You want to add the fact that Timur through collaboration elevated the Turks whose influence on Islam was substantial. Before the Turks contaminated Islam with their cultural beliefs, men and women were considered equals, and there we strict rules protecting the social freedom and expression of women. The barbaric nature of Timur forever changed the face of Islam.
The problem isn't men not having degree or women having them instead of men. That is a western perspective. This is a religious issue, and need for women to be subservient to men. Women need to be taken out of public work forcibly put back in the home, barefoot and pregnant. The bottom line here is simple. No professional women. No women succeeding over men. Absolutely no women demonstrating social superiority to men under any circumstance. This is an attack on women, and its all on the basis that women are not people, but property. Property of their Fathers or Husbands, but they have no right to their own humanity. That is the crux of the matter and that is the evil that is being perpetrated.
When a guy has an opinion, that's a protected right. When a guy with hundreds of millions of dollars starts inflicting his opinions on millions of others, we start to walk into that grey zone where I'm getting uneasy. When a guy with millions of dollars starts to use that money and power to influence national politics so he can make his opinion the law of the land, I'm now passed "Butt pucker" and fully into "Just hold up a minute there Sling Blade..." You read Deuteronomy? Leviticus? Are you familiar with the laws of Moses? You can't cherry pick. I'll follow this law but not that. If your children disrespect you, you must kill them. That's the Law of Moses. Or if you choose not to honor that law, then by all mean stop picking the laws that justify your personal prejudice and ignorance. Because the Bible then just becomes a thin excuse to be a bigoted scumbag, and I'll bet that doesn't make God all warm and fuzzy either. Remember, above all else, love. If that ain't love you're showing, it isn't Christian.
Here's the problem. The people in Iran, they hate their government, they hate the religious leaders and the folks in charge are a small, dangerous and threatening bunch of zealots. Most folks get satellite TV pumped in by an Iranian provider who produces Free Iranian TV from Los Angeles and he is possibly the most subversive SOB alive on the planet. He has literally won the hearts and minds of at least two generations of Iranians. They want Satellite TV, they want video games, they want popular music and night life. The Women are freaking out. They just want a life. So, how do we inspire them to put a lid on the zealots and inspire the zealots to move to the Sahara? Iran is making overtures to nuke Israel and the Jews are feeling compelled to make a proactive strike. Somebody needs to racket up the squeeze on Iran, to pop the eyes out, so the leaders get the message. Do as the world asks and you get rewarded. Don't do as the world ask and the planet spank you are you best believe its going to hurt.
I find it so fascinating. I've known many Persians. To a man and woman, they were intelligent, passionate, vocal and idealistic. So how did a nation with such cultural depth, such delightful people, so much going for them go so far off the track. Of course, the religious folks in Florida are trying to amend their state constitution to make all abortion illegal. That would include abortion in the cases of rape, incest and where the Mother's life is in imminent danger. The folks lobbying for this law have declared that a complete human being and citizen of the United States exists the instance sperm hits egg. By this definition, when a doctor collects 20 eggs for in vitro fertilization, each and every one of those eggs is now a constitutionally protected human being with inalienable rights. You must now bring every one of those blastocysts to full term or its murder. The ramifications from fertility all the way through medical science are deeply disturbing. When a doctor reverts one of your skin cells back into a pruropotent stem cell, is that a whole person too? It could be used to clone you, why not.
We need to have a little conversation with the world. Your involvement with the big invisible man in the sky is very special and we don't want to get in the way of your Bromance. HOWEVER, here are 350 scrict global rules you need to follow to ensure we all get along. You know simple things. You don't get to enslave anybody in particular the female half of the human race. You don't get to practice holy war, that's a no no. You don't get a free pass on being ignorant, superstitious, and committedly stupid. You can't simply ignore the real world and engage in dangerous or social destructive practices because your book said it was okay. Most of all, you are not the single purveyors of a one and only true anything. You don't get to shove your beliefs down the throats of other, you don't get to legislate your beliefs down the throats of others and you don't get to use force or duress to make others accept your beliefs. This is neither holy nor moral and when you behave this way god is most unhappy. Haven't you notice the hurricane approaching the Republican National Convention?
Don't go making blanket statements that don't hold water. Billy Graham is a great man and humanitarian, and I'm pretty sure people from both sides of the aisle will agree that you can tell a tree by the fruit it bears. More than a few clowns who espouse to be christian miss the mark by a country mile and political persuasion has nothing to do with it. The thing is that even the Catholic church that Ryan grew up in said "We do not agree with your political views. A Christian is suppose to protect, empower and promote the needs and interests of the poor, the weak, and the sick. Your actions are dedicated to serving the wealthy. Yours is not a Christian agenda." That's pretty harsh stuff coming from your own church.
"You"? I'm libertarian (small "l"). Same sex marriage isn't a constitutional right, it's defined status.
I'm all over the place. Because I think small government is awesome though I do believe some things are best done by a government, Federal, State and Local. Marriage is a contract. Allowing people of the same sex to participate in the contract as a function of saying, that its time to stop hating people who are different than you (as has always been the concept of greater freedom and liberty under our culture) makes perfect sense. At a state level and at a National level.
This isn't about corporation in general. This is about leftists using their corporate influence in the media to promote Democrat candidates. They were slow to back down because they wanted their attack on Bush to succeed. By their own admission they wanted to influence the election.
I'm sorry but between FOX News and the concentration of media owned by large corporate interests (ClearChannel, Hearst, GE, etc.) pushing the corporate and often conservative line, you simply can't even begin to blow that smoke. I can show you that there is a powerful nationwide campaign on conservative talk radio owned and operated by large monied interests just stuffing that American Psyche with conservative trash, As for influencing vote, Nationally a recent tally was done on C3 501 nonprofit organizations that were in fact illegally engaged in political campaigns over the last 10 years and the VAST majority were Republican, and in fact the blatant disregard they have for tax law, honesty, civil propriety or even simple accuracy will be the subject of a soon to be published book on this fascinating and ongoing scandal.
Both sides get away with a lot, and that's my point...
Dude... I'm sorry but this "You guys do it too..." thing is just creepy. Biden's a douche bag for the MPAA, nobody's arguing that. Its one of the things I hate most about the Obama White House, and it tells my he's in Hollywood's pocket (as though the pushing for obscene laws wasn't hint enough.) On this issue my friend, I'll stand toe to toe with you. When Democrats engage in shitty politics I kinda wanna see them go away too. But you can't honestly compare the silly crap that's happened in the Obama White House to the yellow cake boondoggle in the Bush Administration, lying full out to the American People about weapons of mass destruction, and when a respected expert reports that Iraq has no yellow cake, Rove (aka. Turdblossom) out's his wife as a CIA agent, all of this so Cheney could pump a trillion dollars into Halliburton with no compete contracts. If you lined up all the Bush atrocities; letting 9/11 just happen (they'd had been fully warned about Bin Ladin and they ignored him), putting Justice (Corporations are Human Beings) Scalia in the Supreme Court, Faking the Iraq War, Letting Bin Ladin go because Bush was tight with the Bin Ladin family, Stuffing the House Staff with incompetent frat brothers and brown nosers, Hurricane Catrina, The Dot-Bomb implosion, The Housing, Banking, Insurance, Automobile Industry implosion, Sorry I just can't go on, its like watching a loved on being poisoned. You can't compare Obama to Bush. That's like comparing Spanky of "Our Gang" to Hitler. It just doesn't wash, sorry. I'm not saying I like Obama or agree with any of it, but you can honest compare a gopher hole to the Grand Canyon, it just destroys any credibility. Now looking at the Republican ticket, I could have lived with Romney, before he sold his soul to the clowns that made Ryan his running mate. Too bad.
Friend, I don't want anyone to drown, some do, but the middle class in this country has seen their real income drop more than a quarter and nearly a third since 2000. We have watched the largest shift in wealth in human history. We've watched war on the thinnest of pretenses against people who did nothing to us. We've seen the fastest growing economy in 50 years turned into a smoking hole.
We watch greedy self serving bastards line their pockets with tax payers money while politician all but blow them. DID you see the Republicans interviewing Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan on his loss of Billions of dollars on bad speculation. They fawned, and flirted, and pat his popo to make it feel all better. I was dumbstruck. Honestly the only other thing they could possibly have done was go down on him. For just a brief flash, drowning or some other act of god might have seemed desirable. So, I can say without any loss of compassion or conscience, these people are just the worst and need to be forcibly removed from office with all due haste. Killed, not so much. Fired? You bet your ass.
I'm all for fiscal conservatism. I think a government needs to be transparent like glass, and should account for every penny is spends. The thing is, I'm okay with people of underprivileged classes getting support for education and learning useful trades. That's a great way to spend tax money. It expands the tax base, provides a strong middle class and move the next generation out of being underprivileged (by the way I'm color blind when it comes to privilege... and it just so happens women and people of color still have it tougher than white guys.)
Consider taxes are the way society invests in it present and its future. Some needs to be spent to keep schools and courts and libraries open. Some needs to be spent to protect us from threats outside our country. Some needs to be spent to protect us from criminals and disasters like fire. And some needs to be spent for bridges and roads and power lines and sewage treatment. These are all vital services and we use government to provide them. We don't have to. We can privatize them, but then you start having problems because wealthy people get all the services. For example, a wealthy neighborhood can afford to build good schools and poor people get no schools. This is a disaster in a technological society where you have to be at least literate and preferably literate as well in math, science and technology to function with some level of grace and power. The answer is that we try to set at least a minimum standard for schools and social services, so society can function with a modicum of ease and freedom (societies with disparate classes are inherently more violent, disruptive and inefficient.)
If your actions have a consequence that impacts minorities unfairly then maybe the racist label is one you should look at very carefully. There are acts of commission and acts of omission. Letting a man drown because he's black is patently racist.
Have you spent any time watching CSPAN? Read a Congressional Record? Do you have a clue what the Republican Party as a whole is saying? I'm sure there are guys in the party who are great to do shots with (avoid Cheney he shoots for real...) Its just that what y'all keep proposing sounds good until you look at it, then you have to go... HUH? The Ryan Plan for instance. Its base on making a 2.7 Trillion dollar cut to social service, eliminate Medicaid, pretty much gut Medicare and Social Security, eliminate educational subsidies (that's genius), eliminate the social security net for the poor and close tax loopholes for the middle class. Then give the wealthy 4.3 Trillion dollars. Now in my head, that implodes the middle class, throws any future of having the next generation perform any task more complex than ask "Would you like fries with that?" (taxbase? that's what HB1 Visas are for), gives the wealthy bastards who already have most of the money the rest of the money (which by the way will be AWESOME for those offshore banks where they're storing their money now...) and shoots the deficit up 1.5 Trillion dollars a year. Eight years of that should fix everything right up. See that's either Ryan being a disingenuous jerk sucking up to a mouth breathing constituency who can't do math or that's Ryan begin certifiably bug fuck. I can't tell which.
See, the Democratic Party, is dishonest, power hungry, financially irresponsible, morally questionable. The Republican Party is just insane. Like set you hair on fire and whistle "Camp Town Races" "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" Gob Smacking Loopy. You can't say the things that emanate from the Republican side of the aisle and not be either a felating shill for the wealthy in this country or flat out ready for a 20% Thorazine drip.
I just find it ironic that Reagan closed the mental health facilities in the 80s, and it appears they've all found residence in D.C. as standing members of Ronny's own party. Truth is stranger than fiction.
Why is it than when anyone mentions gravity, evolution or sanity they are suddenly left leaning. Personally I love what Barry Goldwater said;
Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. .....
The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom.... I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are?... I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."
Have y'all ever considered that instead of liberal leaning maybe we just have a sane grasp of physical reality? Hhhmmmm?
Indeed, I'm working at this moment on the mosquito nuke! A very tiny thermonuclear device that will incinerate anything in the 2 inch fireball. The problem is getting the fallout out of your rugs...
Yeah, the liberal camp doesn't want to dictate anything, right? Redistribution of wealth to promote laziness and irresponsibility is a great idea. Please, take my paycheck to fund this winning plan!
Liberal Camp? Show me a liberal camp, there are now about 6 honest to jebus liberals left in D.C., the rest either retired or died of old age. What's left of the Democrats is milk toast moderates, soft conservatives, and social idealist who think they can singles handedly fix whats broken. Good luck with that. They only look liberal compare to the beasts with two right arms... the Republicans are no so far over the top, they stopped being conservative and moves all the way over into just plain bug-fuck. Look at the Ryan plan. End Medicaid. Gut Medicare and Social Security. Close loopholes on taxes on the middle class (I guess that means the two middle class guys that will be left), vanish all traces of the social safety net and just let'em all die. Gut education and all government spending on advancing the nations social advancement and give the wealthy and corporations $4.3 trillion i bonuses and tax cuts. That's not a plan, that's a fiscal Kamikaze mission. Its all for show, not to be taken seriously. And it makes Ryan look like a hard nosed conservative. I'm calling Bullshit.
If you think the Republicans are any more interested in personal responsibility or moral rectitude you my friend need to cut out that crack smoking, its affecting your perception. Cutting the social safety net for millions of 60, 70, and 80 somethings isn't my idea of very Christian thanks. I'm taking care of my best friend right now. She's an 80 year old going through Chemo. I guess you could say she's lazy, she sleeps about 14 hours a day, but ovarian cancer kinda knocks the wind out of you. She's worked hard all her life, paid her taxes, and I expect deserves a fair shot at surviving this disease. Please from a solid Christian perspective explain to me why you just yank her off of Social Security and just let her die, I'd love to hear your rational?
Removing the extreme religion from the picture, the motive behind social conservatism is that by enforcing certain standards that promote decency and family values, society is stronger for it. Which society has more happiness and is more productive? The one full of amoral lazy tools living off the government (read: real workers' income) dole in broken families with no role models, popping out random unloved kids with one useless parent at best to guide them, or the one full of complete and loving families raising children to be responsible and morally-decent adults?
Whose friggin standards. I'm tired of people making up silly crap and then expecting others to tow their line. The cellular family, that conservative family value you guys keep talking about only happened after World War II. Before that the majority of American's lived in Rural towns and 2-4 generations of people shared the same farm house. Their lifestyle was completely different as was their ideas of what was morally right and wrong. Your family values didn't show up until the great migration to the urban areas after the rise of cars, highways, urban then suburbanization, and the single family dwelling of the 1950s. Everything is a religion to you clowns, you believe crap simply because you believe crap, you don't study the facts, you don't analyze the trends, you get your opinions from Fox news, Gawd Forbid you actually have an original thought. Why not spend a month reading something not published by a religious talking head. Try a little history, economics, sociology, world politics. Find out how we got here starting with the Revolutionary War in the US, The French Revolution on the continent (and the rise and fall of Napoleon) and the insidious nature of the British Banking system. Get a clue. Hell, get two, they're small.
As for the rest of your really ignorant rant, There are a lot of single Mothers out there desperately trying to get out of poverty.
Though you've said a lot of things I disagree with, for instance the Ayn Rand thing seems far more Libertarian than Republican. I acknowledge that Ryan thinks he likes Ayn Rand, but that's only because he's taken only the bits he likes the same way he did with religion... His own Catholic Church denounced his policies as anti-Catholic and anti-Christian. They said a Christian should be committed to serving and protecting the poor, the weak and the forsaken. Ryan's cow towing to the wealthy in the name of religious consideratrion is nothing less that an affront to Christians everywhere.
I won't say there aren't petty, self obsessed, idiotic men and women out there, the fact is our society seems to breed people who's compassion would barely fill a gnats navel. That said, I would dare wager that there are far more college Jocks running around today pursuing sports careers having committed nothing less than serial date rape, than there are husbands rotting in prison as victims of a pissy wife. I think the law in WA, is probably speaking about fear as threat of physical violence, and one needs do more than simply say he scared me. That said, I've seen police err on the side of women, in domestic disputes and sometimes the woman is both the instigator and the violent party (a number of men are trained from an early age to never engage in physical violence with a woman, and some women are not above using this in there favor.)
All this points to a swinging pendulum, and a serious of situations that vary from place to place. Here in the silicon valley, we had a judge who was committed that Fathers be with their children. He was so committed to the making certain that Fathers got their visitation rights that he was forcing children to spend time with Fathers who were abusive, inattentive and whose children begged not to be left alone with them. This didn't stop him from forcing these Fathers to take their unwanted children to the detriment of the children, the Mothers, and even the Fathers who really just wanted to be left alone. The Laws and the People who wield them can sometime be capricious and foolish. That doesn't alter the fact that over all, men have a leg up in this society, and that women have not caught up to men in wages, security, advancement or recognition. However, I also acknowledge things are moving in a good direction and if along the way, men are short shrift, I hope society has the wisdom to protect their rights and dignity with equal vigor.
I would feel a lot more sorry for men in general if;
A) They didn't wield the vast majority of the social power
B) Weren't physically stronger and more sexually aggressive then most women
C) Weren't frequently in positions of power and authority
D) Didn't use force, harassment, illicit drugs, alcohol or weapons to perpetrate attacks on women
Perhaps there should be "Grades of Rape" where all rape is sticking you genitals where they don't belong, but you start at "Grade 0" consentual sex between minors, and the punishment is 50 hours of public service, for BOTH participants, to "Grade 7" Slipping a stranger a Ruffy in a bar, 6 years of hard labor, to "Grade 10" Full on physical attack, serial rape, rape with violence, weapons, torture and/or age enhancements, feed the bugger into a wood chipper up to the waist. Rape this why don'tcha! We can call it getting a "Fargo".
AUTORAPE... Hey, You, what are you doing to my car? Oh, my Gawd!!! Call the Police! RAPE A CAR GO TO JAIL
What-a-ya in for bub?
Autorape... she was a sexy little sports coupe, I just couldn't help myself.
Yeah, I saw the header burns on your thigh in the shower.
Yeah, I started humping motorcycles, before I knew I was doing neighbor's Mini Cooper, I guess I just lost control of myself...
Have you not watched "To Catch a Predator - Dateline" on ABC. There are pedophiles by the frigging boatload looking for pretty young things both male and female, haunting internet chat rooms and willing to travel hundreds of miles to go after someone knowingly below the age of consent. Sorry, I can totally get the poor schlub, who get's snookered by a girl who look older than her actual age, and for that we show some compassion, though unless she has fake ID, he still needs to just be careful. The creepy scumbags hunting to make it with kids just need to be put someplace in Gen-Pop for about 50 years, with pedophile tattooed on their foreheads. Actually you can make the sentences shorter, they won't last a month in Gen-Pop anyway.
Exactly, You have your mouth covered and a knife at your throat, and your attacker says "Make a sound and I cut your pretty head off..." She makes no sound and she's guilty in the eyes of God. Makes perfect sense.
Face it friend, women in these societies aren't people, they're property. They are breeding machines designed by God to give men sons. Fail to accomplish this and the breeding machine is a failure in the eyes of man and God. Women are unclean. Unfit to enter a mans place of prayer. In the Muslim world, there are places where women are frequently killed, because their last male family member is killed fighting, and when the starving woman leaves the house, the men of the town properly slaughter her. These are the children of Abraham. Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Women are not people. They are things, chattel. A man may beat his wife, take her as he pleases, punish her as he see's fit and woman's only recourse is to pray. These are not societies that values the humanity of women. However, I can see how men love them. And with twice the physical mass and a predilection to violence, its clear how men enforce their wishes on women.
Just don't call it God's plan, men interpret God, and clearly they've interpreted God in a way that suited them. Forgive me if I find the interpretation a wee bit self serving. Seeing as they even envisioned the deity as what... but of course, a big Man in the sky. Of course he is.
This is actually a fascinating area of discussion. Christians, particularly Fundies, have no safe place to even talk about their own religion, like Gawd mysteriously farted the thing out whole one day and from that day forward, the Bible we all know was the one and only true word of Gawd.
The making of the Bible, Constantine, the Judaification of the New Testament through the works of Saul/Paul, the influences of Greeks, Romans, and later German's, North Men, and Europe as a whole, is simply amazing. The Gnostic Christian writings are particularly fascinating, and perhaps give an insight into the real intent of Christ, that was lost when Christianity bowed to Political and Social Pressures. Of course, you look at America today and if the founding fathers could be brought to the present for a day and see what's happened, I'm not at all certain if they would cheer or just give it back to the Natives. Aren't we a funny species?
You don't have to outlaw incest (though it is taboo in most cultures), there are strong behavioral traits in humans that for the most part prevent us from mating with our siblings unless you happen to live in the deep south and have fewer than 2.5 teeth per living family member.
Slashdot Mirror
You want to add the fact that Timur through collaboration elevated the Turks whose influence on Islam was substantial. Before the Turks contaminated Islam with their cultural beliefs, men and women were considered equals, and there we strict rules protecting the social freedom and expression of women. The barbaric nature of Timur forever changed the face of Islam.
The problem isn't men not having degree or women having them instead of men. That is a western perspective. This is a religious issue, and need for women to be subservient to men. Women need to be taken out of public work forcibly put back in the home, barefoot and pregnant. The bottom line here is simple. No professional women. No women succeeding over men. Absolutely no women demonstrating social superiority to men under any circumstance. This is an attack on women, and its all on the basis that women are not people, but property. Property of their Fathers or Husbands, but they have no right to their own humanity. That is the crux of the matter and that is the evil that is being perpetrated.
When a guy has an opinion, that's a protected right. When a guy with hundreds of millions of dollars starts inflicting his opinions on millions of others, we start to walk into that grey zone where I'm getting uneasy. When a guy with millions of dollars starts to use that money and power to influence national politics so he can make his opinion the law of the land, I'm now passed "Butt pucker" and fully into "Just hold up a minute there Sling Blade..." You read Deuteronomy? Leviticus? Are you familiar with the laws of Moses? You can't cherry pick. I'll follow this law but not that. If your children disrespect you, you must kill them. That's the Law of Moses. Or if you choose not to honor that law, then by all mean stop picking the laws that justify your personal prejudice and ignorance. Because the Bible then just becomes a thin excuse to be a bigoted scumbag, and I'll bet that doesn't make God all warm and fuzzy either. Remember, above all else, love. If that ain't love you're showing, it isn't Christian.
Here's the problem. The people in Iran, they hate their government, they hate the religious leaders and the folks in charge are a small, dangerous and threatening bunch of zealots. Most folks get satellite TV pumped in by an Iranian provider who produces Free Iranian TV from Los Angeles and he is possibly the most subversive SOB alive on the planet. He has literally won the hearts and minds of at least two generations of Iranians. They want Satellite TV, they want video games, they want popular music and night life. The Women are freaking out. They just want a life. So, how do we inspire them to put a lid on the zealots and inspire the zealots to move to the Sahara? Iran is making overtures to nuke Israel and the Jews are feeling compelled to make a proactive strike. Somebody needs to racket up the squeeze on Iran, to pop the eyes out, so the leaders get the message. Do as the world asks and you get rewarded. Don't do as the world ask and the planet spank you are you best believe its going to hurt.
I find it so fascinating. I've known many Persians. To a man and woman, they were intelligent, passionate, vocal and idealistic. So how did a nation with such cultural depth, such delightful people, so much going for them go so far off the track. Of course, the religious folks in Florida are trying to amend their state constitution to make all abortion illegal. That would include abortion in the cases of rape, incest and where the Mother's life is in imminent danger. The folks lobbying for this law have declared that a complete human being and citizen of the United States exists the instance sperm hits egg. By this definition, when a doctor collects 20 eggs for in vitro fertilization, each and every one of those eggs is now a constitutionally protected human being with inalienable rights. You must now bring every one of those blastocysts to full term or its murder. The ramifications from fertility all the way through medical science are deeply disturbing. When a doctor reverts one of your skin cells back into a pruropotent stem cell, is that a whole person too? It could be used to clone you, why not.
We need to have a little conversation with the world. Your involvement with the big invisible man in the sky is very special and we don't want to get in the way of your Bromance. HOWEVER, here are 350 scrict global rules you need to follow to ensure we all get along. You know simple things. You don't get to enslave anybody in particular the female half of the human race. You don't get to practice holy war, that's a no no. You don't get a free pass on being ignorant, superstitious, and committedly stupid. You can't simply ignore the real world and engage in dangerous or social destructive practices because your book said it was okay. Most of all, you are not the single purveyors of a one and only true anything. You don't get to shove your beliefs down the throats of other, you don't get to legislate your beliefs down the throats of others and you don't get to use force or duress to make others accept your beliefs. This is neither holy nor moral and when you behave this way god is most unhappy. Haven't you notice the hurricane approaching the Republican National Convention?
Don't go making blanket statements that don't hold water. Billy Graham is a great man and humanitarian, and I'm pretty sure people from both sides of the aisle will agree that you can tell a tree by the fruit it bears. More than a few clowns who espouse to be christian miss the mark by a country mile and political persuasion has nothing to do with it. The thing is that even the Catholic church that Ryan grew up in said "We do not agree with your political views. A Christian is suppose to protect, empower and promote the needs and interests of the poor, the weak, and the sick. Your actions are dedicated to serving the wealthy. Yours is not a Christian agenda." That's pretty harsh stuff coming from your own church.
Okay I guess we do this by the numbers...
"You"? I'm libertarian (small "l"). Same sex marriage isn't a constitutional right, it's defined status.
I'm all over the place. Because I think small government is awesome though I do believe some things are best done by a government, Federal, State and Local. Marriage is a contract. Allowing people of the same sex to participate in the contract as a function of saying, that its time to stop hating people who are different than you (as has always been the concept of greater freedom and liberty under our culture) makes perfect sense. At a state level and at a National level.
This isn't about corporation in general. This is about leftists using their corporate influence in the media to promote Democrat candidates. They were slow to back down because they wanted their attack on Bush to succeed. By their own admission they wanted to influence the election.
I'm sorry but between FOX News and the concentration of media owned by large corporate interests (ClearChannel, Hearst, GE, etc.) pushing the corporate and often conservative line, you simply can't even begin to blow that smoke. I can show you that there is a powerful nationwide campaign on conservative talk radio owned and operated by large monied interests just stuffing that American Psyche with conservative trash, As for influencing vote, Nationally a recent tally was done on C3 501 nonprofit organizations that were in fact illegally engaged in political campaigns over the last 10 years and the VAST majority were Republican, and in fact the blatant disregard they have for tax law, honesty, civil propriety or even simple accuracy will be the subject of a soon to be published book on this fascinating and ongoing scandal.
Both sides get away with a lot, and that's my point...
Dude... I'm sorry but this "You guys do it too..." thing is just creepy. Biden's a douche bag for the MPAA, nobody's arguing that. Its one of the things I hate most about the Obama White House, and it tells my he's in Hollywood's pocket (as though the pushing for obscene laws wasn't hint enough.) On this issue my friend, I'll stand toe to toe with you. When Democrats engage in shitty politics I kinda wanna see them go away too. But you can't honestly compare the silly crap that's happened in the Obama White House to the yellow cake boondoggle in the Bush Administration, lying full out to the American People about weapons of mass destruction, and when a respected expert reports that Iraq has no yellow cake, Rove (aka. Turdblossom) out's his wife as a CIA agent, all of this so Cheney could pump a trillion dollars into Halliburton with no compete contracts. If you lined up all the Bush atrocities; letting 9/11 just happen (they'd had been fully warned about Bin Ladin and they ignored him), putting Justice (Corporations are Human Beings) Scalia in the Supreme Court, Faking the Iraq War, Letting Bin Ladin go because Bush was tight with the Bin Ladin family, Stuffing the House Staff with incompetent frat brothers and brown nosers, Hurricane Catrina, The Dot-Bomb implosion, The Housing, Banking, Insurance, Automobile Industry implosion, Sorry I just can't go on, its like watching a loved on being poisoned. You can't compare Obama to Bush. That's like comparing Spanky of "Our Gang" to Hitler. It just doesn't wash, sorry. I'm not saying I like Obama or agree with any of it, but you can honest compare a gopher hole to the Grand Canyon, it just destroys any credibility. Now looking at the Republican ticket, I could have lived with Romney, before he sold his soul to the clowns that made Ryan his running mate. Too bad.
Friend, I don't want anyone to drown, some do, but the middle class in this country has seen their real income drop more than a quarter and nearly a third since 2000. We have watched the largest shift in wealth in human history. We've watched war on the thinnest of pretenses against people who did nothing to us. We've seen the fastest growing economy in 50 years turned into a smoking hole.
We watch greedy self serving bastards line their pockets with tax payers money while politician all but blow them. DID you see the Republicans interviewing Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan on his loss of Billions of dollars on bad speculation. They fawned, and flirted, and pat his popo to make it feel all better. I was dumbstruck. Honestly the only other thing they could possibly have done was go down on him. For just a brief flash, drowning or some other act of god might have seemed desirable. So, I can say without any loss of compassion or conscience, these people are just the worst and need to be forcibly removed from office with all due haste. Killed, not so much. Fired? You bet your ass.
I'm all for fiscal conservatism. I think a government needs to be transparent like glass, and should account for every penny is spends. The thing is, I'm okay with people of underprivileged classes getting support for education and learning useful trades. That's a great way to spend tax money. It expands the tax base, provides a strong middle class and move the next generation out of being underprivileged (by the way I'm color blind when it comes to privilege... and it just so happens women and people of color still have it tougher than white guys.)
Consider taxes are the way society invests in it present and its future. Some needs to be spent to keep schools and courts and libraries open. Some needs to be spent to protect us from threats outside our country. Some needs to be spent to protect us from criminals and disasters like fire. And some needs to be spent for bridges and roads and power lines and sewage treatment. These are all vital services and we use government to provide them. We don't have to. We can privatize them, but then you start having problems because wealthy people get all the services. For example, a wealthy neighborhood can afford to build good schools and poor people get no schools. This is a disaster in a technological society where you have to be at least literate and preferably literate as well in math, science and technology to function with some level of grace and power. The answer is that we try to set at least a minimum standard for schools and social services, so society can function with a modicum of ease and freedom (societies with disparate classes are inherently more violent, disruptive and inefficient.)
If your actions have a consequence that impacts minorities unfairly then maybe the racist label is one you should look at very carefully. There are acts of commission and acts of omission. Letting a man drown because he's black is patently racist.
Have you spent any time watching CSPAN? Read a Congressional Record? Do you have a clue what the Republican Party as a whole is saying? I'm sure there are guys in the party who are great to do shots with (avoid Cheney he shoots for real...) Its just that what y'all keep proposing sounds good until you look at it, then you have to go... HUH? The Ryan Plan for instance. Its base on making a 2.7 Trillion dollar cut to social service, eliminate Medicaid, pretty much gut Medicare and Social Security, eliminate educational subsidies (that's genius), eliminate the social security net for the poor and close tax loopholes for the middle class. Then give the wealthy 4.3 Trillion dollars. Now in my head, that implodes the middle class, throws any future of having the next generation perform any task more complex than ask "Would you like fries with that?" (taxbase? that's what HB1 Visas are for), gives the wealthy bastards who already have most of the money the rest of the money (which by the way will be AWESOME for those offshore banks where they're storing their money now...) and shoots the deficit up 1.5 Trillion dollars a year. Eight years of that should fix everything right up. See that's either Ryan being a disingenuous jerk sucking up to a mouth breathing constituency who can't do math or that's Ryan begin certifiably bug fuck. I can't tell which.
See, the Democratic Party, is dishonest, power hungry, financially irresponsible, morally questionable. The Republican Party is just insane. Like set you hair on fire and whistle "Camp Town Races" "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" Gob Smacking Loopy. You can't say the things that emanate from the Republican side of the aisle and not be either a felating shill for the wealthy in this country or flat out ready for a 20% Thorazine drip.
I just find it ironic that Reagan closed the mental health facilities in the 80s, and it appears they've all found residence in D.C. as standing members of Ronny's own party. Truth is stranger than fiction.
Why is it than when anyone mentions gravity, evolution or sanity they are suddenly left leaning. Personally I love what Barry Goldwater said;
.....
Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.
The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom.... I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are?... I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."
Have y'all ever considered that instead of liberal leaning maybe we just have a sane grasp of physical reality? Hhhmmmm?
Actually, the problem is the Republican don't accept the Hurricane as valid ID for God to Vote, Of course God doesn't care, she's voting anyway.
Then you're saying God hates the Religious Right... okay, I can live with that.
Indeed, I'm working at this moment on the mosquito nuke! A very tiny thermonuclear device that will incinerate anything in the 2 inch fireball. The problem is getting the fallout out of your rugs...
Actually its attached to a sharks head, but its only good for killing other mosquito killing lasers within 5 miles from shore.
Yeah, the liberal camp doesn't want to dictate anything, right? Redistribution of wealth to promote laziness and irresponsibility is a great idea. Please, take my paycheck to fund this winning plan!
Liberal Camp? Show me a liberal camp, there are now about 6 honest to jebus liberals left in D.C., the rest either retired or died of old age. What's left of the Democrats is milk toast moderates, soft conservatives, and social idealist who think they can singles handedly fix whats broken. Good luck with that. They only look liberal compare to the beasts with two right arms... the Republicans are no so far over the top, they stopped being conservative and moves all the way over into just plain bug-fuck. Look at the Ryan plan. End Medicaid. Gut Medicare and Social Security. Close loopholes on taxes on the middle class (I guess that means the two middle class guys that will be left), vanish all traces of the social safety net and just let'em all die. Gut education and all government spending on advancing the nations social advancement and give the wealthy and corporations $4.3 trillion i bonuses and tax cuts. That's not a plan, that's a fiscal Kamikaze mission. Its all for show, not to be taken seriously. And it makes Ryan look like a hard nosed conservative. I'm calling Bullshit. If you think the Republicans are any more interested in personal responsibility or moral rectitude you my friend need to cut out that crack smoking, its affecting your perception. Cutting the social safety net for millions of 60, 70, and 80 somethings isn't my idea of very Christian thanks. I'm taking care of my best friend right now. She's an 80 year old going through Chemo. I guess you could say she's lazy, she sleeps about 14 hours a day, but ovarian cancer kinda knocks the wind out of you. She's worked hard all her life, paid her taxes, and I expect deserves a fair shot at surviving this disease. Please from a solid Christian perspective explain to me why you just yank her off of Social Security and just let her die, I'd love to hear your rational?
Removing the extreme religion from the picture, the motive behind social conservatism is that by enforcing certain standards that promote decency and family values, society is stronger for it. Which society has more happiness and is more productive? The one full of amoral lazy tools living off the government (read: real workers' income) dole in broken families with no role models, popping out random unloved kids with one useless parent at best to guide them, or the one full of complete and loving families raising children to be responsible and morally-decent adults?
Whose friggin standards. I'm tired of people making up silly crap and then expecting others to tow their line. The cellular family, that conservative family value you guys keep talking about only happened after World War II. Before that the majority of American's lived in Rural towns and 2-4 generations of people shared the same farm house. Their lifestyle was completely different as was their ideas of what was morally right and wrong. Your family values didn't show up until the great migration to the urban areas after the rise of cars, highways, urban then suburbanization, and the single family dwelling of the 1950s. Everything is a religion to you clowns, you believe crap simply because you believe crap, you don't study the facts, you don't analyze the trends, you get your opinions from Fox news, Gawd Forbid you actually have an original thought. Why not spend a month reading something not published by a religious talking head. Try a little history, economics, sociology, world politics. Find out how we got here starting with the Revolutionary War in the US, The French Revolution on the continent (and the rise and fall of Napoleon) and the insidious nature of the British Banking system. Get a clue. Hell, get two, they're small.
As for the rest of your really ignorant rant, There are a lot of single Mothers out there desperately trying to get out of poverty.
Though you've said a lot of things I disagree with, for instance the Ayn Rand thing seems far more Libertarian than Republican. I acknowledge that Ryan thinks he likes Ayn Rand, but that's only because he's taken only the bits he likes the same way he did with religion... His own Catholic Church denounced his policies as anti-Catholic and anti-Christian. They said a Christian should be committed to serving and protecting the poor, the weak and the forsaken. Ryan's cow towing to the wealthy in the name of religious consideratrion is nothing less that an affront to Christians everywhere.
I won't say there aren't petty, self obsessed, idiotic men and women out there, the fact is our society seems to breed people who's compassion would barely fill a gnats navel. That said, I would dare wager that there are far more college Jocks running around today pursuing sports careers having committed nothing less than serial date rape, than there are husbands rotting in prison as victims of a pissy wife. I think the law in WA, is probably speaking about fear as threat of physical violence, and one needs do more than simply say he scared me. That said, I've seen police err on the side of women, in domestic disputes and sometimes the woman is both the instigator and the violent party (a number of men are trained from an early age to never engage in physical violence with a woman, and some women are not above using this in there favor.)
All this points to a swinging pendulum, and a serious of situations that vary from place to place. Here in the silicon valley, we had a judge who was committed that Fathers be with their children. He was so committed to the making certain that Fathers got their visitation rights that he was forcing children to spend time with Fathers who were abusive, inattentive and whose children begged not to be left alone with them. This didn't stop him from forcing these Fathers to take their unwanted children to the detriment of the children, the Mothers, and even the Fathers who really just wanted to be left alone. The Laws and the People who wield them can sometime be capricious and foolish. That doesn't alter the fact that over all, men have a leg up in this society, and that women have not caught up to men in wages, security, advancement or recognition. However, I also acknowledge things are moving in a good direction and if along the way, men are short shrift, I hope society has the wisdom to protect their rights and dignity with equal vigor.
I would feel a lot more sorry for men in general if;
A) They didn't wield the vast majority of the social power
B) Weren't physically stronger and more sexually aggressive then most women
C) Weren't frequently in positions of power and authority
D) Didn't use force, harassment, illicit drugs, alcohol or weapons to perpetrate attacks on women
Perhaps there should be "Grades of Rape" where all rape is sticking you genitals where they don't belong, but you start at "Grade 0" consentual sex between minors, and the punishment is 50 hours of public service, for BOTH participants, to "Grade 7" Slipping a stranger a Ruffy in a bar, 6 years of hard labor, to "Grade 10" Full on physical attack, serial rape, rape with violence, weapons, torture and/or age enhancements, feed the bugger into a wood chipper up to the waist. Rape this why don'tcha! We can call it getting a "Fargo".
AUTORAPE... Hey, You, what are you doing to my car? Oh, my Gawd!!! Call the Police! RAPE A CAR GO TO JAIL
What-a-ya in for bub?
Autorape... she was a sexy little sports coupe, I just couldn't help myself.
Yeah, I saw the header burns on your thigh in the shower.
Yeah, I started humping motorcycles, before I knew I was doing neighbor's Mini Cooper, I guess I just lost control of myself...
Have you not watched "To Catch a Predator - Dateline" on ABC. There are pedophiles by the frigging boatload looking for pretty young things both male and female, haunting internet chat rooms and willing to travel hundreds of miles to go after someone knowingly below the age of consent. Sorry, I can totally get the poor schlub, who get's snookered by a girl who look older than her actual age, and for that we show some compassion, though unless she has fake ID, he still needs to just be careful. The creepy scumbags hunting to make it with kids just need to be put someplace in Gen-Pop for about 50 years, with pedophile tattooed on their foreheads. Actually you can make the sentences shorter, they won't last a month in Gen-Pop anyway.
If its sticking out of your back my love, you need to see a doctor about having it moved, playing with yourself must be a terrible chore.
Exactly, You have your mouth covered and a knife at your throat, and your attacker says "Make a sound and I cut your pretty head off..." She makes no sound and she's guilty in the eyes of God. Makes perfect sense.
Face it friend, women in these societies aren't people, they're property. They are breeding machines designed by God to give men sons. Fail to accomplish this and the breeding machine is a failure in the eyes of man and God. Women are unclean. Unfit to enter a mans place of prayer. In the Muslim world, there are places where women are frequently killed, because their last male family member is killed fighting, and when the starving woman leaves the house, the men of the town properly slaughter her. These are the children of Abraham. Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Women are not people. They are things, chattel. A man may beat his wife, take her as he pleases, punish her as he see's fit and woman's only recourse is to pray. These are not societies that values the humanity of women. However, I can see how men love them. And with twice the physical mass and a predilection to violence, its clear how men enforce their wishes on women.
Just don't call it God's plan, men interpret God, and clearly they've interpreted God in a way that suited them. Forgive me if I find the interpretation a wee bit self serving. Seeing as they even envisioned the deity as what... but of course, a big Man in the sky. Of course he is.
This is actually a fascinating area of discussion. Christians, particularly Fundies, have no safe place to even talk about their own religion, like Gawd mysteriously farted the thing out whole one day and from that day forward, the Bible we all know was the one and only true word of Gawd.
The making of the Bible, Constantine, the Judaification of the New Testament through the works of Saul/Paul, the influences of Greeks, Romans, and later German's, North Men, and Europe as a whole, is simply amazing. The Gnostic Christian writings are particularly fascinating, and perhaps give an insight into the real intent of Christ, that was lost when Christianity bowed to Political and Social Pressures. Of course, you look at America today and if the founding fathers could be brought to the present for a day and see what's happened, I'm not at all certain if they would cheer or just give it back to the Natives. Aren't we a funny species?
You don't have to outlaw incest (though it is taboo in most cultures), there are strong behavioral traits in humans that for the most part prevent us from mating with our siblings unless you happen to live in the deep south and have fewer than 2.5 teeth per living family member.