First, it's obvious you are a product of our Leftist Democrat education system. All of the grammar and spelling mechanisms available on your computer notwithstanding, you cannot articulate a thought much less pose a legitimate question. Which begs the second point; what is your question?

I for one check these 'agencies' statistics and analysis frequently and rely heavily on the Library of Congress for FACTUAL record of events. I hardly think I'm the only one who does so.

In the meantime consider that Barack Hussein Obama was monitored and tracked by these same 'agencies' and MANIPULATED such data and LIED consistently and openly to the American people on national television in the face of such documented, contravening statistical data. The least we can draw from this then is that all presidents do it ???

If you want to get down to brass tacks present an argument based on statistical or other data from these 'agencies', something that has caught your attention specifically, and let us see where it leads. I'm happy to research it and happy to recognize the truth whatever that may be.

Good point J. Makes one mindful of NPR, possibly the most successful camouflaging of the anti-America effort ever. While decidedly Leftist and openly hostile to conservatism, they are subsidized hugely by corporations and individuals who think they are supporting 'Americas radio station'. Only about 8% of their funding is federal grant (thank Christ).

The poster example of failed Leftism on the airwaves is Air America --- thank you Al Frankin --- who could not raise the price of a cup of coffee and a day old donut. Why did they fail while the insidious NPR flourishes? The insidiousness of course. Where Air America was in-your-face fascist hate-mongering NPR softens their anti-America message with the clever embedding of fluff pieces, bashing of conservatism disguised as comedy or 'human interest' and 'sophisticated' discourse between learned people, such as college profs and other Leftists who 'sound' good particularly to the uninformed or unthinking, a huge element of our population. All this is much easier to do on the radio which might give a clue to the poor ratings of the Leftist television media.

All that said and done though, it appears that on any given day for the broadcast time slot Rush Limbaugh has more listeners than NPR and it's affiliates.

I think I see where you're going with this somewhat anthropological approach, one that I agree is more sensible than the emotional, hope based view. When you say "structure society accordingly" - can you expand on this?

Louie; If it's any consolation it has nothing to do with not only this thread but any other fact-based observations. This is designed to obfuscate and deflect away from the thread because Bad is getting his ass handed to him. This is what Leftists are – mobsters. And PermaFu*k is a head-bashing union thug deluxe.

Remember always that these people are a species unto themselves. They are incapable of independent thought and therefore articulation of a stream of self-derived consciousness. This is why we see an inordinate amount of cut-and-paste and plagiarism from them.

Rule #1; What really happened is unimportant; what Collective Central says happened is.

PermaFu*k can't find the reference source for his cut and paste because he is not concerned with who said what when. it appears on some Leftist propaganda site and that's good enough for him.
While the fact is that a very prominent politician today made comments years ago (I know this for a fact) that could be and were easily re-contexted by the Leftist media to say what they wanted to be said. He, in fact, did NOT say that smoking does not cause cancer. He did, in fact, recognize a link but that was not his point ... the point that got butchered by the media.

The same rule applies to Climate Change … the new communism … PermaFu*k can't produce one scintilla of supporting data, not observations or opinions or computer models based on algorithms but hard data from independent sources not somehow connected to the government (can you spell NASA?) or left-wing organizations (such as University government grant driven studies ) real evidence supporting this claim. But that does not matter. He cares not about reality. All that matters is Collective Central says keep saying it – over and over and over and over … And by the way, high school freshman geography teaches us that climate changes over long periods of time. What this little cut-and-paste lacks for full propaganda effect are the words 'man-made'.

I point all this out to remind us all that we are facing the meanest, most hate-filled and evil anti-America movement we have ever faced in our history INSIDE our country. We can allow them no quarter.

You say “Our true team mates are every single citizen of these United States, not just those on the left - or the right.” In my humble opinion this is the crux of the fallacy in the 'why can't we all just get along' philosophy here or anywhere for that matter.

You are right, we are citizens and occupants of the United States. That in no way implies that we all share the same values. The United States is a physical entity. We stand on it. Our division centers around a concept or an ideology if you like described in a constitution that defines a free Republic – America. This word and more importantly it's profound meaning is missing from your plea.

Our constitution by the way does indeed not say 'winner take all' very emphatically. To the contrary our constitution says 'everybody wins'. Unfortunately there are people here who cannot accept that.

Ergo, citizen of the United States does not define, in any form, an American. And the conflict today, the violent division, centers on those who wish to destroy or redefine the (constitutional) ideology and those who wish to preserve it. I personally think there is no middle ground. The only choice left to me by the members of the the former school of thought and practice is capitulation. How this suggests team play is beyond me.

We as a nation were born out of division and conflict. There will be division and conflict so long as there are men who desire to destroy individuality and control other men. To believe otherwise is parochial if not suicidal.

Good post. Makes for good debate.

I suggest a book for you; The Encyclopedia of Wars. If you don't like this one there are 100's of others that research and record the same subject, to wit; “more people have died in the name of religion than for any other reason." These observations are legitimately invoked by your cut-and-paste and an O'hair quote that you see to have missed; "Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea." Like all Leftists I think Maddy only read the parts she liked ...

The book looks at about 1700 wars of all kinds going back over a thousand years. The historic data they accumulated from documented history shows that of more than 1700 wars fewer than 150 were classified as having a religious cause, Christian or other. This is less than 10% of all wars accounting for less than 2% of all people killed in warfare. The balance can be more closely associated with atheism in one way or another.

Ironically the only religion today that (still) promotes, if not offhandedly, the idea that anyone should be killed for not believing, is Islam; the religion Democats defend. Anyway;

More than 100 million died as a result of WWI and WWII; secular wars - started nonetheless by 'Godless' people. Interestingly, over 600,000 perished in our Civil War; a war to decide the freedom or continued enslavement by Leftists of the Black man in America. Purely secular war nonetheless.

Most wars have nothing to do with religion. They have to do with taking ground, increasing power base and the biggy - response to challenges to political authority communism, ofwhich atheism is a vital component, being the leading example of this one.

Now here's where it really gets interesting with respect to your heroine. Just in the 20th century, the estimated numbers slaughtered in genocides is between 150 and 180 million human beings. While not declared war, genocides are more significant in this argument and could be viewed as 'religious' wars in a sense because; they involve, as a primary element the violent purging of all organized religion by the 'Atheist State'. China and Russia accounted for about 100 million that some people still alive today can remember. Did O'hair somehow miss this in her 'misery index' assessment?

History in no way no matter how you try to re-context or manipulate it supports the hypothesis that religion is the major cause of conflict or of man's misery as O'hair would lead us to believe while atheism is the documented front-runner in misery. What it does say to me is that even while I am not a Christian (which I am not), the odds say I have a better chance of survival with the God crowd than with the non-God crowd.

As for the rest of it; hospitals built and all that goody-goody bullshit … too bad Maddy is not alive today to see the progress the American Atheist and their partner the Democrat Party has made in major American cities run by the Democrat Party for the past 50 years or more; shining examples like Detroit, Baltimore (the city she personally helped turn into a cesspool), Chicago … where, by the way, the not-in-the-name-of-God murder rates are among the highest in the world.

It's ironic she ended up in the 'killing fields' at the hands of her own people. Purely a secular murder mind you.

Point taken. It does degrade if not completely deflate the debate or argument regardless of who does it. Maybe articulation of thought today is Twitter; complete thoughts in less than 50 words ... entered with one's thumbs ... civilizations 'jungle drum'.

Buf; O'hair did indeed accomplish something. Like it or not it can't be taken away from her. It's dangerous to ignore it. At any rate, I'm betting Bad does not know O'hair beyond her Icon status as a Democrat and that what so much of what she said works to augment his limited ability to articulate thought. He's not alone of course, most of the Leftists here can't conjure an independent thought to save their collective asses (no pun).

As with so many Leftists who can't 'hear', who are incapable of processing what someone who disagrees with them really says, in Bad's world of cut-and-paste it matters not who said it, why they said it or in what context they said it. Because they generally can't grasp a core argument, the words and pictures are how they not only mount an argument but communicate with and entertain one another. It requires no thought beyond simple recognition. Primitive man did the same thing with cave drawings and drums. I guess we have not evolved as far as we thought.

Bad; Really what? Give me a hint ...

I gotta hand it to you, you are the champ of cut-and-paste; even better than Bad Bobby and he's pretty good. But hey, why think when someone else has done it for you?

As I said, pushing on a solid, mindless immovable object ... Like pushing on a life-size version of that Cat D-8 on your key fob, the one with your union local number engraved on it.

Ani't no future in it holmes ...

Finally!!! A cut and paste I can understand.

Thanks

Moldy; give it up buddy. You are not equipped for this battle. This is a put-up-or-shut-up argument only. And you have nothing to put up.

Bad; the outlawing of prayer in public schools has nothing to do with 'freedom from religious wackos'. The legislation has to do with preventing anyone from being forced to participate or otherwise be exposed to organized prayer in these institutions. Like the teacher can't say 'let us pray'. There is no law however that prevents students from praying together on school property during school hours if they so desire. And they evidently do.

There are a number of schools across the country today that provide 'prayer rooms' for students and this trend is spreading. This is not so much for Christian as Muslim students. The Muslim community has been very outspoken and demanding of school boards to provide places within the school where Muslim children can go to fulfill their prayer requirement (Christian kids can pray anytime, like at home). Along with this, every religious group in the school is free to 'recruit' people to their faith; on school property on school time. Personally, I have no problem with any of this.

Freedom from religious wackos? Really?

No, it's not a matter of guts. I have taken on much brighter Leftist bullies than you and chewed them up handily. I've done it here with you; you just can't recognize it. It's more a matter of pragmatism. We could carry this bullshit on forever but what's the sense? I or anyone for that matter can cut and paste any number of articles and opinions that take a thin-slice view of a subject supporting a preferred narrative or agenda while totally ignoring the core question. That's why you like cut and paste and I don't. You don't need to think about it you only need to find something that says what you need it to say and then, like any good Leftist stand on it as the only truth. I don't have a preferred narrative or agenda and I do prefer to draw my own, independent conclusions. The only concession you offer is the standard Leftist, Agree or Die.

Furthermore, you have stated that you have determined what I don't know about this and I assume any other subject we might encounter. You have stated that my conclusions and outcomes are predetermined because I am a conservative and I will never agree with you because I am too stupid and steeped in fear and paranoia. So obviously I am so to speak pushing against an immovable object. I am not so stupid as you might think to continue that insanity.

And yes, I am me and I am quite OK with that.

What will be really pathetic is these people still, after all this time, don't get Trump and they don't get us. They continue to think that the traditional Leftist Democrat methods of beating chicken-sh*t establishment Republicans into submission will work now. They continue to think the Leftist Democrat media is their Thor's Hammer. This media is powerless. They didn't make Trump ... in fact he makes them by ripping their un-American asses to shreds. One day last week the Food Channel had more viewers in 3 hours than CNN had all day. And the biggy;

What's really hilarious, what these clowns just can't see; the coming elections will be, as has been historic in our elections, not about how stupid the man is, how Russian-loving the man is, how Orange the man is, what hooker the man f**ked, no, it will be ABOUT THE ECONOMY STUPID! And while the economy is approaching 4% growth and while minorities are working in greater numbers than ever in our history and while everyone has more jingle in their jeans the Leftist Collectivist Democrat Party is saying "vote for us because we're going to take it all back"...

My wife uses one of those blue toilet bowel things that turns the water blue when you flush. I never paid much attention to it before. But now I enjoy it; every time I take a piss I make a Blue Wave!