Robert

The Pope has joined twitter and has 200,000 followers despite not having tweeted it. People are being encouraged to tweet him questions using the hastag #askpontifex. So far almost all the tweets have been critical, something the Church should have seen coming

Allen West (who Sarah Palin and Hermain Cain think Romney should pick as Vice President) said he "heard" that there are 80 members of the Communist Party in Congress. What do you think? Accurate or 21st century McCarthyism?

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75025.ht...

I love politics but often the books can be very dry and I found that a message is far more effective if it has a human face on it. I was wondering if anyone could suggest any good political novels. Although I'm left-wing I'm open to hearing the other side so all opinions are welcome

I suppose this question is directed more towards the religious (atheists can probably sit this one out). Seeing as the Bible is full of instances where God directly intervened to protect His "Chosen People" by dropping food from heaven and destroying opposing armies etc. Why has He stopped? If He promised to protect the Jews then why has He not prevented centuries of discriminated culminating in the Holocaust? More generally if God is all-loving, why does he let famines and disasters happen?

I thought we could make a collection of all the terrible parts of the Bible. As a child, I was told that the Bible was full of love, but recently I found out it justifies genocide, sexism, homophobia, rape, massacres and oppression. I'm not talking about the silly parts (talking snakes, Jonah living inside a whale), I'm talking about the really atrocious parts that no reasonable person could possibly defend.

Basically if you were in a debate with someone who believed in God, what arguments would you use, or have heard being used?

Should we use the kind of Keynesian economics that were used to end the Great Depression to end our current recession? By which I mean, should we cut taxes and increase government spending to reduce unemployment, even if it increases the national debt?

I'm not asking how good/bad she is, just would she have won the nomination.

Here's my theory. Palin announces in August 2011. Instantly raises huge amounts of money and becomes the center of media attention. Other conservative candidates are ignored and drop out. No surge for Cain, Perry or anyone else. Palin uses the time to build a solid organisation and isn't let running a bare bones campaign like Gingrich and Santorum. The conservative vote isn't split, instead it unites around her. It boils down to a contest between her and Romney. She wins Iowa and South Carolina building up enough momentum for Florida and Super Tuesday.

The only problem could be her prospensity for gaffes and being a loose cannon. Its highly likely she would say something stupid and seriously damage her campaign (like Santorum has a tendency to do)

So what do you think?