I'm good, man. Living/working in NYC. How's everything on your end?

Good man...Where's the media on this?

Animals, when I first read this reply, I did not know who wrote it. When I read your name, I smiled. Thank you Animals, not just for the apology, but for the insight of how a good man's mind can work when not blinded by the Blizzard-Of-Hate (Or, less that Blizzard, blinded by the rhetoric of his own mind.) For the record, I used to be an unequalled troll. I was God back then, and no one was allowed to have 'silly' ideas outside what 'should be,' but I did have one flaw. I looked to myself and asked questions. And I did not like my own answers.

As to you being immutable--it is true that I assumed you would not readily change

To the well-answered points you made;

Even if this video is a parody, some religious evangy would gobble this response up and spew it back out. But they would probably mean "inspired the bible", and yet still the sift would pound away for a simple mistake of words-versus-meaning. On a side note, I have heard far worse than this video's content from godly men--and it was stated in seriousness. I still cringe...

You bring up the multiple levels of feelings on this issue... To that I say and ask--it is factually true what you say, but when so many tiers/levels are calculated, doesn't the entire tier system become useless? (He is middle class making 40,000$. He is 'above middle class, making 40,005$, and so forth and so on.)

I tier this argument into three simple groups, Those that Believe, Those that Do Not, and Those who Couldn't Care Less. I fall into the Care Less. I know that list is subjective, and probably wrong of me, but I do it simply for simplicity.

Onto control--every nation, country, culture, etc. of humanity has created some form of control. Whether norms, government, religion, taboos, implied demands--or something societal, like commercialism--there has not been a gathering of man that has not exerted control. I am not saying control is evil, mind you--just necessary. In fact, when man is left untouched by any which way by another man (I.e. abandoned from birth, and never in human contact,) he becomes feral, and nothing smarter than an animal.

The control points I bring up are cheap for one reason--it just is easy to say and give examples. Kind of like 'humans need food.' So it is simple of me to say, and offers little but I feel it needs said.

Again, thank you fro proving me wrong.

>> ^AnimalsForCrackers:

Okay, give dummy lady a break. She meant to say "Who inspired the bible" but put foot in mouth.

DFT confirmed that this was a parody so I think she meant to say what she did. But even if she were being earnest I don't know if I would go that far. Unless she then made a correction after the fact, say in a new video or in the video description, why would you infer something from her words if she didn't outright say what you were inferring? If we played along, would she have had a coherent point if we replaced "write" with "inspired"? Would her conclusion have made more or less sense, in context of the "gotcha!" moment she was going for? Less, imo.

But one side is not crap. There are two sides that are crap here. Those who believe in god and those who think lowly of those people

I think there are MANY "sides" when it comes to the number of levels/tiers of belief (or acknowledgment of certain assumptions) in the religious or the scientific and still MANY more varying degrees of self-righteousness and smug superiority within each of those.
What the hell am I saying, essentially? I'm saying, why the false dichotomy? Not everyone is either A or B. Life isn't binary.

Humanity created religion because it needed to be controlled.

There are many possible reasons for why religion is so ubiqitous, like our innate tendency to assign agency to things from a very young age, for one brief example. Your explanation sounds like a nominal fallacy, i.e. naming-explaining fallacy. Humans need to be controlled. How do we know humans need to be controlled? Because they created religion (which is a social tool for control). The only evidence provided for why we need to be controlled is the fact that religion can be used as a tool for control and that we created it. Does this really address the "why we need it" part? It's a totally post-hoc explanation which itself is not an explanation. I hope I made I sense there.

In fact, to add a point. Faith in god may be misplaced---but faith is still science based. It keeps people alive who should be dead, it is there from birth to death, it is a human condition.

Yes, we can scientifically measure the mental, consequential, and physiological effects religion(s) has on our bodies and brains in space and time. Is that the same as saying that the underlying explanation providing the foundation for the belief (a belief which has REAL, measurable effects in people's lives) is scientifically sound?
As an aside, Lawdeedaw, I just want to sincerely apologize for the overly aggressive tone and sometimes distracting ratio of "snark-to-common courtesy" I've taken with you in our past "encounters". I've been beginning to reevaluate my tact when bringing up objections with those I disagree with in the past weeks. I readily admit I have anger issues and am trying to truly address them rather than let them define my presence here on the Sift and in meatspace. I have a hard time playing nice with people I feel misrepresent me or others I may agree with. Many things have brought me to this realization, mostly meatspace issues. I am sorry (this also goes to anyone else I may have inadvertently or quite directly and thoughtlessly insulted in the past), there I said it!
See? How's that for a "smug, superior atheist" (I know you have thought this of me on occasion) being immutable in his viewpoint/outlook? <IMG class=smiley src="http://cdn.videosift.com/cdm/emoticon/tonguewink.gif">

>> ^Hive13:

>> ^chilaxe:
So unfortunate. Next time don't be a smoker and drinker.

My Grandfather was a lifelong health nut. He never drank, never smoked, exercised every day and was a staunch vegan. I have never seen him drink a soda or even a cup of coffee. He died after stage 4 throat cancer took over and spread to his lungs and lymph-nodes.
Everyone will eventually get some form of cancer. Sure, drinking and smoking have an profound increase in the likelihood, but don't toss out holier than thou statements like this when you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. My grandfather was a good man that died too soon from something nature does to us all given time.


And by nature, you mean the poisons human industry has added to the environment that pollute our air, water and food, right?

>> ^chilaxe:

So unfortunate. Next time don't be a smoker and drinker.


My Grandfather was a lifelong health nut. He never drank, never smoked, exercised every day and was a staunch vegan. I have never seen him drink a soda or even a cup of coffee. He died after stage 4 throat cancer took over and spread to his lungs and lymph-nodes.

Everyone will eventually get some form of cancer. Sure, drinking and smoking have an profound increase in the likelihood, but don't toss out holier than thou statements like this when you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. My grandfather was a good man that died too soon from something nature does to us all given time.

I hope whoever is responsible for this gets punched in the face for ruining a good man's career.

Good man!
*equality

Hey, Harold S***burger is a good man!

Not much of an Olbermann fan these days, but he nailed this one.

Here's an article at The American Prospect, Why Democrats Are Deserting Obama. Here are the opening paragraphs:

Dorothy: You’re a very bad man for pretending to be a wizard. Wizard: No, I’m a good man, just a very bad wizard.

Barack Obama, you might say, is a very good man who is just not turning out to be a very effective president. And he makes a serious misjudgment if he thinks that it is just the liberal base of the party that is disillusioned both with the deal that he cut and with his leadership skills. Centrists like House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer are every bit as dismayed at the agreement Obama made -- a deal that increases the deficit by some $900 billion in a fashion that is both inequitable (too much to the top) and not very efficient as economic stimulus.

It was nothing short of astonishing to see Obama, at his surprise press conference Tuesday, with harsher words for members of his own party than for Republicans. It is the Republicans, after all, who have been blocking his efforts, wall-to-wall, while the liberal Democrats who have been his staunchest if often exasperated supporters.

I still believe Barack Obama is probably a decent man, and I agree with the majority of his political opinions. However, I agree much less with his political actions. He might be the smartest wonk to occupy the Oval Office in decades, but he has no political savvy. On the big issues he almost always blinks first. He never calls the Republicans' bluffs. Let's be frank: he's been at the helm for 2 years now, and his leadership has been weak. And just in the last 24 hours he has caved AGAIN, this time on the Israeli settlement issue. So if he's still wondering why so many Democrats are pissed off at him right now, it's because we have every right to be pissed off. EVERY right.

*quality

>> ^kronosposeidon:

I found out about Matthew Good from MuchMusic (amazingly our local cable company had a Canadian channel in 1997.) I tried to order the Underdogs CD from Amazon.com and other online outlets in America, but none had it at the time so I finally had to order it from a retailer in the great white north. I believe that is the only parcel I have ever gotten from Canada. Most of my imports come from Sweden.


I found out about them from MM as well, Rick campanelli and racheal.. Master T, Suk yin or whatnot, It was from the Canadian music channel my mind started to twist and churn into a state where this music appealed to me. It REALLY meant a lot to me, this song especially ( I tear now I think about it ) I went for a walk with my Mega earphones and cd player back in the day while really high on mushrooms, beautiful experience which I never forget the blinding apocalypse which are high pressure sodium street lights.

I pretty well HAVE owned every , well I can not state that, I indeed have owned every output of the Matthew good man mind.

Good man.

Good man for walking. Stupid fucking journalist. She had enough warnings. Pathetic smear campaign to distract viewers from the actual issues.

Thank you friend, and thanks again for your help in making it happen. Cheers.

In reply to this comment by bleedmegood:
congrats on the bronze, my good man. also, it seems as if we share the same birthday...long live the sift!

congrats on the bronze, my good man. also, it seems as if we share the same birthday...long live the sift!

That, my good man, is a good idea!

In fact, if there isn't a website by which street performers around the nation (world?) can receive donations from a web audience, then someone needs to get on that!

To be sure, this video was a nice collaboration with the videographer (who, I presume, is not homeless), but the relative costs can be kept minimal so that street performers can be given audience to more than the circumstantial passerby.

>> ^alizarin:

Dude needs a paypal account for donations - I'd pay for that performance!