McCain fails on banking oversight, because of the Keating scandal. Obama fails because he took a shitload of money from Fannie and Freddie, and still has Franklin Raines as an advisor. They both fail far more though, because they both voted for the bailout. It really is pointless to try to pick one or the other based on their records w/r/t coddling crooked bankers.
That isn't something that the government should be dealing with, or even give a damn about.
Exactly. There are a handful of powers delegated to the federal government by the constitution, and nagging us about diet and exercise isn't one of them.
Which candidate will be better positioned to answer the problem? It will be the one who is able to make some hard decisions and stand up to powerful lobbyists.
It amazes me how little most U.S. citizens know about their government, and how little they care.
That's not at all surprising, given that our public schooling cartel has little interest in educating people, and is set up primarily to reward docility.
I've been rather encouraged though, by the achievements of the Ron Paul campaign. He's put things back on the agenda that were given up as lost causes almost a century ago. There are now tens of thousands of people who understand what the Federal Reserve is, who owns it, who benefits from inflation, and why our current system of fiat currency is not only unconstitutional but highly destructive to our economy. That's not bad for a single election cycle.
Since when did libertarians favor corporate welfare?
Libertarians have never favored any kind of transfer payments, whether its from rich to poor, poor to rich, individual to corporation, or any combination thereof. This canard comes from Liberals' desire to lump Libertarians in with Mercantilists.
) I consider corporate welfare to be a worse evil than individual welfare.
I'd call them precisely identical evils, except that the corporate welfare tends to be for larger amounts in any given instance.
Morally though, they're both wrong. There is nothing that is immoral for an individual to do, that becomes moral when done by a group. I have no right to take your earnings, even if you're richer than I am. I do not gain such a right if I hire a thug to take your earnings, nor do I gain such a right if I have an army of bureaucrats to take your earnings out of your paycheck before you even receive it.
I've never understood why conspiracy nuts latched onto fluoridation as some kind of diabolical crowd-control scheme. Fluoride is good for your teeth. If your local water utility doesn't fluoridate the water, then use a fluoride toothpaste and get professional fluoride applications from your dentist twice a year.
I'm sure I've ingested as much flouride as anyone else, and I'm certainly no fan of the government.
They also reserved the right to bear arms to the people, with the expectation that we could always outnumber and overwhelm government forces if need be.
long time ago, the citizens of America in the south didn't have a problem with slavery.
Neither did most of the people in the north, until a couple of decades before the civil war. Owning slaves was a status symbol in New York in Alexander Hamilton's time.
Slashdot Mirror
McCain fails on banking oversight, because of the Keating scandal. Obama fails because he took a shitload of money from Fannie and Freddie, and still has Franklin Raines as an advisor. They both fail far more though, because they both voted for the bailout. It really is pointless to try to pick one or the other based on their records w/r/t coddling crooked bankers.
-jcr
That isn't something that the government should be dealing with, or even give a damn about.
Exactly. There are a handful of powers delegated to the federal government by the constitution, and nagging us about diet and exercise isn't one of them.
-jcr
what will we do then?
Fly to India or Thailand for medical care, just like the Brits do. Hope you don't have any emergencies.
-jcr
Nothing short of price controls across the entire medical industry can succeed.
Wrong answer.
No matter what you're pricing, if you force the price down, you create a shortage, and if you force the price up, you create a surplus.
The solution to our current mess of over-regulated medical care isn't to complete the process of strangling the market.
-jcr
Which candidate will be better positioned to answer the problem? It will be the one who is able to make some hard decisions and stand up to powerful lobbyists.
Well, that rules McCain and Obama out.
-jcr
FDR is the dumbshit responsible for Fannie Mae, and Richard Nixon is responsible for Freddie Mac.
-jcr
It amazes me how little most U.S. citizens know about their government, and how little they care.
That's not at all surprising, given that our public schooling cartel has little interest in educating people, and is set up primarily to reward docility.
I've been rather encouraged though, by the achievements of the Ron Paul campaign. He's put things back on the agenda that were given up as lost causes almost a century ago. There are now tens of thousands of people who understand what the Federal Reserve is, who owns it, who benefits from inflation, and why our current system of fiat currency is not only unconstitutional but highly destructive to our economy. That's not bad for a single election cycle.
-jcr
Since when did libertarians favor corporate welfare?
Libertarians have never favored any kind of transfer payments, whether its from rich to poor, poor to rich, individual to corporation, or any combination thereof. This canard comes from Liberals' desire to lump Libertarians in with Mercantilists.
-jcr
) I consider corporate welfare to be a worse evil than individual welfare.
I'd call them precisely identical evils, except that the corporate welfare tends to be for larger amounts in any given instance.
Morally though, they're both wrong. There is nothing that is immoral for an individual to do, that becomes moral when done by a group. I have no right to take your earnings, even if you're richer than I am. I do not gain such a right if I hire a thug to take your earnings, nor do I gain such a right if I have an army of bureaucrats to take your earnings out of your paycheck before you even receive it.
-jcr
steal the nomination from Clinton
You're funny.
Clinton blew it all by herself, by lying, snivelling, arm-twisting, and race-baiting.
-jcr
They both would have done the bailout or some variant.
Would have? They both DID vote for the bailout, and that's how we know that they have no regard at all for the constitution.
-jcr
TFA doesn't include it, and without being able to read it, it's all hearsay.
-jcr
Comparable to any other software distributor.
-jcr
. They're taking an off-the-shelf jet engine and rocket and putting it in a car.
They're also making the car stable and making it remain on the ground. It's not as easy as you make it out to be.
-jcr
When businesses "strike", it's called extortion.
Not by anyone with a law dictionary.
-jcr
If you can get enough of the ISPs to do it, a day or a week without internet connectivity might knock some sense into their legislators.
-jcr
What if they're not close enough to take pictures of each other?
Sorry, I just don't see the usefulness of this.
-jcr
I've never understood why conspiracy nuts latched onto fluoridation as some kind of diabolical crowd-control scheme. Fluoride is good for your teeth. If your local water utility doesn't fluoridate the water, then use a fluoride toothpaste and get professional fluoride applications from your dentist twice a year.
I'm sure I've ingested as much flouride as anyone else, and I'm certainly no fan of the government.
-jcr
Heinlein described an approach to anesthesia which was to remove the memory of pain.
-jcr
Are my sons (who were born of foreign national mother on foreign soil) eligible to ever become President?
If you were a US citizen when they were born, then so are they. They're eligible to run for president.
-jcr
They also reserved the right to bear arms to the people, with the expectation that we could always outnumber and overwhelm government forces if need be.
-jcr
likely not even eligible to run for the office
That's a red herring. If either of your parents is a US citizen when you're born, then so are you.
-jcr
long time ago, the citizens of America in the south didn't have a problem with slavery.
Neither did most of the people in the north, until a couple of decades before the civil war. Owning slaves was a status symbol in New York in Alexander Hamilton's time.
-jcr
Oh, and we also overthrew our king.
-jcr
Instead of defending your right to bear arms, why don't you work toward demilitarizing the government?
Who says we have to pick one or the other?
-jcr