SJF,

I am glad to know that you hare not a 9/11 Truth Denier.

I am interested in what you have written about the Kosovo conflict. My current understanding was that the war against Serbia was just war because of Serbia's ethnic cleansing of the Kosovars.

However, I have been meaning to have another look at that question. So, if you can show me any evidence that would show my understanding to be wrong, I would be most interested.

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It seems to me that you have not fully understood what Barrie Zwicker said of Chomksy.

Had you looked at Chomsky's own words at http://thefilter.ca/articles/indoctrination/noam-chomsky-and-the-gatekeepers-of-the-left/ ?

Who cares if the Government killed JFK?

Who cares if the Government staged 9/11?

Chomsky could not possibly be that stupid.

In regard to 9/11, let's just turn that around 180 degrees. What if opponents of the US imperial war in Afghanistan went around saying,

"Who cares whether or not Islamic extremists in caves in Afghanistan staged 9/11?"

How far would they have got?

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If you look carefully at what Zwicker says and writes he doesn't altogether dismiss the value of Chomsky's writings, however his point is that these good ideas are 'bait' which serve to draw people in in order to accept other ideas, the 'switch', which are in the interests of the US ruling elite, that is, that the official explanation of 9/11 is correct and that their is nothing suspicious about the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, MLK and RFK.

I hope you seriously look at this again. I think that this probably gos a long way towards explaining the almost total ineffectiveness of the left over the past 3 and a half decades.

RobP, "As a dead body can no longer provide a motive force, it can't do the physical deed. It's that simple."

And, if an external force was making this physical act take place? Eg: A SUPERnatural force?


"I believe it was in another dimension (which was picked up by James' intuitive sense) but not in the physical sense."

Do you affirm then, the resurrection in a spiritual sense?

If so, I don't personally see the point in debating this point. If there was a spiritual rather than physical resurrection, the theological implications are really the same. Many cling to a physical resurrection rather than spiritual, but to me it's still a resurrection.

This doesn't negate belief in God's power either as I'd assume that if one believes God exists in some realm then it wouldn't be logical to deny his powers. However, your statement above regarding the physically impossible does seem to limit God, so I'm confused by your position here.

It seems a lot of readers on this forum, have been short changed on miracles. A candidate for Sainthood, must have been involved in at least two miracles. The Liberal Party miraculously won in 2004. Seven weeks before the election they were gone for all money. Mark Latham was an Atheist. Did God deliver them the fourteen percent swing,and 23 seats that gave them victory in 2007?

I believe in miracles.I have seen too many in my life. When science fails, true believers get miracles. Barren women fall pregnant. I know one such woman, born after science said her mother could not and never would get pregnant. How about the story in 1 Samuel.

Church attendance is not a precondition on a miracle, but it is like a school of further and greater education. We all like to think of a bit of magic. I am still alive because I have listened to the little voice that sometimes whispers in my ear. The 23rd Psalm works. I would like to think that Psalm 92 Verse 13 would start to work in Australia. Those that be planted in the house of our Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God. Jursprudence, the science of law, tells us the Parliament is one of three types of courts created by the Constitution. The Other two are the Executive Council, and the Ch III Courts in which juries should rule on a Godly Oath. The Magic number three.

As Church attendance has dropped so too has the common good. Both KR and Barack, have their feet planted in the House of the Lord. Let us give them a chance to flourish. Let more of us follow the leaders, and start to undertake further and better education. It is really a fascinating journey. Church and court mean the same thing. Go to one or you will be summonsed to the other. That the States Courts are no longer Christian, is an indictment on our Churchmen.

Trav,

"Do you affirm then, the resurrection in a spiritual sense?"

Yes.

"If so, I don't personally see the point in debating this point. If there was a spiritual rather than physical resurrection, the theological implications are really the same. Many cling to a physical resurrection rather than spiritual, but to me it's still a resurrection."

Agreed.

"However, your statement above regarding the physically impossible does seem to limit God, so I'm confused by your position here."

Many people in the past have got the physical and the spiritual mixed up by taking the story of the resurrection literally. I'm really making the point that physical laws operate in the (limiting) physical realm and operate independently of other largely unknown forces.

Daggett

Re your request for information that challenges current assumptions about Serbian 'ethnic cleansing', a good place to start is with these two links. They both have excellent reference lists if you want to explore further.

The first, by Diana Johnstone (who has also written a book on the subject), is at Alex Cockburn’s Counterpunch site, and the second is by Edward S. Hermann, co-writer with Chomsky of ‘Manufacturing Consent’.

1. http://www.counterpunch.org/johnstone10122005.html
2. http://www.srebrenica-report.com/politics.htm

… But please don’t let Johnstone and Hermann's association with these ‘phony dissidents’ put you off. :) (And BTW Chomsky received quite a bit of heat for defending Johnstone’s book.)

And yes, I agree with your general argument that many on the Left are in serious denial of the real 'how' and 'why' of its disempowerment in recent decades.

The demonisation of Serbia is a good case in point. As (anti-Western) Serbia was the principal 'player' in the former Yugoslavia, its demonisation was necessary to the West's determination to shatter the federation after 1991. The former Yugoslavia - despite early communist atrocities and many economic woes in the post WWII period - went on to become a reasonably successful socialist economy and culture. And we all know how the West deals with the threat of a good socialist example.

God, please give us all relief from such dogmatic pedantry!

This guy is oblivious to how tedious he really is.

Mr. Passant, why don't you come over here to the U.S.A. and spend some time talking to REAL workers who make their living from the soil . . . like those in the Midwest. You might learn something.

On second thought . . . do NOT come here. You would just bore us all to death.