade for bicycling!

On Jan 6, 11:40*pm, Tom Sherman °_°
wrote:
Ron Wallenfang wrote:
[...]
Regarding the "We're good, everybody else is bad" generalization, may
I commend to your attention the Vatican 2 documents[...]

Are these online? It takes 6 monks and a mule to carry the hard copy around.

--
Tom Sherman - 42.435731,-83.985007

It's on www.ewtn.com

On Jan 7, 12:19*am, Ron Wallenfang wrote:
On Jan 6, 11:40*pm, Tom Sherman °_°

wrote:
Ron Wallenfang wrote:
[...]
Regarding the "We're good, everybody else is bad" generalization, may
I commend to your attention the Vatican 2 documents[...]

Are these online? It takes 6 monks and a mule to carry the hard copy around.

--
Tom Sherman - 42.435731,-83.985007

*It's onwww.ewtn.com

Let's try more detail: www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/V2ALL.HTM -
Cached

On Jan 6, 5:11*pm, Tom Sherman °_°
wrote:

"To the elites, ordinary Americans are pretty much parasites.
It's not the bankers, with their multi-trillion dollar bailouts
who are the problem, it's old people with their Social Security
and Medicare. *The elites made it. *They are rich and powerful.
They believe that their success is due entirely to themselves
(even if they inherited the money or position). *If you didn't,
then that means you don't deserve it." - Ian Welsh

I've been looking for a statement like that because I've believed in
it for a long time. It's the filthy rich backed by ordinary elderly
people who run THIS country and by extension the whole world based on
the privileged position they hold. That's DEMOCRACY, or so they call
it. Now, do they care about the ordinary people not having the
benefits they enjoy in other civilized countries? i mean benefits like
UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE, SAFE ROADS, BIKE FACILITIES...

Obama is doing something about the first one, but he's struggling with
a waterdown compromise. Will we ever see safe roads and bike
facilities? Yeah sure...

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to
die in." -George McGovern

A REVOLUTION FOR THE YOUNG?
Sorry, guys, but this revolution is for the young --or at least for
the young at heart-- who care about the future, and about a quality of
life surrounding their needs.

Regrettably, they are not being enticed into politics. Important
issues like TRAFFIC SAFETY and BIKE FACILITIES are kept out of the
political discourse. Simply, cunning politicians lure the elderly, who
are easily duped with the politics of fear.* Remember the 2000
elections in Miami-Dade County. In other words: the Banana Republic
relies on the old and ignorant, while the Banana Revolution appeals to
the young and hopeful...

* fear of terrorism, communism, etc.

On Jan 6, 7:01*pm, Tom Sherman °_°
wrote:
Tim McNamara wrote:

"We're good, everybody else is bad." *That's an underlying belief in
almost all religions and most "isms." *Maybe not Buddhism.

That is why I belong to the Church of RANS.

--
Tom Sherman - 42.435731,-83.985007

I believe in the Church of Common Sense, thus I'm the Tibetan Monkey.

"Tom Sherman °_°" wrote in message
...
Edward Dolan wrote:
"Tom Sherman °_°" wrote in message
...
Edward Dolan wrote:
[...]
The best thing that could happen that would convince you that the war
on terrorism is real is if some of them would show up in your
neighborhood and blow your dumb ass sky high!

al Qaeda in Iowa blows up a grain elevator! Whoo Hoo! /sarcasm

The purpose of Islamic terrorism is to sow fear among the populace, not
necessarily to blow up anything that matters.

"Islamic terrorism" is an oxymoron, since Islam does not condone
terrorism. Like all religions, there are those who preach false beliefs to
advance a heretical agenda.

Islam actually does condone terrorism. In fact, it is a religion of war, not
peace. Anyone but me ever notice how silent the so-called Muslim majority is
about Muslims killing Christians?

How about a Muslim terrorist goes to an Iowa football game, blows himself
up and takes several hundred Iowans with him. Think that might bring you
to your senses?
[...]

More likely an Iowa State fan being a suicide bomber at Kinnick Stadium.


You cannot compare an individual killer with a group dedicated to killing
another group. It is apples and oranges.

The trouble with the above is that the elites only number in a few
hundreds of thousands, whereas everyone else numbers in the hundreds of
millions. Numbers count more in the end than the wealth of the few.

Really Ed? History says differently.

There is short run history and there is long run history. If and when
things get bad enough, you can count on change. I refer you to the
Bolshevik revolution in Czarist Russia of 1917, although the classic case
for most of the rest of us is the French Revolution of 1789-1799.

In the Lenninist revolutions, the aristocracy is merely replaced by
another authoritarian class. What Lenin, Mao, et al practiced was not true
Communism/Marxism.

You are quite wrong about that. It was the most serious attempt ever in the
history of mankind to have the proletariat rule. Too bad for you that they
turned out to be nothing but thugs and killers. But that is the proletariat
for you. Union leaders mostly fall into this type also - thugs and killers.

You must get over your envy of the wealthy.

See my other post to disabuse yourself of this false conclusion.

You should know by now that I never go to any other posts. Each and every
post must be complete in and of itself.

They can choke on their money for all I care as long as I have a modicum
of freedom to live my life as I please. I think that is the attitude of
most folks. Always remember, the best things in life are free!

Wealth is freedom in US society. Lack of wealth is servitude to the rich.

You do need enough income so that you are not constantly thinking about it
all the time. But that is an easy threshold to meet. It is not the rich that
is the source of our troubles, but rather ourselves.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

AMuzi wrote:
-snip-
Tom Sherman °_° wrote:
"Islamic terrorism" is an oxymoron, since Islam does not condone
terrorism. Like all religions, there are those who preach false
beliefs to advance a heretical agenda.

"the Prophet Muhammad said that when Judgment Day draws near, the final
war between the Muslims and the Jews will take place. The Prophet said
that the Muslims would kill the Jews.

" 'Judgment Day will not come before the Muslims fight the Jews and kill
them.' The Muslims will kill the Jews. Be patient. All the trees and all
the stones will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew
behind me, come and kill him ...' "

Koran:
2:10 Disbelievers are diseased.
2:99 Disbelievers are evil people.
2:104 For disbelievers is a painful doom.
2:171 Disbelievers are deaf, dumb, and blind.
3:28 Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in
preference of believers.
3:73 Don't believe anyone who is not a Muslim.
3:48 Don't be friends with non-Muslims. They all hate you and want to
ruin you.
4:89 Have no unbelieving friends. Kill the unbelievers wherever you find
them.
4:63 Oppose those who refuse to follow Muhammad.
4:101 The disbelievers are an open enemy to you.
4:144 Do not choose disbelievers as friends.
5:51 Don't take Jews or Christians for friends. If you do, then Allah
will consider you to be one of them.
5:51 Jews and Christians are losers.
5:60 Allah turned unbelievers into apes and swine.
5:59 Jews and Christians are evil people.
5:57 Don't choose Jews, Christians, or disbelievers as guardians.
6:106 Stay away from disbelievers.
8:55 The worst beasts in Allah's sight are the disbelievers.
**
9:5 Slay the disbelievers wherever you find them.
**
9:28 Disbelievers are unclean.
9:30 Christians and Jews are perverts. Allah himself fights against them.


I'm disappointed that you would cut & paste such propaganda from some
hate-mongering source without vetting it.

That's low even by the standards of this group.

"Tom Sherman °_°" wrote in message
...
Edward Dolan wrote:
"Tom Sherman °_°" wrote in message
...
[...]
Here is more realistic scenario - go to a $50K/year prep school, get a
legacy admission to an Ivy League school, get the best internships from
friends of the family, go from graduation into a management career
track, do well because you know all the right people, get paid millions
for doing a mediocre job of upper management.

Mr. Sherman reminds me of the poor little boy (a la Charles Dickens)
looking from the cold outside into a warm room at the well off and dying
of envy.

Mr. Dolan confuses envy with moral disgust. I would not want to be rich at
the price of immorally exploiting others.

No one in this day and age has "moral disgust", but as far as I can see
almost everyone has lots and lots of envy. Is Wal-Mart exploiting anyone? I
say no since they employ unskilled labor. Most of those folks who work at
Wal-Mart are lucky to have a job at all.

But why? They are few in number and have their own crosses to bear. Does
anyone here envy the life of Jack Kennedy for instance?

He had the choice of changing his name to John Doe and living a private
life. Most people in the world have very limited opportunities.

But you would not want to have lived his life even so. Nor would I.

It is a full time job for the rich to hang onto their wealth since others
are always trying to take it away from them. They must invest their
wealth and put it to work in the society at large. If they don't do that,
they will not be wealthy for very long.[...]

No, the rich make the rules to exploit others - has been so in almost
every society.

The rich are constantly in danger of losing whatever wealth they have. I
would rather have the few rich making the rules than the great unwashed
proletariat making the rules.

In the US in recent years, so much wealth has gone to the rich, they have
a glut of money - much more than is needed for capital investment. So they
play games on Wall Street [1], put the money in foreign tax shelters, etc.

The thing that matters is that the rest of us have at least enough to live
on and a small surplus too so that we can have some leisure.

If you want to stimulate the economy, increase the share of the working
classes, since they will spend most of it and create the demand for
capital improvement. Tax cuts for the rich in the current environment do
little to nothing to stimulate the economy, since lack of capital for
investment is not a problem.

Well, that is what liberal Dems are suppose to be doing, looking after the
working class, but as always they do a poor **** job of everything they lay
their hand to.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

"Tom Sherman °_°" wrote in message
...
Tim McNamara wrote:

"We're good, everybody else is bad." That's an underlying belief in
almost all religions and most "isms." Maybe not Buddhism.

Tim McNamara could not sum up his own ass!

That is why I belong to the Church of RANS.

Mr. Sherman, instead of resorting to idiotic quips, needed to answer the
post of AMuzi. But Mr. Sherman is always out to lunch when challenged. It is
ever the hallmark of a coward.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

On Jan 6, 9:01*pm, * Still Just Me *
wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2010 20:53:17 -0800 (PST), Ron Wallenfang

wrote:
But I'm not expecting the day to come in my
lifetime, when I can bicycle between Mecca and Medina to worship
Christ.

You'll have to wait for the third crusade, when the knights make
pilgrimage through the Holy Lands safe again. I say we deploy the New
Templars at Tyre, and work from there.

We just launch wars to take back the oil from the infidels. But they
are welcome to work with us.

On Jan 7, 7:35*am, "Edward Dolan" wrote:

Islam actually does condone terrorism. In fact, it is a religion of war, not
peace. Anyone but me ever notice how silent the so-called Muslim majority is
about Muslims killing Christians?

It may be that they are a religion of war and we are a religion of
business.