Hey lady can you talk with me regarding world and traval and I shall give you thanks and lovely ...

genessa comments on Mar 13, 2019:

this sounds like a private message. you also have listed every possible belief system or lack thereof on your page -- how can you be an atheist and a believer and religious and antitheist? it is impossible. what do you really want? g

Christians are amazingly arrogant people.

genessa comments on Mar 13, 2019:

the meme is about certain christians. not all are arrogant. most christians i know do not try to push their religion on people, nor do they use slacktivism -- they'd hold out a hand, not a thought or prayer. but man, those christians who are loudest sure are the most arrogant. g

Exorcism of the Car Demons.

genessa comments on Mar 12, 2019:

there is actually a buddhist temple (osu kannon) in nagoya, japan, dedicated to cars. if you're ever in nagoya, find out when their periodic flea market is. it's the best! the shops down the spoky side streets are good too; there used to be a cool one that sold used kimonos for reasonable prices. i haven't been there for some decades so it might not be there anymore -- or it might be but the prices may no longer be reasonable lol. but i am sure you can still go get your car blessed at the temple! g

[myjewishlearning.] Pastrami vs corned beef - whats the difference and which reigns supreme?

genessa comments on Mar 12, 2019:

pastrami is smoked after curing and corned beef isn't. i like them both but am partial to corned beef. g

how foolishly arrogant of you to believe that people who do not follow your belief system are ...

genessa comments on Mar 12, 2019:

i can't help wondering whom you're addressing here. you do know that most people reading this are agnostic/atheist and do not actually believe in hell, and have no religion? right? g

I'm wondering how people feel about what is gong on in the Middle East.

genessa comments on Mar 11, 2019:

nope, it's not about religion. religion is the excuse. it's about land. why would the jews need ANOTHER savior, when we don't HAVE a savior to start with? as for prospering, where's MY cut? we may lose the house. feh. a lot of weird assumptions there, and by the way, messiah doesn't translate as savior, since jews don't believe in that kind of saving. you'd have to think of judaism as a kind of christianity to have that concept. also jews aren't WAITING. but... yeah, weird assumptions based i think on not knowing anything about judaism. g

What’s the difference between making a wish in a wishing well and saying a prayer?

genessa comments on Mar 11, 2019:

the wishing well takes your pennies. the church takes more, including, if you're catholic and a young boy, your virginity. g

What are some things

genessa comments on Mar 10, 2019:

i didn't really have what a christian would call faith. i accepted that there was a personal god but didn't actually think he wanted anything from me. he was just a witness (i was an abused child). i was raised in a secular jewish family and at the age of 15 i examined everything i held to be true and some stuff withstood the test and other stuff didn't. god didn't. it was a bit sad but not traumatic. i'm still jewish, albeit totally atheistic. if i'd been christian i think the break would've been quite different. g

Be kind. Be relevant.

genessa comments on Mar 10, 2019:

who decides who or what is relevant to whom or to what? g

I feel that my chosen belief Humanism, says too little about love .

genessa comments on Mar 9, 2019:

why should a belief system regarding whether or not a deity exists specifically say something about love? i don't get the connection. you can have a belief system about how to treat people and about whether there is or isn't a deity and another belief system about love. you're not restricted. it's not like "check one box only." g

To all the religious people!

genessa comments on Mar 9, 2019:

hahaha you are addressing all the religious people... here? g

Saw the following joke in a NYT Reader's Comment section.

genessa comments on Mar 9, 2019:

at first glance just a mean joke that we like only because we hate trump. however, it isn't just that. i've seen jokes in which one can substitute someone one loves/hates (depending on how many roles the joke features) and the joke still works to an extent but it meaningless because it can be switched around (the one in which someone we hate meets the pope and gets thrown out a window or off a balcony is a good example). THIS joke is better and there is only one reason why, despite the fact that those of us telling the joke would love to see that casket. the reason is: it has to do with trump's wish for a big military parade. that's just trump. you can't substitute obama for that (even if you hate obama, which, for the record, is the opposite of how i feel about obama). it HAS to be trumo. that's what makes this joke RIGHT and not just mean. okay, end of analysis. what i meant to say was lolololol! g

True or false. Being a stepfather is a sure fire ticket to a divorce.

genessa comments on Mar 9, 2019:

of course not. how can it SURELY be that when every stepparent and stepchild is different and comes from different circumstances? it is SURELY case by case. g

What would Shakespeare say about Trump if he were alive?

genessa comments on Mar 8, 2019:

one may smile and smile and be a villain. g

Why are people so quick to judge?

genessa comments on Mar 8, 2019:

the thing is, most people will not call you fascist for not liking obama's policies. (it depends on the policies and how you express your dislike and what you want done about them, too.) you may get called racist if you don't like obama's skin tone. not everyone judges the way you describe. g

Where do you get your news?

genessa comments on Mar 8, 2019:

i watch msnbc from chris hayes through rachel and lawrence, sometimes leave it on for brian's guests. i see posts on facebook, follow links for some, not others, pay attention to how something is sourced and how it is written, slowly learn which sites are better informed and better at giving it to the readers straight. some of the online sources i will check out are the nyt, the wapo, various local newspapers onsite for a story (if it's about florida, then the miami herald, for example), vanity fair, axios, with reservations huffpo (they get a little emotional sometimes -- but keep in mind each site doesn't have just one writer!) and daily kos (likewise); the atlantic, with more and more reservations as editorial now seems to be buying some weird stories, but hey, i'll look, anyway; rolling stone. more. i try to find more than one source, more than three sources, for any given story. cnn has a funny habit of getting things wrong, NOT fake news, just careless reporting, but they can be interesting; i can't watch them, though. i'd throw up if i watched fox. talking heads on regular tv, feh. even midday msnbc, nope, can't watch talking heads. morning joe, well, i just don't trust him, sorry, never could stand him. there, i've said enough. various sources, and i use my noggin, too, because i'm old and recognize revisionist history when i see it. g

any merit to this? [sciencealert.com]

genessa comments on Mar 8, 2019:

how the universe works, on the science channel, explains dark matter rather well. i'm convinced it is at least likely (better than just possible). g

Alex Trebek requests prayers from viewers .

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

by the way, you refer to him as privileged, as if his having become rich means he won't die in pain, or that he is a worthless person. now, i am no fan of his work. i haven't got feelings about him at all except mild annoyance at the life insurance ads. so i looked him up to see whether he was born into privilege (nope, he was the son of a ukrainian immigrant [to canada] and worked his way through college) or if he hoards his money and does dumb stuff with it, and as for that, this is what i found on wikipedia: "Trebek hosts the annual The Great Canadian Geography Challenge in Canada and previously hosted the National Geographic Bee in the United States. He hosted the National Geographic Bee until 2013. Active with World Vision Canada, a charitable organization, he has travelled to many third-world countries with World Vision projects, taping reports on the group's efforts on behalf of children around the world. "Trebek and the entire Jeopardy! crew became involved with the USO in 1995 and have appeared on several military bases throughout the world, both in an attempt to find contestants and as a morale booster for the troops. "In 1998, Trebek donated 74 acres (30 hectares) of open land in the Hollywood hills (worth over $2 million at the time) to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. "The American Foundation for the Blind, in 2001, awarded Trebek one of the year's six Access Awards for his role in accommodating notable Jeopardy! champion Eddie Timanus. "In 2016, Trebek donated $5 million to the University of Ottawa to fund the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue, the objective of which is 'to expose students to a wide range of diverse views, through speeches, public panels, events and lectures by University of Ottawa researchers, senior government officials and guests speakers from around the world.' Trebek's gifts to the university, which at the time totaled $7.5 million, also fund a Distinguished Speaker Series, which has included a presentation by Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee, introduced by Trebek. In 2017, Trebek funded the Alex Trebek Leadership Award at the University of Ottawa, an annual $10,000 award to a summa cum laude graduate who has also demonstrated community leadership." there still isn't any god, but so what? g

Alex Trebek requests prayers from viewers .

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

i don't care. let him. he's dying. you wanna write him a mean letter telling him to cut it out, even if it's the only thing that makes him feel better? what if millions of starving kids are also praying, or asking for prayer? wanna write them a mean letter too? if it makes you feel better to qvetch here, just be aware that your complaining about trebeck doesn't feed any hungry kids either. g

A wise man once told me.

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

i don't think we SHOULD do things people tell us we SHOULD do. we're not clones. what benefits one person might harm another and vice versa. there are definitely things no one should do (and exceptional circumstances for most of those things) but very few things EVERYONE should try at least once. g

See all the dumbasses with ashes smeared on their forehead?

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

don't judge unless you know. my mother, a good jew, came home from school on ash wednesday with ashes on her forehead; her friends had daubed her. her immigrant parents almost plotzed. not everyone wears the ashes voluntarily. in addition, some people may be going along with a spouse or parent or friend and, although not having drunk the kool-aid, is making someone else happy with very little personal sacrifice (the ash comes off with a little soap and water). that doesn't make them sheep. that makes them not terribly dedicated to combatting religion and somewhat dedicated to making the loved one happy. g

Quick question: can anyone recommend an explicit romance novel or some sort of erotica that is ...

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

nope. the genre lends itself to bad, bad writing, mostly having to do with bad pacing and the desperate attempt to find new names for body parts without getting ridiculous. there is a nice page, give or take, in ragtime, that is rather erotic and yet well done. it's in one of the emma goldman chapters. i don't think that sort of thing can be sustained for very long, such as for a whole story. g

Here is the list i know of: young, child, offspring, children, white, british, high, christian.

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

p.s. my eyes are bad so i, who reread what i have written all the time, reread what YOU wrote and have another little thing to say, which is that it is not vain to reread what you've written. it's called proofreading and it's a good thing.

Here is the list i know of: young, child, offspring, children, white, british, high, christian.

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

i see all of those words here all the time so they are NOT being censored. there are even tags for them. look at other people's posts. you can see clearly that those words are not being censored. however, for a while, every time i made a post, the word "to" was gone, with a space where it had been. it was weird but it was just a glitch. g

He actually has a soul??!! That's news!

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

self-hatred is the worst kind. g

What is your favorite word or phrase quirk?

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

i had a friend in college who said "that just drives me up a bat!" this probably influenced me to say things like "it's not rocket surgery." g

Wow! Deep. People fined and jailed for dissing their gov't?

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

we can't do anything for russia right now; we have a president who admires this sort of behavior and would like to try it on us too. let's use the ballot box to elect a president (and a senate) who will bring america back to being a democracy and put sanctions on countries like russia who jail dissidents. g

I got into a fb discussion with someone and this is his argument.

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

using semantics to prove something physical is ridiculous. you can prove grapes are marsupials by renaming all kangaroos grapes. you can prove that arsenic isn't poisonous by renaming it milk (and everyone who dies from ingesting it is just lactose intolerant, right?) you can't prove anything about god by redefining the word. all you can prove is that people will do anything to prove their points. g

It's a war isn't it?

genessa comments on Mar 7, 2019:

no. not for either of your choices, either. and no, it's not a war. g

Creationism flaws, which one is worse?

genessa comments on Mar 6, 2019:

none of those questions is relevant since there is no god, and adam and eve are equally mythological. the bible doesn't have to be disproven, any more than god does. it is, for the most part (there may have been a king david, after all) so patently a fantasy that it no more needs disproving than alice's adventures in wonderland. but number three, as disproof or even as a question, is ridiculous too. the two things have nothing to do with one another. any creationist can blow that one to bits. number two they will explain by eve's being punished for offering adam the apple, which happened AFTER the rib incident. image can be a general thing; gender need not be an issue. nope, none of those three questions would phase a creationist, nor should they. g

As a nonbeliever, do you fear death?

genessa comments on Mar 6, 2019:

as a human i fear death. i don't think it has anything to do with being or not being a believer. when i believed in a personal god (until the age of 15) i had no thoughts of an afterlife; it's not really relevant to judaism, which focuses on the here and now. therefore it's not something i counted on, or miss. quite frankly, i would not want an afterlife in which i could not choose the menu and the music. g

I have read too many profiles that states "agnostic and atheist".

genessa comments on Mar 6, 2019:

you are incorrect about what an atheist is, and therefore about whether one can be an agnostic and an atheist. an atheist MIGHT say "i know there are no gods," in which case s/he is not agnostic, but that's like saying some breads are rye bread. not all breads are. it's not part of the definition of an atheist. if you've heard some atheists claim to know, that's them, not a reflection of what atheism is. an atheist may say "i do not believe there are any gods" (which is not an assertion of knowledge, but rather of belief) or even "i believe there are no gods" (which is a stronger assertion but still not a claim to knowledge) and still be an agnostic. g

Is there anybody out there?

genessa comments on Mar 6, 2019:

life, sure. life as we know it? we have to expand our definition of life. intelligent life? not as likely as all that but no one really knows. it certainly isn't impossible. g

Dear Lord....make something happen to DJT that show's he's got a conscience?

genessa comments on Mar 6, 2019:

if there was a god, which there isn't, he would be lying if he made something happen to show djt's conscience, because there is no such animal as djt's conscience. g

Your faith is determined by where you were born or where you were brainwashed. Do you agree?

genessa comments on Mar 6, 2019:

well, i wasn't raised in an atheist community, nor even in a jewish community; i got beaten up and called names from early childhood for being jewish. so yeah, in a general sense location plays a role, but it obviously cannot take full credit. g

Growing up did you ever take piano lessons or other instruments and how good were you?

genessa comments on Mar 6, 2019:

not only did i take lessons, rather intermittently, but i studied music theory at the settlement school of music in philadelphia, and later in my teens, elsewhere, won a minor medal. today i am rubbish and have no way to practice, nor the discipline to do so. i was undisciplined back then too, and always memorized everything to avoid having to read it, which leaves me struggling to read music now. what a naughty child i was. g

dating invice

genessa comments on Mar 5, 2019:

read the instructions on the package. make sure you convert celsuis to fahrenheit. g

IT TIME FOR THE UGLY TRUTH How long we are going to allow the ignorance breeding ground to go ...

genessa comments on Mar 5, 2019:

what a dreadful idea! not everyone who commits a crime does so because of his or her religion, and not everyone who has a religion commits a crime. to label each criminal by his or her religion would be to promote bigotry, and we have enough of that already! g

[jta.org] 7 Jewish Things to look for when Mueller wraps up his investigation?

genessa comments on Mar 5, 2019:

well... i don't buy the good news bad news thing with regard to jared. their points may be correct but they do not seem to be distinguishing between what's good news for him and what's good news for america. maybe they meant good news for him and not us, or maybe they think those two things are the same. i couldn't tell! now it's good to be impartial but if you're going to say good and bad, then you DO have to make your position clear, right? and this author did not. g

House committee is getting busy. [bbc.in]

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

lots to do! g

Do any of you have evangelical family members?

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

i am lucky. i was born into a jewish family, and a secular one at that (at least from the time i was three when mom said she wasn't doing the kosher thing anymore). jews do not proselytize. i don't think it's even permitted! so there is no such thing as an evangelical jew... except that the chabad lubavitchers will try to bring more secular jews "back into the fold" so to speak. i haven't run into that since the early 1980s, in west hollywood, and it was always within the same couple of blocks... and they really didn't bother me. be that as it may, no, my family members, none of whom live anywhere near me anyway, never did bother me about religion. as for politics, i come from a wide-ranging family of democrats so when we disagree (on facebook) it's on a detail, not on a big concept. no animosity ensues. g

I've been considering the Cohen hearing and watching bits of it over, he basically gives Trump a ...

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

trump says cohen gave him a pass on russia but i didn't see that. i saw him say he didn't KNOW about any collusion, not that he knew there was none. however, i have also thought that cohen might be in danger from the russians (as would be manafort if his lawyers were not fighting, seemingly senselessly, to have some silly stuff unredacted -- i think it's to impress the russians that he is still protecting their agents). so i agree on that point. but listen again to cohen. he is not giving trump a pass on russia. g

Which group would you rather do business with... theists, agnostics or atheists? Why?

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

i don't judge people or groups by their religious beliefs or lack thereof unless they let those beliefs interfere with how they treat other people (including but not limited to how they do business). g

F-ck Trump

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

love the sentiment, hate when people do this, as if hillary would actually say that. there ARE idiots out there who WILL think she is actually wearing this shirt. it's a shame there are such people but there are. i'd wear it, but that's my choice! g

Trump Lays Groundwork To Ban Mandatory Vaccinations Across U.S.

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

putin's work. he wants us in distress, to put it mildly. g

How much should teachers make?

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

how could anyone say that without knowing where the teacher lived. the cost of living is different from place to place. so whatever is a living wage at the VERY least, and if we value teachers as we should, we shouldn't even stick to the minimum. g

Late 60's had some good tunes.

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

pretty good list. i was not, am not, a moody blues fan, but the rest of the list is cool. g

Trump Say's He'll Issue Order Protecting Campus Free Speech WTF is the First Amendment for?

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

i have not heard this but i can guess what it's about; maybe i'll find out later if i'm right. here is my guess: trump is not talking about the students. he is talking about guest speakers who are not hired to speak on campus due to student objections. he is mistaking a college's right to choose whom to invite/hire as a speaker, and a student's right to have input into that decision, with the speaker's right to be hired. there is no such protected right for a speaker to be hired just because s/he is a speaker. if some stupid college official wants to hire dick cheney to speak and the students rise up and say EWWWWW, NO! and the college official says, oh, okay, nobody wants him here, fine, sorry dickhead, er, i mean dick, we're not hiring you after all, that is not a violation of cheney's rights. i think it's cheney's rights, in this example, trump wants to protect! ridiculous, yes? shall we take bets that this is what he means? g

Proof of no god?

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

atheism isn't a religion and it doesn't state anything at all. atheism is the state of either believing there are no gods or not believing there are any gods. it is a personal thing and makes no statement beyond "i believe there are not gods" or "i do not believe there are any gods." that doesn't make it a religion... not even close. there is no scientific proof that there is no god. there also is no scientific proof that there is no tooth fairy. there is no scientific proof that there is no one-eyed, one-armed flying purple people eater. are you an agnostic regarding the tooth fairy or the people-eater or only a god, or would that be all gods? and why would you waste your time waiting for proof (of a negative, yet!) anyway? don't you have better things to do? since atheism isn't a religion, there is no organization of atheists dying to get you to "convert." you wanna be an agnostic? go ahead. be an agnostic. no skin off my nose. i don't belong to some club that wants (or doesn't want) you as a member. atheist is just a word describing a person in one of the two states i mentioned. you may as well make liking broccoli a religion. no one is trying to prove broccoli tastes good or bad, or convert you to a lover or hater of broccoli. g

Which group of people would be more likely to help those in need... theists, agnostics or atheists?

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

i don't think a person's likelihood to help a person in need can be broken down that way. there are good people and bad people and generous people and stingy people and people in a position to help others who will or won't, and people not in a position to help others who would or wouldn't if only they could, and it has more to do with who they are than what they are. there are those who are brainwashed by certain religions or religious leaders to think some people are not worthy of being helped, but apart from that, just saying theists doesn't give a clue as to how they'd react. there are those for whom, for example, doing a mitzvah is the best thing ever, or who think jesus wants them to give give give, and there are those whose preachers have convinced them that everyone should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. not all theists are alike. there are also generous and stingy atheists and agnostics, whose only advantage in all this is that their generosity or stinginess is their own and unrelated to religion. g

Do you agree or not agree?

genessa comments on Mar 3, 2019:

no. i had my name(s) before i was born. my nationality was decided by my location, not by a distant, nameless THEY. i mean there wasn't someone pointing in my direction yelling "american." (i've lived elsewhere, as it happens, and i CHOSE to keep my american citizenship.) my religion was inherited but it was pretty secular and i was also born with a brain, you know. i do not have to defend ANY of it. the same goes for my beliefs and biases. not everyone is born into a strict, authoritarian family or domineering community. i was born a person, with ideas of my own and the ability to react to, accept or reject the ideas presented to me, overtly or covertly. it's that old BRAIN thing again, see? g

So yesterday I woke late scrambled to get ready for work and grabbed my agnostic.

genessa comments on Mar 2, 2019:

i don't work but i do leave home on occasion, mostly to adult daycare, because my alzheimer's-stricken guy would quit going if i didn't go with him, and to clinics, or food-shopping. in the house i wear my birthday suit. once in a while i wear my ag dot com shirt to adult daycare, which is attached to a jewish senior facility (not all the clients are jewish -- we went to a buffet lately and our irish catholic client was beside herself that there was ham in plain view!) none of the staff there happens to be jewish either. the only one who comments at all on my shirt, apart from my guy, who doesn't like my wearing it, is the one staff member who has told me he is an atheist as well, and his comment consists of a broad smile. no one else seems to notice, or mind, or anything. my guy... well, it bothers him that i am an atheist, but i am not sure why, since he knows so little about judaism (i know a hell of a lot more) and, while he won't eat pork, does not by ANY means keep kosher. he doesn't even know what is or isn't kosher! yet it bothers him. well, toooo bad. if he gets too vocal about it i just turn to him and say "talking snake." that seems to end the conversation (not that he's read the bible or anything; i've read good sections of it!) hey, he has alzheimer's. he probably doesn't remember why he doesn't like my being an atheist. we love each other nonetheless, and i don't serve him pork (i do love ham and i keep it in the house, and when i am too sick or tired to cook, he is willing to make me a nice ham and cheese on rye), and i DO serve him cheeseburgers because he likes them, and we muddle on through like everyone else. g

Are we witnessing the rise of the Fourth Reich? [washingtonpost.com]

genessa comments on Mar 2, 2019:

why has it taken everyone so long to see this? i was saying it in 2015. g

So has anyone else run into this?

genessa comments on Mar 2, 2019:

not much, no. more often i run into nonatheists who think that as an atheist i would be more interesting if i were some sort of pagan, or who claim that they can tell i am "spiritual" because i try my best to be a good person, not to mention the occasional insister that atheism is itself a religion. i don't meet a lot of wooey atheists. g

Interested to see the comments on this. [yahoo.com]

genessa comments on Feb 28, 2019:

at-will is tricky. it is odd that she is considered an at-will employee; rather, my understanding is that california is an at-will state. i assume (i'm not a lawyer but it would make sense) that a contract would be required to get around that... or a firing that breaks an anti-discrimination law, so if prayer is really the root of her dismissal, she has a good case. i hope she wore a wire! g

Who needs a laugh from all the misinformation in this video?

genessa comments on Feb 28, 2019:

this guy looks familiar. i think it's been posted before. he was an idiot then, too. ugh. sorry, i can't laugh at him. too many people believe what he says. g

Interested to see the comments on this. [yahoo.com]

genessa comments on Feb 28, 2019:

i, like so many, am hesitant to click a link without knowing in advance at least minimally what it's about. can you give us a hint? g

Cohen's testimony has been released [int.nyt.com]

genessa comments on Feb 27, 2019:

how can his testimony be released when he hasn't testified yet? this is just the written statement he has submitted prior to the testimony, which as i say has not yet happened as of this posting, 2/27/2019 1:22 am central/2:22 am eastern. g

Why did god creat all the cosmos?

genessa comments on Feb 27, 2019:

i think most of the folks answering this question didn't bother to look at the meme. g

Paedophile priests are irrevocable living proof that there is no God.

genessa comments on Feb 27, 2019:

that's silly. that only proves there is no good god, or that there is no god who gets involved in human affairs. it doesn't prove there is no god of any kind. it is impossible to prove that negative. of course there are no gods; it is as silly to try to prove that as it would be to prove there is no tooth fairy. g

Why do so many southern and central American countries yell go home yankee but then try to migrate ...

genessa comments on Feb 25, 2019:

gee could it possibly be that there is a difference between not wanting the american government to bypass their elections and install dictators in their countries, and wanting to escape being raped by the gangs who have free rein because said dictators can't run their countries? maybe if we didn't interfere with their politics, their countries wouldn't be so dreadful that escape was the only way to survive! g

Is causing the death of another ever justified?

genessa comments on Feb 25, 2019:

yes. if someone is about to murder the man i love and i can stop him only by killing him, i, a peaceful, nonviolent person, will do so. if he has already murdered the man i love, i lose that right. i can only then justify killing the murderer if he is about to murder ME (assuming no one else is around he is planning to murder). the same would hold true in a bank robbery -- if i can save the people there from being killed by killing the erstwhile killer, it is justified. it doesn't have to be me, or someone i love. now, i am not saying i am capable of this. i would probably blow it and save no one and be killed, or be a coward and do nothing, and either be killed or watch helplessly as others were. but theoretically i would be justified in such a situation. and again, once i was no longer defending anyone, it would become revenge and stop being justified. g

Believability

genessa comments on Feb 25, 2019:

they are not so assumed by me! they are so assumed by each other, which kind of answers the question, doesn't it? g

Just a suggestion to you "posty linky" people.

genessa comments on Feb 25, 2019:

amen to that, and i have said as much (and you never know whether such a suggestion will be met with "what a good idea!" or "screw you," right? -- mine was received kindly and the poster edited the post accordingly). i don't appreciate blind links either. i also sometimes decline to click through links that have headlines that make no sense, and yes, i like to read articles before commenting on them, but i don't find it necessary to do so if it's the headline upon which i wish to comment and not the article. if the headline is misleading or dumb but the article is good, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if the poster mentioned that; i might even read the article in that case! g

Religious Upbringing

genessa comments on Feb 24, 2019:

not i. i was raised in a secular jewish family. we had a strong cultural identity and virtually no religion, apart from holiday celebration. g

Inspired by richard Rohr.

genessa comments on Feb 24, 2019:

i disagree. i think our diversity can be our strength. the problem isn't a lack of a singular cultural significance behind the flag. the flag is irrelevant. the problem is that our wonderful diversity is used by crooks to divide us instead of to make us curious about each other and support one another. g

[friendlyatheist.

genessa comments on Feb 24, 2019:

trump seems confused about decriminalizing homosexuality to begin with. i'm not sure he exactly knows that is what he's doing... and probably someone like stephen miller will stop him anyway. meanwhile, owned by jews? he's owned by nazis. that's one hell of a coincidence, isn't it? feh. wiles is just an antisemitic piece of money-raising shit. g

One of the things I miss most about being in a relationship is having someone to cook for.

genessa comments on Feb 23, 2019:

ain't it the truth? before i met richard i had no one for whom to cook. i've been cooking for him for the better part of 18 years now. so before that i didn't miss cooking for someone, but if i lost richard, i would really miss that (and him). g

Donald Trump fan fiction exists! I couldn’t get through the first story, but I may try the My ...

genessa comments on Feb 22, 2019:

omg is it mary sue? is it slash? that would be what trump/manafort? trump/putin more likely! but without a hint of irony, no doubt. oyoyoy. i have written fan fiction (about fictional characters within fandoms), including crossover (but NOT including slash; i was commissioned to write a mary sue and it made me ILL). i wrote what i did in self-defense; i wanted to read some but almost everything i found was porn, and absolutely everything i found was dreadful. g

Have we (America) separated church and state?

genessa comments on Feb 22, 2019:

theoretically we have separation of church and state. in practice church is all OVER state, and state should be crying rape. g

watched an excellent movie last eve on HBO.

genessa comments on Feb 22, 2019:

i am a big fan of stanton's (i was sad to hear, in recent years, that he had died). he had a small but memorable part in "the rose" but you're right, it took "paris, texas" to get him a lead, which he well deserved. i had no idea who he was at that time; i was just a wim wenders fan! g

"So what if you were traveling with the Doctor and happened to be back on earth hanging out with ...

genessa comments on Feb 22, 2019:

i would not have to explain anything; my friends would just think the chinese were speaking english. if for some reason i was not mentioning the doctor to my friends, then i wouldn't be mentioning that i was speaking chinese. it would not seem odd, later, if i could not speak chinese, because to them i hadn't been speaking chinese at all. (you assume of course that i don't speak any chinese. i know one word, "thanks," but i used it today, as it happens!) g

My essence of life.

genessa comments on Feb 22, 2019:

i don't understand why everyone seems to think there has to be a POINT. we make our own points. as for truth, anyone who says s/he knows the one and only truth is either lying or delusional. that's just not how truth works. (it's also not nice to answer your own post first just to get double points.) g

Yet another from the right... If you would reply, what would you say?

genessa comments on Feb 21, 2019:

"you are doing a good job of bashing a president. you're also doing a good job of describing one, but it's not the one you think. by the way, i am not responding for your benefit; you're beyond help. i'm responding for the benefit of those who still have a few brain cells left but for whatever reason are ignorant or naive, and might wonder whether you've got a point. (you haven't.)" that is what i would say right now. in a minute, who knows? i might just call the guy a moron and move on. in two minutes i might wax eloquent. g

I live in a city where there are nine women to every man.

genessa comments on Feb 21, 2019:

not buying those stats at ALL. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/05/03/news/women-outnumber-men-canada-not-much-2016-census-shows at worst there appear to be four men to every five women in canada, with variations by city, and that's for older folks; among the young there are still more men than women. it does vary by city but not by ANY means as you've stated. if it's hard for men to find partners, maybe it's because women tend to be more selective about with whom they have sex, whereas men tend to stop at "breathes, isn't fat." g

Is a "None" the same as an "atheist"?

genessa comments on Feb 20, 2019:

if you mean on a list of religions, no, it's not necessarily the same as atheist. it means no organized religion. some un- or disorganized people still believe in some kind of deity; those people are not atheists but should check none. atheists are among the people who would check none, but they are not the only ones, so they do not mean the same thing. as a side note, i don't know what a casual atheist is. atheists are people who either don't believe there are any gods or believe there are no gods. why would a casual atheist want or not want to go to church differently from a less casual atheist, and does it have to do with liking perry como? g

Do you prefer to be in a large group - are you happiest with a few close friends - or are you most ...

genessa comments on Feb 20, 2019:

well, yes. i am happy sometimes in a large group, though not a crowd; other times i'm happy with a small circle of friends or even one friend; other times i am happiest being alone. it depends on how i feel at the moment, which might depend on with whom i have been most recently (if i have been with people for a while, yeah, i need some alone time, and if i've been alone for a while, maybe i need some people time). g

Rush is 100% accurate on this. I don't think I posted this because IIRC I ran out of posts.

genessa comments on Feb 20, 2019:

he is wrong in one detail: the people did NOT elect trump. his supporters were and are in the minority and could not elect him. russia elected him. the electoral college, with help from russia, elected him. rush is right (wow does that sound wrong!) about trump's supporters' continuing and unwavering support. he is only wrong in that one detail: they most certainly did not elect their candidate. g

An update from a closeted atheist: I told a couple people in my close circle that I do not believe ...

genessa comments on Feb 20, 2019:

when i was a kid i took a lot of shit for being jewish. when i was five or six, my best friend told me her mom had said we couldn't be friends anymore because i was jewish. when i was eight, my best friend met me at the door of her house one day and said her mom had demanded that i say i love jesus christ before entering the house. i never entered the house again. later i got other kinds of shit, from having pennies thrown at me to being called a dirty jew. even as an adult i was denied employment for having a jewish name. none of that has happened to me for being an atheist (which i have been since the age of 15). HOWEVER, i do find myself the target of christians who are just as upset about my being an unbeliever as they ever were about my being jewish (which, ethnically, i still am). i am told i can't be a good person because i'm deciding on my own to do good rather than evil instead of doing it for god; i am told atheism is a religion; i am told i am going to hell. i am told NONE of this to my face; it's all online, with one exception, which was a person with whom i had been friendly and who knew i was jewish and did NOT know i was an atheist, suddenly realizing (where did she grow up -- under a rock?) that jews don't believe jesus is the son of god/god himself/any kind of divine being. she never spoke to me again after learning that, although i had not changed one bit, so i never had a chance to discuss atheism with her! but this was not someone in my immediate circle. it was baffling but i didn't lose sleep over it. no one i actually know who knows i am an atheist (and i am not shy about that) has anything bad to say to me about it. they know they can feel free to discuss their own beliefs with me and not have me diss them either. g

I never cared for any of these how about you?

genessa comments on Feb 20, 2019:

i never tried them, but if i had a toothache i'd be tempted to try clove, not for the flavor but for cloves' toothache-easing properties. g

I keep seeing articles about having a conversation with those who have opposing political views but,...

genessa comments on Feb 20, 2019:

my biggest fear is not those voters. they're noisy but they're not in the majority. [edit: someone ate my NOT! a few months ago, ag dot com was eating "to" every time i typed it. oy!] my biggest fear is that the russian/republican propaganda trollery is dividing us to ensure we either don't vote or split our vote because none of the democratic candidates will be perfect (since when is perfection even possible?) i'm going to tell you what i just experienced and it will seem off-topic but bear with me. it's not. here goes. i just finished (or at least i HOPE i am finished) arguing with a fb friend (and his friends) about whether bernie sanders marched with mlk. there is a picture floating around of a young man who resembles a young bernie sanders, marching in selma. it's not sanders. fine. someone got a little overenthusiastic and thought they saw him in a picture of a crowd, or someone was even more insidious and decided to purvey such a thing and mislabel it in the hope that its being debunked would somehow smear bernie. well, whether it was deliberate or not, that is what it's doing now. my friend was saying bernie definitely didn't march with mlk because the picture isn't him. what the picture proves is that bernie wasn't in that picture. bernie has said, himself, he wasn't in selma. he was in d.c., though. my friend's friends further extrapolated that since john lewis apparently (i have not researched this) said that sanders wasn't in the civil rights movement, well, he wasn't. snopes lists the things sanders did in the civil rights movement. where did they get the info? but no, lewis didn't see bernie around so bernie wasn't involved at ALL. now...why am i saying this here in response to a post about trying to talk to trump supporters? again, bear with me, folks. i have a reason, and it has nothing to do with whom i support in 2020 (i haven't decided). my reason is this: we are doing to each other what the trumpkins do to us, but when they do it, they're so stupid, it's obvious, and when we do it, we do it because we've been conned by much smarter folks than trump's rank and file. we're being conned by folks whose sole job is to con us. we have legitimate reasons for liking or disliking one candidate or another, but there are two problems springing from that: 1. we will believe bad things more readily about someone we already dislike (as my bernie-hating friend was willing to do, despite facts in evidence) than about someone we want to believe in, and 2. we will go at each other until the primaries and then we're stuck with all the crap that's been flung at whoever becomes the actual nominated candidate, and the republicans will use every blessed word we use against that candidate. we MUST NOT DO THAT. we ...

Do we dems stand a chance of taking the senate back if there is an independent running for office of...

genessa comments on Feb 19, 2019:

no. in fact an independent running for the office of president will divide the liberal vote and ensure four more horrible years of trump, and lots of people do vote straight ticket, so that means the senate stays corrupt and we may even los the house back. i sure wouldn't vote indie. g

Any pro-wall atheists out there?

genessa comments on Feb 19, 2019:

i think we need to get trump surrounded by walls asap. that is an emergency. the border? not so much. g

[yahoo.

genessa comments on Feb 19, 2019:

one has to wonder who they think would be providing authentic medican food if not mexicans.... g

Bernie for President?

genessa comments on Feb 19, 2019:

i like bernie. i like almost everyone who's thrown his or her hat into the ring, and a couple who are still thinking about it. i will listen carefully and see who makes the best case and vote accordingly in the primaries. whoever wins the democratic primaries has my vote in the general, even if s/he is not perfect (name someone perfect!) we cannot afford to be purists. voltaire said the best is the enemy of the good. he was right. boy was he right. g

OK...here is the question...WHO do you all want to see on the 2020 Democratic Ticket?...President/VP

genessa comments on Feb 19, 2019:

i like almost everyone who has declared, and a couple who're thinking about it. i would love to see a female president and i have nothing against any of the female candidates except maybe tulsi gabbard, but eric holder hasn't declared yet (and might not) and if he does... well, i really REALLY like eric holder, even if he hasn't got a vagina. g

this is why i am not a morning person.

genessa comments on Feb 19, 2019:

further update: he came back and he tried hard and everything he brought appears to be broken. he's gone off to do something else and will return. no nap for me. g

this is why i am not a morning person.

genessa comments on Feb 19, 2019:

update: john from centurylink just called me, on my cell phone, as he should, to tell me he will be here in half an hour, having tracked down the appropriate box. yay! you know what that means? it means i can nap in maybe an hour! g

KARMA: What you put out will come back to you in unexpected ways.

genessa comments on Feb 19, 2019:

no. i think the definition of karma in the meme is bullshit. if there is such a thing as karma it is more like the butterfly effect than any kind of justice, revenge, what-goes-around-comes-around or any of that stuff. g

Hey everyone! I'm a new member here, and I'm looking for some guidance from someone who has been ...

genessa comments on Feb 19, 2019:

if your out sisters are not treated worse by your family, then you should be okay. if the event itself would be stressful, that's another story, but if you think you'd enjoy it, go for it! g

Love at first sight

genessa comments on Feb 18, 2019:

no. it is not supported. a lot of things are mistaken for love and those things can happen quickly, but love is something that grows. sometimes those other things that are mistaken for love, just by chance happen to lead to love. that is mistaken for love at first sight. but it's something else at first sight, and then love. g

It's very hard to believe in a God of love when the followers of that God, claiming to have the ...

genessa comments on Feb 18, 2019:

i am afraid i don't hang out much with christians, not religious ones anyway. i never did. i was raised a secular jew, and i was taught all the secular things judaism stands for (basically the concept that if everyone isn't free, no one is free, and no one should go hungry or be enslaved or be abused) but not the whole god thing. so i never connected being a proper human being with anything related to god. that is due to the secular nature of my upbringing. even in less secular judaism, the whole "god is love" thing would be weird. we just don't SAY that. g

Liberals and Conservatives React in Wildly Different Ways to Repulsive Pictures

genessa comments on Feb 18, 2019:

what i need explained to me is not how conservatives and liberals are different, or even how they are alike, but why we still persist in calling regressives "conservatives" when they are most definitely not that. they call themselves that, but some madmen call themselves napoleon, so that proves nothing. there really are no conservatives anymore, just regressives. that being said, i am not a medium member and thus cannot read this article. g

Japan nominated Trump for Nobel Peace Prize after White House asked, newspaper reports ...

genessa comments on Feb 18, 2019:

abe won't say whether or not he did that. according to abe he's not allowed to say, which incomprehensibly leads me to think maybe he actually did! either that or he's being cagy to keep trump on his side. g

Any Jazz lovers here? Especially smooth jazz.

genessa comments on Feb 17, 2019:

i love jazz but smooth is not my fave kind. that doesn't mean i don't listen to some that's... well, i don't know if it's borderline or what, but let's just say my jazz listening ranges from miles davis to john coltrane to alice coltrane to jan garbaarek to billie holiday to ella fitzgerald to julie driscoll to jaco pastorius to chic corea to sugarcane harris to.... well, i don't think you can always peg them, but let's just say my VERY LEAST favorite kind of jazz is what at least used to be called fusion (although i do take credit for getting yutaka yokokura on the radio for the first time). g

[yahoo.

genessa comments on Feb 17, 2019:

him got him feefees hurted. awwwwwwwwwwwwwww. g

Please share this to a trump supporter.

genessa comments on Feb 17, 2019:

won't work. anyone who still supports trump is immune to facts or deliberately eschewing them. g

Over the years at times of sneezing, people always say "bless you".

genessa comments on Feb 17, 2019:

i say "bless you" when people sneeze, but then i add the following admonishment: "these are MY blessings, and i have a limited supply, so you only get two." it is easy enough to hand out someone else's blessings, isn't it? -- especially when that someone else doesn't exist and therefore cannot protest! an atheist's blessings are much more valuable. g

Happy Random Acts of Kindness Day! Are you out there helping others today?

genessa comments on Feb 17, 2019:

i don't get out much. in addition, when i feel as i do today, not going out and subjecting others to my presence IS an act of kindness! (but i'm going to see a movie and then work out in the pool and THEN sit in the jacuzzi tomorrow, unless i am too sick to go. thus i will be kind to myself!) g

Religious Liberty

genessa comments on Feb 17, 2019:

the same thing applies to their definition of freedom of speech: "i have freedom of speech so you shut up!" g