Should anybody be bothered by the Sacramento (and Berkeley) home owner with the US soldier uniform stuffed with an American flag hung from a noose on his house? Should he be forced to do anything?
Should anybody be bothered by General Mattis' "fun to shoot some people" comment? Should he be forced to do anything?
Should anybody be bothered by what fake-American-Indian -who-doesn't-know-jack-about-Ethics prof Churchill said about 9/11 victims?
Do you think your employer would put you on a warning if were lecturing people in the lunch room about how 9/11 victims were in fact not victims and akin to Nazi's?
Should anybody be bothered by the bigoted and racist cartoons made by widely published liberal cartoonist of Condi Rice? Should they be forced to do anything?
Should anybody be bothered by gay marriage? Should anybody be bothered by group marriage? How about marriage to a goat?
Should anybody be bothered by Anheuser Busch Super Bowl commercial titled "Thank You"?
Should anybody be bothered if we target men of middle eastern descent for the most thorough airport searches?
Should anybody be bothered if those who don't legally live in the US, or pay taxes in the US, receive any benefit paid for by US taxes?
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11 comments:
So Jim, I'll apologize for putting your name in the title of this post...but I enjoy the dialog and occasional repartee (more witt would be good) with you. I suspect, but please prove me wrong, that if you answer each of these individualy and honestly the answers taken as a group will show hypocrisy.
My word sir, you have a very thick neck.
better than a pencil neck!
A must read cloumn for Tiny & Jim:
http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200502040750.asp
Excellent piece by Hanson....I always love an intelligent slaying of the global left!
Hi Jim, I read your blog..nice job....although I disagree (big surprise right?) on your premise that right and left are tied up with economic differences. Economics is only one leg of the difference...big government, or government having more control over a certain element of the population is on the left, less for the right. The left also, IMHO, thinks nobody is responsible for their lot in life hence the support of over the top (give em fish instead of teaching them fishing) social programs and also the idea of over the top social freedoms are on the left. Just a word of warning if you want to sue me...I got laywers on retainer! :)
Hi Jimbo, very eloquent comments indeed....ok, I'm only referring to the American political scene....that's all that matters anyway, right? :)
Hey Jim, I'll further illustrate the American difference with the following joke (which by the way defines me as a Texan):
DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN, OR TEXAN?
You're walking down a deserted street with your spouse and two small children. Suddenly, a dangerous looking man with a huge knife comes around the corner and locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, raises his knife, and charges. You're carrying a Smith & Wesson and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do?
Democrat's Answer:
Well, that's not enough information to answer the question! Does the man look poor or oppressed? Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack? Could we run away? What does my wife think? What about the kids? Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand? What does the law say about this situation? Does the gun have an appropriate safety built into it? Why am I carrying a loaded gun and what kind of message does this send to society and my children? Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me? Does he definitely want to kill me or would he just be content to wound me? If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me? This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for a few days to try to come to a conclusion.
Republican's Answer:
BANG!
Texan's Answer:
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click...click...click
In the real America (which doesn't include Washington D.C.) the left and the right are seperated by a few things but none more important than personal responsibility.
When a person makes poor decisions in their life people on the right believe that they should bear the brunt of the consequences brought on by their own choices. The idea being that when you have to face the consequences of your own making that you will make better choices in the future.
People on the left believe that we should all bear that brunt to minimize the affect on the individual. While this sounds nice it really only leads down one road, taking from one group of people to give to another group, while at he same time it does nothing to address the problem of the receiving group---poor life choices.
Another major factor in the seperation is that people on the right understand that nothing is free. You can rant all you want about free health care, affirmative action, low cost housing for the poor...pick your favorite social program...they all have one thing in common: taking from one group and giving to another thus they are not free.
Money (whether given in the form of cash or in governmental preference) can not buy values and those without values will take and take until there is nothing left to give.
Yes it's a broad brush but the picture it paints as a whole is quite accurate.
---MG
Jim--we don't agree on much but the banter is appreciated!
“The fact is, when told how much it will cost us (the taxpayers); we agree that the price is worth paying. Because we believe that such a system benefits society as a whole and makes the nation a better place for us to live in.”
----I won’t give you a huge dissertation on how our health care system evolved but a down and dirty one goes like this:
Up until WWII we had a single payer system. Very simple; you went to the doctor and you paid the doctor. Costs were low and care was good. After WWII the insurance companies got involved. You no longer paid your doctor, you paid premiums to your insurance, plus a deductible and the insurance company paid the doctor. This was the beginning of the upward spiral in health care costs in the US; which, by the way, still has the best health care in the world. It’s not free but everyone has access to excellent, timely health care in the US, that’s not the case in other socialized countries like Canada.
In the US any system that the government gets involved in quickly gets bloated and costly. The government in the US is good at two things; churning out mindless bureaucrats and spending money. There is virtually no US government program (save national defense)that wouldn’t be run more efficiently in the private sector. Anything from healthcare to waterworks to the US mail…all of them run better when the private sector is in charge.
“The US defence budget is gargantuan (massively larger than anyone else).”
---It is huge in dollars but it’s actually very small in percentage to gross national product (which is the best way to compare it; comparing our military to other countries is apples and oranges). When you compare those two numbers against each other we spend less on defense now then we did in the 1950’s. And this isn’t a matter of robbing Peter to pay Paul, national security is the single most important job of the US government.
“What about the billions in military aid to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and lots of other places.”
---We agree on this Jim, I don’t think the US should give any foreign aid as policy. Tsunami’s and earthquakes…for natural and human caused disaster we should give some but the US people are very generous and they will give their own money without needing the government to decide where it should go.
---MG
Jim, you said "I suspect that the US model is quite terrible, as it's being done in a culture that doesn't truly believe in it."
You're wrong...like MG said most understand the benefit. And even without what I'll call free "well care" every person (rich, poor, homeless, illegal alien, etc.) can walk into (or be delivered to) an emergency room and get care. Having well care would be ideal. However, when you look at the entire collection of medical specialties we are second to no one when it comes to the care itself. Education is a much bigger topic.
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