Political Chatter

[skirtedMarine]

What concerns me is that so many people want America to follow the same disastrous socialist path that has crippled every society that has ever tried it...

If you've ever studied economics, you should try reading, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," by Thomas Piketty.

If yiu haven't, here's a summary. Pikkety studied every economy he could find for which relevant data was available and concluded that the rich really do get richer.

Specifically, he observed that r, the rate of return on investment, is usually greater than g, the rate of return on investments. So r>g. There are various reasons for this but one is that people with money to invest only choose investments that will return greater then the rate of economic growth. Like, if inflation is running 4%, why would you invest in something that only paid 2%?

But that means that if the economy is $100 trillion a year, and it goes up 2% to $102 trillion, the wealthy will get 5% (5 trillion) and everyone else will have to split the remaining $97 trillion.

So every year the 99% end up with less and less.

Now, if you're in the 1%, all this is fine. You like being richer. But year by year, everyone else is living worse and worse and eventually they get pissed about it.

Historically, this tends to be solved by one of two solutions: war or rebellion. War flattens the country, destroys all the wealth, and makes everyone start over. Revolutions depose the rich and forcibly distribute their assets.

Virtually all US economic growth since 2008 has gone to the top 1%. And so now we see people espousing political outsiders like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

Trump would be catastrophic and, being part of the Republican party, no solution to the uneven-distribution-of-wealth problem.

Bernie Sanders would be the most frustrated guy on the planet with a Congress no more cooperative than the current Republicans vs. Obama.

Hopefully, Hillary can adopt enough of Bernie's agenda to gain his support, get elected, bring in a Democratic House and Senate on her coattails, and nominate a friendly Supreme Court majority. But the chances of getting all of that are slim to none. I just hope we can get enough.

Unimagianable Ignorence...
Sorry if I offended, Killery Benghazi Clinton and Your type is the problem, and you think you're going to sell that ...stuff ...? Our friend Carl would probably agree...

[crfriend]

I love your well stated Indoctrinated mental masterbation Carl,

Thanks. If one follows the old maxim of, "Follow the money" then things get clearer than they do if you're left trying to peer through the carefully laid down smokescreen.

Stand for something! Mercy, Theres Terrorists creaping across Our boarders! And all the left can exclaim is that WE need more gun control!

Don't let 'em step on the third guy from the end. He's got a busted rib.

As far as standing for something goes, that's precisely what neither the right nor the left want.

Personally, I don't like either set -- right or left; they're equally crazy and in the pay of the same masters. I happily fly right up the centre, and if I singe the occasional mop hairdo or rug with the afterburners or bust a few windows with the sonic-boom then so be it.

[bobmoore]

(ref:Caultron)
Unimagianable Ignorence...
Sorry if I offended, Killery Benghazi Clinton and Your type is the problem, and you think you're going to sell that ...stuff ...? Our friend Carl would probably agree...

Agreed. That level of ignorance of human nature is unimaginable.

But is it really unimaginable?
Critical thinking is a dying skill, and we can thank the government schools for it. People who think, regularly and incisevely, are a danger to any government. So government, in a bid for self preservation, will always demand what can and can not be taught in the schools they control by binding them with financial and legal fetters. Some people overcome that hurdle, but sadly most never do for a variety of reasons.

[Judah14]

I love your well stated Indoctrinated mental masterbation Carl,
Stand for something! Mercy, Theres Terrorists creaping across Our boarders! And all the left can exclaim is that WE need more gun control!

Well if you are so concerned with terrorists you need Rodrigo "The Punisher" Duterte (or someone like him) to mop 'em up, along with drug pushers and other criminals.

Right now, arrests of drug pushers are becoming more frequent since Duterte won the election, as he promised to deal with the crime rate by declaring what amounts to a war on criminals, especially drug pushers, like what he did in Davao City, where he previously served as a mayor. He also encourages common people to go after criminals, so gun control should be moot.

[dillon]

I love your well stated Indoctrinated mental masterbation Carl,
Stand for something! Mercy, Theres Terrorists creaping across Our boarders! And all the left can exclaim is that WE need more gun control!

Maybe you'd enlighten us as to which "terrorists" are "creaping across Our boarders". Would those be the ones mowing your lawn? Cleaning your hotel room? Nailing shingles on your roof? Picking the blueberries that ended up in your waffle? Loading the hogs that became your sausage and ham? Because I haven't heard of any of those folks committing acts of terrorism. Or maybe it was Tim McVeigh, the Bronze Star awardee who murdered 168 people with a truck bomb in Oklahoma City, including WWII vets in a social security office and toddlers in a day care center...oh, but wait, he was a born and bred white-boy 'Murican. Guess that doesn't count as terrorism unless it was someone with brown skin and an accent...

Please, if you're going to make silly, racist statements, just please try to put a fact or two behind them...

Honestly, if not for your posts about skirts, I'd be thinking you are just someone's alternate account, hoaxing us with an exaggerated parody of an American conservative. But since I'm about 51% sure you exist, all I can do is sadly shake my head.

[moonshadow]

(ref:Caultron)
Unimagianable Ignorence...
Sorry if I offended, Killery Benghazi Clinton and Your type is the problem, and you think you're going to sell that ...stuff ...? Our friend Carl would probably agree...

Agreed. That level of ignorance of human nature is unimaginable.

But is it really unimaginable?
Critical thinking is a dying skill, and we can thank the government schools for it. People who think, regularly and incisevely, are a danger to any government. So government, in a bid for self preservation, will always demand what can and can not be taught in the schools they control by binding them with financial and legal fetters. Some people overcome that hurdle, but sadly most never do for a variety of reasons.

Okay... so outside of calling people ignorant and insulting their educations....

How do you all propose we solve the major issues of the day?

Illegal immigration

The vanishing middle class

Poverty

LGBT rights

Terrorism

Gun rights

Religious freedom

Healthcare

And no blaming the other party.... no... you're in charge.. You're the president and you've got congress's full backing.... what do you do?

I'll be the first to admit... I have no idea what to do! I am for what it's worth... ignorant. So oh enlightened ones... go for it... make a right winger out of me...

Edit.. added health care... how could I forget??

[crfriend]

Okay... so outside of calling people ignorant and insulting their educations....

The comment about the skill of critical thinking dying out is actually spot on -- and it doesn't necessarily have much at all to do with how many letters you may have after your name. I've met lots of highly-educated individuals with multiple advanced degrees who are dumb as rocks when it comes to interacting with the real world around them, and I've met lots of "under-educated" tradesmen who can argue rings around me. I prefer to be in the company of the latter, mainly because the former tend to be so full of themselves as to be insufferable.

How do you all propose we solve the major issues of the day?

This is where critical thinking comes in -- and is precisely why the ability to think so is being actively stamped out. It's dangerous to the establishment because folks who can think critically tend to ask very annoying questions of those in power -- questions that can threaten to derail all the things that the establishment is trying to do. How is it being stamped out? It's being stamped out in the name of "standardised tests" where people are taught to regurgitate factoids on multiple-guess tests that actively discourage the use of the creative mind. It's being stamped out by not demanding a proper defence of one's thesis and by suppressing any opinion that dissents from the established "norm" (PC).

Make no bones about it. Critical thought can be dangerous -- especially to entrenched systems. Forty years ago, sociology dared ask some very nasty questions to very nasty problems -- and some of the solutions actually made it into law. Eighty years ago, sociological questions, and the resulting actions, helped create the world, at least in the USA, that yielded almost a half-century of relative prosperity and a burgeoning middle class. Unfortunately now, sociology doesn't have the answers -- or even the questions. The questions and the answers that come from those questions, I think, need to come from hard-nosed economics. And even then I do not believe the slide into oblivion can be arrested.

Let's contemplate it and re-order the list into a potentially priority-based scheme:

Poverty (Nothing extinguishes hope and enfranchisement faster than not having access to the basics)
The vanishing middle class (inextricably related to (increasing) impoverishment)
Health Care (now largely a wealth-transfer mechanism from the middle class to the insurance companies)
Religious freedom (including the right to be free from religious influence)
Personal liberty (taken as an extension of "Gun rights")
Personal equality and respect (an expansion of "LGBT rights" -- also dovetails into "Personal iiberty" and "Religious Freedom")
Illegal immigration (Is this really a problem, or is it a mask for something else?)
Terrorism (A hot-button issue for sure, but shark-attacks are more common as is lightning-strike)

Note that the three top items are all related to economics -- and could be fairly easily tackled by creative re-application of a fair and equitable tax code. A good start would to to tax unearned income at a higher rate than wage income, prohibit for-profit health-care "insurance" (or, better yet, do what the rest of the civilised world has done and go to single-payer), and stop the practise of predatory lending and the ever-increasing spiral of "death-by-debt".

Personal liberties: A good start would be the utter repeal of the Patriot Act and its assorted secret appurtenances and forever outlaw "secret laws" from ever being enacted again. Make all subject to the law of the land, equally. Including the elites and Congress. No more loopholes. Personal equality stems directly from this. Level the playing field by prohibiting discrimination of any kind -- in ALL arenas: no exemptions for certain groups.

Religious Freedom: Re-establish the "wall of separation" between religion and government. Mixing the two cheapens and corrupts both. In a heterogeneous society, government must be firmly secular and play no favourites. Theocracies only work in monolithic cultures -- and then not particularly well.

That'd likely be a decent start. Of course it'll never get done because there are too many entrenched interests in play that'll block any and all of the ideas above.

[skirtedMarine]

(ref:Caultron)
Unimagianable Ignorence...
Sorry if I offended, Killery Benghazi Clinton and Your type is the problem, and you think you're going to sell that ...stuff ...? Our friend Carl would probably agree...

Agreed. That level of ignorance of human nature is unimaginable.

But is it really unimaginable?
Critical thinking is a dying skill, and we can thank the government schools for it. People who think, regularly and incisevely, are a danger to any government. So government, in a bid for self preservation, will always demand what can and can not be taught in the schools they control by binding them with financial and legal fetters. Some people overcome that hurdle, but sadly most never do for a variety of reasons.

Okay... so outside of calling people ignorant and insulting their educations....

How do you all propose we solve the major issues of the day?

Illegal immigration

The vanishing middle class

Poverty

LGBT rights

Terrorism

Gun rights

Religious freedom

Healthcare

And no blaming the other party.... no... you're in charge.. You're the president and you've got congress's full backing.... what do you do?

I'll be the first to admit... I have no idea what to do! I am for what it's worth... ignorant. So oh enlightened ones... go for it... make a right winger out of me...

Edit.. added health care... how could I forget??

Terific! I love your input! And Again, I'm sorry if I offended,
I'm just a dumbass, old retired Marine, and therefore wouldnt qualify to be President, at least I'm smart enough not to want the job...
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Not a hard issue,
1.Iliminate the "Anchor baby " loophole
2. Enforce the laws that we already have.I'll not rub the current administrations lawlessness in the face of You who think We shouldnt have boarders. So they can get more Democrat voters...
3. Stop changing the language from "Illegal Immigrants "
To "Undocumented" Citizens, (They are not entitled to our healthcare, welfare, free education, or even the right to work here. At 20 trillion in debt, We can't afford to let them bring their corruption, gangs, Drugs, crime and so on, Just so they'll be registered Democrats.
4 . They broke the law by entering the United States Illegally, (So Get out, and take your anchor baby with you!)
The vanishing Middle Class
1. The first part of that is this B..S uncle Bernie will try to sell the Sheep in the name of Socialism, He calls it "Income Inequality" ,
A. You have the right to pursue Happiness, not the right to have happiness Provided by those of us who work and pay the taxes.
B. The top 10% are already paying 90% of the taxes, We've only got 25% of the people working supporting the other 75%
(Including kids and retired people)
So the problem is that nothing is made here anymore, Our Government regulations, Taxation on buisnesses, And To many Damb lawyers is the problem, Hell, Tort reform might be a start, but I wouldnt mind hanging a few crooked Attorneys on the west lawn just to get their attention.

POVERTY
IT is, and always has been with us, please understand, We as Americans did depend on our Churches to be our Welfare board, Our Marraige Councilor, Our Pregnancy Counceling clinic, Through our Churches, In Whatever our faith,, We all pitched in, and did the right thing,
1.I'LL MAINTAIN THAT ANYTHING YOU LET THE GOVERNMENT CONTROL, IT WILL TURN TO CRAP AT TEN TIMES THE COST, WITH FAMILIES GENERATION AFTER GENERATION LIVING OFF OF THE BACKS OF THE TAX PAYERS...

LGBT RIGHTS
OK, I'll go there
So I've lived in the Middle East, have you noticed that the immigrants from anywhere in the UAE Arent interested in becoming Americans? Their "Religion" is their government, And they bring their Understanding of it with them, This is a culture that Allowes Men to rape boys,( but They're not really gay) This is a culture that cuts the Clitorous off of a girl because women are not allowed to enjoy sex, This is a culture that requires 4 male wittnesses to prosicute a man for rape of a woman
This is also a culture that will kill men for bieng gay, with a man unless it was a boy. Or a goat, Sorry , Where else in the world do the LGBT folks have more rights than the Straight Small buisness bakery? Why do you folks on the left make it a problem? Again, too many GD Lawyers, and 90% of them are so called indoctrinated "Liberals".

"Terrorism"
Stop unlimited Immigration,
Its about to get alot worse, Get over it, Trump has this one right!

Gun Rights
We have a Constitution,
Ive been a responsible gun owner since I was 16 years old, and I even have an AR 15, (what you people call an "Assault Weapon", Gun rights, .... ?" The right of the people to keep and bare arms shall not be infringed" . The guns arent the problem, Society has become the problem, Its like saying "The spoon makes people fat"
Again, Boarders, Language, Culture...Why are all the mass shootings done by Democrats, And GD Muslims?

Religious freedom"
A hard subject if you think that Islam is an actual religion rather than a political idology. Otherwise, We have a first amendment, and its covered, and not confusing. You can believe in the door knob if you so chose, but don't insist that I do or call me an "infidel " and try to kill me if I refuse to believe what you believe.

Healthcare
Its not the Governments job ( again, everything the government touches turns to crap!)

As far as making you a " right winger"Thats a hell of a challenge, As its been a futile indevor to impart comon sence on my whole Liberal family!

Thanks,
I hope you got at least a chuckle out of my response,
Much Aloha,
Scott

[dillon]

(ref:Caultron)
Unimagianable Ignorence...
Sorry if I offended, Killery Benghazi Clinton and Your type is the problem, and you think you're going to sell that ...stuff ...? Our friend Carl would probably agree...

Agreed. That level of ignorance of human nature is unimaginable.

But is it really unimaginable?
Critical thinking is a dying skill, and we can thank the government schools for it. People who think, regularly and incisevely, are a danger to any government. So government, in a bid for self preservation, will always demand what can and can not be taught in the schools they control by binding them with financial and legal fetters. Some people overcome that hurdle, but sadly most never do for a variety of reasons.

Pray tell, Bob, but when did Fundamentalist Religion EVER EVEN CONSIDER embracing critical thinking? I must have missed the banner headlines that day, because last time I saw a televangelist ranting and raving about public education, it was pretty obvious that critical thinking was anathema to Belief and antithetical to Scripture; for them, Belief =Truth= Everything, Alpha to Omega; reason, intellect and reality itself being just cursed stumbling blocks to their smug, sanctimonious, self-serving world view.

[skirtedMarine]

I love your well stated Indoctrinated mental masterbation Carl,
Stand for something! Mercy, Theres Terrorists creaping across Our boarders! And all the left can exclaim is that WE need more gun control!

Maybe you'd enlighten us as to which "terrorists" are "creaping across Our boarders". Would those be the ones mowing your lawn? Cleaning your hotel room? Nailing shingles on your roof? Picking the blueberries that ended up in your waffle? Loading the hogs that became your sausage and ham? Because I haven't heard of any of those folks committing acts of terrorism. Or maybe it was Tim McVeigh, the Bronze Star awardee who murdered 168 people with a truck bomb in Oklahoma City, including WWII vets in a social security office and toddlers in a day care center...oh, but wait, he was a born and bred white-boy 'Murican. Guess that doesn't count as terrorism unless it was someone with brown skin and an accent...

Please, if you're going to make silly, racist statements, just please try to put a fact or two behind them...

Honestly, if not for your posts about skirts, I'd be thinking you are just someone's alternate account, hoaxing us with an exaggerated parody of an American conservative. But since I'm about 51% sure you exist, all I can do is sadly shake my head.

Thanks for your passion Dillon, I'm not clear on your point, Because I believe in Our National Sovereignty You want to label me a racist? Ive had enough of the race card with the obama administration, try to come to terms with your "hate issue" . I'm sure there are alot of things we could agree on! No one mows my lawn, My sausage is American made, some sausage makers are white, Some electricians are brown, They are Americans,
Im still missing your point, but thanks for your ..... racial input!
You liberals seem to have a twisted perspective!
It helps me to realise the .... simplistic tendency of the other side.
Thanks Dillon,
You continue to make my point.
Scott
Scott

[skirtedMarine]

I love your well stated Indoctrinated mental masterbation Carl,
Stand for something! Mercy, Theres Terrorists creaping across Our boarders! And all the left can exclaim is that WE need more gun control!

Maybe you'd enlighten us as to which "terrorists" are "creaping across Our boarders". Would those be the ones mowing your lawn? Cleaning your hotel room? Nailing shingles on your roof? Picking the blueberries that ended up in your waffle? Loading the hogs that became your sausage and ham? Because I haven't heard of any of those folks committing acts of terrorism. Or maybe it was Tim McVeigh, the Bronze Star awardee who murdered 168 people with a truck bomb in Oklahoma City, including WWII vets in a social security office and toddlers in a day care center...oh, but wait, he was a born and bred white-boy 'Murican. Guess that doesn't count as terrorism unless it was someone with brown skin and an accent...

Please, if you're going to make silly, racist statements, just please try to put a fact or two behind them...

Honestly, if not for your posts about skirts, I'd be thinking you are just someone's alternate account, hoaxing us with an exaggerated parody of an American conservative. But since I'm about 51% sure you exist, all I can do is sadly shake my head.

Thanks for your passion Dillon, I'm not clear on your point, Because I believe in Our National Sovereignty You want to label me a racist? Ive had enough of the race card with the obama administration, try to come to terms with your "hate issue" . I'm sure there are alot of things we could agree on! No one mows my lawn, My sausage is American made, some sausage makers are white, Some electricians are brown, They are Americans,
Im still missing your point, but thanks for your ..... racial input!
You liberals seem to have a twisted perspective!
It helps me to realise the .... simplistic tendency of the other side.
Thanks Dillon,
You continue to make my point.
Scott
Scott

PS
What the hell does politics have to do with our choice to wear a skirt?
Is this a " liberals only" club? While theres nothing "Liberal" about you...?

[moonshadow]

SkirtedMarine,

Your response seemed to be at least 85% if not 90% rant, and a repeating of the problems. I asked for solutions not a repeat of the problems.

I wasn't being sarcastic when I said I didn't know what to do, I really don't. But what I do see is a failure on both sides in regards to compassion and compromise. Both sides, far right and far left want it all their way, and neither side is compassionate towards the other.

Your reply would make a politician proud, it said a lot without saying hardly anything meaningful at all. It was an masterpiece of passive aggression peppered with little jabs at liberals. I doubt Trump could have done it any better!

BTW: Please don't pigeonhole me in some political agenda, liberal, conservative, or otherwise. I have no allegiance to any party or agenda, my views are centered on reason, respect, tolerance, and compassion. In that order.

But anyway, lets dissect the reply:

I'm just a dumbass, old retired Marine

I don't think you're a dumbass at all. I understand a lot of what you are saying, and have shared many of your rants over the years. You seem to have put a lot of thought into your convictions, and nobody is wrong 100% of the time. Everybody deserves a time to speak. Many aspects of the country you served is going to hell in a handbasket, you of all people are somewhat entitled to be a little pissed off.

And thank you for your service to our country by the way. With your service abroad you have a unique understanding of the world that many of us who have never done so would lack, and so yes I personally read with interest and an open mind to your responses... even if you do think I'm a flaming liberal.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Not a hard issue,
1.Iliminate the "Anchor baby " loophole
2. Enforce the laws that we already have.I'll not rub the current administrations lawlessness in the face of You who think We shouldnt have boarders. So they can get more Democrat voters...
3. Stop changing the language from "Illegal Immigrants "
To "Undocumented" Citizens, (They are not entitled to our healthcare, welfare, free education, or even the right to work here. At 20 trillion in debt, We can't afford to let them bring their corruption, gangs, Drugs, crime and so on, Just so they'll be registered Democrats.
4 . They broke the law by entering the United States Illegally, (So Get out, and take your anchor baby with you!)

No. 1) Okay... baby pops out stateside... send him/her back south. Fair enough
No. 2) Which laws? Who said exactly that we "shouldn't have borders"? While we're sending back illegals, do you think that all Anglo Saxon citizens should pack up and go back to our European nation of origin? What exactly gives any one class the any more right over another to occupy a piece of the planet? This question isn't rhetorical... it's genuine... think about it.
No. 3) Fair enough.
No. 4) Didn't really address anything different that wasn't covered in the first three.

So I'm left to assume that you think anyone who isn't a naturalized citizen needs to get out. Okay, fair enough. Who's going to fill all those cheap labor positions that open up? A U.S. worker? What policy can you enact to prevent runaway cost as farmers, contractors, etc must resort to employing legal citizens even at the minimum wage, subject to labor law, unemployment insurance, liability, etc. Again, not rhetorical. This is the can of worms we open... I'm genuinely curious as to how we will deal with it.

POVERTY
IT is, and always has been with us, please understand, We as Americans did depend on our Churches to be our Welfare board, Our Marraige Councilor, Our Pregnancy Counceling clinic, Through our Churches, In Whatever our faith,, We all pitched in, and did the right thing,
1.I'LL MAINTAIN THAT ANYTHING YOU LET THE GOVERNMENT CONTROL, IT WILL TURN TO CRAP AT TEN TIMES THE COST, WITH FAMILIES GENERATION AFTER GENERATION LIVING OFF OF THE BACKS OF THE TAX PAYERS...

First section (the non caps part): Sounds like a perfect world scenario. Tell me, if it worked so well, how did we devolve into having the government needing to step in? I seem to recall stories of things getting pretty ugly in the crash of '29 prior to all those modern day welfare programs. When we allow the church say in our lives in regards to marriage and pregnancy counseling, what prevents us as a society from slipping into a similar situation that society faced in the dark ages? Who will be an advocate for the heathen, the atheist, the homosexual, the transgendered? Are they just SOL because they might not necessarily follow the doctrine of the Christian Church?

Second section: (the part in caps) Can't really argue with that. Although a lot of government's problems is the constant stale mates we find ourselves in, and brings policy making to a stand still. Nobody is willing to compromise at all.

LGBT RIGHTS
OK, I'll go there
So I've lived in the Middle East, have you noticed that the immigrants from anywhere in the UAE Arent interested in becoming Americans? Their "Religion" is their government, And they bring their Understanding of it with them, This is a culture that Allowes Men to rape boys,( but They're not really gay) This is a culture that cuts the Clitorous off of a girl because women are not allowed to enjoy sex, This is a culture that requires 4 male wittnesses to prosicute a man for rape of a woman
This is also a culture that will kill men for bieng gay, with a man unless it was a boy. Or a goat, Sorry , Where else in the world do the LGBT folks have more rights than the Straight Small buisness bakery? Why do you folks on the left make it a problem? Again, too many GD Lawyers, and 90% of them are so called indoctrinated "Liberals".

What does any of that have to do with the LGBT issue here state side?

I have noticed that in the middle east, their religion is their government. I also notice it here too. Just a different religion. Pro-right Christian zealots may not be cutting the heads off of homosexuals or transgendered people, but they sure don't make it easy to function in society. There are NO federal prohibitions on LGBT discrimination. For those who say such a lifestyle is a choice and they should "choose" to live a more "moral" (Christian) lifestyle, I submit that religion too is a choice. If a employer should be allowed to terminate someone for their sexual/gender orientation... then why not be allowed to terminate based on religion as well? Further, why stop at LGBT discrimination, why not go all the way and follow the Bible to the letter? Why pick and choose what we discriminate over? If one has a tattoo, eats pork, commits adultery, is on a second marriage, etc lets kill them!

Where do we draw the line? Again, not rhetorical. Where do we draw the line? Why should a cake baker who is on her third marriage, has a tattoo on her arm, eats bacon sandwiches turn a homosexual away? What does baking a cake have to do with Christianity anyway? How does she (the baker) know that her supplies weren't delivered by a homosexual? How does she know that the bacon sandwich she ate for lunch at McDonalds wasn't prepared by someone who's transgender? Maybe people who are that fundimental should just drop out of the American economy and live in some sort of a evangelical commune. At least then they wouldn't sound like such a hypocrite.

Gun Rights
We have a Constitution,
Ive been a responsible gun owner since I was 16 years old, and I even have an AR 15, (what you people call an "Assault Weapon", Gun rights, .... ?" The right of the people to keep and bare arms shall not be infringed" . The guns arent the problem, Society has become the problem, Its like saying "The spoon makes people fat"
Again, Boarders, Language, Culture...Why are all the mass shootings done by Democrats, And GD Muslims?

Fair enough... but are you suggesting that law biding Democrats and law biding Muslims who are U.S. citizens shouldn't have the same right? And where do we draw the line on what's an acceptable weapon for ordinary citizens to own? Should I be allowed to own a nuclear warhead?
Another common denominator among mass shootings is that the guns involved are almost ALWAYS obtained legally. So how will relaxing gun laws solve that?
Now let me just say, that I'm pro-2nd. Go back and re-read that... I'm PRO GUN. But I'm simply looking at the issue critically. It's not white and black.

It's a complicated issue. You offered no solutions, you simply blamed liberals. Remember, you're the president! How will relaxing gun laws keep firearms out of the hands of killers with no criminal history? How will you tell the good guys from the bad ones? How do you know I'm not planning a massacre as we speak? I've never even had a speeding ticket, but I could be a ISIS sympathizer, how would you be able to tell? (I'm not by the way... STAND DOWN NSA)

"Terrorism"
Stop unlimited Immigration,
Its about to get alot worse, Get over it, Trump has this one right!

See my notes above....

Religious freedom"
A hard subject if you think that Islam is an actual religion rather than a political idology. Otherwise, We have a first amendment, and its covered, and not confusing. You can believe in the door knob if you so chose, but don't insist that I do or call me an "infidel " and try to kill me if I refuse to believe what you believe.

Through the middle ages, Christianity could have been considered a political ideology. To this day, in some ways it still is as it plays a big role in our secular law making process. Your response didn't really tackle any current issues. Let me be more clear.... the turning away of people from your SECULAR business who don't align with your religious views?

Healthcare
Its not the Governments job ( again, everything the government touches turns to crap!)

So runaway profits of the health care industry is okay? Millions of healthcare bankruptcies are acceptable? So are you advocating a complete de-regulation of all things health care? Tell me how that is going to benefit anyone but those who are wealthy enough to afford it?

I hope you got at least a chuckle out of my response,

It's been a hoot!

[bobmoore]

Dillon asks,

Pray tell, Bob, but when did Fundamentalist Religion EVER EVEN CONSIDER embracing critical thinking? I must have missed the banner headlines that day, because last time I saw a televangelist ranting and raving about public education, it was pretty obvious that critical thinking was anathema to Belief and antithetical to Scripture; for them, Belief =Truth= Everything, Alpha to Omega; reason, intellect and reality itself being just cursed stumbling blocks to their smug, sanctimonious, self-serving world view.

It is pretty evident that your knowledge of Christianity is quite limited. Apparently you are of the opinion that all claims to faith are valid. News flash! They aren't. Entire denominations have fabricated their own religion and pasted on a veneer of scripture. As Paul said of the Jews, circumcision is a matter of the heart, not of a cutting in the flesh done with hands. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, without regard to public show. The same is true of Christians, of course. Because real saving faith is a gift of God, not on account of anything man does or can do, those who are not, or not yet, called can in no wise grasp the actual content of scripture. Arguing with the spiritually blind is a fool's errand. As someone else once said, "Trying to teach a pig to sing only wasted your time and annoys the pig".

The church has been endowed since the beginning with brilliant, blessed teachers and apologists. It has also been plagued with heresy and error. The Bible tells us that the world is in a fallen, corrupt state, and that the ruler on earth right now is Satan, the father of lies. What better can he do than convince people, as he did in the beginning, that God didn't really say what he said, or that if he did say it, that it was for a different time and place.

"By their fruit we know them". When you see someone ranting and raving, with their hand held out, promising a blessing for money, or calling curses down on the heads of people you can be sure that you are not listening to a Christian. The fruits of the Spirit are clearly enunciated. Where the fruit is,lacking, so is the Spirit.

[skirtedMarine]

Well, we can agree to disagree, It has been a "Hoot", And Its a shame We only have a choice between the "Lesser" of two evils, try to google "Clinton body count" , put on a big boy skirt, and remember Our guys at Benghazi.

[Kirbstone]

Amazing posts, guys. I don't know where you find so much time to spend at your computers.

After the Brexit vote there's so much political chatter going on now all over Europe that I just switch off. It has ruined the normally interesting news-related programs.

With such a dull wet 'Summer' going on here, gardening occupies most of our leisure time and that means time out in the fresh air away from computers

Tom