"Consider, instead, that religion is more frequently used as an excuse for evil, than for a reason to do the right thing."

"you cannot separate the actions of the organizational bureaucracy from that of the religion"

Ah - far from it. Far more people have died for politics than have ever died for religion. The whole "religion is the cause of more death than..." argument is a canard.

I know that on the internet it is fashionable for athiests to proselytize thier religion by pounding on strawmen - but I need to inject a bit of sanity into the dialog. :)

Wow - what a tempest in a teapot. :)

Eeeeeh... Not 'entirely' true. The CRA did establish a political environment where it was both acceptable and expected for a person who didn't qualify for a loan to appeal to the US government. Banks rarely ever redlined race. They redlined geographies of a town that had low income - a very neutral approach. …

"Yes it is..."

That is a good point. In actuality my original post somewhat mischaracterizes Glass-Steagall. It didn't make derivative trading illegal. As you say, what G-S did was make it so that the two types of financial institutions could not operate under the same umbrella... I.E. It was illegal for AIG to both deal in…

This blurb ignores the reasons WHY the banks were doing derivative trading. Back in the 1990s, the US government was engaged in a two-party, two-fisted sucker-punch on the financial industry. Big insurance companies (primarily AIG) wanted to engage in this kind of trading, but a law (Glass-Steagall) set up after the…

[wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com] argument is not that they are all in the middle of parking lots. The argument is that 90% of all the audited stations did not meet NWA, NASA, or NOAA standards for temperature stations. All scientific measurements to be reliable must follow GCP practices, and the temperature…

Spiders are our friends. They are awesome. Except Black Widows and Brown Recluses. They will mess you up.

OWS has also been a hotbed of rather bad behavior. Rapes, robbery, violence, drugs, filth, and general sloth (not to mention crazed ramblings) are happening all over at these protests. Middle America wants nothing to do with such unsavory behavior. People are rather unsympathetic when the police start opening up…

"2) What part of "registered independent" means "left wing"?

M'eh - it is an opinion site much like Kos, Daily Beast, Underground, et al. Such sites are what they are. However, even these kinds of sites can be good sources of information sometimes. For example, the link above references 200+ news articles from original sources. Nothing biased about the links. It's just a…

It is a repeat link, but here it is again.

"If a protest doesn't inconvenience people, then it isn't a protest, it's a polite statement"

[www.bbc.co.uk]

Well, strictly speaking capital gains is a different animal than income tax. Income is based on your wages, while CG is based on investments. In theory, investments are far riskier because they can fail completely and result in the person losing money. When that happens, it is a net loss for the entire economy. …

Not exactly. The OWS protesters have not exactly been non-violent. There are many documented cases of rape, molestation, theft, and at least one murder. In addition they are violating city ordinances, and generally making a public nuisance of themselves. Beyond that, they are also purposefully causing disruptions…

"I don't get how 99%, or even 33%, of the general public doesn't seem to let it bother them that the rich keep getting richer, along with everything else you posted."