2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

[Slap Shot]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

In between reports on the problems of gay prison inmates and Mumia Abu Jamal, NPR can be a good source of information. Certainly superior to your local TV "news." Mindless, boring, uninformative and stupid. But other than that, a good place to find out wht's going on.

But 'you' never watch FOX.

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

But 'you' never watch FOX.

They all suck, all the time.

[leswp1]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

In the big picture, homosexual marriage is not an issue. As Slick Willie said - "It's the economy, stupid."

BHO is a party theoretician that suddenly got the premiership. He has no idea on how to run a government as he never had experience in running or being in charge of anything. Mitt may be the champion of the Waffle House, but he ran the SLC Olympics and somehow got elected governor of Massachusetts.And remember, homosexuals and polygamists can always contract into an arrangement and the courts can't touch it. So what's the big deal?

Well worded. He became Governor but, simply put, he sucked at it. He did a great job cutting things but did nothing to address the problems those monies had been addressing. Basically he looked great if you wanted a 'better' balance sheet but the long term effects were significantly more costly than if things were left alone. Our schools, infrastructure and health care all were a mess and we had to throw money at them to fix the cost of ignoring the original problem.

Microcosm of what we are doing on a national level. Cut everything because spending is bad but do not look at the long term effects Sort of like cutting off your foot because it hurts after you stubbed your toe and then realizing you can't walk. No one has the balls to go through with addressing anything because it might mean investing the $ to fix stuff. We are, however, supposed to pull the solution out of our collective a55 when we suddenly realize we are in a mess. Look at what austerity measures have reaped in Europe. Audiovisual aides number 1 through... (Greece, Spain, UK, Ireland, France and I think Italy off the top of my head)
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I wonder how much of this is due to parents vs. education. I was lucky enough to attend one of the better districts in our state and yet would swear I knew less at the same age as my kids know now globally. As my wife is from Thailand and I worked/travelled globally before they were born we've grilled the boys on foreign affairs since they were born and perhaps that's the rub. A local education is necessary, but sans involved parents unless the kid wants to learn there's only so much that can be taught. A kid can learn anywhere if he/she wants to and/or the parents give a rip - private or public.

I think a lot of has to do with parents. We have multiple generations now who were brought up watching the sanitized version of nightly news where Britanny Spears lack of underclothing is a story and starving folks in Darfur, the economic crisis, the various wars are not. I lived overseas when I was younger. I figured out when I was 10 just how ignorant, insular and isolated the avg person in this country is about international news when I knew more than most of the adults.

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

right now, it doesn't matter, because the more fiscally conservative party is also the socially liberal one.

The gop lost any credance at being fiscally conservative when eric cantor and the tea party derp-brigade scuttled the grand bargain that would have given them 98% of what they wanted. "no new taxes" is as fiscally irresponsible as any spending right now.

qft

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

qft

That was well stated. Nothing to argue with there.

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

I believe primarily in what's best for me, or helps put me in a situation to do the best I can do for myself from a financial standpoint, so the balance of my politics will always lean towards economic issues and spending/taxation. My social views are pretty straightforward. Don't like abortion? Don't have one. Don't like gays/gay marriage? Don't hook up with another dude. Not keen on religion? Don't join one. Think guns are evil? Don't buy one. Etc.

I'm sympathetic, but there are definitely areas where this doesn't work. "Don't like slavery, don't buy one." Political life is not just a set of negative liberties, nor is the political structure merely an economic enabler.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Whole election will be gay marriage now. Obama will lost to Romney on that issue. All the states that have it on the ballot will shoot it down. Minnesota has it on the ballot.

[MUnRPI]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

The GOP lost any credance at being fiscally conservative when Eric Cantor and the Tea Party derp-brigade scuttled the grand bargain that would have given them 98% of what they wanted. "No new taxes" is as fiscally irresponsible as any spending right now.

The tax code is archaic and the solution is not as simple as "taxing the rich more" because Obama's definition of rich is horse****. Families who make $250,000 a year should not be paying 2.5 times the income tax of hedge fund managers.

[Priceless]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Whole election will be gay marriage now. Obama will lost to Romney on that issue. All the states that have it on the ballot will shoot it down. Minnesota has it on the ballot.

Ever the optimist!

The tax code is archaic and the solution is not as simple as "taxing the rich more" because Obama's definition of rich is horse****. Families who make $250,000 a year should not be paying 2.5 times the income tax of hedge fund managers.

Do you even know what the bargain was? "Taxing the rich more" was hardly the proposal.

[MUnRPI]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Ever the optimist!

Do you even know what the bargain was? "Taxing the rich more" was hardly the proposal.

just talking about the tax code in general in relation to fiscal responsibility.

[Bob Gray]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

I'm sympathetic, but there are definitely areas where this doesn't work. "Don't like slavery, don't buy one." Political life is not just a set of negative liberties, nor is the political structure merely an economic enabler.

Even though we see a lot of things differently, I agree with you on this. It gets messy when people don't agree about the areas it doesn't work, how/why it doesn't work, and what the fix is, if there is one.

[Bob Gray]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Right now, it doesn't matter, because the more fiscally conservative party is also the socially liberal one.

The GOP lost any credance at being fiscally conservative when Eric Cantor and the Tea Party derp-brigade scuttled the grand bargain that would have given them 98% of what they wanted. "No new taxes" is as fiscally irresponsible as any spending right now.

That's hilarious. I disagree with how the GOP went about those negotiations, but there are folks in the GOP who are way more interested in restoring fiscal sanity than any Democrats are and that's been played out for a long time. Is the GOP as a whole good on fiscal discipline? No, but they are the lesser of the two evils in this situation, based on the long history of this issue, not one event.

[bronconick]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Right now, it doesn't matter, because the more fiscally conservative party is also the socially liberal one.

The GOP lost any credance at being fiscally conservative when Eric Cantor and the Tea Party derp-brigade scuttled the grand bargain that would have given them 98% of what they wanted. "No new taxes" is as fiscally irresponsible as any spending right now.

That entire thing was the domestic equivalent of when the Israelis offered Arafat 95% of what he asked for and he walked away because he never had the authority or intention to agree and wanted nothing more than to blow the other side up.

[Handyman]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Really? Who? Not Cantor or any of the Tea Partiers. Tell me who these mythical GOPers are that are pushing for true Fiscal Responsibility because none of the vocal members seem to know what the words mean.

[bronconick]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Really? Who? Not Cantor or any of the Tea Partiers. Tell me who these mythical GOPers are that are pushing for true Fiscal Responsibility because none of the vocal members seem to know what the words mean.

There might still be a senator or two.

You gotta feel for "True American Conservatives." There aren't any in office, and they don't have any fiscal responsibility either. Apparently despite a sizeable portion of the country calling themselves "Conservative", they're no more effective at getting actual conservatives into office than the "Liberals" that are about a quarter of the size are on their end.