Peterkin

...and some old Brits still preserve the illusion that they have an empire for when the Lion wakes up.... Yeah, nobody has a monopoly on denial, but the Confederate South and US right wing are particularly adamant, and Trump is an example of self delusion the likes of which anyone's never seen.

I got your point. I was not concerned with merit; merely attempting to put the subject matter in historical perspective. Mistermack is content that his explanation covers his criteria; you are content that your POV is represented; everyone is fine.

Jarlsberg is very nice - and quite expensive. So is Camembert. So why didn't they plug in the ordinary cheddars and mozzarellas people can actually afford to eat on a daily basis? I do.

He can plead anything and its opposite - in the same sentence. In any case, "Talk to Rudy." But he will never admit to incompetence; what stable genius and the greatest American who ever lived, would ever say such a thing. His basic and only sincere stance is that of the seagull: "Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Fine.

Not really. For one thing, it wasn't designed: it grew and evolved and was adapted for cultural, as well as corrupted and subverted for political and economic reasons. The central myth is considerably older and more primitive than Christianity, and it appeals to a deep human yearning, which is not easy to comprehend, but pervasive. This impulse motivates a good deal of human activity and feeling besides the religious one. It's about dedication and sacrifice (being 'part of something greater than oneself' is a phrase we hear in other contexts) as much as it is about obedience and promise. The doctrine itself demands self-control, discipline, tolerance, endurance, forbearance, charity and loving-kindness, none of which are easy in practice. Some fairly strong minds have been applied to this theology over the centuries. Weak minds follow - as they always do - whatever doctrine is adopted by their overlords of the time, and whatever is expected by their communities.

The forum isn't dead; the thread died at birth. It wasn't attempting to discuss anything then, and you're not proposing to discuss anything now. A more coherent version of the history of India's religions might lead to some kind of discussion, but there would be need to be a relevant question at the center of that discussion. I don't see one here.

Perhaps atheism should not be judged as a single mode of thought, any more than faith should be. Each atheist thinks differently, just as each religionist does, from different perspectives, with different mental tools according to different motivations. It's true, some people don't really bother to reflect on or question their convictions (not just about faith, about politics, economics and interpersonal relations, too) but even they hold different degrees and flavours of belief.

Mebbe so.... also stooopid....

I'm still skeptical. If they're valuable and he's marketing them, surely he would take care that nobody who hadn't paid up had a chance to look at them. Documents are not the kind of merchandise you just let prospective buyers handle and look over; you dole them out page by page to select bidders. Just speculating, of course.

No, it's not. He desperately wants to be important - preferably crowned emperor of America the Great - and he craves constant attention; needs to be center stage. In the case of these documents, I think he told his stooges to bring all the good stuff, but they knew how illegal it was, so they just grabbed whatever they could as fast as they could and scarpered. None of them knew exactly what they had stolen; they just handed it over and Trump (who doesn't know what's in any document, because he doesn't read) which is why they sat in an unsecured basement storage for a year and half. That doesn't sound as if he were looking to cash in, so much as just own the presidential stuff, as if he still had a right to it. Pretending. He still doesn't know what he's taken, or what it's worth to whom.

It's a proposal for further study, not a finished plan.

You might want to consider unforeseen consequences. Depending on the scale of the operation - say, the Sahara - you might risk turning the Mediterranean into another Dead sea. https://www.thoughtco.com/salinity-definition-2291679. But here's an alternative:

It's also enlarging and empowering to have the politically most powerful religion of your nation behind whatever persecution, discrimination, punitive exclusion, fact-denial and breach of civil rights you wish to commit against a minority.

It is convenient to dismiss people who don't buy into your world-view. It is much easier than asking why they don't and why you do, or examining the source and purpose of those "punishments" or the nature and cause of those "sins". (But at least you got excellent mileage out of that snippy little post!)

That's always assuming he even knew what they were about. I've heard that he never read the actual documents sent to him, but had either the text or a precis read to him by someone [Jared] else (and - this may be humorous anecdote - they had to insert his name in every second paragraph in order to hold his attention). My understanding, from published works by ex-employees, is that DJT was not particularly conscientious in carrying out the details of his job description. There follows the suspicion that he wasn't really familiar with the contents of the documents he abstracted on departure from the White House. (and still doesn't know)

There appears to be some indication that something like that has already taken place. Is this true? But, as I may have mentioned earlier, two other possibilities are plausible: That they contain information about his and close associates' wrongdoing, and That they contain information he may be able to use against political adversaries or rivals. The top secret stuff would be neither of those other two, so the first guess is likely the correct one.

That will be true of most inventions that grew and were developed over time. You have to load the question with more specific freight. By what measure is 'greatness'? By what standard is it recognized? Do you want the most famous, the most notorious, the most flamboyant, the one who brought it public attention, the one who applied to the most popular use, the most quoted, the most meticulous, the one who made most money, the one who got medals....? I think it's more productive to view scientific discovery and technical innovation with regard to the product - in what respect does it enhance life - rather than as a contest of who did most. It might well be the credited inventor, or the first theorist who published a paper --- and then again, maybe not.

That's not the truth, obviously. But is not what Trumps says? Yes, I knew that. Also that Trump is known to blab, bluster, twitter, rant and blurt. I was attempting to be humorous.

Huh! New broom does sweep clean.

Well, but it turns out, all those documents are automatically de-classified. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/12/trump-says-mar-a-lago-documents-declassified-experts-disagree/10310614002/?gnt-cfr=1 Read: "Anything Trump's seen is not a secret anymore." Besides, who doesn't bring their work home after they've been fired? https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/13/us/postal-worker-caught-dumping-mail-in-pennsylvania-trnd/index.html

Do they? Last I heard, the congregation got a tiny cracker, while the priest paraded the wine in front of them but didn't share. In the old country, there was a comic chant, made to to sound like a Latin incantation, that translates to "You can see, you can see, but you cannot drink it!" At least the Protestants give you a bite of bread and sip of wine. The poor little Jewish boys only get a drop for all their pain, while the parents get all the rest.

We used to celebrate the Christian holidays centered on children - Christmas and Easter - when we had children. We kept up a casual nod to those holidays - a festive meal, some decorations, a few gifts - as long as my mother was alive and we had older friends with whom to visit back and forth. When they were gone, we dropped all pretense of those remnants of a story that had been barbaric and in very bad taste from its inception. Our general rejection of superstition is not evenly distributed: some religions are more invasive, pervasive and repressive than others; only a few affect our current society. The old dead ones are fodder for anthropological study, not a threat to personal freedom.

Seems we're already down to finger-waving in the usual direction:

He's already withdrawn the objection, trying to pretend it was his idea all along to make it public. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-12/trump-calls-for-release-of-search-warrant-documents-used-in-raid ...And it came to pass, in those final days, that the affairs of powerful nation-states were conducted in the idiom of schoolyard taunts...