RIP Ted Kennedy

[/dev/null]

I actually agree somewhat, but she has occasional points. Wacka is just regurgitating Limbaugh, Hannity, and sadly now Beck.

 

I gave Molsen, blzrule, and pBills crap. Can you say the same for the conservative loons?

 

In any case, step off my argument when I am trying to pick a fight with a liberal.

 

No she doesn't. Well okay, maybe on second thought there's the blind squirrell thing

 

I don't usually give the conservative loons crap because the liberal loons end up posting their own crap and I don't want to get between the fecal flings

 

I wasn't stepping on your argument. I was augmenting it

[ExiledInIllinois]

No it is the fringe element that is the issue IMO. You have say 10% (complete made up number for now) on each side that influences both parties. The people in the middle aren't presented with any other choice, yet you claim they are the issue because of "flip flopping"?

 

 

You always had the party extremists. If the extremist have such a stranglehold on the party how can somebody flip-flop by say voting for Bush then voting for Obama... Those guys are polar opposites. Most people don't have a set political view... The vacillate whichever way the wind blows. IMO, that is the problem.

[ExiledInIllinois]

In any case, step off my argument when I am trying to pick a fight with a liberal.

 

 

You can't pick a fight with me... I am too smart for you!

 

[/dev/null]

You can't pick a fight with me... I am too smart for you!

 

EII vs Booster

 

Exclusively on Pay Per View

[ExiledInIllinois]

I don't usually give the conservative loons crap because the liberal loons end up posting their own crap and I don't want to get between the fecal flings

 

So you are more at home with the conservative loons. Nice stance standing on your own even if you take crap from both sides. You are worse than a Chicago baseball fan that whines: "I am a Chicago fan." Usually you see dolt Cubs exhibiting this argument because they are losers. Guess what, now you take more fecal flings.

[Booster4324]

You always had the party extremists. If the extremist have such a stranglehold on the party how can somebody flip-flop by say voting for Bush then voting for Obama... Those guys are polar opposites. Most people don't have a set political view... The vacillate whichever way the wind blows. IMO, that is the problem.

 

 

Screw it, lost interest. You are right, we should all follow one party or the other.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Screw it, lost interest. You are right, we should all follow one party or the other.

 

 

Yes, in a two party system. Now if you can find some way to make other parties viable (IMO, take money out of the equation) then we are onto something golden.

[The Senator]

You can't pick a fight with me... I am too smart for you!

 

Yes, it's obvious to all - from the way you wear your baseball cap backwards - that you're a man of extreme intelligence.

[Magox]

I actually despise both at this point, although I agree with some of what the Democratic party should represent. If you are really trying to convince me blzrul is an easier target than Wacka, then your package has arrived.

 

Really?

 

blzrul is the antithesis of Wacka. The only difference is that she never offers an original thought.

[The Senator]

Dude ( ) where is Marv Levy and he wants part of his post back:

 

(What with this "Dude" schitt anyway? What an absolutely ridiculous, stupid-sounding, intellectually-vapid vernacular your age-group affects, no?)

 

Let me guess, you are against backward baseball hat wearing too!

 

Anyway.

 

You are walking contradiction... See the red highlighted part of your quote above.

Personally, I think the backwards baseball cap makes a very loud fashion-statement - it just screams out loud, "HEY!!!! LOOK AT ME...I DRESS LIKE AN IDIOT!!!!!"

 

But in your case - backwards, frontwards, sideways, whatever - it doesn't make much difference, since that lump between your shoulders is nothing more than a hat rack anyway!

[DC Tom]

Screw it, lost interest. You are right, we should all follow one party or the other.

 

And unreservedly toe the most loudly-shouted party line without deviation.

 

If you're not being led by the nose, you're just wishy-washy. It's the only proper way to think.

[el Tigre]

You always had the party extremists. If the extremist have such a stranglehold on the party how can somebody flip-flop by say voting for Bush then voting for Obama... Those guys are polar opposites. Most people don't have a set political view... The vacillate whichever way the wind blows. IMO, that is the problem.

I couldn't disagree with you more. Many people,myself included,don't neatly fit into either the liberal or conservative camp. Overall,I guess I would be considered a moderate,not because I'm middle of the road on everything. More because I have a mixture of conservative and liberal beliefs that confuse the Sean Hannitys and Keith Olbermans of the world. People like me may vote for a George Bush or a Barack Obama based on who represents ideas closest to your thinking on the issues of the most importance to you at that time. Not because you buy,whole hog,into either idiotic ideology. Take health care reform for example. Both parties plans have some very good ideas,and both have some very bad ideas,imo. A good reform bill could be had by taking some ideas from each plan,like tort reform and universal coverage(required insurance, like on cars) but it won't happen because both parties have dug in on their positions. More real bipartisanship and compromise is what's needed,not less.

[The Senator]

No. His distain for Teddy was that he didn't bring Sens version of:

 

...charlatans... that can captivate the imagination of a unknowing, hero-starved electorate, and how rhetoric is sometimes an effective substitute for substance and results.

 

So he voted for one of the biggest charlatans (an actor by trade) of all time: Ronald Reagan!

 

 

Holy what a complete tool Sen is Batman!

 

Then you must be...

 

Batman himself

 

...for all the sense your unreasoned arguments make!

 

(I believe you're confusing Reagan with THE biggest charlatan of all time - Bill Clinton - for whom I did not vote.)

 

So someone who actually practiced a trade, actually earned a living in the private sector, and pulled himself up 'by his bootstraps' to become a millionaire before becoming SAG president, governor of the nation's most populous state, and - finally - President of the United States, all without the help of a wealthy, politically-connected patriarch and his underworld ties, is - by the definition of one who wears his baseball cap backwards - a charlatan???

 

This would be as opposed to, say, someone like Kennedy or Bill Clinton - neither of whom ever held a non-government job, both instead choosing to spend their entire adult lives 'on the dole'???

 

Sounds like someone's been wearing their backwards baseball cap too tight.

 

Please - riddle me this, Batman...

 

 

or

 

 

How does one go from supporting Ted Kennedy to voting for Ronald Reagan? Though it will likely fall on deaf ears, let me try to explain once more - in 1980 I was not affiliated with any political party, but the choice between Carter and Reagan was a simple one, one that even you could have made.

 

As I already cited, under Carter unemployment hovered around 10%, inflation near 14%, and interest rates 21%. Think about that for a moment - those numbers are unbelievable. (As a comparison, inflation is now flat, today's mortgage rates hover around 5%, and zero-interest loans are not unheard of in the automobile and durable goods industries.) In the Carter years, for those lucky enough to be employed, whatever income was not consumed by excessive taxes was usurped by astronomical interest rates, placing home-ownership - or even major purchases such as automobiles - beyond the reach of a large portion of the voting public (the demographics of whom would, I'm guessing, make most of them the lifeblood of the democratic party).

 

During the Carter administration, Iran fell into the hands of an extremist Islamic regime that thumbed their noses at the U.S., taking and holding 53 Americans hostage for well over a year and periodically parading them - restrained and blindfolded - in front of world news cameras for public consumption while, in the meantime, the Soviet Union marched unopposed into Afghanistan, placing them perilously close to the Middle East and control of the world's oil supply.

 

Carter's response? To blame the American public. In in 1979 Carter gave a speech now known as the "Malaise Speech" - he went on national television, looked straight at the American people, and decried a “growing disrespect for government” and “fragmentation and self-interest” that prevented Americans from tackling the energy crisis they confronted – the result of their over-reliance upon fossil fuels. Americans, he warned, now faced a “crisis of confidence.”

 

Carter's solution? He instructed us to turn down our thermostats and wear sweaters. And, as a show of great resolve to the Soviet Union, their aggression against the Afghan people, and threat to the western world's oil supply, he responded by boycotting the 1980 Moscow Olympics - which certainly annoyed the Soviets but only served to punish, more than anyone else, the American athletes who had trained their entire lives for the event.

 

As I said, the choice was a simple one - one that even you could have made. While Carter blamed the American people for a national malaise, Reagan gave a message of hope and optimism, won the support of Democrats and Republicans alike, and enjoyed one of the greatest electoral landslides in history. Iran - fearful of what the 'Amercian Cowboy' might do - released the hostages on the day of his inauguration. The Soviets were expelled from Afghanistan (see Charlie Wilson's War). Eventually democracy broke out in Poland, then East Berlin crumbled. The Wall (that went up during JFK's administration) came down. The Cold War was won without firing a single shot (as opposed to JFK's starting an arms race that brought the world to the brink of destruction). And the U.S. experienced the longest peacetime economic expansion in its history.

 

So I ask you again...

 

 

or...

 

[Booster4324]

 

Really?

 

blzrul is the antithesis of Wacka. The only difference is that she never offers an original thought.

 

That was my point, with the exception of the bolded. I doubt you can find many more original thoughts from Wacka than blzrul. I guess if you add in his thoughts on chemistry, you might have a point, but politically...

 

Slash tried to use the DCTom defense. The only difference is I believed Tom. Slash, not so much. He can safely be labeled as in the "afraid to admit I am a conservative" closet.

 

Not sure why either, as IMO, true conservatives have some very legitimate points.

[The Senator]

Somehow this thread seems to have devolved into something other than it was intended - namely into an ideological debate of left vs. right.

 

(No doubt a result of Tennee's attempt to deflect criticism of the late Senator Kennedy by introducing bizarre digressions about George & Laura Bush, Dick Cheney, et al, then exacerbated by backwards-baseball-cap-wearing Exile's prolonged hijacking.)

 

I would like to return the thread to it's original intent - a tribute to the late...

 

[Jim in Anchorage]

Somehow this thread seems to have devolved into something other than it was intended - namely into an ideological debate of left vs. right.

 

(No doubt a result of Tennee's attempt to deflect criticism of the late Senator Kennedy by introducing bizarre digressions about George & Laura Bush, Dick Cheney, et al, then exacerbated by backwards-baseball-cap-wearing Exile's prolonged hijacking.)

 

I would like to return the thread to it's original intent - a tribute to the late...

 

Oh my ribs hurt

[BuffaloBill]

If you're not being led by the nose, you're just wishy-washy. It's the only proper way to think.

 

 

Amen. This may be the first post from you that I actually entirely agree with. Now I am afraid to go outside though there is not cloud in the sky. I fear I may be struck down by lightning.

[Max Fischer]

Perception that it fosters equality (which it does, in a sense - an equal lack of opportunity), and the fact that it's actually rather difficult to get a law repealed, practically speaking.

 

At the risk of overstating things, Title IX is a good example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

 

That is a bit of an overstatement. The difficulty in repealing a law usually doesn't stop public discussion on whether a law should be changed. (I have to say I have not had one conversation about the merits of the law in over 20 years.) Could it be that Americans it difficult to justify its repeal, simply believe it was the right thing to do or there isn't solid legal grounds to overturn?

[Jim in Anchorage]

That is a bit of an overstatement. The difficulty in repealing a law usually doesn't stop public discussion on whether a law should be changed. (I have to say I have not had one conversation about the merits of the law in over 20 years.) Could it be that Americans it difficult to justify its repeal, simply believe it was the right thing to do or there isn't solid legal grounds to overturn?

A lack of interest by 99.98% of Americans is why it will not be repealed.

[Tcali]

i remember this from his speech withdrawing from his presidential bid. Seems appropriate now...tennyson.

 

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,

Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--

That ever with a frolic welcome took

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed

Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;

Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.

Death closes all; but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;

The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.

'T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

fantastic...strong stuff