CrisOmg's Comments (569)

“Dragged through the mud? Injustice? Hysteria?

He was convicted of a crime and then fled before he could be sentenced. Most people just want to see him face justice - the way every other convicted felon does. But I will grant you there are plenty of people who seem to want punishment that doesn't fit the crime. However, you must grant me that there are also plenty of people who wish to see him excused from his admitted crime just because of who he is, or that it happened a long time ago. The first group is wrong because vengeance and justice are not the same. The second group is wrong because Justice is supposed to be blind - and needs to be blind to be just at all.

But to call it McCarthyism is low. Or at the very least, it's a desperate misunderstanding of the term. The thing about McCarthyism is that it was accusations used to further a cause based on a lack of evidence. He admitted to the crime, so it hardly seems baseless to call him a statutory rapist...”

“Maybe there is authentic brain activity going on; but, that doesn't mean he's able to communicate.

The purpose of Mr. Shermer's post is that he is not communicating using that keyboard. And I agree with him, it's obvious the facilitator is doing just that.”

“The origin of the universe and planets are not a part of "Darwinism" at all. That's cosmology.

And the Genesis myth is strikingly similar to just about every other creation myth I've ever heard of.

But the difference between Genesis and "Darwinism" is that it's possible to test - empirically - evolution. Also, evolution can be (and has been) used to make predictions - which isn't possible using a 2000 year old piece of literature.”

“You're right. If you blow up watch parts, you don't end up with a watch.

But that doesn't do anything to disprove the big bang theory - only the big watch theory, which I'm pretty sure no one believes.”

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“I'm against the death penalty in all instances. It's arbitrary, cost-ineffective and not a true deterrant of crime.

Vengeance and Justice are not the same.”

“I suspect it's only true in the sense that a seatbelt is a detriment if your car catches fire while you're inside.”

“This won't happen because Politics trumps Governing. And Money trumps them both.”

“Why on earth are you treating this as a new phenomenon? I learned the term "Yellow Journalism" in the 5th grade.

If anything is different it's how we define "journalism" or "news" now. News used to be confined to one or two outlets for most people; now it's literally everywhere. I suspect most readers of blogs - including the posts here - are ill-equipped to tell the difference between opinion and news - if for not other reason than they don't want to know. Jon Stewart absolutely lambasted Fox News for their role in this confusion, but it won't change anything because ALL news organizations do it.

The 'idea' of a neutral media is a very nice one and may have even been possible - oh, so many generations ago.

But now the media is entirely controlled by the almightly dollar. Once profit became the media's goal - as it did during the Hearst Pulitzer wars - objectivity and accuracy became a thing of the past.”

“Don't you mean to say "the moment they're convicted of taking a life."”

“I was thinking the same thing... Here we have pictures of her, and some details about what's going on in her case, even details about testimony, but then everything else is secret.

Sometimes our justice system is confusing.­..”

“Who cares about solving problems if you can't be declared "Winner!" on the nightly news?”

“And everything all over the world is exactly the same now as it was in March, so your point is well taken.”

“Then don't.”

“Also, if what you seem to believe is true, he wouldn't have needed to pressure him.

All he would have to do is not deny it...”

“Not really a reply to your post...

Would you be willing to explain the term "Son of Allah"? I know plenty of Christians who would have no issue AT ALL with the term Son of Christ - even Warrior for Christ would probably go down without much effort...

I see it a lot in news articles and never in anything but a derogatory light.

I understand what it COULD mean, but I'm suspicious we're attaching a stigma to it that need not be there. It seems a strange phrase to me - a sort of amalgam of Christian and Muslim beliefs.

Thank you.”

“This is a topic I think about a lot. My wife is a Christian and I am an atheist. We have 2 young kids, both under 4.

I was raised "in the Church" and allow my kids to go to Sunday school. On my good days, I don't care what they believe - it's actions that matter, not beliefs. On my bad days it's hard as h3ll to bite my tongue when my 3 1/2 year old daughter sings, "Allelujah, Jesus is Lord..."

But I don't see any problem in making a kid feel better about death - especially at bedtime. I usually respond - similar to Alpha Mummy - that Mommy believes in a heaven... So far, she hasn't asked me what I believe. When she does, I'll tell her outright - as honestly (and gently) as I can.

Despite some of the quasi-venomous posts I read here, I'm not so sure a belief in heaven is such a bad thing. I can still teach my kids to savor every moment they have and love to their fullest abilities AND that a heaven awaits them when it's all said and done.

To be honest, I wish I could believe it, too. The absolute hardest thing for me to think about is that when I die, I no longer get to see them.”

“I wonder, did you mean, "A child is likely to develop atheism...­"

If you meant what you wrote, I'm very interested in more details of your opinion.”

“"War" like "terrorist" and "hero" are losing any real sense of meaing. We use them whenever it seems to fit our agenda. (I don't mean to imply you have a particular agenda...)

How can a group of a few hundred declare war against an entire nation? If that's the case, could we try the Somali pirates as war criminals? Since they seem to attack ships without regard for home country, could every country try them as war criminals?

In my mind, this was a criminal act and deserves to be tried as such.”

“That the jury is potentially biased is all but impossible to avoid. For every potential juror that just wants to stick it to the Bush administration, there is one dying to spill the blood of those that were behind (or even supported) the tragedy on 9/11. But at least it's a jury - which for lack of a better word is 'us'. Not a rigged system, occuring behind closed doors. I see very little justice in the tribunals. Vengeance =/= justice.

I will admit I'm also worried he may go free because of a technicality. But it's the technicalities that make our justice system great. If the best we can to do convict him is based on evidence unfairly (no, illegally) obtained, then our case against him is weak indeed.

I think AG Holder made the right decision to try it in NY.

(I'm against the death penalty in all cases, but that's not the point of this post.)”

“Next year he'll be playing for the Vikings...”

“America is on trial either way.

The difference is that if he's convicted using a Military Tribunal, we do nothing to help our cause worldwide. Those tribunals were set up to deliberately deny the accused of the "flaws" of our judicial system - supreme efforts to avoid convicting an innocent person; importance of legally obtaining evidence; the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt; presumption of innocence. But, in my mind at least, it's not Justice if we stack the odds against the accused from the beginning.

However, I think that a normal trial, complete with our Justice System's inherent rights for the accused, says we're willing to stand by our Justice System, even when it could make things very complicated for us. We're not willing (at least in this instance) to change the rules as we go to get what we want.

Finally, Obama needs to keep his nose out of this. Either we believe our Justice System works, or we should seriously consider scrapping it and trying again. If it's so tenuously assembled that it can't stand up to the scrutiny of a high profile case, then I wonder why you take part in it.”

“I bet it'll look like she was Ms. Brazil.”

“When she starts doing pron, she can just say she was following the words of JC: Love others as you love yourself.”

“They're even better in pairs.”