Well, let's be honest. If you can be judged by the company you keep check out some of McCain's.
The Racists
The Virulently Hateful
My understanding is that the child named Bristol is actually named after Bristol, CT because of Palin's admiration of ESPN, where she had hoped to land a job when she was young.
I've been to the web sites of those people that Paula speaks of, the ones who want to destroy Obama and get McCain elected. The majority of articles and comments there are weak on rational thought and strong on deep, purely emotional reaction. The bitterness and hatred run through everything. Somehow they have come to think that they could work hard to destroy the current Democratic ticket's chances of winning this election and then come back in 2012 and get Senator Clinton nominated and elected. Why would they think this could possibly work? Do you think they wouldn't try and trumpet their contribution to Obama's loss if that's the way things worked out come November? Do they really think it wouldn't be remembered? In addition not once are the negative consequences of a McCain presidency mentioned. It's like getting a man elected who is roughly 85% in agreement with Bush on the issues is just fine with them. Yet they claim to support the policies of Hillary Clinton.
And frankly, I just didn't see the flood of sexism, name-calling and other negativity towards Senator Clinton that they claim to have seen from the Obama campaign. When asked for specifics somehow they consistently fail to provide evidence.
Color me thoroughly unimpressed with those people and convinced that Obama will persuade the rational former Clinton supporters to vote for him and Biden. The others are hopeless.
Why, yes, the mullahs are evil. Or have you forgotten this incident, which by most accounts is just one of many?
Sorry, but while the idea of attacking Iran could only be adequately described with every word in the dictionary that is a synonym for insane let's not go overboard. Whatever the typical Iranian citizen might be like, the mullahs, the Revolutionary Guard and their ilk are not particularly civilized. Just ask the relatives of those boys and all the others like them.
It somehow reminds me of those AGW deniers that are constantly saying that they don't refuse to recognize that things are warming but work hard to make it seem like it's a very small problem.
"It's not going to get as warm as even the moderate parts of the models say. The poles and glaciers aren't going to melt enough to raise the oceans that much. And since that's the case it's cheaper for us to adapt to the changes than try to drastically reduce CO2 production." So their arguments go. If you actually accept the first two parts it minimizes the potential cost and suffering. And that's just what they want. When it's pointed out that there are factors that can't be adequately quantified at this time and that therefor the IPCC left them out (making their estimates very conservative) and that makes it quite possible that things could also be worse than the current models predict you can hear the crickets chirping.
Change the assumptions. Change the numbers. Suddenly your policies can make sense...sort of, maybe.
One of those toasters sits in our loft to this day, Paula. I let out a "Damn!" on seeing this news and Jill turned around to ask what was wrong even though she was on the phone with her daughter.
Many years ago when Susan and I lived in Tulsa and were on the committee for OKon a group put on a Trek convention and invited the committee to the pre-con party/press reception. It suddenly occurred to the chair that he was sending the hotel limo to pick up George Takei and he had no one associated with the con to go with him and thought it would be considerate to do so. He knew Susan and I wouldn't be fawning fans and asked us to do it. He was great. Pleasant to talk to and generally interesting. He asked about jogging in the area of the hotel and I told him that there shouldn't be any problem and somehow we got to the subject of his interest in classical architecture and restoration of older buildings. We had the limo driver swing by a couple of projects going on in downtown Tulsa at the time so he could see how close they were to the hotel if he wanted to see more of them when the light was better. I'm really, really happy for him and his partner. They do look so happy. He definitely deserves any happiness he finds, IMO.
Patrick,
While Texas may have multiple large urban areas, remember the phrase made famous by a certain film, urban cowboy. How much of that urban Texas landscape is ruled by a self-image fueled by myths of the 19th Century? And look at what they elect to run their school system. Children I care about moved to San Antonio last year and I worry about that.
But no one in the comments mentioned Mack Reynolds when discussing economics in science fiction. Of course what I remember from some of his books was something not mentioned in the Wickipedia article, the gyrations that had to be done to adapt to a world where technology had automated most jobs out of existence. When you consider that one of the arguments being made by defenders of globalization is that what is really causing the most job loss in the U.S. is automation, not exporting jobs. Somehow they never come up with a viable solution to the issues raised if they're right.
Yes, McCain also has a lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union of 80%. As the ACU has bought completely into every single Bush Admin position and other things his annual rating dropped recently to (*gasp*) 65%. McCain-Feingold is a no-no to these people as is anything positive for the environment.
BTW, the only county that has a significant number of votes unreported is Chester County, which is currently breaking 55% for Obama with only 56% of the votes reported.
I'd still vote for Hillary over McCain. His ideas on health care, tax cuts, Iraq, the Middle East in general, pretty much anything economic and many other issues make a battle cry of "Four more years!!" seem accurate. She isn't as wedded to staying in Iraq just this side of forever as McCain. She certainly won't try keeping the Bush tax cuts and while I don't think her health plan is that great, it's better than anything any Republican will ever propose.
Unfortunately I find myself picturing a very nasty bombing at Ankara University or perhaps an attack by a good sized group of armed men. But then there would be a backlash and hopefully it would be a huge one.
First, if Ron Paul did simply let someone write these horrible things in his name, he let them do if for years and supposedly never noticed. And some people want this guy at the head of the government? Of course it should be remembered that Ron Paul is philosophically close to the folks at the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, many of which don't believe in any government at all. Then you can always read what he wrote at www.lewrockwell.com. But if you do the latter, don't stop at just one. Oh, no. When I see people claiming that Ron Paul believes in personal freedom and has no bigotry I suggest they do a search on "Ron Paul" "Lawrence v. Texas".
Ron Paul is not only anti-choice but believes that the states should have the right to govern anything they consider immoral. Lawrence v. Texas was wrong, in his opinion. I would imagine that if he doesn't like that or Roe v. Wade he doesn't believe in Griswold v. Connecticut either. So in Ron Paul's ideal world any given state could ban abortion, birth control and any form of sexual expression they didn't like so long as the majority approves of it. And the Supreme Court could not intervene to safeguard minority rights if he got his way either. Yet the fanatical Ron Paul supporters constantly write and speak of his love for liberty.
The other thing I've never understood is how some people can look at his stranger notions and somehow think that just because he can't get them enacted without congressional backup it makes it OK to vote for him like those views doesn't say something about him so basic that it most definitely should disqualify him from consideration by reasonable people. In the modern global economy he thinks that we could eliminate the Federal Reserve and return to the Gold Standard. Has he ever really researched the history of the gold standard? I doubt it. He also believes that in the age of Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, Duke Energy and the current wave of product recalls he would eliminate all federal oversight of corporations. With George W. Bush we've seen how much damage just the President can do with the "right" kind of appointments to regulatory agencies and I have no doubt that Ron Paul could do the same. And what kind of person would Ron Paul appoint to the Supreme Court? Yet some people overlook almost everything after finding one or two things about him that they like.
"Above all, stay safe. There are few things I can think of where it's worth your life to drive there."
Wouldn't it be nice if more employers realized that their business doesn't qualify to be one of those few things?
But...don't we all really know which one of the two has the better grasp on reality?
I can't remember the last time I went without reading for more than a day. Sometimes at conventions I've been very busy at it can happen but that's been quite a while. But every day my lunch hour consists of going out to my car where I will eat lunch, put on some classical music and then read for a bit before tilting the seat back and closing my eyes for 15 minutes to a half hour depending on the reading. I also read blogs and news online pretty much every day.
Vastleft @ 168
Yes, I do agree that in spite of those who claim otherwise it is the Republican party that is for all practical purposes run by their extremists. The claim that the culture war is widespread is inaccurate and proposed only in an attempt by the extremists of the right to make themselves seem to represent more of the country than they do. But they do succeed in scaring some people who don't agree with them on everything into being afraid of a "boogeyman" version of the other side.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 15 |
| 2007 | 16 |
| 2006 | 1 |
| 2005 | 1 |
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