Free Republic

You'll love this prespective from the most liberal town in Idaho (not to mention the most bigoted against religion!)


http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2004-November/012664.html

They seem to not realize that many parts of CA, including my former home town, are "red".

After the debacle in 2002 when the voters approved every single bond issue on the ballot despite the reports that the budget was short 15 billion dollars, my family bailed out of CA.

Moved to Idaho and absolutely love it. Started my own business 6 months ago and expect to double my income next year. Because life moves slower, the kids have time to enjoy more aspects of the community and we don't have the fear of a random gang war erupting.

Why Southern?

You could do worse than with Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. Solidly conservative, fiscally and socially.

The south will stay solid (especially in the face of Hillary!) and a Pawlanty/Ridge ticket would deliver a huge chunk of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.

You can also register on the site - they will fill in the required fields for you. My comment to them is below...I doubt that they will comprehend the point...

"Charita Goshay should make an effort to perform basic fact checking. The AP article that she is referencing was withdrawn because the crowd did not boo-that was a deliberate lie told be a reporter providing supporting information to the original AP piece.

"While many people have offered numerous visions of the future of news, few have recognized how dramatic the change is going to be. It is literally moving from the age of steam (1920's era practices) to the age of the computer.

"The change is not of the speed brought on by the computer but the diffusion of control and quantum leaps in informational quality." The Darwinian injunction, "Adapt or die!" will apply as much to the news industry as it did to the manufacturing industries of yesteryear.

My guess is that air quality hasn't changed dramatically despite the population increase. It is a mite interesting that they rule out most of the people-based activities that are the usual suspects for the creation of pollution.

There has been a campaign in this area for a couple of years to prevent the burning of grass fields - the farmers won in court last year, so the Greenie-weinies enlisted the regulatory apparatus to compel change that they couldn't gain through legislation or the courts.

"...daily dragging a razor sharp blade of stainless steel across our faces could be construed as an extreme form of vanity.

Does this apply to periodically dragging the dog clippers over my beard?

Does this mean that I can complain about the stupid bonfires that people light and leave lit for days? Inhaling the smoke from those have ruined a whole lot more of my runs than cigarette smoking ever has.

This appears to be a money-grabbing, PC effort rather than thoughtful policy but, hey, that's California, the land that I loved that I left.

I'd be real curious to get some stats that weren't presented.

1. As percentiles, at what ages did representatives of pledgers and non-pledgers lose their virginity? 2. As percentiles, how many partners did each have? 3. Of those who had relations with only one partner, how many of those married that partner?

Looks to me that they chose stats that would reinforce their view rather than report the facts. It might be embarrassing for the media to report that 27% of non-pledgers had sex at 13 and only 1% of pledgers did. Or that 65% of pledgers married the only partner they ever had versus 14% marrying their 6th.

I had the same immediate thought, so I looked it up here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/review97/cohen.htm

To quote him, "But his recreation of the roundup of the Jews in the Cracow ghetto is a frank accounting of what happened there. It's not some sanitary, neat dragnet of people, a chalkboard exercise that ends with the gassing of the naive and the incineration of their bodies -- "processed," in Nazi-talk or, in the boast of the Treblinka death camp, "from door to door in 45 minutes." It is, instead, an unmitigated horror -- an indictment not just of Germans or of Nazis but of human beings. I have read of these events, walked their sites and tried to imagine them, but it was not until Spielberg showed them that I felt their immeasurable horror. Even then the reality was so much worse."

Apparently he didn't think the Speilberg was over the top. Gibson obviously is because he's Christian. Or as they call us over on DU, a fundie.

Now for a pet rant....maybe I'm dense, but behind ever single hateful, sinful act in the movie, wasn't there the same character? I have yet to hear anybody bring out the fact that Satan tempted Christ and corrupter the Jews. Gibson made that perfectly clear, even going to the point of showing that Christ's sacrificial death on the cross was Satan's defeat. Why is this so ignored?

Posit that when I purchase a copy of intellectual property I have the right to maintain possesion of said property in its original condition (unlike a material object that suffers wear). I therefore should be able to create for my own use copies of that material provided I do not offer those copies to others for any reason.

Efforts by the entertainment industry, not to mention software producers, to prevent copying of material obviates this consumer right. Both industries are trying to transition to a point were the consumer is only leasing the intellectual property. They are also trying to extend the copyright into perpetuity, as in the case of Disney, which would be contrary to "...securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

That said, I do not purchase tapes, CD's, DVD's. I feel absolutely no need to encourage irresponsible corporate behavior that puts profit ahead of what I consider decency. Software I buy only when I must and I avoid as much as possible the companies that I consider rapacious.

I doubt that this is a convincing arguement for you. Indeed, it was not intended to be an arguement at all. I suspect that on the topic of theft of intellectual rights, you and I will agree on most points.

If HP also restricts customers' ``fair use'' rights -- the ability to make personal copies and quote from others' works -- guess that's someone else's problem.

You could make a good arguement that the various entertainment companies don't have any more respect for consumer rights than the "Napster" generation has for copyrights.

A "fall in a race" ? A marathon, a race to the bar, a race away from a bar?

He was running the JFK Ultra-marathon, an annual 50 mile race. He was in training to run the Western States 100 Miler.

The same family of chemicals that produces a buzz in marijuana smokers may be responsible for "runner's high," the euphoric feeling that some people get when they exercise, US researchers say.

Now I know why my wife won't discuss anything important with me until I get back from my run. She's taking advantage of me.

...and quite a burden to put on them right from the get-go.

And Sharia is quite a burden to put on my future grand-daughters.

This is a different type of conflict than any we had in the previous century. It will not be won exclusively with the military but will require the efforts of the entire American nation (and whatever allies we can gather) for multiple generations. Unlike WWI & WWII, this is a culture war, not a power struggle between competing governmental systems. Cultures take much longer to change than governments (look at Russia or Georgia). Unless the two cultures can develop mutual acceptance (which Islam does not accept in the Koran - they do not acknowledge you have the right to go to hell), one will surely be a lost civilization. Winston Churchhill may have been a lonely voice in the wilderness, but the weight of his ideas would have vanished had Germany been victorious. Great ideas die when their proponents die. So it can be with this Great Experiment.

I think our cultural enemies are far more committed to their cause than we are to freedom. We forget the first responsibilty of freedom is to defend it. I don't hold out high hopes.

I'll check in later but, for now, I'm off to work. Take care.

Anybody know if you can generate a Freedom of Information filing on Congressional records? It would be nice to post all their racist and bigoted thoughts.

I want to join and you can tell me how you support racism, oppression, inequality....

I vote party-line Democrat....

Hey, Mo!

Any local stations that I can tap into from up here in Idaho? I'm getting zip news on from the national cable networks. Donna's sister that just sold her house in Ramona said that the house is now ashes. Marron Valley is a concern to her Mom.

If, for example, you structure it so that a candidate that wins a district gets the electoral vote represented by that district, then you would effectively keep the state in play every four years since the GOP could gather 20+ votes. In fact, you might give a majority to the GOP by trading an 80% Democratic seat (the Bay area) for several seats in the Inland Empire. Winner of the majority of districts would recieve 2 bonus electoral votes (representing Senators)

The extra attention of the National GOP probably would be beneficial to the State GOP as well.

If they really want to shake things up, then along with redistricting reforms, change CA fro a winner-takes-all electoral state to a proportioned state, a la Maine.

Think Democrats are crying the blues now? Change the electoral math and they'll be ready to commit hari kari.

I think you're missing the point. The child did comply with the dress code. When notified of an infraction, she was quite willing to correct the error. Had she refused, then it would have been willful non-compliance and a suspension would have been warranted.