politics lulie Why is it that those who are passionate about politics are exceptionally passionate human beings? I find it most stimulating. Maybe it’s a community thing. 021105 ... blue star As one who is obnoxiously passionate about politics, I can only say that I have a very strong desire to see that there aren't any innocent people screwed out of jobs, or medical attention, or relationships with family members, or any sort of freedom whatsoever because of government action. I also have a very strong desire to see rapists shot into space and left on a space station to fend for themselves. I think I've outlined my plan somewhere, either here or on blue... it's quite ingenious, if I do say so myself... 021105 ... silentbob i don't want to see anyone screwed out of anything for any reason 021106 ... blue star I'd like to see rapists screwed out of their genitalia... and any access they could have to any vulnerable person. 021106 ... sweetheart of the song tra bong Argh, Elizabeth Dole won my senate. Doesn't even really live in North Carolina I'm all for women in government but I know we can do better than this. Consolation prize: she's better than our friend Jesse. 021106 ... wicker man considering his track record, that's not saying much. Here's to one "good-old-boy" who most certainly won't be missed the senate's a brighter place without him in it 021106 ... blue star our state, Paul Wellstone's seat, was won by NORM COLEMAN. Our new governor is planning on dealing with our 3 billion dollar deficit by holding to his "no new taxes" pledge. Oh, and then there's this lovely little issue of the Republicans controlling BOTH houses in Congress AND the White House... We're fucked. 021106 ... Q Yes, and a matter of politics. 030129 ... Black Argonaut just a question: how many of you are of voting age? and of those who are, how many actually took the time to go out and vote? no, i'm not being a smartass, but if you can vote and didn't, then shut the fuck up. if you aren't going to do anything about the system, don't whine about it's current state of affairs. and i'd rather have a republican control of all branches than liberal pussies mucking up the works every time someone complains that they've been violated. i dont like paying for other people's misfortunes and mistakes. no, i'm not cruel, i'm left-wing. Of course, if we go back far enough, before we had a multiparty system everything was much better. President Washington told the nation not to have several parties and not to get involved in foreign affairs... well nobody listened, and now every election is centered on which party is better, and not which candidate will be the better senator/republican/etc. and now every time Indobulvania sneezes, it's neighbor gets antsy and WE have to go over and WE have to fight and WE have to die ALL so some backwater nation won't have to. So our men die to protect someone else. That's bogus. Somewhat like the Vietnam Conflict (no it wasn't a war, Congress never declared it, read your history books). And now that we've actually been attacked, we can't do anything b/c we have to make everyone else happy. Good job, D.C. If we had listened to Washington in the first place, we never would have been in this mess to begin with. But nobody ever listens to the guy who knows what he's talking about. Why should we, when we can kill someone and get off in 6 months with good behavior. I agree with the whole rapist idea, although i think they should simply have everything below their navels sliced neatly off, souchered and place them on a rolling cart. Then launch them into space, or onto a station like in "Fortress 2." Of course this won't ever happen, because of the mucking up i mentioned earlier. Thanks a shitload, you whiny liberal assed pussies. Shut the fuck up (i can say this under the First Amendment's guarantee of the Freedom of Speech). Next time anyone wants to argue politics with me, please do, but know your stuff first. Us poli.sci. majors take this shit seriously. Then again, it's all politics. God Bless America, and screw the rest. 030129 ... spoons well said! 030129 ... bandersnatch i second spoons 030129 ... battle flag blues First off, we WERE content to stay out of wars and foreign affairs until WWI. We would have stayed out of WWII had Pearl Harbor not happened, but when you become an economic power, trouble finds you anyway There were two parties or at least factions in Washington's time (federalists and anti-federalists, later there were the Whigs and the first Democrats - who became the Republican party and then there were Democrats) As for rapists, well, you'll get no argument from me there, and thanks to DNA testing at least it's a lot easier to prove than it used to be from the standpoint of the physical evidence. BUT the guys who wrote the constitution knew how nutty and bloodthirsty people could get in their presumably righteous fury and also included something in one of the other amendments in the bill of rights about "cruel and unusual punishment" because the King George III's people (magistrates, constabulary, etc.) got off on doing twisted shit to colonists whenever they thought they had legal grounds to do it. It's not that I don't think that the punishmet should fit that crime, but hey, let's not quote one aspect of the words of the founders and framers of this country while conveniently ignoring another, there's way too much of that shit in our country as it is. ( I support the death penalty) And if you really analyze history, most of our meddling in international affairs in the last century isn't to please one country or another, unless one of those countries is one of our business investments. Korea? we were still busy rebuilding Japan and all of the potential cashflow we could get out of it and when China backed the communist revolution in the north that made American business interests in Asia antsy. Vietnam? same thing. communists make corporate interests antsy, why else do you think we pretty much let the Russians have Eastern Europe even before we knew they had the bomb too. Hitler didn't leave enough in the region for us to care about (i.e. lake money off of) so we wrote it off Grenada, 1983: quick flex of our military muscle to discourage further uprisings in the region Panama? Our pal Manny threatened to cut off our access to the canal if we didn't give him a fatter slice so we squeezed him out of office to keep shipping lanes open from the Atlantic to the Pacific without having to go AROUND South America Gulf War part One? liberate Kuwait? hardly... three letters, kid O-I-L why else do you think that the usually pro-war side of the fence was so against use of military force in Eastern Europe (the Bosnia campaign in the Mid 90's) it was just a few concentration camps and a little genocide, there weren't any major investments in the region at risk so they were against it Afghanistan? hmm, the enemy who attacked us is there, quick retaliation, boost the approval ratings for being decisive even while the economy at home is still stagnating "we were attacked and now we can't do anything about it...." Uhh, excuse me, but have you been watching the news for the last 14 or so months or seen the volume of bombs we've dropped on Afghanistan? Iraq? those three letters come up again: OIL We starve the Iraqi public with sanctions to punish Saddam, but here's the kicker, we built him too well and he's not hurting one bit. The people don't see it as us starving them to get to him, they just see it as us starving them. "god bless america and screw the rest?" Well, news flash, we have been screwing the rest and that's why they're so pissed off about it. And if I were god, I would make it a point to leave this whole situation the hell alone so as to illustrate how I sure as fuck don't condone ANY of it. i've actually been a soldier and spent time overseas, kid, i've been in firefights that'll never get mentioned on the evening news even though i wasn't even an infantryman, and knowing what i know, i if you want to call me a liberal pussy for thinking your whole tirade wasn't a load of something that smells worse than my last case of dysintery, you go right ahead. you're young. you'll understand with time and experence that the more you learn, the more you'll come to realize you don't know 030129 ... Black Argonaut yeh, that too. (spoilsport) 030130 ... Black Argonaut i can add that we both have good points. some of yours are a bit... wrong. then again, so are mine. i say again, First Amendment! we are both entitled to our opinions. put them together, we've got a thesis on the situation our nation is in. 030130 ... Black Argonaut by the way, dont insult my intellegence, "old man." i know more than i let on, as i'm sure you do. With the whole "OIL" thing, we have larger stockpiles of oil in the midwest and Alaska combined than the Middle East. And with the terrorism attacks, sure we've bombed Afghanistan, but we haven't been able to go straight in and blow the bejesus out of the hidden cells, one reason being that Russia has threatened to retaliate against us if we start a conflict in Afghanistan as it is where they get their oil (why? like us, they have loads of oil. see: siberian wastes). There are always many sides to every story, as you so aptly tried to point out in your blathe. That's all fine and dandy, just don't assume that everyone doesn't already know that. I did, and i'm sure most everyone else did too. i appreciate what you've done for our country, you think i'm not aware of any of the battles we never hear of? it's been going on since the First World War. it happens, i know. how do i know? everyone in my family is in the military, so don't be so pretentious. my father suffers from Gulf War Syndrome, but you dont hear me whining about it. instead, i am proud of his contributions. although i may not agree with the whole gulf war. remember, i pointed out that we would be in a lot better shape if we had just stayed out of foreign affairs. but yes, you do have your points, and i concede them. by the way, i'm not going to call you a liberal pussy, a liberal pussy never would have been in a war (i.e. a certain president who used daddy to get away from the draft). congratulations, you are a man/woman who knows their stuff, top to bottom, almost. we could both use a little more info on all of these topics. i'm glad someone with a good amount of intellegence responded and not just some ignorant zealot. 030130 ... ignorant zealot. YOUR WRONG! I HATE YOU! 030130 ... Q Thanks, battle flag blues, but don't be blue please. 030201 ... nr i realized that, for some reason, i always bring up politics in one way or another when meeting someone new (most often someone of the opposite sex). i don't know why i do this, really, because i don't talk about politics much in my everyday life with people i know well. i guess they're important to me. and i don't really need to talk about them with people i know, because i already know them and how they feel. but it still feels like a weird thing to talk about on a first meeting. 150820 ... e_o_i I was reading an Andrew Coyne article yesterday: poor Stephen Harper (he wrote) can't seem to trust anyone, with all his associates hiding stuff from him, and we should feel sorry for him... I got halfway through before I realized he was being sarcastic. How can you tell what's serious or not when Donald Trump is actually factually running for US President? (Well, the Republican nomination for now, but close enough.) How, I ask you?? 150821 ... raze there's a psychic goat in scotland, very adept at predicting the outcome of political matters. there's a chance this amuses me more than it should. 161108 ... epitome of incomprehensibility AMERICAN PEOPLE! DON'T LET TRUMP WIN! HE'S WORSE THAN MY BOSS! My aunt is here. Dad's sister. They both come from Maine. She lives in Ontario now, but unlike him, she has dual citizenship. She came here from a family and voting visit to her home nation and state (she preferred to vote there so she could talk to people first about the local ballot options). Now she's glued anxiously to the TV where there are blue numbers and red numbers. The red numbers are higher, which is causing some anxiety. I think I'm anxious too. I just ate three desserts (brownie, cookie, raspberry-almond square). And I'm hitting the hard stuff - my second cup of herbal tea. But I can't entirely be a global citizen, spiking glycemic index or not, because I have to get up at 7 AM and still have to send homework to my tutoring student. But but but. Now Mom is worried. Friggin' conservative "abortion is murder" Christian guilt-ridden turquoise-turtleneck wearing Mom? Yup, she doesn't like the turnip either. United stated distaste. Qu'est qu'on va faire? 161108 ... e_o_i I can't concentrate on the homework. I'm supposed to make a graph for a reading comprehension exercise. Why is everything going wrong? 161108 ... raze yeah, that ... didn't quite go as expected. 161109 what's it to you? who go blather from