Oh, I was wondering why they waited for civilian police to take this asshole down. :litebulb:

My daughter went to a birthday party at the bowling center at Fort Meyer last night. As a civilian getting onto the base, they were very serious about inspecting our car. I knew they would search the car, but I wasn't expecting that level of scrutiny. I was actually a little surprised afterwards that they let us through with a wrapped present, given how closely they looked at everything else. Pleased though.

They had a nice searching station. Under a big tent with enough staff to search 4 cars at a time. The line moved fairly quickly.

Pete's company developed some serious tech for vehicle searches. I don't know if or how it has been implemented but you may have been scanned much deeper than you realize.

Due to the frequency of deployments almost all of the police duties of world wide posts has been taken over by private contractors.

Whole thing is further proof (to me, anyway) that the evils of organized religion far outweigh the benefits.

I always thought they had a contingent of MPs at each base, to handle order, if not security. But I'm surprised, I'm surprised, at them contracting that out, considering they've contracted everything else. :smack:

They all have MP's but many of them are deployed trying to teach the IP's of our two war front how to police their own countries.

What do you about it though?

The only thing I, personally can do, is not participate, and refuse to support it. (thinks) . . . okay, and contribute to causes and social wellbeing for its own sake, and not for the sake of a religion

Thre are at least a couple of hundred thousand people working anonymously around the glob right now, this moment, fom religious organizations, religious affilitated organizations, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, of all sects and denominations.

One guy is crazy, conecting his religious beliefs with his insane actions....and that negates all the hard work of the religious? Or a less then 1-2% representation of a given relgious body takes violent action in the world, and that negates the millions upon millions of other people actually following the doctrines?

I'm not saying we should be religious, hell, I'm not. I'm saying that to condemn religion based on this guy, and others like him, is not fair to the good work done by religion in the world. It is in my not so humble opinion a very narrow view.

further proof, not sole proof. How about the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Jewish Holocaust, the Bosnian genocide, just to name a few instances off the top of my head. Not to mention the continued subjugation of women in the name of all religions, the recent occurrences of the Iraq-American who ran over his daughter because she was too Westernized, the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard by a religious nut, the sexual victimization of people by clergy who are in positions of authority, 9/11 . . . and on and on.

I've come to the conclusion that the evil that has been done in religions' name outweighs the good. It may be a narrow belief, but it's mine.

But aren't these organization and their works done for the purpose of proselytizing and recruitment of the neediest and most vulnerable? Recruitment which leads to greater numbers and thus, greater influence, which makes it easier to promote an agenda?

An agenda of feeding the needy? No, I don't thing that a churches agenda is to "target" the needy, because they are vulnerable, somehow tricking them into a life of faith and service to God. MWAHAHAHA!!! You are kidding right?

Not exactly where I thought this thread would go..but hey...it's interesting.

My point is this, it seems that many have done their home work on the genocide, and selfish works peice. Though, the Nazi regime, I don't think that was a religious body. Most people stop there, and never look into any good works accomplished or on what scale, and to what effect.

A small example: The International Council of Voluntary Agencies, based in Switzerland. There are 70 major charter members, commonly refered to around the world as Non Government Agencies. These 70 are among the largest NGO's operating in the world today. 22 of which are in thier title or openly affiliated or backed by religios bodies of varying faiths. Billions of private dollars poor into the third world through these agencies. India, Australia, Muslims, Christian, European...all trying to offset the huge amounts of misery in the world. It's a good thing.

I think most individual religious do good works, in the name of their respective gods. It's mostly the institutions and hierarchies that are responsible for codifying and perpetrating hateful acts. And the "holy" books--don't get me started on those! I'm not saying that nothing good has come of organized religion--just that, looking at history, more bad things have resulted than good.

ah, sorry, I've derailed the thread. Didn't really mean to!

Nope, not kidding. I think most of the major religions are always looking for more members. I think they actively attempt to convert those that receive their charities. I think they use their numbers to promote political agendas... like banning gay marriage in CA for example.