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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cautious_Optimist who wrote (18780)	12/27/2011 11:40:56 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

Boy, you really do believe in myths. Neither Cheney's or Lay's energy ideas were big secrets. Cheney wanted a gungho domestic energy supply policy .... approve new nuke plants, free up new lands for oil and gas exploration. The only scandal is that liberals don't want any of that. Lay, otoh, wanted carbon trading ... Enron birthed the cap and trade idea.

To: Cautious_Optimist who wrote (18780)	12/27/2011 11:59:41 PM
From: average joe	Respond to of 69300

Just watched a show on the Tillman family. First they tried to use him as a poster boy for new enlistments, then admitted he was killed by friendly fire and then remarks about his family who can't let go because they have no faith in God. I seem to recall they did the same hack job on Jessica Lynch who basically surrendered and was too honest to lie about it after. Sad when the front line guys don't have a good quarter-back. "Pat Tillman was an American professional football player who, after September 11, gave up a million dollar contract to fight "for his country" in Afghanistan. He was killed by "friendly fire," though the US military managed to hide that embarrassing fact for almost five weeks. Tillman's family has been pressing for an investigation. Now there is a report that the selfless Tillman was an atheist, or at least a non-Christian, which has some in the Army upset. This investigation of the incident, from ESPN.com (thanks to Blawg and Economics), quotes Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, an officer with responsibilities for Tillman's unit: Kauzlarich said he'd learned Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother and fellow Army Ranger who was a part of the battle the night Pat Tillman died, objected to the presence of a chaplain and the saying of prayers during a repatriation ceremony in Germany before his brother's body was returned to the United States. Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family's unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives. Lt. Col. Kauzlarich's discomfort with atheism is interesting: In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more -- that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough." Guess that's true. Guess atheists do find death "pretty tough." Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans' religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, "I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know." Here, in response, is Tillman's mother: Well, this guy makes disparaging remarks about the fact that we're not Christians, and the reason that we can't put Pat to rest is because we're not Christians," Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, said in an interview with ESPN.com. Mary Tillman casts the family as spiritual, though she said it does not believe in many of the fundamental aspects of organized religion. "Oh, it has nothing to do with the fact that this whole thing is shady," she said sarcastically, "But it is because we are not Christians." After a pause, her voice full with emotion, she added, "Pat may not have been what you call a Christian. He was about the best person I ever knew. I mean, he was just a good guy. He didn't lie. He was very honest. He was very generous. He was very humble. ...The Tillman family has continued to try to push through layers of Army bureaucracy for answers, about both the death of their son and the appearance that Pat Tillman's Army life, and death, might have been used for political purposes. " futureofthebook.org