Posted on 09/30/2022 5:38:32 PM PDT by marcusmaximus
It is free speech. 100%.
He’s far better than any of the idiots many here have fawned over, supported, defended, such as W, McCain and Mitt.
And yes SH has enough questions marks to warrant a proper independent investigation. Oh wait, they destroyed the crime scene and the home of the alleged perp. Guess not.
I don’t see him proposing Russia as the leader of a uni-polar world, do you? If he were, I would have a big problem.
Having watched highlights of trans folk at Katy “Christian” “church” this past weekend, and the fact that the executive branch and many state govs (incl Rep ones) have no problem with this, you still think America is the leader of the free world? I suspect God has other ideas.
The issue here is about America as a country dictating what the world should look like. That ship has sailed. And the fact that we still have “conservatives” who are OK with printing money to give to Ukr while the resulting inflation devastates the middle class here, I find very disappointing.
“Tell your Putin to give his people indoor toilets.”
Fact is that rural Russia can be very poor and still using out houses. Putin has been sending their boys to die in Ukraine. Rooski City slickers with indoor plumbing have been dodging Putin’s war.
As of April 1, 2021, Guaidó is no longer recognized as Venezuela’s rightful President by the European Union’s 27 member-states
If Guaido is the President, then why did our envoys go hat in hand to VZ begging Maduro for oil this year?
Curiously, the UK’s Supreme Court ruled to give Venezuela’s seized 32 tons of gold to President Juan Guaido as the legitimate President. Legitimate? He runs nothing in VZ.
Where will the gold end up? At least Maduro had asked if the gold was not going to be given back to Venezuela, use it to provide health services during the Pandemic to poor nations.
Guaido made no such gestures of largesse to poor countries.
“My point is you APPEARED to assume that Abel was weaker than Cain, in your comparison to the Uke-Rus tragedy.”
Per the Bible, Cain was older than Abel. Per the Bible, Cain worked and tilled the soil (hard, back-breaking labor, especially back in antiquity), whereas Abel was a shepherd (compared to farming, an almost leisurely job, and historically often performed by youngsters). Strength was essential for farming; it was not essential for sheep herding.
The Bible, especially the Old Testament, is heavy on metaphor. Thus, older equates to larger and stronger (physical labor, power); while younger equates to smaller and weaker (i.e., lamb-like). Abel himself is but a metaphor for the lamb (gentleness, peacefulness); and so is Cain a metaphor for power (physicality, domination). Artists throughout the ages recognized this, and often portrayed the two accordingly: Cain — big, strong, and aggressive; Abel — small, not strong, and gentle.
So, it’s just not me.
You would do well to visit an amish community such the one in Lawrence county, TN. They market a lot of vegetables. After primary and secondary tillage (done by the men with draft horses) mostly the women and children take over, planting, weeding, and harvesting.
Being a shepherd isn’t all posing with a staff and walking around. There is wrestling (body slamming to shear wool, and also castration (can’t have a bunch of rams fighting each other all the time), and dealing with predators.
Assuming age guarantees physical superiority is sketchy. When I turned 18 my next younger brother was 14 and wearing my clothes. A quiet, mild-mannered kid, he never intimidated me until a year later, when I heard he leveled one of the school bullies with one punch. I stopped in at the local small town cafe (Alexis,Il) one evening, and a classmate of his couldn’t wait to tell me what my brother had done, “.... he bloodied Brian’s nose AND mouth with ONE punch!”
The principal called my mother to say he had to suspend my brother for a day. She said, “Good for him!” And the next day baked him a cake, and let him watch tv all day. Lol
Also, how much ground was tilled, and how many head of sheep were needed for just four people (Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel)? There is no mention of other offspring until Seth was born, (although they obviously had sisters).
You sound like you take the Old Testament’s Genesis literally. That’s fine. I don’t.
For instance, Genesis says Adam lived to be 930 years old. Do you actually believe that?
I’ve been reading Mark Twain for more than 60 years; he is my favorite author.
His summation of the Old Testament is pithy: “The Bible is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.”
He’s right.
Twain also wrote this, a criticism of the authors of the Old Testament for the God THEY created; not the God who created THEM. He writes that literal belief in the entirety of the Old Testament is an impossibility:
“Strange, because they are so frankly and hysterically insane—like all dreams: a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice and invented hell; mouths mercy and invented hell; mouths Golden Rules, and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man’s acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him!”
You see? Such a God as created by the authors of the Old Testament could only exist in fiction, because that God is a contradiction.
The God I believe in is not the one described above.
But the Old Testament has value as a foundation, as a guide. In that regard, it is essential.
Oh, I’m sure I’m going to get slammed. So be it.
Did Mr Clemens have similar views about the NT?
Which would seems more far fetched,.. a man living 930 yrs, or a man feeding thousands with a little lads lunch (with leftovers that a little lad couldn’t carry)?
Or a woman turned into a pillar of salt, versus a man that laid dead for 4 days suddenly raised from the dead?
Many experiences make for many memories. Mr Clemens took advantage of that, and his experiences in the reporting/printing world, to write novels and entertain.
Back in the 1960s my dad flew an after dinner speaker to different conventions to give an entertaining talk. He was good at it. His charisma and resonating voice was magnetic. It was a part time job that paid $500, plus expenses for each appearance. Yet my mother’s uncle was even more entertaining (and a bit salty) at family gatherings and didn’t charge a dime.
Like anyone that has lived as long as I have, I have had many experiences. The worst: my 15 yr old brother’s death in a farm accident (I was 11). One of the best: meeting the young lady that became my wife. The chain of events show divine direction in several aspects of it.
“Which would seems more far fetched,.. a man living 930 yrs, or a man feeding thousands with a little lads lunch (with leftovers that a little lad couldn’t carry)?”
Metaphors.
“Or a woman turned into a pillar of salt, versus a man that laid dead for 4 days suddenly raised from the dead?”
Literally turned to salt? Or just dried up? Coming out of a coma?
“The chain of events show divine direction in several aspects of it.”
Perhaps. In any event, that’s what you believe; so, for you, that is what it is.
“Which would seems more far fetched,.. a man living 930 yrs, or a man feeding thousands with a little lads lunch (with leftovers that a little lad couldn’t carry)?”
Metaphors.
“Or a woman turned into a pillar of salt, versus a man that laid dead for 4 days suddenly raised from the dead?”
Literally turned to salt? Or just dried up? Coming out of a coma?
“The chain of events show divine direction in several aspects of it.”
Perhaps. In any event, that’s what you believe; so, for you, that is what it is.
**Metaphors.**
Well, we’re still free (to a degree) under this leftist run guvmint to voice our opinion.
“Well, we’re still free (to a degree) under this leftist run guvmint to voice our opinion.”
Yup. If we were living in the 16th and 17th centuries I’d likely be burned at the stake.
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