As for the homeless... well you know my crippled heart. If they are mentally handicapped they should be cared for as wards of the state, but for the assholes I step over in NYC who just dont want to work anymore, they deserve to be ignored like they have been. My views on homelessness and poverty have been radically changed and I just cant feel bad for a guy anymore who has all his arms and legs and is just lazy and mentally sound.

I agree with you in a lot of cases, but not 100%. There are some people who just flat out cant find work, families living out of their cars and whatnot. I'm not so much talking about the panhandlers on the street, but more like the people who are too proud to beg but can't catch a break.

Unrelated: I watched a news report on homeless people, an undercover reporter went up to the homeless and offered them $20 for an hour of manual labor, out of the 15 or so people he asked, 1 dude accepted, the others had excuses to get out of it. I dont know abou tyou, but $20 an hour is more than I make.

Um. I wasn't talking about television. Al Jazeera doesn't have a network on MY Time Warner. Maybe things are different in Canada. I get my news from newspapers, internet articles, and television. I'm not retarded.

Point is if you want to go past the network provided reports, the info is there.

I'll use Katrina as an example. There was news coverage, yes. Did I pay attention to it? Briefly, it didn't provide me with what I needed to know. Upon looking, I found that there was in fact a link to tune into the National Guard's communication system. There was also a webhosting company in "ground zero" NOLA that had live webcam streams running because they have a lot of backup generators which kept their power & servers running. Listening to the live feed of the National Guard provided a LOT more news than the news could ever have provided, either on television, in newspapers, in their MSNBC.com internet articles, or anywhere else.

The way you worded it made it sound like you were relying on the media. Newspapers, television, and network sponsored websites are all going to be saying pretty much the same thing, was my point. It had nothing to do with saying "You're stupid" --If I thought that, I'd say it.

There's also the morbidly depressed in terms of the homeless. I don't think depression is really a medical condition, but it's still pretty crippling, and it has a definite effect on your body's production of energy.

I don't care if people say happy holidays. Calling it a holiday tree is just stupid. It's stupid anyway, actually. How about a big fuck you to the Christians that decided to steal perfectly good heathen holidays. I vote that everyone of every religion drink egg nog and deck the halls with Christmas cheer, or get the fuck out of the country.

Easter, on the other hand, is actually a religious holiday. Where'd you hear it's not, Mia?

Not really. We were talking about news sources, cited Bill O'Reilly, etc.. as an offshoot of conversation because Shadowborn wasn't aware of the Christmas controversy. I merely pointed out which major news networks (network not being limited to the television, obviously) that I use to compare viewpoints. Considering I also get news from the check out girl at the grocery store, I didn't feel it necessary to detail every source.

I was watching Orielly last night while getting stoned and I swear to god... he is the BEST cue card reader on the fucking planet!

i heard on the news the other day that a group of people wanted to sue a school for changing the words of a christmas carol for a school play...things are getting out of hand, i think it all started when that guy was successful in getting the ten commandments removed from a court house...i'm not christian, but i'm not bothered by religious decoration, there's three other directions i can look.

as for the easter, like halloween and christmas it seems to have strong roots in pagan cultures and fertility festivals before founding christians made it more acceptable to their dogma.

*shrugs* i have a christmas tree,(it needs more decorations ) hide brightly colored eggs for easter, after the girls get their basket and dress up to hand out candy for halloween? it's nothing religious, but that's how i was raised...i see it as more of an american practice than anything...how are these holidays celebrated around the world?

however, when we get older and our children are out of the house, it'll be like christmas at the kranks...as much as i love the holidays, they do become a hassle.

Exactly my point. Why are people so suddenly offended by something that's never been a problem before? I'm not blaming any one religious or non-religious group. They're all fucked as far as I'm concerned.

Like I said, kids aren't allowed to be kids for very long these days. It's a nasty world we live in.. with nasty things going on. Why ruin one of the happiest holidays we have with all this politically correct bullshit? It honestly hurts my heart that such a special time of the year has been tainted by this crap. My children probably won't ever get to experience Christmas. They'll be experiencing the December 25th non-denominational winter celebration.

You can still make the day special no matter what people call it. Malls will still have Santas as long as it brings in customers.

Personally, I don't care what other people call it.

Anything 2,000 years old is going to be influenced by outside sources. But Easter is, at least as far as it's date and what it's celebrating, based on historical record (yes, the gospels count as historical record. They're biased, but so is every historical record). Christmas? They just picked an already existing holiday and chose it as the day Jesus was born. In a story that's probably a good century or two younger than the rest of the Gospels. And not actually that relevant to Christian theology, anyway (as opposed to the crucifixion).

Anyone who uses the bible as a historical record is a moron.

Alot of the historical record in the bible was taken from real historians. Josephus(sp?) for example.

how is saying happy holidays taking away the rights of christians? people have been saying happy holidays for years

Yes, Speedy. That's what we've been saying.

What the fuck, dude. No one said they were. You're placing all the blame on the Christians. What I've been trying to make you understand is that.. and bear with me... I'll make it simple:

EVERYONE
IS
COMPLAINING

EVERY
ONE

ALL
OF
THEM

ALL GROUPS

PAGANS
CHRISTIANS
NON-CHRISTIANS
JEWS

A
L
L


Get it?

Yeah, like when that dude put 2 of every animal on a boat. Thats good history there.

Haha, but it is.

Wow, awsome! Can you please show me where I said ALL history in the bible was correct? I am sure thats why you posted that right? Or were you being a dumbass and forgot to seperate the myths of creation from the history that actually got documented?

Ah. So its a history book, that we have to pick and choose our history from. Some of its history... some isn't. Genius.