March 2012
48 posts
Welp. That about sums it up for me.
February 2012
223 posts
Oh, facebook...
Her: Personally I stand by what I have said all along. If a true patriot comes to the table that is a true christian, fights for a flat percentage tax, and depends on USA resources to provide for the USA, he or she has my vote. No matter which party they are with. You don't budget based on what your neighbors have, and we shouldn't depend on other countries for labor, bailouts, or oil. I will probably be hung for this, but we as a country desperately need to close our borders and eliminate trade.
Me: @Tiffany: First of all, I take issue with the phrase "true patriot". How do you quantify that? How do you separate the "true patriots" from the fake ones? Is a true patriot one who loves and serves this country, or does he also have to love the NRA and drive a truck? I would argue that any individual who has spent their entire education and career serving this nation in its government are beyond reproach as far as their dedication to the United States as a whole.
Secondly, I take huge issue with the phrase "true Christian". Firstly because the term is incredibly broad, and secondly because it doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on ability to lead. The largest problem is your usage of the word "true". Truth is entirely dependent upon perspective, meaning we cannot make any sort of blanket statement involving truth as it would apply only to the perspective of the individual speaking. So lets just go with "Christian". Is a Catholic a Christian? Of course. What about Protestants, Baptists, 7th Day Adventists... How about the Westboro Baptist Church? Would a member of that Christian church be suitable as a president of our very diverse nation? I argue not, and although you may not consider them to be very Christian, they call themselves Christian.
But none of that ambiguity matters because religious beliefs do not hold bearing on a persons ability to lead a nation. The founding fathers specifically separated the institutions of government and religion, and with good reason. Anyone can be a good leader, be they followers of Jesus, Abraham, Muhammed, or anyone else, or perhaps no one. While these labels can be useful in categorizing people with certain moral ideals, belief in a deity is not necessary to hold those same morals and ideals. For example, I think it's wrong to steal because taking from others is wrong, not because somebody told me so.
I'll leave the flat tax rate issue alone. I don't really want to get into a tax debate right now. They're so messy...
Next I'd like to look at closing the borders. Let me ask you this - what did you eat for dinner last night? How about lunch yesterday? Breakfast? I am willing to bet a considerable sum that 50% to 80% of your food passed through Mexican hands. Mexican illegal immigrant hands. We depend on the labor from illegal immigration to feed ourselves. The government already greatly subsidizes farming, and the only reason you can afford to eat the food you eat is because the people who grow it and pick it are paid next to nothing. Part of the problem is that Americans in general think that they are worth more or entitled to a better job than simply picking berries for pennies. If Americans worked those jobs, they would have to be paid minimum wage ($9.04/hr in Washington State, current Jan. 1, 2012) instead of less than a dollar per hour. And the cost of that extra eight dollars is passed on to you. Imagine if everything at the grocery store cost you 10 times as much. We would starve. Closing the borders isn't an option because we depend on the cheap labor that grows our food.
Now, eliminating trade... Your computer is gone. Your cell phone is gone. Your kitchen appliances are gone. Your clothes are gone. Anything you can find at Wal-Mart is gone. Basically all your food that isn't made of corn is gone. Just about all your electronics are gone. Your car may be American made, but it has no oil or gas because you can't afford $25 a gallon. You know those cute little American flags about 6 inches tall? Yup, made in China. Think about every time you've seen a "Made in China" sticker. Gone. We have neither the resources nor the raw materials to be a self sufficient and autonomous isolationist nation. We are entirely dependent on international trade.
*****
--tl;dr--
It's a nice thought you've got there, but we have to consider the implications of applying it to the real world. All of these "problems" that need to be eliminated are actually the very things that keep our country limping along.
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--A solution--
The Defense budget could easily pay for all of these things. Just saying...
“It’s like a dirty little secret that everyone knows.”
– Dr. Lena Ericksen on the subject of Love
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Excerpt from “Thoughts of Anastasia”
Feb. 15
I was in dad’s car. Ohhhh my. What a ride. Flying over dirt roads, drifting the occasional corner and spinning out in dirt parking lots. Splashing through puddles the size of small lakes and blasting Infected Mushroom through the Bose speakers, laughing all the way. The car was filthy, dirt all over the doors, the windows...
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