Yes, Carol, television was a great invention and can reach and teach so many people, but commercialism and decisions regarding most programing are made by people whose own values are not enviable and dominate the medium. It is not what mothers want their children to watch when they are preparing supper. Responsible parents might have a wide library of acceptable videos and pre-recorded screened programs with most channels blocked.. Or better, kids be doing homework, reading a worthwhile book, or helping with chores. So often when I hear one of our statesmen speak, I feel we are being manipulated and distracted from the issues. We must be vigilant and question why the message and why the message now. There is no transparency in our government and finding the truth is like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

Guess Carol thinks all democrats are fools. Is this the right place to do the name calling. Not very productive or cerebral. Think of something more profound. This is sooo old. You are a crowd pleaser. I am a democrat and do not think either words, democrat or socialism are foolish.

Isn't everyone asking why everyone else isn't doing something about our problems, and complain about apathy, and keep waiting, and waiting and waiting for someone to rescue us? Complacency and Impotency is the sickness of the masses. Although sometimes I wonder how many more people are afraid to act than they were during the 70's. There are more weapons to use on crowds now, and much more to be personally risked.

True Allen, but then add to that being ignorant of what is happening while you are living, as so many Americans are these days and you have a setting for the slaughter of the lambs.

Thank you Mike. Sometimes I feel frustrated with some comments that use labels that ridicule liberals, progressives, etc. It divides people and no one is all one or any of the other, I believe it depends on the issue. You are right about the courts, as I have had some shocking experiences in the court room during political persecutions and trying to seek justice. Attorneys will not take cases anymore if they believe it will alienate them to the court in the future, even if it has merit. "If I take your case, I will never be able to win a case in the future." One attorney said that the prosecutor was trying a case that was fully manipulated, no cause, being set up because he liked his job and had to do what the mayor and city council told him to do. I learn a lot from your comments and of course the others too. Whether I write or not I usually read all the quotes and comments. Many stimulating conversations here. Not many places where one can find something mentally stimulating that I have access to, so thanks. :)

Very interesting Mike. Thank you. Sometimes I feel like I am in over my head with this comment group. Most of you sound like history professors or religious philosophers.

Carol, Why would we need to reach consensus? Consensus on what? Why?I like a pluralistic society. Consensus would imply to me a static society, like China and India. Intent is something the Born again Righties like to hang over the heads of everyone else that America was intended to be Christian, and that Muslims cannot be tolerated in particular. What was intended is really never to be known from the era of the founders, and can only be implied. Although I have not read the book, mixing Religion in this slurry sounds pretty dark ages to me. Not sure that America's evolution has been ideal given the slave labor that it took to settle it after it was stolen from the American Natives. WE are a country bent on violence, and cannot seem to disconnect from it. There is a wide diversity of opinion in the comprehension of whether we have been a model or not. The current direction is surely not enviable. The courts are corrupt almost through and through. When it started is likely at the start. Money and power always influenced the courts, just as the Supremes have made such edict.

RBESRQ, for what it is worth, I liked your response and agree with you. There are unforgivable crimes, and better to carry the grudge. The wound must still smart in order to protect one against a faulty memory.

Carol, "everyone does (not) all have the same opportunities." For some reason there are those who can overcome great adversity but they climb from a much lower level while some start near at the top. Race, experience, family status, education and even gender have a great bearing on how "same" we actually can attain. The writer is referencing the common doom to be "death", which no one escapes, not even you. I think he wants us all to be kind and accommodating to one anther since we are all "human" and have many of the same vulnerabilities, like health problems. Maybe he would feel we should have a health care that would deny no one treatment.

Mike, you sound very blessed. Would not all believers be so. An interview on Public Radio with various scientists, on All Things Considered, discussed the lack of proof of God. The scientists, many of them, agreed at the end of the discussion that science will eventually prove that God exists. All life on this planet and the awesomeness of space are just too complex to happen by chance. Too good to be true? Miracles in each mans life if they are open and alert cannot be missed. Yours were exceptionally evident.

Absolutely Elisabeth, from Astoria, NY. Without Freedom and opportunities there may be little to learn and practice. One also learns by example, and not all have the opportunity to have positive examples. Quote is very simplistic.

Laura, The end says "and yet, when one of us ventures to declare that we don't know the map of the universe as well as the map of our infintesimal parish, he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that he will be damned to all eternity for his faithlessness..." My sister believes that I have no faith. She has no books, magazines, newspapers in her house. She listens to Christian radio only. The sentence quoted here means relates to agnosticism, and what the profound question means to those who are not convinced. "Oh you of little faith."

My sister keeps telling me that all the time. She is a born again Christian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&NR=1&feature This video is very long but very interesting about who is controlling you. It is titled the Obama Deception HQ Full Length that I refused to see earlier but is really about the Bilderberg group and the NWO. Hope the address copied correctly. Or you can search it on YouTube

Waffler, this is the video I had seen before, finally found it. It is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P-hvPJPTi4&NR=1 You will find other related videos on the right side that you can also view. Imagine you know how to do that.

http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1062 Not sure if you are still looking for the information Waffler. Left another site on another quote today 9/8 so you can read for yourself. Don't get what you mean by calling me a warped logical journey? What think tank do you subscribe to? You spout oh so trusting philosophy one minute and the opposite the next?

Seems it was Waffler who asked about the camps and why I cannot product any "proof". It is harder to find the videos that were filmed but I have this which will take time to review. http://www.apfn.org/apfn/camps.htm This information has been around the internet for a few years now. No I do not live near Roswell, and do not believe in space Aliens, but it does bring tourists to our economy. But you never know Waffler, they may be mixed among us. Da Dah Da Dah

We are all numbered. Years ago I had a savings account without being asked my SS number. Now they want it on everything and it is now your identification number. Even though the law said it cannot be required for identification, it is. When I protest giving my number, I get no service. Savings accounts were tallied in a paper book, now all you financial information is on a computer, available to the government who can go in your safety deposit box without your knowledge. Deposits and withdraws over a specified amount ($1,000) last I knew must be reported to the government. Privacy is more and more lacking. You should consider that all your email is monitored, and not use certain words which will draw attention to you as a potential terrorist. Information and words now on Google and Yahoo are bought by companies who wish to control the information you get. (BP bought the words "oil spill" so you will get their websites first). In my village all houses must have numbers and the government must know who is living in that house. This as most new "rules", then "laws" are initiated under the guise of safety to earn your compliance. I have nothing to hide, but privacy is right that I treasure. Our state now requires biometric photos on drivers licenses, an invasion of privacy and the "requirement" was sneaked in when the "bill" that proposed it failed, but the allocated money for the bill is being used now for the "requirement", millions of dollars for equipment. A university town in MI, near the capitol, has outlawed more than three people walking together and consider it to be a crowd. Libraries are asked to turn over the list of books that any person has checked out to gvmt officials. Comcast tells me around 1pm that I have to push a button or they will turn off my cable box. They have access to the list of all the movies that I record. Internet providers have access to all the internet web sites you have visited, as well as the email you get and send. These are but a few of controls that politics have slowly put upon our freedom. You can be arrested under the terrorist laws and be considered guilty until proven innocent and may not have access to an attorney, nor a trial and can be held for an indeterminate time. You property can be seized if you protest government activity (like the war - Executive Order by Pres. Bush not yet overturned best to my knowledge), or if you commit a crime like the man in Detroit whose wife's car was seized by the police because he had sex with a prostitute in her car. The Supreme Court ruled it was within the law. Just a few for Nichole. Keep the faith but stay vigilant. Don't accept everything you read in the paper or hear on commercial news channels. Try to ask the opposing question. Why? What if? Search the internet for responsible sources.

Having lived in WA state, I agree with Ken, Allyn, WA. His eyes are wide open too. The statement is not about how things should be but how they are, and it is about deception, smoke and mirrors, and the greedy and corrupt want more money and more power. That is essentially how government is run. Many countries could be used as examples, one which recently killed people in international waters that our country is closely aligned with. The honest, naive and vulnerable are quickly victimized and immobilized. Public policy is a text book responsibility of government but it's master is itself. Policy that serves those in power. How many of you know that most of your city governments are corporations that are registered in Europe. Now why would that be? Who are they serving? All together now - - - ________________.

Another about "the powerful people" who would like to condition your mind with fear in order to control you, as did Hitler.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/66505

Here is a copy of an article about the Executive Order by Bush that threatened those who opposed his (illegal) war that he lied about to initiate his "Shock and Awe".
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6377

This goes another step toward fanaticism, wouldn't you say?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16339-us-police-could-get-pain-beam-weapons.html

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3943.htm
Check this out. Been afraid I would lose it as lots of things do come up unavailable. If our President at that time would give foreign aid to this dictatorship who tortures people to this point, and has sent some of our prisoners to this prison, how do you think they were treated. A bit off topic and maybe no one will see this.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/856.html
You must find the above reference link interesting and entertaining. We are all in a fix. Carol, If the government legalized marijuana for example, and cocaine (used to be put in coca colas before the 60's) the quality could be controlled and it could be taxed. If it is available on the market legally it would reduce the incentive to grow it illegally. The criminal element of drugs is what is so horrid. Penalties could still exist for selling it to minors around schools, etc. Alcohol prohibition was the exact same problem, but was started so cars would come off alcohol for fuel and start using petroleum. Once cars were all converted the prohibition was lifted. The fuel industry has really profited when alcohol would be much cheaper, cleaner, and could be grown by your neighbor. Harder drugs could be controlled too for sale by the government, and would be cleaner and safer and taxed. Part of the tax money can be used to rehab programs which people will eventually want and need. It would help pay the deficit. Just take the criminal element out of it. It is too costly to house all the people in our prisons there for possession. If it was for sale by the gvmt. less people would profit by sales, thereby decreasing imprisoned people there for sales. Marijuana competes with cotton and other crops for items like fuel, paper, clothes, textiles, medicines, and rope (which does not even have any active THC in it) etc.

http://dhi.health.state.nm.us/ http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/FEMA-Concentr
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/camps.htm
Carol, These are a few sites I found using Google. I did get a video once of someone who was video taping as much as they could get to without getting into trouble. It seems that much has been taken off the internet. Not surprising. I will send you more if you want. I do believe this, and there have been drills in a few cities in rounding up people to cart them away by the military a year or so ago. I try to save a lot but then I have to find it which is not always easy, plus had a crash a few months ago and lost some stuff. Mike did a good job answering your questions too about 911. There at at least two Muslims who were supposedly in the planes that crashed into the twin towers but they are alive in their home country. Lots of web sites about that. You can look in the library of http://www.brasschecktv.com They may have some short videos on these issues, camps included.