Check out this great quote.

6/5/02

[Madame Dufarge]

Man, she's all over the place.

Not any more, apparently.

It makes me crazy when some liberal is making a fool out of herself and suddenly all the posts are deleted.

As obnoxious as her views were to me, I don't think she was making comments that were deletion-worthy.

I don't get it.

[metesky]

I'd like to know who punches the abuse button on these freaks when we're startin' to have agood time.

I'm too sure of our ability to defeat them to punch it and I know you are too.

Who are the spoil sports?

Although I've gotta admit, I've had a couple of my ranting responses deleted in the past.

[dpa5923]

"For those who fight for it, freedom has a special flavor the protected will never know."
From a Marine grunt, written on a c-rat cartoon after the battle of Khe-Sahn.

[Howlin]

Shoot! I was just getting warmed up. I was going to post the entire timeline of Clinton's draft dodging!

I NEVER discard a good bookmark!

[hellinahandcart]

No, I wasn't kidding; she was all over this thread, but now her earnest arguments are all gone...poof...though some of the responses to the living wage nonsense are really funny.

I wonder what finally did the little socialist in? Thought I was only seeing the beginnings of self-destruction on these two threads.

[drew]

Plato, they say, could stick it away
Half a crate of whiskey every day

[berned]

Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,

Hobbes was fond of his dram...

[drew]

And Renee Descartes was a drunken fart
"I drink, therefore I am"

[another cricket]

Sometimes Peace is just another word for Surrender.

a.cricket

[Madame Dufarge]

Sometimes Peace is just another word for Surrender.

Isn't it true?

Let's hear it for the gray-worlders: "We might have been wrong, but you can't pin us down."

Good God, give me an out and out Commie, at least they've got the guts to declare themselves.

[pghliberty]

Certainly valid points.

My only problem with it is that I think the U.S.A. was about freedom and liberty, where the order of authority was supposed to be your god, you, and then your government. When you are otherwise law abiding (not harming your fellow citizens property or person), you were supposed to be left alone. What we have now grows further from this, albeit we are better off than other nations. (Although we should always strive for better rather than worse)

What you describe is forced conscription, where a system tells you what to do in the end. The military is all about forgoing freedom of thought and obeying the chain of command. It does not recognize free thought, freedom of liberty. You sign that away.

I think what you touch on though is valid. We all know the shortfalls of pure democracy, yet we seem to get more and more of it each year, and less respect for individual freedom and liberty (the lever of government power is wielded by whoever is best at forming the most cohesive voting block...). The battle ground to change this is not in the military, but in politics and pop culture.

So I guess I would argue that the benefits of what you describe really would take place more effectively through voluntarism. Either way you’ll always have cowards. I believe wholeheartedly in the character of most Americans that if our shores are legitimately threatened, good men and women will always step forward.

[Destructor]

"...the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse."

This phrase caught my attention. This is exactly where America is now as a Society. This quote hits home, because sometimes war cannot be avoided. America has entered a time when fewer and fewer Americans are willing to support a war effort let alone fight a war. This is the devasting, and lingering effect of the counter-culture peace movement of the 1960's.

[pghliberty]

For the Benefit of all...... (thanks for reminding me!!)

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant

Who was very rarely stable.

Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar

Who could think you under the table.

David Hume could out-consume

Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel,

And Wittgenstein was a beery swine

Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.

Chorus:

There's nothing Nietzche couldn't teach ya

'Bout the raising of the wrist.

Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,

On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.

Plato, they say, could stick it away--

Half a crate of whiskey every day.

Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.

Hobbes was fond of his dram,

And René Descartes was a drunken fart.

'I drink, therefore I am.'

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed,

A lovely little thinker,

But a bugger when he's pissed

[Shooter 2.5]

That person started asking a bunch of foolish questions about gun control and then claimed to be a Quaker. It's odd that a person who claims to be a Quaker would get a posting deleted. Ya think?

[TheDon]

It's odd that a Quaker would be on the Internet, that's for sure! LOL!

[Shooter 2.5]

Quaker, not Amish. We noticed that something wasn't quite right with the person when she[?] started asking pointed questions about gun control. We were polite but I finally backed off. I couldn't see any sense in starting to argue with someone who claimed they were for the Second Amendment but then started asking leading questions. Typically, the nuke argument. They started to ask the old question as to how far we would go to defeat a tyrannical government. It was just a waste of time.

[pghliberty]

Unless, of course, you are the "Earth Quakers". This is too funny -- I love their git-ups! EarthQuakers.com

[TheDon]

Quaker are pacifists aren't they? But they accept modern tech?

[Shooter 2.5]

That's my understanding. They also don't pick fights on the internet or complain that a leader didn't serve "enough" in the military. I wish there was a section on FR where we could veiw deleted posts. I need a laugh today.