Drunkard

Whiskey, You make some great points and I agree with what you are saying in theory, but it's not a standard I'm going to live up to, especially when the vitriol from the other side gets my dander up. Also, I think you are mistaken about what a Christian nation would look like is today's day and age. Personally, I don't really know if Jesus actually existed or if he was just a story in the old book of Jewish Fairy Tales but I do like his message overall, even if I choose not to believe in him or worship his supposed divinity. Unfortunately those who claim to be his biggest fans ignore much of his message and focus on the things they choose to (like most religions in general). Where it would be nice to see people loving their neighbors and helping the poor, I think it would be much more likely that they'd focus on blind patriotism, war, war profiteering, guns, and discriminating against women and homosexuals. Then they'll more on to cutting services for the poor so they can give bigger tax breaks to the rich. Google image search Republican Jesus and randomly select any of the photos/memes that pop up and tell me they wouldn't try to twist his message to support their political positions. Since so many people had a cow about Raptor Jesus I'll avoid posting any of the pics in my post.

I appreciate the insight, NS, even though I don't fully understand it. For what it's worth I was defining a Muslim country as a country that is primarily populated by Muslims, particularly if those in power use their interpretation of their faith to guide them in their decision making and make laws for their people. I'd consider the US to be Christian demographically but due to the separation of church and state it's not a Christian nation, at least not until President Cruz wins election, the chicken hawks crank up the war machine and send every abled bodied person off to foreign soil to fight, kill, and die, then he puts a baby fetus on the $1 dollar bill and replaces the Bill of Rights with Leviticus. It may not lead to productive dialog, but sometimes I feel like push back is necessary to counteract arguments made by the other side whether it's a chicken hawk calling the President impotent for not sending our troops into full on war every time there's a terrorist attack, to those whining about losing their freedom while supporting decisions that try to push their personal morals and ethics on others who don't have the same beliefs.

If may offend people but it's still the truth. If you think the earth is only 6,000 years old you are an idiot and it should be pointed out. There are living trees that are older than 6,000 years old on this planet right now. People did not exist at the same time as dinosaurs and to try to teach such nonsense to children in public schools is irresponsibe and bad for society. For the record I think religion does way more harm than good but I typically don't go out of my way to make fun of the muslim faith or other religions for two reasons. The first is that I'm not nearly as familiar with their teachings as Christianity and the main reason is that due to where I live, (the south and America in general) whenever religion is causing problems for the advancement of society such as by trying to stop insurance companies from providing women with birth control, interfering with a woman's right to have an abortion or receive other healthcare through an organization like planned parenthood, or teaching children actual science in science classes it's always some Christian organization or politician like Ted Cruz or insert the majority of Republican politicians. They are also the ones who want to pollute the earth on catastrophic levels because many of them believe that the rapture is coming and some of them are so arrogant that they just assume the rapture is not only coming but it's coming in their lifetime because they must be so humble and pious that God just can't wait to meet them. If I lived in Saudi Arabia or some other muslim country I'd want to speak out about their religious nonsense like female circumcision and other misogynistic crap like not letting women go to school, drive cars, or making them dress like bee keepers, and not letting them leave the house without a male to chaperone them. Throw in the way they treat gay people and they might as well be living in the stone age. Of course I would probably be beheaded for being an atheist heathen if I lived there anyway so I guess that whole point is moot. Christianity doesn't get singled out for ridicule by most atheists because we want to pick on people who believe in Jesus. It gets picked on because it's the religion causing most of the societal problems in the second paragraph I typed.

This post could have easily been directed at sizzlemeister's from the previos but given your political leanings it's no surprise that it wasn't.

I can't speak to all of your questions but I would start by getting your credit score in order and talking to your bank or (hopefully) credit union and getting pre-approved for a mortgage. They'll look at your income, credit, and debt to decide how much house you can afford so you'll have a upper limit number in mind before you start looking. Inspections I suspect would vary from state to state and you live in NY where I live in NC so I'd let someone else field that for you, although I suspect you can pick your own guy and if you don't have one I'm sure the bank/credit union has a list of ones they recommend. The financial incentives can also vary depending on who you get your loan through but I'm sure there are also government programs that you can possibly qualify for and I've never done the short sale or foreclosed home thing since my place was a new construction.

I couldn't do it but more power to you. I've lived all over growing up from my Dad serving in the Marine Corps but I've never even contemplated adopting the local team anywhere. Must have been good having somebody decent to root for during the tank though.

So you purchase Predators season tickets and Predators gear when you're actually a Sabres fan first and foremost? I don't know how you do that. My loyalties lie with the Sabres and Sabres only. My second favorite team is anyone playing Boston but I wouldn't wear the gear of another team let alone pay money for it.

Their stances on most issues are still pretty similar to Rubio, Lord Douchebag Von Bush III, Kasich, Fiorina, and the rest of the field though. Abortion, war, guns, oil, the environment, immigration, taxes, and trade. Their platforms are basically interchangeable. The differences boil down more to what shade of lipstick you want on your pig.

While you raise some decent points you're ignoring examples of the right moving further and further to the right. Eisenhower warned us to avoid the military industrial complex while being a former General himself and now even the liberal candidates get called anti-military for just wanting to cut the rate of the increase in military spending (the second or third derivative, it's been a while since I've taken calculus) and Nixon created the EPA which basically every Republican wants to either eliminate all together or completely neuter them to the point where they might as well not even exist. I'm sure there are other examples but those 2 jumped out at me. Evangelicals.

Key and Peele did a funny bit on racist zombies on their show once. Everyone in town was running and getting killed while all the black people in the neighborhood were having a barbecue and partying. Pretty funny stuff.

So you want to sign the US Military up to occupy a foreign country for the next 50 to 100 years? Do you plan on signing up to fight because I sure as hell ain't going to. Or are you taking the chickenhawk approach that thinks war is ok as long as it's somebody else doing the fighting and dying?

Your question isn't intended for me since I think we should be less involved but I'd propose that we get the hell out and let the Arab world have their civil war and redraw their own territories. Maybe if the various sects (sunni, shia, etc.) could rule over themselves as separate nations the region could stabilize instead of them having to coexist within arbitrary lines that we drew however long ago and where one side holds power over the other due to the demographics that exist within the arbitrary lines. The middle east is a giant cluster largely because of the US and the involvement of western nations. We've tried being overly involved with Bush and less involved with Obama and the place is still a disaster. The sides are ever evolving and they end up using the arms we provide against us and our allies. We are supposed to be at war with ISIS and enemies with Iran yet those 2 groups are fighting each other.

I told you she is the female version of Mitt Romney. She will take any position that helps secure the nomination just like Romney did. We'll see her do a complete reboot to her campaign after Sanders is vanquished and the Democrats have no other choice but to vote for her over whichever chickenhawk war monger secures the nomination on the other side as well. The left wing version of Hillary will be gone and the pro Wall St centrist who tries to appeal to as many undecided voters as possible will remain.

The only thing missing from this post other than the asterisks on Patriots* is [insert your favorite deity here] silently nodding in approval.

Byfuglien is 30, expensive, and right handed. We need an upgrade at LHD so he's not a good fit even without the Kane issues.

I like it. Maybe we should make them a line and let them sink or swim. It should help the rest of the lines improve.

This is complete right wing nonsense. The participation rate is what it is and anyone who can just give up on looking for work doesn't deserve to be counted in the numbers. You count as unemployed when you actively look for work. The corporate tax rate nonsense is even more ridiculous and we know exactly what happens when we lift it because it happened in 2004. Dubya struck a deal for all those off shoring fat cats to bring their money back to the US at just a 5% tax rate and all it did was encourage a big upswing in off shoring even more jobs. It happened less than 10 years ago and the numbers back it up. I know republicans live to rewrite the past but this was recent enough to remember.

"When morality is injected into the conversation where it is unwarranted, it is your duty to mock that morality by invoking my name and spreading the gospel of Raptor Jesus" - RJ, 4:17

I agree. On some things I'm willing to pay a little more when I know I'm supporting a business that provides good customer service but I don't make enough money to do that in every situation. There's also the businesses (utilities, tv, internet, etc.) where there is no competition and your choice is to either go with the crappy customer service or go without the service.

Maybe I don't remember all the specifics of the thread, but I wouldn't characterize it as PA lobbying anyone else to be happy about the injury. He expressed his happiness about it, a bunch of people got up in arms about it, and he defended his position about why he was happy about it. Then some brilliant fan of alcoholic beverages invoked the power of RJ and people got up in arms about that. I guess it's all about how you perceive it.

To follow the path of logic that has been going on without doing any research I would posit that good customer service is costly/expensive and that most customers are more concerned with price so they ignore quality of service and keep giving business to the places that provide crappy service yet manage to provide their goods or services at a lower cost point.

The term idiot savant comes to mind when I read some of the verbal diarrhea that spills from his lips.

You are wrong, sir. Playing RJ is the ultimate trump card for any argument and all those who fail to recognize the divinity of RJ will suffer an eternity of torture in the firey pits of oblivion. Even though RJ is still not as awesome as the Flying Spaghetti monster due to his utter lack of beer volcanoes. Also there's no tangible proof of Christ's divinity so Buddha has equal right to any divinity references for McDavid that Jesus has. They also mentioned McMuhammed in that very same post and you conveniently ignored him when he is said to have the same magical powers that Jesus does. That makes you an ethnocentrist, sir and I am apalled.

We just disagree. You can blame Raptor Jesus if you want but it's just as likely that the real reason so many people read and don't post is because they are afraid that people will jump all over them. PA made a statement (whether he was serious or not) that some people may agree with (or at the very least weren't upset that McDavid won't be playing for a while) and the mob mentality and feigned outraged jumped all over him. I would think that would give more people hesitation to join than someone bringing up our scaley savior.

I understand that and I know he doesn't need me to defend him, but I wasn't the one who turned it away from a hockey discussion to a discussion of morality, it was all the people wagging their finger at PA for what a horrible person he was. Just because my jokes rub some people the wrong way doesn't make me the culprit for dragging the discussion off topic. The reaction to his statements did it, whether it was feigned outrage or actual.