Arkansas Blog

Let's just nip this one in the bud and challenge the members of the Family Council to a duel or a rumble or something. Let's pick 40 of them and 40 of us, meet in War Memorial, how fitting the name, and without weapons....fight to the last man standing. Whoever is standing, his side wins.

I admit it...though I am a non-violent person and my life history shows it, I admit I'd like to kick some Family Council ass. Fair fight! None of that Republican hitting from behind. Just one old non-believing geezer vs a Bible Beating geezer.

One rule though....those of us with hair are allowed to slick it down with Vaseline. Man...I hate to have my hair pulled! Let me and Jerry Cox battle it out...we're about equal though he really really sucks as a human being.

I'm just sick of these Phelps types and once we get Arkansas cleaned up we can all RV over to Kansas and whip some more born-again butt. They make life so tedious! Let's have it out once and for all mano-a-mano and womano-a-Biblebeating-womano! Bring it!

I think it is time for Jerry Cox and friends to find themselves real jobs and step the hell out of the rest of the state's beeswax.

I think you got it DBI.

Jerry Phelps Cox. Sounds right - rolls off the lips about right,

.

Ok, Razorbackers, for about half of what you would spend going out to dinner you could really
donate to Ark. Families First. $25-50 would make a big difference. Don't wait for others to do it
just click on my name and use a Paypal account, your credit card, or drag/copy the address and mail them a check. Stay home and have a ham samich, potato or potatoe salad and a cheap beer.
That's what we're doing.
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Bring it on, DBI, bring it on!!!

I'd love to go a round or two with you. We're both about the same age, I suspect. I, too, am basically a non-violent person (the only fist fight that I ever participated in took place when I was in the fourth grade...two licks were thrown. I threw one, my opponent threw one, then the school Principal broke it up).

But I'd love to kick some of your irreverent behind in the name of us believers.

But don't get me wrong.

Though I'm not as liberal as your writings portray you to be, I AM a good Democrat and continue to keep the faith that McCain and Pretty Woman will be defeated this year. It's just that I, as a Christian, have grown tired of being thrown to the lions in every piece you post on this blog.

I think that I can accomodate your desire to "rumble." I will allow you to use vaseline (but only on your own hair) if you wish. But you've go to let me sit down and rest every thirty seconds or so.

Anyway, though, I'm ready to whip your smart aleck arse. I will make you holler "uncle" and apolgize to all the rest of us Christian brothers out there for the many denigrating statements you have made about us over the past year or so. If you don't wish to attend organized religious services, believe in God, or any of the other traits common to those of us who do, that is fine. Just shut up about it and get ready to be roasted and toasted when the time comes.

Yeah, I'm ready for vindication. Bring your skinny butt on over here and we will get it on.

oops sorry for the short changing. Here's the url on my name.

The ones that don't want the lottery in Arkansas are the ones that sneak across state lines to buy their lottery tickets..If they buy them in Arkansas their church going hipacrit buddies might see them.They don't care about Arkansas and the people in it getting a better education or getting a little money to buy some groceries for their families.All they care about is getting caught buying their lottery tickets.Get a life all you ticket buying hipacrits and let the rest of us enjoy life a little bit.Your going to hell anyway so why not!

Well Old Blu Eyes, I hardly knew ye.

Click eLwood.

The FAMILY COUNCIL? Seriously?

I don't know. We hang in different circles, I guess.

It's just so hard to keep up. It used to be, "God, Gays and Guns."

Now it's, "God, Gays, Guns and Gambling."

They keep adding to their list of oppression in the name of God beginning with "G."

Or, as one wag from San Jose in town on business put it last night at the Capital Hotel Bar and Grill, "The Sky Fairy against the Talking Snake."

I don't know why, but when I overheard THAT, the entire Palin family's sad dysfunction passed before my eyes.

As did the entire McCain family and the entire American family.

There aren't enough recreational substances for this.

Okay. Yeah there are.

AAAHHHHHHHHHH the Phelps and Family Council has got Old Blues Eyes! Ohmagod....how did it happen? Where ya going out to the garage and they waylaid ya? Did they put something in yer drink? Do you really line up next to Jerry Cox and hate gays and think a 2 dollar ticket is gonna sent ya to hell? If so the battle's on!

Funny...when I was a Christian I didn't hate gays and I didn't think abortion was anyone's business but my own. I never got a girl Bristol pregnant cause I didn't want to hurt my Ma and probably didn't want to disappoint Jesus either. But I watched my Ps & Qs and had a good dose of luck too.

I'm not a gambler either. I tried a few times and lost my ass.....I mean like a 2 year old. I got no skill and I got no luck. But I'm the daddy of 2 kids and no one else. If you want to throw away your money on gambling...I'm 100% for it cause I'm not yer daddy.

The least interesting thing on earth to me is religion. I remember when everyone had it and they kept it to themselves and we all got along great. I wish I'd never write another word about religion. But some of your bottom-feeding, no-information Christians try to sneak religion into everything. And for those of us who don't believe....it's maddening....it makes me nuts. And it's ruining America because facts are the only thing that makes this country run smoothly. You can't talk facts to someone who counters with someone out of the Bible. You may love that stuff....but damn near nothing in the Bible is a fact.

I live in a mostly non-white neighborhood now. My kids go to school with people of every color and culture and religion. How is it fair to smear them all with Christianity when they aren't Christians? We love to think nice things about our country, that we're all free and all that melting pot stuff, but the facts are since the first Christian white man set foot on this continent, we killed and/or enslaved everyone who wasn't a white Christian. If Congress wants to change the Constitution and say this is a 100% white Christian country, I'll have no choice but go along with their decision. But as it stands, the Constitution hands out freedom of religion and freedom from religion and that means you can't force Christianity on anyone of other faiths and you can't force me to have a faith.

I'm happy you're a Methodist or Baptist or Catholic or Lutheran....get after it. Though most of them are dead now, I grew up loving good Christian people...the best people on earth. But I know if they were alive today they'd be susceptible to what their preacher told them about voting in November and that pisses me off. God, if there is one, has nothing to do with John McCain or Barack Obama or our government from whence these churches get their tax-exempt status. I'd be just as mad if the government slipped little notices in your tax bill advising you where to go to church or not to go to church at all. When I think wall between church and state, I think of one the size of the Great Wall of China.

So, if someone typed on the blog that 1st Methodist of Cabot is a lovely church and invited everyone to come and visit this coming Sunday.....I wouldn't say a word...I don't care, that's as relevant as what Max cooks on the weekend......go for it! But I can't have a sensible conversation with anyone who mixes church and state, much less condemns them queers to hell, screws with foster parents programs, or any other hateful thing so much a part of groups like Family Council.

I'm as glad you're a Christian as I'd be if you collected coins or watched birds or believed in Martians. It's none of my business unless ya use religion as a political tool, or try to stick it in government or use it like a ball bat on other people's heads. This ain't rocket surgery! We can all get along, but not as long as we divide up into little groups trying to stab others who are different from ourselves.

I don't want to be a Christian, I don't want to be gay, I don't want to be a foster parent, I don't want an abortion, I don't want to gamble, I don't want to ship Mexicans back over the border, I don't want to worry about your grass or how many cars you have in the yard, or what kind of sex yer having or with who. I want no control over anyone except those who live under my roof and I've found they do real well without me carping at them.

I do want good honest government, equal rights for all humans, the return of habeas corpus, the end of torture and the punishment of those who did it, the end of war, honest elections, the resumption of manners and civility and respect, and for people to return to minding their own damn business.

I've had it with liars and I've had it with haters and no Bible I ever read had much good to say about those types either. If you want to go ahead and fight, you gotta watch to see if I start turning pale and punching the wrong direction....it'll mean my blood sugar is off again and we'll have to stop long enough for me to poke my finger. And I warn ya....if you don't grease yer hair.....I'm gonna pull it! You've been warned!

I have a problem with the lottery because in states that have a lottery the poor people spend their kid's milk money on tickets.

I've been back and forth over gambling. I feel like the poor people are more inclined to waste their money on gambling than the middle or upper class. The poor are more desperate, and that desperation makes them resort to gambling. So it takes more money from the poor.

However, if it returns that money to the intelligent poor via college scholarships, then the benefit of the gambling gets spread around based upon intelligence, not so much based upon class.

So, I've decided I'm all for gambling if the proceeds are used to establish college funding for the state's kids. If a lot of kids go to college that otherwise couldn't, it's a good thing. Maybe we can educate our way out of some of our problems.

I really respect your intellect, DBI, but it really gets old hearing you carp over and over again about Christians.

Hey, I agree with you on much that you say. Many, if not most, so called Christians ARE hypocrites and scalawags (me being the chiefest among the lot).

But my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is not! And neither are a lot of my acquaintances in the Christian community.

Even I have not ranted and raved against homosexuals, you haven't heard me condemn illegal aliens, black, yellow, crippled, or whatever kinds of people? At least, I hope not. And not everyone who professes Christianity fits the stereotype you have made them out to be. I'm dreadfully sorry that in all of your life's experiences, you have come to the conclusion that you have reached about Christians.

However, you become as guilty, yes, guilty, as the Christians you denounce when you lump everyone of us into the same category. No two people are exactly alike. You are a highly intelligent person. You know that not all people who profess Christianity are of the type you constantly ridicule. And even if all of those in the context of your life's experiences are that way, there really are good people out there who honestly and truly, try to exemplify Christ in their daily living.

I'm not one of them. I know I fail daily in that effort. But, I wish that you would put your mind in gear before putting your mouth in motion the next time you consider haranguing Christians as a group.

No, I don't want to fight you. If I did, I'd probably hurt you and that wouldn't be good.

We need your commentary every day on this blog in trying to keep the Chasv's and the other like idiots of this world at bay. But, please, I couldn't have gone to bed another night without speaking up for Christianity and asking for your understanding.

Truce? I hope so.

Thanks for listening.

Maybe I didn't write so clearly, Blue Eyes, I don't lump all Christians together. If in my experience they'd all been like chasv, I'd be on death row for shooting a bunch of them. But I know that the majority of Christians are not haters. I know a blog is a great place to attract a higher percentage of crazy ones than in everyday life. I enjoy wacking at them, but I'd much rather there was a way to make them pull back out of their extremism and hate, but you see no amount of reasoning budges them an inch. And by budging I'm talking about their hate, not their faith.

I don't have the faith you have, so I don't really get it. Which is why I'd rather religion wasn't introduced into a political argument. I know it must sound to you like I'm on some kind of anti-God crusade, and nothing could be farther from the truth. In real life I keep my religious opinions to myself. I don't try to talk people into believing as I believe. It's none of my business. I don't want to form a club or an anti-church. I'm a Democrat, so my organizational skills are naturally poor. I'm not in competition with anyone and if you're right....OK....if I'm right....OK, but there is no contest in my mind. I have no war on Christianity though at times chasv has made me want to start one.

When some old old person I've known all my life asks me about going to church and stuff or spends an hour telling me about their walk with the Lord....I chicken out and agree with everything they say out of respect for them and because I wouldn't hurt their feelings for the world. As I drive off I always feel like a fake because I lied and didn't stand up for what I believe...but like I said...it's not a contest. If I smoked them....what exactly would I have won?

And you know...with chasv gone...I might be able to pull in my claws and not bitch so much about religion. He really was the worst of the worst with his kill the queers, ship off the Mexicans and on and on. I hate to see anyone banned really.....but as upsetting as these times are, adding a can of gas with no redeeming value isn't needed. Truce!

Old Blue Eyes and DBI: Congrats to you both; how refreshing to see diplomacy trump war.

The Kansas City Star publishes a gambling blog that includes a roundup of Missouri's lottery ticket outlets ranked in order of ticket sales volume during the past 52 weeks. The hottest stores are not in Kansas City or St. Louis. They're the ones at the Arkansas border from east to west. Of the six top-selling stores, five are on the Arkansas border. Three of them are within sight of Bella Vista. You can see this table at http://luckynumbers.kansascity.com/?q=outlets/ALL/MTS but here's the summary:

1. CAR-MACS
85 STATE HWY O, STEELE, MO (in Missouri bootheel near I-55)
$1,686,497 in ticket sales

2. MR. TS LIQUOR STORE
510 US HWY 412, CARDWELL, MO in Missouri bootheel near I-55)
$1,620,442.50 in ticket sales

3. MACADOODLES
53 MACADOODLE LANE, PINEVILLE, MO (on US 71 a few hundred feet north of the state line by Bella Vista)
$1,351,380.50 in ticket sales

4. DON'S STATELINE STORE
22176 US HWY 71, PINEVILLE, MO (right on state line by Bella Vista)
$1,140,618 in ticket sales

5. JOHNSONS AMOCO
205 S VANDEVENTER, ST LOUIS, MO
$1,134,918.50 in ticket sales

6. JUG STORE THE
29 MISSOURI LANE, PINEVILLE, MO (less than a mile north of the state line and Bella Vista on US 71)
$894,214 in ticket sales

OBE: There are Christians (I aspire to it, my wife a bona-fide!), and then there are the ones that we most often chide, diss object to and often treat poorly here - and they deserve all of it and more. They are also GROSSLY un-American, rejecting such basic concepts as ALL, as in freedom and justice for. They routinely support stomping on the Constitution, while claiming allegiance for a piece of cloth, rather than what it is supposed to symbolize.

Those are "small c" christians, defined as those who are WAY more interested in my behavior/beliefs than their own. While they PROFESS to literal interpretation of THEIR particular version of the Bible, what they really are is Pecksniffs who just cannot keep their faith and leave others alone - like many admonishments in said book: when/where to pray and be "devout," motes vs. timbers in eyes, loving thy neighbor in certain ways, etc. almost ad infinitum. It's insufficient for them to live their faith, they consistently are feverishly working to cram it up my ass, and I resent and will not stand for it. Simple.

Jerry Cocks and his Band of Bigots are our nearest examples, and come up ONLY because of their insistence on controlling the lives of others. If they wouldn't do that, they'd get NO mention here. That's it. They are the US Taliban of Religionists, and come in varieties as sick as Fred Phelps' folks, our departed chasv and such. On the other hand we have magnificent examples of faithful, religious leaders here in Arkansas: Vic Nixon, Larry Maze, Betsy Singleton, "Flash" Gordon and of the non-Christian variety Gene Levy. I single them out because I know most, and know of their work in their churches and our communities. I suspect they have wisely chosen to distance from Cocks & Co. THEY are Christians and/or religious leaders of merit. He is in need of a real life, and just needs to go away, or maybe to Utah.
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What is the difference between the lottery and what we are seeing with the financial melt down? Either way, the middle class and poor are the payers, while with the lottery they may actually get some return on their investments in the form of winning and funding for schools. With the financial sector, they get nothing while the wealthy walk away with BILLIONS!

Sounds like the lottery is a much better deal for the working people. The religious folks against it don't want it because they are tied into the wealthy that are stealing from us in the financial sector. They don't want the competition, especially the competition that will return SOMETHING to the middle class and poor.