Friday, June 4, 2010

The Wussification Of America

"Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death." ~James F. Byrnes

Driving home for lunch a few days ago, in a hurry, I found myself driving behind an SUV that was evidently being driven by someone who thought their vehicle was made of glass. The driver came to almost a complete stop before crossing a railroad track, and then rolled across at approximately 1/2 mile an hour.

OK. I admit that in my frustration, I may have overreacted somewhat, because shouting, "Oh, my God! You're driving a tank!" went unheard and thus, unheeded.

But, born of such frustration, I had a small epiphany that expanded to a bigger epiphany, and that is what I am writing about now. Here's how my somewhat quirky thought processes go:

Because this was far from the first time I had noticed how overly cautious drivers of large, nearly indestructible vehicles are, I have proffered a theory (unscientifically, of course) that people who buy SUV's are either adventurous or wimps.

Some people buy them for the purpose of taking them off-road, grinding through tons of mud, uphill and down, swimming shallow creeks, four-wheeling across bone-jarring gullies and rocky landscapes, and bouncing up and down and around like the "Scrambler" ride at the amusement park.

But, alas, Most buy them because they fear being injured in a collision. They buy four wheel drive vehicles so they can maneuver easier in rain and snow, then drive in rain or snow as if they are driving on eggs and afraid they might break one.

It seems to me the latter far outnumbers the former. Most people buy SUV's because they are wimps.

And that epiphany led to a greater epiphany:

Our nation is becoming wussified.

It isn't only the purchasing of nearly indestructible vehicles that leads me to this conclusion. The evidence is in nearly every facet of American life.

A few examples:

The increasing obsession with eating healthy.

Our parents and grandparents never heard of such strange creatures as anti-oxidants, carbohydrates and cholesterol, yet most of our ancestors lived happy, healthy lives, many well into their eighties and ninety's.

My two great-grandmothers each lived to 92 years old. My paternal grandfather and grandmother lived to 84 and 92 respectively. My maternal grandmother lived into her 80's with Parkinson's syndrome. The only grandparent I had who died relatively young was my maternal grandfather, who only died young because he was struck by a bus.

My father passed away at 72. His doctor had him on a "healthy diet". My mother is still healthy and will soon celebrate her 90th birthday. She eats whatever she wants.

Did they live long because they didn't have the added stress from worrying constantly about their BFI or heart rate? Or maybe, just possibly, there is really nothing so unhealthy in our food that we need to radically change our diets.

Exercising.

Jim Fixx, the author of "The Complete Book of Running", a book extolling the benefits of physical exercise and how it considerably increased the average human being's life expectancy, suddenly dropped dead from a heart attack shortly after one of his regular morning jogs. He was 52.

Dr. James Rodale, a leading expert in health and healthy foods, taped an interview on the Dick Cavett show, during which he said, "I'm gonna live to be a 100", and promptly hit the floor to do 100 push-ups.

Minutes later, Dr. Rodale was dead, a victim of a heart attack, still sitting right there on Mr. Cavett's couch.

I have my own theory about exercise vs. health:

I believe there is only a finite number of beats in the human heart. Once the last beat is reached, you die. No amount of healthy eating or exercise can change that number. It is your number. When your number's up, your number's up.

Exercise increases the heart beat rate. The heart beats faster, thereby making the heart beat number increase more rapidly. Which results in a quicker death.

These examples deal with a fear of death. There are other examples dealing with sensitivity.

Our people have become so afraid of offending each other, that the best thing for us to do is never speak to anybody. About anything. You never know when you might be offending someone.

We can't pray at public events because of the off-chance we might offend some atheist.

We can't use the word, "Queer" because we might offend some homo.

We can no longer keep score at t-ball games because, God forbid, some 6 year-old players might feel bad if they lose.

Some school teachers can't mark test papers in red ink for fear of hurting some lazy student's feelings.

We can't give out awards to high achievers because by so doing we might inadvertently injure some low achiever's psyche. We must, instead, give all the participants an award regardless of the level of achievement.

We can't suspect young middle eastern appearing men might be terrorists for fear of offending Muslims, most of whom are either terrorists or at least, support Islamic jihadists.

Men must be sensitive, while, paradoxically, women must be strong and self sufficient. Stating the obvious fact that men are physically stronger than women and as such, can actually perform some tasks better than women is offensive to women. (and girly men)

Stating the obvious fact that some people have darker skins than others is tantamount to being a racist, and offensive to people with dark skins.

Normal ordinary thinking people know it's better to throw trash away in the proper receptacle than to carelessly toss it on the ground. Nature just looks more pristine that way.

But, only in massive doses can it do significant damage to the overall environment. (A fact seemingly lost on Liberals at their omnipresent rallies. Did you ever see pictures of the mess they leave in their wake?)

Mindless, unthinking, sheep minded people have created an entire global movement to convince people that littering and improper disposal of trash will destroy the earth in a matter of days, if not seconds if we don't start being more sensitive to our environment. (as long as we don't apply the same standards to them)

Somebody, a few years ago, walked out into their yard one unusually hot Spring or Autumn day and concluded that the earth must be warming up, and from that poorly thought out hypothesis, came the still unproven theory of Global Warming.

Now, AlGore and other equally clueless Liberals, are warning us that we will destroy the earth in the aforementioned same number of days or seconds, despite clear evidence to the contrary.

Liberals are sounding the alarm every day about some new crisis that will ultimately destroy our planet, and the destruction is always imminent.

There are many, many other examples. Super-sensitivity abounds.

I could write a book on the subject, but suffice it to say...

America has become wussified.

Cross posted at Casting Pearls Before Swine

26 comments:

  1. There are, of course, exceptions. Arnold Schwartzenneger, despite being a lousy politician, calls liberal CA state legislators 'girly men.'

    And they ARE girly men.

    Another exception: I purchased a new Ford F150 4x4 truck in 1998, and I drive it like a little old lady. Why? Because it lasts longer if you don't beat it to death. I still have this truck, and although I have had the rear end and the front ball joints replaced so far, it runs like a top, looks great and every single thing on it works, down to the license plate lights. And yes, I have done doughnuts with it on frozen Wisconsin lakes, and it has seen plenty of mud. Yet I creep over RR tracks, too.

    Not all Americans have become wusses. Lots have, but there's still lots of us out there who don't call worthless bums 'homeless,' or 'temporarily unhoused,' we call them worthless bums.

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  2. Is celebrating and rejoicing in ignorance "wussified?"

    Is being deliberately belligerent and obtuse "wussified?"

    I don't know, but neither is cool.

    I will agree that many people buy big cars because they've been cowed into believing that bigger cars are better/safer. In doing so, they fail to understand the drive to purchase bigger cars only makes more and more smaller cars less safe, pushing a demand for even BIGGER cars, making more and more merely "big" cars to be less safe. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    So, yes, many who drive big cars do so to try to be safer and some even do to compensate for their fear and their lack of confidence. Just as some will celebrate ignorance and some will use abusive language to talk about other humans. They are lacking something in their own lives that drives them to be so ugly and to rejoice in their ignorance. It can be sad.

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  3. Yes, we ARE wussified.

    "I believe there is only a finite number of beats in the human heart. Once the last beat is reached, you die. No amount of healthy eating or exercise can change that number. It is your number. When your number's up, your number's up."

    Yes. I believe that too.

    I should care to add: Mr Schwarzenegger has ALREADY had a heart attack in his 50s. I am slightly older than he when he had his attack, I am not a bodybuilder, I am loud (Bloviating) and huge (Zeppelin), yet I am not diabetic nor do I have a horrible BP.

    BZ

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  4. BenT - the unbelieverJune 7, 2010 at 5:01 PM

    This post is a joke, right?

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  5. Why do you ask, Bent? Did it offend you?

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  6. The American public, by and large, is a great collection of wusses. We've been handed and handled too much by an over-reaching federal government - so much so that we have forgotten how to fend for ourselves.

    Federalist Paper #45 clearly defines the intent of the framers in their inclusion of the 10th Amendment. And yet up is now down, and down is now up. It is the federal government that has usurped power from the states... as evidenced by Social Security, and the Federal Welfare/Nanny/Cradle-to-Grave State. All of this is unconstitutional, AND has directly impacted the gimme-mentality of Americans... we EXPECT government to care for us, rather us taking responsibility for ourselves.

    What did people do before social security? Well, for one, they had a different set of values; they worked and took care of their own; parents lived out their last years in their children's homes. But thanks to Social Security and Welfare (BOTH unconstitutional) generations have grown and aged with the promise of a "benevolent" government which promises (for a select some but not all, and unequally extended) that skinned knees will be kissed, and bandaids applied. That's not the job of the federal government.

    And so America depends, like children, on the usurping federal government for just about every aspect of their lives.

    You're right, Ben. This post IS a joke.

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  7. Dan, as usual is offended. No surprise there. Proving, just as we thought, Dan is a Wuss.

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  8. Mark, you mistake sad disappointment in others for being offended. Here, I've actually agreed with you - that some people DO drive bigger cars because they're compensating for something (fear, for instance, lack of confidence, for instance). Just as some mindlessly berate others in order to compensate for something. Just as some berate the intelligent to compensate for something.

    Which is why I asked if all of that compensating is a sign of being what you call "wussified?" Fearful of those more intelligent than you, fearful of those who disagree with you, fearful of those who are different than you or who have different opinions than you do, for instance?

    The man or woman who is competent in his own stature, her own intelligence, his own positions has no need to berate and mock those with whom they disagree.

    "Offended?" Hardly.

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  9. Eric...

    And so America depends, like children, on the usurping federal government for just about every aspect of their lives.

    Really, Eric? What do you depend upon the feds to do for you?

    For my part, I expect the feds to provide some reasonable level of defense (not larger than the rest of the world combined, but something reasonable - I have no unreasonable fears of domination or socialism or even terrorism, as some here seem to have); I expect them to enforce reasonable laws protecting the environment, protecting our waters and our air; I expect them to have reasonable (not bloated and welfare-for-the-wealthy-oriented) transportation policies; I expect them to have some safety nets for when the church and communities are unable and/or unwilling to tend to the needs of the disabled and incapacitated.

    Things like that. Do you find that unreasonable?

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  10. "Just as some mindlessly berate others in order to compensate for something. Just as some berate the intelligent to compensate for something."

    What are you compensating for, Dan? Because you are certainly mindless. You are certainly unintelligent.

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  11. Really, Mark? I'm sorry you think that, but it's certainly bound to be true. I am only as smart as I am and even though I strive to read and study and take care of my mind, I only have what intelligence God has given me and no more.

    Do you think that's a wise or Godly thing to mock someone's supposed lack of intelligence? To what end?

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  12. What I find unreasonable Dan, is a populace fearful of its government; a government that daily threatens and strips its people of their God given rights as well as those granted by the Constitution.

    As to safety nets, it is not governments job to provide "charity" with tax-payer monies. What I've come to discover is that the federal government chronically fails at the jobs specifically enumerated to it by the Constitution: securing our border, being a just husbandman to our armies, and protecting our environment (e.g., the Deepwater Horizon spill)), choosing instead to usurp the authority granted to the individual states; to manage the lives and success outcomes of the populace... engaging in generational (104 trillion debt load and counting) and redistributive theft.

    Education is key in this usurpation. The government has taught at least two generations of Americans that it is governments job to provide them with fair and equatable existence and subsistence. Hailing back to a previous comment, we need to begin reeducating our children to not only be self-sufficient but a generation that both honors their fathers and mothers and insists those who desire to represent them in Washington do so with the understanding that the federal budget is not their private expense account; that they work at the behest and indulgence of the people, and not because they are entitled.

    People in America need to wake up and rediscover their founding documents. They need to take to heart the Federalist Papers as the founders' justifications for the many and several articles they wrote into the Constitution.

    We should, at earliest convenience, abolish the department of education, repeal of the 17th amendment, break all existing contracts with government employee unions as being both unjust and inequitable. We should insist the budget be balanced NOW... not in ten years... regardless of how much it hurts and begin paying off our foreign debt, immediately begin transitioning people away from social security, and for God's sake repeal the abomination known as healthcare reform-- it especially is unconstitutional. Congress has no right granted it, by the Constitution, to provide healthcare to the populace.

    Congress is out of control, by their own machinations, yes, but by our complicit indifference to the daily doings and workings of Washington. We need to wrest back control from the thieves, and once and for all (McCarthy was right) ferret out every single last socialist in academia and government and bid them a swift unceremonious farewell... the print of our collective boots plainly recognizable on the seat of their pants. Socialism has failed, MISERABLY, everywhere it's been tried.

    In closing, I find it very curious how those among the rich and famous (to include the political and media classes) espouse great fondness of socialist dictators and the bastions of 'freedom' they 'manage'. These folks speak glowingly of how wonderful these socialist utopias are and how we should adopt the same. Funny... they have their wealth, they needn't fear the indignities that come to those who have no choice but to take what a socialist government provides. In short, they advocate slavery to those not rich enough to rise to the top. After all, EVERYONE is equal in a socialist economy... some are just "more equal" than others.

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  13. And, Eric, let's not forget how our litigious society has fostered so much fear of offending others. If we stop expressing our opinion for fear of lawsuits, does this not also contribute to a loss of freedom?

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  14. BenT - the unbelieverJune 8, 2010 at 1:42 PM

    I don't have the time, patience or energy to tackle EL's entire list of conservative tropes. So I'm going to respond to Eric's off topic post to discuss education.

    You seem to have this idea that because we have a national education system that all schools and classrooms are the same. You are wrong. Each state decides the curriculum for courses and sets teacher standards. Each state sets student achievement standards. States are not required to accept federal education funds. In fact federal education funds account for only 8% of all education monies. Over 80% of the money that k-12 schools receive come from state and local governing bodies.

    So before you go beating your drum about "The Government" brainwashing children, realize that it's teachers in your own county and state that chose text books and lesson plans.

    You might look at history and see that education has been the engine that drove American superiority in the twentieth century. It was because America began implementing secondary education in the 1920's that we had a more innovative and enterprising workforce in the 1940's and 50's ... much more so than Germany and Britain.

    You appear to have unfounded ideas of what the US Dept. of Education is and does....educate yourself.

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  15. BenT - the unbelieverJune 8, 2010 at 1:55 PM

    The opening post has to be a joke because otherwise I would determine Mark to be an asshole...and ignorant to boot.

    1. We don't call Jews, Kikes, or black people Negros because those groups have told us that those names are offensive to them. I treat people with the respect they desire, because I myself want to be treated with respect. It's an unwritten social quid pro quo. People who can't perceive this are both assholes and socially ignorant.

    2. A neighboring county, not very populated, had had to close a 200 acre landfill that was filled with trash 50+ feet deep. It took less than 10 years to fill up. There are classes of ocean fish people don't eat anymore because the mercury levels are too high. ACROSS THE ENTIRE GLOBE! The are hundreds of square miles of ocean bottom that look like the surface of the moon because of over fishing and netting. A space of forest the size of Rhode Island is logged and burned in Brazil every day. being concerned with the future livability of our planet is not being a wuss. It is saying that my corner may be okay but I accept the reality of others problems. It is being informed and not an asshole.

    The rest of the post is unfounded conservative myths. You can't substantiate any of it. Don't be an ignorant asshole. Apologize that I had to waste my lunch break on this.

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  16. Eric...

    We should insist the budget be balanced NOW... not in ten years... regardless of how much it hurts and begin paying off our foreign debt

    Will you support cutting our bloated military budget in HALF, in order to save ~$400-500 billion a year? In four years, we'd have saved $2 trillion with that cut alone.

    THAT would make a dent in our national deficit.

    How about NASA? What about all our welfare for oil companies? For car companies and other corporations? How about our massive dept of transportation system which provides welfare for motorists across the US (some $70 billion, I believe)?

    Until and unless you are willing to talk serious cuts in these areas, it's hard to take seriously any demands to cut our $25 billion aid to needy families budget.

    As for myself, as Ben rightly noted, most decisions about educations are made locally. I don't know that our federal education dept needs to be so big, I'd be okay with seeing reasonable cuts there.

    Given the latest fossil fuel disasters which will COST us probably trillions of dollars eventually, I'd hope we'd INCREASE our offices that oversee such mining operations. We've got to get responsible gov't oversight back in to the right areas, we can't afford NOT to do so.

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  17. Bent, I never said anything about calling Jews or Blacks names. Where did you get that?

    I have respect for the Jewish people and for black people, etc. I do not have respect for Anti-Semites and Race baiters, otherwise known as Liberals. (Helen Thomas, Al Sharpton, etc)

    As far as comparably small portions of the planet being damaged, this in no way gives credence to the myth that the entire planet is in imminent danger. The earth is a much bigger place than you give it credit.

    So, Boo Hoo! Go cry in your beer, Wuss.

    Call me an ignorant ass if you want. I am not a wuss like you. It doesn't offend me.

    But thanks for proving my point, Wuss.

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  18. Mark, brother, get some help. Relax. Pray. Breathe. Take a walk in God's wondrous creation. Listen to some music. Talk to your elders and get some prayerful help from them.

    God is good and we are just your fellow humans. If you are on all-anger, all-rant, all the time, it's only going to hurt you.

    Peace.

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  19. Hmmm. If there's no underlying liberal bent in public education, tell me BenT, how is it you became a stark raving liberal? I simply don't understand how any rational thinking person can ascribe to many of the ideas you and others here do if not for public education/indoctrination. What? You say the government doesn't indoctrinate both its children and citizenry at large!? What naivete! And you expect us to take you seriously?

    As for the 'educate yourself' quip... do you really want to go there? Because from my perspective, the only education you have is from being head deep in all manner of liberal websites? I could throw that quip right back at you, because you obviously never read the Federalist Papers, nor the Constitution in light of them. After all, the Federalist Papers are the founders commentary on the document they crafted and set as the guidepost for American governance. The very document most politicians (on both sides of the aisle), but progressives especially loathe.

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  20. Dan,

    The military is one of a very few actual duties the government has, so no, I wouldn't cut the budget there. I'd cut entitlements.

    "Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."
    --James Madison

    Amen!

    "The rest of the post is unfounded conservative myths. You can't substantiate any of it."

    You only wish that were true. Even then, you wouldn't accept the truth if we laid it bare and honest for the slowest of rubes to grasp for the simple reason it would interfere with your ideological paradigm. You're simply not willing to look at truth.

    "Don't be an ignorant asshole. Apologize that I had to waste my lunch break on this."

    Ignorant? Because YOU say so? LOL! So, if you feel your lunch break was wasted, that's on you. You could've gotten up at any time. No one held a gun to your head. You should apologize for calling Mark an asshole. But you won't, you're one of the entitled. You can say or do whatever you want, without fear of consequence.

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  21. Dan...

    25 BILLION in aid to needy families. WOW are you WAY off base. In the fiscal year of 2000 alone the federal government spent 1.01 TRILLION dollars on social welfare programs.

    Imagine what it is today? And let's not forget, the Stimulus was WELFARE! Pissed down a hole, never to be seen again.

    "Given the latest fossil fuel disasters which will COST us probably trillions of dollars eventually, I'd hope we'd INCREASE our offices that oversee such mining operations. We've got to get responsible gov't oversight back in to the right areas, we can't afford NOT to do so."

    I can't and won't argue with you there. You're right. And, recall if you will my first several comments here on this very subject (apologies, btw, for calling you 'brainwashed,' sometimes I type without thinking, as do we all on occasion). Had this well been in shallow water, it would have been capped by now.

    And Ben, you left without commenting on my deconstruction of your list of 30 Major Oil Spills here and here.

    Also, there are indications that Obama, rightly, is asking for stricter controls and safeguards in place BEFORE allowing shallow water drilling. It's encouraging that he's not abandoning offshore drilling altogether. Of course, it remains to be seen whether or not he actually pushes for a resumption of drilling.

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  22. Bent, I don't have to prove anything to you, but just to show you how incredibly clueless you are I will link you to proof that the incidents you claim don't exist in fact, do.

    We can't pray at sporting events: citation

    On the subject of not keeping score to avoid self esteem issues...well, I searched the internet but could not find an official website of any little league mandating that, however, I found multiple bloggers complaining about their town's practice of not keeping score in t-ball games, soccer games, basketball games, etc. My own son played in a T-ball league when he was 6 that didn't keep score because they were too concerned about the children's self esteem. His first coach ignored that rule and kept score. His second coach didn't keep score and my son decided (at the age of 6) that there was no point in playing if you don't know who wins or loses. He never played baseball again.

    More on this anon...

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  23. About the red ink for fear of offending lazy students...here's your citation, one of many websites.

    I wasn't able to find official websites that encouraged the awarding of awards to all participants, but I did find a teacher's forum where teachers were discussing what kind of awards could they give to two students who didn't deserve any award, here.

    I really don't have to provide citation that proves profiling young Middle Eastern men is considered offensive to Muslims, do I?

    Why don't you ask some Card-carrying Feminist if she thinks men are physically stronger than women? I think we both know what she would say.

    On the same line, why not ask Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson if it is offensive to point out that a black man is black? We both know what hey will say.

    And, last but certainly not least, You seem to be offended by this post. Obviously It struck a nerve with you. Apparently, you are one of the millions of new wusses in America.

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  24. Eric...

    Hmmm. If there's no underlying liberal bent in public education, tell me BenT, how is it you became a stark raving liberal?

    Hmm. I went to public school and emerged as a flaming conservative. It took 30 years of Bible study (in conservative churches) and one ultraconservative president (Reagan) to turn me what you probably consider "stark raving liberal..." Go figure.

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  25. YOU, dearest Dan, are the exception. But that it is not true for you is not proof enough that it doesn't exist at all and, I must point out, the evidence of what I said is more prevalent among the early-thirty-and-under set-- Ben, for example. And in some areas of the country more so than others, as I'll point out later.

    I will give Ben this, however... it is true that local school boards provide much of the curriculum and direction of education to the children of their community; I don't believe I said otherwise. Hence the grand brouhaha over Texas' choice of text books. Here in SE Alabama there is still a 'golden rule' sensibility that permeates education, but that is not to say that the teachers themselves aren't doing their own brand of indoctrination-- teachers who are union members, who 'follow the union label,' if you will.

    And the fact that local school boards have the level of control they do begs a question... In the larger population centers from the Northeast to the West Coast (like San Francisco, LA, Seattle, Newark, Baltimore, Manhattan, Boston, etc. this is where the indoctrination is worst) what is being taught to those children, but effete liberal/progressive sensibilities?

    That you, Dan, learned to be a 'stark raving liberal' from a conservative baptist church saddens me. Deeply. But it should go without saying that not every church that claims to be conservative has a real understanding of God's word. And not everyone that says, 'Lord, Lord, shall enter in.'

    Also in Ben's favor is his first point, "We don't call Jews, Kikes, or..." For not being particularly receptive to Christianity, he HAS managed what many Christians have failed to achieve. And though it's a great start, it's simply not enough in light of eternity. (Acts 4:12)

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Your First Amendment right to free speech is a privilege and comes with a measure of responsibility. You have the right to exercise that responsibility here but we reserve the right to inform you when you've used that right irresponsibly.

We are benevolent dictators in this regard. Enjoy.