MrTuffPaws:This is along the same lines as the gripe of having to pay taxes for school when the payer does not have any children. That tax payer benefits directly from the fact that most children can read, write, do basic math, and have the skills to be productive in society.
Yea, but in Houston it's being taught in Spanish. Many American kids' public schools DO NOT teach in English. That's wrong.
MANEDWOLF - "To be honest, neocons scare me worse than any liberals. Some liberals can be terribly misguided, but they generally don't endorse things like torture, prison without trial, spying on Americans, and using the Constitution as toilet paper."
How very, very typically hypocritical of you neolibs.
Prison without trial? Obviously, you've never heard of those great heroes of the left, Franklin D. Roosevelt & Earl Warren. They put thousands upon thousands of American Japanese into prison without trial, and made sure those Americans' property was confiscated and then "given" to their political buddies... at about five cents on the dollar.
More recently, Kevin Mitnik. Apparently 8 months solitary, and 40 more in prison all pre-trial.
Nitrohen, I think you dodged this one earlier...
Why don't liberals respect the language our constitution was written in, and the customs and traditions of our founding fathers?
I think he meant more along the lines of
In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
This:
Customs become outdated. Being a reform Jew, I realise that certain customs and traditions of my religion are somewhat outdated. I don't see the need to keep kosher, for instance. In the olden days, when food bourne disease was far more prevlant than it is today, keeping kosher could help keep you alive. Nowadays it's a tradition, but it doesn't hold the same necessity as it once did.
doesn't really wash with being an American. There's a HUGE cultural rift (several actually) developing in America. I personally believe that it's being led by the PC movement, but that's just my opinion. I also believe that if people screaming about tolerance spent as much time trying to assimilate as others do tolerating, maybe we all could meet in the middle and be this happier, tolerant, but also unified America that I hope we'd all want.</Kumbahyah>
BTW Roosevelt wrote a bunch on the subject.
cuchulainn, you really hit on something I think.
Quote:
See? Premises. We believe gun control is wrong. Period. If gun control could eliminate murder, we'd still oppose it. Would you support gun control to save 10,000 people a year? We wouldn't. 100,000? Nope. 1 million? Nope.
Seems silly to me. Are you talking gun control as in complete ban, or gun control as in background checks and registration? If something can be shown to be causing harm, it should be controlled if that control would actually work. I didn't say completely banned. Driving drunk is way more fun than driving sober, but it has been shown to cause accidents. Yes, I know driving isn't listed in the 2A, but should we allow people to drive drunk?
I'm with cuchulainn on this one. Point is you're not even really identifying the REAL problem. If a gun ban of any sort will stop 1,000,000 deaths in America, GUNS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. (Be honest, most of the time we are talking about bans like the UK and AU. We already have gun control/restrictions.) we need better criminal control/restrictions IMHO.
Affermative action, like other bad ideas, was born out of good heartedness.
I think it's somewhat outdated now. It's a means to an end; that end being equality. Unfortinately, I think it's backfired as you point out.
I think that's part of the falicy. Equal opportunity (the literal meaning) is a good thing. We are not all equal (made equal, perhaps), but through our choices we are not nor do I believe that we are entitled to be entirely equal. I think a lot of folks dont think about that last part. Furthermore, you can't mandate (legislate) that some will ever be by affording them the opportunity to be. You can however mandate (legislate) that those more fortunate are forced to be less fortunate, thereby artificially closing the "equality" gap. what this does to the overall wellfare of society is another discussion alltogether.
If the people want to protect their liberties against a domineering force (say your own government, which is what this amendment is really pointing towards) wouldn't you need more than just guns?
You fight the leaders themselves...
Businesses are answerable to their stockholders, while a government is answerable to the people as a whole.
Half of this is true. The other half while maybe a popular belief is getting further and further from the truth.
Should be my sig line: PC will be the downfall of American culture as we know it spearheaded by the media.
