Reader Questions Answered
In response to the topics offered, I'm going to respond with this post. More topics can be left on the last post, and if they are then I'll expand this one.
I've never worn them in my life, so I have absolutely no clue how to answer this.
I honestly don't care. I usually eat the seeds with the melon, so I probably prefer seeded to unseeded.
The single most enlightening period in my life? Hmmm. I remember during my sophomore year of college, sitting in my car across from the Naval Armory, a few weeks before I got out of the Navy, listening to Achtung Baby and really appreciating it for the first time, and realizing how much hidden meaning there is in life, music, text, media, et cetera. The crab legs would be a close second, though.
I've been told that I have really nice hands. I personally think that my face is pretty ugly, and I'm not that satisfied with the shape of my body, so aside from my brain I'm not sure what else to say.
I tend to go for more sophisticated comedy. I like South Park not for its toilet humor, but for it's pithy political and social commentary. I like The Simpsons because there are references in that show that only a highly educated person will even notice. The Family Guy isn't like that so much; it's a lot of very surface humor, and for some reason I just can't get into it.
At the risk of alienating Jerry Falwell and his legions of faithful fans, I don't think that Jesus was necessarily a conservative or a liberal. I think that he tended toward both sides of the spectrum. The definition of "liberal" is someone who wants to change things, and Jesus' mission was to change the world and break the status quo apart. At the same time, the way that he emphasized doing it had two elements: restoration of orthodoxy and the spirit of the Law, and implementation of new ideas and doctrines that expanded the existing Jewish institutions. The former was conservative, the latter was liberal.
I'm a conservative because I believe that, beyond the basic moral ideals that Jesus laid down, most conservative positions make most practical sense to me. Jesus emphasized personal responsibility, for example, so for that and the economic reasons that conservatives will mention, I have a hard time with social programs that eliminate requirements for personal responsibility for one's own economic safety. That's just one example. The basic point, though, is that I feel that the Bible stresses personal responsibility for oneself and one's neighbors, and being that modern liberalism has a tendency to seek a government solution to most of the world's problems, I take some degree of issue with that.
Also, I think that the job of providing social welfare programs, be they "socialized" health care, food programs, support for widows, orphans, et cetera, should rest with the church, not the federal government. The first hospitals in the world weren't sponsored by the Roman Empire, they were operated by churches. No matter what a person's sins are (we are all sinners who have fallen short of the grace of God, we all deserve to be stoned to death and stabbed with pitchforks by Screwtape, Wormwood, and the Fly), we as Christians are called to care for those who cannot care for themselves, defend the defenseless, and seek justice. If a Muslim woman is being beaten by her husband, if an Iraqi tyrant and his sons are raping and murdering whomever they like, if an Afghan woman is forced to sleep on a cold floor without a blanket in the dead of winter in the Himalayan foothills because the Taliban won't allow her the education or the employment that would help her bring herself and her family out of poverty, we as Christians are called to sacrifice our own blood and treasure in their defense. This is not a liberal value, this is not a conservative value; this is a human value.
When it comes down to the thick and thin of it, I think that most people have very similar goals; they merely have different visions of how the final product of those goals will look, and they have different visions of what the best way to accomplish that goal is.
I'm glad you brought that up, Pete, because it reminds me of another topic I was thinking of the other day.
Quizno's was the first to toast their subs. I prefer the taste and texture of their bread to Subway. I prefer a lot of their sandwich choices (Chicken Carbonara, for example, of Turkey Bacon Guacamole). Their soups are better than Subway's soups, and I just feel like the atmosphere in a Quizno's is a little classier than the atmosphere in Subway, though Subway is better than a McDonalds or a Burger King or something. I feel like Quizno's is, overall, a step above Subway, so that's why I tend to enjoy Quizno's more than Subway.
1. Pantyhose - a. Full leg, thigh high, or knee high?
I've never worn them in my life, so I have absolutely no clue how to answer this.
2. Watermelon - a. With or without seeds?
I honestly don't care. I usually eat the seeds with the melon, so I probably prefer seeded to unseeded.
3. The single most enlightening experience of your life
a. Was it watchning me drink a beer in my kitchen? I think yes. Prove me wrong.
b. How about watching me put away an entire sea of crab legs?
The single most enlightening period in my life? Hmmm. I remember during my sophomore year of college, sitting in my car across from the Naval Armory, a few weeks before I got out of the Navy, listening to Achtung Baby and really appreciating it for the first time, and realizing how much hidden meaning there is in life, music, text, media, et cetera. The crab legs would be a close second, though.
4. Your best feature - a. And not your brain. Everyone already knows how in love you are with your brain.
I've been told that I have really nice hands. I personally think that my face is pretty ugly, and I'm not that satisfied with the shape of my body, so aside from my brain I'm not sure what else to say.
5. Family Guy - a. Why must you hate it so? Embrace the Family Guy. Loooove the Family Guy. Why you gotta be hatin'?
I tend to go for more sophisticated comedy. I like South Park not for its toilet humor, but for it's pithy political and social commentary. I like The Simpsons because there are references in that show that only a highly educated person will even notice. The Family Guy isn't like that so much; it's a lot of very surface humor, and for some reason I just can't get into it.
How about liberal Christians? I've dealt with many "Jesus was a liberal" kind of people, and I get tired of reiterating all of the reasons I'm a conservative. What reasons do you give? How do you reconcile your politics with your faith, or do you keep the issues separate?
At the risk of alienating Jerry Falwell and his legions of faithful fans, I don't think that Jesus was necessarily a conservative or a liberal. I think that he tended toward both sides of the spectrum. The definition of "liberal" is someone who wants to change things, and Jesus' mission was to change the world and break the status quo apart. At the same time, the way that he emphasized doing it had two elements: restoration of orthodoxy and the spirit of the Law, and implementation of new ideas and doctrines that expanded the existing Jewish institutions. The former was conservative, the latter was liberal.
I'm a conservative because I believe that, beyond the basic moral ideals that Jesus laid down, most conservative positions make most practical sense to me. Jesus emphasized personal responsibility, for example, so for that and the economic reasons that conservatives will mention, I have a hard time with social programs that eliminate requirements for personal responsibility for one's own economic safety. That's just one example. The basic point, though, is that I feel that the Bible stresses personal responsibility for oneself and one's neighbors, and being that modern liberalism has a tendency to seek a government solution to most of the world's problems, I take some degree of issue with that.
Also, I think that the job of providing social welfare programs, be they "socialized" health care, food programs, support for widows, orphans, et cetera, should rest with the church, not the federal government. The first hospitals in the world weren't sponsored by the Roman Empire, they were operated by churches. No matter what a person's sins are (we are all sinners who have fallen short of the grace of God, we all deserve to be stoned to death and stabbed with pitchforks by Screwtape, Wormwood, and the Fly), we as Christians are called to care for those who cannot care for themselves, defend the defenseless, and seek justice. If a Muslim woman is being beaten by her husband, if an Iraqi tyrant and his sons are raping and murdering whomever they like, if an Afghan woman is forced to sleep on a cold floor without a blanket in the dead of winter in the Himalayan foothills because the Taliban won't allow her the education or the employment that would help her bring herself and her family out of poverty, we as Christians are called to sacrifice our own blood and treasure in their defense. This is not a liberal value, this is not a conservative value; this is a human value.
When it comes down to the thick and thin of it, I think that most people have very similar goals; they merely have different visions of how the final product of those goals will look, and they have different visions of what the best way to accomplish that goal is.
I'm glad you brought that up, Pete, because it reminds me of another topic I was thinking of the other day.
But...because it is on my mind, what about Quizno's v. Subway?
Quizno's was the first to toast their subs. I prefer the taste and texture of their bread to Subway. I prefer a lot of their sandwich choices (Chicken Carbonara, for example, of Turkey Bacon Guacamole). Their soups are better than Subway's soups, and I just feel like the atmosphere in a Quizno's is a little classier than the atmosphere in Subway, though Subway is better than a McDonalds or a Burger King or something. I feel like Quizno's is, overall, a step above Subway, so that's why I tend to enjoy Quizno's more than Subway.
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