soalbundy

I didn't say Biden was ineffective, just geriatric. If you follow the many economic experts on Youtube you can see that the 'strong economy' is a lie, the increase in (poor quality) jobs is always revised downwards at the beginning of a new month, there are wage increases to offset inflation but what isn't said is that at the same time the number of hours worked are cut down due to lack of orders, it's the last step before mass layoffs. Americans are broke, mass delinquencies on credit card payments (23% interest) where even minimum payments are no longer affordable. Houses are no longer affordable, car repossessions are rising drastically, the yield curve is still inverted causing banks to restrict credit, the medium to small banks are basically insolvent due to the commercial property price decline, beyond 50% which are on their books as collateral for the original price. Every 100 days the government debt rises by one trillion dollars, social security for the baby boomers is unafordable. America has the strange situation of a recession with high interest rates, the interest paid on government debt each month is more than the defense budget. does that sound like a strong economy? Trump is just the top of the dung heap underneath him in the Senat are a large number of spineless supporters, Marjory Taylor Green of low IQ is just one example. Certainly there are some good people in the GOP who oppose Trump (far to few) America isn't alone with a failing economy, the economic crisis is worldwide and America, due to its reserve currency status, will be the last domino to fall (probably just as other countries start to recover).

This isn't a contest.

Yes, I can't understand anybody being upset by the sight of busty substances these days, they are in newspapers and on the covers of some magazines, in the west at least. She really ought to be sent home although the cost of an air ticket will be a problem.

Poor America, you really are in a mess, no morals, no class, drowning in debt, a geriatric president, a moron contender with dementia and a poor education system.........in God you trust (it's about all you can rely on).

I watched a program about an A&E department in an English hospital recently. The doctors and nurses were extremely kind as were most of the patients but about 10% were rude trouble makers and violent. The hospital had to employ security staff to protect the doctors and nurses. I expect this is typical throughout the world, I find it hard to believe that the average Russian is worse than anybody else although the unaccustomed hot weather, alcohol and a language problem while on holiday could exaggerate their normal behaviour. I haven't met many Russians but those I have met (small families) spoke bad English and almost seemed to expect rejection from a westerner, once that was overcome they seemed reasonable friendly people.

I watched a program about an A&E department in an English hospital recently. The doctors and nurses were extremely kind as were most of the patients but about 10% were rude trouble makers and violent. The hospital had to employ security staff to protect the doctors and nurses. I expect this is typical throughout the world, I find it hard to believe that the average Russian is worse than anybody else although the unaccustomed hot weather, alcohol and a language problem while on holiday could exaggerate their normal behaviour. I haven't met many Russians but those I have met (small families) spoke bad English and almost seemed to expect rejection from a westerner, once that was overcome they seemed reasonable friendly people.

but sometimes cleansing.

only partly.

We also resemble a fish at the very beginning and later a human fetus is indistinguishable from that of a chimpanzee. What counts is what comes out at the end however vehemently it may be denied.

We all have our ambitions, great or small.

Whatever, you invite them in. Have I ruined your day?

Hold on! let me get my camera, could you count to three before you pull the pin?

Indeed, why mention the gender or species at all, a bipedal mammal would satisfy even the most delicate woke mammal.

Surely we are able to chose our own pronouns, he doesn't present 'himself' as a man and 'he' isn't a woman, I presume the woke dictionary says play along with the fantasy but that's an insult to women.

Yes the world is complicated. Although greed is an overriding common factor in humanity I wouldn't say it stands alone as a basis for cruelty and oppression. Ignorance and the desire to follow societal norms, the need for a strong leader, a father figure syndrome, all play a part, patriotism being perhaps a crime in itself, how many bestial acts of savagery by all nations can be excused by patriotism, someone once said patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. The vast majority would rather remain silent than be accused of being unpatriotic. All societies, even a small village needs a leader. To become a leader one must be charismatic, courageous, hard working and have a goal in mind (not just wealth and power generally speaking). Unfortunately power unchecked leads to megalomania and corruption, even in a democracy there are paths to absolute power, Hitler was voted in as fuehrer by a democratic parliament. Most people are not courageous enough to stand up and be counted as an opponent. I do believe that most politicians start off with good intentions, even coup leaders have great aspirations in the beginning but human nature is as it is and the average working man doesn't dare make waves, then of course there is the flag, the national anthem and God is on our side. Religions are the perfect tool for suppression and war mongering, one can always find some text or other in a scripture to further your ambitions no matter how cruel or as in the case of Islam make one up (I believe that nowhere in the Koran is it stipulated that a woman must cover her face and hair).

The Islamic golden era was between the 8th and 11th centuries with the principle seats of learning in Bagdad and Cordoba. The academic elite were interested in assimilating knowledge from where ever they could, they even translated the works of Aristotle from Greek into Arabic. A Persian mathematician has been described as the father of algebra while Omar Khayyam, also Persian, laid the foundation for analytical geometry, much of his work found its way to Europe. During this time a form of calculus was also discovered. They played a great role in optics, chemistry and physics during this era and were precursors to Darwins 'origin of the species' (Al-Jahiz, 'struggle for existence). The Emerald tablet came into existence at this time which alchemists, including Isaac Newton, regarded as a basis for their work in chemistry. Enormous advances were also made in medicine and surgery when Arabians translated the Greek Works on surgery and evolved and improved them.

I admit I can be flippant on occasion. Of course if I saw something of the sort happening I would attempt to help. Impotent anger at farmers who cut and burn is the cause, laws aren't adhered to, there is nothing people can do. My wife doesn't have her extensive fields burnt, much of the straw is collected for the neighbours cows and buffaloes the rest is plowed back into the ground at next years planting. My village is surrounded by rice fields and yet I see no burning. I used to live in Chiang Mai and although the burning didn't affect me I knew people who did suffer and the smog was horrendous seen from Doi Suthep. One doesn't see farmers in Europe burning after a wheat harvest, there is obviously no real need to do it, perhaps the ash is a fertilizer or it's done out of tradition.

He wasn't growing fish and chips was he, a hamburger, Spaghetti, roast pork?

Well I'll give you a thumbs up but I think you need to consider your post more deeply. Money isn't a religion although the desire for it resembles a salvation because in a way it is, it is a tool for existence. In a modern society there is no existence without money and so it becomes primary. There is no philosophy, religion, desire or experience without existence and so by convergence; money. There are many ways to get money, usually it is through work, you sell your skill or labour to someone who has large amounts of money. The gathering of large amounts of money is, in a primitive way, an exaggerated insurance of existence. Yes, Gods are man made tools but not just (but also) of control. A common religion is also a societal stabilizing and unifying factor (which a dictator will also believe in) certainly it helps the elite control and gain wealth as long as the sheep recognize the power of the shepherd otherwise all bets are off and chaos ensues. In the end on their deathbeds even the elite will see that they were only conscious awareness that needed a physical existence for phenomenal experience but until then money and power will become a means to an end and the misuse of religion will help them in their endevours as long as they are careful enough to cloak greed with ceremony, pantomime and tradition.

Of course there won't be a reunification, the Chinese would never allow it for the reasons I explained and the South doesn't want the cost after seeing what the German reunification cost and is still costing. All governments are pragmatic with an eye to economics, the milk of human kindness doesn't come into the calculation, peace is a luxury but sooner or later it will become a necessity, just not in my children's lifetime but perhaps in their children's lifetime.

Rather like the Jews in Europe, the only occupation left to them was as money lenders to the powerful which on the one side made them wealthy but made them vulnerabel (a pogrom could get rid of ones debt). The Templers found that out when the French king decided his debt was too large and they had a lot of land and cash. The Arabs certainly had astronomers, how else do you navigate through the desert if not by the stars. Their doctors, unlike the Europeans, had no qualms about dissecting dead bodies which increased their knowledge of the human body, many European doctors traveled there to learn from them. They also had good craftsmen and even traded with the Vikings (who they found to be dirty and violent). They had philosophers and writers, a famous one would be a Persian tent maker Omar Kyem who wrote the Rubaiyat of Omar Kyem, most people know the first line of one of his verses even today :- 'The moving hand doth write and having writ moves on nor all your piety nor wit shall cancel half a line nor all your tears wash out one word of it' He rebutted regret or the use of repentance, what's done is done, in fact he was rather scathing of religion in general, a wonder he survived.

Yes indeed, violence isn't reserved to one region or one religion (although Buddhism is an outlier because firstly it is a philosophy [a spiritual one without a God] not a religion as such and secondly violent episodes involving Buddhism as a movement is rare). Religious violence is always emotional among the sheep which can be often used by powerful entities for wealth and power, even a dictator needs a moral excuse for a land grab. Having said that religions are a powerful unifying factor in a society which gives it stability, which is why it was invented and why non believers are burnt at the stake or beheaded, non believers threaten society's stability

Yes but that flavour of violence was world wide, man is a very violent animal, one would have to go back as far as the era of the hunter gatherers, before land possession, to find relative peace among humans. peaceful coexistence as exhibited in some Arab nations at that time was quite rare and didn't last long, the one overarching similarity among human beings is greed, it is even apparent in small children, it isn't taught, unlike religion or racism which isn't inherent in children.

Christianity was dragged screaming and kicking into the modern world by the light of reason and science and even then it took hundreds of years (and deaths). In America there are still many places where the reformation and the age of reason hasn't yet arrived. You say reformed....an interesting quote by Sri Nisargadatta a 20th century Indian spiritual teacher, "That which is real doesn't change, that which changes isn't real". He wasn't referring to religion which becomes apparent when another of his quotes is read, "You are not the body nor are you the mind...there is no body".

Before or at the beginning of the middle ages the Arab world was THE seat of learning and progress, Christians, Muslims and Jews all lived peacefully together. Great progress was made there in physiology, astronomy, mathematics and philosophy.....unfortunately much has changed, politics and religion are great hindrances to peace and knowledge....oil hasn't helped much either.