>> ^Jesus_Freak:
I imagine an evangelical atheist is excited to share his views because of what he perceives as freedom of rejecting the notion of God (or attesting that he sees no evidence for God), and the shedding of the shackles that organized religion seems to entail.
I also imagine the stereotypical view of what drives an evangelical Christian is one (or more) of three things:

• Fear that if he does not share his faith, he'll be punished or not make it to heaven.


• Brainwashing from his mother and father since childhood.


• Some twisted pleasure from telling you that you're going to hell while "I'm not."

What I don't have to imagine is the ACTUAL reason I'm thankful for my Christianity. I've led a very satisfying life with very tangible blessings stemming from my relationship with Jesus Christ. I've found His teaching to be profound and reliable, I've found indescribable freedom, and I've found layers of comfort that surpass all understanding. If you wish to maintain a dim view of all Christians in some stereotypical way, you do so with a focus of poor examples of some individuals who share my faith, or from a lack of exeprience that your scientific analysis can't quantify.
I could fill this page with research and references of why I think "Christ was special and unique," which would no doubt be fodder for whatever counter-arguments you're eager to provide. What I'll tell you is: living is believing. Hate or disrespect me all you like, but it won't change me. I'm just as entitled to my excitement as you are yours.


Rant

I think a lot of agnostics, backsliders and atheists just want Christians to stop worrying about their well being. We're doing fine. Obviously there are many types of non-believers, just like there are many types of believers, so I can't speak for everyone; and when I speak about Christians I pull it from my personal experience. I am against the aggressive atheists almost as much as I am against the aggressive Christians; the only difference for me being that atheists are concerned with scientific truth/intellectual honesty, and Christians are concerned with saving souls from the possiblity (or the certainty, if it pleases you) of hell/faithtellectual honesty. I personally feel that if someone wants to be intellectually dishonest, that's their problem.

One of my biggest issues with "enthusiatic" Christians is that their belief comes from their personal faith, yet many Christians that I know/grew up with can't fathom that I've never had this faith. It's called faith for a reason, and cannot truly be intellectualized into a logical, non-circular argument. On that note, Christian buzz phrases like "it's a free gift" are semantically obtrusive. Did the church that started this buzz word campaign ever hear the saying, "Talk is cheap"? Of course it's a free gift. Could you imagine if you had to pay a dollar every time someone shared their religion with you? "Right then, I covered Isiah 1:18, John 3:16 and Romans 5:9 -- that will be $5.50." I mean, aside from tithe.. which technically makes it not a free gift if you become a proper worshipper of Yahweh. Every time a Christian tells me this I feel like I'm a five year old retarded child. Oh, it's soo easy; it's free; it's the best thing ever. Awesome for you. Not awesome for me. I grew up in a fundamental Christian family and never once felt anything other than an emotional connection with my peers. I tried it and you know what? I didn't care for it much. It didn't provide tangible results. What provided tangible results was my rejection of the gift. It's freedom like breaking up with a needy girlfriend. My heart rests easy now. (I was happy to read that you recognize this.)

Many of my Christian relatives suffer from depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, and diabetes. I don't, yet I don't believe in Jesus' gift. What type of tangible result is that? (I'm being rhetorical.) I was involved in our family prayer circles (I'm not kidding) for years and almost every single request for divine assistance has gone unanswered. I learned growing up with Christians that tangible results are either products of their imagination or, like gambling, the luck of the draw -- If you pray about every single bad thing in your life, chances are some of those prayers will be "anwered". I have no doubt you derive all sorts of enjoyment and fulfillment from your faith. (Positive reinforcement works, obviously.) The human brain is a capable chemical production factory. One of my roommates is a microbilogist and the other is just beginning his career in psychology. Currently they both work with mentally challenged and disturbed children -- 3 year old gang rape victims, retarded children and sociopaths. Many of these kids could never begin to comprehend the message nor the gift of Christ, but there are many other avenues to fulfillment for them with the aid of a needle or a pill. (Then again, God works in mysterious ways, so maybe His essence is inside every chemical reaction.)

I am the only non-Christian in my family and it gets tiring when I am constantly bombarded by invites to church after stating I'd rather sleep in on Sundays and am not a believer, nor do I have a Jesus sized hole in my heart that needs to be filled. I love my family, but some day I'd like to spend the holidays with them unconditionally, without the current conditional, slightly uncomfortable, tension-filled and concerned invitations to "candle light services" on Christmas Eve and other similar events that occur throughout the year. (I recently started dating a Christian, and when my relatives found out it's like a shooting gallery for Christian-centric pressure, and comments like, "We prayed that you'd meet a nice Christian girl -- and it WORKED". Another tangible result!!! Luckily my girlfriend understands my perspective and, like the good Calvinist, realizes I was not predestined to believe. Now THAT I can deal with. )

Jesus is the reason for the season? No, that would be God The Father, who quote-on-quote created the seasons.

End Rant

>> ^blankfist:
>> ^NetRunner:

Well if auto insurance covered oil changes and all kinds of other preventative maintenance services, then you would see oil changes costing hundreds of dollars.
Jiffy Lube wouldn't post prices, but instead when they come to you asking if you want to "flush your radiator and replace your timing belt" you wouldn't ask "How much? And is it necessary?" You'd just say "sure" and the auto insurance company would front the bill.
That's what drives up costs.


Mark this day on your calendar. You're 100% correct.

Problem is, with a car repair, I'm never in a hurry. If the mechanic recommends something that's too expensive, I can comparison shop. If no one can fix the problem at a price I can afford, I'll have to take the bus.

If on the other hand, some dickhead starts spraying gunfire at a health care town hall, and I get hit with a bullet, I'm not going to shop around. Chances are, I'll tell the doctor "do whatever you have to, just save me!" My insurance company may later decide that the bullet-wound was a preexisting condition, or more likely that they won't cover me because I didn't call my GP before calling 911. The doctor won't worry about costs, he'll save me anyways, but the bill will likely bankrupt me.

So where does that leave us?

You say I need more opportunity to comparison shop for bullet-wound repair, and that if I can't afford the service, I should just go without it and die.

I'm saying that stopping my insurance company from playing games is as important as controlling costs. So first, let's stop the insurance company from wiggling out on me.

Second, let's stop people from waiting until they're sick to start paying for insurance, since the companies now must cover people who're paid up on premiums, even if they're sick.

Third, let's realize that there are lots of people who will have trouble paying premiums, so let's set up a subsidy to help them out.

Fourth, let's make sure people are taking advantage of preventive care, since it's much cheaper to treat someone for high blood pressure than it is to treat them for a heart attack.

Fifth, let's set up programs for doing comparative effectiveness research, so we can get some objective science on what we're paying for, to make sure that people know if certain types of treatments are a good value.

Sixth, let's set up a standard format for electronically exchanging medical records and test results so specialists aren't re-doing tests that have already been performed by ER or GP physicians.

Seventh, let's set up a national marketplace for individual insurance, and ensure that customers are given clear, standardized information for comparing between the insurance offerings.

Eighth, let's set up a public, non-profit insurance plan to provide a basic level of care, and to help drive down the cost of the private offerings.

There's more detail in the full plan, but that's a lot of the big elements of the plan.

If it wasn't for Netrunner, I would never know just how much I can hate Fox news.

Well done, you've taken a few months off my life due to high blood pressure.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'japan, high blood pressure, weird' to 'japan, high blood pressure, weird, 00s, tea, piss stop, goma mugi cha, suntory' - edited by Eklek

The health care part I don't think needs to be as hard as some think it is, solutions seem to be both in reach and non-damaging to any real competition. The only ones hurt should be the vultures. It's based on costs and reducing them, the following page will help set the table for the idea. The Kaiser Family Foundation, home of the Kaiser Permanente health care groups, offers a bit of data for it and tends to be a well respected source.

http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm

As that demonstrates we as Americans pay twice as much or close to it per capita what other nations do, nations such as Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden and so on manage to cover all of their people and to do it for about half of what we pay to just cover some of them. The why of it is both the problem and the solution.

Private insurance companies have managed to insert themselves so heavily into our politics and policy over the last few decades that as rules were rewritten they always tended to be weighted in favor of those who donated big money, and that wasn't us as consumers. Simply replace them if they can't be more than vultures. I do NOT want "socialized health care" in the sense of a micromanaged system but there does seem to be both valid reason and need to have national insurance.

That would probably cover just basic services such as high blood pressure, check ups, and such like that, the expensive stuff such as transplants would likely still fall under supplemental insurance for those who can afford it. They don't tell the docs what to do, we've got medical boards to set standards of care. They just pay the bills. And the docs and hospitals are still self employed, they just submit basic services to a national insurance instead of private.

Yes, there's a million ways it could be done badly but paying twice as much as others for worse services isn't exactly an option worth defending either. We've just got to pay attention and stay involved if we can manage that.

Other aspects of this mess are similar. We don't need sweeping changes to our way of life or anything ridiculous like that, we just need some moderation and redistribution. Yes, I know, dirty word redistribution is, at least until we think about circumstances and the extent we'll redistribute it to. Over the last 30 or so years worker productivity has climbed and climbed again, business profits have climbed and climbed again, and CEO compensation has climbed then climbed again. The one that that hasn't changed much is OUR level of compensation. Real wages adjusted for inflation has been nearly stagnant with minor increases compared to the value offered.

They donated the big bucks, they made the rules to more and more favor themselves, and though yes, it was all legal, it's also legal to say enough is enough and it's time to stop profiteering while your nation falls into disrepair. Power attracts power and money attracts money, we all know it works like that and on the surface there's nothing wrong with that. At least not until it's taken to an extreme. When we hit that extreme we end up with depressions, revolutions, or other civil disturbances which serve to level the playing field again. If we want to avoid the occasional unrest and disturbance we've got to keep a better balance in the first place. Balance is what we forgot. You can't keep feeding the majority of a nations wealth to a very small number of people and expect that nation to become anything but poor as a whole. If the people can't afford to buy anymore the markets cease to function and all the free market idealism in the world won't get them going again. You need to keep money in the pockets of those who are most likely to actually spend it too.

I agree. The woman that disgusts me more than anyone else I know is one who smokes mj with her boyfriend, in the house, around their NINE-MONTH OLD DAUGHTER. Because legalizing it will just make such occurrences more common, I say no.

>> ^gorgonheap:
If marijuana is legalized I'd like to see it restricted to homes or contained areas where it wont destroy pituitary glands of children (and adults for that matter), as well as damage developing brains. Also so those with high blood pressure and heart disease could be severely effected if it's inhaled. Plus I'd rather not have my sex drive and sperm count lowered. Also so pregnant women so that a fetus won't develop a deformity. Oh and also because there is twice as much tar in marijuana as there is in cigarettes, I don't want to get second hand smoke.
So if your willing to control it enough so that it's not out in public around me or my children, sure. But I know that's not going to happen. Oh yeah, Nay to legalization.

If marijuana is legalized I'd like to see it restricted to homes or contained areas where it wont destroy pituitary glands of children (and adults for that matter), as well as damage developing brains. Also so those with high blood pressure and heart disease could be severely effected if it's inhaled. Plus I'd rather not have my sex drive and sperm count lowered. Also so pregnant women so that a fetus won't develop a deformity. Oh and also because there is twice as much tar in marijuana as there is in cigarettes, I don't want to get second hand smoke.

So if your willing to control it enough so that it's not out in public around me or my children, sure. But I know that's not going to happen. Oh yeah, Nay to legalization.

Thank you salt for all the high blood pressure you've given me!
Thank you sugar for the diabetes I'm sure to develop!
Thank you cholesterol for the heart disease!

but asserting that Iraq has an influx of fast food from america...
you won't find me disagreeing with you that nutrition plays a large part in the development of a fetus. And I would also agree that they have a very large stress factor, (having bombs going off, foreign troops invading your homeland and numerous other factors Iraqi's have to live with on a daily basis)
But imagine the scale of fast food joints that there would have to be to accomplish what your talking about. Heck, do they even have any of our westernized food joints over there ? Before the war we had sanctions placed against them and U.S. businesses could not do business with Iraq.

we are the original fast food nation (many more FF joints for a much longer time), so where are all the reports of birth defects due to FF?

noting there is a difference between "birth defects" and things like being born malnourished, jaundiced, IBS, etc...

In reply to this comment by jwray:
Poor nutrition, such as folic acid deficiency, has been proven to cause birth defects. Most vitamin/mineral deficiency in the mother could possibly harm the fetus. 3 out of 4 deaths in the USA are caused by diseases or complications of diseases that are strongly linked to diet, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, and diabetes. Stress and greasy fast food can aggravate inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome, which can both cause malabsorption.

This man wants to be in control of the direction that the american people - a large representation of the human race - takes in future. He thinks it's inappropriate and unfair for THAT position - control of the future of a large portion of the human race - be decided on a scientific matter.

Let's forget that the question was regarding education, and whether or not the subject be taught in schools for just a moment. The man is virtually poo-pooing the quest to find some substance to our existence.

Where exactly are we going as a human race? In 10000 years time, will we still be working and reproducing until we retire, whereupon we appreciate what our money has earned us when our arthritis isn't acting up, waiting to die? Doesn't that strike anyone as a little sad?

So yeah, it's fucking important what this ass thinks about evolution when he's going to be the first in line to all the strings that are pulled that could lead to our glory or downfall.

"God exists everyone, don't worry, trust me on it. So everyone keep on working your life away, retire, eventually die, and then you'll get to heaven and can chill a little!" Come on people, where are we heading? I want more work into science and technology. I want more space exploration. Calling space exploration off because people might die - where's the pioneering spirit? Thousands died exploring the earth and a lot of them weren't willing travellers.

If we find some proof that god doesn't exist thanks to science and technology, then maybe we'll end up living a fulfilling utopian lifestyle, where no one has to suffer stress and high blood pressure working in an office on the 30th floor of a building.

Get your fucking priorities in order - what ever happened to the bigger fucking picture?

Not fair and inappropriate? You want to fucking lead people, people need to know you have your shit together. I couldn't care less if you believe in god, but i could care less that you think this shit isn't important.

I must give credit to any gamer who makes a stage that gave me high blood pressure as a child look easy. They must be breeding super gamers now... I broke 3 controllers in frustration trying to beat that damned thing...

I watched one of his shows before.

Wouldn't recommend it unless you like giving yourself high blood pressure.

Just because there was some coincidence that some of this nonsense appeared to work please don't turn your back on modern medicine and trust your life to what is just super dilute toxic material. Just a few points from the wiki if I may:

'Homeopathic formulas are based on the theory that even when a remedy is diluted with water to the point where no starting material remains, the water will retain a "memory" of what it was once in contact with.'

'Homeopathy views a sick person as having a dynamic disturbance in a hypothetical "vital force", a disturbance which, homeopaths claim, underlies standard medical diagnoses of named diseases.'

This stuff cant do any harm but I cant stand it when I see charlatans taking advantage of the poor saps that will fall for it. What can hurt you is if you rely on this crap instead of going to a medical professional when you get a serious disease. You would have to be pretty stupid if your doctor told you you had high blood pressure and were at risk of a heart attack and you just took some pill with no medical ingredients, placebos cant prevent death.

Finally, an upside to being a fat guy with high blood pressure!

"More die and are killed by pharmeceuticals than any thing else"

What? Where are you getting this from?

According to WHO:

Leading causes of death in developed countries:

1. Ischaemic heart disease
2. Stroke
3. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
4. Lower respiratory infection
5. Lung cancer
6. Car accident
7. Stomach cancer
8. High blood pressure
9. Tuberculosis
10. Suicide

I'll readily agree that pharmaceutical companies do some terrible, terrible things, but I feel like this video misrepresents some of the key issues in the Prozac case.