Actually, me and my atheist rear end have been helping some church groups install window air conditioning units for folks that have no air conditioning in their homes. You know, the sick, elderly, or poor, or as you affectionately refer to them as "a pox on society".

The air conditioners are supplied free of charge by some local charities, and I have assisted in the free installation of probably a couple of dozen this week. I didn't do it because my Bible told me so either. I do it because it is the right thing to do.

Thanks for your input. Stay boring my friend.

Good works are nice. I do those too. You just can't get salvation or justification from good works, but they are still very good. I commend you for doing the right thing, which I do as well. I do many things to help the poor that I don't discuss because I take no glory personally in it, but rather give that glory to the Lord. I have never called the poor (of which I am in the same category, and struggle financially month to month) as a pox on society. Once again, you have misquoted me.

Well the way you jumped on the Scott Walker bandwagon, and lamented affordable health care, I confused you for the 1%.

Installing the air conditioners was the easy part. Still need to get in most of those attics, and shoot insulation. Luckily the vast majority of the homes are of small square footage.

Somebody is still going to have fix the A/C so they won't get stolen out of the windows. Gonna be welding a lot of scrap iron in scorching heat. Woo hoo.

I hear ya! Scott Walker is evil for eliminating a 3.5 Billion dollar structural deficit. How DARE him?

No he didn't.

If you want to discuss politics take it to the PM's (not mine because I won't reply) or to a political forum.

I have an issue with the union thugery that went on in Wisconsin and applaud the smart people there for supporting Walker over Barrett. I also know a tax increase when I see it, but would support true affordable health care, just not this PARTICULAR plan. If the elite rich liberal class would pay for it, I would be all for it.

I think you are doing a really good thing with your volunteer efforts to provide air conditioning. I know how dang hot it gets in your area, having lived there as long as I did.

Good, then you shouldn't have an issue when they cut your Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.

That's a totally different issue. Stick to one issue at a time. The tax has nothing to do with these already installed programs.

Depending on the recipient, I might do it for free.

Cutting Federal spending on government programs is the same as a tax being levied. Taxes are Federal income. Those are what a budget comprises of.

Where do you think the money comes from in the first place? Taxes!

No wonder America, and it's education system is crumbling. Most can't do sixth grade math. Economics 101.

You use fuzzy math. I, meanwhile, just completed an MBA program magna cum laude from a major university last month, so no problem with my math skills at all. Also took micro and macro econ (600 series, not 100) as part of curriculum. Friedman, not Keynes, my friend, is the smarter economist. Oh, the reason education system has been crumbling since 1963, God taken out of classroom replaced by evolutionary theory. Trace it back to that.

Darn! You'd been doing so well up to that point. Take Logic 100 (no need for a 600-level class on this) to learn that correlation is not causation. For example, I often hear the equally specious argument that the integration of classrooms, which was widely instated around the same time, is the reason.

The education system isn't crumbling at all. Respect for it, however, is.

Boy, this site is SO much more fun without Jenkins around to lock things just as they get interesting.

Well, I didn't want to go that deep into it, but there has been a direct correlation between removing God from the classroom thanks to Madalyn Murray O'Hair's lawsuit and the decline in our national test scores, juvenile crime rates, and other maladies in our society. No, correlation does not necessarily equal causation, but distinct parallels can easily be drawn, and cannot be ignored. For example, the U.S. used to be #1 in the OCED testing among teens for Science, but have fell to #29 worldwide. There are far too many problems in society to get into here who's decline can be traced back to the period following 1963. I really don't believe that classroom integration has anything to do with it either. BTW, took Logic in college in 1984. Got an A.

Uh, no.

I have an MA in Political Science (emphasis on political economy) and one in Criminal Justice. I work in the analysis of crime as a profession. There is no singular negative trend in juvenile crime in the last 50 years, let alone any that can be correlated with an external variable. I can also confidently state that you do not understand Keynesian economics, based off of statements you have made.

Also, since God was never removed from classrooms, your argument is baseless.

It's the educational equivalent of a penis size contest. Hooray!

(I have 2 math degrees and an MBA and, quite frankly, I am unimpressed with my own degrees let alone anyone else's.)