Cheaper to buy the Afghan Opium Crop?

[Taem]

And I asked which flavor. Seems you missed the point. Quelle surprise.

I apologize, but I don't quite get your meaning. If I am being ignorant in some way, please inform me before I make a fool of myself (if I haven't already :huh:).

"Which is nothing more"

Gee, there is a substitute for something of substance. Once again, I asked about your broad brush, your conflating real people with an abstraction, and you give me a load of cod's wallop.

[. . .] When you are willing to stop using a caricature, I might have time for your insight. As it is, all I see is a bigot blowing hot air.

Do I exaggerate? I don't feel I do after the research I have done into religious studies, but perhaps I am only fooling myself in your eyes? As for being a bigot, well if you feel I come across as prejudiced and intolerant of any points of view save for my own, then I am truly sorry to have offended you Occhi. That was not my intent. The entire purpose of my post was to show a direct correlation between faith and politics; I used quotes of Bush Jr. as an example of how religion can play into the way politicians think and work, but this was a poor example of how it affects the actions they partake of - not to mention, he is but one of many. I don't know, maybe it is purely speculative on my part to assume the two (religion and politics) clash quite often when voters are concerned; what I perceive as a politician saving face for religious minded voters could actually be an act of conscious morality. Without facts to back up my assumptions that politicians are acting a certain way because of religious repercussions, I have no proof that they in fact are at all, so my assumptions are, once again, purely speculative - regardless of how I might feel about the topic.

I guess you might find it humorous that I am saying that after having written this: "Religion plays a major role in politics rather you choose to believe it or not." I'll assert that rather there is actual proof or not of how religion effects political decisions, it must come into each politicians mind when they reach out to voters - how could it not? They worry about the voters race, sex, culture, upbringing, wealth, etc., and must pander to each demographic they encounter. While some areas have a White population of 60% or greater, others have a higher female population, or more poor or wealthy. When you have a demographic of 75-85% of the entire population claiming to be Christian, what better way of reaching your fellow constituents than relating with them on their own level? Theory? Perhaps, but it seems like a very logical course of action to me, and one that might ultimately effect the way certain laws are written into existence, or therefore, not written (such as legalizing drugs). But again, as you put it, this is very subjective material (theory based on theory of), so to state aloud that politicians cater to a religious crowd is incorrect, and I apologize for neglecting to mention in my first post that this is only my opinion, with zero fact to back it up I might add.

For some real world tried-and-true examples of how religion effected politics, I turn to the kings of old who sentenced to death anyone who said the world was round, or anyone that didn't agree that the Earth was not the center of the universe. How about the Crusades, or the trials held at Salem? But enough of this hocus-pocus. I am sure that this is ancient history compared to our modern and advanced culture; no, I have no doubt that we will overcome religion at every obstacle since religion obviously plays no part in politics anymore<_<.