Impressive, great voice ... fantastic harmonies. I can't whistle without laughing =oD

While I find it intriguing that Bill Maher is defending Christianity in this clip, I find it even more intriguing that @hpqp is defending Maher defending Christianity in this clip. I double-checked to see if the apocalypse had begun before writing this post.

That said, I would like to interject a very basic fact, which is that immoral and corrupt behavior is natural to humans, regardless of what belief system they might claim. Therefore we must evaluate any particular belief system by what it teaches (and ultimately on truth):

If you want to evaluate Islam, look at the Quran. The reason there is radicalized Islam is because the Quran commands holy war against nonbelievers, especially Jews and Christians. It commands them to be murdered and says that even the rocks and trees will cry out against them. I am not condemning Muslims for being Muslim, but I will say that the Quran teaches them things which are contrary to the will of God. 200 hundred thousand Christians are martyred every year, many of them by Muslim extremists.

If you want to evaluate Christianity, look at the teachings of Jesus Christ and His apostles. If everyone followed what Jesus taught, there would be no violence at all. There would be harmony between the nations, the poor would be fed, clothed and sheltered, and everyone would love one another.

I noticed someone pointed out that the bible teaches that anyone practicing certain sins should be killed. Yes, that was the law in Israel for that particular time, but that was under the Old Covenant between God and the Jews. God made a New Covenant with the entire world through Jesus Christ which does not include those laws.

God bless

Muslim fundamentalists seem to be more numerous and powerful than the Christian ones. The reasons for this have little to do with the religious fundamentals themselves as laid out in their holy books. Both books are full of soaring praise of peace and execrable lust for vengeance over imagined slights. Both books really do say that those who don't worship your way should be put to death. Whether you listen to the nasty parts or the nice ones has everything to do with your relative economic situation. If you are satisfied with your lot, it is easy to find the passages of your screed that advocate peace, harmony, and tradition. If you are unhappy and see yourself as oppressed, it is easy to find the passages that advocate war, upheaval, and radical acts of violence against the oppressor. Muslim fundamentalists are more numerous and powerful than the Christian ones because the Muslim countries are poorer. The radical messages get more traction among them. The more poor Christians we accumulate in this country, the more our own homegrown radicals, the WBC, will be taken seriously.

Vimeo description:

Animated by Austin illustrator Divya Srinivasan, this animated video depicts three sleepy ghost kids following a heterochromic fox through a snowy twilight. When the group discovers an impromptu critter disco in a forest clearing, the spirits and strays dance in harmony until a cranky babushka bemoans the noise and breaks up the party. Thus, the spectral youths return to the astral plane... but not without a final farewell to their new found animal friends.

Divya Srinivasan has previously created animated videos for Spoon ("Everything Hits at Once"), They Might Be Giants, The Sundance Channel and Wonder Showzen, and worked on Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" feature film. Divya's illustration portfolio includes numerous pieces for the New Yorker magazine, as well as the album artwork for Sufjan Stevens' Illinois and This American Life's "Stories of Hope and Fear" collection.

"I Saw The Bright Shinies" is from The Octopus Project's album "Hello, Avalanche," released in 2007 on Peek-A-Boo Records. The "Bright Shinies" video appears on the "Golden Beds" enhanced CD EP released in 2009 on Peek-A-Boo Records.

peekaboorecords.com/octopusproject
theoctopusproject.com
myspace.com/theoctopusproject
pupae.com/portfolio

*length=4:10

I think there is some definite hyperbole in your statement but I agree with what you've said on the main. Christians are called to be good stewards and we have largely ignored that command. As a former hardcore environmentalist I have a first hand understanding of what the tension is on either side. On one hand, the thought process behind the environmental movement is that this is the only Earth we have, and we must zealously protect its treasures because they cannot be replaced. Once they're gone, they are gone forever. On the other hand, the thought process behind more than a few Christians is that this Earth was given to us by God, and we have dominion over it. There is no reason to worry about destroying it because God Himself will be destroying it upon the second coming of Christ. The Earth will then be recreated and it will be overseen by God going into eternity.

These points of view are exactly contrary to one another and can hardly be reconciled. For the Christian, the tension the bible gives us is between steward and subdue. We are not only instructed to be good stewards, but also to subdue the Earth. Environmentalists hate the very thought of that and would prefer that human interference in natural affairs would approach zero. In the extreme of environmentalist thought, human beings are entirely expendable and should be culled until they do not significantly impact the biosphere. This is of course is entirely foreign to the mind of the Christian, who understands that the very point of the Earth is to be a habitation for human kind. Christians on the main are much more interested in the welfare of other human beings rather than animals and see animals as expendable. An animal has no eternal destiny spoken of in the bible, but human beings do.

As to where I stand, I care about animals and the environment. The issue of global warming is irrelevant to me; it's a doomsday scenario with no teeth. Even if it is somewhat true, it is not how the world is going to end. But I do care and so do many Christians. I don't think we should just run roughshod over this world and inflict undue suffering on creatures to exact some kind of profit. Rather, I think we should intelligently manage our resources and distribute them equitably. I think we could probably learn a lot from the Indians who managed to live harmoniously with their environment. On the other hand, I am not against drilling or logging or anything else that environmentalists hate, within reason. Unfortunately, human beings are not reasonable creatures; they are sinful and greedy to exploit anything they can for personal benefit. There is irrational hatred on both sides, and they are both being played by the adversary. I know people on the inside of the environmental movement and the infighting that goes on because of the gigantic egos and hypersensitivity is almost comical. Most seem to be in it for their own glory and they get in the way of anyone who actually wants to make a difference.

Christians should be setting the example but some of what you're dealing with isn't born again, spirit filled people, but apostate, carnal Christianity. Around 80 percent of the country professes to follow the Savior, but when you ask very specific questions like are you born again, justified by grace, etc the number goes down into the 30's. This isn't an excuse but it is the reality.

What if we can't ever expect our children to treat each other with respect when our adults don't give them a lead to follow. Does the system by which we operate ensure harmony and shared purpose, or do we strive to force competition amongst ourselves for access to an artificially finite resource governed by a set of rules we have collectively agreed to follow?

Maybe our society is sick and this is one of the many symptoms. Maybe we need to change society.

*promote Superior fish salvage and injected polymers
http://www.yuwanmei.com/

"Without harmony and dedication, all fail."

They should split the pattern between the wheels for harmony.

A magnificent concert - the DVD/Blu-ray is called "David Gilmour: Remember That Night - Live from the Royal Albert Hall". And - this track is more than worth the price tag by itself.

Love how Bowie sings a harmony voice, instead of the main voice. (Bah - don't know the english word)

There are better quality videos out there, though, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySx7af3fEf4

This 2006 concert needs a *quality, a *doublepromote and to lose the 70s tag.

Some of the highlights:
• At one point, the show interviews one of Hugh Hefner‘s ex-girlfriends holding a Carl’s Jr. cheeseburger because the burger chain sponsored this hot steaming pile of disaster.

• Macy Gray (remember her?!?!?!) dropped by to give what seems like a completely stoned performance of that song that won her a Grammy 12 friggin’ years ago.

• On multiple occasions, Kennedy and/or the show’s producers ask on a hot mic whether the show is currently live (hint: it was) while liberally peppering in some profanity for the sake of it. The first few seconds of one return from commercial break began with Kennedy on-stage looking around confusedly while off-camera voices asked “Where’s my stage manager?” and declared: “Don’t fucking give me shit.”

• The control room couldn’t seem to figure out how to press the right buttons and so interviews were cut off mid-sentence, camera shots sometimes never changed, random Carl’s Jr. ads ran during the middle of broadcast, and a video of Jamie Kennedy at a comedy club took about 10 seconds to load.

• One random woman in the crowd figured out how to read teleprompter behind co-host Stu Stone and mimicked his read for an entire two minutes. Sheer brilliance.

• Some guy dropped a big ol’ “motherfucker” live on-air.

• Oh hey, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (remember THEM?!?!?!?!) must’ve time-traveled from the 1990s to perform a few songs, seemingly missing the memo about “not cursing on air,” because… umm… they cursed. A lot.

• Kennedy channels the 2003 film that made him relevant for 10 whole minutes — Malibu’s Most Wanted — and tries his best at hitting on a drunk black woman: “You should go white, because it’ll keep your vagina very tight.”

• The show ends with a spontaneous fight on-stage behind the hosts… and then silence as the credits roll. Perfection.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/kdoc-los-angeles-had-the-most-spectacularly-disastrous-new-years-special-in-the-history-of-television/

This is my favorite Christmas song. I first heard it in the movie, Love Actually [which I just happened to finish watching again only moments ago ... it's my "go to" Holiday fare]

*promote the harmonious international relations

Aww, I assumed he was going for the duet in harmony at the end, like a 'row-row-row your boat' kind of thing. But it never came. Hmm, I think he blew it.

Otherwise, it's great!

This is a better jazz version, in my opinion, at least, but the last 45 seconds with harmonies was pure win!

>> ^shinyblurry:

>> ^RFlagg:
Problem is, they say the reason we were doing better was because we had God in schools, then we took him out of the schools and everything else... everything comes to how god was involved back then and less so now therefore we are paying the punishment of not having god in our lives... never mind how well many of the more atheist countries are doing (they think atheist countries are more like the old USSR)...
>> ^Fairbs:
Something most Republicans can't grasp is our country is better off when the rich are taxed more. 40 years ago, taxes on capital gains were 80%, but now Romney feels he's taxed too much at 15.


The argument isn't really about countries that are more atheist versus countries that aren't. It's that the United States has uniquely been a Christian nation since its founding. We are one nation, under God. Most people don't understand what that means; they think it is archaic when it is really the most important founding principle we have. The rapid decline in civil society has to do with the fact that, for the first time generations of Americans are growing up without the judeo-christian ethic being instilled in them from society, especially from their schools. And what we've seen since 1963 is a dramatic increase in the rate of violent crimes, teen pregnancy, STDs, the divorce rate, broken families, drug use, etc..the list goes on. There are the top 7 problems we had in our schools according to government records in 1940 vs 1990:
1940
1. Talking out of turn
2. Chewing Gum
3. Making noise
4. Running in the Halls
5. Cutting in Line
6. Dress-code violations
7. Littering
1990
1. Drug abuse
2. Alcohol abuse
3. Pregnancy
4. Suicide
5. Rape
6. Robbery
7. Assault
So, the argument is really that, we as a society have collectively turned our back on God, and therefore God has also turned His back on us. The principle is, you reap what you sow, and that's exactly what is going on right now. That's why this nation is facing calamity after calamity, because we have lost our way and we refuse to repent and turn back to our Creator.


You are picking and choosing your details man. I think you are also getting your 'facts' about the 40's and 50's from tv shows and movies and using them to spin your idea of 'how golden and free of crime America was before we turned out back on God.' And what about the decades before the 50's, certainly we hadn't 'turned away from god', so how do you explain the debauchery of the 20's, the turn of the century 'robber barons' that lived in luxury while their sweat-shops were worked by the masses of poor and children. The herione gangs and the waves of violence around 1910, 15.

It is really funny how some people (mostly white, older and male) see the 40's and 50's as this shining era of godly love, no crime and family harmony. It was all like 'leave it to beaver'. Dad made the big bucks, mom stayed at home and the most the kids ever got into trouble was when they broke a neighbors window. Yes, generally crime rates were low in the 40's and 50's but you cant attribute that to people 'having the fear of god' back then but skip over times that had just as much, if not even more religious fervor but also plenty of social upheaval and crime. Point of fact crime rates right now in most states are at historical lows, nearly to the levels of the 50's, but you still see murders every day. The information age has changed these things. In the 50's the only news you had was local. You might never have heard about some crime rave in another state.

Other things can attribute to the lower crime rates of those years. How many young men were serving in WWII during the 40's, that certainly would account for a drop in crime rates. And as to the 50's, the threat of nuclear war was constant. 'In God We Trust' wasn't added to money in the mid 50's because it was a particularly religious era, but rather because if the threat of communism. The term used to denote a healthy and proper family in the 50's wasn't coined the 'nuclear' family for nothing.

Last I'd like to point out that the US was 'never' designed as a Christian Nation and has only receive that monicker in the last number of years. I know bible-thumpers and hard-right politicians would have you think, hell have even changed school books, to wipe out ideas like the simple fact that many of the founding fathers wanted nothing to do with religion, though certainly not all. You can twist the words of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson all you want, but they above all abhorred the idea of religion influencing politics. This is not to say that they were all anti-religion, many advocated religion as a personal foundation of morality, but to hear modern republicans suggest they wanted Christianity to be the basis of the constitution and this country, they would be rolling over in their graves.

I was listening and at one point I though she hit the correct note or had some sort of harmony, then I realized I was hearing the cat outside.