If? If? What the hell does that look like that's in the plastic bag? A human or a piece of garbage? It's murder no matter how you spin it.
Posted on 02/23/2010 4:10:06 AM PST by look.a.liberal
I came here to understand the conservative point of view. I've lurked for a while now. I decided it'd be appropriate for me to say a few words.
I think that you are patriotic Americans. I am a patriotic American too. It is our right and duty as Americans to vehemently disagree with eachother about how this nation should be governed. It is also our right to call into question the patriotism of those with whom we disagree, but it is our duty not to. It was patriotic to protest the government four years ago, and it is patriotic now. I thank you for this patriotism.
Here are some of the things that I believe:
I support the constitution. I support second amendment rights as well as first amendment rights. I think that it is necessary and good that a court interpret these amendments, but I am as appalled by the notion of a free speech zone as I was by DC's handgun ban. I'm angry about the recent encroachment against the fourth amendment, and the steady erosion of the tenth. It affects blue states as much as red ones. I don't care for drugs, but you tell me how the interstate commerce clause empowers the federal government to keep my neighbor from growing and then smoking a plant without leaving his back yard.
There is little doubt that the federal government exercises more power than it is allowed by the constitution. On the other hand, I think that the infrastructure of a modern country demands more federal powers than are described in the constitution. Instead of amending the constitution, we allowed more and more powers to be read into it. Now it's a status quo that we can't easily abandon.
I support abortion rights, but I think that the opposite position is also very reasonable. If abortion is murder, then there is no question that it should be banned at the federal level. If abortion is simply a medical procedure, then it is tyranny for the government to forbid it. Either way, it would seem that the question should be decided on the federal level. Yet, if we can't reach a consensus about something as basic as whether abortion is murder or an operation, how can we choose to forbid or protect it? I think abortion is a federal-level question that for the moment must unfortunately be decided at the state level.
I am a liberal. I don't think Obama is more tyrannical or arrogant than past presidents. I think a government health-care option would be good for Americans. I don't care that Bush wasn't eloquent, and I also don't think that intellect in the narrow sense is the most important quality for a president. On the other hand I think that the Iraq war was a catastrophic mistake that America won't live down in my lifetime. It weakened America financially, diplomatically and militarily. So, I am very much a liberal. Still, I think we have some common ground.
I'd like to say something a bit more personal. I'm an academic. We spend a lot of our lives thinking about very abstract, technical things. This makes academics prone to elaboration and understatement in our area of expertise, and simultaneously to oversimplification and overconfidence outside of it. We can be short on common sense, but we can have counterinuitive insight in technical matters. It takes academics, entrepreneurs, and factory workers to make a plane fly, and it takes all of us to make the right decisions for America. I think that anti-intellectualism marginalizes an important part of American society, and I think it's destructive. To those who say that small businessmen have nothing of value to say about the US economy, I say you're wrong, and to those who say that academic economists have nothing to say about the US economy, I also say you're wrong.
Please leave comments if you'd like. I'll try to respond tomorrow.
We, Americans, conservative and liberal, need to figure out our own compromises, because our media and our politicians sure as taxes won't do it for us. Like it or not, we're in it together.
india alpha tango zulu
This is crucial!!
IATZ again.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
(The Sweet Smell of Success!!)
If you haven’t served in the military, don’t use the alphabet. Cretin.
See? That's what happens when Mommy lets you eat your boogers. You grow up bent as batsh*t. Poor Minny. You give me way too much credit. Nobody is going to change the course of their life because of some comment here. Let me demonstrate, so your eye can stop twitching as you dream of wantonly chomping a booger:
Hey Minn! Get the heck outta here, NOW! ...and DON'T COME BACK!!!
See? You're still here... dreaming. Take a pill, twitch.
;-/
[NOTICE TO ADMIN MOD] (Cut me a little slack here, this pantload just came within an inch of threatening my life. What follows here is just an illustrative demonstration; there is no anger or ill will involved)
why does so many on the left lie to think of themselves and tell everyone that they’re academics?
Go on their websites and they ‘re so full of themselves and up their own arse .
If it walks like a Zot, and qwacks like a Zot...
:-)
If? If? What the hell does that look like that's in the plastic bag? A human or a piece of garbage? It's murder no matter how you spin it.
Your words, your phrase. Yes, ridiculous.
Or self-serving.
Is he a professor, grad assistant, department secretary, Dean of diversity?
I like how he tells us what "academics" do, as if conservatives don't go to college or have advanced degrees.
Good one. 
Ha, read this earlier, to tired to read through all the new postes..
F*ck You, I hate liberals, yes i said the “Hate” word. I work with libs, hear libs at work everyday, on TV and on Radio and believe that yes, liberalism is a mental disorder.
You sir have mental issues and you should get that checked out immediately.
good day.
You are a ZOT recipient, and I am late to the party as usual.
Can we draw a correlation between rude, obnoxious behavior and a sad disability to grasp basic things.
Here's the deal, Sonny. Nasty, snide and juvenile trash thrown at a perfect stranger, who is simply trying to engage in a conversation and explore, says far more about you than him/her.
I was simply trying to point out to you that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. (It's just an idiom. Don't, duh, take it literally and , duh, buy honey.)
I guess the colorful illustration was a bit over your head. Sorry about that. I should have known by the caliber of your original post what I was dealing with. I was Advising you that, if your real personality is anything like your online personality, you will have no friends or anybody that gives a damn about you. When you die it will be alone. Your corpse will rot for a few weeks before somebody notices a foul odor. Do you understand that very simple point now? Your life wasn't being threatened. You can relax.
Seriously, you are making a fool of yourself. Hopefully it's just the anonymity of the internet that makes you behave in such a rude, juvenile and downright pathetic manner.
I would, however like to add this explanation from one of my most favorite and entertaining of modern writers, named P.J. O'Rourke.
Please read....How to Explain Conservatism to Your Squishy Liberal Friends: Individualism 'R' Us
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