<OneArm> the reason they pursue their agenda is......it works. The infamous change in the APA that removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders was largely a capitulation to an organized political campaign. (We won't get into the fact that the consensus of <dramatic fanfare> Big Science thought for many years it was a mental disorder. Our fawning fans of <dramatic fanfare> Big Science are a bit inconsistent in their hero worship) It is my observation that political movements not based on truth tend to dissolve in the not too long run. Never mind there's that ongoing problem of not being able to reproduce to contend with.

That might be a blunderfest <Wannabe>

I played Soccer in College and came to love the sport both from a player's perspective and having played.

Baseball, I find hard to watch during the regular season, particularly during the time-frame June thru August. However, from September thru October, the games are quite exciting.

Take care Bro, Morf

Go Orioles!

<OhioChessFan: I think the US is falling apart and it reminds me of the Roman Empire. The analgous point is the total decay of morality. The economic problems following are hardly a surprise.>

I have my reservations about the association between morality and economic success. In my view, the most immoral thing that the U.S. as a society ever did was the practice and endorsement of slavery. And yet, one can hardly say the U.S. did not prosper economically during the time it endorsed this practice (note to the unattentive reader: I am not endorsing slavery!! I am just discussing the link between morality and economic progress).

In the case of the Roman empire, I do remember from high school that my teachers would stress the decay in morality among the Roman ruling class. But I read later on that the Roman empire had overextended itself administratively and militarily. Were Julius Caesar and the early emperors & their staff really more moral, or just more focused, better strategic thinkers, and perhaps a bit luckier?

Finally, is the U.S. really more immoral than the rest of the world? I know you are a religious believer, and if you think religiosity and morality are correlated, don't you think then that you should consider the U.S. more moral than any other Western society at least, and probably most non-Western societies as well? After all, rates of church attendance in the U.S. are way higher than in any other part of at least the Christian world, and Americans are more likely to report they believe in God than people in any other Western society.

Agreed that the right administrators and simple luck enter into it.

Per the US and the rest of the world, the founding of the US was based upon Christian principles. A country that had so directly, publicly, and repeatedly called on the God of the Bible to later turn their backs on Him strikes me as a far bigger problem than a country that had never invoked Him.

I think the US is heading in the wrong direction, very quickly. The incredible filth found on American television, the acceptance and applauding of sexual sin, the disasterous breakup of the nuclear family, the disturbing lack of simple civil behavior in teenagers are all symptomatic of a terrible coarsening of this society. I guess knowing some people go to church doesn't encourage me all that much. And I bet the numbers will head downward, greatly, quickly.

This contest involves picking a game result (1-0 1/2 or 0-1) <and> the number of moves in the game. As an example, if in a first round game you think Anand with White will defeat Aronian in 40 moves, your entry would say:

Anand-Aronian 1-0 40

While it is a bit more complicated than the game prediction contest hosted by <YouRang> it isn't <that> much more complicated. I think my profile as written by <chessmoron> does a pretty good job explaining how things work.