I have a dig. Without any due diligence, it seems as though "mental illness" is the latest excuse for mass shooters. In liberal speak it means "look at how evil guns can fall into the hands of the weak minded - we must ban guns." I would postulate that our culture is breeding hyper-materialistic, violence addicted, despondent young men whose psyche is shrouded by a victim mentality. Everything tells them "it's not your fault" and they associate that with not having things. Chris Krumm certainly seems to have been capable enough to earn a masters degree yet blamed his father, capitalism, democracy and a myriad of other things for his position in life.

In short, we're turning into a nation of emasculated wimps who play out our video game fantasies when we get depressed.

Great post.

Happy Thanksgiving drlorentz - I appreciate your thoughts.

I meant to illustrate that excluding the possibility of a conscious intelligence as part of your hypothesis about how something came into existence when empirical evidence seems to strongly suggest otherwise can be maddening. I thought it was clear both times, sorry for the confusion.

Obviously.

Disdain? You're projecting. I'm not ignorant of nor do I reject the obvious benefits of modern science in any of the examples you gave, all of which are synthetics, the result of intelligence. I'm all for the progress of science – however, it need not exclude a supernatural intelligence.

I specified that a person is excluded as a possible conclusion. Your naturalistic conclusion is wrong.

By not presupposing naturalism in everything – it helps by allowing a wider range of hypothesis in the scientific method. If I exclude the possibility that a person wrote the code for this website, then I am left with trying to force a naturalistic explanation about its existence. I would end up with an incorrect conclusion no matter how hard I tried to make it fit.

I don't see an issue with Germ Theory derailing the concept of a sovereign and omnipotent God. In my mind God did not create for our enjoyment but His. As such, His position in timespace undoubtably sees a view beyond now, that is the final product. Germs play a role in that as does war, injustice and all human suffering. They are the implements He has chosen  to bring mankind into alignment with His sovereign will. Just as Job, we don't like the illogic of suffering under a just God, but this does not mean it isn't just and under His control, only that we do not fully comprehend it.

Yes, absolutely. You and I might disagree with such an establishment but all we must do is not frequent it. It is the only peaceable way in civilized society.

In addition, should one's sexual activity grant them protected minority status? Must certain sexual practices be recognized as morally correct alongside skin color and nationality? Where do you draw the line?

This is a very dangerous line of thinking Jim. The assumption that constitutional freedoms are only granted in "certain situations", that individual freedoms "only extend so far." It grants unlimited power to one group of people - the ruling class. Do you really trust your elected officials that much?

Great time. I hope everyone on Ricochet gets a chance to do the same at some point. Meet-ups are very refreshing and for me really answer the question "Why Ricochet?" It's encouraging connecting with like-minded individuals over a food and drink, something you just can't emulate over the internet.

Today's media is a megaphone and 90% of it is sold out to liberal viewpoints. It doesn't matter how logical our points were or how well they were presented. In the end they were drowned out by the constant messaging from the left.

It's so simple it's ridiculous.

1) $2 Million = Advertising Expenditure

2) Advertising Expenditure = Increased Sales

So the question of the hour for these brainiacs is "does health care expense increase sales thus justifying the expenditure?" In this new society the witch hunt is on - spend or be burned – logic be damned.

Cities have declared bankruptcy but the state has not. They are driving hard towards that end, but obviously the majority of Californians and their elected officials refuse to acknowledge this. Remove a significant chunk of their "reserves" (private wealth) and reality will set in much more quickly.

Yeah, I had a lunch discussion with my wife regarding the thought, and she said "When do we move?" If there were a mass migration of reds from blue states to solid red states they would take with them a ton of economic and voting power. Imagine California if a mass exodus of business owners and red professionals left for red states. They'd be bankrupt in a year. Not to mention the shift in electoral votes and seats in congress. I say give em what they want and let em burn.

I went for a long run this morning to burn off the swirling in my head and pondered this very thought.

So to "fix the brand" we should do what the liberals do and just give them stuff even if the accusations aren't true?