23 y/o 1st year law student...BA Political Science from the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs; JD expected in 2007... here's my stances on the issues:

ABORTION: Pro-life with a passion, done work for Birthright and within my parish for that purpose.

TAXES: Abolish the income tax in favor of a national sales tax and extensive vice taxes, or at least a flat tax.

The UN: Sorry, but they dont even rise to the level of an issue.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: Against it. However, this is only in the Bill O'Reilly sense that I'd rather have them spend the rest of their lives getting raped in the shower and doing hard labor for the benefit of the public at no cost than manipulating the Appeals process and dying of natural causes while not having to mix with the general prison population.

WAR ON TERROR: Kill them wherever they are. I propose to anyone that asks that we install a specific mutual annihilation policy a la the Cold War, but with a key twist: release a list of major Arab cities and let it be known to the world that should there be a WMD attack on any American city, we will nuke those cities in kind. Let's see OBL justify nuking US citizens after Mecca is a sheet of glass. In addition, it will effectively get the Arab governments in line and encourage full cooperation. If they know the weight of the attacks will bear on them, it is less likely that we will see back-handed terrorist funding and implicit support of groups like Al Qaida. Elements of corruption within the Saudi and Pakistani governments would not be tolerated by a government knowing they will pay the cost for the consequences of such support.

SOCIAL PROGRAMS: Despite best intentions, few government programs that are not confined to individual loans (aka student loans, etc) work. Throwing money at a problem and then leaving unionized, untrained government workers to deal with the substance of the problem will never work. I support Bush's policies involving faith-based initiatives and any intiative that will attempt to remedy a problem in an innovative way rather than writing a big fat check for a nice pretty building. Give the money to groups with a personal stake in the outcome, i.e. religious groups that make it their volunteer mission even without government funds to get people off of drugs and alcohol, help those in need, etc.

WELFARE: Against it. Completely. If it should even continue to exist, it should be completely composed of food-stamp like programs and not give any direct funds to its recipients. Any inner city drug dealer will tell you the first of every month is his busiest time, as our tax dollars go to satisfy someone's fix.

WAR ON DRUGS: I support moderate de-regulation on some narcotics for reasons of simplicity. A recent survey of middle and high schoolers showed that drugs like Ecstasy and marijuana are easier for kids to get than alcohol. Why? Because as Prohibition showed us, making something that people cannot be deterred from using illegal basically gives a windfall to organized crime elements that manufacture and distribution it. While I do not advocate deregulation of drugs along the lines of heroin (or "dosing" programs for addicts, for that matter), I do believe if we took the approach of alcohol and liquor, we take the gateway drug of marijuana away from the shady characters who push it, decreasing the chance of users going onto harder drugs. When you get something like alcohol from an legitimate source that doesn't want to lose its liquor license or face the other consequences of government regulation, you're less likely to go to the next step and seek out the pushers whose business MO is to get you hooked and keep you coming back until you die and drag others down with you. The effect of some of this deregulation would also severely cripple many foreign drug rings, and may have a beneficial effect on our porous border by freeing us from having to find the vans filled with dope. I realize this policy may offend many of you, but few would argue we are winning the war on drugs, or shall ever win it, and one must face the harsh reality that our policies bring a smile to the face of every Pablo Escobar out there. It is a cost-benefit analysis.

PATRIOTISM: I am a proud and devout American. I belief liberalism is at its root, Anti-American dissent. Liberals are reactionary by nature, have very few guiding ideals and policies of their own (except abortion-on-demand), and pose the greatest domestic danger to our country. They gain power from the divisions they create, and they seize that division to turn this country into the opposite of what our founders intended.