[youtu.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 30, 2019:

What I want to know is--- who the hell is "Steve"? "Steve" walks warily down the street- with his brim pulled way down low- And then there's an ambush, and someone bites the dust. *Who the hell is "Steve"?*

I’m too selfish to adore an entity outside of myself!

Paul4747 comments on Sep 30, 2019:

I have no idea what to do with this thought.

Dubious record

Paul4747 comments on Sep 30, 2019:

At least it's some accomplishments....

Why is it that religious people think saying “well that was Old Testament” is a valid argument ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 30, 2019:

It's the equivalent of looking back at some shameful exploit in your own history and then excusing it by saying, "Well, but I was only 19 then." The idea is that they are excusing all the violence and misogyny and incest by saying, "Well, it's the OT..." The idea is that the OT is an "immature" set of documents in which God was instructing and shepherding a single chosen people in a hostile land full of enemies, and all those horrible things were somehow necessary for the survival of the Jews. The NT, on the other hand, is supposed to be a "mature" testament intended for the whole world to embrace. Beyond ignoring that most of the OT is pure mythology, this ignores the fact that Jesus, himself a Jew, was an apocalyptic preacher who expected the world to end in the generation of his disciples (if we believe the writings that came down several decades later). His preaching was for his fellow Jews. It was the Gentile Paul (Saul) who generalized this message for the world. Jesus would be spinning in his tomb if he knew what has become of his religion.

Bishop: Girls Should Skip College So They’re Not Smarter Than Their Husbands - Women should avoid ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 30, 2019:

Women smarter than me, please come my way... I'm tired of doing all the work in conversations.

Trashy much?

Paul4747 comments on Sep 30, 2019:

"Greta"? Who's "Greta"?

And the map is fake. That's not from 2016.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 30, 2019:

Hmmm...

Pat Robertson: God is bringing back leprosy as punishment for abortion – DeadState

Paul4747 comments on Sep 30, 2019:

What's the punishment for being a fraudulent old hack?

[sciencealert.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 28, 2019:

"Impostorism"?? This is a word?

For those who think Biden is a great guy.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 28, 2019:

Longer and more accurate version of this headline: "After I committed a possible felony and violated the non-disclosure agreement I signed with my employer, a contractor for the federal government, and then went on the run rather than face the music, Joe Biden did what any other representative of the United States would do and tried to get me extradited back to stand trial in the justice system." I don't care that a whistle-blower is a whistle-blower *per se*. But if your cause is just, if you feel strongly enough to reveal it to the world, and then you get outed, well, you stand up and get a lawyer and get your day in court. That's what the whistle-blower protection statutes are there for.

Donald J.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 28, 2019:

No recollection of history, even the history that he himself tweeted on multiple times. https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/feb/07/donald-trump/Yes-President-Trump-Congress-also-investigated/

It's a little overcast and rainy but my last weekend in Michigan with family before heading home.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 28, 2019:

If you pass through Adrian, give us a wave!

Trump’s baffling tweet about hyphens and Adam Schiff, explained - The Washington Post

Paul4747 comments on Sep 28, 2019:

Also, "never ending" should be hyphenated ("never-ending"). And if you want to put an apostrophe anywhere, it would go in the middle of the word, as in "Li'l Donny Trump", for example. The English language must make his liddle head spin.

Trump’s baffling tweet about hyphens and Adam Schiff, explained - The Washington Post

Paul4747 comments on Sep 28, 2019:

But- but- but- that's an apostrophe.... (Those were hyphens.) Am I the ONLY ONE who now wants to add "violent abuse of punctuation" to the list of charges against Trump?

Well, there are the Quick and the Dead...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 28, 2019:

I'm not sure if I'm not still doing 3G? I was in the Army, not the Air Force, helicopters didn't pull that many Gs...

The modern guru

Paul4747 comments on Sep 28, 2019:

Makes perfect sense... but he forgot to mention that the whole thing was staged at Area 51 using captured alien technology by Nazi scientists from Project Paper Clip who had assassinated Kennedy and framed Oswalt, because he opposed the Bay of Pigs invasion (which was really an attempt to capture the UFO landing base in Cuba). When did they start saying "Words By" instead of just "Written By", in magazine articles??

Rough couple of days Wednesday evening my back was spasmodic.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 28, 2019:

Do you have a massage therapist? Mine does wonders for me, at least temporarily, and sees me in emergencies...

Oh dear.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 26, 2019:

You need leather balls to play rugby.

Is there anyone but agnostics or atheists in foxholes?

Paul4747 comments on Sep 26, 2019:

Having been a soldier & in the company of soldiers, and having studied the military all my life, I have to say there are different kinds of believers (among those who do believe). One, who was portrayed quite accurately in the film *Saving Private Ryan* (the character Private Jackson), actually believes that God personally intervenes in individual lives and guides events. This can be either a very stable or a very dangerous kind of person to be around, depending on whether they are a humble person due to this belief or whether they think they know what "God's" plan is and believe they have a have a special place in it. Another is the more typical believer who was raised up in religion, but doesn't put any special emphasis on it any more than they do philosophy or politics. Typical believers (like most people, believer or not) aren't deep thinkers, they simply go to the services Sunday (or Saturday) and the rest of the week go about their business. If asked, they will tell you they believe in God, but it doesn't shape their lives more than any other factor. In a dangerous situation, they might well exclaim, "God, don't let me die here," but then again, an atheist might say "Oh my God, I don't want to die" too. It's cultural conditioning. Other believers don't even go to the services but practice a private belief. And then there are a certain number of agnostics/atheists in the military, as I was. I still have my dogtags reading "No Religious Preference". While everyone else was at the chapel Sunday mornings, I was in my bunk reading the field manual. The military is a cross-section of the civilian world, and you'll find the same beliefs there as anywhere else... at least that is my finding.

APOCALYPSE NOT?

Paul4747 comments on Sep 25, 2019:

So, we're getting our science and climate news from the Competitive Enterprise Institute now, right? Because they're sure to be completely unbiased and have no stake whatsoever in whether there are tighter regulations on carbon emissions, pollution, waste disposal, fuel efficiency, or any of a dozen things that actual scientists are urging in order to stop the continuing trend of the destruction of our climate... Meanwhile, anyone looking at actual science (like the UN report) would conclude that we're fucked. We fucked ourselves and the world for the next 1000 years. For example, global mean sea level has risen by over 3 meters, if I read the report correctly, since 1901, and it has accelerated fastest since 1990. That ain't coincidence. That's *us* fucking the planet. And it's really too late to unfuck. The most we can do is hope to *stop making it worse.*

[businessinsider.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 25, 2019:

"Mauldin told The New York Times that his intentions were to give voters the facts, but his websites only target Democrats." Gosh, now who does this remind me of... Oh, that's right. This is a quote straight from Wikileaks' defense playbook. "We just want to tell the truth", but we're only telling a carefully edited version of it and it will only make our enemies look bad, not our (infinitely worse) friends.

beware! as the whistleblower issue intensifies we see a sudden outbreak of -- get this -- why ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 25, 2019:

It's really not surprising. The "progressives" have been angry at Pelosi for a long time now, for not being progressive enough, not being liberal enough, being willing to compromise with Republicans and actually get things done (you know, accomplishing things with politics instead of advertising her principles)... and on the tip of this iceberg has been her unwillingness to burn political capital by starting impeachment hearings which she knew certainly wouldn't go anywhere in the Senate, but might easily backfire and increase the fervor of Trump's base. Pelosi may be an idealist at her core, but she's also a strategist, and there's no ground to be gained in fighting a battle where the outcome is almost certainly going to be a Pyrrhic victory; impeachment in the House, and acquittal in the Senate. Now that there may be an almost incontrovertible issue, where Trump will be almost impossible to defend, and on which the Senate has already once voted unanimously, it's time to start impeachment proceedings. She's no fool.

The indoctrination of America to bring Wikileaks into disrepute - "on Sept.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 25, 2019:

Be that as it may, from what I read; Assange wrote on WikiLeaks in February 2016: "I have had years of experience in dealing with Hillary Clinton and have read thousands of her cables. Hillary lacks judgement and will push the United States into endless, stupid wars which spread terrorism. ... she certainly should not become president of the United States." In conversations that were leaked in February 2018, Assange expressed a preference for a Republican victory in the 2016 election, saying that "Dems+Media+liberals woudl [sic] then form a block to reign [sic] in their worst qualities. With Hillary in charge, GOP will be pushing for her worst qualities, dems+media+neoliberals will be mute.". Having released information that exposed the inner workings of a broad range of organisations and politicians, WikiLeaks started by 2016 to focus almost exclusively on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. In the 2016 US presidential election, WikiLeaks only exposed material damaging to the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton. WikiLeaks even rejected the opportunity to publish unrelated leaks, because it dedicated all its resources to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. According to The New York Times, WikiLeaks timed one of its large leaks so that it would happen on the eve of the Democratic Convention. The Washington Post noted that the leaks came at an important sensitive moment in the Clinton campaign, as she was preparing to announce her vice-presidential pick and unite the party behind her. The Sunlight Foundation, an organisation that advocates for open government, said that such actions meant that WikiLeaks was no longer striving to be transparent but rather sought to achieve political goals. WikiLeaks explained its actions in a 2017 statement to Foreign Policy: "WikiLeaks schedules publications to maximize readership and reader engagement. During distracting media events such as the Olympics or a high profile election, unrelated publications are sometimes delayed until the distraction passes but never are rejected for this reason." On 7 October 2016, an hour after the media had begun to dedicate wall-to-wall coverage of the revelation that Trump had bragged on video about sexually harassing women, WikiLeaks began to release emails hacked from the personal account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Podesta suggested that the emails were timed to deflect attention from the Trump tapes. In 2010, Donald Trump called WikiLeaks "disgraceful" and suggested that the "death penalty" should be a punishment for WikiLeaks' releases of information. Following the dump of e-mails hacked from the Hillary Clinton campaign, Donald Trump told voters, "I love WikiLeaks!" Trump made many references to WikiLeaks during...

To me she and Bernie are the true Democrats.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 25, 2019:

Are you using the "No true Scotsman" test? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman One of the greatest things about the Democratic party is that pretty much anybody can be a Democrat, except for Republicans.

I think insomnia has found me again.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 25, 2019:

:( I feel for you. And in the same boat, since I have to go drive my daughter to school in... 3 hours?

Here is my vote . . .

Paul4747 comments on Sep 23, 2019:

Thanks for effectively voting Republican. They appreciate it. You have a choice in any election: vote your "conscience", or vote effectively. If voting for what you see as the lesser evil prevents a greater evil, I'll take that any day of the week and twice on Election Day.

War is when government tells people who their enemy is.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 23, 2019:

Fun fact: in the Revolutionary War, only about 1/3 of the American colonists actually *revolted*, as such. 15 to 20 percent of the colonists remained loyal to the Crown, and half (or more) tried to stay out of the whole business. I suspect, as an historian, that most if not all revolutions follow this pattern: a minority of activists and hotheads on either side, and in the middle, the majority who just wish people would quit shooting up their homes and businesses and go the fuck away. Chairman Mao made this point explicitly: that the revolutionaries must make the majority take sides, either by forcibly recruiting them, or by implicating them in acts of anti-government violence so that they would face reprisals and have no choice but to join the partisans. Let's put it this way: if there were a Revolution tomorrow, I'll bet most of us wouldn't like it either.

Here's the thing: All IMAGINARY things are the same.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 23, 2019:

This strikes me as a brand of Buddhism: "Nothing has a real existence, only our minds perception seem to give it reality." But electricity, for example, has a real existence which predates our minds (and all life on Earth). The names for our measurements are imagined, and we might as well call them Fleems, Microfleems, and Quadzorks for all the difference it makes, but the things being measured *exist*. Art, on the other hand, is a human concept. Paint on a canvas or rock on a plinth exist, but they may or may not be art. Government is a human construct: People sitting in a building exist, but they are only a government because of agreed-upon human constructs. Same goes for laws: Pieces of paper exist, but the law is a product of imagination. On the other hand, try walking into a diamond merchant's, lean over the counter, and walk out with a handful of pretty pretty rocks, and then, when the men in blue uniforms (hey, police are just an imaginary concept) point their metal sticks at you and shout "Freeze!", wave merrily and keep walking. Their imagination will become your reality in a heartbeat.

It's Friday.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 20, 2019:

Have fun! I myself am going to meet a lady who reached out to me through Match.com recently, we've been chatting steadily and have a lot in common. It seems like we have a great chance to start a very fun friends relationship and maybe build up something serious eventually. No expectations though, just going to enjoy the moment.

More evidence of Dems election rigging- would be funny if it weren't so slimey. [theintercept.com]

Paul4747 comments on Sep 19, 2019:

The crucial bit is this: '“Staying out of primaries sounds small-D democratic, very intellectual, and very interesting,” said Hoyer. “But if you stay out of primaries, and somebody wins in the primary who can’t possibly win in the general,” the Maryland representative said, citing the surprise victory of Democrat Doug Jones over Republican Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate election, “I’m not saying you’re that person.” But staying out of primaries, he argued, is “not very smart strategy.”' And he's right. It's not "slimey", it's how politics works. The national parties have a strategy to win elections. They put their bets on what look like the best horses. That's politics.

I know some of you may have seen this meme but it gave me a chuckle and thought I would share.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 19, 2019:

That's.... actually the first time in 53 years I've even thought of that. :D

James Robison: God Is Using Trump to Usher in 'The Greatest Spiritual Awakening in History' | Right ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 19, 2019:

"People that God refers to as 'the Remnant'"... where does God refer to *anybody* as this? Or does the *Left Behind* series now count as part of the Bible for guys like this?

James Robison: God Is Using Trump to Usher in 'The Greatest Spiritual Awakening in History' | Right ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 19, 2019:

In the same way that Truman used two atomic bombs to usher in a new period of Japanese history? Assuming I believed this crap, it would prove only that God was a complete dick. Then again, Lot (supposedly the holiest man in Sodom) offered his virgin daughters to a mob of Sodomites and later on they got him drunk and got pregnant by him... and Trump did say he would sleep with his own daughter, if not for the relationship- so I can see the parallels there.

Muslim in a yoga class.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 19, 2019:

The extremists who are afraid of anything different will be the loudest, and that goes for both sides of the issue. The extremist Xians and racialists see anything different from what they grew up with as a threat, and some who emigrate want to import their home country with them when they go to a new land because it's all strange and frightening to them. All places and all ages have seen this; it's the speed of travel and the speed of communication in the modern era that makes it seem more prevalent and more intense. The more a community has its own language and culture, the longer it takes to integrate. Look at the history of the Italians and the Irish in New York, the Germans in the American Midwest, the Australians everywhere (kidding!). (I stole that one from Terry Pratchett...) I am certain, as a historian, that in a century this will be yet another story of the continuing migrations of humans over the face of the planet. Oh yeah- and that Trump and Johnson will be remembered as two of the worst elected leaders in history, not least because of their resistance to the ongoing trend of humans to merge into one culture worldwide, not to divide back into squabbling bands of primates.

YOUR HARAM SCORE This has been posted on Agnostic before but it is worth repeating.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 19, 2019:

Just start me off at 10,000, and then consider I don't have a tattoo and haven't smoked marijuana. Funny, most of the muslims I know (granted, they're in prison) have tattoos, drink alcohol and use drugs. Pretty sure they masturbate too... and several have sex with other men.

Hi guys Help me out here.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 19, 2019:

Is "higher consciousness" another code name for gods or spiritualism, entering via the back door? A person can have a higher awareness of the world and its issues, a person can be more empathetic, a person can be more intelligent, but that is all as a human being; and that's all we're ever going to be. Evolution is not a self-initiated process, it's the process of natural selection for a species survival. One can't "evolve toward a higher consciousness" any more than I can evolve toward bigger arms. The terms you use, "our energies with the earth, animals the universe etc" have no rational meaning. This is mysticism. That's how I would answer it, and how I believe most atheists would.

[vice.com] The US Navy says the UFOs in Tom Delonges videos are unidentified aerial phenomena.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 18, 2019:

The one thing these are almost certainly not is manned (or even remotely piloted) craft from some other civilization. It's just too damn far, and to make it worth the trip, to then hover mysteriously over vacant areas of ocean, instead of contacting someone like Stephen Hawking or the UN and announcing their presence? The most likely explanation is that someone's experimental aircraft are where they're not supposed to be, and they're having their pictures taken.

I am on the road and my phone has died, I won't know what all I've lost until I can see how ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 17, 2019:

Remember paper and pencils? I think I'll get me an address book for my birthday, and keep things written down, for the next time my phone gets caught in the rain or whatever... ;)

There was a post on here a couple of days ago that listed many of the gods, prior to the god of the ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 17, 2019:

It won't matter to the "faithful", because, in the words of one member at my ex-wife's church, "Those were just mythological gods. Jesus is True." The power to believe in one's own version of myth is self-blinding. (Notice how similar this is to the belief in one's own politicians or in conspiracy theories, no matter how many facts are laid out in contradiction. It's cognitive dissonance, and atheists/agnostics have it too. Human nature generally settles on a view of the universe, and woe betide anyone who tries to shake it. It takes incredible intellectual honesty to critique one's own beliefs as one would critique anyone else's.)

The 598 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter: A Complete List

Paul4747 comments on Sep 16, 2019:

Excuse me, I need to go wash out my brain....

What do you think about this photo?

Paul4747 comments on Sep 13, 2019:

In another 250 or 1000 years, Christianity will hopefully be seen as another outbreak of the ancient mystery religions, and Jesus as the latest popular incarnation of Osiris. Until then, it's going to be continue to be a rough ride.

Just a thought that I've had since I was young trying to understand the rotation of the earth, and ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 13, 2019:

You have to get Superman to turn the planet backwards, so everything un-happens. Which begs the question- if he can do this to save Lois Lane, why can't he do it to solve every problem, every time? (Secret answer- he only cares about Lois. Superman's a dick.)

Solve a problem that you created and use the solution that you regularly rail against to save your ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 13, 2019:

Not seeing how it's all that different from decades of price supports to keep food prices artificially low and keep agribusiness booming. I'd like to see some figures on how much of that $7.7bn went to Archer-Daniels-Midland....

There may NOT be life on other planets

Paul4747 comments on Sep 13, 2019:

You're speculating about the probability of specifically a human-like intelligence appearing on another planet, not LIFE, full stop. It's also pure speculation as to whether this genome mutation is THE cause for human consciousness. This is a very humanocentric view to say the least. You state that the occurrence of the original mutation of the notch genome is not unusual. Why assume that the further mutation would be unique in the universe? All primates exhibit self-awareness and consciousness. Apes have communicated in multiple languages and have a concept of themselves as individuals. Human mentality is an evolution but not a revolution. The appearance of life itself on a planet is an incredibly unusual event, where the odds are amazingly low, but it takes only one lucky chance. It's the equivalent of the Irish Sweepstakes; imagine you're holding 100 trillion tickets and need only one winner to take it all. Even with those chances, not every planet will win, but at least some will. Once life appears, evolutionary pressures will tend to make that life more complex and tend to push predator and prey species to become more intelligent. The history of Earth suggests that life everywhere takes the same path, once the first very lucky step is taken. So, the odds are that there is life at least somewhere else, and the odds are that this life is intelligent to some degree.

Felicity Huffman Sentenced In College Admissions Scandal

Paul4747 comments on Sep 13, 2019:

I can't remember, who the fack is Felicity Huffman that she's considered- anybody?

Unhealthy food. How could I have been more tactful?

Paul4747 comments on Sep 13, 2019:

'"I ate dinner at home before coming," I replied.' If you had stopped there, that's how you could have been more tactful.

When is enough, enough! You may not agree, we have to start somewhere! Maybe if E-cigerrttes ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 12, 2019:

Yes, it is past time to ban the private ownership of nuclear/biological/chemical weapons. Oh, you were talking about *guns? * Out of curiosity, what's your definition of "mass destruction"? Because, despite what the Congressional Research Service and the FBI currently think, I don't consider 4 people a "mass". That's, like, a "multiple".

How many of you are going to watch the debates tonight? I know I am...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 12, 2019:

I know I'll be at work... I did hear something Warren said- along the lines of "Don't back a candidate you don't believe in just because you're afraid of Trump." I took that as "Don't worry about whether I can win the general election, I just want the nomination." Except, yeah, ***THE most important thing*** is the election!!! So, damn right I'm thinking about who can beat Trump! And I am throwing my weight behind someone who's running to the center NOW, not a so-called "progressive" who's going to lose in November. In 2016 Democrats figured Trump couldn't possibly win, and look where we are. Now they figure he can't possibly win again, so they're wrangling among themselves to win the left wing of the party. They NEED to win the center of the nation. When did my party become such blithering idiots?

What’s one of the dumbest movies you’ve watched?

Paul4747 comments on Sep 12, 2019:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Patrol *Night Patrol*, 1984. The only movie I've actually walked out of. It was advertised as being something like *Police Academy* but that was a lie. No plot to speak of, just things happening for no apparent reason, and then other things happening. It "starred" the Unknown Comic, if that gives you any hint at how bad it was.

Remember Building 7: "Pull it."

Paul4747 comments on Sep 12, 2019:

Having no context whatsoever, I can only guess you're a conspiracy theorist of some sort and believe the building (and by extension, the Towers themselves) was deliberately demolished? It might be instructive to read the following: 'In the PBS documentary America Rebuilds, which aired in September 2002, Larry Silverstein, the owner of 7 WTC and leaseholder and insurance policy holder for the remainder of the WTC complex, recalled a discussion with the fire department in which doubts about containing the fires were expressed. Silverstein recalled saying, "We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it". "They made that decision to pull", he recalled, "and we watched the building collapse." Silverstein issued a statement that it was the firefighting team, not the building, that was to be pulled, contradicting theorists' allegation that "pull" was used in a demolition-related sense.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_controlled_demolition_conspiracy_theories#7_World_Trade_Center

Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

Paul4747 comments on Sep 11, 2019:

Both sides accept that there's no divine power who wants them exclusively to own the land, and just live there together in peace as a secular state. I see two chances of this resolution happening in our lifetime: slim, and none.

Tennessee GOP Senator says getting rid of higher education would save America

Paul4747 comments on Sep 10, 2019:

I see that he graduated Lipscomb University, "a [private] faith-based, liberal arts institution dedicated to challenging students academically, spiritually and as global community citizens". So, he didn't actually have any higher education. Points for practicing what he preaches, I guess.

The Mix-up of the Two Jonathans.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 10, 2019:

Well, sure... it was the Bahamas and nobody he knew was down there at the time. Could have been a hurricane in Kentucky instead. See? God had to destroy something, he picked the right target. It's like when Trump throws a tantrum, he just should have aimed it at the right person.

Trump says N.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 10, 2019:

Maybe they just came from the wet t-shirt contest down the street? Big college town down that way, isn't it?

The natural world is full of grisly cases of predation, parasitism, a universe of ghastly horrors ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 10, 2019:

Your quotation looks only at the dark side of natural selection. Those genes have also been favored which tend to predispose species to rear their offspring in a caring, nurturing, and cooperative manner, and for those offspring in turn to cooperate in adolescence and adulthood for their common self-interest and to raise the next generation. After all, we're here, are we not? And to forgo the obvious example of humans having evolved as we are, observe the wolf, ape, deer, horse, buffalo, any number of bird species, kangaroo, mouse, rat, marmoset, chimp, monkey, cheetah, jaguar, sea lion, dolphin, gazelle... incredible numbers of species that have evolved with a social life and exhibit altruism among one another. Granted, such behavior may ultimately benefit the survival of the individual, calculated on an unconscious level, but that cannot negate the fact of the behavior itself. The gene may be selfish, but it also cares for the survival of its kin. Natural selection is not "nature red in tooth and claw". Within a species, animals cooperate as much as they compete. It's the crime of Social Darwinists to misapply a theory they did not understand in the first place and conclude that all humans should be competing with one another to see how "fit" they are to survive.

Seafood-lovers have more sex and take less time to get pregnant | New Scientist

Paul4747 comments on Sep 10, 2019:

I'm off to the Red Lobster for lunch...

Commerce Chief Threatened Firings at NOAA After Trump’s Dorian Tweets, Sources Say

Paul4747 comments on Sep 10, 2019:

Well of course. You don't contradict Da Chief.

Google political correctness bite its stupidity.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 9, 2019:

I fondly remember walking down the street in Glasgow with a fellow exchange student and his reaction when a homeless gentleman asked (seeing that I was smoking) if I could spare a fag. I already knew British English and so I lent him one without batting an eyelid.

The husband gets the last laugh... LOL 😄!

Paul4747 comments on Sep 8, 2019:

Just as well he didn't have a pet monkey.

Defending beliefs.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 8, 2019:

Are you talking about on this site, or in general? If the answer is the former, then consider you are on a primarily atheist/agnostic website, so the membership are mostly inclined to be somewhat hostile towards religion in general. If you're defending believers' right to believe in what many of us think is fiction, then you're barking up the wrong tree. I mean, sure, they have that right, but they might as well believe in Santa Claus and will probably get that same amount of respect as if they did. If you mean in general, then can you tell me where you hang out that there are so many atheists, that religious people need to be defended from them? Because I'm going to move there ASAP.

Im glad my coping skills have improved when I have to deal with this same old same old.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 8, 2019:

I like it too... :) Sounds like she's jealous. You do look great. Maybe she thinks she doesn't measure up.

Scotty, don't beam me up yet . . .

Paul4747 comments on Sep 7, 2019:

No toilets on the Enterprise. They just beam the crap right out of your intestines.

If you GOP'ers thought you'd have options other than the Orange Menace.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 6, 2019:

It's about denying the challengers an official stage to embarrass Trump. It's not unprecedented to pass up holding a primary; what's unprecedented is how much dirty laundry this incumbent would have aired.

Donald Trump’s China Tariffs Don’t Apply to Ivanka – Fortune [fortune.com]

Paul4747 comments on Sep 6, 2019:

We wouldn't want any celebrity casualties in the trade war, now would we?

RIGHT-WING RADIO HOST SAYS NEW YORK-BORN ANDREW YANG 'SHOULD GO BACK TO CHINA': 'WHY IS HE COMING ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 6, 2019:

So it's okay to make racist remarks if you're of a minority race? That makes you bulletproof? The lack of empathy and imagination is staggering. If it weren't for his Republican/conservative role, if he were on the other team, Trump would be calling for Jesse Peterson to "go back where he came from" too.

How do you help people?

Paul4747 comments on Sep 6, 2019:

I tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to be told. (By the way, interesting necklace. Not to be unwelcoming, but you do know what site this is?)

The EU believes that it "owns" the UK. [spectator.co.uk]

Paul4747 comments on Sep 6, 2019:

In the sense that the US owns Texas, for example, yes. And if Texas voted to leave the nation, I imagine there would be a similar sort of behind-the-scenes conversations on both sides.

My comment to an ardent Trump supporter on a dating site.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 6, 2019:

:( You can't catch that stuff.... can you? :(

My story is, for the most part, “based” on a true story.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 6, 2019:

You and @powder are actually both figments of MY imagination. Sorry, Powder. You only *thought* you got here first.

Eat your hearts out, peons.

Paul4747 comments on Sep 5, 2019:

Hooray! How long did you have to wait? So I can take a guess when I might get my 3x in the mailbox? (I know I'm still just a peon until I get a shirt!)

Is the RDIF chip sign of end times?

Paul4747 comments on Sep 5, 2019:

If it is, then it's the first time in 6000 years that a Bible prophesy has been right.... except for those specifically written to refer to one another. (Such as, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a mule or ass or whatever, specifically because a book in the OT predicted the Messiah would ride in on a mule. Or ass, or whatever. He read the book and then fulfilled it. It's not that hard to do- for instance, the prophecies about false prophets leading believers astray with their criticisms; well, here we are.)

Hurricane Dorian sends bricks of cocaine onto Florida beaches - AOL News

Paul4747 comments on Sep 5, 2019:

Party at your place after the storm

Conservatives fear of diversity

Paul4747 comments on Sep 5, 2019:

After much reading and thinking, I've finally concluded it's because: Humans are genetically programmed to be conservatives and fear new things. This is a holdover from our evolution as small tribal hunting bands where any stranger was likely to be a threat (except, significantly, a female, who was a potential breeding partner as far as males were concerned). It takes a conscious effort of self-education and self-programming to overcome this instinctive fear of new people and things. Different is bad. People that are the same as you are safe.

An email from a guy on a dating site: "Gwen forgive me for bothering you, you're the first real ...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 1, 2019:

I can't remember where I read this- maybe Dawkins? but we are born with a tendency to both look for explanations for natural phenomena, and to read *intentions* into things that cannot strictly speaking have them- e.g. "those clouds want to rain," "that rock looks ready to fall on something," "this damn car doesn't want to start." We look for something controlling the world. And so, before we discovered the physics involved in things like weather and gravity, we looked to gods as the things that moved these phenomena. This was the origin of belief. Or so I recall reading, and it made sense.

The religion of "peace" : : : List of Killings in the Name of Islam: 35555 deadly attacks since 9-11...

Paul4747 comments on Sep 1, 2019:

*At the very least* 100,000 violent deaths in Iraq, including over 60,000 civilian deaths, since the beginning of America's "crusade" against Islamic terrorism in a war which had absolutely no connection with terrorism. Mind you, the word "crusade" was used by Bush himself, as well as a prominent General in a public speech. The Iraq war was effectively a recruiting campaign for Al Qaeda. Americans who thought they were fighting terrorism were lied to horribly. And they largely thought it was God's will to go to Iraq and shoot anyone suspected of being associated with the terrorists, not to mention torture them in Saddam's old prisons (America being the religious nation we are). I'm sorry, were you making some point about Muslims killing people?

Income taxes is theft.

Paul4747 comments on Aug 31, 2019:

Where did you go to school? The first Federal income tax was in 1861, and it helped finance the Union's victory in the Civil War. There were also huge regressive taxes in the form of tariffs, tolls, and excise taxes, which the poor paid a larger portion of as a share of their income. The income tax as it stands is a progressive system, since the wealthy, who can afford to pay more, in theory do pay more. There has *never* been a time when Americans were not paying taxes. The only question is, in what form, and what did we get for the money.

Deportation will likely end her life. Tell me again. How wonderful capitalism is. [twitter.com]

Paul4747 comments on Aug 31, 2019:

Trump is a protectionist. He wants to withdraw from or renegotiate a bunch of trade agreements because they don't favor the US enough, they make our businesses compete (gasp! for shame!) and his trade war with China is all about thinking that we somehow should be able to export all our products there, without importing anything. Trump only believes in capitalism if he's winning. If he thinks he's losing, he's against capitalism. And that's not a capitalist.

Drumpf shares classified document on Twitter.

Paul4747 comments on Aug 31, 2019:

There's an old saying related to this... "If you hand a chimp a gun, and the chimp shoots someone- is it the chimp's fault?" If you hand a chimp the foreign policy, and the chimp starts WW3- is it the chimp's fault, or is it the people who voted for the chimp? Sorry, I meant "chump". Not chimp. Typo.

How could Adam and Eve sin if they didn't know sin yet?

Paul4747 comments on Aug 30, 2019:

How could they sin if they didn't exist, and there was no god to sin against?

Do you ever have absurd late-night worries?

Paul4747 comments on Aug 30, 2019:

This is one of the advantages of insomnia.

Being single again I want to offer some advice.

Paul4747 comments on Aug 30, 2019:

I was on it for a while, but the paucity of people in my area and a second shift schedule, soon there was no point reading the notifications anymore. All the interesting meetings were on nights I worked or 45 to 90 minutes away. I imagine, if I lived in a metropolitan area or had a normal job, I'd get more use out of this site.

What’s your favorite month on the calendar and why?

Paul4747 comments on Aug 29, 2019:

I'm waiting for Sektobruary. It's composed of all the days we lost when the various monks fucked up the calendars trying to account for the birth and death of different religious figures or whatever the hell they did, and thus lost us a bunch of days. The church owes us. When we get those days back (with interest), it will be a paid holiday for the world, courtesy of the Vatican Bank. And we will call it Sektobruary.

Question to ask.... Lol

Paul4747 comments on Aug 29, 2019:

By those standards, I'm okay so far today.

Is taking a week off from the gym after working out a year and four months fine?

Paul4747 comments on Aug 28, 2019:

If it's also okay to take 19 years off from the gym, after working out for 2 weeks. So I think you're good.

Out of pure curiosity, is there a male equivalent for resting bitch face?

Paul4747 comments on Aug 27, 2019:

Yes, and I have it. See photo.

Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte is back, as is every processed pumpkin atrocity

Paul4747 comments on Aug 27, 2019:

You're kidding me. It's ***August***, right? Why the hell are people thinking about pumpkin *anything* in August? This is all of a piece with putting out Xmas ornaments in stores the week before Halloween and shit like that. And the way sports seasons now go year round. I remember when the World Series was in October and football started in September. And hockey was a winter sport. I never paid much attention to basketball, honestly, but I'm pretty sure it didn't run 10 months of the year. This is why I hate "progress".

(SORRY EVERYONE, I thought I was posting this under "Politics") On behalf of my state, let me ...

Paul4747 comments on Aug 27, 2019:

Holy shit, I thought it was in Maine or some other shithole place like that. I didn't realize it was MY shithole state. Fuck me. First we vote in John Engler for 3 terms, then we vote Trump, now this. I hate this crappy state.

Is education missing the boat by failing to consider the real issues?

Paul4747 comments on Aug 27, 2019:

Shocking evidence that Charles Scultz was a Marxist revolutionary

Why is racism is wrong?

Paul4747 comments on Aug 27, 2019:

Why? Because "race" is a null concept. All humans are the same race or species. Our common ancestor, approximately 200,000 years ago, was dark-skinned. Any genetic variation since then in skin pigmentation is simply natural selection for climate regions after the migrations out of Africa. It has nothing whatsoever to do with character, intellect, or the host of attributes with which skin color has been wrongly associated in popular legend and prejudice. You might just as well say that Trump is an idiot due to his white skin, and Obama is a genius because he's black. But that observation, again, is completely unscientific. Skin color is completely unconnected to anything else. There is no such thing as "race" other than as a cultural construct. **That** is why racism is wrong, from a scientific point of view. It's provable. As an atheist, that's what I care about. As a human being, what I care about is that racists (on all sides) are dreadful people who do dreadful things and then try to justify themselves by saying, "Well, why is racism really so *wrong*, anyway?" You should be fucking ashamed of yourself.

How do you determine who you follow here?

Paul4747 comments on Aug 26, 2019:

The more important question is, how do you decide who to block? I'm still debating internally over one or two whose entertainment value just barrrrely exceeds their annoyance quotient.

Why would someone who is so concerned about global warming and rising sea levels spend 14.

Paul4747 comments on Aug 26, 2019:

It went out the window when your team elected a president who, as a real estate developer, repeatedly hired contractors to work on his projects, then broke his contracts and refused to pay them, effectively daring them to take him to court because he could afford to drag it out for years, whereas the small businesses would go bankrupt long before the case would be over. A president who declared himself bankrupt repeatedly while being a billionaire. Who bragged about manipulating the system and claims that's the smart thing to do, all while losing more money than any person alive today- yet claiming to be a brilliant businessman. Who accuses his opponents of being liars while lying at a rate of 12 verified falsehoods per day for the duration of his term in office so far. Yep- leading by example, all right.

If you could be alone and totally undisturbed with tRump for 10 minutes, what would you do or say?

Paul4747 comments on Aug 26, 2019:

It is illegal to threaten the life of a president of these United States, even hypothetically. I am therefore somewhat constrained in my responses to this thread.

How do you determine who you follow here?

Paul4747 comments on Aug 26, 2019:

I just follow people who seem to have interesting points of view, and honestly, when someone follows me, I sometimes return that out of politeness if they seem interesting.

Muhammad was a piece of shit, and this conviction is BS. [newsweek.com]

Paul4747 comments on Aug 26, 2019:

On the one hand, and then on the other- community standards in the 7th Century were not what they are now. As the court pointed out, there's a difference between child marriage and pedophilia. It was traditional to give away children in arranged marriages well into the Rennaissance, and the age of consent was much lower even in the early 20th century, even in enlightened America. ("Jerry Lee Lewis.") Under our standards today, yes, he would be a pedophile. By the standards of the 7th Century Arabian Peninsula, he was doing what all the royalty did- and what all the royalty of Europe did- and Native Americans- and Africans- and Australians- and Indians (I mean the subcontinent, of course).... It does seem that, by ignoring the historical context, and judging by modern standards, she just wanted to make Muhammad look worse. Not that I agree with the standards of the 7th Century either, but will we want people judging us in 500 years? What will they think of us?

A Campaign Targeting Our Staff | The New York Times Company

Paul4747 comments on Aug 26, 2019:

If you can't refute the truth, attack the source. The traditional game plan for the Republicans (well, all politicians, be fair) but now it's gone to a new pitch under trump.

Satanic Temple Says It Will 'Fight to the Death' for LGBTQ+ Rights

Paul4747 comments on Aug 25, 2019:

Anyone's death specifically?

Common sense for some but not all

Paul4747 comments on Aug 25, 2019:

It's more than that. It's exactly what most of his voters wanted. Exactly what they wanted. I work with a Trump fan and he relishes every time something happens regarding immigration. He really doesn't get the idea that immigrants are people who love America and think we're a good nation, and want to work. He imagines they're loafers and parasites. Which makes me wonder- if he could, would he just milk the system or does he think work is a noble way to earn a living?

Centrists Are Going to Kill Us | Common Dreams Views

Paul4747 comments on Aug 25, 2019:

I'll give you one specific at least where this article has its head up its ass. Make that two. Clinton did not lose Michigan by being too centrist (because Michigan is a centrist state, where the Governor is usually a Republican and the Dems only come out to vote for the President). She lost by not campaigning in Michigan. Democrats took the election for granted and they lost it. They believed the polls. People lied to the pollsters (it has been proved) because they were ashamed to admit they planned to vote for Trump; especially white women. That's the story. "Electrifying transportation" sounds great. Who's paying for it? If I could have replaced my 2004 Pontiac with a hybrid, I would have done it years ago. Long term investments in the environment sound great as a grand scheme, but when you get to the level of a millionnaire telling individuals that they will have to replace their gas-powered cars (or when you make your speeches sound like that), then you piss people off. "Obama was a centrist, but he mobilized progressives". Exactly. So that's what we need. Not a progressive who alienates centrists. (Bonus third specific thing.) This is a thinly disguised pro-Sanders, anti-Biden opinion piece, not an analysis.

A Demon offers you a single legendary item beyond anything you could imagine.

Paul4747 comments on Aug 25, 2019:

So, I suppose this would convert me to Christianity, since there's a demon involved and I would have objective evidence? Screw the items, I'm videotaping the conversation and then getting rich off the interview fees and/or blackmailing the Vatican to cover it up.

Good! Too bad they can't get the idiots who put up the monument and decided to fight the ACLU to ...

Paul4747 comments on Aug 25, 2019:

How about the city, in turn, billing the clowns who funded the damn monument in the first place? They had nothing better to do with their cash then, where are they now?