Just noticed the nod. Much thanks!
In reply to this comment by therealblankman:
*promote this *quality rant.

Harper's Watergate moment? Frankly I doubt it- they've probably got so many layers of "plausible deniability" built into this thing, but this is the most disturbing story in Canadian politics in my lifetime.

Would I have chastised you if Aemaeth was a Scientologist or polite Neo-Nazi? That's a very good question. Probably not. It depends.

I understand your disdain for the LDS. A long time ago I sublet some studio space to a recently converted Mormon, and had to endure the proselytizing every day. I agree, it's laughable at the least, and dangerous at the worst. But I put up with it because just prior to his conversion, his young son had died suddenly in his sleep, without any medical explanation. He had no real support from friends or family, and this was his "port in a storm" I guess. A Mormon must have knocked on his door at just the right (wrong) time. You would surely cite this as opportunistic and playing on the weak, and I wouldn't disagree. I think he shook it eventually and moved on to hard-core Ufology. Just as kooky, but I thought that was more interesting, at least.

I am as disgusted as you at the politicization of the church. Despite our recent victory in Connecticut, there's still a strong anti-gay sentiment brewing. We get robocalls about it all the time, somebody's trying to see if there is enough support for a referendum. I don't think my response was recorded though, since it was full of invective that couldn't be deciphered by the computer doing the calling.

I think you and I are probably politically and ideologically very similar. I can think of a few things we might not agree on, but for the most part I hazard the guess that we are like-minded. There's some contrast in how we go about it though. I think minds are fragile, and need to be opened carefully because otherwise they break or snap shut for good. You're angrier than that, I imagine in this case because of the Prop8 debacle. That's fine, I'm angry too.

But I'm still curious about where your morality comes from. It's not entirely natural, although you do see altruism in primates and some other mammals. You must have learned it from someone. Parents, teachers, television, sunday school. I am willing to bet that a majority of atheists come from loving and secure family settings, where kindness and decency and love feel like natural principals of the universe. Why would we need a god, we know what's right and how to look after one another. The trouble is, it's not true of everybody. For many people God is that stern but loving father they never had. That's the only reason I defend the religioulous. Don't take it for granted where your morality comes from, and give a moment's thought to others less fortunate is all I'm saying.

What a lovely chat. I wish we had beer and pot and a glowing fire.




In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
You can't blame me for breathing on a wilting violet. This was a dialog, not a monologue. If Aemaeth didn't want a discussion, then he shouldn't have responded to my video in the first place. He's no victim.

I wasn't trying to chase him off the site. I was just trying to seed some doubt and engage him in some frank conversation. I'd love nothing more than for him to come back and stand up for himself. He could bring his friends too if he likes. The more the merrier.

Again, I'm going to re-iterate that there is a double standard when it comes to religion. The religious are allowed to damn people to hell and decide which humans are allowed to be married, but point out some glaring problems within a faith and all of a sudden you become Darth Vader.

Inelegantly: fuck that

I honestly find Mormonism very troubling, from it's morally disgusting inception, to it's unbelievable mythology, to its history of discrimination and misogyny, to its recent foyer into politics. I see it as a negative force in the world and would like to seed some doubt among its followers.

Can I be tolerant and severely critical at the same time?

Here are some questions that culture tells me I shouldn't ask.

-Joseph Smith had 33 wives, some of them as young as 14, some of them were others men's wives. How does this square with Mormon views on morality? How can you follow the teachings of a despicable lech and then seek to limit the rights of gay people?

-Do Mormons really believe that God waited 1800 years and then revealed himself to some dude in rural Utah, whom he instructed to sex up dozens of women and girls?

-Is it possible that this entire religion started out as a sex cult?

-Do Mormons really believe that Native Americans are actually a lost Jewish tribe?

Does tolerance require my silence on these points?

Would you have chastised me if Aemaeth was a Scientologist, or a polite Neo-Nazi?

Does tolerance have limits?

My wife caught me listening... I never thought a robocall could end my marriage.

so *parody too then, if it's not a REAL mccain robocall

"I don't want to say, because I know how the press can report things."

report = distort, if you strongly disagree with what you said.

Its good to see some trying to put some weight on this, it's sad because if you are Republican you are getting tarred with this brush. I Don't like at all what McCain and Palin stand for, If you want to support McCain, it's sad that the bigoted racists have crept out of the closet for this one...and that includes the McCain campaign.

Islam = Terror Obama = Islam (if you believe fox news) therefore Obama is a terrorist
That Robocall call shit they are pulling is disgusting...


Oh, and check your facts. It appears you 'reported' the facts...

"some of the campaign top brass’s call on that."

In other words, that's "behind the scenes" stuff, and "don't look at me, I'm just the VP candidate."

*wtf? That's just absurd. If the second on the ticket abdicates to the campaign's "top brass" for as significant a decision as whether or not to employ robocalls, you KNOW there's more going on there than is openly discussed.

I call BS on this politician's latenight malapropism and request a probe into the farce of their whole campaign!

Little to discuss here. It is a dupe of http://www.videosift.com/video/McCain-Defends-His-Campaigns-Robocalls

*discard

Not a dupe. This video is less than a minute long and is edited differently.


In reply to this comment by NetRunner:
Dupe: http://www.videosift.com/video/McCain-Defends-His-Campaigns-Robocalls

It is worth pointing out that Chris Wallace did a pretty good job of calling out McCain, and McCain did a pretty bad job defending himself.

Dupe: http://www.videosift.com/video/McCain-Defends-His-Campaigns-Robocalls

It is worth pointing out that Chris Wallace did a pretty good job of calling out McCain, and McCain did a pretty bad job defending himself.

CNN:
"John McCain’s running mate took questions from her press corps for the second time in three days late Sunday after flying into Colorado Springs. But Palin was not completely on message.

Wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and standing on a breezy tarmac, Palin said that if she had her way, the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee would not be flooding battleground states with automated phone calls tying Barack Obama to former radical William Ayers, as they have done over the last week.

Several top Republicans, including Senators Susan Collins and Norm Coleman, have condemned the tactic. Asked about those criticisms, Palin at first dismissed the matter as "inside baseball stuff" and said it's "some of the campaign top brass’s call on that."

But when asked if she would approve the use of robocalls if she were running the campaign, Palin said she’d probably chart a different course.

"If I called all the shots, and if I could wave a magic wand," Palin said, "I would be sitting at a kitchen table with more and more Americans, talking to them about our plan to get the economy back on track and winning the war, and not having to rely on the old conventional ways of campaigning that includes those robocalls, and includes spending so much money on the television ads that, I think, is kind of draining out there in terms of Americans' attention span.

"They get a bit irritated with just being inundated," she continued, "and you're seeing a lot of that of course with the huge amounts of money that Barack Obama is able to spend on his ads and his robocalls also."