Author
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Topic: If God made a mistake would he tell us?
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truthlover
Member (Idle past 4384 days) Posts: 1548 From: Selmer, TN Joined: 02-12-2003
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Message 13 of 42 (42101)
06-04-2003 5:29 PM
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Reply to: Message 11 by Peter 06-04-2003 11:43 AM
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quote: Yes, a president or prime minister is elected, but once in office their powers are used in a manner not dissimilar to monarchs of old.
Maybe it's popular to be a cynic, but it seems to me that the system of checks and balances written into the constitution (the sharing of power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches) has pretty effectively limited the power of the presidency and the Congress. It may not be perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than the old monarchies, in my opinion.
This message is a reply to: | | Message 11 by Peter, posted 06-04-2003 11:43 AM | | Peter has seen this message but not replied |
Replies to this message: | | Message 14 by zephyr, posted 06-04-2003 10:39 PM | | truthlover has replied |
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truthlover
Member (Idle past 4384 days) Posts: 1548 From: Selmer, TN Joined: 02-12-2003
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Message 16 of 42 (42120)
06-04-2003 11:13 PM
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Reply to: Message 14 by zephyr 06-04-2003 10:39 PM
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quote: Ideally, it's vastly better. But the executive branch has slowly been gaining power for decades, and many find this cause for concern.
I'm not sure I agree that the executive branch has been slowly gaining power for decades, although I'm no history expert. I do understand concern about the Patriot act and other such things. However, that is not the same as saying "we might as well have a monarchy, what's the difference?" The difference is, we don't have a monarchy, and the very concern we are talking about is that our government might turn into a monarchy, and that would be terrible, I agree.
This message is a reply to: | | Message 14 by zephyr, posted 06-04-2003 10:39 PM | | zephyr has replied |
Replies to this message: | | Message 17 by Peter, posted 06-05-2003 10:13 AM | | truthlover has not replied | | Message 18 by zephyr, posted 06-05-2003 12:30 PM | | truthlover has replied |
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truthlover
Member (Idle past 4384 days) Posts: 1548 From: Selmer, TN Joined: 02-12-2003
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Message 19 of 42 (42186)
06-05-2003 8:26 PM
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Reply to: Message 18 by zephyr 06-05-2003 12:30 PM
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Re:
Zephyr writes: How many undeclared wars have we fought in your lifetime? Used to be we couldn't send soldiers anywhere without a declaration from Congress. A series of resolutions have gradually increased the ability of the president to take unilateral military action. I had a whole military science class that spent a few days on the subject. Well, that's a better source than any I've got. People have so many political opinions, and who knows where they got them or whether there's any real basis to them. If your military science class studied it and determined that, at least in the power to declare war, the executive branch's power is growing, I'll buy that. Interesting.
This message is a reply to: | | Message 18 by zephyr, posted 06-05-2003 12:30 PM | | zephyr has not replied |
Replies to this message: | | Message 20 by Quetzal, posted 06-06-2003 2:50 AM | | truthlover has replied |
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truthlover
Member (Idle past 4384 days) Posts: 1548 From: Selmer, TN Joined: 02-12-2003
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Message 21 of 42 (42250)
06-06-2003 3:57 PM
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Reply to: Message 20 by Quetzal 06-06-2003 2:50 AM
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Re:
The whole "rising power of the executive branch" interests me very little, but when you got to "I think it provides a very good background into how we got from a nation that had a real bad feeling about permanent standing armies...", then I was pretty interested. I'll go get that book.
quote: Besides, it tickles my funny bone a bit to think what your fellow parishoners would say about one of their spokespeople reading a book on warfare
Ah, you have us confused with some other church or something. One of our favorite movies is The 13th Warrior. We don't watch a lot of movies, but that's one we like. We believe our warfare is supposed to be spiritual, not physical, but we love courage and valor, and if we can learn courageousness from those who fought bravely physically, then we will. Gandhi was totally against violence, but he said it was better to fight in a war than be a coward. We agree. If you smile at the idea about "Christians" (we don't like to be called Christians, but we do believe in Christ, so...) reading a book on war, then imagine us "Christians" chanting "Lo, there do I see my father, there do I see my mother, and my brothers and my sisters. Lo, there do I see the line of my ancestors, stretching back to the beginning, bidding me take my place among them in the halls of Valhalla, where the brave shall live forever."
This message is a reply to: | | Message 20 by Quetzal, posted 06-06-2003 2:50 AM | | Quetzal has replied |
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truthlover
Member (Idle past 4384 days) Posts: 1548 From: Selmer, TN Joined: 02-12-2003
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Message 24 of 42 (42352)
06-08-2003 1:35 AM
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Reply to: Message 22 by crashfrog 06-06-2003 7:51 PM
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Re:
quote: You probably like Lord of the Rings, though? (I know I did.)
I've read the series five times, including twice out loud to my kids. So the drastic changes in The Two Towers were pretty rough for me to handle. Otherwise, yes, I liked the movie. I loved the books. The Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf will have to wait, I think, until I hunt down that Godel book you also recommended. I'll probably have to order it from amazon.com, as our local (80 miles away) Barnes & Nobles didn't have it.
This message is a reply to: | | Message 22 by crashfrog, posted 06-06-2003 7:51 PM | | crashfrog has replied |
Replies to this message: | | Message 25 by crashfrog, posted 06-08-2003 2:07 AM | | truthlover has replied |
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truthlover
Member (Idle past 4384 days) Posts: 1548 From: Selmer, TN Joined: 02-12-2003
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Message 26 of 42 (42360)
06-08-2003 12:48 PM
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Reply to: Message 25 by crashfrog 06-08-2003 2:07 AM
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Re:
I made it through the changes in the Fellowship of the Ring. I could even understand someone thinking it made the story better. In The Two Towers, however, there were four major decision changes that I had to suck my breath in for. Two stand out in my memory. The ents deciding not to go to war at the entmoot was a complete turnaround from the book, and Fangorn's shock at seeing Saruman's activities seemed silly to me, especially when Merry had to trick him into looking at it. Worse, once he saw the destruction, Fangorn made a "hasty" decision without consulting the Entmoot. Then Theoden also decided to avoid war after he had the demon cast out of him (that's what it looked like, LOL, straight out of a Kenneth Copeland extravaganza). That was the opposite, too, but not quite as bad. Oh, and Faramir deciding to keep Frodo offended all my sensibilities. Faramir was possibly my favorite character, and I considered it a personal insult that they dared to tarnish his nobility and wisdom. There was one more, but I don't remember it. The elves showing up from Lothlorien was awesome, though, even though it wasn't in the book. Now look what you've done! Do you realize how off topic this is! I'm certain this is your fault.
This message is a reply to: | | Message 25 by crashfrog, posted 06-08-2003 2:07 AM | | crashfrog has replied |
Replies to this message: | | Message 27 by crashfrog, posted 06-08-2003 2:07 PM | | truthlover has not replied | | Message 30 by Peter, posted 06-25-2003 11:28 AM | | truthlover has not replied |
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truthlover
Member (Idle past 4384 days) Posts: 1548 From: Selmer, TN Joined: 02-12-2003
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Message 29 of 42 (42458)
06-09-2003 4:48 PM
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Reply to: Message 28 by Quetzal 06-09-2003 2:56 AM
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Re:
quote: I did get the impression from previous posts that your group rejected violence (all the references to Ghandi), so perhaps I might be forgiven.
Totally warranted assumption on your part. No problem. I was confused why you had thought that. Gandhi's favorite Scripture was the Baghavah Gita, which is terribly violent, and which, I am told, refers historically to one of the most bloody battles of ancient history. He interpreted it all allegorically, of course, as he was opposed to violence. Really, we are, too, because we believe we're a spiritual kingdom, but only for that reason. Physical kingdoms fight physical wars, and spiritual kingdoms lay their lives down in the physical realm, or so we see it. But we try to learn from the brave, and Gandhi said he did, too. You threw me bad with the Ghandi spelling. I spelled it that way for months before someone corrected me, and when I saw you spell it with the h after the G, I got completely confused and couldn't remember which way was right. I had to go look on Google. It goes after the h. Thanks for the positive words, btw.
This message is a reply to: | | Message 28 by Quetzal, posted 06-09-2003 2:56 AM | | Quetzal has not replied |
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