jmancuso

btw, don't kids have a moment of silence in the morning? if they are religious, they will use that time to pray to themselves and the kids aren't religious will not. essentially there is no difference between what we have now and the days of sanctioned school prayer...only now non-religious and non-christian kids aren't forced to pray to a god they do not believe in.

wow...as in you are that simplistic in thinking that praying in class every morning is the key to improving kids' quality of life. never mind the breakdown of the family structure, the prevalence of drugs, lack of parental oversight, poverty and other socio economic factors. you bring up the good old days. my parents went to school (in NY) in the days of school prayer and they behaved in class becuase if they didn't, they would be severly punished by the teacher (switches, rulers, paddles, public humiliation) and then got more of it when they got home. why is it that teen pregnancy and school shootings are more of a problem in bible belt states?

wow, just wow. @ jax: as long everyone stays civil and don't start attacking one another, this thread is fine.

air america failed not becuase it was liberal becuase it was contrived and too combative. they didn't present a liberal point a view, they just attacked the right. not too mention they were on like 5 radio stations around the country. however, KPFT is an example that liberal radio does work.

how is that america hating?

misquote? i don't think so. i didn't include or prohibiting the free exercise thereof becuase it had no bearing on whether religion was sanctioned by the government or not.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. just as it does not specifically mention preference of one religion over another, it does not mention that it only applied in the context of a state religion either (like the CoE). the treaty of tripoli (mentioned above); jefferson's separation of church and state speech as well as establishment clause in the first amendment pretty much sums up the founding fathers' attitude regarding the issue of church and state. as would most moderate christians. no one is impeding on your right to practice christianity but it does not belong in the classroom, courtroom or congress.

what is there about preference of one religion over another that you're not getting? using god in the pledge is preferring a certain god over others. what if we put "one nation under shiva" in the pledge? people downplaying the separation of church and state would have a fit.

why is it sad? do we need to recite some outdated nationalist loyalty oath every morning to be proud of our country. as for GOD, that's what churches are meant for, not the classroom. it recognizes abrahamic religion at the expense of the non-religious, hindus, buddhists and native-american belief systems.

there's a place for religion and that's church, not government.

the pledge alone is ridiculous let alone one intertwined with religion.

i was born with PDD, of which autism is a form of. the speech and other therapies did wonders and i eventually began to talk...at 6.

i don't think race is (or was) an issue downtown but rather the type of people who hung out down there. the time i went (a few years ago) it was very "thuggish" and that's going to be a turn-off to just about everyone; white, black, asian or hispanic.

there's one in my hometown (utica, ny) as well but i think this store is based out of germany.

i live in one in the galleria area which is pretty old by houston standards and beginning to fail structurally. it's not a bad property and is well kept but you just can't fight time and these buildings weren't intended to last forever. we are coming to a point where many of the older apartment complexes (built in the 60's and 70's) are starting to show their age and i don't see how it's economically feasible to throw money at them.

way too many people. about 3.5 million need to go away.

continental flies into gatwick, not heathrow.

he lived a long and eventful life...and slime in ice machines throughout the greater houston area have never had a greater adversary.

just found out now.

kirk whalum?

^ the philly forumers over at SSP would not be happy with yet another sunbelt sprawler over taking philly anyway, houston has way too many damn people...all y'all need to leave.

this is creepy on so many levels.

magic johnson AMC 30 on dunvale and the various cinemark/ tinstletown theaters that are as old or older are kept up. people will always dump their trash on the floor but most theaters have people that come and sweep it up at the end of each movie. the MJ theater obviously had no one doing this.

it was a hole. went there to see a movie a few weeks ago; the building reeked of mold, the place was littered with trash and the sound system crapped out halfway through the movie.

history channel discovery channel animal planet national geographic channel scifi channel F/X after MTV went to hell, i used to watch VH1 but they are just as bad now.