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Police are bloodthirsty thugs.

Helps? How exactly does it help? Ignorance is a bliss? It can help give people purpose and strength to get through ordeals. Unless you think alcoholics/narcotics anonymous and the millions they've helped cope with addiction is a bad thing because it's all based around false hope. I don't see what there is to contest here. It's just plain fact. Religion helps people. Religion helped them? It wasn't religion that helped me through the death of certain people I love. It wasn't religion who made me a happy person again after years of misery... Those people got through their addiction on their own. Nowhere has some miracle man helped them. They did it all on their own with the help of the people at AA. It are those people who deserve the credits! For your first part, different people cope with things differently. For the second part, I'm not sure you know what AA/NA (or any 12 step program) is or how it operates. (Have you ever been to any?) Again, I don't understand what there is to debate here (or maybe I'm just missing your point). Religion has helped people. It's just silly to claim it hasn't. I've been trying to read the posts and I don't understand what the debate is either. Hope itself isn't a physical entity. Hope exists merely in our minds. We can hold faith in any number of things, religion included. We can also hold faith in a lucky pair of underwear, it all depends on your perspective or what resonates to you personally. Regardless of whether or not a God exists, saying religion gives a sense of "false hope" is about the dumbest thing you could say, considering all hope doesn't physically exist. It's a mentality. Religion helps some people cope with issues in their lives; deaths, addictions, etc. Other people don't use religion. Neither is better or more effective than the other. This is really a circular and pointless topic to be discussing IMO.

IF.... IF we had to choose between complete disclosure and none at all, I would rather have none at all. It would make our country a safer place. Having total transparency would not be good for national security, at all. That being said, I think the gov't should be completely transparent with everything except items that are directly affect national security.

What albums are you guys looking forward to this year? In no particular order, these are the bands who should be releasing new albums this year. Mors Principium Est, Helloween, Stratovarius, Blind Guardian, Suffocation, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Amon Amarth, Arsis, Children of Bodom, DevilDriver, Hypocrisy, In Flames, Kalmah, Skeletonwitch, Warmen, Wintersun (Time II). Especially excited for the Bodom, Kalmah, In Flames, Skeletonwitch, and DevilDriver releases. But it's looking to be a great year. Also for the Americans, the Mayhem lineup this year is looking pretty awesome. About 6 or 7 bands are rumored that I really want to see, including Fleshgod Apocalypse.

Some pretty awesome games today. Didn't get to see the first one complete. Lakers Knicks was a good game. Nash is clearly the piece to the puzzle. Finally back at .500.

Smoking gets you a faster, more intense high. Not intense like you're tripping acid, but you understand my point. While smoking it does get you high faster, the pot brownie high is much more intense. No it's not. If you have the same amount of weed and you smoke it versus cooking it into brownies, the smoking will get you much higher. Smoking gets the THC into your bloodstream/brain significantly faster than digestion. Digestion gives a slower, longer lasting, more controlled high. This is basic pharmacokinetics. Here is an article for proof: http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC2689518/ Smoking: Ingestion:

Smoking gets you a faster, more intense high. Not intense like you're tripping acid, but you understand my point.

Brady Morningstar! I hate everything kansas. This is worse.

I saw this from Ballislife. Was absolutely dying laughing.

RIP St. Lunatics.

Children aren't pets. Are you going to give your child a treat every time he pees in the toilet instead of their diaper?

About time.......

But bruising is caused by bleeding. What say ye now?? You know what I mean. :P I agree with you on school, but I disagree with you on the home situation. Perhaps people are too quick to call abuse, but the most my parents have ever done was grab me by the arm and drag my to the doormat, which smarted a little but was more surprising than painful. I think I turned out just fine. I think that if a kid has bruises due to his parents spanking him they're doing something wrong. Why corporal punishment and not, say, send a kid to his room? Why just send a child to his/her room? What will that teach a child? I can have this horrible behavior and just receive a smack on the wrist and be told "bad"? Oh dear. I don't see that as an effective approach to combat continued misbehavior. You have punishment to fit the crime. You don't start by hitting your child. You start with a timeout. You graduate. If the poor behavior persists, you move onto tougher, more extended punishments. Take away TV, games, etc. for an extended period. Take away what the child enjoys. If the behavior still persists, physical action may be necessary. Clearly, taking away his/her joys wasn't motivation enough. What kept me out of trouble was the fear of the paddle. You knew when mom whipped it out, things had hit the fan. Don't do that again, I don't like the paddle. It's really that primitive. It's instinct. We do something, we have serious negative reinforcement. Don't repeat. For some children, simply depriving them of their everyday joys will be enough. But for stubborn children, which I would argue most are, you sometimes need to graduate to a more meaningful form of punishment. Also, I forgot to mention want Un0 did. This should never be out of anger. You shouldn't be quick to strike your children. You can't hit a kid because they spilled soda on your brand new sofa. You can hit a child because he pulled his sister's hair.

Are you talking in the home? In school? Both? I'm all for corporal punishment if it is deserved, especially in a home setting. Spanking a kid is not anything new, nor is it wrong. As parents, you have a right to discipline your child in the way you want, as long as it does not lead to significant physical harm. Significant physical harm being things like broken bones, being hit so hard you bleed, etc. A bruise is not life threatening. A bruise is not abusive. I was spanked as a kid and I turned out just fine. Fear is a great tool to help teach behavior at a young age. Cruel as that sounds, I believe if used correctly, physically disciplining children can effectively change poor behavior. School not so much. I don't want random teachers beating my kids when I have them. I think that sort of punishment should be reserved for parents. Society has become so soft to the point that even grabbing your child too hard can result in child abuse charges. That makes me sick.

Coincidence that you just posted this; I came in here the other day hoping for some black metal recommendations. It seems to be the only sub-genre of metal that I actually like anymore. I'm actually trying to get more into black metal ^_^