mkjohn1's Comments (203)

“To those who rush to the non-existent deity's defense, I point out that ALL properly done double blind studies on prayer show it has an effect on healing equal to pure chance = no effect. Prayers to Jesus or Hathor the sacred cow god of ancient Egypt or wishes on the evening star get equal results, none.
This should conclusively point out that the "god-of-healing-as-a-result-of-prayer" ... does not exist.

It's time to grow up and begin to think using modern fact based analysis, not cling to disproved bronze age myth. Medical care gets positive results. Prayer has no actual demonstrated benefit at all.

However, many are unconvinced, and prefer to offer up a sanctimonious prayer rather than doing anything positive and useful to change conditions in the world. These same are outraged when the facts are gently pointed out.”

“It's not nonsense to observe that the Democratic Party has a couple of ideals that are important and what brings us together. We should not be the party of "not them." What we Democrats believe in most is The People - in sharp contrast to the Rs who strongly favour the Corporation. We Democrats feel that when the state spends money it should be in direct support of The People - in the public sense - and not in support of private interests, corporate interests and certainly not in the fomenting of wa.r. If you can't believe in these basic things, you should find a different party to belong to.

We have too many "Democrats" now who do not believe in either of these two things. And they are a SERIOUS problem for our nation RIGHT NOW. Note how we have both houses of congress and the presidency and we still can't seem to act in the interests of the people over the interests of the corporation.
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“Thank you too!

I am an artist an I am making it and have been for twenty years. A lot of hard work with no benefits as I work for myself but I would never have it anyway.I just want to get through this life painting and so far so good!”

“Go to the sports section and read what is going on at Louisville. He got a woman pregnant six years ago and gave her 10K for an abortion. He has been paying her hush money on and off. Rick went to the FBI when her demands for money increased to hundreds of thousands. Now it is such a scandal. Louisville was willing to overlook the morals clause because he is sorry for his mistake. This coming from a catholic father with 5 children. Keep up with more news than what is going on with Michael Vick.”

“Amen. Maybe his next 10k drop will be from 9k.”

“Yes, she was speaking to a group of aspiring minority lawyers, in response to a question about attacks on affirmative action, she was admonishing them not to be ashamed of their race gender, ethnicity and so forth, she explained that through their diversity of individual experiences they each have something to contribute in the field of study and the community in general . Her point was that her experiences in life as a latina women have been different from a white male's, not that her life experience makes her better, just different, and when the discussion is about the merits or pitfalls of affirmative action legislation, the country can trust the intergrity of the outcome somewhat more if a diversity of experiences informs that conversation.

A white male will have a justifiable position on the issue of affirmative action, but his experience of affirmative action legislation may be significantly different from a Old Wise Latina, or an Old Wise African American.

Many minorities don't belive in any such thing as reverse-racism, given that its not even a real word found in any encyclopedia, or dictionary.

Whether or not you do will inform your opinion of affirmative action, every experience is welcome if all are.

That has nothing to do with judicial philosophy but a lot to do with life experiences”

“It's a weak argument to claim that we have a stable government, so it's OK for us to have nuclear weapons. Mere stability of a government doesn't imply wisdom of decision-making (i.e. fighting in unnecessary wars under dubious contexts). People in the world believe that our government is evil. They believe that evil people in the world already have nuclear weapons, so it is in their best interests to obtain similar weapons. We will never eliminate that line of belief until we completely get rid of our nuclear weapons.”

“I agree with you. I've listened to Pearl Jam since they appeared the first time on SNL - they rock. I have always liked the edge of their sound and have a lot of their albums. Nirvana is good, but not great, I thought that in a lot of respects, Stone Temple Pilots was a better band while in existence, but maybe that's because they sounded like Pearl Jam.”

“Half right, and half way wrong here.

Pearl jam is WAAAAAAAY better than Nirvana...far more talented musicians. Mike McCready is an awesome guitarist, would destroy kurt...although cobain was a great song writer (and granted, he died young). still, pearl jam always brings it, and they play great live shows. more than any band out there right now, pearl jam embodies the spirit of classic rock (except bands that are actually classic rock bands, because theyre that OLD)

On the other hand, Radiohead, is in my opinion the best and most innovative band out there today. Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are both monster musicians/songwriters, not to mention everyone else, who are all extremely talented. Their live shows are untouchable. They are not pretentious at all, and if you knew anything about them (other than not wanting to waste time on miley cyrus or kanye) you would know that they have given TONS of bands a leg up, and that they actively promote many others through their website. they released their album on a pay what you want basis. they are extremely conscious of how their tours leave a carbon footprint, and they seek to minimize this as much as possible. On top of this, they play in small clubs under fake names, still to this day.

So tell me, how is that pretentious at all?”

“So what? He's a public figure. That means every statement he makes on TV is open for others to criticize. The real shame here is that Cramer can't stand the fact that Stewart got the better of him. An adult would've let it slide by now.

Cramer is only humiliating himself by keeping this alive in the media. He's demonstrating a level of pettiness that I thought only Bill O'Reilly was capable of.”

“Oh, right, that Jon Stewart . . . suuuuch a dick.

Give me a break. Stewart said as clearly as possible during the course of that interview that Cramer was NOT his target, but that the irresponsibility of CNBC and the rest of the financial media WAS. Apparently, Cramer thinks his complicity in people losing their investments and assets is no big deal--as long as he's still got his rich, self-important ass secured.

If anything, Jon wasn't dickish enough.”

“Most scientific theories are an attempt to explain observation without falling back on a supernatural power. This becomes belief when you assume that all reality can be explained in this way. There is a difference between scientific observation and the extension of that theory or method into a form of metaphysics.

Modern quantum mechanics is founded the idea that we can only base our explanations on reactions that we can observe. Not what we believe are the mechanisms that drive those reactions. Could this be extended to say that the ultimate nature of reality cannot be known? That starts to become metaphysics. When exploring science it is tempting to draw metaphysical conclusions but that is not the basis of scientific method.

That said, I have yet to observe anything that requires a supernatural explanation. If I did, wouldn't it cease to be supernatural and become natural? But observation and theories are always open to questioning and doubt. Belief typically is not.

What is knowledge and what is belief? That comes down to some existential decision making. So far, no one has definitively settled the matter. Either way, when you trip you fall, the earth moves around the sun, there are no perpetual motion machines and bacteria can be seen mutating into something better suited for their environment if observed long enough under a microscope.”

“The only thing he is right about is that he is all the things he is call Jon Stewart, little angry transference I think.”