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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
I guess the last part of my statement was missed about helping those who are truly in need yet you are right in that I find it offencive to help the "lazy" which I am not using as a code word for anything except laziness. I don't accept it in my children, my co-workers or my employees. So why must I accept it in the general public.

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Posts: 1051 | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
Itty Bitty Girl, You say that you want equality for ALL, but that is not possible here on earth.

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
So if that is how it will be then then why is it to be different now. Let us say you have a garden that taxes your mental and physical strength every day but it provides you with you daily needs. And living next to you is a person of equal mental and physical strength yet choses to sit on his porch all day.

Do you then give an equal portion of your food to the person who has not toiled in the field?

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
Now these are jewish decendance living in their own land and you think you and other americans of African lineage have it bad here because of a few stupid people. I'm sorry but quit you whining and look for the good people around you. You are a christian practice christian love,

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
God Bless you and your family, Itty-Bitty Girl, but because of your total disdane for anything beyond the democratic party line it is hard to have a reasonable discussion on these matters. I have read other things from you in other topics with pleasure and agreement, but from here I must regretfully depart.

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Our oldest daughter and son-in-law are visiting with us it is his first visit to Israel. Because my wife and I want all our children home here in Israel I wanted to show him how wonderful Israel is this of course would start with my playing the role of a tourist guide to show him all the places he would like to see.

It was early Sunday morning, Yom Reshon, (the first day of the week in Israel) he ask me if it was possible for me to take him to Bethlehem, I said no, Israelis are not allowed to go there, so then he ask if we could take him to Jericho, I said no Israelis are not allowed there either. Then he said how about the Garden Tomb, I told him that was in East Jerusalem and it all depended on the circumstances and if these Arabs who call themselves Palestinians are rioting or if there is any terrorist alerts. Well what about the Temple Mount he asked, can we go there, and I then I told him, that we Jews are not allowed to go there most of the time but some times if we behave ourselves they are generous to us and allow us to go there in small numbers on Tuesday afternoons. But we can’t go there now because this is the Islamic holiday of Ramadan and they would kill us.

So what about the Old City, I told him yes we can go there and if they are not throwing rocks over the wall from the Temple Mount we can go to the Western Wall and Pray. But if we are allowed onto the Temple mount next Tuesday we are not allowed to pray there, the Moslems walk around watching to see if Jews or Christians are praying and they will run you off the Mount if they catch you praying. You see the one thing they fear is our prayers. But we can walk through the Jewish Quarters and even parts of the Old City, for example through the Jaffa gate all the way to the Temple Mount is for the most part safe for us, but we dare not venture into the Moslem quarters around Herold’s Gate and there has been a rash of stabbings of Jews around the area of the Damascus Gate. It would not be to smart for us to attempt to go through the Lions Gate (St. Stephen’s Gate) that leads directly into the north end of the Temple Mount and there is always danger for us there.

I think you have the picture by now, of these problems that are directly related to the weak Israeli Government and their desire to please the US and not the Jews of Israel. To begin with the fact that they have given the Holiest site in the Jewish world to the Jordanians is in itself beyond understanding. When we consider that Jerusalem isn’t even mentioned in their Koran, and there is no real proof that their Prophet ever came to Jerusalem. It is very clear that their holy sites in Mecca and Medina should be enough, but their desire to destroy the Jewish People goes back to Ishmael and Isaac and that is really what it is all about. It can also be seen in the one thing that unites all the Arabs, the destruction not only of Israel but of all the Jewish People. They will of course fail as they have always failed.

We are living in the days when good is called evil and evil good and there isn’t a better way to see this than to take a close look at Islam. They call Jews and Christians evil and themselves good. They teach their children from kinder garden that to be a suicide bomber and to kill the Jews and Christian is good because they are evil. What we are talking about here is approximately one third of the population of the planet who has been taken over by the Devil.

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Posts: 43 | From: Baton Rouge, LA | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
If this were a democracy then would it be OK if the 73% of the european heritage of americans voted and decided to round up by force all african and hispanic decendance and sent them back to their old countries? This would be how a true democracy would work, and there would be nothing anyone could say because the majority of the people voted in favor of that outcome.

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
BUT Thank God this is a republic were laws are the principle means by which we live and are established by the people for the betterment of ALL who live here.

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
The whole setup of this country was to provide a place for its people were Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness is allowed to flurish. That means the pursuit of my happiness does not infringe on your liberty and your liberty does not harm anothers life.

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
And yet we have flipped 180 degrees to try and make all our people happy at the expence of our liberty and in some cases life.
Anyone remember Waco and Ruby Ridge????

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This is very sad. This is NOT a democracy, I believe that neither you nor I have ever witnessed democracy, all that we have ever witnessed is hypocracy.

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Posts: 43 | From: Baton Rouge, LA | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by BrianGrass1234:
Explain this to me cause I don't get it.

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Originally posted by BrianGrass1234:
So you want to take from others, by force, against their will, to pay for others who happen to be in a bad situation, whether it is their fault or not. Am I correct? Is it OK to steal if it is the majority that wants it? Like I said in the other thread, democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on whats for dinner.

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Originally posted by Itty-Bitty Girl:

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Originally posted by BrianGrass1234:
The federal government should have had no response. Individuals should either seek reimbursment from their insurance companies if it is in their contracts, should be responsible for themselves, or seek help from voluntary charities. Not expect the government to extract help through others through force.

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No response for the American citizens, from the American Government??? The government is supposed to serve the people.

Others??? What others are you talking about???

The government is responsible for taking care of the American people, AIDING THEM IN THEIR TIME OF NEED.

And for anyone to say to me that the government should not have responded to help those less fortunate in the Katrina aftermath, is an obscenity.

The government that fails to aid its citizens when they are in need is the goverment that needs to be either altered or abolished, so a new one can be put in place to serve ALL OF ITS CITIZENS.

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Posts: 203 | From: Weed, CA | Registered: Jun 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by BrianGrass1234:
The federal government should have had no response. Individuals should either seek reimbursment from their insurance companies if it is in their contracts, should be responsible for themselves, or seek help from voluntary charities. Not expect the government to extract help through others through force.

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Originally posted by Itty-Bitty Girl:

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Originally posted by BrianGrass1234:
As far as hurricane damage is concerned, it has nothing to do with the federal government, or at least shouldn't. Any damage done to private property should be taken care of by the insurance that should have been held by the property owners. If the insurance company doesn't hold up to their contract than its a civil lawsuit to handle the matter. Any government property that was damaged should be rebuilt by the local governments that had ownership over those properties. If there are any federal buildings that were destroy, than it is up to the federal government to decide if they want to rebuild or not and to fund the rebuilding. As far as helping the poor and those who did not have insurance for their property, then that should come from voluntary charities, not forced wealth redistribution.

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I believe that you are missing the point, I am not talking about the damage.

There was a DELAY in the federal response time, A DELAY in RESPONSE.

The federal government HAD THE RESOURCES, but failed the poor and black citizens by delaying response and starving them off. I blame the goverment for STARVING THEM OFF.

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Posts: 203 | From: Weed, CA | Registered: Jun 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by BrianGrass1234:
As far as hurricane damage is concerned, it has nothing to do with the federal government, or at least shouldn't. Any damage done to private property should be taken care of by the insurance that should have been held by the property owners. If the insurance company doesn't hold up to their contract than its a civil lawsuit to handle the matter. Any government property that was damaged should be rebuilt by the local governments that had ownership over those properties. If there are any federal buildings that were destroy, than it is up to the federal government to decide if they want to rebuild or not and to fund the rebuilding. As far as helping the poor and those who did not have insurance for their property, then that should come from voluntary charities, not forced wealth redistribution.

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Posts: 1051 | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
I think that the poor democratic people of this country had voted in their party for over forty years and it never got them anywhere. After a transfer of wealth for the "rich" to the "poor" in this country of over 5,000,000,000,000.oo(trillion) the poor are no better off then they have ever been. Why is that?

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Never got them anywhere??? The poor and democratic of this country were better of with a democratic president who cares about the blacks and poor. I was more better off with former president Clinton, than I could ever be with president George W Bush and the Racist Republican party.

Where have you gotten those so-called "stats" from? Any sources? I see none. Why is that?

The Republican Party is racist, I believe that most blacks believe that. My family believes that. I believe that. And I have cited my sources in the above posts as proof that the Republican Party is racist.

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
Now as to the thing that really gets misreported, I live in Baton Rouge, LA. All I have heard from the national media is how President Bush HATES the blackpeople of N.O.

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
The government did fail those people down there, but not the one you and most others want to blame. It was the failure of the local N.O. mayor for not demanding an evac soon enough. A black democrat mayor.

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Originally posted by reflectingtheson:
And yet after the storm destroys the area the president, which I am sure was not voted for by the majority of these poeple,

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NAGIN: I told him we had an incredible crisis here and that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that I have been all around this city, and I am very frustrated because we are not able to marshal resources and we're outmanned in just about every respect.

You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people that were stuck in attics, man, old ladies. ... You pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and they're standing in there in water up to their freaking necks.

And they don't have a clue what's going on down here. They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of ******* -- excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed.

WWL: Did you say to the president of the United States, "I need the military in here"?

NAGIN: I said, "I need everything."

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NAGIN: I have no idea what they're doing. But I will tell you this: You know, God is looking down on all this, and if they are not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price. Because every day that we delay, people are dying and they're dying by the hundreds, I'm willing to bet you.

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NAGIN: I don't know. I don't think so.

But we called for martial law when we realized that the looting was getting out of control. And we redirected all of our police officers back to patrolling the streets. They were dead-tired from saving people, but they worked all night because we thought this thing was going to blow wide open last night. And so we redirected all of our resources, and we hold it under check.

I'm not sure if we can do that another night with the current resources.

And I am telling you right now: They're showing all these reports of people looting and doing all that weird stuff, and they are doing that, but people are desperate and they're trying to find food and water, the majority of them.

Now you got some knuckleheads out there, and they are taking advantage of this lawless -- this situation where, you know, we can't really control it, and they're doing some awful, awful things. But that's a small majority of the people. Most people are looking to try and survive.

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NAGIN: Organize people to write letters and make calls to their congressmen, to the president, to the governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous.

I don't want to see anybody do anymore ******* press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city. And then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can't even count.

Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your ***es and do something, and let's fix the biggest ******* crisis in the history of this country.

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The government is SUPPOSED to HELP and serve its people, the PEOPLE elect them into office. THE GOVERNMENT had BETTER take care of them. If the government does not HELP THEM then they fail to do their job, and need to be replaced.

This government has been oppressing the black and poor for a long time, denying them the help and service that they need. Help and service is NOT a HANDOUT.

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I think that the poor democratic people of this country had voted in their party for over forty years and it never got them anywhere. After a transfer of wealth for the "rich" to the "poor" in this country of over 5,000,000,000,000.oo(trillion) the poor are no better off then they have ever been. Why is that?

Now as to the thing that really gets misreported, I live in Baton Rouge, LA. All I have heard from the national media is how President Bush HATES the blackpeople of N.O. That he let them drown in Katrina and starve and thirst in the heat of August. You have written

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Those people stuck down there thought that the Government cared about the poor and black, and they thought wrong.

"Our government failed those people in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it," Clinton told CNN. "One hundred percent of the people recognize that -- that it was a failure."

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Yes you are right. The government did fail those people down there, but not the one you and most others want to blame. It was the failure of the local N.O. mayor for not demanding an evac soon enough. A black democrat mayor. Where is the disdane for his not caring? They are his voters!
Then there is the state of LA. govevnor who waited until the hurricane was at our front door to ask for help. A white democrat female. Where is the disdane for her not caring? They are her voters!

And yet after the storm destroys the area the president, which I am sure was not voted for by the majority of these poeple,mobilizes the largest search and rescue in this country's history and it is his fault . This must be bizaro world!!!

Rick

Posts: 43 | From: Baton Rouge, LA | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by NLP:
See who is really looking out for your best interested which is (or should be) Christ and the public worship of Him above all else!

Just food for thought!

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Former Republican Secretary of Education William Bennett remarked yesterday on his radio show that, "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."

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"What I want to tell you...Ladies and Gentlemen...That there's not enough troops in the Army...to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigger race into our theatres, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches."
-- Strom Thurman, 1948.

"When Strom Thurman ran for president, we voted for him! We're proud of it! And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all of these problems over all of these years either."
-- Trent Lott, December, 2002.

"If we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today."
-- Trent Lott, 1980.

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Originally posted by NLP:
Here's one up to date fact on how the democratic elected officials are voting on your behalf.

Question: (Parapharsed) Do you want to stop tax dollars from supporting organizations that want to infringe of Religious rights?

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the PERA bill which would block tax dollars from going to the ACLU and similar groups in cases of lawsuits to remove 10 Commandments plaques and religious symbols from public buildings and courthouses.

Who's votes do you think passed this? Republicans or Democrats?

To see how your Congressional representatives voted on this bill here is the link.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll480.xml

Seems the Democratic elected officials overwelming would like to eventually see Christianity put to a halt and they want to have your money out of your tax dollars to do it, but the Repulicans (who voted yes to the blocking of funds) do not!
Judge for yourself by reviewing the undisputed facts of how the parties voted with just this one example. See who is really looking out for your best interested which is (or should be) Christ and the public worship of Him above all else!

Just food for thought!

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DUH to me!!
Sorry, my bad…Steve’s not lazy Joe is. I should have double checked the name. Now does that make sense?

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I believe in the same philosophy that our founding fathers believed in (for the most part).

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If you’re calling me a racist and classiest, then you are calling God the same things. Oh wait people are already calling him that. Just ask any Atheist! I can guarantee you that these words will come out their mouths.

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Ok, WHY OH WHY are people DEPENDING on the Government to solve their trials and tribulations?? I could go into a bunch of stories of my g.grandparents, etc. and the trials they went through (hurricanes, Wars, etc) WITHOUT anything from the Government.

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The government wasn’t intended to be replied upon like they are a god. So why do we do it?

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The reason why the Government is: For the Government, and by the Government is because we have become lazy and allowed them to take control so it is no longer by the people. How much easier is it for people to point others in the direction of Government welfare rather than help to them support themselves. Which you can’t argue this point because this is exactly what we are doing. This is the ‘laziness’ I am referring to.

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The victims of Katrina should have been able to depend on their fellow citizens (neighbors) not the government. So I don’t and won’t blame the government for Katrina. I blame ‘us’ the American people so being so dependant on the government instead of each other. By this we are more and more coming under the thumb of them that will lead to that bondage.

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I as a Christian would never feel OK with this blindly said statement, Sorry! I don’t want the child molesters, murders, rapist, and abortionist to have the same power (equal) as good God fearing people. Which is exactly what is happening, under the democracy of equality...to all! That is why WE have constant, constant, constant, repeat offenders.

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Being a republican makes me far from a racist. That would be like me saying because you are Democrat you are a murderer, because it’s no surprise that the Democrats are the #1 supporters of abortion rights. Unless you do believe in abortion rights?

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Abortion Rights??? Republican Party ain't about the gospel or stopping abortion rights or the so called "gay agenda". It is all about money. If the Republican Party were "Christian" they wouldn't have left the blacks and poor to die in the streets of New Orleans. It seems like Bush pretends to care about the babies inside of the womb, because his actions show how much he cares about the ones outside of the womb caught up in the Katrina aftermath. He does NOT CARE.

What about the ones that George Bush failed outside of the womb???



"Religious Right"? More like "Racist Right".

George bush let them starve, and it was reported that one baby died. The lives of the poor and black don't matter to the GOP, these so called Christians. By doing that, they show how much they do not care about the blacks and poor. They never have and never will.

This government does not seem to care about black people, this government does not seem to care about the poor. The government does not understand suffering, it cannot comprehend the language of suffering.

The Republican Party is not a Christian one.
Republican Party's religion is capitalism, and its language is money.

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Isn’t it funny though that the MOST powerful woman in America is black? Oprah Winfrey and she did it all without the help of the US Government, go figure?

By the way my 2 great, great, grandfathers were in the Civil War (North). One died the other one was in the troop that Robert E. Lee surrendered to. The one that died, the government gave my g.grandmother 1 cent, period! She had eight children at the time and she made it through on her own. No whinning or complaining to the government.

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So in a nutshell, shame on you for thinking Republicans are racist (my FAMILY personally suffered to abolish slavery) and for thinking your dependency should be in the hands of the government. God teaches you better than that.

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When you talk about equality you’re thinking of race, creed, religion, etc. If it was just that then Yes, Rose I would agree w/you 100%. But it is not; it’s much much more than that.

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Posts: 1051 | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Itty-Bitty Girl:
It's nice to see that you agree, EL3LN3TN.

Are you also a Christian Democrat???

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uh...well...we don't really have that in this country (U.S.) that I'm aware of


I tend to vote as an independent, with a slight conservative lean on local issues but as it gets closer to the "big picture" (State/Federal) I shift a bit liberal.

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Originally posted by NLP:
"The transcendent values of Biblical natural law were the foundation of the American republic."


In the American republic, the "principles which did not change" and which were "certain and universal in their operation upon all the members of the community" were the principles of Biblical natural law.

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Whoa! Wait a minute ...I must confess this "Biblical natural law" is a bit of a new one to me.

...and I'll outrightly suggest that Montesquieu is being (incorrectly) taken out of context w/ this - I think the term(s) we're looking for are "Natural Law" / "Natural Rights" guided by a political philosophy of "Republican Liberalism" as espoused by Montesquieu, John Locke, Thomas Paine, Madison, Jefferson, etc...

Really, I think the "Biblical" part is on shaky basis, with not much hard supporting evidence.

btw - I notice no link reference or credit - from where was this article taken? Who's the author?

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Originally posted by NLP:

Well, OK Steve is poor and only makes $5.00 so he needs the extra money to feed his family which I have no problem with this, but Steve is lazy and won’t get up off the couch to go to work. Why should I have to have my hard earned money go to him?

The answer is I shouldn’t..the reason why I believe this is because the Lord tells us ….“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat".

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The sorry legacy of the founders

By Ulrich Boser

1/12/04

In 1784, five years before he became president of the United States, George Washington, 52, was nearly toothless. So he hired a dentist to transplant nine teeth into his jaw--having extracted them from the mouths of his slaves.

That's a far different image from the cherry-tree-chopping George most people remember from their history books. But recently, many historians have begun to focus on the role slavery played in the lives of the founding generation. They have been spurred in part by DNA evidence made available in 1998, which almost certainly proved Thomas Jefferson had fathered at least one child with his slave Sally Hemings. And only over the past 30 years have scholars examined history from the bottom up. Works by Gore Vidal, Henry Wiencek, and Garry Wills reveal the moral compromises made by the nation's early leaders and the fragile nature of the country's infancy. More significant, they argue that many of the Founding Fathers knew slavery was wrong--and yet most did little to fight it.

More than anything, the historians say, the founders were hampered by the culture of their time. While Washington and Jefferson privately expressed distaste for slavery (Jefferson once called it an "execrable commerce"), they also understood that it was part of the political and economic bedrock of the country they helped to create.

Political capital. For one thing, the South could not afford to part with its slaves. Owning slaves was "like having a large bank account," says Wiencek, author of An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America. The southern states would not have signed the Constitution without protections for the "peculiar institution," including a clause that counted a slave as three fifths of a man for purposes of congressional representation.

And the statesmen's political lives depended on slavery. The three-fifths formula handed Jefferson his narrow victory in the presidential election of 1800 by inflating the votes of the southern states in the Electoral College. Once in office, Jefferson extended slavery with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803; the new land was carved into 13 states, including three slave states.

Still, Jefferson freed Hemings's children--though not Hemings herself or his approximately 150 other slaves. Washington, who had begun to believe that all men were created equal after observing the valor of black soldiers during the Revolutionary War, overcame the strong opposition of his relatives to grant his slaves their freedom in his will. Only a decade earlier, such an act would have required legislative approval in Virginia. He suspected the country would eventually come to its moral senses and find the notion of owning other human beings repugnant, says Joseph Ellis, author of the bestselling Founding Brothers. "He knew his legacy depended on it. He knew that we were watching."

Yet how should we view other framers of independence such as signer of the Declaration of Independence Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry, who traded and whipped their slaves?

Or James Monroe, who, as governor of Virginia in 1800, after rushed trials, executed nearly 30 slaves after an attempted revolt? For some historians, such actions cloud their legacy. "The other founders resisted emancipation, not because it was a mad scheme but because they did not want to relinquish the wealth which slave sales poured into their coffers," says Wiencek.

Other scholars believe the Founding Fathers can best be seen squarely within their time. "To contextualize is not to excuse," says Rutgers University historian Jan Lewis. "It's to show the complexity." Understanding the early leaders' severe lapse in judgment over slavery, say Lewis and other historians, makes their ability to found a new and democratic nation all the more incredible.

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The transcendent values of Biblical natural law were the foundation of the American republic. Consider the stability this provides: in our republic, murder will always be a crime, for it is always a crime according to the Word of God. however, in a democracy, if majority of the people decide that murder is no longer a crime, murder will no longer be a crime.

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I know from experience that Trent Lott is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to racism in the Republican Party.

I can't count the number of times some Anglo conservative has used the N-word in reference to African-Americans in front of me, even towards those they root for, such as Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith. I can't count the number of racial "jokes" or references some white City Council member, police officer, businessman, or other establishment figure - whom I know is a Republican - has told to my face. A popular "joke" during this time of year by such racist Republicans is, "What are you doing for Martin Luther Coon' Day?" Or they will snicker, "Have you learned anything during Black *** ' History Month?"

I've sat at high school football games in Republican-dominated towns as Anglo adults in the stands taunted the lone black player on the opposing team using that N-word. I've attended all-white meetings -- as a reporter, not participant - in which elitist Republicans have discussed getting around the Voting Rights Act by lobbying for requirements that voters have to own property. I didn't need someone to spell out what they were talking about -- they wanted some way to keep blacks from voting.

In the 1920s, Dallas had more Ku Klux Klan members per capita than any other large U.S. city. The city had an actual "segregation of the races" clause written in to its charter as late as 1968. Peter Gent, a former Cowboy player and author of classics like North Dallas Forty, says he was shocked to arrive from the Midwest in the mid-1960s to witness such blatant Jim Crow segregation. For example, the team's black players had to drive an extra hour from their segregated South Dallas neighborhoods to reach practice in North Dallas. Through lawsuits, protests, and other measures, the blatant racist policies are gone, but they have been replaced with subtle, back-door racism executed from still all-white country clubs and subdivisions in the suburbs.

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The Republican Party in general launched a strategy during the late 1960s to capture the southern racist vote by opposing affirmative action, supporting the rights of states like South Carolina to fly the Confederate flag in front of public buildings, and similar positions. Dubya Bush himself spoke before the segregationist Bob Jones University in South Carolina, genuflected before the Confederate flag, and helped implement the racist Willie Horton ad during the 1988 presidential campaign of Bush Sr., who approved the racist ad after lobbying by his son. Both Bush's have appointed many racists - both subtle and overt - to high offices, who now work to further erode civil rights.

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Who can forget the Florida 2000 recount battle, when white supremacists rallied for Republicans who embraced their support? What about Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's and former Bush-state-campaign-co-chair-Secretary-of-State-turned-Congresswoman Katherine Harris' openly racist system of purges before the 2000 election that took the names of mostly African-American voters off the rolls? What about the police roadblocks near black precincts on election days? And how about the Republican warnings in communities across the country about impending black voter fraud that usually occur a few days before an election, not to mention misleading fliers circulated by Republican operatives in African-American neighborhoods telling them of different days to vote or wrongly warning that their criminal backgrounds and parking tickets will be checked to try to intimidate them against voting?

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Jefferson Sessions of Alabama. Sessions has called a black assistant U.S. attorney "boy" and a white civil rights attorney a "disgrace to his race." As a prosecutor, Sessions pursued civil rights workers on phony voter fraud charges. As Alabama attorney general, he again pursued allegations of voter fraud in African-American communities, looked the other way in Anglo communities, and refused to aggressively investigate burnings and bombings of black churches. He also said he thought KKK members were "OK" until he heard some might have smoked marijuana and charged the NAACP with being "un-American" and "Communist-inspired." Despite such a past, Bush and other Republicans have campaigned for Sessions.

The other Republican senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby, callously equated Lott's verbal criticism in the media with an atrocious physical act of violence against African-Americans and others. "I think we should not lynch him," Shelby told CNN.

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That's why I call Republicans like Bush and Cheney and Bennett, who publicly embrace Martin Luther King Jr. as they call for a colorblind society, yet live in their mostly-white neighborhoods and practice racism when it suits their political agenda, closet racists. They like to point out that lynching black people is wrong as they oppose proposals that would do more to bring about real equality and execute racist campaigns -- as Bush did against McCain in South Carolina in 2000 -- to gain political victory.

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As the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday approaches, these subtle racist Republicans will talk like they have supported King's vision of a colorblind society and African-American rights all along, when their records and actions speak otherwise. That's just more of the Republican con job.

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