Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

[5mn_Major]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

Its just like many so called fiscal conservative voters wanting small government...until it comes to the many pet projects they want funded (ie, military, education). Frequently, social conservatives want the government out of their own lives...but they want to tell others how to live. This all too often becomes the GOPs big plank once in office.

You know most of us on the right don't want the GOP involved in restricting the internet, on video games, in music, in movies and pretty much every other type of content imaginable. At least not at the federal level. I know there are many conservatives that are pro-life. I won't speak for all of them, but I have no interest in a national law making abortion illegal. I would like to see roe v wade overturned because it is bad law. The issue really should be up to the states.

Well said. I'd love states involved in determining what to outlaw. Let states compete on quality of life...I have no doubt that states embracing freedoms would blow away those restricting its citizens behaviors and would gain citizens.

 

[MinnFan]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

http://www.mygovcost.org/

This is an interesting website. It basically computes how much will be taken from you by the gov't in the future and how much that would be worth to you if you had been able to keep it and invest it at a historical return of 6.3% (which is actually lower than the historical average).

 

[pirate]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

Its just like many so called fiscal conservative voters wanting small government...until it comes to the many pet projects they want funded (ie, military, education). Frequently, social conservatives want the government out of their own lives...but they want to tell others how to live. This all too often becomes the GOPs big plank once in office.



Well said. I'd love states involved in determining what to outlaw. Let states compete on quality of life...I have no doubt that states embracing freedoms would blow away those restricting its citizens behaviors and would gain citizens.

There are a couple of different avenues here...one, both parties have issues with wanting to tell other people how to live.

Two, I don't know that the fiscal conservative and the pet project person are always one in the same, not that they are always exclusive either. There are plenty of people who would propose reducing expense without granting sacred cow status to any one line on the budget. There need to be priorities though. If it was suggested that the federal budget take a 10% cut across the board I would suggest that it should be 50% on some and 2% on others, not because they are pet projects but because some are justifiable expenses (in this economy) and some aren't.

Lastly, what % of the population is mostly or entirely dependent upon the government for their housing, food and healthcare? You might not view that at the government 'in their lives' but some might.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

Well said. I'd love states involved in determining what to outlaw. Let states compete on quality of life...I have no doubt that states embracing freedoms would blow away those restricting its citizens behaviors and would gain citizens.

This already happens along border areas. When the VA marriage amendment passed in 2006, many highly educated, high income families moved their taxable income a dozen miles north to MD. In a truly federalist system, nutbarism would have extreme financial penalties.

The current system of inter-state subsidization basically works like a Berlin Wall allowing some states to wallow in uncompetitive social practices. End those subsidies and make states have to be self-reliant, and you'll get something like the situation in East Germany in 1990. First, a lot of people will just leave. Then, the ones who stick it out (or smart exploiters who move into the vacuum) will take advantage of the pressure differential to buy very low. But then if they want their investment to pay off, they'll need to reform the state enough to make it livable, so all the economic pressures will be on dragging it into the present.

You might get laboratories for a while, but I suspect we would wind up with a fairly rapid entropic balance. A theocratic South Carolina is not exactly going to be a big draw. It would be a more boring country, but if boring means less likely to explode into regional stupidities, I'm all for it.

 

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

that's 16,000 more agents to ensure you and I and everyone else falls in line

pretty soon they'll be riding in along in my car to work to make sure I take the most expeditious path, and maybe even suggest walking to save the planet

The connection between paying your taxes and having your life controlled for you is one of the hallmarks of conservatism that I've just never understood.

Is the IRS insanely inefficient? Yes.
Does it need to be trimmed back A LOT, especially in an age where electronic filing simplifies the whole thing? Absolutely.
Do I wish my tax dollars were spent more efficiently than they are? Definately.
Does this mean that I have suddenly lost my free will? Of course not.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

It's particularly weird that the people who think the IRS is hiding in their bathtub adore the Surveillance State, which really is hiding in their bath tub.

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

Being against abortion is also hardly anti-civil liberties if you were able to recognize the possibility that people who feel that way are attempting to protect the rights of the fetus which they believe to be a living, albeit unborn, person.

But those people are wrong and therefore anything bad can and will be said about them. Such is the modus operandi of people like 5mn, who don't respect people with different perspectives than their own and therefore any attack on those people is legit and even to be commended.

 

[pirate]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

This already happens along border areas. When the VA marriage amendment passed in 2006, many highly educated, high income families moved their taxable income a dozen miles north to MD. In a truly federal system, nutbarism would have delightful penalties. Imagine the South trying to exist without federal subsidies.

Does the south receive more subsidy than the north? Never seen any data but would have assumed population is the biggest driver.

 

[pirate]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

It's particularly weird that the people who think the IRS is hiding in their bathtub adore the Surveillance State, which really is hiding in their bath tub.

now that's a big bathtub

I agree with EODS, I'm less worried that the IRS is sneeking around in my trash than they are just wasting money and aren't even effective enough to be digging around in my trash.

I think we should have more stringent controls on how info is gathered and used by the government. In their attempt to prevent 1 in a million events they have created a process that adds expense and time to so many daily activities.

Hey I don't want Mohammed Atta to get a line of credit with Chase ...but the solution makes every single application more expensive and everybody pays for it.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

Hey I don't want Mohammed Atta to get a line of credit with Chase ...but the solution makes every single application more expensive and everybody pays for it.

True, though nothing's free. Every additional layer of security is going to cost time and/or money. Also, it isn't like those layers wouldn't be needed if everybody in AQ repented and joined the Ruritan Club.

This is going to be a balancing act that defies blanket rhetoric from both sides. Real life is always more complex than a position paper.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

Does the south receive more subsidy than the north? Never seen any data but would have assumed population is the biggest driver.

The big drivers on federal spending in the South are:

+ Rural location (transport, water and power)
+ Military bases
+ Agricultural subsidies
+ Social spending (poverty)

It's been getting better but the South has lagged behind the rest of the country in education and income since at least the mid 19th century -- it began by them being more agrarian, but has now become enshrined as a sort of perverse self-sabotage against education -- a ghetto culture. That's meant they have less to contribute into federal coffers but they draw as much or more back -- the federal government makes up the difference.

This happens in microcosm within all states, substitute "rural counties" for the South and "urban and suburban counties" for the rest of the country.

There's nothing inherently wrong with this -- a nation is supposed to be a community of communities, helping each other out. What's ridiculous is the anti-communitarian rhetoric comes from the very people who benefit the most. A decade or so of taking them up on it might be in order to 'splain it to them a little.

Of course, if they still want to cut back services to a point where they become a sort of vassal state supply of cheap labor, they should have every right. Ron Paul asked "would you give up everything you get from government in exchange for what you give it." If they as states decide in the affirmative, Baby Jesus bless em, there are places in West Virginia I'd love to have a country manor complete with villeins and a strong thunder god to keep them in line.

 

[pirate]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

True, though nothing's free. Every additional layer of security is going to cost time and/or money. Also, it isn't like those layers wouldn't be needed if everybody in AQ repented and joined the Ruritan Club.

This is going to be a balancing act that defies blanket rhetoric from both sides. Real life is always more complex than a position paper.

Not sure I agree...it may be true that some small amount of credit or funding came through US accounts but that isn't how terrorism is funded...we've made our entire financial system more complicated and added several layers of red tape and regulation (and the regulators) to prevent terrorists from opening a credit card or a line of credit.

I get it, but if they want the money to finance their efforts they don't need to stand in line at the local branch...they have plenty of money. Sure it might have hurt that they got some spending cash here in the states. But, if they are the enemy then they can rejoice in tying up a fraction of our resources and economy hunting for ghosts. That is worth more to them than trying to get $5k in cash.

I have a hard time relaying this theory but as the US tries to eliminate every single thing that can go wrong, whether it is financial, crime, terrorism, pollution etc. we justify spending money and time that isn't proportional. And the problem isn't solved, just forced to migrate to a new method.

The cost/benefit of those activities is more of a "well, at least we did something" type of rationale. We don't know the real impact of Patriot Act checks on terrorism, any more than the kid in the joke could measure the efficacy of his tiger repellent.

If it was free I'd be all for it. Hell, build a Springfield dome and seal the whole country in...wheel out Ronnie's Star Wars system, put the missles on rails under the country, if it is free go ahead. If it costs money we need to wake up and smell what we're shoveling.

 

[amherstblackbear]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

the cost-benefit equation is more complicated still.

ex: The #1 benefit that all the airport rigamarole provides is confidence in the airline industry. Not security, per se. What if people weren't quick to resume flying? All sorts of other bad crap would have followed. I've got a headache just thinking about it.

With an exceptionally narrow/security definition of 'benefit', we can justify s- canning a lot of post-9/11 policy. But in the bigger picture, things aren't as obvious.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/24/justices-panther-pursuer-testifies-about-reverse-r/

Reverse racism from BO's justice department. Too bad he and Holder had to pick those mincing Nancy boys of the NBPP to protect from the well deserved consequences of their thuggery.

And how's this for a "coincidence"? A guy with the same name as one of those NBPP hairdressers showed up in the private residence of the WH last July. The WH says it was a DIFFERENT Malik Shabazz. Could be. Prove it. Who is the Malik Shabazz that got a private audience with "the one we have been waiting for?" Simple question.

http://biggovernment.com/abreitbart...isited-white-house-in-july-2009-mr-president/

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

I wish I was a minority...there's so many benefits.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

I wish I was a minority...there's so many benefits.

If it were me, I'd shoot for lucidity first.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ible-payments-grant-problems/?test=latestnews


Here's an ACORN front group accused of spending 80% of 3.5 million in taxpayer dollars on salaries. Racist enforcement, you ask me.

 

[Patman]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

I wish I was a minority...there's so many benefits.

Apparently you are allowed to brandish a weapon in front of a polling place and intimidating voters if you're black... but I suppose that makes up for all the injustice?

 

[Patman]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

This already happens along border areas. When the VA marriage amendment passed in 2006, many highly educated, high income families moved their taxable income a dozen miles north to MD.

Oh, that's why housing is so cheap... wait... no. You're going to tell me all the brains moved to MD over gay marriage? Maybe people around here ARE that stupid.

In a truly federalist system, nutbarism would have extreme financial penalties.

How so?

 

[Old Pio]

Re: Obama XVI: Muslin curtains in the White House!!!

http://bigpeace.com/cjacobs/2010/09...school-students-also-sponsored-hate-speakers/

Some stunning revelations from that Wellesley,MA mosque, to which some people thought it was a good idea to take middle school kids.

Whaddya know? They're preaching hatred and anti-semitism, all in the name of the "religion of peace." It's the usual double shuffle, practiced for decades by Arafat and more recently by "Imam" Rauf as he threatens NYC if his plans for "Jihadarama" are disrupted. Will it be too late when we finally learn what we're dealing with?