God damn, this thread went Maury.

For real. Don't worry guys, none of you are the father

TC is the father

Nice reference back to my earlier post. And is he even here? I thought that he only posted to bump his own threads to keep them alive so he can keep bumping them.

An old friend of mine used to refer to obviously-false misreporting of facts (like Young Earth creationists explaining the Biblical flood as being water falling from the moon) as "mendacious intellectual pornography." By this standard, TC's been in the industry so long he's no doubt sired uncountable hordes of bastard children

Does that mean that TC is an intellectual genghis khan mixed with a porn stache?

You got Genghis Kahn mixed in your porn stash?

@Mafia: I get offered the chance to be gay all the time. Never once took offense to it-- though I have had to correct a couple of gentlemen who got grabby with me-- just like I'm not prone to taking offense to people who offer me the chance to convert to their religion as long as they mind their manners about it.

All the Church did here is add Ms. Frank's name to the "Dead People We Wish Were Mormons" list-- just like when a homosexual makes a pass at you, he's hoping you find him attractive.

Draugnar: Bad example using the Catholic Church.

1. The Church's head lives in a city filled with gold, with rich vestments, and enough wealth to make Solomon blush. Hitchen's scathing criticism of Mother Theresa was dead on, and it applies to the entire Catholic Church. The Church doesn't really want to solve poverty. MT considered suffering a gift from God. Likewise, the Church wishes to give a false cure to promote its religion. I might add, I find the entire arrangement disgusting.

2. If the Church was so good at solving poverty and the like, why didn't it knock that shit out of the park for the roughly 1000+ years it had dominance in Europe?

Mitchell: If you feel happy talking to a fictional being, may I suggest also directing prayers at Yoda? Or Gandalf? Or maybe just pray to a unicorn. It would have the same effect. You'd still be pulling down a pulse, and it would all be thanks to Gandalf the Grey (or White, if you're feeling dirty)

If it makes you feel better, go right ahead... but I think even you seem to realize at some level that you're engaging in mental or spiritual masturbation

Wow, that's a great idea, Jack. Why has nobody thought of starting up a good Mithrandir cult before?

@Jack - It wasn't the example you thought it was. Quite the c ontrary, the point of my argument was that, despite the *evil* done by the Catholic Church (I wasn't pointint to it's good at all), it is still in a minority compared to all of Christianity (largest denomination, but not over 50%) and that Christianity is a minority compared to other religions. Might I suggest you reread what I wrote to see I wasn't promoting Catholicism? I'm a Protestant by upbringing and personally find the Catholic Churches teachings to be disgusting, so don't even think I was lifting that bunch of pedophiles up.

@Jack - I almost must point out that I didn't say the Church (Catholic or otherwise). What I said, if you would learn to read, was religion did good in the world. No specific Church or denomination. Just religion on the whole.

*also, not almost

Draugnar, yes, in U.S. popular culture, "class" is more often defined by the work one does than by the level of wealth or income that one has. But there are wide variations in the definitions of such terms as working class, middle class, blue-collar occupations, white-collar occupations, etc. We are abundantly aware of the definition of "working class" that YOU favor by now, so let's stop beating--or flogging, for our British friends from Largeham--this dead horse.

oops, I see now this thread has moved on.... lol

Let's go back! Please.

Uh, yeah Mujus. That was so 12 hours ago. :-)

This thread has bowled along at a good pace.

re Mr snitchens hitchens, it does not surprise me thet he may have "plagiarised"
his "nice" little line on proving / disproving god's existence without fact from the
communists.
He is a busy member of the provocative chattering classes so he has to entertain
his customers.

@ Draugnar, well welcome back from your self imposed break,

I am so gullible regarding the almighty mods and their actions, I thought
PresidentEden was in big trouble with the almighty mods because
MM> (MadMarx, the greater ) posted a funny message inferring that
President Eden was a multiaccount of opiwanopibwan & the almighty mods
were closing his, or both accounts / players.

@ Jack_Klein, I can instantly think of superior recipients for my reverence &
spiritual dialogue than Unicorns or Tolkien characters & am quite prepared to
admit a fondness for Onanism of self and/or partners
I also have no problem with your choice to be a "non believer" of whatever
type you like, eg agnostic, athiest or other
I heard a joke, better told than I can tell it, about the 2 parents, one athiest,
one agnostic, or both athiests, arguing over which religious school(s) their
offspring would not be sent to, because the parents had differing views as
to which Gods they did not believe to exist.

I like the notion of religious tolerance for society, am not a fan of theocratic states,
but i don't like the extremists who use religions to promote violence and hatred.
there is an inherent inconsistency in my views, eg how do you tolerate an avid
worshipper of Mars, the Greek god of war as they would presumably preach or
proseletyze in favour of violent war.

I did quite clearly admit that my religious views are illogical and irrational,
but when I thought I was about to exit this breathing, mortal existence,
I asked for Gods help in all earnestness & it would be, as I said, churlish and
impolite to insult God later on (whether god exists or not ).

@ Draugnar
I have suggested the use of the symbology
MM> for MadMarx, the greater
and mm< for me, obviously the lesser of the mm's

@ Draugnar,
of course you, and others are free to use mm,<f***!!t for my good self

But I like MjrMitch... :-(

OK, I'll use mm<. :-P (hehehe)

or mm>f***!!t for me

Draugnar, CEOs have control over the means of production, workers don't.

Mujus, close but no cigar. I'm from Australia (so spelling is the same).

Meh, he always considered himself a leftist despite his total selling out to neoconnery.

@largeham - So how about middle management or professionals like myself? I still work for my paycheck from the man.

I'm not sure what the issue is here...

Fasces, who are you asking?

@ Draugnar, it depends, middle management generally aren't considered workers, while professionals are. However, this is a matter of debate, people will disagree, I can't claim to speak for all Marxists.

Interesting because I make more than a lot of middle management and middle management doesn't exactly direct what is produced as much as act as a buffer n=between the rest of the work force and upper management (hence the term middle management). They still draw their paycheck from "the man".

In my mindset, if your own personal income is more than the median household and you don't have calluses or bloody knuckles or an aching body when you get in from work at night, then you aren't working class. If any of those things applies to you, you might be a redne... er... working class. :-)