The Hall of Fire

I see what you are saying, Jn, and I tend to agree with you. But I don't think the analogy to wearing the yellow star is a good one. I'm sorry, but I don't see that type of thing as "persecution of Christians" in the way that making Jews where yellow stars was persecution of Jews. Rather, ...

Welcome, Melly, eärendil, and Semprini!

Eru, I LOVE those pictures.

vison, you may want to repost that lovely description in this thread: Nature's Beauty Painted in Your Words

For today, in honor Goldberry and Tom Bombadillo:

Another point, humor (and particularly gentle self-parody) is often a helpful icebreaker.

TP appears to support current legal precedent which (mostly) prohibits religious displays on government property. She makes the point that they must necessarily be paid for with tax dollars. I don't think this is an especially strong point - surely all of us have some objections to how our tax doll...

Vinnie, you are mediator as part of your legal work and hence must be able to place your hands (keystrokes?) on material which provides some guidance on how to argue civilly (ie argue an idea, rather than argue a person). It may be a Very Good Thing if you could create a Dummy's Guide to Debating o...

Welcome TIGG!

I thought about putting this in the Welcome forum, but this is really the obvious place for it. I think it is natural for people of good will to shy away from disagreeing with each other. Particularly on the internet where it is so easy for people to be misunderstood, and for feelings to be hurt uni...

Welcome Nienor!

I think (though I could be wrong) that Imp was speaking figuratively rather then literally, making the point that she was posting her own thoughts rather then responding to the things that others had written. In any event, Imp, I thought that what you said followed naturally from what I and others h...

Thanks, Eru. I didn't understand that. I will stop doing that in the future (and I've replaced the image above).

Thanks, Eru.

Something just a little bit different today.

In many ways, that IS my religion.

Love. Unconditional love. So simple, yet so difficult (for me, as much as anyone).

I'll add my voice to this request. Although I am a notoriously bad linguist.

I would love to get NiennaSorrowing to come here. She is definitely one that could help with this. Does anyone have an email address for her?

Welcome, Din and Ro. I'm thrilled to have both of you here.

Sister Magpie wrote:Hey Voronwë! Good to see ya, man!

And you, my friend. Please make yourself at home.

Imp, the Ninth Circuit (which covers much of the western U.S.) is notorious for liberal opinions which are often overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. There is a quiet movement to split the court in two, since it is by far the largest of the Circuits (the Court of Appeals is the court just below the...

Never, Whistler!

I am quite confident in our ability to agree to disagree about these types of issues with style and grace.

Can I interest you in a small flask of absinthe?

Beautiful pictures, Sassy, Elfshadow, and Eru. Eru, that Iavas_Saar fellow is quite the photographer.

Sass, here is the Kindia picture: