Sonic booms are not legal over the majority of the United States and they don't routinely make them over urban areas, I lived in Portland for 14 years and there was never a sonic boom in the area there.
I've heard them, I lived near a high speed route for B-1Bs in the 1980s and they'd break the sound barrier on occasion.
The extra distance would also cost fuel, more fuel, more weight, fewer paying passengers, lower profits and now that route isn't viable, more time in the air, more maintenance and less total life on the airframe.
I've been there for three purchases, two Mini-14s and an Uzi carbine, it wasn't that hard with paperwork taken care of before hand and BATF wasn't a pain in the butt.
"in the past 50 years you've been involved in more armed conflicts than any other developed nation - you have never gone more than 5 years without being in a war somewhere and in the overwhelming majority of those wars you deposed a democratically elected leader to replace him with a sockpuppet dictator."
OK - 1960 to 2010 1960-1965 - no conflicts 1973-1983 - no conflicts 1983-1990 - no conflicts
As for deposing a democratically elected leader...
Vietnam was about defending a country from invasion. Granada was overthrowing a coup. Gulf War was about defending a couple monarchies from invasion. Bosnia was about stopping a civil war. Kosovo was about stopping a civil war. Somalia was about stopping a civil war. Afghanistan, civil war, cesspool of terrorists, etc. Iraq, deposing a dictator. Haiti was to remove a leader who had lost the election and wouldn't step down. Panama in 1989 was the removal of an elected leader who wouldn't step down.
The only time in the last 50 years the US invaded someone who was democratically elected was...I don't have one off the top of my head. Haiti and Panama are the closest.
If we look at the last 50 years, France, the UK, China, the Soviets/Russia have been involved in as much warfare as the US. In the late 70s and 80s South Africa was involved in more wars than the US.
The Canadians at the borders in Washington were on the rude side, but not that bad.
French at CDG and Orly were by far the rudest, although the women were generally quite good looking. Israeli and Palestinian Authority were nice enough to someone with a US passport, Cyprus wanted to know if I was CIA.
"How does NOT recognize polygamy not count as intrusion on the freedom of religion of members of Islam ? It is."
US Federal and State laws don't allow one religion to be put above any others and religious practices have to adhere to US laws and societal norms. The Mormons had to "ban" polygamy in order to get statehood and while there are still polygamist Mormons, things that go on may violate the law, like welfare fraud.
Someone one state allows, be it gay marriage or carry-concealment of firearms everywhere, another one might not allow.
So, Oregon is very liberal about concealment of firearms, it's basically legal anywhere and permits have to be given unless theres a good reason not to give them, gay marriage was almost legalized there in 2004. So in that state you had the opportunity for things both the right and left in the US support, thats how Americans like it and thats how the system here works.
I'm completely opposed to polyamory or polygamy being legally recognized in the US, and this is from someone whose been in a couple polyamorous relationship, yea, a self-described Republican whose been in poly relationships.
Marriage is a religious institution, so the US Federal Government getting involved in that wouldn't be right. I'd rather the US go to a system like France has, civil unions between whomever, gays, straights, and if one wants a religious marriage, then so be it.
I'd had an operation in my neck which was pretty deep in for a nerve tumor.
After it, I noted intense pains when I was hungry and then after a few months super sensitive skin on my cheek and face on that side. After trial and error, I figured out that the pains came from my salivary glands, so eating hurt, some foods were worse than others. I went to the doctors and they couldn't figure it out, some though it was my jaw, they looked at ear and were talking about breaking my jaw and reseting it.
I was watching Downfall and reading about the various Nazis on Wikipedia as I watched it, along comes Magda Goebbels and I read about Trigeminal neuralgia. I paused the show and asked my girlfriend to listen to a list of symptoms and tell me if it applies to my condition.
"The disorder is characterised by episodes of intense facial pain that usually last from a few seconds to several minutes or hours. The episodes of intense pain may occur paroxysmally. To describe the pain sensation, patients may describe a trigger area on the face, so sensitive that touching or even air currents can trigger an episode. It affects lifestyle as it can be triggered by common activities such as eating, talking, shaving and toothbrushing. The attacks are said by those affected to feel like stabbing electric shocks, burning, pressing, crushing, exploding or shooting pain that becomes intractable."
We emailed my doctor and she had me come in for a face to face, then referred me to someone else and he diagnosed it. Later that year I was accepted for a Medtronics nerve stim which had reduced the pain by 80-90%.
Without my case of Google and Wiki-itis, I may not have ever been diagnosed.
To the left - your points. To the right - the contradictions in your logic. Where there is no right, you actually sound rational.
Liberal representative democracy. Regulated market economy | The republican party is against this.
No, actually they are in favor of some regulations. Really, they are not in favor of an unrestricted market, I live in one of the, if not the most conservative gonzo states, Alaska, and theres no question about taxes and legal limits on companies and the market.
Limits on the welfare state | I could almost agree, if you prepended it with the word "sane".
What the hell does "sane" mean in this? No Republican at the national level calls for elimination of the welfare state, well except Ron Paul and I'm not a Paulite
Opposition to socialism | Because human's aren't social of course.
That reply makes no sense. Yes, Republicans want human to have no social interaction.
and communism | You mean like warantless phone-taps, massively expanded copyright, destruction of habeas corpus and other tricks Bush learned from Stalin ?
We've hashed this out, Bush wasn't/isn't Stalinist and no US president ever has been. Communism isn't Stalinism or Leninism or Great Leap Forward Maoist.
Pro-birth control | (A large section of) The republican party is against this - and favor abstinence-only sex-ed*
Some are, many aren't, as I'm a Neocon, that group is generally OK with birth control. From my experience with Republicans, the vast majority are pro-birth control, maybe two out of thirty I've known closely were abstinence only.
Anti-abortion | Liberal representative democracy.
Oh, sorry, can't have a belief about something based on personal experience without it violating liberal representative democracy? Abortion in the US wasn't decided by the representative democracy, it was decided by the Judicial Branch. I voted for Clinton both times in the 1990s and I was anti-abortion then.
Civil unions | The republican party is against this.
Bush was in favor of them, many Republicans are too.
Anti-gay marriage | Liberal representative democracy.
Yep, let the States legalize if they want, but the Federal Government shouldn't get involved in that. The States-Rights Republicans are in favor of that. If Oregon wants to have a vote on it, like they did in 2004, then they may have a vote on it and pass or reject it.
I only looked at the Bill of Rights, thats 1-10, so 11 doesn't count for this discussion, but as you said that you are against the second amendment completely I reckon that makes your stance more restrictive than Bush's.
As for the 11th amendment, show me where Bush changed the laws so we can have indentured servants or made it so Americans can own slaves.
Cars are not mentioned as a constitutional right while firearms are, hence driving tests and no firearms tests.
Now, I'm a historian so I do look at comparing and contrasting past to the present and I don't see that the facts shore up the idea that Bush is equal or comparable to Hitler or Stalin, theres really no wiggle room there, what's happened under the guise of Global War on Terror doesn't come close to the destruction of liberty under Stalin.
Bush didn't ignore all civil liberties, Bush didn't restrict gun rights, which is a civil liberty, he was in favor of civil unions, obviously speech wasn't too badly curtailed as there weren't mass arrests for what was in email, the internet, mail or in the media.
The Civil Rights First Amendment – Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause; freedom of speech, of the press, Freedom of Religion, and of assembly; right to petition - there were some restrictions, but there have been at other times of war too, Civil War, World War One, World War Two - what happened in the First World War was far more restrictive than what's happened since 2001
Second Amendment – Militia (United States), Sovereign state, Right to keep and bear arms. - This was made less restrictive
Third Amendment – Protection from quartering of troops. - No changes.
Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure. - Changes for the worse, just an extension of what's happened since the War on Drugs started and what happened under Clinton
Fifth Amendment – due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, eminent domain. - Retreats, especially with the SCOTUS decision about forcing evictions for economic development
Sixth Amendment – Trial by jury and rights of the accused; Confrontation Clause, speedy trial, public trial, right to counsel - no real retreats unless you are caught in a terror plot, so don't get caught in a terror plot
Seventh Amendment – Civil trial by jury. - No changes
Eighth Amendment – Prohibition of excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment. - No changes, bails have become excessive in the last thirty years, but that's no Bush's fault
Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. - Really vague, so sure maybe there were excesses by the Bush administration, I am not a constitutional scholar though
Tenth Amendment – Powers of States and people. - No real changes, the Feds have been eroding the power of the states since, well the 1820s.
So four out of the ten Bill of Rights were adversely effected by the Bush administration at the Executive Branch by my count.
Stalin was in power for 29 years, from 1924 to 1953. The bulk of the dead during Stalin's reign were during the Holodomor which happened during the 8-9th years in his stretch.
Furthermore, had Bush been able to run again, all the polls showed that he would have lost to Kerry, Clinton or Obama in the 2008 election, and remember that the Republicans never ran someone for a third term, the only time a former Republican ran a third time was Teddy Roosevelt as a third party in 1912.
Gitmo and the "Black Prison" system were nothing compared to the GULAG, perhaps you need a refresher on what the GULAG was.
"In 1931–32 the Gulag had approximately 200,000 prisoners in the camps; in 1935 — approximately 800,000 in camps and 300,000 in colonies (annual averages), and in 1939 — about 1.3 millions in camps and 350,000 in colonies."
"After World War II the number of inmates in prison camps and colonies, again, rose sharply, reaching approximately 2.5 million people by the early 1950s (about 1.7 million of whom were in camps)."
So...by Stalin's eighth year there were 200,000 political prisoners in the GULAG.
By Bush's eighth year there'd be as many as 3,000 people imprisoned by extraordinary rendition and 775 held in Gitmo. Lets say both are low and round it up to 5000. Still a damn sight lower than what Stalin was doing.
The methodology of abuse by Bush is nothing at all like what Stalin did and to say it is, well its just plan ignorant of what people like Stalin, Hitler or Pol Pot did.
Half of my European relatives were killed by Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, the other half were killed by Stalin's invasion of Poland in 1939. None of my relatives have been killed or imprisoned by Bush.
He did take my passport! And I was detained by the damnable fascists at the US border, since I was in a "no man's land" between the US crossing and the 20-odd kilometers to the Canadian check point I had nowhere to go!
And thats nothing compared to what happened when I came into JFK from Amsterdam. My passport was flagged and I was detained for an interview!
"Where you coming from?" Amsterdam, I'd been staying in Den Haag but I was in Israel before that. "Where are you going?" Portland then driving home to Eugene. "You a Beavers fan then?" Well...Eugene are the Ducks, but I went to Oregon State, so go Beavers! "Have a good flight."
I have needle phobia that manifests itself mostly with IVs and blood draws. I have to give myself IM injections every week but that doesn't bother me near as much, but the needle phobia makes me put off going to a doctor to the point where I'll cancel appointments.
"and communism | You mean like warantless phone-taps, massively expanded copyright, destruction of habeas corpus and other tricks Bush learned from Stalin ?"
I'd say he learned those things from Lincoln and FDR, but Stalin, not so much.
If Bush were like Stalin, then the following would have happened 1. Command Economy
2. Forced collectivization of farms
3. Catastrophic famine killing millions
4. A great purge/terror where anyone who might be a political or military threat to the President is arrested, tortured, tried, imprisoned or killed
Like Solzhenitsyn, anyone who insulted Bush would have been tossed in prison, Solzhenitsyn got arrested for refering to Stalin as "Oosatiy" ("the whiskered one,") "Khozyain" ("the master"), and "Balabos", (Odessa Yiddish for "the master"), so under a Stalinist Bush everyone on the Huffington Post would have been tossed in the clink.
5. Ethnic minorities were deported internally which obviously didn't happen under Bush, else there wouldn't have been Blacks in New Orleans when Katrina hit and everyone from my Reservation would have updated their facebook status.
6. Established a cult of personality, yea, that sure didn't happen with Bush, although it can be seen around Obama...
By Newsweeks metric no one is "conservative" enough.
"Overall, he slashed defense spending from 9.1 percent to 5.8 percent of GNP as he worked to withdraw from Southeast Asia—a process he described not as "victory" but with the Kerry-worthy euphemism "peace with honor.""
US border crossing on the Alaska Highway, nice, welcoming and really curious as to how I got my four reptiles (including 5 foot Iguana) through Canada. And as he gave back the passports and papers he said "Welcome home!"
Well, I'm a Republican and really everything there is what I believe in and vote for.
Liberal representative democracy. Regulated market economy Private property rights Gun ownership rights Limits on the welfare state Opposition to socialism and communism Pro-birth control Anti-abortion Civil unions Anti-gay marriage
Well as a life long Jew who has lived in South Dakota, Florida, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, rural conservative states and urban liberal areas, theres never been a problem being non-Christian in the US.
Heck, the only problems I've ever had were with Atheists.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes I have and I'm good. Besides, the symptoms for celiac don't correspond to what I had/have.
As for gluten-free...I'd rather die than be gluten-free. I grew up on a Wheat farm and I love my wheat, rice, beer and vodka.
Sonic booms are not legal over the majority of the United States and they don't routinely make them over urban areas, I lived in Portland for 14 years and there was never a sonic boom in the area there.
I've heard them, I lived near a high speed route for B-1Bs in the 1980s and they'd break the sound barrier on occasion.
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/planes/q0060b.shtml
http://www.kerncog.org/maps/MEAR_atlas/23MilitaryFlightOperationAreas.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_sonic_boom_tests
The extra distance would also cost fuel, more fuel, more weight, fewer paying passengers, lower profits and now that route isn't viable, more time in the air, more maintenance and less total life on the airframe.
I've been there for three purchases, two Mini-14s and an Uzi carbine, it wasn't that hard with paperwork taken care of before hand and BATF wasn't a pain in the butt.
Yes, but it is possible, you said "I am talking about going into a gun store and buying an automatic weapon. It just isn't happening."
Anyone who is buying one of these things legally knowns what they have to do and gets their paperwork in order.
Thats alot to reply to, but this stood out...
"in the past 50 years you've been involved in more armed conflicts than any other developed nation - you have never gone more than 5 years without being in a war somewhere and in the overwhelming majority of those wars you deposed a democratically elected leader to replace him with a sockpuppet dictator."
OK - 1960 to 2010
1960-1965 - no conflicts
1973-1983 - no conflicts
1983-1990 - no conflicts
As for deposing a democratically elected leader...
Vietnam was about defending a country from invasion. Granada was overthrowing a coup. Gulf War was about defending a couple monarchies from invasion. Bosnia was about stopping a civil war. Kosovo was about stopping a civil war. Somalia was about stopping a civil war. Afghanistan, civil war, cesspool of terrorists, etc. Iraq, deposing a dictator. Haiti was to remove a leader who had lost the election and wouldn't step down. Panama in 1989 was the removal of an elected leader who wouldn't step down.
The only time in the last 50 years the US invaded someone who was democratically elected was...I don't have one off the top of my head. Haiti and Panama are the closest.
If we look at the last 50 years, France, the UK, China, the Soviets/Russia have been involved in as much warfare as the US.
In the late 70s and 80s South Africa was involved in more wars than the US.
Yes it does, the gun shop across the road from where I lived in Hillsboro Oregon sells full autos.
http://www.beavercreekarmory.com/
The Canadians at the borders in Washington were on the rude side, but not that bad.
French at CDG and Orly were by far the rudest, although the women were generally quite good looking. Israeli and Palestinian Authority were nice enough to someone with a US passport, Cyprus wanted to know if I was CIA.
And now we know Archer/Bond/Bourne/Flint/Xander Cruise/Powers /. screen name.
Way to blow your cover!
The numbers don't support the statement that the majority of religions are poly.
Hindu - monogamous - 1 billion .5 billion
Christianity -monogamous - 2.2 billion
Buddhism - unfavorable to polygamy -
Really the only major religion that allows it explicitly is Islam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy#Patterns_of_occurrence_worldwide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups
"How does NOT recognize polygamy not count as intrusion on the freedom of religion of members of Islam ? It is."
US Federal and State laws don't allow one religion to be put above any others and religious practices have to adhere to US laws and societal norms. The Mormons had to "ban" polygamy in order to get statehood and while there are still polygamist Mormons, things that go on may violate the law, like welfare fraud.
Also, in all the US states it's illegal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy_in_the_United_States
My idea state is the US, with some tweaks to the civil, criminal code and health care reformed along the Swiss or Japanese system.
"Mother America is brandishing her weapons
She keeps me safe and warm by threats and misconceptions."
Thats a two line summery of the US right there.
I like it here, I like how the system works, its not perfect but hey, no where is.
This is where the United States is different.
Someone one state allows, be it gay marriage or carry-concealment of firearms everywhere, another one might not allow.
So, Oregon is very liberal about concealment of firearms, it's basically legal anywhere and permits have to be given unless theres a good reason not to give them, gay marriage was almost legalized there in 2004. So in that state you had the opportunity for things both the right and left in the US support, thats how Americans like it and thats how the system here works.
I'm completely opposed to polyamory or polygamy being legally recognized in the US, and this is from someone whose been in a couple polyamorous relationship, yea, a self-described Republican whose been in poly relationships.
Marriage is a religious institution, so the US Federal Government getting involved in that wouldn't be right. I'd rather the US go to a system like France has, civil unions between whomever, gays, straights, and if one wants a religious marriage, then so be it.
I'd had an operation in my neck which was pretty deep in for a nerve tumor.
After it, I noted intense pains when I was hungry and then after a few months super sensitive skin on my cheek and face on that side. After trial and error, I figured out that the pains came from my salivary glands, so eating hurt, some foods were worse than others. I went to the doctors and they couldn't figure it out, some though it was my jaw, they looked at ear and were talking about breaking my jaw and reseting it.
I was watching Downfall and reading about the various Nazis on Wikipedia as I watched it, along comes Magda Goebbels and I read about Trigeminal neuralgia. I paused the show and asked my girlfriend to listen to a list of symptoms and tell me if it applies to my condition.
"The disorder is characterised by episodes of intense facial pain that usually last from a few seconds to several minutes or hours. The episodes of intense pain may occur paroxysmally. To describe the pain sensation, patients may describe a trigger area on the face, so sensitive that touching or even air currents can trigger an episode. It affects lifestyle as it can be triggered by common activities such as eating, talking, shaving and toothbrushing. The attacks are said by those affected to feel like stabbing electric shocks, burning, pressing, crushing, exploding or shooting pain that becomes intractable."
We emailed my doctor and she had me come in for a face to face, then referred me to someone else and he diagnosed it. Later that year I was accepted for a Medtronics nerve stim which had reduced the pain by 80-90%.
Without my case of Google and Wiki-itis, I may not have ever been diagnosed.
To the left - your points.
To the right - the contradictions in your logic. Where there is no right, you actually sound rational.
Liberal representative democracy.
Regulated market economy | The republican party is against this.
No, actually they are in favor of some regulations. Really, they are not in favor of an unrestricted market, I live in one of the, if not the most conservative gonzo states, Alaska, and theres no question about taxes and legal limits on companies and the market.
Limits on the welfare state | I could almost agree, if you prepended it with the word "sane".
What the hell does "sane" mean in this? No Republican at the national level calls for elimination of the welfare state, well except Ron Paul and I'm not a Paulite
Opposition to socialism | Because human's aren't social of course.
That reply makes no sense. Yes, Republicans want human to have no social interaction.
and communism | You mean like warantless phone-taps, massively expanded copyright, destruction of habeas corpus and other tricks Bush learned from Stalin ?
We've hashed this out, Bush wasn't/isn't Stalinist and no US president ever has been. Communism isn't Stalinism or Leninism or Great Leap Forward Maoist.
Pro-birth control | (A large section of) The republican party is against this - and favor abstinence-only sex-ed*
Some are, many aren't, as I'm a Neocon, that group is generally OK with birth control. From my experience with Republicans, the vast majority are pro-birth control, maybe two out of thirty I've known closely were abstinence only.
Anti-abortion | Liberal representative democracy.
Oh, sorry, can't have a belief about something based on personal experience without it violating liberal representative democracy? Abortion in the US wasn't decided by the representative democracy, it was decided by the Judicial Branch. I voted for Clinton both times in the 1990s and I was anti-abortion then.
Civil unions | The republican party is against this.
Bush was in favor of them, many Republicans are too.
Anti-gay marriage | Liberal representative democracy.
Yep, let the States legalize if they want, but the Federal Government shouldn't get involved in that. The States-Rights Republicans are in favor of that. If Oregon wants to have a vote on it, like they did in 2004, then they may have a vote on it and pass or reject it.
I only looked at the Bill of Rights, thats 1-10, so 11 doesn't count for this discussion, but as you said that you are against the second amendment completely I reckon that makes your stance more restrictive than Bush's.
As for the 11th amendment, show me where Bush changed the laws so we can have indentured servants or made it so Americans can own slaves.
Cars are not mentioned as a constitutional right while firearms are, hence driving tests and no firearms tests.
Now, I'm a historian so I do look at comparing and contrasting past to the present and I don't see that the facts shore up the idea that Bush is equal or comparable to Hitler or Stalin, theres really no wiggle room there, what's happened under the guise of Global War on Terror doesn't come close to the destruction of liberty under Stalin.
Bush didn't ignore all civil liberties, Bush didn't restrict gun rights, which is a civil liberty, he was in favor of civil unions, obviously speech wasn't too badly curtailed as there weren't mass arrests for what was in email, the internet, mail or in the media.
The Civil Rights
First Amendment – Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause; freedom of speech, of the press, Freedom of Religion, and of assembly; right to petition - there were some restrictions, but there have been at other times of war too, Civil War, World War One, World War Two - what happened in the First World War was far more restrictive than what's happened since 2001
Second Amendment – Militia (United States), Sovereign state, Right to keep and bear arms. - This was made less restrictive
Third Amendment – Protection from quartering of troops. - No changes.
Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure. - Changes for the worse, just an extension of what's happened since the War on Drugs started and what happened under Clinton
Fifth Amendment – due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, eminent domain. - Retreats, especially with the SCOTUS decision about forcing evictions for economic development
Sixth Amendment – Trial by jury and rights of the accused; Confrontation Clause, speedy trial, public trial, right to counsel - no real retreats unless you are caught in a terror plot, so don't get caught in a terror plot
Seventh Amendment – Civil trial by jury. - No changes
Eighth Amendment – Prohibition of excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment. - No changes, bails have become excessive in the last thirty years, but that's no Bush's fault
Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. - Really vague, so sure maybe there were excesses by the Bush administration, I am not a constitutional scholar though
Tenth Amendment – Powers of States and people. - No real changes, the Feds have been eroding the power of the states since, well the 1820s.
So four out of the ten Bill of Rights were adversely effected by the Bush administration at the Executive Branch by my count.
Stalin was in power for 29 years, from 1924 to 1953. The bulk of the dead during Stalin's reign were during the Holodomor which happened during the 8-9th years in his stretch.
Furthermore, had Bush been able to run again, all the polls showed that he would have lost to Kerry, Clinton or Obama in the 2008 election, and remember that the Republicans never ran someone for a third term, the only time a former Republican ran a third time was Teddy Roosevelt as a third party in 1912.
Gitmo and the "Black Prison" system were nothing compared to the GULAG, perhaps you need a refresher on what the GULAG was.
"In 1931–32 the Gulag had approximately 200,000 prisoners in the camps; in 1935 — approximately 800,000 in camps and 300,000 in colonies (annual averages), and in 1939 — about 1.3 millions in camps and 350,000 in colonies."
"After World War II the number of inmates in prison camps and colonies, again, rose sharply, reaching approximately 2.5 million people by the early 1950s (about 1.7 million of whom were in camps)."
So...by Stalin's eighth year there were 200,000 political prisoners in the GULAG.
By Bush's eighth year there'd be as many as 3,000 people imprisoned by extraordinary rendition and 775 held in Gitmo. Lets say both are low and round it up to 5000. Still a damn sight lower than what Stalin was doing.
The methodology of abuse by Bush is nothing at all like what Stalin did and to say it is, well its just plan ignorant of what people like Stalin, Hitler or Pol Pot did.
Half of my European relatives were killed by Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, the other half were killed by Stalin's invasion of Poland in 1939. None of my relatives have been killed or imprisoned by Bush.
He did take my passport! And I was detained by the damnable fascists at the US border, since I was in a "no man's land" between the US crossing and the 20-odd kilometers to the Canadian check point I had nowhere to go!
And thats nothing compared to what happened when I came into JFK from Amsterdam. My passport was flagged and I was detained for an interview!
"Where you coming from?" Amsterdam, I'd been staying in Den Haag but I was in Israel before that.
"Where are you going?" Portland then driving home to Eugene.
"You a Beavers fan then?" Well...Eugene are the Ducks, but I went to Oregon State, so go Beavers!
"Have a good flight."
Let me know when this works with needles.
I have needle phobia that manifests itself mostly with IVs and blood draws. I have to give myself IM injections every week but that doesn't bother me near as much, but the needle phobia makes me put off going to a doctor to the point where I'll cancel appointments.
Well thought out reply. Thanks for taking the time and putting the effort into it.
1/10
Ah, Stalinist, its the new Hitler.
"and communism | You mean like warantless phone-taps, massively expanded copyright, destruction of habeas corpus and other tricks Bush learned from Stalin ?"
I'd say he learned those things from Lincoln and FDR, but Stalin, not so much.
If Bush were like Stalin, then the following would have happened
1. Command Economy
2. Forced collectivization of farms
3. Catastrophic famine killing millions
4. A great purge/terror where anyone who might be a political or military threat to the President is arrested, tortured, tried, imprisoned or killed
Like Solzhenitsyn, anyone who insulted Bush would have been tossed in prison, Solzhenitsyn got arrested for refering to Stalin as "Oosatiy" ("the whiskered one,") "Khozyain" ("the master"), and "Balabos", (Odessa Yiddish for "the master"), so under a Stalinist Bush everyone on the Huffington Post would have been tossed in the clink.
5. Ethnic minorities were deported internally which obviously didn't happen under Bush, else there wouldn't have been Blacks in New Orleans when Katrina hit and everyone from my Reservation would have updated their facebook status.
6. Established a cult of personality, yea, that sure didn't happen with Bush, although it can be seen around Obama...
By Newsweeks metric no one is "conservative" enough.
"Overall, he slashed defense spending from 9.1 percent to 5.8 percent of GNP as he worked to withdraw from Southeast Asia—a process he described not as "victory" but with the Kerry-worthy euphemism "peace with honor.""
US defense spending by GDP
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/01/information-is-beautiful-military-spending
4 percent.
US border crossing on the Alaska Highway, nice, welcoming and really curious as to how I got my four reptiles (including 5 foot Iguana) through Canada. And as he gave back the passports and papers he said "Welcome home!"
Well, I'm a Republican and really everything there is what I believe in and vote for.
Liberal representative democracy.
Regulated market economy
Private property rights
Gun ownership rights
Limits on the welfare state
Opposition to socialism and communism
Pro-birth control
Anti-abortion
Civil unions
Anti-gay marriage
No, the Greens are far-left and the Christian Patriots are far-fight.
That doesn't move the Republicans or Democrats farther right, it just plants them in the middle of the spectrum.
Well as a life long Jew who has lived in South Dakota, Florida, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, rural conservative states and urban liberal areas, theres never been a problem being non-Christian in the US.
Heck, the only problems I've ever had were with Atheists.