Exactly. So, let's stop pretending like it is. There are a lot of kids growing up in America today, through no fault of their own, in crappy schools, dangerous neighborhoods, and disintegrated families. And this is where the "you're poor because it's all your fault" mentality of conservatives breaks down.

People don't start out at the same place in life. It isn't the politics of envy, it is pragmatic reality. Life is harder for some Americans than for others.

I travel all the time for work. I often think about the women who make a living cleaning my hotel rooms. As much as I sometimes whine about having to be away from my kids for work, their lives are a lot harder than mine.

If you're growing up in the hood with a mom who is a psychotic and a dad who fried his brain years ago on drugs, your life is a lot harder than my kids' lives, right out of the starting gate.

Recognizing this is just...being in touch with reality.

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

1) Which is why I both prefaced my remarks on Marx, and then explained exactly what I agreed with. You choose to ignore all that and jump right to commie. As I predicted some conservatives would.

2) The M16 is an awsome weapon. But different conflicts require different weapons. There is a reason spec ops use MP-10's.
Addiationally, the M16 is considered underpowered today. If you watch future weapons, there is a new better gun already in testing.

So you equating a blunt statement, "wealth of nations blah blah" was like mine. They are both kind of true, but over simplified and partially wrong.


Ixtellor

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George W. Bush "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building"

Blasphemy is a victimless crime.

I moved out on my own when I started College in 1976, during the Carter years. I worked my way through school as an Apprentice Cabinetmaker. I did this on purpose as I was learning a skill I could fall back on in case I didn't make it in the field I was going to college for. The inflation during those Carter years was double digits, every time I turned around the prices of everything including the rent was going up. It shaped my views on politics since then.

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Would you rather have a walk on part in the war or a lead role in a cage?

Yes and many argue "Mein Kampf" is great literature.

Karl Marx who stated "Religion is the opiate of the masses", is not going to get much praise from me.

I said Wealth of Nations, in my opinion, is a better treatise on economics than Das Kapital.

Which was my very point. We don't have a level playing field and never will. And there is no reason to pretend we do like many Conservatives do. I'm a "boot strap" and personal responsibilty guy to the core. I just think it's important to acknowledge that some people have very tiny boot straps and others have paid help to lift the straps for them.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

I think we've been done and dusted, Stekim.

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

Not really, in most arguments I allow the other side to have the last word.

Well I am glad you at least conceed that Obama is mentally handicapped!

My first interest in politics was initiated by all the news and attention around the 97 election in britain and my first opinion was the dislike in Tony Blair for all the glamour and new age spin he was trying to put on his campaign with the 'things can only get better' themesong and the grin which I found corny as hell and false as I always looked for substance in people regardless of any front and prior to that, politics always seemed far from glamorous and all serious men in suits. In hindsight he was doing he best to get in power and the fact that he knew what the people wanted to see was a good test, provided his policies were equally thorough. Unfortunatley, everything from there on seemed also to be candycoated to appear more durable, I did (and still do) however try to read as many pro as anti labour articles in the papers but historically- the guts to affirm right wing status despite lack of popularity from working classes, the reduce of state and more parental responsibility, the standing up to the trade union bullies- the conservative policies (albeit most of those mentioned were thatcher) have been more appealing to me. And given Churchill was a conservative. The modern policies also seem to replicate the previous ones in primary concern over the best stance and not the popular thing (Micheal Howard agreeing with Blair on the British involvement in Iraq despite the chance to gain a massive poll lead from its lack of popularity). I do disagree with a few conservative mps though, and have never been a lover of know it alls, as they just irratate me with the contradiction they represent, so they are one lot of people I have a natural disposition of hating and given the amount of them in the current labour party and that the majority I have personal met seem to be left wing does influence (at least subconsciously) my views.

So I guess my views have come from keeping up to date with the news of late and some historical research, I've still got a lot to learn and hope to take in information from as broad a source as possible when I do and right now I am a fairly right wing conservative.