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2006/3/30-31 [Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:42531 Activity:nil |
3/30 Possibly of interest to people following earlier motd discussion of linux (AssOS) and freebsd for high speed packet capture. www8.in.tum.de/research/papers/conext05schneider-poster.pdf |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Taiwan, Reference/Religion] UID:42532 Activity:high |
3/30 Southern Taiwanese girls are among the most self absorbed and money loving people I've ever met. Every time they talk, it's about themselves, or about money, or how they want <stick in whatever materialistic thing here>. The word charity is completely foreign to them. Anyone have similar experiences with other girls? \_ When you marry a S Taiwanese woman, you marry her entire family. You better like Oh-Ah-Jian (oyster pancake) and the food they eat. You better like her parents. You better like the mainland China bashing shows they watch and their Fox News equivalence (Taiwan Independence Newspaper). You'll have to live in closed quarters with her inlaws for an extended amount of time and cook & eat together. You should at minimum drive a 3 year old Lexus or better. The exception to this is if you're a doctor, then she'll do anything for you till you get married because the culture believes doctors are bigger than God or the President. After you believes doctors are bigger than Yahweh or the President. After you get married though, "all your bases belong to her". By that I mean your income, car, house, and the way you're suppose to think. \_ Move to some non-community property state. Then it is just a personal backbone issue, not a legal issue enforced by law. \_ this is so funny... and has a lot of truth in it. \_ How is this different from libertarian geek guys whose only interest is consumer electronics? \_ Hey! Some of us give money to soda and public tv! \_ I am not found of Taiwanese girls in general, but your statement \_ fond of "self absorbed and money loving people" applies to A LOT of people, men or women, regardless of color of skin! \_ There are some Taiwan girls on soda who are the exact opposite you describe. It is just like the other person said: stereotypes /generalizations are a very bad road to go down. \_ My gf is from Chiayi, and she ain't bad. We are Christians so she gives 10% to church. She is generous to others, but too thrifty herself (not as fun in terms of enjoying life). She says Taiwanese show their love using money, so there may be some truth in what you are saying. \_ Interesting. So what do YOU think? Or does she think for you? \_ She tried, but I ain't no pushover. \_ She tried, but I ain't no pushover. What do I think about Southern Taiwanese girls in general? I don't know enough of them to conclude. I have quite a few cousinettes spread over the island, but I haven't spent much time there so I don't know them well. I do know Southern Taiwanese guys don't do much housework, the prime example being my dad, but then, maybe that's because he's the only boy in his family and he had 5 sisters. \_ i love this logic: she is a Christians and give money to church she attends to, which makes her a much superior human being. \_ I am just responding to "The word charity is completely foreign to them". Why is it that I can't mention Christianity without being attacked? \_ If you were _good_ Christians you'd give everything away... but I guess that's a part of the Bible it's no fun to follow. \_ Commandments to specific people may not be applicable in the general case. \_ especially when it's inconvenient. -tom \_ especially when they're inconvenient. -tom \_ I am not a good Christian. Giving has little to do \_ Giving has little to do with "fun to follow" or not, and more to do with your faith in the Lord, and the Lord's calling. Are Christians required to give away everything. No. Do some Christians give away everything? Yes. Giving should also be joyous! \_ You say that as if it's clearly stated thus in the Bible. It's not. It's _your_ clear understanding of a book that can (and is) interpreted absolutely any way people want. I can extol the virtues incest, slavery, rape, revenge, misogyny, just about any horrid thing you like using only actions that are endorsed by God at some point in the Bible. You might as well use the dictionary as your holy book. actions that are endorsed by God at some point in the Bible. You might as well use the dictionary as your holy book. \_ You are right that people can interpret things in different ways, but that doesn't mean some of them are not wrong. Even in the bible itself, you have Satan and the Pharisees interpreting the bible one way, and Jesus "interpreting" it a different way. \_ But we can't know which interpretation is right. It is basically useless. It's one thing to have Yahweh/Yashua him/themselves clarifying stuff (albeit in a cryptic, impatient, and irritated fashion... what is up with that anyway, it's his/their own damn fault people get it wrong) or to have the literal voice of God or supposed deputies (why do the old testament people blindly accept that some being is an "angel of the Lord" anyway? It's not like they have any kind of authentication or digital signing of divine communications). But no, in all of modern times these fantastical communications, on which all of the religion is ultimately supposed to have been founded, are completely absent. Basically if Yahweh gave a shit what you think he'd say something. If Yahweh existed he would say something, according to the character laid out in the Bible itself. Reality does not bear it out. \_ In what context are you meeting them? What's their socio- economic background? Are they recent immigrants or 2nd or 3rd gen Americans? Also, what's your sample size? Anecdotes are amusing but statistically irrelevant. \_ in the context of being one and being with them for many decades, and the sample size is slightly less than 100 \_ You're a Southern Taiwanese girl? Are you as materialistic as you make them out to be? \_ I wonder what his opinion of Northern ones are. \_ post pics please! |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/Immigration] UID:42533 Activity:moderate |
3/29 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189402,00.html "Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language." -Roosevelt \_ Yes, we know, they're all horrible people. The ones in the pics below are pretty disagreeable. Now please stop with the fucking freeper spam, please. -John \_ just levy 100,000 of fine + 1 yr of jail time per violation to those who employ illegal immigrants. Once those people discover they can't find work here, they won't bother to risk their lives to come to USA. \_ Who would that benefit? -tom \_ cut down the illegal immigration will benefit us all. when I say that, I mean price for food, housing and child care will finally refelct the "true" market value, which I suspect many of people won't able to bear on their own. When people discover that price of food and construction and child care suddenly risen by 40%, then, invading another country for WMD half way across the world may become a secondary concern. kngharv \_ Woo. So you are saying that Americans would be better off if many people can't afford the price of food, housing, and child care? And that the Iraq war was caused by illegal aliens? Put your analyst on danger money. -tom \_ Better yet, enforce the laws we now have. \_ What laws? \_ See? How quick that article trots out the "jobs Americans won't do". Stupid fucking bitch. (Actually, the article also uses "American's". And this is supposed to be a professional publication?) \_ just levy 100,000 of fine + 1 yr of jail time per violation to those who employ illegal immigrants. Once those people discover they can't find work here, they won't bother to risk their lives to come to USA. \_ Better yet, enforce the laws we now have. \_ I like how the article's immediately followed by "Paris is Burning" Gee... why's that? Could it be... the exact sort of guest worker program that's being championed? |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/Immigration, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:42534 Activity:kinda low |
3/29 Pictures of Angry Mexicans: link:tinyurl.com/gahoh link:tinyurl.com/k9rn5 link:tinyurl.com/e6aqs \_ Maybe the guy with the "indigenous people" sign should have checked with all those Indians first. -John \_ Er, Mexicans are just as indigenous as the Indians here. (There are Spanish immigrants in Mexico too, but it's not like here where the immigrants pretty much replaced the local population. It's easy to tell the difference: Spanish people are tall, white, and European-looking. Mexicans are shorter, darker, and not.) \_ They're not all white and Euro-looking. Lots of swarthier ones from their time with the Moors. \_ That's funny, the last time I was in the middle of the Yucatan, the people there didn't look much like any of my Mexican friends from college/HS, or the Mexican guys from DF I work with now. Maybe they changed them or something. -John \_ Spanish descent. Gringo v. Indio. Round MMCCXVII. FIGHT! \_ I'm sure the Mexicans you know would say that. The Indians would have something entirely different to say. If the Mexicans are indigenous then so are all the white people in the US. \_ I don't know man, the Spanish seems to have breeded extensively with the Indians under their rule. Whereas, in north america, Indians were mostly just sent to reservations. While Mexicans don't look the same as Indians, they look different from whites too. They are mixed. \_ The CIA World Factbook agrees: they list Mexico as "mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%". You're right, though, I shouldn't have said they were "just as indigenous as the Indians". \_ I don't know, isn't a mexican claiming to be indigenous to California by virtue of being indigenous to Mexico kinda like a Chinese guy claiming to be indigenous to France? \_ Is an idiot still an idiot if they can't recognize their idiocy? \_ Are you stupid or just stupid? \_ At least they finally figured out that they should be waving US flags, no Mexican flags. \_ Must've run out of Mexican flags. Next shipment arrives next week from HK. |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/Immigration, Reference/Law/Visa, Finance/Investment] UID:42535 Activity:nil |
3/29 http://weneedafence.com I personally don't care about the immigration issue but I'd like to buy stocks in companies that make fences. What are some companies I should look into? |
2006/3/30-31 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:42536 Activity:nil |
3/29 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189547,00.html (second story) Spend your life inside Walmart! |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/California, Recreation/Humor] UID:42537 Activity:nil |
3/29 Isn't it funny that many hispanics decided to switch and vote for the GOP and now the GOP is dissing them? \_ Because all hispanics are in favor of open borders by virtue of their ethnicity? Isn't it funny how many people can hold incredibly racist beliefs and not even see it while at the same time pointing the same fat finger at others? |
2006/3/30 [Transportation/Airplane, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:42538 Activity:nil 75%like:42551 |
3/29 Woman gets a ticket for having a W BUSH bumper sticker: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/stories/0328metsticker.html |
2006/3/30 [Politics/Domestic/Immigration] UID:42539 Activity:nil |
3/29 http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1605932/posts Mexican takeover |
2006/3/30-31 [Transportation/Airplane] UID:42540 Activity:nil |
3/29 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189525,00.html Hooters Air to stop flying, mostly. \_ I misread the the headline as "Drooping"... |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush, Recreation/Travel] UID:42541 Activity:nil |
3/29 http://www.skylofts.com/html/news.html Los Angeles to have its own Times Square |
2006/3/30-4/2 [Recreation/Dating] UID:42542 Activity:nil |
3/30 MOTD boob guy journeyman apprentice says USA! USA! USA! http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4346/1160/1600/boazona9ax.jpg \_ Oven stuffer. \_ Check out those bombs! \_ This is the only useful post in the whole motd. -ax \_ Useful for about 10 minutes, might be useful again in a few hours. \_ A bombshell on top of a bombshell. \_ Girl is cute, boobs are too big, but wtf is she sitting on a shell? \_ Girl is cute, boobs are too big, but wtf is she sitting on a shell? \_ "Boobs are too big". I'm sure she hears that a lot. \_ "honey, I would fuck you three different ways on two different days, but...well...your boobs are just too big so you're going to have to leave." Riiiiiiight. |
2006/3/30-31 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows, Transportation/PublicTransit] UID:42543 Activity:low |
3/30 Does anyone have technical details of why BART's computer system is fucked up? They installed a 'software upgrade' what software? They 'switched to a backup system' but that failed. Who is their primary IT consultant? \_ I bet BART is running a crazy ass minicomputer or mainframe from the early 80s. \_ Over the weekend, I saw a BART ticket machine reboot into Win2k. It was running on a Celeron 300A, I think 256MB RAM. \_ I doubt BART runs their system from the ticket machines. \_ I doubt the navy runs nuclear subs on windows. oh wait... \_ Faith-based IT (subs)! No, I didn't mean to imply that BART uses anything sane to run their back-end, just that whatever the ticketing machines are running is unlikely to reflect what they are running elsewhere. \_ General Railway Signal http://www.pst.informatik.uni-muenchen.de/dagstuhl http://groups.google.com/group/ba.transportation/browse_frm/thread/a70e26cedf2b8c17/a244742ac0b80044%23a244742ac0b80044 http://tinyurl.com/prsem (groups.google.com) \_ Thanks, that's pretty interesting. |
2006/3/30-31 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Troll/Jblack] UID:42544 Activity:nil |
3/29 All freeper links not marked as such deleted. |
2006/3/30-31 [Reference/Religion] UID:42545 Activity:high |
3/30 Study: Praying Won't Affect Heart Patients: http://csua.org/u/fdi So does this mean Yahweh ignores prayers to ensure that there's no solid proof of His existence? What does Occam's Razor say about this? \_ Hello I'm George W Bush and I do not approve this message. \_ What would alarm me if I were Christian is the fact that the new pope claimed that he prayed to God that he not be selected pope. If God doesn't listen to the pope's prayers, why would he listen pope claimed that he prayed to Yahweh that he not be selected pope. If Yahweh doesn't listen to the pope's prayers, why would he listen to anyone else's? \_ Jesus asked God to take away the cup (not be crucified) from Him but also prayed to do God's will. God didnt save him from being sacrificed. God didn't answer his prayer but in a way he answered the part to do God's will. \_ The whole "God" thing is a big scam. People just don't want to \_ Jesus asked Yahweh to take away the cup (not be crucified) from Him but also prayed to do Yahweh's will. Yahweh didnt save him from being sacrificed. Yahweh didn't answer his prayer but in a way he answered the part to do Yahweh's will. \_ The whole "Yahweh" thing is a big scam. People just don't want to admit that they were suckers. "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful." -- Seneca \_ Ever seen the Jimmy Stwart movie Harvey? What's the difference between Harvey (the 6ft tall rabbit that only Jimmy Stewart's character can see) and Jesus? Not a whole heck of alot if you ask me \_ The difference is that Jesus is a histocial figure who is reported to have made miracles happen. Harvey is a movie character. The only question is do you believe the historical reports or not? If not, then you need to come up with a reason those reports exist in the first place. If so, then it is a question of 'how did he do it?' If it was Divine then case closed. The Divine can not be measured since it doesn't have to follow the laws of physics, science, etc and is assumed to have self-will and the power to change reality. If it was some sort of super science, hypnotism, mass halucination, etc, then how that came about needs to be explained. I'm an atheist but I have no issues with Christians or other religious types. Their business is theirs and mine is mine. The rare few who made the mistake of trying to convert me found themselves trying to answer unanswerable questions. Most are more polite than that. I find the faith-based atheists who are really more "anti-christians" than true thought derived atheists to be far more obnoxious and hateful than any Christians or other religious types. The key to all of this is that no matter what you decide for yourself, you still can't prove or disprove the existence of God through you still can't prove or disprove the existence of Yahweh through the scientific method or through pure faith. You can only make a rude ass of yourself. If everyone was simply nicer to each other the world would be a better place. So go back and ask yourself again the difference between a ficticious Hollywood character and a historical figure who is reported to have done things we can't explain 2000 years later. \_ What "reports"? there is only the bible's own word for it. \_ The bible has made mention of the locations of places once thought mythical that were found later by archaeologists. It is not so easily dismissed with a hand wave. There is truth in the bible. I'm sure there's also lies, and misunderstanding and misinterpretation as well. It was 2000 years ago and has to be understood in that context. The problem is not whether or not the bible is fairy tale or truth, but how much of each and to what degree for everything in it. --atheist \_ Examples? I know it mentions places that exist and events that happened, substantiated by evidence or other sources. That has zero to do with the miracles. \_ It says you can't outright dismiss the whole thing as fairy tales. It raises the question that if it got some things right we thought were false, then what is the explanation for the rest? I already said, it could be anything from outright lies to the Divine, alien super science or simply stories not originally intended to be taken literally. \_ The Bible is set in real-world locations and real-world times. That doesn't lend credibility to the mythology any more than the doings of Zeus and friends in the Iliad just because of new archaelogical information about Troy and Mycenae. Did the River Xanthus rise up against Achilles after he single-handedly choked it up with bodies of Trojans? Did Aeneas get whisked away magically by the Gods to escape death? Thousands of troops must have seen this stuff so it must be real. \_ The difference between Harvey and Jesus is that Harvey's existance isn't detailed in a book riddled with inconsistencies and totally inexplicable nonsense. \_ Yes, this is exactly the sort of faith-based atheism I was talking about. \_ Except I'm not an atheist. -- pp \_ So Christianity is a competing religion then? What do you believe in? \_ I'm agnostic. I don't see a problem in believing in a God or not, but the more believing in a Yahweh or not, but the more I read the bible the more I'm convinced you have to be basically insane to believe the majority of it. And saying "well don't interpret it literally" is stupid. You're basing your entire belief system on what is written in this old book, if you had a physics book that contained 60% stuff that didn't reflect reality, would you believe any of it? \_ Grr, this is annoying. Someone rolled back the motd. Anyone, my previous answer is the same: I would neither outright accept nor dismiss the other 40%, which is all I'm saying about the bible. \_ I'm sure there are some pearls of wisdom buried in "Mein Kampf" too, but I wouldn't base my belief system on that book either. \_ How is saying the the Bible is riddled with inconsistencies and inexplicable nonsense "faith-based atheism"? If you're _actually_ an atheist and not just using it as an arguing point, then you know for yourself that there are any number of examples to support both of those claims. \_ Because you don't *know* which claims are true or false and to what degree so dismissing all of them and then being openly hostile and aggressive towards those who believe there might be something to it is no better than the people who blindly accept all of it as literal truth and push it on you. \_ Of course we know which claims are false, assuming you believe in fact-based reality. Earth is 10,000 years old? Obviously false. Noah's ark? Totally impossible nonsense. A star falling into the ocean? Can't happen either. \_ I hate it when politicians make policy decisions based on a book that was first probably oral tradition, who knows who the heck came up with it, then written in Aramaic, then some parts in Greek, throw some Hebrew and Latin in, and along we come along and translate it into the King's English, and then dumbasses say "IT IS WRITTEN IN THE BIBLE, SO IT IS WRITTEN". \_ I wouldn't out right dismiss all of it but I wouldn't blindly accept it either which is all I'm saying about the bible. \_ [ this was originally in response to something totally different. it'd be nice if people were more careful with their edits ] \_ Exactly. This is why now is not the right time to be a "just leave them be" atheist. People are electing leaders not on the basis of qualifications, but because of their fanatastical beliefs. Our nation is unwilling to find Muslim ethics wanting because they're based on faith and holy books. It's impossible to have factual, logical, intelligent debates about many topics related to medical ethics because of religious assertions that CANNOT be refuted with fact, because fact is irrelevant to the discussion. These are serious problems with being a "they're not hurting anyone with their beliefs" atheist. \_ People have always elected leaders, in part, based on their religion. They said Kennedy would never get elected because he was Catholic. Yet... somehow he did. Have more _faith_ in people (heh). And careful siding too closely with so called medical ethics professionals. Some of them have made some really outlandish statements by anyone's measure. \_ Who said I was siding with "ethics professionals" I said we couldn't have intelligent debate because it's FORBIDDEN to question blind faith! You can argue logical points in a scientific manner, and perform tests to aquire better supporting facts, but in a culture where "my religion says X" completely ends all possibility of debate, something is WRONG. \_ Study is flawed. The patients didn't pray hard enough. -jesus \_ "Do not tempt the Lord your God" .. split into 3 groups? \_ "Do not tempt God" .. split into 3 groups? \_ "Do not tempt Yahweh" .. split into 3 groups? sounds unauthentic \_ Huh? \_ Where does it say that? \_ Matthew 4:7 "you shall not test the Lord your God" \_ Matthew 4:7 "you shall not test God" \_ Why the frack not? \_ God does answers prayers. Sometimes the answer is no. A chant \_ Matthew 4:7 "you shall not test Yahweh" \_ Yahweh does answers prayers. Sometimes the answer is no. A chant leading to a result is magic, not Christianity. \_ No he doesn't. What do you base that on? Give me one example of a prayer having been answered. \_ All my life I have been an athiest, but a few years ago I got so tired of shitting in the stall next to this really annoying guy I used to work with that I started to pray to the shit gods that he not have to shit at the same time as I did. Well, he stopped shitting at the same time and my prayers were answered. So now I believe in the shit god. \_ My cs170 final, for starters.... \_ As long as there are exams, prayer in schools will never be eradicated. \_ I've had prayers clearly answered. Sometimes the answer was no. Sometimes the answer has what I expected, and sometimes wasn't. It very much depends on the individual and the circumstances. Which is why it could never be reliably studied by the scientific method IMO. -emarkp \_ "Sometimes, when I cross myself before I take a free throw, my prayer is answered and I make it. Sometimes the answer is no and I miss it. Sometimes I miss it but get the rebound and get two points. It very much depends on the individual and the circumstances." Complete cop-out. If there is any real effect to prayer, that effect is measurable by scientific methods. -tom \_ I'm glad you have so much faith in the scientific method. I don't a tool to this level of worship however. If a phenomenon is inherently subjective, it can't be tested by science, which doesn't make it false, it simply can't be admitted into scientific theory. \_ If prayers can be answered, the phenomenon is not "inherently subjective." What is subjective is someone's *belief* that their prayer was answered. It is certainly the case that people believe all kinds of stuff with no evidence other than their own subjective feelings. -tom \_ You seem to think "answering prayer" means "granting a request". It doesn't. -emarkp \_ You seem to think that what goes on inside your head when you pray has some relation to external reality. It doesn't. -tom \_ Thoughts have no relation to external reality? That's a pretty impressive assertion tom. -emarkp \_ Why? Is there some difficulty with asserting that, and if so what? \_ Well, there is that whole observer problem. \_ Alright, I suppose it is a poor way to phrase it. Nevertheless, in context we are talking about assigning religious meaning to someone's thoughts. This starts to smack of schizophrenia. \_ Where'd you get your license to practice psychiatry? Do you even know what schizophrenia is? \_ Yes. But if it makes you feel better, substitute "psychosis" so we don't have to argue the details. \_ No you haven't. You've prayed for something, and it happened, or it didn't. It would have happened regardless. \_ With all due respect (i.e. none) I'm a better authority on my own experience than you are. -emarkp \_ No, you're not. Because you filter everything that you experience through your warped sense of reality. I bet you consider feelings experienced in your mind as divine contact. \_ Why is "my" sense of reality warped Mr. Anonymous Troll? -emarkp \_ Is Jesus your Friend? \_ That's my judgement of those who do what I say in my last sentence. \_ Judge not lest ye be judged! (heh, sorry, someone had to say it). \_ Everyone's sense of reality is warped. No one experiences the world as it really is b/c the brain/mind is constantly filtering and inter- preting the inputs from our senses and trying to form predictive patterns. If you have all these notions of external powers stuck in your head, you end up using those notions to evaluate your experiences, rather than assessing them objectively. In the end, it is all just a bunch of neuro- transmitters flowing between neurons. The real trick is to try praying for something that really couldn't happen without a prayer. You'll find those will never ever be "answered". Well, I guess one area where religious people get points is with other religious people. For example, being religious is a prerequisite to get with some religious girls. So, if you really like a religious girl and pray and stuff then there's a much better chance of getting with her than if you didn't. That much is probably scientifically provable :) \_ An effect indistinguishable from random chance either: a) doesn't exist b) is irrelevant Which is it? \_ what part of do "not test the Lord" do you not understand? \_ The part where "the Lord" exists, maybe? \_ what part of do "not test God" do you not understand? \_ The part where "God" exists, maybe? \_ what part of do "not test Yahweh" do you not understand? \_ The part where "Yahweh" exists, maybe? \_ I understand cop-outs perfectly well. In fact, that's the same cop-out psychics use. -tom \_ Have you ever read The Men Who Stare at Goats? \_ It's still indistinguishable from the case where there is no God and no prayers being answered. You can call is no Yahweh and no prayers being answered. You can call that a test if you want. -!pp \_ Actually, it probably means that God's install of Spam Assassin \_ Actually, it probably means that Yahweh's install of Spam Assassin is working (given he's had billions of yrs, or at least 6K yrs, to train it, I'm not surprised). Of course, this presupposes that the Universe is real and separate from God. Of course, this presupposes that the Universe is real and separate from God. from Yahweh. \_ Thank you, Bishop Berkeley. \_ How Jesus taught us to pray: Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be thy Name Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debters And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. \_ Prayers are not just the asking of things. A prayer is a dialogue with the Lord, through which we build a closer relationship with him. It could be like a child talking to her father, or a friend talking to a friend. God listens to the righteous, and reveals talking to a friend. Yahweh listens to the righteous, and reveals himself to those who seek him. He hears those who cry out to him. "Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you." He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Some relevant verses: Matthew 12:38-42 Matthew 13:58 Isaiah 58:9 (read the whole of 58) \_ This debate is not about prayer-as-conversation. It is directly about the much vaunted "power of prayer" to DO things. Talking to a parent does not effect physical change unless the parent DOES something. If they DO, it's measurable. Look, either God DOES something. If they DO, it's measurable. Look, either Yahweh can be cajoled into doing things or He can't. If He can't, then everything happens according to His Plan and there is no free will. If he can, then prayer is certainly making a request, no matter how many "be it your will..." and "if it pleases you..." clauses you add to your request. \_ Essentially, what you want is to be shown a miracle. And I've already pointed out above as to why you won't see one. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean prayers aren't answered. \_ Which is why, again? Can you articulate it in simple terms? (Also, isn't it noteworthy that in the Bible, first God and (Also, isn't it noteworthy that in the Bible, first Yahweh and then Jesus gains followers by the use of direct miracles? c.f. Jesus walking on water blah blah resurrecting, c.f. burning bushes and clouds and booming heavenly voices. \_ You know about the miracles, so why are you asking for more? God is sovereign. He is not obligated to \_ The point is I know what miracles it SAYS happened, and by the Bible's own internal logic it's reasonable to expect some sort of proof, but I don't actually have any personal evidence nor do I believe the unsubstantiated reports in the Bible. \_ If you want personal evidence, why don't you start praying and seeking him then. \_ If you want personal evidence, you can start praying and seeking him. \_ So in your world, you have to first believe in it before you can get evidence for it. No, that is insane. And I've never talked to anyone who actually had personal evidence. Why don't you describe yours hmm? \_ Praying and seeking doesn't mean belief. If you want witnesses, there are plenty of books and video documentaries with testimonies, or you can find a church. Another way would be to follow Isaiah 58, and do what is righteous, or follow what Jesus teaches. for more? Yahweh is sovereign. He is not obligated to perform any miracle, or 5 miracles per century. He is not obligated to perform any miracle to prove his existence to you. And what seperates us from him is our sin; it is not the lack of or abundance of miracles. The people who saw Jesus performed miracles, also nailed him to the cross. p.s. Read the book of Esther. Did God perform any p.s. Read the book of Esther. Did Yahweh perform any miracles in the events in Esther? \_ The point is I know what miracles it SAYS happened, and by the Bible's own internal logic it's reasonable to expect some sort of proof, but I don't actually have any personal evidence nor do I believe the unsubstantiated reports in the Bible. \_ If you want personal evidence, you can start praying and seeking him. \_ So in your world, you have to first believe in it before you can get evidence for it. No, that is insane. And I've never talked to anyone who actually had personal evidence. Why don't you describe yours hmm? \_ Praying and seeking doesn't mean belief. If you want witnesses, there are plenty of books and video documentaries with testimonies, or you can find a church. Another way would be to follow Isaiah 58, and do what is righteous, or follow what Jesus teaches. \_ Praying is communicating with something I believe doesn't exist and doesn't answer... I call that insanity. The testimonies are worthless for one reason or another (name one and I'll tell you why). You also haven't answered my last question. \_ Try the other way then - i.e. Doing what is righteous. That's the harder way, but it leads to a stronger faith. \_ But that's the point. Determining what is righteous is something we can discuss rationally. (and besides, nobody agrees on what the religions really say is righteous.) Baseless faith is dumb. I have a certain faith in family and friends because I know them from past experience. I also have a more limited faith in other fellow humans, based on my dealings with them in general. I have no faith in Yahweh. \_ Yes, we have faith in God for we experienced him, and he is faithful, and good, and just, and his love endures. \_ If you "experienced" Yahweh, then you don't need faith. Which is it? (and, what was the nature of this experience? the nature of this experience? \_ When you say you have faith in someone, what does it mean? \_ It is belief; belief that they can be relied on in certain ways. In the case of Yahweh, I guess it is about belief that what is said about him is true (bible), but mainly for me the truth "how he is" is pretty much irrelevant, what guess it is about belief that what is said about him is true (bible), but mainly for me the truth "how he is" is pretty much irrelevant, what matters is if he exists in the first place. If you "experienced" him then you must not have such doubts, non? why are you averse to my _/ calling it that? It helps to distinguish the Judeo-Christian God from other possible conceptions, which may be far more interesting. \_ Yes, we have faith in God for we experienced him, and he is faithful, and good, and just, and his love endures. endures forever. \_ feel free to use Yahweh, just don't change God to Yahweh for what other people wrote. Someone was doing that. \_ YASHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUA! \_ I find your lack of faith disturbing. -dvader \_ "The force bugs are strong within him". |
2006/3/30 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:42546 Activity:nil 93%like:42552 |
3/30 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060330/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_carroll_released Carroll freed in Iraq!!! HAPPY NEWS finally. \_ I bet the Freepers think this is bad news. \_ Pretty much: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1606219/posts My favorite is "does she look Arab to you?" |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/Election, Politics/Domestic/California] UID:42547 Activity:moderate |
3/30 Welcome to the government-mandated gas shortage. Get ready for $3/gal and more: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2006/2006-03-29-10.asp \_ "We need to put oil companies on notice that they cannot use MTBE as another excuse to boost up oil prices," yeah, we all know that artificially restricting supply never causes a price increase! \_ I love how a senator complains that forcing the gas companies to switch their ingredients is the gas companies' fault. \_ you do know MTBE pollutes water and has no significant benefit, right? \_ No significant benefit to _you_. Lots of benefits to the chums of the politicians legislating it. \_ Yes, but congress also is forcing them to replace MTBE with ethanol (rather than simply removing it) and ethanol producers simply can't supply the demand. \_ Oil companies finally figured out a way to get rid of a byproduct (MTBE) by adding it to gasoline. Too bad it's a pollutant! byproduct (MTBE) by adding it to gasoline. Too bad it's a pollutant! \_ Congress also mandated MTBE in the first place. \_ Who runs Congress? Noo, the answer is not "the Congresscritters", try again. \_ that is a different story. while adding ethanol make sense in corn-producing countries such as Iowa, transporting them from midwest to California so it can be added doesn't make any economic sense. Thanks to powerful corn producing countries... btw, this is also the reason why we don't see any frutose (liquid sugar that is only half of calories) at starbuck... god damn it. \_ Umm, all sugar is going to be the same number of calories. Carbs is carbs. \_ Do you mean frutose or fructose? If it's the latter, are you talking about high fructose corn syrup, which, to my knowledge, is terrible for you, or is there some just plain fructose liquid sugar that is less bad? -dans \_ sugaarrr... mmmmm.... |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/Immigration] UID:42548 Activity:nil |
3/30 George Will on immigration: http://tinyurl.com/kfm3o I agree with most of what he says. I was hating on George Will for a long time after he wrote that we should pave over Alaska just because he found environmentalists annoying. \_ I basically agree with that. Immigration needs to be controlled, but making illegal entry a felony is not helpful. We also need to improve the system to make it as easy as possible for people we do want. (And we need to be honest about what that means.) -jrleek \_ I think Will's dodging the painful truth (that we need to provide an economic disincentive to illegally hiring illegal workers) in favor of handwaving over something that most people, left and right, agree with, namely, that we need a solution that protects the borders without marginalizing the immigrant class. And his dig at Soc Sec is just petty. |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/RepublicanMedia, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:42549 Activity:nil |
3/30 what do people think about the British memos supposedly saying Bush/Blair were thinking of ways to fake cause for invading Iraq in case we didn't find WMD quickly? Excuse my poor English. I'm talking about these: http://tinyurl.com/eabyg I don't know where the original NY Times story is. Just for laughs I looked around on Fox News . com for the story but I can't find it. \_ What?! Are you saying the NYT and Foxnews are the same since neither has the story? \_ No, not at all. I doubt it was ever on Fox News. Please prove me wrong! The NY Times article is now behind their paywall. \_ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183689,00.html I typed "blair memo" into their search engine. It was the first link. You sure tried really hard, huh? \_ I guess your brain uses different buckets for the hashes, i didn't think of that since there seems to be secret BLAIR memos coming out every other month. anyway I don't want to imply Fox News is a bunch of scum sucking administration sycophants. I am surprised at the lack of public outcry. I know we've been debating whether Bush made up shit when invading Iraq but the memo seems pretty damning. \_ Hey that is a DIFFERENT blair memo. See, a new shocking one comes out all the time! Please read the above urls again. My BLAIR memo has Bush suggesting we paint a plane in UN colors so Saddam would shoot at it and then we can invade in retaliation. \_ As I said before it was overwritten: it should be no surprise that there are multiple memos on the same topic between the leadership of two close allies on an important issue. \_ Well, Dubya doubted Blix would find the WMDs, but he was sure that Saddam had them, so he attacked in March '03 to prevent Blix from not finding them longer. |
2006/3/30-4/3 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/SW/OS/Linux] UID:42550 Activity:nil |
3/30 So which current laptop out there works with Linux and hibernation-to-disk (not suspend to memory) ? \_ I have a toshiba that seems to work w/ Linux hibernate. I'll get you the model number tonight. \_ I thought newer linux kernel supports suspend-to-disk, no? |
2006/3/30-31 [Transportation/Airplane, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:42551 Activity:nil 75%like:42538 |
3/29 Woman gets a ticket for having a W BUSH bumper sticker: http://csua.org/u/fdg (Atlanta Journal) (Reg required) \_ To be clear, she got a ticket for having a bumper sticker that read, "I'm tired of this BUSHSHIT." \_ BUSHIT |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:42552 Activity:nil 93%like:42546 |
3/30 http://tinyurl.com/p3fpg (news.yahoo.com) Carroll freed in Iraq!!! HAPPY NEWS finally. \_ I bet the Freepers think this is bad news. \_ Pretty much: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1606219/posts My favorite is "does she look Arab to you?" \_ Considering the Italian journalist was later found with some of the ransom money, some degree of doubt is appropriate. Here is the real victim of this story: Remembering Allan: a tribute to Jill Carroll's interpreter http://csmonitor.com/2006/0306/p01s03-woiq.html?s=t5 |
2006/3/30-31 [Uncategorized] UID:42553 Activity:nil |
3/30 is our email down? getting calls that emails are bouncing |
2006/3/30-31 [Recreation/House] UID:42554 Activity:nil 88%like:42572 |
3/30 http://infosthetics.com/archives/2006/03/flying_carpet_geographical_map.html Cool map as the carpet |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/911] UID:42555 Activity:low |
3/30 Carroll freed only because the US military made secret negociations with the terrorists. News at 11. \_ Khalilzad says no ransom was paid and no "arrangements with anyone" were made by U.S. officials. He did thank Iraqi politicians for their efforts, though. The video put out by the kidnappers today said that the U.S. released some female Iraqi hostages. \_ URL please. Everything I'm reading says no ransom was paid. \_ so much for not negotiating with terrorists. \_ Nono. We never negotiate with terrorists. The release of a few female prisoners was planned long time ago and it merely coincided with Carroll's release. The terrorists thought we negotiated but we didn't. We're already winning the war on terror and there is no need for negotiation. \_ So everyone but the kidnappers says there were no negotiations and you believe them. Nice. |
2006/3/30-4/1 [Recreation/Dating, Transportation] UID:42556 Activity:nil |
3/30 Commuter porn everywhere: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12059964 \_ "wherever new audio-visual electronics go, porn goes with it." He's got that backwards. \_ That...that doesn't make very much sense. |
2006/3/30-4/3 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Troll/Aspolito] UID:42557 Activity:nil |
3/30 Who works at WaveMarket? I'm not going in to ask for anonymous sodans. -- jsjacob \_ is that homosexual code? \_ Brain, aspo, danh, crebbs \_ Plenty of sodans work at Google. WaveMarket is the next Google! \_ why dont they help get us jobs there? \_ Do you need a job? /csua/pub/jobs/AvantGo --dbushong \_ WaveMarket is the next CSUA! |
2006/3/30-4/1 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Computer/SW/Graphics] UID:42558 Activity:nil |
3/30 http://tinyurl.com/ese8k Device tells you if you're boring or not. Helpful for geeks. wealth the company has much better chances of success, as everyone's interests then align for the good of the corporation. It's better to own 25% of a billion dollar corporation than to own 90% of a |
2006/3/30-31 [Uncategorized/Profanity] UID:42559 Activity:moderate |
3/30 http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=132848 Photo evidence and witness report (Boston U assistant professor): Scalia punctuated gesture with verbal "Fuck you" (in Italian) \_ Good thing he doesn't go cruising in parks by the Potomac in the middle of the night. the middle of the night like some of his comtemporaries. the middle of the night like some of his contemporaries. \_ "Va fa in culo" means "do (it) in the asshole", not "fuck you." Subtle semantic difference. -John \_ Good thing he doesn't go cruising in parks by the Potomac in the middle of the night like some of his contemporaries. \_ You usually translate the meaning of these things, not the word-for-word mapping. "Va te faire foutre" doesn't translate directly to "fuck you," but that's a pretty good idiomatic way to get across what it means. \_ What is it about extreme right wingers that makes them so vulgar? First Cheney's "go fuck yourself", now Scalia. Or is it that the media just loves to pounce on these self-righteous assholes? |
2006/3/30-31 [Uncategorized] UID:42560 Activity:nil |
3/30 http://www.frontpagemag.com/media/advertisements/tsad0324.gif Liberal t-shirts |
2006/3/30-31 [Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:42561 Activity:nil |
3/30 Is there a way in Mac OS X to get the total packet count sent/received for a particular network interface? \_ $ netstat -I [interface] | tail -1 Col 5 (Ipkts) is the recv'd pkts, Col 7 (Opkts) is the sent pkts. \_ Excellent! Thanks. \_ Looks like Activity Monitor shows all network activity combined. |
2006/3/30-4/1 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus] UID:42562 Activity:nil |
3/30 In C, what's the purpose of using "extern" for function declarations in .h files that are included by .c files in other modules? Thx. \_ Functions are default globabl scope in C, so extern is redundant. See p 41 Expert C Programming. \_ It's unnecessary. I guess you could use it for emphasis to contrast against 'static', though. See: http://c-faq.com/decl/extern.html |
2006/3/30-4/2 [Uncategorized] UID:42563 Activity:nil |
3/30 David Yeagley on Mexico http://www.badeagle.com \_ jblack is back! |
2006/3/30-31 [Computer/Companies/Google] UID:42564 Activity:nil |
3/30 link:tinyurl.com/l9yrq (Google Adventure from http://groups.msn.com \_ I'm not sure if this is funny, or just kind of odd. \_ This is Dumb |
2006/3/30-4/1 [Consumer/Audio] UID:42565 Activity:nil |
3/30 Cool new iPod case. Mostly SFW. http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2006/3/30/3401 \_ I don't get it. I'm so out. \_ If you don't get it, you're lucky. \_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse \_ Ouch! |
2006/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:42566 Activity:nil |
3/30 http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2006/03/index.html#009646 Tewwowist killer Hillary rakes in big bucks fundraising in Bush country |
12/23 |