Sanakht Inaros's page

Christian Zionism predates Jewish Zionism by 50 years and both movements are less than 200 years old. (Christian Zionism was developed in the 1830's and Jewish Zionism in the 1880's.)

You mean you're just starting to notice the strange looks you get at work?

I'd have loved to see clustershot go, but that's just me...

Nothing like ruining a table when the ranger can pretty much end the encounter on his init.

Still, that is money that these people will have to pay out of pocket. Close to $20 per two week check for 3% of $15000 although it might be a over3%.

I've been there. $20 out of pocket beats $80. When I was working in construction I was making $460 a week. Take out the $110 I had to pay for insurance...I was making roughly $23k a year. The jobsites were shut down for two weeks for Christmas, so 50 weeks at $110 a week is $5500 a year I was paying. Under the new law, $1365. Which works out to be $27 a week. And it gives me better options.

Sanakht Inaros wrote:

It's one of the reasons I cannot nor will not ever vote for Ron Paul or his son. That neither of them see the disconnect between what they claim they belive as christians and what they espouse with Ayn Rand just...

Though honestly, just buying into the Ayn Rand drivel should be sufficient. Christian or not.

It is. But it's compounded by calling themselves "christians". At one point I was actually debating whether or not to send them copies of The Satanic Bible. My wife talked me out of it.

I shouldn't have to pay for Steve and NO ONE ELSE SHOULD EITHER. I'd rather not have insurance at all...if my wife wasn't so stubborn I still wouldn't be on her policy. It cost me less money for service in a clinic when and if I chose to seek out treatment. I have insurance now, covered by my wife's company plan. Quite frankly, I'd rather suffer and die in agony than be forced to have insurance. Even if that means leaving my wife and kids behind...I have life insurance for just such...

Thankfully, you don't speak for most of us. I'd gladly pitch in to help pay for Steve and others like him. I'd much rather be taxed than paying a for-profit insurance company, though.

You rail against government run healthcare, but Medicare spends 65 cents on the dollar for healthcare. That's about 10 cents more than the "best" insurance company. Another way to look at it: the government spends $0.15 on overhead compared to the $0.45 that for-profit insurance companies.

What BNW just illustrated above with the 3 people insurance set up is exactly why I am against universal healthcare. Hank and Mitt aren't paying for their own just in case care, they are paying for care for Steve. That is wrong plain and simple.

Dude, we're already doing that. We've BEEN doing that. Why do you think your insurance is so high?

One of the proposals for Universal Healthcare showed that it would actually save us (the individual) money if it were a tax. When I was working, one of my co-workers was passing it around. As a tax it would have put $60 back into my paycheck. (I was paying $107 a week for basic coverage.)

(Hitler) No! That is so far off topic, you are being ridiculous.

I would not be so sure on the assertion about Hitler either.

Now on topic, thanks for making the distinction between S.D. & D.S..
Did Atheism influence you're politics?

Actually, read Mein Kampf. Hitler very much shows that he was a christian. His favorite example about why Jews needed to be killed is Jesus and the Moneylenders.

As I said, my perspective was a rant. I still have not seen a single compelling reason that federally mandated healthcare is a good thing. For a little more than 15 years, from the time I was 19 and working for arby's until I was 34 and got married I had no health insurance. I did not have the latest tech toys, hell I didn't even have a car I walked everywhere. If I needed treatment I paid cash out of pocket sometimes at the cost of only being able to afford Ramens noodles for food for a month or so. I have healthcare now and regularly skip appointments, miss follow up visits, and just deal and cope with the issues without complaint otherwise. I go to the doc just to keep my wife from worrying that I am not taking care of myself. I have severe arthritus in my knees, hands that constantly throb with tingling sensation or numbness, blood circulatory issue with my left nut that causes a discomfort akin to having been kicked in the jewels, and sleep apnea. I've dealt with those problems for years be

fore being told by a doctor what the medical diagnosis was by accepting that healthcare won't change anything other than force me to miss work. I just had a partial sigmoid colectomy due to diverticular disease. The surgeon Yanked my perfectly healthy appendix WITHOUT informing me or my wife until after the fact AND the day after the surgery I nearly died due to my heart slowing from pain medication. Great frigging healthcare. If I would've known what was going to happen I would NEVER gotten the surgery and dealt with the period bouts of stomach pain and vomitting. Plus I still have the same stomach pain I've always had. As things stand now, with me turning 40 next February I will be skipping yearly physicals. I will NOT allow myself to be violated under the guise of a prostate exam. I was living a happier life prior to having healthcare. Sorry. Thanks but no thanks to federally mandated healthcare. I would rather pay a fine and go without. Preventative and proactive healthcare has done nothing to improve my quality of...

Just because YOU wanted to be stupid doesn't mean that others want to.

Cyberpunk. Shadowrun is for wussies.

Would you demostrate that your perception of what the rule is happens to be different than what others say the rule is?

The vast majority of people on TANF are there for a reason and are not gaming the system. In your example, did you ask about the toy cart? I've seen people on welfare save up for months in order to get things for Christmas. We were on welfare for awhile and my mom saved up for eight months in order to get me a really nice leather jacket for Christmas. She also saved up and bought my brother a tv. She had to go without, but people -like you- who didn't know any better, thought she had gamed the system. You're example is just an assumption. And it makes you look like the very first letters.

HeroLab is okay, but I've found errors in it far more often than I would like.

How Does Religion Influence Politics? editor: Stefan Kiesbye.
American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century by Kevin Phillips.
Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence by Mark Juergensmeyer.

Plus a load of articles disputing Huntington's thesis.

Sanakht Inaros wrote:

LilithsThrall wrote:

I've got no problem with non-religious atheists (ie. the people who claim that they take the position of 'no god' on faith because they can't prove it, they've chosen to take that position on faith because they believe that it leads to a better society or, at least, makes themselves better people in their own personal life). Similarly, I've got no problem with honest atheists who acknowledge that atheism is a religion that they've chosen to take.

As with all religions, its the fanatic atheists who believe that their way is the one true path to enlightenment and the only rational choice that scare the hell out of me.

Lack of religious belief = religious belief. Logic fail.

Dude, we had a whole thread about it; at this point I'm keeping quiet cause I got tired of banging my head against that particular wall.

I know. But that kind of logic makes me laugh.

Martin Luther was one of Hitler's biggest inspiration.

Well, all I can say is I am glad I have not had the experiences you have had. I know if and when I have children I will tell them that if they feel they are in danger to try to get home or get help from an adult if they can't. I certainly would rather have my windows broken by vandals than to have my child shot or beaten to death in some dark alley.

When I say they went after my mom, I mean they tried to attack my mom.

I'm playing in and running Carrion Crown. Both are very different games. Then again, I really try not to metagame, either. If anything, it's made things much more interesting. Group dynamics are key.

Sanakht Inaros wrote:

pres man wrote:

To be clear, "flight didn't work", might just mean he wasn't able to lose the guy following him, it doesn't necessarily mean the guy caught up to him. I mean, if someone was following me and I wasn't able to lose them, I would still try to get home where I would be safer than trying to confront someone on the street. Now maybe this 17 year old high school football player could't stay ahead of this 28 year old guy and was tackled by him or something.

I've been followed by people looking to do me harm and home is the LAST PLACE I went. Did it one time, and it made things even worse.

Was your family there at the time?

I would assume if a public place was closer, I would go there, but if my family was home, and I was a teen, and my home was the closest place available, I would definitely go there.

I've had people go after my mom when they were looking for me. Came home a few times and found busted windows and vandalism. Sometimes going to a public place doesn't help either. Usually ends up being the wrong thing because no one wants to get involved. I've been cornered before and had a cop just watch as four guys beat me up. I didn't fight back because I thought he would do something about it. Boy, was I wrong. I would have done the very thing that Martin did. Cops are S^%%. And I'm white.

Well before stories were changed,witnesses placed Martin on top of Zimmerman pounding his face in. Sounds like a good reason to shoot to me. Nothing anybody can say will convince me that Martin couldn't have possibly escaped from Zimmerman, if he was even accosted by him.

Race isn't an issue as far as i am concerned, as hard as the media tried to distort the facts and make it one. It was self defense in my opinion.
Assault and battery=crime
Asking someone what they are up to=not crime
Following someone and observing their activities in public= also not crime
When you attack someone and get the upper hand, if that person happens to be armed expect to get force applied to you. If Martin was so worried about GZ why didn't he call police himself? Because criminals don't call the police.

You and reality don't get along, do you?

No. He finally accepted himself and got lucky in love. Which is more than I can say for a lot of my straight friends.

We don't want the competition...

Seriously, Pray-the-gay-away doesn't work. Every homosexual I have the pleasure of being friends with has always known they were different. One of them spent thousands of dollars trying to change his feelings and he was absolutely miserable, almost to the point of committing suicide. Then he met the man who became his husband and I know of very few straight couples that are as in love as those two. They've been together now for more than 10 years.

Watching what he went through, I'm more than convinced that genetics plays a defining role in our sexuality. It's just that our brain and our genetic code is still so complex that we may never fully understand how it all works.

There's only so many ways you can call the Arizona Secretary of State a dumb@$$. There's also the conflict of interest thing he has going, being the co-chair of Romney's campaign in the state.

How does this change the fact that Zimmerman was told NOT to go after Martin? How does this change the fact that Zimmerman was the one that escalated the conflict? Maybe Martin inflicted the wounds trying to defend himself from Zimmerman?

Playing the character and having it result in the character leaving the party is not always wronging the player. Usually it happens because the character design doesn't fit well, but other things like this can come up.

Play the character true and if it results in a new character then so be it, make a new character and play it true.

The OP's character concept has been this way from the start of the campaign. The ranger and the DM knew this and STILL went with the undead horse. So yes, it is the fault of the ranger and the DM and the OP is the one getting punished.

Of the, like, eleventy-nine republican candidates this last year, the only ones that seemed okay to me were John Huntsman, Romney, and Paul. Gingrich is a smart guy, but he's also far too much of a sack of s##@. I still think Paul would be the only guy among them that would bring about genuine change--for good or ill!

Huntsman was the only one I supported. I think he was the only republican that could have had a good chance of beating Obama. I would have voted for him.

Romney is the Gop version of Kerry. Gingrich is the textbook definition of POS, and RP is even worse.

An athiest will fight for you to worship as you want. A christian will only fight to worship HIS way or not at all.

bugleyman wrote:

Darkwing Duck wrote:

Well, I used to be full of hate and anger. I still deal with it. I knew the Bible very well, but not how to live it. I've had very good examples in church to teach me how to be a better person. I'm not perfect, but I am trying.

The thing I want to stress is regardless of all the crap you see from the fundamentalist whackjob branch of Christianity, they don't represent the majority, just the ones who get the most camera time.

From the POV of an atheist (or secular humanist, if you prefer), it is very, very difficult to come up with any criteria for determining who the "fake" Christians are, especially since everyone will tell you "the other guy."

Actually, its pretty easy. If a self-proclaimed Christian isn't working to try to manifest the fruits of the spirit, then he's not a Christian.

That's about as clear as concrete. I could argue that you're not christian because you're not following X. Again, it's semantics.

The thing I want to stress is regardless of all the crap you see from the fundamentalist whackjob branch of Christianity, they don't represent the majority, just the ones who get the most camera time.

It's all semantics.

Your use of personal insults while telling me "your side" is absurd. What does my personal opinion on homosexual marriage have to do with this conversation? Nobody is taking the rights of homosexuals away, I'm not advocating it. The swipe at Dogblade was a response to his offensive, rude remark. Swapping the words Girl for Warrior in his name was my response to him calling me bigoted. Grow up and get thicker skin. I actually refused to stoop to his level if you bother to read the short exchange.

Except you've been insulting the entire time. Sorry. try again.

The United States is indeed a Christian nation!

Except they've specifically stated otherwise. You've chosen remarks from a small body of work that supports your position, whereas the majority of the works of the Founding Fathers is against that.

Sanakht Inaros wrote:

I know of a couple of lawsuits in which a pagan family wanted their loved one to be treated like a christian and have their religious symbol placed on a local war memorial.

Seems reasonable to me.

Same here. But reading the letters to the editors the christians were outraged about it.

Many of the anti-homosexuals today still seem to treat it the same way. It's a "choice", the "homosexual lifestyle", fears of gays "converting" kids, etc.
Seems like they think it's so tempting that if it's not strictly repressed everyone would switch teams.
Look, I'm straight. I'm attracted to women, not guys. I don't have to keep rigid control of my self to keep from succumbing to the lure of other men. I'm not interested. I never was.
Do people really think differently?

My best friend spent years and thousands of dollars trying to "pray the gay away". He was always taught that being gay was a "choice". He choose to be "straight" and he was miserable. Once he accepted himself for who he is, he's been so much happier. He and his husband are the happiest couple I know.

Its funny that you don't see it for yourself. This is real persecution.

The United States has a kind of Fabian style persecution against Christians. A slow & gradual covert persecution.

Really? Try this on for size: I KNOW what religious prosecution is like. I'm a buddhist. I was called a satanist. When a graveyard was vandalized, my friends and I were arrested for it even though we didn't know about it. I found out that I had been up for promotion to management on several occassins, but was passed over because I wasn't "christian". I joined the navy to get away from that. My friends and I were harassed by the police simply because we weren't the right kind of "christian".

Unlike you, I don't have to look outside the country to find oppression. I can find it here in the U.S.

Well how homophobic is a nation that is 78% Christian and IS tolerant to whatever lifestyle you choose? Not at all.

I believe its a testament to what Christianity is all about. IMO.

Actually, very. Thankfully, there's this thing called the Constitution. If not for that...

My grandparents were ordained ministers so I have a pretty good working knowledge of the bible. Yes, it oppresses women. Yes, it oppresses gays. Yes, it blames the jews for the death of "Christ". Where I live at, there are now 3 laws on the books that ban gay marriage. A law just passed that will close down 17 to 20 of the 24 clinics that provide abortion. There is a war on women. And for the most part, it's driven by christianity.

Paul is considered cannon and an authority. What he wrote is what "God" said. What is in the Bible is considered the Holy Word of God by the early church fathers and is inline with what they thought of Jesus' message.

It was people LIKE DD that really pushed me into studying it. And the more I studied, the more I questioned, the more I found the glaring contradictions, the less I became impressed until I finally had enough.

My wife is pretty new to gaming. I'm running them through Carrion Crown. In the beginning of Broken Moon they run into a couple of large werewolves. One of them starts to talk.

My wife: "WTF? They speak? OH, hell no! I'm outta here!" The expression on her face and that she actually pushed herself away from the table, had us rolling.

My wife is good for a lot of one-liners.

Society play. They found out they were going to be facing off against a bard. They were like "We got this."

Four rounds later, I've mopped the floor with the party. She looks at me, "Bard's are gay."

Another player has a barbarian that has an ability that allows him to grow spikes. He demonstrated it by putting his hands next to his chest and pops out his forefingers and makes a popping sound. My wife: "Great. Just what we need. A barbarian with a tittie hard-on problem."

If it's stressing you out, you're not having fun, then quit. It's all about having fun.

Cibet, we'd be playing Brian Lumley Mythos not Lovecraft. Toss out the "Good Twin" idea of the Lumley stuff, him and REH work better for PF than Lovecraft does.

Also, you have this composition claim, too, and I am baffled by it. I never said "you'll never find any racism among tea partiers because I am not a racist". I said the movement isn't racist based on two things: I know hundreds of them and don't know any racists, and there's no evidence that the movement is racist. I am confused at the rush of some to point out classic logical fallicies without thinking about them first.

I know quite a few Tea-Baggers as well. 20 years ago we'd have called it a Klan rally. I had the misfortune of growing up around racists. A lot of stuff I heard from them is very close to or the same as a lot of what I hear coming from the Tea Party. Just because you claim you don't know any racists doesn't make it any less true.

Sanakht Inaros wrote:

You do realize that unemployment benefits run out after a set amount of time, right? And then there is the fact that you also have to interview to get them. And sometimes that can take a couple months.

Where I live at, unemployment pays you roughly 75% of what you were making. It doesn't include healthcare. And they only cover you for six months.

Where I live, unemployment caps out at $245 a week -- less than minimum wage. That won't even keep a roof over my head, let alone act as an incentive to remain unemployed.

I find it very telling that those you espouse the view that being on unemployment is an incentive to not working, really have no clue what happens when on unemployment. It's almost as big a myth as Saint Reagan.

I also love the myth that being on welfare is also an incentive for not working. In the late 80's and on through the 90's, where I lived at, if you were on welfare you also had to go through job training. This was under democrats. It paid off because people were getting and staying off welfare. It helped the economy and kept the unemployment rate at a lower level. But now that republicans have control, they have cut the program and the state is seeing more people on welfare and a higher unemployment rate at almost twice what it used to be.

I disagree with you, Bob. My NG Bard wouldn't hesitate to kill someone that the head of his faction ordered killed. To him, that target is a threat to the Ruby Prince and to Osirion, therefore the mission is valid. He doesn't ask why, he assumes that the Sapphire Sage has his reasons and that he knows more than my character. So to him, it's not an evil act. Other than that, he prefers to stay out of combat as much as possible.

What you are doing, is overruling the writers and coordinators. And if you put down that my bard did an evil act by fulfilling his faction mission, I'd rip it up and have you write me another one. And I'd continue to do so until you left off the evil act. Fulfilling a faction mission, no matter how we feel as DMs, is NOT an evil act. But if in the course of my actions, I tortured others, burnt down orphanges, wore an Edgar Suit, etc..., then THOSE actions would be evil. That would warrant a talking to and a notation on the chronicle.

Kruelaid wrote:

TheWhiteknife wrote:

Gailbraithe wrote:

...the usual generalisms...

See, I disagree about conservatism. I believe that there are more than 1 type of conservative. Myself, I do want to see the government cut, but just the...

And there is more than one type of liberal.

But of course it doesn't suit the purposes of certain persons and powers to concede that people's political beliefs are heterogeneous.

Mmmm, rocky road to the white house. Now with more nuts!

That was funny.

We've made such a big deal out of going to college here, that it's hurt us. There's a kind of social stigma attached to not going to college. We're raised and taught that we should do what we enjoy, yet if we do just that people look down on you if you don't have a college degree. We're a money driven society. We've defined success by what we have in our house not by what we have in our lives.

I love building things; working with my hands. And I'm happy doing that. Outside of allergies, I really haven't been sick in years. I know guys who went to college, have really good paying jobs but are so stressed out and sick all the time. Even their vacations aren't vacations because they take their laptops and work with them.

Right now, I've gone back to school full-time so I can recover from a work accident. My degree has zero to do with my career, but I'm doing it because I love the subject matter. There are people in my class who have no idea what degree they want to pursue and are only doing it because it's something expected of them. One guy wants to get into construction, but his family feels like it's just a step above working the drive-thru at Mickey-D's. That it's the last resort for ex-cons, illegals, and those who don't have any skills what-so-ever.

I always get confused by religious discussions, but isn't Catholocism the most popular branch of Christianity? And therefore 'most chrisians' would not regard it as heretical?

Depends on where you are at. I live in Pat Robertson's back yard (not literally, of course) so I get bugged a lot by Evangelicals. According to them, because I was born and baptized Catholic, but was raised Pentacostal, I'm still considered a heathen.

Most people don't consider the Ethopian Church part of the Roman Catholics. It wasn't until the mid-1800's that they discovered that the Church had several books in their bible that everyone else thought were either fragments or simply gone.

Growing up and bouncing around and going to different churches, they all had the same attitude towards other sects of christian faith. It was always: if you don't follow X, then no matter how good your intentions, you're going to hell.

Another thing I've never been able to figure out, but seems to have a lot of prevailence, is that the nation of Israel needs to be firmly established so that Jesus can come back to earth and the Jews can go to hell. It runs contrary to what is in the Bible, and every time I've asked, I get one of two answers: They aren't real christians or They lost the status of chosen when they crucified Jesus.

It just seems to me that they got so caught up in the trappings that they lost sight of the message.

2e days. Half-gold dragon Cavalier. I was 12th level. Could breath fire 3 times a day. Boss fight. I used up my breath weapon taking out the boss and his henchmen. After the fight, I'm cleaning up and saying prayers for the dead. Hafling thief founds the treasure and sees a gem the size of his fist. The guy playing the halfling is 5'3" and weighed somewhere around 250 pounds. And he was hispanic which he played up. We're playing this at the game store. In character, he gets up out of his chair and goes running around the table screaming "MINE!" We're giggling at this. Finally, on his thrid lap, I get out of my chair, stop him, look him and take a deep breath trying to get myself under control and before I say anything, he says in a very tiny voice "Yours?" while holding out his hand. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. Nor was there a short line to the restrooms.

Second: LG. Slot Zero a mod that had lots of undead. The DM was from the Triad in our region. My friend is playing a cleric of Wee Jas. They had just announced that week that Control Undead was considered an Evil act. Didn't matter what you used Command Undead for, it was still an evil act. I'm the other cleric (rogue/cleric trying for Temple Raider), so the two of us are the only ones doing any real damage to the wraiths that have us trapped in a building. The entire adventure he and the Triad member had been b+**&ing about the rules change. Finally, my friend looks at us, realizes the ONLY chance we have to survive is if he uses Control Undead. He says "Don't anybody tell the Triad..." and the entire table just dies laughing. He's looking around at us with a confused look on his face, before someone points at the DM. "Oh." Then it dawns on him "OH! You're on the Triad."
Two of us were holding onto the table for dear life. Took us about a half hour to get over it.

Third: Same guy playing a cleric of Pharasma. SoD AP. Book 4. They're fighting what they call the Gasoline Elemental. Fighter is caught in a grapple. Cleric goes through a bunch of spells before announcing that he only has a couple left.
Cleric:"I don't know if this will help you any."
Fighter: "What you got left?"
Cleric: "Freedom of Movement."
Fighter: "No. No, it won't."
Me and the other players lost it. Ten minutes and a smoke break latter...

Of course, whenever I say the phrase "Let me show you how it's done." my character shows you how to end up dead.

Anyone that supports Ayn Rand is someone I can't support. She held a convicted 1020's serial killer as her ideal "superman" of her philosophy. I would rather support a Scientologist.

On the John Carpenter website, he has wav files available. Of real use are the three monster sounds from THE THING. Great for chaos beasts/Spawn of Yog-Sothoth.

And another question: Continual Flame is a 3rd level cleric and 2nd level sorcerer/wizard spell whereas Darkness is a 2nd level cleric/sorerer/wizard spell. So if a cleric cast Continual Flame would that counter and/or dispel the Darkness cast by a wizard? According to the rules it's a higher level light spell.