webdude

My question was vague, let me rephrase. If the Christian God is real and He is powerful, why does He put His creation to suffer for not believing in him? Why does He do it in such a way that we have to believe Him or suffer the consequences? If He is really powerful and He really cares about us, can He not eliminate the suffering, so that we can choose to believe in Him or not, without the consequences? Why does He feel the need create a punishment to those who do not believe in Him?

If God is real, why does he care so much that we believe in him?

I understand what you are saying, but I already said I am a sick bastard, I go to circus and see kids perform body twisting stunts. And you know all those kungfu movies? All those actors, acrobats and fighters started at extremely young ages. If they hadn't done that, I wouldn't get to watch thsoe kinds of movies. If they had cared about age, then all those kungfu movies wouldn't be as nice to watch without all the best fighters who trained since they were like five. I just want to see the best, that's all.

I think you are reading my mind, but interpreting it wrong. I was actually putting down featherweight against heavyweight example as something i would like to see, but took it out because the sentence was too long. And I actually was thinking about Dix as I was writing the above as I was bummed about it. But here is where you are interpreting it wrong. I am not against the enforcing of the rules. I am against the age rule itself, for reasons explained above.

I am ok with the age thing. Here is why. First, Tjones gave a pretty good reasoning, which is why not let Phelps swim in the women's team. The problem with comparing it this way is that it assumes the age restriction is there to prevent unfairness in body physique, like the way it is between men and women. But it isn't, the age restriction was put in place fairly recently, and done so because of child abuse concerns. (I am a sick bastard who doesn't mind child abuse if I get to see feats of athleticism, same reason I like the circus where kids perform crazy stuff). Plus if we use this kind of physique excuse to prevent athletes from competing, it leads down a slippery slope of preventing ppl from competing based on unusual body shapes, bigger hearts, longer bodies, etc. Mostly, its because, I want to see the best against the best. And I think the athletes themselves would want to compete against the best. And I seriously actually wouldn't mind guys competing against women either because aren't they the ones who want equality?

I think LA is the most diverse. http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/07/census.minorities/

I never disputed whether they were underage or not. I assume they were underage all this time. As Jeebus implies, I am a sick bastard who wouldn't mind child abuse as long as I get to see the best feats of athleticism. Edit: You two late sleepers or just up watching the show?

I know where she's from. But read it in context. I was being sort of sarcastic too BTW. If we can nitpick about age, then others can nitpick whether our achievements can be attributed to 100% American efforts, including stupid things like where she's born, who her parents are, and who her coaches are. The point is we can nitpick till the cows come home. EDIT:Regarding your post below, I know she is American citizen. Again, read it in context. Russian as in born in, as in parents' training, as in parents' coaching programs. If you think that's some anal nitpicking, then that's the point.

Was kind of rooting for Shawn over Nastia. And man, we still talking the age thing? Gosh, so what does that say about us having a Russian winning it for us with a Chinese coach. Things we will do for gold huh?

Great. Just ended as I am typing this. Was a 40 minutes chase.

You are certainly welcome to cheer for who you want, and other Americans can certainly choose to cheer for athleticism or who they think is best without being accused of pro-other country or anti-american. Again, the physique explanation is moot, because every athlete has some kind of physique advantage, as in Phelps has a body shaped like a boat hull. They sent out their best, and we sent out our best, they won. I focus on that. That's a big claim. And I guess that is your real point, and you are right. If they hadn't sent out their best, we might have won, because we would rather they sent out only their worst athletics so we might win.

You mean one with blind American pride. Why give the gold to the best when you should only give it to Americans, because we are number one no matter what. What a arrogant assertion that because the viewing audience are mainly Americans, we should all be blind to other country's athleticism. This is the Olympics, not kids' baseball league. We watch for the best athletics of all countries, not just Americans. I am sure other ppl in countries are in awe of our swim team (well, besides France) too. Does it mean they are pro-American and hate their own country? And I understand the abuse children angle, but to use the physique angle is just dumb, Should Michael Phelps be disqualified because his disproportionately extended torso and long arms are an unfair advantage?

Just buy store brands. Many times they are actually better.

Spotlight still on China. Someone still pissed. Maybe try harder. Maybe China no more spotlight because of pouting.

Seems our attempts to make them change always make them more defiant. How dare they not listen to us. Don't they know what happened to Iraq?

Since you answered ... Hmmm, if its not the best examples, how come you can't counter with anything except to repeat exactly what I just said? I really like see some examples of your version of US culture, but things like 'getting things fully done', 'kids are your responsibility' are not exclusive to US culture. If you try to hijack such virtues and claim that other cultures do not posses it, you kind of have to prove that is really the case. Making sweeping generalizations that they don't have it isn't really convincing, you know. And the claims that these other cultures like moving too many ppl into 3/4 bedrooms, putting a sign up and putting up food stands are not exclusive them either. Many non-immigrants Americans sell stuff out of their cars, put up signs in their house, and live with lots of ppl. I have yet to see what you mean by our culture vs their culture, other than these sweeping activities, which are non-exclusive to either immigrants or non-immigrants. And, now you are talking about muslims, you are more concern with muslims then? Well guess what, the Christian religion isn't a bed of roses, so what is the problem? You keep ranting on but make not sense here. Are you saying that the Christian religion was here first, so Muslim religion got to adhere to it. Again, by your logic,, we should all only believe in Native American's religions then. Ok I am sure you could go on and on about nonsense and non-substance, but what I am looking for is some substance to what you are claiming, and your definition of American culture vs these other venomous cultures, without making unprovable sweeping generalizations. But I am not holding my breath, you couldn't even explain away my so called lowly example of hamburgers and pizzas, or even properly define the stance of what you are for and against.

You keep saying our culture, our culture,and others would not leave their culture to adopt our culture. Do you know our culture is a mixed of many other cultures and it does not stand still; throughout our history we keep adding immigrants and their cultures come together. You think our pizzas and hamburgers come from America? Shoot, maybe you are right, why couldn't the Italians and Germans leave their burgers and pizzas behind and eat whatever the Native Americans eat? In fact, using your logic, we should all be speaking Native American. Just how do you define our culture? And you keep saying that everyone else's culture is third world, how did you come to that conclusion, and which culture are you actually comparing it too? I guess this goes back to the previous question, how do you define our culture? EDIT: Ok, I read more of your posts, I think you are already totally lost, just ignore my posts.

I saw the bbc version and another version, where there were at least 3 performances (the puppetmaster, the opera thing, and some kind of bird thing where the audience was involved) not shown by NBC, plus, no commercials of course.

And that is the good thing, capitalism, which is helping us too. Isn't that what we want, more capitalism around the world, so it will benefit us? We wanted to open China up, and boy, we sure did. Except the world sees it as criminal activity, so of course, the option is ours.

Seems I did used the correct term and hit the nail on the head, someone IS PISSED that China is getting the limelight along with some positive comments from the international community. No one is overlooking the bad stuff, as you implied. No one is dumb enough (except some) to overlook the good ones either. At least they are not trying to police the world, not yet anyway. And you do know in many world polls, other countries view us, mostly our leaders of course, as less trustworthy, and more dangerous than China's. And when you have 5000 years of history, what is that 50 or even 100 years of 'backwardness' in context of that history, the important thing is they are catching up or surpassing other countries down the road, and none too soon. Its just the Olympics. Chill out and let them have their moment.

If the description fits. Yes, we will see whether your opinion plays out. Till then, its speculation. Its kind of weird how the Chinese middle class keeps growing at such a pace when they don't have the freedom and opportunity to make it better. The sooner we get real about where we fall short, the sooner we can fix it. But alas, many of us will sit on on our asses thinking we are number one forever and ever.

Does it say how much of that budget is borrowed from China?

Here in the US, we have women giving birth in public toilets and ppl living with pigs and rats and lizards in their homes too. Seems they have caught up to us. Also good to know that our rednecks would feel right at home in China. Seems like someone's pissed the limelight is on China. With all the crap going on here, I think its a good thing the spotlight is away from us for a little while.

This is a huge insult and very disrespectful. The sewage plant has at least done a good job. What an insult to have this clown's name on a nice sewage plant. After 7 years, we have a much bigger mess than the sewage plant. They should take some of the sewage and dump it on the the moronic conservatives who voted this clown in.

Many years back, Used to add memory to computer for $40, $50. Charge higher for laptops. Charge even higher for installing hard drives. Kind of a rip off. And if they bring in a computer suspecting there is a software problem, we usually didn't bother to check what was wrong with the computer or if it even had a problem, just restore everything and say it was a virus, and charge them for it. And yes, we do look at your personal files and your porn, and copy it to share.