Since posting links seems the trend :)

[Sonya]

Is saying that folks who have faith only have 'half a brain cell' considered a personal attack ML, just curious?

 

[tagalong]

Early this morning that article was being discussed on CNN and I found it online - Jill has already metnioned it. Here is the link . Here it is in its entirety...

(CNN) – A bronze bust of Winston Churchill is becoming hotly contested in Washington. Well, actually, make that two of them.

A bust of the former British Prime Minister was lent by the British government to the White House in 2001 and displayed in the Oval Office. Conservatives, pointing to reports from British and American news outlets, blasted President Barack Obama for allegedly returning the statue after becoming president in 2009.

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer blasted back Friday, saying the statue remains in the White House, but has moved positions to a hallway outside the Treaty Room, in the president's residence.

In a blog post on the White House's website, Pfeiffer included an official White House photo of Obama viewing the bust with British Prime Minister David Cameron during a visit in 2010.

"Hopefully this clears things up a bit and prevents folks from making this ridiculous claim again," Pfeiffer wrote.

But late Friday, British Embassy Spokesman James Barbour said there were actually two busts of Churchill, both by artist Sir Jacob Epstein.

The one that was loaned to the George W. Bush administration in 2001 was returned after Bush left office and now resides at the British ambassador's residence in Washington.

A second bust, which is part of the White House's own art collection, is displayed in the White House. It is that bust which Obama is pictured looking at with Cameron in 2010.

On Thursday, the bust was referred to on the campaign trail during remarks Mitt Romney made in London.

"I'm looking forward to the bust of Winston Churchill being in the Oval Office again," Romney told a crowd of supporters at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge. Romney did not say or suggest the bust had ever left the White House.

It wasn't the first time the candidate made that vow.

"One of my heroes was a man who had an extraordinary turn of phrase," Romney said at a CNN sponsored presidential debate in September. "He once said about us, he said, you know, you can count on the Americans to get things right after they've exhausted all the alternatives. And now and then we've made a couple of mistakes. We're quite a nation. And this man, Winston Churchill, used to have his bust in the Oval Office. And if I'm president of the United States, it'll be there again."

UPDATE: Late Friday afternoon, Pfeiffer updated his blog post to explain the two busts and said the idea "that President Obama returned the Churchill bust or refused to display the bust because of antipathy towards the British is completely false and an urban legend that continues to circulate to this day."

I was going to point out in my earlier post that Mitt Romney knew a bust was in the White House. That is why when he has been bringing it up this week and trying to make it an Issue (you know, as opposed to jobs, wars, the economy etc.

)

... he never said it was at the Embassy or sent back. But he did suggest that it was - saying he would "return it to the Oval Office". Careful wording and planting a seed - that many ran with this week.

 

[ozymandias]

It doesn't say "folks who have faith have half a brain cell"...better go back and read it again

It says "ANYONE with half a brain cell has to look at that and question it." I'd say if someone is asking you to believe something so "out of the ordinary" then it should be examined. If you examine all the evidence and still believe it's reasonable - good for you, at least you did some research and didn't follow blindly.

 

[Jill]

Is saying that folks who have faith only have 'half a brain cell' considered a personal attack ML, just curious?

I think it's just that some people who don't enjoy religious faith in their own lives take delight in belittling those who do. We see it time and time again. It's kind of sad, really

 

[Sonya]

Ok, Well apparently anyone of faith that believes in the flood without question has 'half a brain cell'....same difference.

 

[ozymandias]

Ok, Well apparently anyone of faith that believes in the flood without question has 'half a brain cell'....same difference.

You can take it any way you like

If you choose not to question and follow - that's your right

It's my opinion, that if you can weigh up mountains (no pun intended) of evidence in favor or against something being factual and still base a decision against all of that "real" evidence based on "faith" (definition of "faith" = belief that is NOT based on proof), that is why I started this thread. I firmly believe that if faith allows a person to be intellectually dishonest to themselves because it's contradictory to their religion then it's something to be considered when choosing a presidential candidate.

Are they going to weigh up the actual facts in a situation or are they going to let their faith override that? Look at the worlds MOST peaceful, highest educated, highest standard of living nations and you'll find one overriding commonality - they are overwhelmingly non-religious (atheist) nations. Interestingly some of the most war like are the most religious

JMHO

 

[vickie gee]

I think it's just that some people who don't enjoy religious faith in their own lives take delight in belittling those who do. We see it time and time again. It's kind of sad, really

Jill, I don't think it really is "delight." Scientists, think tanks, and geniouses around the world are trying to determine what causes the brain to function this way. Zahzillions of dollars have been spent researching, questioning, and experimenting to determine if the answer lies in DNA, diet, chemical exposure, past life regression, or alien abduction. They have closed the program studying the brain and are now in the development stage of determing how many blahblahzillions of dollars it will take to initiate a program to study a new theory that perhaps it is the heart that actually causes the brain to ultimately reveal such behavioral characteristics of one who seemingly does take delight in trying to change the minds of people of faith. They code name for the new study of the heart is called Born Again.

This has abrupted in a swelchie of Christian faiths offering objects that could be used in the laBORatories to study the heart. To date, the items received are a bucket of propolis, a bottle of quereitron, four pairs of komagers, a frozen tarpoon, a mysterious bag monogrammed camerlingo which contains several bundles of money, a wobbly threstle, some jankers, several board feet of shi*tim, a rather jumentous krybylos, a faded gonfalon, a harridan (which was refused for hygienic reasons and almost made the quaestary who delivered such items refuse to be tasked as such). By now anyone reading this is wondering if I fell victim to latrociny who drugged me with upas.

Psyche! I just wanted to see what using a plethora of words that are not "normal in conversation" would feel like. So stick a graip in me; I'm done. At least it broke up the usual "back and forth" and will give everyone a chance to use some new words in their next game of Scrabble. Now, I shall go back to being a little hodmandod.

 

[ozymandias]

Now, I shall go back to being a little hodmandod.

It's "HOMINID" and we are one of the Great Ape Species. The Hominidae include Orangutans, Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Bonobos and Humans

 

[vickie gee]

It's "HOMINID" and we are one of the Great Ape Species. The Hominidae include Orangutans, Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Bonobos and Humans

Only in your spelling bee, Ozy.

"hawd-man-dawd"

?