Too bad what you just said is a load of BS. You should go to church sometime, and get a view from the ground. As someone who has been to a number of churches as I travelled, one common theme I can tell you about is help for the needy.Christians GIVE. They give their money, they give their time. Even the ones who don't have very much will put in a little. When someone in the community is in need, the good people of the parish will be there for them. Even when they don't like you or care for the life choices that put you in your situation, if you truly need help, you can get it at the church.

What they don't like to do is be enablers - perpetuating situations that lead to more poverty and desperation. If you've ever tried to help an addict, you know that you can pour everything you have into that person - all your time, money, and capacity for compassion - and until he has hit his personal crisis point, all you are doing is feeding the beast. Often in such cases, the hardest and most heartbreaking thing of all is to admit that there is nothing you can do.

But... Those who don't want to get their hands dirty, and don't care about the ultimate consequences, love to expand government programs that make it easy for the desperate and dependant to stay that way, completely divorced from any behavioural expectations, passing on their dependant lifestyle to new generations.This is not what a rational person would call a positive outcome. But, this way you get to say that you "helped" the needy, and the best parts are that you did it without having to meet them face to face, and you forced everyone else to pitch in, whether they agree with the ultimate outcome or not. Oh, and you get to demagogue against the "selfish" Christians by pointing out the programs that they do not want to be forced to fund, while obtusely ignoring the good-faith policy arguments they make in support of that position.

Jesus' commandments place personal obligation on people. He did not command governments to confiscate money from one group of people and give it to another. He commanded us to love and serve the poor and needy. And Christians do . We have skin in the game. Come and join us.

You want to move Mars and Venus into Earth orbit?

If we can't afford indulgences, what then? Confess to Al Gore and hug 15 trees as penance?

Also a geek married to an MD. Guess I'm not as much an anomaly as I thought.

I cannot believe that that was an accidental phrasing...

Do you really think that's true?

I would pay an extra 5k to be able to basically ignore the speedbumps they put up incessantly around here.

Is there any evidence to support the assertion that the other scientists are interesting?

Yes I have. My wife tries to drive the car with me every time we go somewhere. She is entirely undaunted by the fact that it never really works very well.

Also, if they want segregation, just send the guys over to slashdot.

Even more alternatively:

Employee: Crap, I'm going to be over budget this year. I won't get my bonus. I know, I'll just pirate this expensive instead of paying for it. It's not like they ever audit licenses around here anyway. As long as everything works, the bosses are happy.

Boss: Sorry, you've been doing a great job, but we're downsizing you. Naturally we're doing this just before we have to pay bonuses.

Employee: Well, at least I can make a few bucks reporting these guys to the BSA. It's what they get for pirating software.

That's just the first part. Then they send it over to the CSI guys and say "enhance!"

All good propaganda starts out being perfectly plausible.

Damn you. Now I will not rest until I have figured out how to make a Möbius pancake.