Joel, you said it so well!
I feel for those in London. Senseless, unprovoked attacks like these are not easily forgotten.
As to the comment by mar20, comparing the Americans in Iraq to terrorists is absurd!

Terrorism will not be eliminated under the paradigm of time-honored traditions utilizing militaristic responses and interventions.

The idea to attack another because they are a threat may bring short-lived peace, yet it will be tempered by tension. And like a contracted spring, violence will erupt under the tension for the next generation. The Great War and World War II did not bring world peace because the underlying roots of dis-ease have not been eliminated.

This episode of conflict is another footnote in the annals of history from time immemorial.

So long as man reserves for himself the option to resolve disputes through force, then the children and grandchildren of such warriors will perpetuate the cycle of death and discord.

It will take a brave and noble effort from the peoples of earth to secure a safe environment for our children.

The major religions of the world will not provide a solution for earthly conflicts. Yet the examples as lived by Jesus and Muhammad may provide a framework in which a primitive civilization may shift to an advanced state.

The personal recognition that God is life, all that exists is life (i.e. God), and all of life represents God in interweaved and harmonious action, will bring the realization that no one person or thing is separate from another. There is no separateness. Within the Body of Life there is no healing should the hand bring down a hammer upon the toe which has stubbed itself.

Phil,

I am sorry that the terrorists hit your country. My condolences go out to those who were affected.

However, as a parent to two children, I know that I do not let them have their way just because they are upset with me. And I know enough to not give in to bullies just because they bully. No, freedom means that we are free to stand up to bullies and stop them from bullying, by whatever means necessary.

Yes, it is a few extremists that are perpetrating these terrible acts. But we have come a long way in stopping them so far. And we will continue to do so. I am glad your Prime Minister has had the courage to join with our President and do the right thing, even in the face of political dissent.

Here's to continued success in the war on terror...

Just felt the need to make a quick comment here Joel. You are SO ABSOLUTE in your beliefs of Christianity, but you are SO demanding to break one of the most SACRED of your own beliefs - THALL SHALL NOT KILL! And yet you constantly demonize people who have abortions, but support wholeheartedly WAR. WAR IS MURDER TOO, it is simply justified (sometimes) killing. I am surprised that you do not accept the teachings of your own God in issues like this - Jesus said to LOVE YOUR ENEMIES. That means that killing is a vicious cycle - To kill those who killed others in many ways could be construed as RETRIBUTION and REVENGE, NOY a true solution. Remember that as you spe out the fact of BREAKING ONE OF YOUR HIGHEST COMMANDMENTS. Killing your enemies can lead to you being JUST LIKE THEM!!! Another soultion MUST be found, before we all kill each other with senseless viloence. We are BETTER than that!

oh, one other thing. So far as I've heard, there is no ABSOLUTE proof that the bombers in London were Islamic terrorists. Sure, it is much more than likely that they were, but before you start condemning people to death, you should have ABSOLUTE UNQUESTIONABLE proof that they are the ones responsible and the ones guilty, instead of stereotyping a race and a religion as the ones responsible. Wait for ABSOLUTE and UNERRING proof. Remember Timothy McVeigh? Proof positive that there have even been AMERICAN terrorists.
My sympathy goes out to the Brits, and I hope that there can be some justice and peace brought to them WITHOUT more needless bloodshed, to ANY culture..... War does not TRULY solve anything, disagreements just continue to crop up through the ages. If war REALLY solved anything, we would ALREADY have worldwide peace, but alas, I don't think the human race will be satisfied until we destroy our planet and all life within in a blast of atomic fire.....

I agree that Jesus was very much a pacifist. His demonstration of love towards sinners (that's all of us) was perfect. In the fact, the only people He called on the carpet were the Pharisees, the religious leaders! Their "religion" got in the way of people experiencing true spirituality which God offers through His Son.

Anyhow, like I said before. We are in the fallen world with fallen people who do fallen things. War is inevitable. Jesus said there will be wars and rumours of wars, but not to let that trouble us. The wars will persist until He returns. Guaranteed. In the meantime, it is up to good people to stand against evil people. Evil people will not stop unless good people stop them.

Regarding the innocents who die during war, of course it is a tragedy. Calling mothers who have abortions "murderers" really solves nothing. Teaching people that there is healing from abortion and that there are other options before abortion makes much more sense. But that is just a matter of education.

War, on the other hand, is ideological at its core. The Islamofascists hate everything we stand for in the western world. They believe it is their DUTY to kill us. We do NOT feel the same way about them philosophically. Our military has to make it their duty to stop them BECAUSE they started it.

War has solved plenty of problems in the short term. Going to war stopped the Nazi tide. Many nations would be speaking German today if it weren't for our involvement in the war. Japan bombed pearl harbor, but after we dropped the bomb on them, that was the end of that. Going to Iraq removed a murderous dictator from having his way with innocent people any longer. That's a great solution to a problem!

Jesus did what He did because He COULD do it, and He did it for us. His sacrificial death provided the only bridge from man to God. That's why He went through what He went through. He KNEW there was no other hope of salvation for us.

Joel

Joel,

Talking abt Pearl Harbour....seems like u have forgotten what we did to Hiroshima and Nagasakai !!!..

Robert,

Your numbers are way off.. Approximately 200,000 lives were lost dropping the bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. This data is easily accessible online. Do you have any idea how many American and Japanese Lives would have been lost with an Invasion of Japan? Far more than 200,000, some estimates are over 1,000,000.

In the case of Hitler, a coup was tried and it failed. Now what I find most interesting about post-war Germany and Japan, is how the media back then said exactly the same things they are saying about Iraq now.

When you talk about finding Osama, you're talking about someone hiding in one of the most remote areas of the World. With 100's of square miles of mountains, caves, dangerous terrain.

The War on Terror is not just about Osama, it never has been.. It's about standing up against Terrorism in any form. Saddam supported Terrorism, that's a fact. Saddam had WMD's. Saddam broke the Gulf War cease fire and he fired on our Aircraft regularly. All the above is why we're in Iraq. It's the frontline of the War on Terror.. Our Opponents are radical extremists with no Country, who are sworn to kill everyone who doesn't share their beliefs.

While you are trying to use your LOGIC on them, they are thinking about what knife they are going to use to cut your head off and perhaps what they are going to have for lunch.

Four years ago Bush said we're fighting a War on Terror and it will be long and hard. Back then all of us knew it would be, and that it had to be done. And not a single attack has occurred in the US since. 1000's have sacrificed their lives for this cause. And who knows how many attacks have been prevented and how many lives have been saved because of thier actions.

ET.. time to phone home. The Mothership is coming for you.

Some of what you say is truth. But there is enough error in your philosophy and theology to make it poison.

Honestly, if I thought it would do any good, I would. As it is, I am certain it would be a waste of time. So, with this being my blog, I opt to allow your comments to stand and disagree with many of your premises and conclusions. :-)

If you look at History you will see that the cause of wars is Religions and Governments, they are the ones that organize them and benefit from them.

While Governments may benefit from wars, religions don't.
There has never been a truly Christian War. The crusades,
the Spanish Inquisition and more were not religiously based.
They were during a time where Church leadership was corrupt.
Popes wielded power with the same abandon as despots do today.
---------
Why should Bush spend 160 billion dollars and kill 100,000 thousand people in Iraq, because Bin Laden has killed 3,000 in NY? Of course not, this is what Bush wants you to believe, not the truth.

Bush went into Iraq with some dodgy evidence. But guess what
Most of the Iraqis appreciate being free. Unfortunately,
the terrorists who have a political agenda (which is what
islam is, it is a political movement similar to Stalinism)

---------
The truth is that Bush is working with the Catholic Church and Bin Laden to send the people of this planet back to the Dark Ages, and is doing this in a very clever way.

Wow...I never thought I would hear anyone call Bush Clever.
So you believe that the Catholic church wants to push people
back to the dark ages? Where's your evidence? The Catholic
church and other Christian churches are trying just to survive
the societies that throw away the real meanings of Jesus'
life and his message. To be totally honest, as a Christian,
I have a duty to care about your soul and the souls of every
human on the planet. I feel bad for everyone who will burn
in the abyss, because their own arrogance will take them
there. But most of all, people fooled by a genocidal madman
into believing he is THE prophet and that killing women and
children is a holy act... you tell me. Who wants to drag the
world into the Dark Ages. Wake up and smell what you're
shovelling. (George W. Bush Clever... *wow*)
---------

Not original though. Hitler has tried before him. Hitler understood the power of the Catholic Church and with their help got into power and you probably know what happened after that, but you didn't know that it was the Pope who played a big role in starting the second World War and the Killing of thousands of people, and Bush is doing exactly the same.
He is using the name of God to kill people.

I defy you to show once where Bush said killing anyone is
God's work or a commandment. Oh by the way.... Germany is
primarily Lutheran (even in Hitler's time) Oh and before
claiming that the entire church was on his side, go here
http://www.franklin-grace.org/Sermons%202000/120300sermon.htm
and read the last two paragraphs. Try not to choke on your
words.
---------
Governments and Religions strife in misery and ignorance, and that is what they do, they keep people ignorant and miserable.

You are wrong here on several levels.
Christianity encourages freedom, choice, allows innovation
encouraged science, medicine, civilised behaviour.
---------

The Catholic Church is a Criminal organization.

Oh please... I suppose to you everyone is criminal.
wait... we all are... we're sinners. Except you.. you
must be perfect right? Never made a mistake...
obeys every law? Sure about that? Ever drive a little
over the speed limit? You seem to have a serious "hate on"
for the Catholic church. Calling something or someone
criminal without offering substantial proof is the argument
of someone without a viable point.
---------

All the Governments in the World are Criminal organizations; this is not my idea but a reality.

Ya right.
---------

If you studied History in school you should remember what the Catholic Church did during the Middle Ages and they are still doing it now.

You can look at every negative thing in history and blame
it on governments or religions. Tell me, was the government
responsible for Mount St. Helens erupting? Or were the
deaths their fault because they let people live nearby?
Give me a break.
---------

If you noticed When the Pope died all the politicians went to the funeral, of course they are friends, they are all criminals stilling usurping and killing the value producer like me and you, and they do nothing but destroy and they live a life of luxury.

Gee, do you think that perhaps the Pope was someone who
accomplished a lot? I suppose if the Dali Lama died, no one
should attend his funeral? What about Nelson Mandela? Do
you think no one should attend his funeral when he passes?
---------

P.S. You might not agree to all this but this is the Truth.

You should have started your line with B.S. not P.S.

---------
Sorry E.T. you have obviously been seriously damaged in your lifetime for the apparent hatred that you show to religions and government. Perhaps you're miffed that you have to pay tax, or you're upset that Christians have a faith that seems to elude you. You gripe about the government... but tell me... do you vote? If so, then that's great. If not, then shut up... if you don't have your say on election day... you forfeit your right to complain about the result.

Sorry Joel... E.T. needed someone to help extract his head from his backside and wipe his eyes clean.

Hello James,
And thanks very much for taking the time to write back to me.

First of all I must point out that I don’t hate anybody.
I am Italian and was brought up as a Christian and some of my family
and friends still believe in the Church and some don’t care about
this things at all even if they go to Church, but I still love them all, as I love all the Christians
and I think they are nice people that care for their families, friends and all humanity.

And I love the bombers as well, because I think they are nice people,
with the wrong information in their brain. Brainwashed by an evil
organization as you described it; Stalinism.

And I admire Jesus and all the Christians that fought
very hard to destroy the Evil Roman Empire.
But once they got the power the Catholic Church became one
of the most evil organizations ever, and they kept people in the Dark Ages
for about one thousand years. Like Islam today they were against new
discoveries and new ideas. You forgot that they arrested Galileo and Copernicus waited
until he was about to dye to bring out his idea that the Earth was not at the Centre of the Universe,
and Michelangelo was forced to do the works at St. Peter’s Cathedral.
And women were considered animals, and every Noble man had the right to rape and
Even kill any peasant woman, like in the film Brave heart.

You say that the Crusades and the Inquisition where not religiously based.
I don’t know what you mean by the word Religion, but Religions have
always been used to start, justify wars and manipulate people’s minds.
During the Crusades a picture of Jesus was always in the frontline.

You mention Stalin but you can carry on with Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Mussolini,
Fidel Castro, the Catholic Church, Islam, Buddhism and more.
All this have two things in common; Altruism and Sacrifice.
The same picture painted by the story of Jesus.
And they are all based by Plato’s philosophy in the Republic.
Is this a combination?

All Governments and Religions follow Plato’s idea.
The intellectual or political class decides what to do and uses the Army to enforce it.
And if you don’t follow or refuse to obey either they kill you or you go to prison.

From the mildest like Democracy,
to the most evil like dictatorships, religious fanaticism and communism they all
follow the idea in the Republic and the more power they got the bigger the destruction
they cause. And they make it look like they are doing a good job, and they are the
good gays and the population is considered bad. But the opposite is true, in the last
2500 years they have only destroyed, and never produced anything, and because they
Are stealing they invented altruism and Religions to confuse peoples minds.
Confuse, Deceive, Control. That’s what Machiavelli said.

I agree with you that at the end of the day the people in Iraq will be better off
With the Americans than Sadham Hussain, but what about the 100,000
That died or the ones that lost their children and their families?

We are not all sinners.
The Catholic Church discovered that when people feel guilty
It’s easier to control them, so they came up with a brilliant idea
Instead of making people feel guilty for their actions which we can control
They made them feel guilty for their thoughts which we can not control.
In the ten commandments you can see this as well, you are guilty for what you
Think, that’s what they are trying to make you believe.
And Jesus died because of our sins. Doing that everybody would be guilty.
That was a genius idea, that still stands today.

If you want to understand the cleverness of Bush and Hitler
Visit this website:
http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/paul_23_4.html

http://www.secularhumanism.org/textexcerpts/

They are doing a very good job and there is no point in me trying to do it again.

Is this B.S.?
That could be just your idea based on what you know,
You can not have ideas about something you don’t know,
And if you got an open mind you should try to get more information.

If you want to understand what happened in this planet in the last 3000 years,
Read Julian Jaynes book: “The Discovery of Consciousness in the breakdown of the Bicameral Mind”
Amazon sells it.

Thanks for your time, you don’t have to agree with me,
But the exchange of ideas is the basics of Freedom and Progress.

Sorry I took so long to come back to you.
______________________________
But your message seems to say the opposite. You regard the Church as criminal. That would mean that you regard Christians as criminal. This is when you realise that the Church is not a building, it's not the pope or the cardinal college in the case of the RC's. The Church is the people, every person who believes in Jesus and what he did/is/represents IS the catholic church (note the small c indicating all denominations).
When I say Catholic Church I mean the ones in power in the Vatican, not the innocent people that go to church hoping for a better and just live.
---------------
I have to disagree with you here. Not in your love for them, but in the statements that come after that. Regardless of someone's belief system, no person who straps a bomb to their back with the express purpose of blowing innocent people to bits is a nice person. What they did was an act of extreme cowardice and evil. Now, they may have been brainwashed by an evil system... But don't take away the personal responsibility from them. At no moment did they not have the capacity to look at what they were doing and realise that the people around them had never harmed them in their lives. What they did was cruel, evil, selfish and definitely not nice. That makes them cruel, evil, selfish and not nice. They may have been nice at one time in their life, I am sure of that. They played in the sunshine like other children, looked into the stars at night and had hopes and dreams. But when they chose their path, they became evil. You can weep for the loss of the innocence that they once had, but don't delude yourself into thinking that they were nice. A murderer can be nice to their family, a rapist can be nice to his wife or girlfriend. I am sure that Hitler was nice to his friends. But no one would ever say that he was a nice person, and neither were these bombers.
This people are innocent James, they are brainwashed, since the age of four or five they are taught Islam, in Islamic schools 75% of the teaching is religion. They prey five times a day and in one of their prayers they say explicitly “Convert or Kill”. There is no freedom of speech in those countries, education and information is controlled by the political religious power which tells them that the cause of all their troubles is our western civilization; they don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the world. The ones that put the bombs in London apparently where borne in the UK but they live in their own World they go to Islamic school they are taught to hate our Culture, again the Human brain thinks according to the information in it.
---------------
Jesus did not fight the Romans, the only aggressive thing Jesus ever did was to overturn the tables of the money changers in the temple. That was it... he struck no one, he just flipped over their tables. Instead, he allowed himself to be taken peaceably to face his destiny, even telling his followers to lay down their swords and restoring the ear of the guard that Peter had cut off. Those that live by the sword shall die by the sword. The true Christians spread the good news, never tried to force people to believe and many many laid down their lives. They didn't storm into Rome and start fighting. Constantine was the emporer and he became a Christian from what he believed to be a sign from God. That is how Christianity became accepted. But it was accepted by the roman emperor and became the state religion. At that point, they used their government system to model their picture of Christianity on, modelling the organisational structures and hierarchies. The roman empire was converted and unfortunately, many of their values and structures were adopted.
Sorry, fighting is probably not the appropriate word for it, but I continue to use it because I think Thought and Words are stronger than Swords. Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King etc… proved this is true. The shift to Christianity, by Constantine, was only a political one. Christianity was becoming very popular and Christian Authority was getting stronger and stronger and the Roman Emperor had to do that in order to survive.
---------------
Do you think perhaps that other issues kept people in the dark ages? What about the plague that decimated the populations? Tell me, what would be the effect on society if suddenly the most educated people who knew how to run things and build things suddenly died? Where do you think academics who had this knowledge lived? They didn't live in small villages, they lived in cities where the plague ran riot. Who were left afterwards? People in small isolated communities who lived day to day subsistence. They had their priests etc, but the people with the knowledge were gone. Imagine having libraries of information on how to do so many things... but no one who can read. You blame the church very easily for this when history shows that plagues and disease exacted a massive toll. The people left behind were less educated, more superstitious and like any group of superstitious people with little or no education were afraid of change. It was from these people that the fear of advancement came and everything was evil that they did not know.
The Vatican had an Army until Garibaldi destroyed it, and they controlled Education and made the laws. They persecuted scientist, they were against medicine they encouraged people to pray to cure their illnesses. It’s only in 1951 that they accepted that the World is round and apologized for what they did to Galileo and the same year the removed the law against witchcraft. They destroyed Aristotle’s philosophy which we got back from the Arabs in the time of Romanticism.
---------------
Gallileo and Copernicus were visionaries that were ahead of their times. And if situations were different, had they not been at the forefront of the recovery of science and knowledge, they would have had an easier time of it. Right now, you see the same thing happening with scientists who have proved that Global warming is not really happening (www.junkscience.com). They are branded liars and pariahs, but not by scientists, instead by groups who have vested interests in keeping Global Warming going as a viable thing because it lines their pockets. The people in the time of Galileo and Copernicus who had the most to lose by their revelations were behind the arrests. They used the church as an excuse, but the church itself was not behind it.
You got the wrong information here
Galileo was tried by the Ecclesiastic Tribunal which implemented the laws passed by the Vatican. Religions and Government have always tried to stop new ideas, and, whenever they can they blame science and scientist, Marconi was arrested and then put in a mental hospital, considered a dangerous person. These days many people don’t like the Atomic bomb, they think is an evil thing, but the bomb per se, is not evil at all, it can be bad of course in the wrong hands, but if used properly it can be a very good source of energy and we can use it to propel us into space to explore the universe. Like a knife you can use it to chop vegetables or you can use it to kill someone, but knifes or swords have never killed anyone, humans kill using knife and swords, if you destroy the knifes they will use stones or sticks or whatever.
---------------
Tell me, if we put spongebob on every US soldier's uniform, would that mean spongebob and anything affiliated with him is the reason for any action those soldiers did? Yes, many people of faith got fooled into going off to take part in the crusades... but again... this was because a few people in influential places knew the right things to say to fire these people up. Am I willing to die for Jesus, you bet. Am I willing to kill for Jesus? No. Because Jesus clearly stated he never ever wanted that. Am I willing to let a terrorist blow up a bus I am on? If I was the only person on that bus... yes. If there are more people, then no because they are not being given the right to make that decision for themselves. And I will fight for their freedom and liberty to make the choice of how they live their lives.

Soldiers don’t choose to kill or not to kill they are order to do that, the volunteers are brainwashed, they are normally people with very little education or their education is only about war and killing, and the non volunteers if the refuse to fight are killed strait away.
---------------
Our society is not based on plato's philosophy at all. Plato's ideas were actually pretty decent. The people with wealth have no say in the rule. The people with nothing have the say. Society as we have it, people with wealth have the power and make the rules. There is no way you will convince anyone that Stalin ran a government based on Plato's principles. There is no government today that exists that runs on Plato's principles because it would work too well and the people with the money and power would be left only with their money which they would soon realise is empty. The church runs closer to a Platonic system depending on the branch you look at. The Franciscians are pretty much the hallmark of a platonic system. They have nothing, they vow poverty and live it. Other denominations are not nearly so brave. I don't see the RC's giving up the Vatican and its treasures. I don't see other religions giving up their temples, gold statues etc etc. But don't delude yourself to think that any government (or complete religious faith) is ever based on Plato.

Your knowledge of Plato’s philosophy is wrong I suggest you get your self “The Republic” and read it and don’t believe what people tell you. And money is not bad without it you die, the Priests tell you that because they want all the money for themselves; The Vatican is still the richest country in the World and they spread the idea that money is evil, if it’s evil why they don’t get rid of it.
---------------
After 2500 years, tell me. Do you live in a home with electricity? Do you have clean water to drink? Do you have rules that make sure that you are not worked 18 hours a day or forced into slavery? Can you see a doctor when you are ill? You do owe a lot more to governments and churches than you may be willing to accept.
I have all this things not because of Religions and Governments but because honest people like Copernicus, Galileo, Marconi and many others risked their lives to give these things to the World. Pascal was persecuted and Descartes was trialed and saved by his powerful friends.

---------------
What about the people in World War 2 who died, the communities bombed into rubble. Using your logic, no one should have come to the aid of Europe when Hitler was rumbling across it. No one should have stopped the extermination of the Jews. In this case, it's the Kurds... No one likes any child, mother or father to die (except terrorists, they live for it.) Don't you think that if there was a way to avoid all those deaths and achieve the same outcome, it would have been done?
There is a way to avoid all this and one day it will happen in this planet, and that could be sooner then you might think. We are educated to develop a criminal mind, children in school are thought to believe that people like Achilles, Ulysses, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon and many more were heroes, when instead were unscrupulous killers, mercenaries and pirates. They done nothing productive, they only slowed down civilization.
---------------
That is a deluded statement. There was one person without sin. If you have ever lied (even as a child). If you have ever looked at a women and thought any thoughts that were of a sexual nature. If you have envied someone over a possession they had that you did not... then you're a sinner.
Thoughts don’t arm anyone unless they are transformed into actions. And desire and jealousy are normal human emotions. That’s why, as you say, we are considered sinners, as I said in the other letter, that was the Great discovery of the Catholic Church. To desire a beautiful woman is very normal, and even if you try very hard you can’t help it, to obtain her by force, that’s wrong. To be jealous about other’s possessions is good because it stimulates you to work hard and get the same. Envy is a very strong irrational form of jealousy that leads to violence. Priests have always manipulated people’s emotions, in the Middle Ages masturbation was punished with fourteen years in jail; laws made by the Vatican, and still to these days are considered a sin.

---------------
The guilt is a Jewish thing... give credit where it's due... the Jews had guilt down pat before Christians came along the church just recognised a good thing. Having been engaged at one time to someone Jewish, I can confirm this. But I am sure that before that, parents had figured that one out too. And since God is the creator and father of all... it's reasonable that he would have come up with the concept. It's not about control, if I see a supermodel and go *wow*, I don't feel guilty. I also don't feel guilty about wanting all terrorists to suddenly implode at once around the planet (I pray for it but God doesn't work that way) It's not about control, it's about making people think and act in a way that they should. God wants us to love each other, to respect each other. How can you love or respect someone if you are constantly thinking about stealing what he has or having an affair with his wife? You cannot tell me that any of the commandments are unreasonable, would you want it to be ok for everyone to check out your wife and want to have a roll in the hay with her? (assuming you're married)
To desire a beautiful woman doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to still her, because there are plenty of beautiful women around and if you are wise you can always go and find another one which is as beautiful. You might not be able to control your thoughts but you can control your actions if you are a normal intelligent and wise person. If other men think about having a roll with my wife, is not a problem, actually stimulates me to compete and always improve myself so my wife doesn’t run away with someone else. If they take her by force is a different thing. Christianity comes from Judaism but the sense of guilt was invented by Christians around 200 AD, and now is used by all Religions including Buddhism even if they say explicitly not to feel guilty.
---------------
Jesus died for our sins. He bore the weight of it and the terrible reality of it and the separation from God that resulted from it. But there is still a cost to us because it accomplishes nothing for anyone who does not accept it. You have to accept Jesus, who he is and what he did for you personally. To me, he died on the cross for me personally, for every thought I have when I see the bikini clad supermodel on television. For the times I get frustrated or angry. For the times I go over the speed limit. But he only covered my sin as far as my relationship with God goes. I still have to pay the speeding fine (haven't had one since 1986 btw and it was only 5km over the limit), I have to explain to my wife why the supermodel on the TV drew my eyes... But as far as my relationship with God goes... I'm sweet. And every day, I thank Jesus over and over and over. (and over)

James if you feel guilty about going over the speed limit, don’t do it, that’s an action and you can control it, or if you can’t stop doing it be prepared to pay the fine and be extra careful because the faster you go the slower it’s to stop, but the wise solution would be not to do it at all, but I must admit that it’s very difficult to do specially if you got all the other cars behind you trying to get past, and most of the time it’s easier to go a little faster like you do, at 5mph over. As for the second one, if you love your wife be discrete, try not to show it very much because you can hart her feeling, but a little is probably good, it will motivate her to stay beautiful and attractive. This is what I think you can do what you want.

---------------
If you want to understand the cleverness of Bush and Hitler
Nope, I still can't accept Bush being clever regardless what I read. He's just too much like Mr. Bean..... :)
This made me laugh.
---------------
Same here.... you don't have to agree with me either.
But I will recommend a book to you. It's called "Mere Christianity" written by C.S. Lewis.
Arrivederci il mio amico
James
I will find that book, I love reading.
Caro Amico, ti saluto e grazie per il tuo tempo.
Ciao.

Great Comment Tony.

I disagree with you Tony and ET. Being a parent has taught me that you do not let your children get away with inappropriate behavior. You discipline them to teach them to stop it.

How much more so with terrorists who couldn't care less? The only solution is to stop them. Theres no telling how many attacks we have stopped because of going to war.

You do not appease bullies at the threat of emboldening them. You want to strengthen our enemies? Saddle up with the liberal media that has made it their mission.

Sorry, but you are both wrong on this one. I, for one, am glad that we have strength and determination in the White House.

Time to get the tin foil hat out and tune in to Art Bell... ET's name says it all.

There are those who want to look for a conspiracy and boogie man behind everything.

Sorry, but this stuff is absolutely nuts.

*sigh*

Ok... the reason it collapsed? Simple... let's see... planes fully loaded with fuel hit near the top, shearing the fire protection from the load bearing beams. The fuel burning heats those beams and then soften and give. The upper floors collapse.

Then Gravity our friend takes over.

If it was just one floor...it may have survived. But it wasn't. Several floors dropping even the distance of one storey generates an incredible force. As each floor's supports collapsed, the force increased over and over.

Unfortunately ET, your arguments have gone so far out of the realm of reality I choose to no longer engage in this discussion.

James