[geeks] Socialized medicine [was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro]

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Sandwich Maker <adh at an.bradford.ma.us>
>Date: 2008/06/02 Mon AM 10:02:39 EDT
>To: geeks at sunhelp.org
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Socialized medicine [was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro]

>" From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net>
>" 
>" >From: Sandwich Maker <adh at an.bradford.ma.us>
>" 
>" >" From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at gmail.com>
>" 
>" <snip>
>" 
>" >" Many religious people feel their lives have a purpose, and that their  
>" >" purpose comes from their God, should that prevent them from holding  
>" >" the office of President? Or is it all ok, she/he just can't say it out  
>" >" loud (dont't ask, don't tell?)
>" >
>" >i think it should, if they feel the need to reform society and direct
>" >the affairs of others in accordance with their personal beliefs,
>" >without tolerance for other viewpoints.
>" >
>" >that would be an extreme case, but i believe that even in a minor
>" >degree it would be an ethical violation of the principle of separation
>" >of church and state.  could a president of strong faith take a stand
>" >contrary to his/her faith if it's in the best interests of the
>" >country, or would he/she be unable to see the dilemma?
>" 
>" How so - because the potential exists, it is an exclusionary criteria? I think 
>" not.
>
>the potential does exist, and how/where do you draw the line?  one may
>be devout and aware of the paradoxes of daily life, and another be
>blindly devout.  we put leaders in place to serve our country, not
>their religion.  i think that means they should put their religion
>-second-, whatever it is, in political matters.

All men, religious or not, have the potential for both good AND evil, and all politicians should announce their religious beliefs so that the voters can look for *evidence* of disagreeable priorities, not so they can paint them with *imagined* or *feared* problems associated with their religion...

>" Josiah Bartlett was able to be a devout Catholic *and* be a good democratic 
>" president on TV, so why couldn't a real person do it? Must all Presidents 
>" actually be "godless"? Be careful what you wish for...
>
>correct me if i'm wrong [i watch nearly no commercial tv], but
>bartlett's a fictional character invented by some writers, right?  as
>such his real purpose is to attract viewers so the network can make
>fore money from commercials.  he is the hollywood apparition of a
>devout catholic in a hollywood soap opera about politics but i don't
>think it can be taken any farther.

Fair enough - having exhausted Wikipedia references, I turned to a TV character - please feel free to add a smiley to the above quote from me.

Fan an actual example of the contridiction existing within a single person and *not* being offensive, I turn to Senator Harry Reid, a pro-life individual [0], majority leader of a pro-choice political party [1], and a member of a pro-life church [2]...

I wrote my previous post on an iPhone, and I found it hard to gather "ammunition" on that device (I can't figure out how to cut and paste URLs, hence the snopes.com/snipes.com typo, which had an interesting humour aspect to it)...

Lionel

[0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGP972Z6nJY (he declares his position before the first 30 seconds are up)

[1] http://democrats.org/a/2008/01/roe_v_wade_anni.php

[2] http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=bbd508f54922d010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=63c139b439c98010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____