When Atheists Attack

This is an angry, poor quality, hypocritical, biased, personal attack. The article only serves to provide undeserved sympathy for Palin. It seems to come from the same angry far left that influenced the DNC and party elites to push Obama over the top an onto the nomination.
Obama is underexperienced, selfish, and scripted. Biden is a career- legislator old windbag.
Obama realizes he should have picked Hillary, but he was too selfish to set aside his convenience to for the sake of the democratic ticket and the country. If he loses the election, it is his own damn fault.

Oft cited Media Quote (to make Palin look bad as from an AP article)
"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."

The full quote:
"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

The AP totally changes the meaning of the quote by starting it in the middle of a sentence. A good technique for making someone say something they did not intend.

Palin: "Pray, for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right also for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

Please quote properly unless you are doing it on purpose in an effort to trash the person.

Thank you

Palin: "Pray, for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right also for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

Please quote properly unless you are doing it on purpose in an effort to trash the person.

Thank you

"???(A)bout two dozen German prisoners of war, with two American guards, came to the station. They entered the lunchroom, sat at the tables, had their meals served, talked, smoked, in fact had quite a swell time. I stood on the outside looking on, and I could not help but ask myself why are they treated better than we are? Why are we pushed around like cattle? If we are fighting for the same thing, if we are to die for our country, then why does the Government allow such things to go on? Some of the boys are saying that you will not print this letter. I'm saying that you will."
??? Corp. Rupert Timmingham???s April 1944 letter to Yank magazine

Dear ???Yank,???

In the interest of fair and balanced reporting, I eagerly anticipate the arrival of next week???s edition of Newsweek magazine. Because of your strong commitment to unbiased journalism, I am certain that your non-discriminatory response to the 29 September 2008 Sam Harris ???opinion??? article When Atheists Attack will be a follow-up article entitled When Christians Respond.

For seven days readers are left to wonder: who will the author be? Dr. James Dobson? Pastor Rick Warren? Or perhaps, the reputable editors of Newsweek will instead have the courage to ask Gary DeMar, David Zanotti, Douglas Phillips or David Barton to respond with their own four page article. For this essay Newsweek could ask for detailed historic evidence of the strong Christian faith of two godly men who served in our nation???s highest office in even more perilous times than these: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

I only wish that Dr. D. James Kennedy were still alive to write the response that Newsweek could never bring itself to elicit, much less publish.

And, yes, I am one ???of the boys saying that you will not (even) print this letter.??? Sadly, there won???t be any need for me to camp out at my mailbox early next week waiting for an equitable reply to this journalistic bias.

Mr. Ronald S. Toth
Newton Falls, Ohio 44444

Nomination of Sarah Palin for US vice presidency, closer than ever to presidency, and the enthusiastic response of a lot of US people to that, shows an aspect of the most powerful nation of the world which is frightening. The obscurantism that the lady displays would be he suject of ridicule even in our country, India, which, by any means, is regarded as rather backward; remember the way Pratibha Patil's nominatio for presidency ( just a titular office here ) was ridiculed ! Seeing the Americans' devotion to Palin may well be fulilment of the Biblical rophesy of this bein the end of the world. Bishan Sahai, India.

Michael Gerson does a fair job of rebuttal concerning experience of Palin vs. Obama. Where Harris further erodes his argument against Palin or neglects to make a similar condemnation of Obama is when he indicates that her church is a problem and that we should associate her with all its beliefs. If so, we should do the same for Obama. Obama was a member of a church which condemns the U.S. and only chose to disassociate himself from it (after first defending it) when it became a political liability. He is also married to a woman who was adament about the U.S. being racist. That also seemed to change for political expediency. So following Harris's logic, we wind up voting for a vice president who has problems or a president who has problems via religion. I guess its better to have the vice president who has these problems than a president. In all his arguments to condemn Palin also condemn Obama using the same logic.

Harris seems perplexed by the behavior Palin's electorate, but look to Robert B. Cialdini, author of: "Influence: science and practice". We live in an increasingly complex society, as Harris points out. Though we are gifted with an extraordinary intellectual capacity for analysis we are also increasingly in danger of information overload.

Lower animals - and humans when overloaded - revert to rules of thumb to decide for them. Don't know how to respond to all the statements about Palin? Solution: latch onto one *usually* reliable piece of information and use THAT to decide the entire issue. Palin fulfills quite a few of Cialdini's major sources of compliance.

First and foremost it is the joint power of Social Proof and Liking that comes into play. Palin IS in power in Alaska and now she's even been chosen as a VP candidate: she is socially proven so that allows us to switch off critical thinking. Even more to the point is that we LIKE people who are LIKE us. Let a dreadlock, pot smoking hippie tell us that 2+2=4 and some would disagree, but a hockey-mom: man we like her! She's either the (incredibly hot) wife we wish we had, or she's a mom just like me. Children fill out enormous parts of our life, and everyone who has children knows full well that a Mom knows stuff. You'd always choose that over someone else, who thinks "she's busy" or "knows how to handle children, geez who hard can it be?". Oh, you just WAIT until you get one yourself!

Hillary Clinton's defeat invoked the scarcity principle and made everyone want a female president even more. Palin inherited Clinton's "halo" in this respect.

The final compliance device employed by Palin is consistency/commitment. People LIKE consistency in people, it's a trustworthy trait, and psychological tests have consistently(!) shown that people value consistency even to the point of being counter-productive. Even if someone changes his mind to avert disaster the change of heart is inherently suspect to most.

Put flatly: Palin engages automatic behavior and thinking in those around her at the expense of careful, painful analysis. This is NOT particular to Americans as Sam Harris seems to think. He should visit my country, Denmark, if he wants to see more of that. One Danish author, Axel Sandemose, even codified the phenomenon and it came to be called the "Law of Jante" which we wrongfully believe is particular to Danes:

You shall not think that you are special
You shall not think that you are of the same standing as us
You shall not think that you are wiser than us
Don't fancy yourself as being better than us
You shall not think that you know more than us
You shall not think that you are more (important) than us
You shall not think that you are good at anything
You shall not laugh at us
You shall not think that anyone cares about you
You shall not think that you can teach us anything
e the level of automated behavior those simple compliance techniqu

Posted By: HarleyisHere @ 09/24/2008 7:44:53 PM
Comment: Hey TRAITOR, Obama just wants the "rich" to pay their share, who's crying for a free ride now...A$$HOLE!

First off you are an idiot!! Second let this article school your class enveying ass

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119786208643933077.html

And still more on the Maverick's campaign manager:

Freddie???s Friend
Freddie Mac continued checks to McCain campaign chief's firm.

By Michael Isikoff | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Sep 23, 2008 | Updated: 7:39 p.m. ET Sep 23, 2008


Since 2006, the federally sponsored mortgage giant Freddie Mac has paid at least $345,000 to the lobbying and consulting firm of John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement.

Freddie Mac had previously paid an advocacy group run by Davis, called the Homeownership Alliance, $30,000 a month until the end of 2005, when that group was dissolved. That relationship was the subject of a New York Times story Monday, which drew angry denunciations from the McCain campaign. McCain and his aides have vehemently objected to suggestions that Davis has ties to Freddie Mac???an especially sensitive issue given that the Republican presidential candidate has blamed "the lobbyists, politicians and bureaucrats" for the mortgage crisis that recently prompted the Bush administration to take over both Freddie Mac and its companion, Fannie Mae, and put them under federal conservatorship.

But neither the Times story???nor the McCain campaign???revealed that Davis's lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, based in Washington, D.C., continued to receive $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until last month???long after the Homeownership Alliance had been terminated. The two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told NEWSWEEK that Davis himself approached Freddie Mac in 2006 and asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. The arrangement was approved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac's senior vice president for external relations, because "he [Davis] was John McCain's campaign manager and it was felt you couldn't say no," said one of the sources. [McLoughlin did not return phone calls].

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160561

Palin today:
My understanding is that Rick Davis recused himself from the dealings of the firm. I dont know how long ago, a year or two ago that hes not benefiting from that. And you know, I was, I would hope thats not the case.

Newsweek today:
Unsevered Ties? Regulatory filings indicate that McCain campaign chief Rick Davis remains an officer with his lobbying firm.

By Michael Isikoff | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Sep 24, 2008

Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager, has remained the treasurer and a corporate director of his lobbying firm this year, despite repeated statements by campaign officials that he had ended his relationship with the firm in 2006, according to corporate records.

The McCain campaign this week criticized news stories disclosing that, since 2006, Davis's firm has been paid a $15,000-a-month consulting fee from Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage giant recently put under federal conservatorship. The stories, published Tuesday by NEWSWEEK, The New York Times and Roll Call, reported that the consulting fees continued until last month even though, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement, neither Davis nor anybody else at his firm did any substantial work for the payments.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160713

Why does the McCain camp work overtime to keep Palin from any scrutiny? Currently they are trying to postpone the Obama-McCain debate and then push back the Biden-Palin debate as a result. Interesting!

09/24/2008: A simple rational paraphrase is offered regarding what President Bush said to explain why the current financial crisis occurred. That is: an open market environment with minimally enforced regulation, simply allowed run away greed in the absence of conscience driven controls and had the natural result of exactly what has happened. Said another way, the aggressive pursuit of totally open markets, while in theory is seemingly attractive, in reality is inherent with the potential for drastic consequences and reality dictates the real need for conscientious government regulations diligently applied; not advocating for excessive control but for adequate checks and balances to insure a few don???t abuse the system. Now we the voters can see the truth in all of that and then demand that government recognize and avoid the problems with irresponsibly seeking totally open markets that encourage a few to abuse and benefit from the laxness of the system and instead demand they install enough controls and regulation to insure a productive market without abuse or we can simply wait for another go around of more of the same. The theory of totally open markets as an academic theory seems attractive but when the human element with the naturally inherent greed and aggressive ego characteristics is introduced, the result is unavoidably disastrous.

09/24/2008: A simple rational paraphrase is offered regarding what President Bush said to explain why the current financial crisis occurred. That is: an open market environment with minimally enforced regulation, simply allowed run away greed in the absence of conscience driven controls and had the natural result of exactly what has happened. Said another way, the aggressive pursuit of totally open markets, while in theory is seemingly attractive, in reality is inherent with the potential for drastic consequences and reality dictates the real need for conscientious government regulations diligently applied; not advocating for excessive control but for adequate checks and balances to insure a few don???t abuse the system. Now we the voters can see the truth in all of that and then demand that government recognize and avoid the problems with irresponsibly seeking totally open markets that encourage a few to abuse and benefit from the laxness of the system and instead demand they install enough controls and regulation to insure a productive market without abuse or we can simply wait for another go around of more of the same. The theory of totally open markets as an academic theory seems attractive but when the human element with the naturally inherent greed and aggressive ego characteristics is introduced, the result is unavoidably disastrous.

Mr. Harris, your comment "What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents???and her supporters celebrate???the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance." summed it up so well. Thank you for this great, reassuring, poignant article.