Slashdot Mirror

"Traditionalist America has always held homosexuality to be unnatural and immoral, ruinous to body and soul alike, and where prevalent – as in Weimar, Germany – the mark of a sick society. This belief outrages millions. Yet it is as old as mankind and was held universally in the Christian West until this century. Moreover, it is grounded in biblical truth, tradition, natural law and Catholic doctrine." -- Pat Buchanan, March 28, 2013

The system is set up that those with money get heard and those without do not.

This is an oft-repeated canard, but it is simply not true. Money helps — as does comely appearance, good education, etc. But it is not a guarantee. For example, last year people favoring gun control outspent their opponents in Colorado by staggering 11:1 — and lost anyway.

Modern politics is no longer about doing what's best for the country or even the constituent.

"Things aren't what they used to be — and they never were." I'm yet to see a reform proposal, that does not infringe on First Amendment rights — and, worse, all allow the incumbent to decide, whether the opposition is not getting "too much money". That's a straight road to Chavez's Venezuela (if not Castro's Cuba), and that's far worse than even "plutocracy".

Lastly, you focusing on the wrong target. The real danger are not the wealthy individuals outside of government — they've earned the monies they are spending doing something, that other people wanted to pay for. The real threat to our freedoms (and prosperity) is the ever-expanding federal government — presidents come and go, but the bureaucrats stay... The stuffed suits justifying their own existence by issuing regulations (that nobody wants) and justifying their greater and expenses. Real estate in Washington DC never seems to drop in price and the region hardly sustained any recession. And, wouldn't you know it, they just got another raise...

Over the years a succession of foolish Congresses has delegated Legislature's powers to the Executive branch — and its various agencies headed by unelected bureaucrats. That needs reforming, but you aren't going to achieve it by limiting the amounts of money people are allowed to spend on politics. People in government will find a way — people outside will be audited by the IRS.

Anyway, I don't see how expanding programs from 30+ years ago really qualifies as becoming a leftist state.

While you may be right in that there have been no significant qualitative changes, as Stalin once put it, "quantity has a quality all its own". If only a tiny sliver of the population is collecting tax-funded benefits, you are Ok. But, once that sliver expands beyond a certain threshold, it becomes bad.

On Obama's watch, the number of people receiving food stamps has increased dramatically. He added more people to the rolls in his one term so far, than Bush did in his two terms. Perhaps, that's because Democrats want more people on the dole — so as to keep more voters supporting the party of government. Heck, the current Administration runs advertisements encouraging people to sign-up — I can't imagine such enrollment efforts being considered, when the program was first introduced, can you?

But food stamps is just one example. The best measure of how far Socialism has crept upon a country is to look at how much of the GDP is spent by the governments (federal and local)... And by that measure we are looking pretty sad.

Indeed, how do conservatives justify borrowing hundreds of billions yearly from Europe, Japan and the Gulf states — to defend Europe, Japan and the Arab Gulf states? Is it not absurd to borrow hundreds of billion annually from China — to defend Asia from China? Is it not a symptom of senility to borrow from all over the world in order to defend that world?

And who is this quote from? Right-wing freak Pat Buchanan. The stupidity is so freaking obvious, its only the Democratic and Republican PARTY loyalists who can't see it. Unfortunately, they make up 99.99% of government.

citation: http://buchanan.org/blog/liquidating-the-empire-3646

...that the French had an aversion to things normal people like! Apparently they like stuff besides snails, frog's legs, and French military defeats!

Must I conclude from you half baked wrong arguments you are still pissed about being wrong about Irak?

In the name of France, and all the french people, I say "We're sorry."

Sorry for being right. Sorry for your not-so-funny comment. Sorry your life seem to be so miserable you need to hide it behind ill conceived contempt for the french.

And believe us, if is there something the french are immune to, it is contempt... You see, arrogance is so much in our DNA and culture you'll need talent to even attract anything from us but smiling frowns of pity for the average disdainful comment. (I'm not speaking of your above abysmal comment, of course. Please, check your facts and have some brain examination for a possible Hydrocephalus affliction)

You see, it's like a game, for us. The Brittish know that we like to argument for the sake of argument... And the other's utter humiliation. Not so dissimilar from Tauromachy. We, the french, take some fact, and go against the official trend saying something we know is true. (Note the we know is true part. It's important). And somehow, there is always some braindead macho man coming up with his "My own is longer than your's" challenge to defy us on our own grounds. And then, of course, the braindead monkey ridiculizes himself. Of course, even after admitting some semantic miscalculation, the victim can't still accept being in the bad end of an international joke, apparently everyone knowing it even before the beginning of the invasion.

And then, after all the efforts we put together, using our intelligence services, working night and day, trying not to spill the joke and contain our laughter, sending our most talented orators, having half the world agreeing with our viewpoint when you painfully put together your supporters, the only biting, acid, venomous answer you have is "Hey, I was told they eat frogs, Muah ah ah!" ???

WTF???

-- Yours truly, France, (very, very, very disappointed)

" US are very too dumb, they will elect Bush and they stress, it's very funny!"

" US are very too dumb . . ."
This part of your sentence does not translate well. The flaw in your grammar could, with a little allusion, be extended so that YOU (plural) are ignorant also.

" . . .they will elect Bush and they stress , , ,"
The 'each and several states' send delegates to the appropriate state capitols in the second week of December. These electors will cast their votes for President and Vice President. http://www.fec.gov/pages/ecworks.htm
Individual citizens will vote of course, but the popular vote in a presidential election is only a barometer for the electors to gauge the political atmosphere. Additionally, many/most of us will not vote for Bush.

" . . .it's very funny!" The word you're looking for is "ironic", perhaps "sardonic". George W. Bush being president has been anything but funny.

Maybe you'd like us to vote for isolationist Pat Buchanan?
See: https://www.cato.org/dailys/12-22-99a.html

But modern US immigation law makes it so difficult to immigrate that a large proportion of immigrants are now 'illegals': those with so little to lose that they will flout the law. The xenophobes then hold up these illegals as typical of all potential immigrants, and demand ever stricter limits, or even a complete ban on immigration (check out Pat Buchanan's rant). If young, well-educated, productive, English-speaking professionals want to come to the USA in order to work and pay taxes, why do we look a gift horse in the mouth?

BTW, there is a looming 'Social Security crisis' in the USA, since there will be more retirees and fewer workers in the coming decades. Conventional wisdom says that the 'only solution' to the crisis is either to raise taxes and/or cut benefits. But conventional wisdom is wrong. If we allow young, educated, hard-working, motivated, English-speaking people to come to the USA to work and pay taxes, the 'crisis' will disappear!

So, when the politicians end up raising your taxes now and cutting Social Security by the time you retire, you can place the blame squarely where it belongs: on the xenophobes who perpetuate the current US immigration policy.

Find out which of the two-sided liars will do the least damage to our freedoms and vote for that person.

If it wasn't for the high cost of doing business in Europe due to the Socialist policies.

Of course, I'm referring to the BMW and Mercedes plants that were built in the US to avoid confiscatory German/Socialist policies. When manufacturing jobs are migrating to the US you know something is wrong.

And you're always reading about the inability of German firms to get enough technical IT workers. It's partly due to the IT boom, but also do to the oppressive employment policies of German businesses making full time, direct hire prohibitively expensive. Enter the guest worker, does anyone know if MS is running MCSE boot camps in Turkey? They should.

Thankfully, dubya is leading in the polls in the states, with a Replublican majority in the house they might be able to reverse American's socialist decline.