CE9

[strat-0]

You have already made a mockery of Chrisfan's attempt to start another CE. THIS is CE. You must make posts that are somewhat appropriate to the board you are posting on. That is not to say there can't be any "off topic" posts or humor or the like, but posting for the sole purpose of being annoying and disruptive is not going to be tolerated on this board. If you can't get a handle on that, you will not be allowed to post on this forum. Sorry, that's just the way it is.

[ken]

I think, outside of a few marginalized and borderline invisible pockets of activism, there's virtually no left wing to speak of in America.

Isn't that the truth?

[strat-0]

One more, Pissant, and I'm going to clean house.

[pissin2]

No, no, no. You see, we tried to post actual news articles on the new board, and that didn't work. All I'm doing is following the guidelines set forth by that sexy girl Chrisfan.

[pissin2]

Exhibit A.

Current Events - Actual things on the News
« Thread Started on Yesterday at 2:42pm »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This thread is intended to be for discussing actual new events. It's for things you'd find on the news, politics, etc. It is not for discussion of comic books, what would happen if various posters were elected president, debates over which posters are assholes or hypocrites, etc. Enjoy!

[pissin2]

Exhibit B.

Prayer's Power to Heal Strangers Is Examined
Cardiac Patients in New Study Fared No Better With Spiritual Intercession

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 15, 2005; A08

Praying for sick strangers does not improve their prospects of recovering, according to a large, carefully designed study that casts doubt on the widely held belief that being prayed for can help a person heal.

The study of more than 700 heart patients, one of the most ambitious attempts to test the medicinal power of prayer, showed that those who had people praying for them from a distance, and without their knowledge, were no less likely to suffer a major complication, end up back in the hospital or die.

While skeptics of prayer welcomed the results, other researchers questioned the findings, and proponents of prayer maintained that God's influence lies beyond the reach of scientific validation.

Surveys have shown that millions of Americans routinely pray when they are ill or when someone they know is. A growing body of evidence has found that religious people tend to be healthier than average, and that people who pray when they are ill are likely to fare better than those who do not. Many researchers think religious belief and practice can help people by providing social support and fostering positive emotions, which may produce beneficial responses by the body.

But the idea that praying for someone else -- even when he or she is unaware of it -- can affect a person's health has been much more controversial. Several studies have purported to show that such prayer is beneficial, but they have been criticized as deeply flawed. The debate prompted a spate of new studies aimed at avoiding those shortcomings, including the new study, which is the first to test prayer at multiple centers.

For the Mantra II study, Mitchell W. Krucoff, a cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and his colleagues designed an experiment involving 748 patients who underwent treatment for heart problems at nine hospitals around the country between 1999 and 2002.

The researchers enlisted 12 congregations of various Christian denominations, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists around the world to pray for some of the patients, giving them names, ages and descriptions of the illness. The researchers then divided the patients into four groups. The first quarter had people praying for them. The second quarter received a nontraditional treatment known as music, imagery and touch (MIT) therapy, which involved breathing techniques, soothing music, touch and other ways to relieve stress, such as calming mental images. The third group received both prayer and MIT, while the fourth received nothing.

In the final year of the study, the researchers took the additional step of asking more religious congregations to pray for the prayers of the initial group to work. Neither the patients nor their doctors knew whether someone was praying for them. The prayers varied depending on the religion, lasting between six and 30 days.

The researchers then followed all the patients for six months to see which patients suffered serious complications, were re-hospitalized or died from heart problems. Overall, there was no difference among the four groups, the researchers report in Saturday's issue of the Lancet medical journal.

The researchers did find evidence, however, suggesting that those receiving the MIT therapy experienced less distress before their procedures, and those who received both MIT therapy and the "high-dose" prayer may have been slightly less likely to die in the following six months. Those findings provide avenues for future research, Krucoff said.

The researchers acknowledged that it was impossible to make any firm conclusions because of the difficulty of studying something such as prayer. The study, for example, could not accurately measure factors as fundamental as the "dose" of prayer administered and could not account for the possible effects of family members praying for patients on their own, the researchers noted.

"I really don't want people to think we're dissing prayer," Krucoff said. "This study gives us a sense of where there might be therapeutic benefit that might be worth pursuing in future trials."

Skeptics, however, said they were far from surprised by the findings.

"There's nothing that we know in the universe that could account for how prayer or the healing intention of one group of people could influence the health outcomes of another group at a distance," said Richard P. Sloan, a professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. "It's preposterous."

But the Rev. Raymond J. Lawrence, director of pastoral care at New York Presbyterian Hospital, disputed any suggestion that the study disproved the power of prayer.

"Prayer can be and is helpful," Lawrence said. "But to think that you can research it is inconceivable to me. Prayer is presumably a way of addressing God, and there's no way to scientifically test God. God is not subject to scientific research."

Marilyn Schlitz of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, Calif., said the study showed the need for additional research. She is conducting a federally funded study testing the power of prayer to help wounds heal.

"The fact that the vast majority of people in this country make use of prayer or some type of compassionate intention really demands that we look at these phenomena with rigorous scientific perspective," she said.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company

I would never have guessed.




-----------------------

An actual news article. But apparently since it was something in the news AND something to do with religion, that means we have to talk about it on a religion board. Even though it is an actual current event news story that was actually in the news.

[pissin2]

Exhibit C.

When will this senseless cock killing end??

4 killed in cockfight attack


Monday, August 1, 2005 Posted: 1652 GMT (0052 HKT)

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Angry gamblers threw two hand grenades into a crowd at a cockfight in western Mexico, killing four men and seriously injuring at least 11 others, authorities said Monday.

TV images showed doctors wrapping bandages around the bloody limbs of the victims of the late-night attack in the tequila-making state of Jalisco.

"Two men died at the cockfight and two more died in nearby hospitals," said Jose Ramirez, spokesman for the Jalisco attorney general's office. "It appears that some men lost money and then they lost control."

Local media reported that shots were also fired at the cockfight in the town of Tonala, just outside the state capital, Guadalajara. About 300 people attended the fight.

Six men were arrested at a hospital when five of them tried to carry off the sixth, who was being treated for injuries sustained at the cockfight, online newspapers reported.

Cockfighting is popular in Mexico, especially in rural areas, and huge sums of money are often gambled on the outcome.

---------------------------------
While I can see how some of you juvies might think this is a silly story, because it has the word "cock" in it a few times, it is still a real actual current event story that was in the news, and could have been discussed. But apparently any news with the word "cock" in it is considered too taboo.

[strat-0]

"That is not to say there can't be any "off topic" posts or humor or the like, but posting for the sole purpose of being annoying and disruptive is not going to be tolerated on this board. If you can't get a handle on that, you will not be allowed to post on this forum. Sorry, that's just the way it is."

[Galactus]

DED ... one last time, the point I was making is this. A person who labels Fox as conservative because they're pro-America, but gets angry when people imply that it's conservatives who are patriotic makes no sense to me. If being pro-American does not have a political leaning (and I don't think it does) then how could being pro-American indicate your political beliefs? It's not a "this is right and this is wrong" proposition. It's simply an observation. Many of the same people who get angry that "Republicans claim to be the only ones who love this country" then label those who love the country as Republicans. They're getting mad at people for doing what they're doing.

Yeah and I thought we agreed on that at least so far as to say that being pro-american isn't eclusively a conservative idea. The devider that you seem to be missing is when being pro-american steps over into nationalism.

[NdY]

there's a difference between being 'pro-american' and 'anti-everything else' which i'd guess is what many see fox news to be (the latter that is).

that said i haven't watched fox news in years so i could be completely full of it.

[ken]

[shin]

That pic ain't workin kenneth.

[ken]

It is now. It is the teaser poster for the eventual Presidency.

[shin]

Speaking of elections, we should have a new CE moderator who can devote his time to policing CE. Nothing wrong with strat, but he's got the whole board to run. Someone like me! I run a tight ship with the Neilies and I can bring down the iron fist on this Comic Events nonsense. I've got the experience and the vision! Woo!

[NdY]

ken said:

It is now. It is the teaser poster for the eventual Presidency.

oh man ken these are gonna be the best of times