http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2013/01/15/the-arkansas-republican-dilemma Comments On: The Arkansas Republican dilemma on Medicaid by Max Brantley en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Sun, 26 May 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Sun, 26 May 2013 00:15:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss “You guys have no idea what I think about the size of the safety net.”

I would rather not “Pick On” anyone, but I must refute such double-speak.
To disprove my main thesis, I allow that I concur with the statement “Either side using Christianity to prove their point on this is reaching.” for the simple reason that the use of superstition as justification is generally indicative of the weakness of one’s argument.
To repudiate my rebuttal; oh never mind…


“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said,
but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
Robert McCloskey
Posted by Zatharus]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:57:28 -0600 Arkansas Times
You got me on that one. I have no defense.
Posted by ProCarry]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:41:30 -0600 Arkansas Times Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason" in kindergarten (advanced placement).

Forget Xenu and the volcanic Thetans, or Moroni and the Seer Stones.

God Almighty, Creator of All Universes, assumes the form of a ghost, rapes an underage virgin in a dream, before her husband has known her, impregnates her with a son whom he later arranges to have brutally tortured and murdered, to prove God's Love.

What could be more believable or make more sense?
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:53:01 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Verla Sweere]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:43:35 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Doc]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:32:20 -0600 Arkansas Times
"...because Christianity, Mormonism, Judaism, Islam and all the others you might think to mention are somewhat believable"

Uh, PC, have you ever read "The Book Of Mormon"?
Posted by Olphart]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:59:13 -0600 Arkansas Times
Fair enough, PC, I get your point. I'm sensitive about that but promise I won't cry. My point was regardless or not whether I know the mind of Jesus (I don't), I have read the Bible and generally know what's there. I may not know if it's true or not, but, again, I know it's there in black and white and sometimes, red. I suspect that most Christians haven't read their own holy book.

I also know, again from actually reading it, that overall, it doesn't make a lick of sense. Too many cooks in the kitchen for way too long is my theory. I may not be a Christian but I AM entitled to my theory.

And again, like most progressives, I want to be fair. (Sometimes my own halo blinds me when I look into the mirror). You didn't explicitly quote any verses so my verse wasn't intended to trump yours, my verse was another of the "don't make a lick of sense" if you imply, and you DID imply, that Jesus wouldn't have wanted to government to help the poor.

Or maybe, I'm just looking for loopholes like W.C., another olphart, used to do.
Posted by Olphart]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:49:42 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Sound Policy]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:58:37 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by ProCarry]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:42:55 -0600 Arkansas Times
"If Scientology is a 'cult,' then why is Mormonism [or Christianity, Judaism or Islam] a 'religion'?"

http://americablog.com/2013/01/if-scientol…
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:38:02 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by ProCarry]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:32:26 -0600 Arkansas Times
I didn't even say I opposed expansion. I just said your argument is dishonest.
Posted by ProCarry]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:31:47 -0600 Arkansas Times
"Where do you go to church?"

I've lived in Arkansas all my life but I've moved several times within Arkansas, and you're absolutely right. That is usually the first two things you'll get. They will say that's just Arkansas friendliness. I call it nosiness.

"Just projecting her own revenge fantasies."

I have this vision of a "just" God: Old guy, long white beard, flowing robe, the traditional one 'cept, for some reason, He's wearing black engineer boots--don't know why but he's wearing them. When you die, He leads you by the hand, takes you over to a cliff overlooking Hell. He shows you a vision of your worst enemy down there, all aflame, hollerin', gnashin' his teeth, the whole bit. If you verbally express any pleasure or even feel any pleasure from that vision and He can tell, then he'll casually raise one of those boot-clad Holy feet of his and kick you right in.
Posted by Olphart]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:23:52 -0600 Arkansas Times
ProCarry is having an awful time trying to fit the Mind of Christ into his conservative poliltical dogma. "What I believe" is the first step toward spiritual ignorance.

And I seriously doubt if the "least of these" in Arkansas would be able to fit into ProCarry's self-described small, limited safety net.
Posted by ProfessorEmeritus]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:13:54 -0600 Arkansas Times
If personal charity worked, it would have done so by now. It has not. There are few churches in this state that could fund even one round of chemo for a child.

If we agree that Jesus wanted His followers to give to the poor, and our data shows that personal charity is not sufficient, correlated by data that shows universal health care does, in fact, work, then there is only one conclusion.

Government is an institution created by God through which we together accomplish things we could not do alone. Health care is one of those things. To oppose governmental solutions is to oppose both logic and the words of Christ, who tells us we will be judged on how well we treat the sick -- not how well we adhere to political dogma.
Posted by I_AM_THE_NRA]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:53:50 -0600 Arkansas Times
It's more accurate to say that Jesus wanted his followers to give to the poor and didn't spell out how it should be done.

As a conservative I believe in a small, limited safety net.
Posted by ProCarry]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:41:25 -0600 Arkansas Times
The verse commonly used to back all this up is the one about "giving to the Romans what is their's" which is a loose quotation, at least.

Jesus surely knew how the Romans used their tax monies i.e. for military expansion, for ruthless law enforcement such as crucifixions and other such niceties. You're telling me that Jesus was tacitly approving of that but would have been against using taxes to help the poor?

I'm an agnostic, like everybody else (nobody knows) but this makes no sense on any level.
Posted by Olphart]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:28:55 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by FullThrottle]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:25:24 -0600 Arkansas Times
Conformity to dogma usually wrapped in "religious" justifications, no matter how contradicted by science or practical experience.

The favored dogmas appear to be (in no particular order) racism, misogyny and homophobia . . . and their subsets, without which such dogma and conformity cannot thrive: across-the-board resentment of education, sophistication, success, progressivism, change, liberals and wealth.

New York, Hollywood and the Ivy League are particularly favored targets.

Ironic, considering that nothing makes Arkansans so proud as native sons and daughters "making it" in any one of those three arenas.

But above all, Conformity. Which, of course, stifles innovation and progress in favor of "traditional values" no matter how destructive or irrational.

"You're not from here."

"Where do you go to church?"

An underlying small-minded meanness is apparent, apparently, only to outsiders. It is commonly found in members of cults, even in big "liberal" cities: Scientologists, for instance. And fundamentalist religionists of any stripe.

My last visit to The Rock included an otherwise delightful dinner with friends, marred only by (and evidently only to me) one lovely woman's remark, on hearing that a certain well-placed woman was an atheist: "Someday she will fall on her knees and BEG. BEG God for forgiveness."

"Well, I don't know about THAT . . . but at least she's not trying to impose her beliefs on everybody else," I mentioned quietly.

"Oh, I'm not JUDGING her," she assured everybody at the table.

Of course not. Just projecting her own revenge fantasies.

So votes your not-so-silent majority.
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:14:02 -0600 Arkansas Times
Arkansas Republicans led by Davy Carter will cave and expand Medicaid. You heard it here first.
Posted by ProCarry]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:52:00 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Hackett]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:39:26 -0600 Arkansas Times