70 replies to this topic

[myheadhertz]

Vote? Absolutely!

The way I see it, if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain about the sorry state of our government.
Vote - Complain.
Vote - Complain.
It's the American way.



Too bad Vin is not running!

Boiler Room: Vin would make great politician!
(Mistitled video. That was NOT his first sale.)

[funkmaster]

i am 100% prolife and will NEVER vote for anyone who isnt.
there is nothing more precious than life, and abortion is government sanctioned murder.

Aside from that, redistribution of this nations wealth is not the answer to our problems.
Giving more and more money to the poor does not fix the problems that people have that made them poor to begin with.
It isnt rich peoples fault that poor people dont have money.
There will ALWAYS be poor people.

We also need to drill for oil. yes its a short term solution, but it needs ot be done along with R&D in alt fuels/energy sources.

I do not think Obama is qualified to serve as commander in chief of our military.
Whether or not we should be in Iraq is irrelevant at this point, and I think McCain has a better understanding of what needs to be done to end the war successfully.

Palin was not a good choice for VP, she is a stunt to gain the women's vote and a young face to contrast Mccain's age.
Romney would have been a much better choice. Regardless I will vote for Mccain.

[cbstdscott]

OK, here's a weird one for you... I am a tree hugger AND a happy gun owner. My idea of Gun Control is to be on target. With massive fire power!

I am concerned that you guys on "the other side" are finding a lot of hidden agenda in the Obama campaign. The last time I heard stuff like that was 1960 when a Catholic (JFK) was going to take orders from the Vatican.

As for those of you who can not remember the "the country so divided" are obviously not old enough to remember the 1960's when the country was violently divided on Civil Rights issues and the war in Viet Nam. Every major city in the USA was experiencing an armed rebellion during the summer of 1968. By the standards of those bad times, today's "division" is mearly a difference of opinion.

I think we can all agree that American's attitude toward each other could improve, but from the perspective of history we are living in (relatively) enlightened times.

Potentially, our next President will be a graduate of Columbia and the Harvard Law Review. Hopefully his election will ignite a renaissance in esteem for intelligence and education. American Culture has taken a sad turn. Today's American Popular Culture embraces the Red Neck, the Street Thug and the Blissfully Ignorant. Let's return to a time when all Americans strived to absorb knowledge rather than repell it.

Scott

[oldrexer]

Scott,

I am very impressed that you can remember political stuff from when you were 4 (FOUR) years old. That rocks.


"Potentially, our next President will be a graduate of Columbia and the Harvard Law Review. Hopefully his election will ignite a renaissance in esteem for intelligence and education. American Culture has taken a sad turn. Today's American Popular Culture embraces the Red Neck, the Street Thug and the Blissfully Ignorant. Let's return to a time when all Americans strived to absorb knowledge rather than repell it."

I thought I remembered a recent president that was a Georgetown grad (very equal to Columbia) and a Rhodes Scholar (blowing away anything the "colonies" has to offer). If that type of intellectual power did not ignite a renaissance in esteem for intelligence and education, I don't think this one will either. There is the old adage some of my friends like to use..."he's educated beyond his intelligence"...when describing someone who has more education that their intellect can handle.

Anyway, the sad turn that the country has taken in this area is genetic, not cultural. Read, Why Civilizations Self-Destruct by Elmer Pendell and you will learn it is a pattern repeated over history as societies evolve. The basic "gist" of it is that less intelligent people reproduce more than more intelligent people. This results in a pyramid effect as fewer and fewer intelligent genes are introduced leaving smaller numbers of "producers" supplying the drive for the society until there is the inevitable collapse and the whole thing starts over again with the smarter individuals able to adapt and survive and the less intelligent individuals die off. Based on the stats in the book, we have passed the peak of the intelligence curve and have actually began to devolve. (test scores prove it) The author states that hardship is good for a species as it weeds out the less intelligent and improves the genes of those that follow. As long as we have it so easy and have so many things done for us that we can goof off instead of self-improving, the cycle will continue until a correction is made (like the stock market correction or the Cali housing market correction a few years ago or now) and things get hard enough so the gene pool is refined again and we can just be another great civilization that has self-destructed, just like Greece, Rome, and Britain. I wish your hope could become reality, but it is just a statistical impossibility.

Back to the bunker.


Cheers

[1GEN_SI86]

yes i am voting....i am 19 and i am happy to have the privilege to vote in such am important year ...


power to the people...(young people) get out there and vote, you make us look bad


off topic but what the hay, i dont feel like qualifying my decisions


Obama.

[cbstdscott]

..."he's educated beyond his intelligence."

Ya, got me on that one. Although Slick Willy was educated well he has made a bunch of realy dumb mistakes. I only voted for him once... I could not believe all those nastty things they were saying about him back in '92. It turns out all of that stuff was correct. That dufuss gives Hillbillies a bad name. Still, he did not drive the economy into a ditch on his watch.

Still, I am willing to bet on the guy with a good education rather than the guy who barely escaped college and then drove a bunch of expensive taxpayer's airplanes into the ground.

The candidates make a lot of promises, but lets examine exactly what a President can do all on his own.

On his own he can: Nominate Supreme Court Judges, Guide Foreign Policy, Sign or veto Legislation.

What he can not do: Make laws, Set tax rates, Impose socialism, Out-law guns. All that stuff is handled by Congress, the people YOU send to DC to represent YOU.

Anit-abortion people- McCain supported choice before he stopped supporting choice for this campaign. Which McCain will you be getting?

Yes, I was 4 years old in 1960. I do not have a clear memory of that year's political campaign, but I do remember what I learned in History Class. Dubya and his gang of Mental Midgets were too drunk and stoned (3 DUIs between Chenney and Bush) to remember they even went to school.

"Those who do not learn the lesson of History are doomed to repeat it."

Scott

[86hamstersi]

I would prefer bill clinton to be the president but that ain't going to happen. Somy next choice is McCain. I believe the biggest things to think about is our economy and our war. If we just jump out and run think of what all our allies will say. We started something we can't finish. Many will say we had no proof of what Iraq had but we do. I have seen many different items of "evidence" that I have never seen released to the public. Some of the reason is because part of that equipment was ours but in the wrong hands. Plus McCain knows what it is to be at war plus being a prisoner of it. I don't agree with the no bargaining with terrorists but when I see bush send his daughters into someone elses hands we would see action to get them released like no other in history. So I believe that someone who has been there, done that should be our next commander and chief.

[oldrexer]

1. "That dufuss gives Hillbillies a bad name." Personal attack.....TYP.


2. "the guy who barely escaped college and then drove a bunch of expensive taxpayer's airplanes into the ground." Personal attack.....TYP.


3. "Dubya and his gang of Mental Midgets were too drunk and stoned (3 DUIs between Chenney and Bush) to remember they even went to school."

Personal attack.....TYP.

4. "Anit-abortion people- McCain supported choice before he stopped supporting choice for this campaign. Which McCain will you be getting?"

Personal attack.....TYP.


5. "On his own he can: Nominate Supreme Court Judges, Guide Foreign Policy, Sign or veto Legislation."

Incorrect - Don't forget Executive Orders .....very scary.

6. What he can not do: Make laws, Set tax rates, Impose socialism, Out-law guns. All that stuff is handled by Congress, the people YOU send to DC to
represent YOU.

Incorrect - I am disenfranchised by gerrymandering. My district is not balanced. Designed to keep the "meanest person in the house" in the job. So I am not represented, if everybody in my district that was not aligned with my rep voted against my rep, it would still be 65/35. I did not send my rep there. The folks who gerrymandered the district did.

7. "Those who do not learn the lesson of History are doomed to repeat it."

From my previous post: "until there is the inevitable collapse and the whole thing starts over again"

So we have about eight total comments with some useful information, but as usual they are invalidated by cow pies. We are all used to it, but the dialogue suffers with the diatribe added. So why don't we do as you say and not as you do and "Let's return to a time when all Americans strived to absorb knowledge rather than repell it."


Did not get any ammo today.....bummer. But there is a gun show this weekend. 120K Sq Ft of fun. Got my eye on an old HK-91. Should have never sold the last one. Will not make that mistake again.

Back to the bunker.

Cheers

[badpenny]

Did not get any ammo today.....bummer. But there is a gun show this weekend. 120K Sq Ft of fun. Got my eye on an old HK-91. Should have never sold the last one. Will not make that mistake again.

Back to the bunker.

Cheers

I can't wait to meet you Sunday.

[cbstdscott]

Oldrexer-

I am afraid that you are retreating from the process rather than working to fix it. Regardless of opinon, postion or political persuasion we all have an obligation to partiscipate in democracy to keep it working properly (that means VOTE!). If you think that my statements of facts (I defy you to find me a genuine Hillbilly that is not ashamed of the disgraced brought upon them by Slick Willy) is incorrect or a personal attack, that is your right to disregard what I am saying.

Besides, look how well a "bunker mentality" worked for the Branch Dividians, the SLA and Randy Weaver.

Scott

[oldrexer]

Scott,

Retreat, I don't think so. I just don't worship the "cult of democracy". I never said that I would not be voting. I vote FOR everything my conscience allows. I find very few human beings that I can vote FOR. Especially for POTUS. Of course the only people I know of that I consider smart enough for the job of POTUS are WAY too smart to ever consider running. So it is left to likes of whom we have to choose from. There are a few individuals this election that will receive my vote. Several initiatives on the ballot as well.

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

* From bondage to spiritual faith;
* From spiritual faith to great courage;
* From courage to liberty;
* From liberty to abundance;
* From abundance to complacency;
* From complacency to apathy;
* From apathy to dependence;
* From dependence back into bondage.

My assessment is that the USA is somewhere between apathy and dependence. It will not be too long, at the current pace, until the USA returns to bondage.
I know, I know....its a free country. Every time I hear someone say that they are drowned out by the clanging of their chains.

In the United States, the greatest modern republic, or, rather, federal republic, we have the three branches of government exercising different powers and balancing each other, as well as the separation of powers between the federal government and the state governments. Of course over the last century much of our republican character has been lost as power has become more and more consolidated and all three branches of the federal government increasingly operate outside their constitutional limits.

That would be explained by the enumerated powers call out in Article 1 Section 8 of the United States Constitution. Our government has completely ignored this for a long time now. Just look at the latest events in the financial markets for more proof.

I kind of like this little video as an illustration of liberty, one of my favorite things in this world: http://www.jonathang...glish_music.swf

As for the "bunker mentality", none of the folks you mentioned made any attempt to fly under the radar. I could not consider them efficient practitioners of my "bunker mentality" as you have chosen to call it. The people I know that are good at it, you will never hear of or know of. So in the purest sense, they
have achieved their own goal. As for the others you mentioned, I refer you back to the link above.

Sorry not to say anything nasty about anyone.


Cheers

[P-Tail]

Nice link, thanks.

Sorry not to say anything nasty about anyone.

This is commendable, and reveals your quality.

[firstgencrx]

I'll second that.

[d15a3power]

Yes, vote. But first take some time to get informed on all the issues & offices.

Most importantly, participatory democracy can best be practiced by dialogue with the opposition(s). I mean this on an everyday level.
Summon the courage & talk to someone who supports the other candidate like the fellow citizen they are.

Just try to keep it civilized & I guarantee you that you'll learn something or teach them something.

[cbstdscott]

Jonathan Gullible? Gullible????
Is there any irony in that name?

Nice piece of work and something we can all agree upon. A sort of long-winded, "Do unto others...." Kind of a Hippie-Dippie philosophy, and I should know because I am an old Hippie.

But how do we address the advantage of the common good? Working cooperatively is more effcient than working independantly.

My suggestion is that we have a communal (almost sounds like Communist, doesn't it?) responsibility to each other. I can not exercise my "liberty" to disregard red traffic lights, can I?

If the system is flawed, how do we fix it? Withdrawal is not the answer

If your majority does not agree with you then maybe you need to move to a community of kindred spirits. And if you do not want to move, what is your plan to improve your community?

And yes, Hiding in Plain Sight has worked well for me all these years. I was just worried because you keep talking about your bunker.

Scott