Hmicciche's Waterfall
This is a good music video?
Logan Lynn: Feed Me to the Wolves
First tract of the first album of Portland-based alternative electro pop artist Logan Lynn on the Dandy Warhols label.
Showing on MTV's Logos channel
One of the top 10 videos selected in 2009 by the staff of the MTV College Blog.
Available on Comcast video on demand.
Directed and produced by my daughter and her company "Bystander Productions"
WARNING: NSFW
Please feel free to inquire if Essemby Alumni member mdurrettuk is a Alum.
I've already determined that your ally TERMINATOR is not. Should we now ban him or should we welcome him like we would welcome a new member on Essembly?
I'm changing the description of Essembly Alumni to "People who took part in Essembly -- or wish they could have." That will accommodate any new folk and let them know that we have a particular history of which they should be aware.
What is the point of using the term "Zorachian" without folks having been exposed to the real Zorach? Would anyone get it?
Well, the group was set up as a convenience for those who wish to make "Essembly Alumni" exclusive "resolves" and also so I could learn the workings of CreateDebate debate communities (what Essembly would call a "group"). It will thrive only if it meets a need. But I see your larger point. Why bother with all this discussion about how to set up a "group" that may not be used.
Hahaha. People on this site are going to wonder what "Zorachian" is. You should provide a link to the urban dictionary entry for it.
Is it Zorachian? No. the common perception is that Atheists are Anti-god. Ask around and see if I am right.
Marriage is a civil union. Lets work this backwards. Is marriage a union? Why, yes. In fact, one of the definitions of union is marriage. [1]
What then is the definition of "civil"? One definition is "not religious: performed by a state official such as a registrar rather than a member of the clergy" [2]
Wait a moment. Am I claiming that marriage is not religious? Well, let me ask you this. Where do you go to get a marriage license? To your local Hari Krisna Temple? And where do you go to get divorced? To the Scientology Center where they do away with your "until death do us part" vow before God and absolve you of going against the command "What God has joined together let no man put asunder"? No, you go before a judge.
Some people choose to have a marriage ceremony in a religious institution. But it is not necessary. Neither is it sufficient. You are not legally married without a license from the government.
In fact, well before religious institutions performed marriage ceremonies, "traditional marriage" was a "common law" marriage. After people lived together long enough, they had the legal status of a married couple. It was religion that moved in on what before was a purely civic matter.
In the debate about same-sex marriage, some folks say, "Let them form civil unions instead and leave marriage to the religious." Um, no. Some marriage ceremonies are religious. But all marriages are civil unions. If some religious institution wishes to allow same-sex marriage ceremonies, that is up to them. However, it is up to the government to give same-sex couples the right to marry.
Remember. Same-sex couple want equal rights, not equal rites.
[1] http://www.bing.com/Dictionary/
[2] http://www.bing.com/Dictionary/
i was part of the Essembly debate site for 3 years until it died last month. People could vote on old debates, but the site never notifed you of the new activity. You had to click back tons of pages and scan all the debates to see if there was a new vote. This site is much better in that regard. I'm running out of new debates to comment on, so I'll be exploring old ones. It helps get a sense of people's interests, concerns and personalities here.
That's obvious.
The Price is Right.
But to make it more interesting, the losers should need to be spayed or neutered.
Everyone's doing the reincarnation bop
Once you start
You'll find it hard to stop.
Everyone's doing the reincarnation bop
Once you start
You'll find it hard to stop.
Everyone's doing the reincarnation bop
Once you start
You'll find it hard to stop.
Everyone's doing the reincarnation bop
Once you start
You'll find it hard to stop.
Everyone's doing the reincarnation bop
Once you start
You'll find it hard to...
This post is an edited version of the one found at the link
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If atheism is the absence of belief in gods, then many Buddhists are, indeed, atheists.
Buddhism is not about either believing or not believing in God or gods. Rather, the historical Buddha taught that believing in gods was not useful for those seeking to realize enlightenment. In other words, God is unnecessary in Buddhism. For this reason, Buddhism is more accurately called nontheistic than atheistic.
It’s not just belief in gods that are irrelevant to Buddhism. Beliefs play a different role in Buddhism than in many other religions. Buddhism is a path to “waking up,” or being enlightened. Merely “believing in” enlightenment and nirvana is pointless.
Some medieval Christian mystics argued that it is incorrect to say that God exists, because existence amounts to taking a particular form within a space of time. God has no particular form and is outside of time. Therefore, God does not exist. However, God is. That’s an argument that many of us atheistic Buddhists can appreciate.
Not every atheist is anti-theistic.
Lets examine the roots (components) of each word to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of them.
"A" is a prefix meaning both "not" and without". [1]
"Theism" is the belief in the existence of a god or gods.
"Anti" is a prefix meaning "against" [2]
If I live my life without a dog, am I anti-dog? No, it is simply a matter of deciding that I can not care for a dog right now.
If I live my life without a belief in the existence of a god or gods, am I then anti-god(s)? No, its simply a belief that the existence of a god or gods is of no significance to me. Simply put, god(s) do not matter to me. I can get along quite well without god(s), should he, she, it or them exist -- or not.
Atheism is simply the absence of belief in gods; anti-theism is a conscious and deliberate opposition to theism. Many atheists are also anti-theists, but not all. [3]
[1] http://www.virtualsalt.com/roots.htm
[2] http://www.bing.com/Dictionary/
[3] http://atheism.about.com/od/
What is the absolute worst that can happen if gays are NOT allowed in the military?
We lose the "War on Terror?" As of June, 2007, 58 linguists fluent in Arabic have been kicked out of the military for being gay. This happened even as intelligence agencies complained about a shortage of linguists fluent in Arabic, and the military itself is desperate for Arabic translators. Winning the war on terror depends on having such people serving our nation.
What will happen if there is no anti-gay discrimination in the US military? All we need do is look to the countries where gays are allowed to serve openly in the military for an answer to that.
Research shows none of the countries with openly gay service members have been hurt by their non-discrimination policy. Our closest allies allow openly gay service members, including every member of NATO except Turkey.
The British military, our strongest ally in Iraq, has openly gay service members working alongside American forces. This has not caused any problems. Since the Persian Gulf War, United States forces have joined 20 joint military campaigns with other nations who have openly gay service members. A recent University of California study shows that in these 20 campaigns the American unit's cohesion, performance and morale did not suffer because of the presence of openly gay service members from other nations.
Gallup poll of the American public shows 72% support the right of gays and lesbians to serve in uniform. More significantly, the same Gallup poll found that 91% of young Americans (18-39) think that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly. And that age group is by far the largest part of the military. A 2004 Annenberg Survey of military members and their families found that 50% of junior enlist personnel say that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military, up from 16% in 1992, and only 16% believed lesbian and gay service members were “bad for morale,” while just 12% thought allowing gays to serve openly would be “bad for teamwork.”
The military wastes millions of dollars each year investigating "violations" of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. With a huge budget deficit, this money could be better spent on projects that actually improve national defense
The FBI, CIA, and Secret Service, along with most police and fire departments around the United States, now allow openly gay Americans to serve in their ranks. These non-discrimination policies have not hurt performance, professionalism, or morale.
These arguments, by the way, are lifted from a Republican web site.
I checked out other debate communities and selected some of the better debates to import to this community. I failed to notice that some have now ended. I mention this so you will know how and why these ended up here and, if you can also import debates, you will be informed to check to see if the debates are active first.
I looked around and see no option to delete the imported debates. Rats.
In case it matters, this is my official vote.
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Disclaimer: "The minimum length for an argument is 50 characters. The purpose of this restriction is to cut down on the amount of dumb jokes, so we can keep the quality of debate and discourse as high as possible".
But I don't care. Without dumb jokes, what would I do?
OK, coolness. I just checked out this feature and see I could add this debate to the pool of general debates on CreateDebate. Could, but did not. But this feature could be useful for substantive debates that we want to share with the larger community.
