Must religious beliefs correlate with political and economic beliefs and vice versa?

I once heard someone say something along the lines of this: "Republicans being for survival of the fittest in the marketplace should realize that their beliefs actually support the theory of Evolution, if only they were smart enough to realize that". In the context of the conversation, this person's point was that there was a contradiction between being a free-market capitalist that believes the strong companies survive while the weak ones fail, and being a Christian that doesn't accept the theory of Evolution. If you think that's a contradiction, the reverse must also be a contradiction: believing in Evolution but at the same time being against winners and losers in the market place, creating safety nets to make things "fair". Each side of the argument appears equally guilty of a contradiction, but does one belief really have anything to do with the other? And aren't there other options?

How did this ever come about anyway, why are religious folks for smaller government and evolutionists for more government? Shouldn't these be backwards, shouldn't we have religious people wanting fairness and safety nets, while Evolution-believers be for less government, letting the strong survive and weak die out?

Occupy Dayton harass shoppers in Target during black friday

Wow this is just pathetic. We here at People Liking People can agree with the Occupiers on quite a few things but what the hell are you hoping to accomplish by screaming at customers in a Target store? Telling them that they should be ashamed of themselves for shopping at Target, really? Exactly where do you guys suggest we should shop instead? And you do realize that the people who shop at Target are the 99% that you claim to be representing, right?

This ranks right up there with PETA's unfocused antics. There are real serious cases of animal abuse going on in the world, but often their focus is on something ridiculous like Lobsters in restaurants and instead of bringing attention to a real cause they are attention-whoring themselves. Same with these folks. I suppose they are well-intentioned but instead of directing their efforts towards bringing about positive change, they're simply alienating the exact people who might otherwise support their cause.

The # of people in that Target store who were persuaded by the Occupiers that night: zero.

The # of people in that Target store who didn't really have an opinion on the movement before but are now squarely against it: probably most of them.

There's a right way to deliver a message and then there's this. You seem to take pride in the fact that you're a mostly leaderless organization but this is one case where it would have helped to have an adult in the room.

By the way, what's with the "microphone check" bullshit? Is this supposed to be some type of homage to Dr. Dre's Deeez nuts?

School turns to advertising on report cards for revenue

With the economy being in the state that it's been for the past few years, people and businesses have had to get creative when it comes to making ends meet. Schools have also been experiencing financial setbacks as well, including the Jefferson County school district in Colorado which is currently facing $70 million in budget cuts. But the folks at Jefferson County have come up with a plan to make up for at least some of those cuts: advertisements on report cards.

From denver.cbslocal.com:

Some parents in Jefferson County won’t only see their child’s grades on their report cards. They’ll also see advertising.
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The ad will appear along the bottom of every elementary school report card for the next three years.

Is it wrong to mix capitalism and advertising with our public education system? Some seem to think this is crossing the line. To alleviate concerns, the school district has currently restricted the advertising to a nonprofit organization known as CollegeInvest. But what's to come in the future, will we be seeing Coke and Pepsi ads on report cards further down the line?

One thing that doesn't seem quite right is the discrepancy between the budget cuts the school is facing and the amount of money these ads are going to pull in, which is a puny $30,000 a year. $30,000 a year is less than the average teacher makes, so....great, these ads on the report cards won't even cover 1 teacher's salary and will barely scratch the surface of the $70 million they're facing in budget cuts. Is it really worth all the bitching and moaning? I say if you're going to do this, go all out. Let's get all kinds of advertising up and down the hallways of the school - advertisers can bid on specific spots, some areas going for more due to the amount of foot traffic. And how about those school buses? City buses have long earned revenue by putting ads on the sides and backside, how about schools doing the same?

And it begs an interesting question, are advertisements harmful to kids? Are they really harmful to anyone? We live in a capitalistic society and as much as we look at advertising as something evil, many of the services we take for granted depend on it almost entirely. I say let's give it a shot, just as long as we don't have advertising reps swarming into schools the way we see the pharmaceutical reps in the doctors offices.