I find it largely irrelevant. We are not a theocracy and do not pass laws based on whether the bible dictates it or not. IMO if you cannot use some kind of reasoning to justify a policy, as opposed to words taken from an old book, it's not a compelling thing to put into action.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

If you defend the constitution are you against the "reinterpretation" of Habeas Corpus?
What about obvious constitutional breaches in the patriot act?

I have already stated that I don't like abortion, I would never want my spouse to get one. But, I think that without it we would go back to coat-hanger abortions. I assume you will say that is fine and the women deserve to die because they are murderers. I agree that abortion is disgusting and unnatural and ethically wrong. It screws up women's reproductive system some of the time, and late-trimester abortions in my mind are cruel and should not be allowed. I am not against abortions for those who are raped or involved in incest however. I don't think a woman should be forced to have the child of her rapist.
Infanticide is also pretty strong word, do you consider abortion at any time to be "infanticide"? If so, is masturbation "infanticide"?

I would say that overall my views lean more toward traditional republicanism than liberalism. I am not for overtaxation or government handouts contrary to popular belief. I do however believe that when I am forced to pay taxes my taxes should be used toward social services that better the community. Many contemporary neocons seem to speak of tax cuts, yet it seems only wealthy corporations get a cut. The purpose of taxes in my mind would be an investment made by the whole of a society to be redistributed into public services. They are like an investment that everyone pays and the return is a healthy society full of functioning individuals. If you label education, family services and minimum wage raises as "hand-outs" you will see larger areas grow into poverty which degenrates communities into crime. Once the population begins to become uneducated, the number of jobs reduce and eventually unemployment and low-wage jobs prevail. This seems to be what has happened in Michigan. Outsourcing plays a big part of it too, but the current and previous administrations have done nothing to curb outsourcing or speak up against China's manipulation of currency and world trade. Not to mention China's history of forced abortions. You would think conservatives would be all for ending business with China on ethical basis alone. I am for the shrinking down of federal government also, which seems to be a republican idea. I am for the legalization of marijuana, and the privitization of the drug trade with ethical practices enforced. At least then there wouldn't be waves of killer heroin destroying suburban families. I am completly for the scaling down of government, less police, less prisons, more freedom ensured in the constitution. I am for gun control that basically requires citizens to own guns. There could be socially regulated courses on the use of guns. I don't believe that this would cost money to the tax-payer, because someone would be willing to volunteer. In many cases I think government spending could be curbed with common-sense alternatives. But unfortunatly the government seems to think spending 1000$ per roll of toilet paper is more important. Thats the problem with scaling down taxes as an alternative. It is not the taxation that is flawed, it is the opulant and corrupt waste of our money by politicians of both partys. Also, I have worked since I was 13 years old many times in more than one job. I have never asked for handouts but I have taken loans. I don't apreciate the government offering people student loans at 4.6% and then jacking up the rates to over 7%. But I guess someone has to pay for the rich's tax cuts. I do see welfare as a good thing for handicapped people and others who need it, but there should be some kind of work or training program that assists it, or at very least a program of welfare repayment by those who have benefited and gotten back on their feet. I agree that creating a welfare state solely for moochers is a bad idea, but I would say a welfare state for moochers characterizes the American welfare system, which offers no alternative to welfare. Most people would not take a pay-loss working at mcdonalds when they can get a healthy lifestyle out of welfare, even if it is the more honorable thing to do.

As to my being afraid of answering the question, I don't understand what the question is. If you restate it another way perhaps I could answer it. I am not a member of the Democratic party so I can't give you their instant response for whatever it is you are asking. I just call 'em as I see 'em. I know it may seem that I am a Democrat because of my criticism of neocon views, but really I am just critical of the main party in power which seems to me to be spending all of my tax-money haphazardly with no return benefits to society other than a massive, ineffective war-effort. Likewise as I have stated it is not further taxation that needs to take place, but a massive "cleaning out" of government, reduction of bureaucratic wastefulness and an end to pork-barrel spending and politicians voting for their own raises when they aren't doing anything right in the first place.

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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Nietzsche

Al Qaeda did not sign the Geneva accords and is therefore a hostile force we can treat however we (*)(*)(*)(*) well like. Liberals think differently. I say those perps do not deserve Constitutional protections, period.

Define "rape" to some chickie who's got a hundred men on speed-dial. Yes, I have soberly evaluated the very powerful truths in The Accused, which addresses that issue of "inviting it," and I powerfully condemn any man who commits rape.

But yes, I believe killing even those babies is murder. You are punishing them for circumstances they were never part of. I grieve for those children, just as much as I would grieve that the teenaged mother be forced to carry that child to term, then give it away in adoption. But I would still support that birth. It is a human life.

Anecdotal stuff here. On the CBC afternoon opera program recently, I heard a mastro-level singer being interviewed on his 80th birthday. He mentioned his mother said something to the effect of,

"The doctor told us it would be a very rough birth. It might even kill me. He told us he could do something about that in the future. We prayed about it. We talked and anguished about it. And then we told him no.

"The next baby was you."

Forty-three million deaths is the American Holocaust. It is infanticide.

I suppose the purists save all theirs in frozen jars somewhere. Good question.

Education is a state issue, not federal, and all welfare should also be at that level. Family services promoting the murder of innocent children is a criminal waste of public funds. I give to the poor the same advice my grandfather received when he arrived here. Get a job. Welcome to America.


Unionized teachers got Michigan education to its present level of inadequacy, sir. Nobody else. Now they want permanent handouts and no controls over funding, if this present ballot scheme is any indication.

UNIONS SCREWED MICHIGAN, SIR.

The UAW makes far too much for the crap they build. Ford deserves to go under entirely and GM needs a downsizing by Chainsaw Al Dunlap to get it into line. We tolerated drugs in unionized workplaces for decades. Our quality fell and it fell hard. We deserve it. That's the world of business. You can't keep turning out crap or else competition will come along.

Unemployment prevailed because factories laid off and went offshore where reasonable labor costs prevail. Unions wrecked Michigan, my good sir. And they had a faux governor they imported from Canada to do their bidding.

The rates rose when loan defaults forced a systemwide shake-up.

Agreed.

The real test of American political probity comes in realistically reducing the number of government employees at all levels of government. With unions strangling that weeding-out process, we can count on Dems supporting bloated government.

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Delivering tasty bite-sized Clues to liberals since 1965.

The rewriting of the constitution is not just dangerous to Al Queda, it is also dangerous to American citizens. Once one or two of our constitutional rights are taken away, we can only assume that in the future more will be taken until the constitution is just some archaic peice of paper that only exists as politicians "interperet" it. Here is an anecdote of my own, someone's name is John Smith, an American convert to terrorism. Your name is also john Smith. Through a bureaucratic mishap you get arrested in place of the bad John Smith. You are tortured without a trial in a secret prison. I am sure you scoff at these things, but our constitutional rights exist for a reason. They are not there for politicians like Bush to tamper with. To my knowledge only the Supreme court is meant to interperet our constitutional rights, not Bush.

I agree that teachers unions screw Michigan. Also the system is not strict or rigorous enough. Children need more school hours, more difficult subjects, and if need be no more summer breaks. Also they should be taught foreign language at an earlier age. This is a perfect example of bureaucracy strangling the public.

I disagree here. It was the auto companies who shot themselves in the foot by offering insurance to the workers in the 1950s. How were they to know that all their babyboomers would end up draining their funds with ridiculous insurance premiums? It is insurance premiums that are ruining the auto-companies.
To say the workers make crappy cars is totally bogus, it is the engineers who create crappy cars. The workers just piece them together. The engineers don't need a union because the market offers good pay to the engineers out of necessity.
Ford and GM spend so much paying for their retiree baby-boomers to buy viagra and get hip-surgeries that they have very little left for future development. That is why they are attempting to scale down the number of models. Without a pool of investment-money they can't pay more engineers, develop better products, and invest in new technology and plants. Its bad business on the part of the big 3 as well as a criminal medical system strangling businesses who decided to give healthcare to workers in the 1950s-1970s when it was a good deal, instead of raises.
Also in the 90s Ford and GM didn't heed the warning of their analysts who said "hey we should invest in fuel efficient cars" instead they peddled out giant SUVs that now are becoming totally unpractical with the cost of gas. They thought they could keep making cash off of these gas-guzzlers forever.

In some industries I would agree that the workers got greedy, but it is only because in the early 1900s workers could have thier arms or legs cut off and they would be given a "sorry" and a boot out the door. Strangely this is the same way outsourced labor is treated. The workers are dehumanized and underpaid. Eventually I am sure we will see workers movements in Asia that will match American labor history. You can't expect to belittle workers forever with no lashback.


The rates rose when loan defaults forced a systemwide shake-up.[/quote]

So middle-class college kids who are already overworked between school and side-jobs should have to foot the bill? A deal is a deal, they offered a rate and then withdrew on their word.


The real test of American political probity comes in realistically reducing the number of government employees at all levels of government. With unions strangling that weeding-out process, we can count on Dems supporting bloated government.[/quote]

It seems more like voluntary legislature than government-worker unions that caused this. I agree with what you said about teacher's unions. But secretary of state workers are nearly impossible to fire out of policy. Most other government jobs are this way as well. Also, they aren't forced to work on holidays or past 5 like many other people. They are given the privelege of being lazy, rude and unhelpful as anyone waiting to renew their plates will find out. Likewise it isn't unions that have created the difficulty of cleaning out the government, it is the government itself that has made it so difficult to fight bad workers and promote corruption.

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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Nietzsche

In short, the government you did not elect is protected by unions.

The real enemy is longevity. Shorten all careers for low-level functionaries and tighten purse strings for who's left.

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Delivering tasty bite-sized Clues to liberals since 1965.

Well I just think there should be accountability for any job. But most urgently teachers. It is bull to let lazy teachers wait around for retirement without challenging kids. The good workers should stay the bad ones should have a fire put under their @$$ just like any other job. Also, like I said it is just a matter of redesigning the educational system in several ways which I am sure are well-known.

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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Nietzsche

Its not just the lazy paper-pushers who do this, its congress itself passing
raises at the cost of the tax-payer while they work less than they did 20 years ago. What do you think will fix this kind of thing? Voting in a republican or democrat? yeah right, forgive my skepticism and cynicism.
Only a saint could fix the problems with our government and educational system through a legal process.

The legal binds of it all will drag us down. the only way I could see things improving would be to completely overhaul all aspects of society; the school system, congress, the bureaucracy etc. If you cleaned out all of the wasteful spending in the government and there were people who were actually capable of stopping corrupt officials from stealing money, I am sure all of America would prosper.

I personally don't think Americans practice a lot of common sense. It has almost been wiped out by our acceptance of fraudulent "get rich quick" law-suits, political correctness, absurd urban planning, political and religious dogma, and a general distaste for reasoning out situations.

Its like the famous anecdote about NASA and the USSR Space Program. The Americans spent millions of dollars inventing a pen that could write upside down and the Russians just used a pencil.

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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Nietzsche

Aren't you another funny boy!!!!

I wrote 40,000 words and examples on the subject and you harp like a seal about swords. Can't you read or am i wasting my time.

I was asked by Nemo if Jesus was a liberal or a conservative!! Now what is it you don't understand about that?

That's whats funny to me!!!!

Oh how the jawbone of an ass is a lethal weapon