The Government Accounting Office studied government funding for Faith-Based Organizations at five agencies. A report on the study is linked to in the title to this posting. From there, you can download the 89 page GAO report if you wish.So is the Administration monitoring the work of FBOs to determine whether taxpayer money is funding proselytizing? Are the efforts of FBOs working? The answer to both questions is, of course, no.Rep. Pete Stark, D-CA, said “The Bush administration has failed to develop standards to verify that faith-based organizations aren’t using federal funds to pay for inherently religious activity or to provide services on the basis of religion.” I almost lost my lunch when I read that the President issued Executive Order 13397 on March 7, 2006 to create a Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the Department of Homeland Security. Apparently in the war against terrorism on the home front, we don’t have a prayer so the President is giving Xians money to provide us with one.Peter Nuhn,bomb thrower extraordinaire
P-decoded,
Well, I am gratified that you do not believe in the rapture.
You do know that this is an atheist site?
If I have made a mistake and you are indeed a critical thinking human being, I apologize. However, your last sentence, as with your last post has all the earmarks of a disillusioned theist looking to blame his church for some perceived slight. You are here because…….?
Now I get it Pdcoded,
You know, the story of Balaam is one of my favorites. A talking ass who can see an angel when Balaam can’t, gawd lurking near by and actually intervening, animal cruelty. And they say there’s nothing in a name.
Pergamosdecoded:
Well, duh! I thought that was implied from the beginning.
lmao- REMY-
damn you are a church going hypocrite or at least u were at one point!
you have been reading too many bible stories- please tell me more-and obviously u been disappointed too many times by all the bullshit in it- that is truly comical-
Go back to the drawing board and read the BOOK OF ENOCH since you are so much into GOD!
now you want to be the ass that gawd speak through you out of!
I am hopelessly confused. Imao?
I have never been to church, save the occasional wedding; went to a Batmitsfa(sp) once, fascinating stuff.
I come from a long line of atheists. My great grandfather used to chase away the Salvation army bands with his cane.
Could I ask you a favor. Please could you make an attempt at clarity. I’m not getting your point. You seem to like the word hypocrite.
You do know that this is an atheist site?
Do you see me read scriptures out of my ass like you have been and sciting bilical stories! do you know what this site is AETHEIST!
and yet you site bilical stories?
did i ask you about your life and your life story of how you grew up with your grandfather chasing the bandwagons with his cane- oh great now we are talking about your perfect life as a bible thumbing scholar pretending to be an aethist to fulfill family traditions- you need a phychiatrist- this is not a place to talk about your personal life-
It’s a bit early in the day for Kool-Aid, isn’t it?
Remy
lmao-or-LMAO stands for “Laughing my ass off”
I don’t know what purgadecoder boy is trying to say with the rest of his confusing garble though.
Maybe English is not his first, or even second language?
Maybe, instead of slipping it into the Kool-Aid, they are slipping it into the morning tea now…
… either way, I’d suggest not drinking it.
Pergamoscoded,
Since you asked. I was born very young in a country not of my own choosing. I have had a very good life, generally free from the dictates of an invisible force in the sky. The pervasive presence of pitiful proselytizers posed particular problems but “I will survive”. Thank you for your interest and please resume your medication.
I’d guess a 12 year old boy with poor typing/spelling/logic skills who is just trying to amuse himself. But who knows? (shrugs)
remy
Very nice alliterative effort!
LMAO!
Thank you Karen,
I’m new to the blogasphere and often have trouble decoding the initials.
You’re right. He seems either to have trouble with language (which I suppose one ought to forgive) or he is young (which I suppose one ought to forgive), or there is a meds issue(which I suppose one to suppose out of ass to speak for gawd out of to a hypocrite).
Wow. Yes. As Karen said- fantastic alliteration. I tried to say it five times fast and failed utterly.
Damn Pergamoscoded—!
I love a follower- r u me or am i u are we the same !
OOOORRRRAAAA!
Am I decoded to code you with your dedication of my code!
Pergamosdecoded:
Cute nickname. I assume you have a library card from the Alexandria facility?
Actually, no – thorough apostate here.
Yeah, yeah, heard this before…
The tsunami you speak of are the gale winds of false prophecy, which the bible forments fervor across the ripples of Man’s mind.
Man, a monicker change is in the offing. All things in this life render disappointment, my friend – it lies upon the recipient to alter the stream & eddies of said current, & irrigate the mind.
Sorry, revelation is the barking madness of a geriatric under the influence, & the 7 churches you speak of aren’t allegorical.
Every church preaches lies & deception. They build castles in the air, ephemeral promises that blow away w/the 1st light breeze.
& yet men slaughter themselves & others over the vague promises of the high priests. These priests have held the reins of power too long. They have drunk deeply of the blood of innocents, & filled their pockets & coffers based on deception. They have built the lie, & repeated it so often, they have deluded the masses, forced their misbelief upon the unwilling & gullible alike, until truth is buried deep w/in the detritus of blind faith.
I am apostate: I am unbeliever. I neither kneel, nor kowtow to superstition. I will not kiss the boot, nor bless the whip.
I stand, & say no more.
You choose to be slave: I choose to be free.
Your kingdom is not of this earth: I agree. Go there, then, & conquer the wisps of clouds in your imaginary castle.
YES you and I are ONE my dearest Pergamstbedecoded. But I think that before they catch on to us we should shut up. I’ll send you a secret thought-wave-message very soon. Oh, and even though I’m still waiting for MY decoder ring that RA keeps promising, I’ll send YOU one.
remy:
Don’t forget to doff the tinfoil hat. I find that it interferes…Oops.
RA
It’s sad that you may have to. You have so much invested in it, but the clulessousity of some readers bounds no knows.
Ohmugod, ohmugod, ohmugod, I forgot about the hat. So THAT’S what they mean by ‘foiled again’.
Damn- I didnt even try and I am talk of this blogger-
Oh come on people- there is better than I to talk of-
I am just a speck of dust!
My work is done!
I have created CHAOS and now I can leave!
remy:
What did the Bard say? “What’s in a name?”
“A rose by any other name is still a flower.”
Or somesuch. Life do go on.
Purgativecipher:
Oh, quit flattering yourself. You’re a minor crest in a vast ocean.
C ya.
(watches Pergamosdecoded, poof, disappear in a cloud of CHOAS)
Yes, I’m still voting for the 12 year old with too much time on his hands.
Erm, CHAOS. (coughs)
RA… you’re a flower?
aviaa:
Aren’t we all?
Metaphorically speaking that is.
aviaa:
Yes, off he goes, to his imaginary castle.
Very probably a drafty 1, I’d guess.
RA,
Metaphor, smetaphor. Don?t you already baffle the poor, poor trolls enough with your oh-so-confusing name? (grumbles about reluctant flowers and atheist roses)
Indeed. When your castle is that high in the sky… well, yes, I?d imagine there are plenty of drafts.
Many thanks for correcting my typo in your blockquote. You have no idea how happy it makes me to be attributed as having spelled cho.. erm, chaos, correctly.
aviaa:
Hey, if they’re that easy to baffle, life’s tough.
They should just ask what it means, 1st, I’d think.
But mayhap I expect too much.
I love metaphors, analogie, similes.
Got a wild hair about allegory, though.
& until my petals wither & die, I’ll go on blossoming outwards.
W/your express permission, of course.
Ah, that was a pleasant interlude…
nothing like having someone fly over the cuckoo’s nest and join us here for a while. It makes me feel farther up the rungs on the ladder!
But it must indeed have been very young to think that what it created was chaos.
RA,
I’m glad you’re acknowledging my authority to regulate such. So many people don?t. Since you put it so nicely, you have my official permission to confuse whomever you wish with metaphor, analogy, simile, or even the occasional allusion. Bloom on!
Sorry I’m late. I was out doing Dogs work.
Karen,
I’m ashamed to admit it but I quite enjoyed that little interlude precisely for reasons associated with your ladder. Although, the insidious guilt monster is beginning to seep into my conscience. Youth, insanity, or drugs; doesn’t seem fair. Chaos!? LMAO
There is a quote; pretty sure it’s Oscar Wilde or it might be Shaw: “In a battle of wits [he was unarmed.]“
I too will bow to the great Goddess aviaa and offer to sacrifice a soy-burger.
aviaa:
Oh my, I’d best break out the permission slips, no?
karen:
Ah, the daft delusions of the young. I think it was a young fella – I got a lotta masculine context out of the – stream-of-consciousness, if it can be called that.
You’ve got mail, m’love.
remy,
Oh? Goddess with a capital G even! (preens) Certainly a soy-burger will be an acceptable sacrifice- but do make it of the Morningstar variety, would you? The smell of burnt Boca-burger just doesn?t please me quite as much. What can I say? I?m just of the arbitrarily finicky variety of deity.
More seriously, I do know what you mean about feeling somewhat guilty about mocking our earlier visitor considering his? erm? limitations in wit and similar intellectual talents. However, it does infuriate me when people click into an online space and automatically assume that they know: know what?s going on, know what we believe, and most of all, know more than we do. Anyone who pops in here and on their FIRST visit decides they have a ?great truth? that somehow all the rest of us have just missed rubs me the wrong way (much in the same way as burnt Boca burgers). So, maybe a little bit of guilt, occasionally, but I still get experience plenty of naughty glee from watching various people on the board mock them. I?m not sure that mocking them actually promotes the humility that they so desperately need knocked into them. But, then again, I?m not sure anything would?
remy
Blockquote>”In a battle of wits [he was unarmed.]“
Bingo!
I was just over at God for suckers, reading through the posts with the muslim troll. Another unarmed opponent. Don’t usually see the muslim variety…kinda funny, it was.
aviaa:
Maybe, maybe not. But the appeal to ridicule is just so…ridiculously easy.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here, & quote a woman I can absolutely NOT abide – Ann Coulter (it’s about the only thing she’s ever said that made any sense): “People don’t want to learn. You need to bop them on the head, & make them laugh.”
Thanks, Jerry Springer.
Some folks DO learn from being laughed at.
When my stepson was a teenie-bopper, if he came up w/a ridiculous idea, I’d bust out laughing.
Hell w/that ‘touchy feely’ crap. Foolish is foolish, there’s no changing or validating it.
RA,
Yeah, it often is ridiculously easy. And tempting. And I’m certainly not claiming that I don’t indulge in such mockery quite often. I do.
As you also say, some folks DO learn from being laughed at. Some don’t. Making someone feel silly often works. Making that same person feel like you feel the point was stupid (without actually convincing him that it was stupid) tends to not convince him so much. I don?t think there is a ?burden of niceness? on anyone. It’s not an issue of the “right or wrong.” Just one of effectiveness versus ineffectiveness if your goal is, indeed, to change someone?s mind versus just poke fun at them.
“Touchy feely crap” is likely overrated. Then again, sometimes it does reduce the number death threats. Case and point: I only had three last week and I?m pretty sure two were from Pat Robertson, who was doing an awful job of disguising his handwriting. ;P
atomictesting and alex i am not confusing libertarian & conservative.
my politics are along the line of the federalist party.but united states is bankrupt so start learning
the main language of china.
Off topic but phreedummy will probably support this.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/21/menonly.sundayschool.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories
Right. The religious fundamentalists have now recieved support through the Patriot act which was written to fight against religious fundamentalist.
The main thing they are missing here is that religion is the source of the problems. And you can’t use the source of the problem to solve the problem.
The U.S. is bankrupt, exactly. Just read the news and you see that Russia has paid off its debt from Soviet times.
Remember when Clinton had a budget surplus and a program to eliminate the U.S. debt by about 2010.
Gee, what went wrong? And now the Russians are more fiscally responsible than the Republicans!!
I read somewhere – can’t remember where – that China “loans” the U.S. some 3 billion dollars per day to keep our economy afloat. Anyone else heard this figure before?
During the cold war, I wonder what people would have thought if the U.S. had to barrow that kind of money from a communist country because the party in charge was sooooo fiscally irresponsible?
F%#$ing idiots!
DVanWechel i have heard the same figure.i just hope some patriots get elected and start turning things around.as for the current crowd they are not idiots they are crooks.