Wifey's got a new laptop and it runs Windows 8! Yikes!!!!

[woodsmoke]

That's why I hate them all!

Why couldn't we have just elected Ron Paul? Even if he done nothing but sit on his thumbs his entire term, it'd still been better than our other 2 choices.

YEPPERS

That is why I'm a libertarian constitutionalist pragmatic populist with quasi polishing the bar with my elbows tendencies!

woodneedsarumncokesmoke

[woodsmoke]

you added something! kewl!

woodsmoke

[richb]

Why couldn't we have just elected Ron Paul? Even if he done nothing but sit on his thumbs his entire term, it'd still been better than our other 2 choices.

.

To each his own.

[woodsmoke]

Let us carefully consider the launch of a new political party in the U.S.

We can take as a model the Classification of previous parties in that there was one named "the Whigs".

We could call the new party: "the Thumb Sitters".

A motto could be: "For every woman a chicken in the pot and for every man a thumb to suck!" (or possibly -- ensuckle)

Here we have a ready made symbol:



what more do we need!? After all communism was started with a single book by an old doof in a library with time on.....his.......hands!

woodfirebrandsmoke

[charles052]

Let us carefully consider the launch of a new political party in the U.S.

We can take as a model the Classification of previous parties in that there was one named "the Whigs".

We could call the new party: "the Thumb Sitters".

A motto could be: "For every woman a chicken in the pot and for every man a thumb to suck!" (or possibly -- ensuckle)

Here we have a ready made symbol:



what more do we need!? After all communism was started with a single book by an old doof in a library with time on.....his.......hands!

woodfirebrandsmoke

I'd settle for something else, instead of having only 2 or 3 candidates for a position, we have an additional option: "None of the above." If more people vote for "None of the above", both candidates are beaten senseless and we start all over.

[woodsmoke]

lol
woodneverbeapolitician!smoke

[oshunluvr]

While I agree we need a new party - one based on common sense and logic, in my view - I don't think electing a complete lunatic is the answer to our country's problems.

http://prospect.org/article/ron-paul-crazy-person

[richb]

+1

[charles052]

While I agree we need a new party - one based on common sense and logic, in my view - I don't think electing a complete lunatic is the answer to our country's problems.

http://prospect.org/article/ron-paul-crazy-person

Wow! This thread really went OT. And I was almost tempted to start posting my own views. But the problem with talking about politics is that too often it becomes a debate, which quickly becomes heated. Why? Because your political views are very, very close to the likes of religious views, based upon a belief/faith system. And when those beliefs are tested or questioned most people can't help but get irritated, annoyed, angry, fighting mad, etc....

I hate politics simply because I see it as a way to help those in power stay in power. I don't view it as anything intelligent but closer to the likes of professional wrestling. You got 2 sides, one's bad in your view and one's good and they fight each other like cats and dogs. But... it's all staged. It's nothing more than a show. i honestly don't believe either side has what's best for this country or it's people on their agendas.

So, go ahead and talk about it all you guys want. Other than a quip or joke here and there,I prefer not to.

[oshunluvr]

For the most part, all of us here are calm headed and more often than not quipping with tongue-in-cheek. Occasionally, dripping with sarcasm.

Oh, and this section of the forum almost always goes off topic!

[SteveRiley]

Because your political views are very, very close to the likes of religious views, based upon a belief/faith system. And when those beliefs are tested or questioned most people can't help but get irritated, annoyed, angry, fighting mad, etc....

Or, testing and questioning could cause one to change.

When I was in high school, I was a red-blooded Republican, filled with contempt of everyone different than I, favored capital punishment for everything (including being gay), and believed in an omniscient and omnipresent supreme being, busily keeping track of each of my sins.

After college, and still to this day, I'm now the opposite of all that. And I dare say a much better person because of it.

[Feathers McGraw]

Or, testing and questioning could cause one to change.

So true. That's why, IMHO, it's worth trying to have a reasonable, open conversation where both sides actually LISTEN, even if you're likely to encounter that knee-jerk reaction.

And challenge yourself by reading new things, of course.

I think a lot of that knee-jerk comes from an attachment to family and loved ones (good thing) being mixed up with an attachment to things they've told you in a sombre voice (not necessarily a good thing).

[charles052]

Or, testing and questioning could cause one to change.

That's the way it's always worked out for me. My views may remain almost the same, but they have been slightly altered the more and more I research and learn.

When I was in high school, I was a red-blooded Republican, filled with contempt of everyone different than I, favored capital punishment for everything (including being gay), and believed in an omniscient and omnipresent supreme being, busily keeping track of each of my sins.

After college, and still to this day, I'm now the opposite of all that. And I dare say a much better person because of it.

LOL, I started out a liberal and ended up conservative!!! Well, more or less conservative.

[richb]

I aspire to be one who can listen to argument and change my opinion without compromising core beliefs in which case no argument will change them. (Argument in the sense of debate and discussion). It is harder to do as I get older and the proverbial "set in my ways" syndrome comes to bear.
I have many conservative friends who believe me to be a far left liberal, and liberal friends who classify me as conservative. I see myself as center with liberal leanings.

I was not developed enough in high school to form many opinions, but I did write a paper against the death penalty, and my views on that have changed. I was also somewhat religiously devout. That changed drastically in college. The change was from a family imposed belief system to one I came to myself.

[charles052]

I'm quite possibly the least indoctrinated person here. I never went to church but a handful of times in my life. I was an agnostic when a "Christian" shot and killed my favorite dog. Afterwards I was staunchly anti-Christian and far left leaning with few exceptions. I had a major Robin Hood complex (take from the rich, give to the poor, i.e. typical liberal mindset on wealth distribution). I never went to college and from my research that's where most people start to become left leaning, or as some would put it, indoctrinated.

I worked in factories as a laborer and such for nearly all my life before I went into trucking. As time went by, I became conservative. Not because of where I live, Arkansas (Lord I don't care for rednecks and I despise camouflage) but because... well.. it's hard as to say why. I suppose it happened when I finally got internet around 2005 and learned to work on computers a little bit. I researched and learned on my own how to do certain things, a world of information was suddenly at my fingertips that wasn't there before. And the more I learned, the more conservative I became.

After reading and learning, I now am a Christian (well, for the most part anyways) and I don't even believe in evolution, though I used to. Funny thing is that I came to my beliefs while debating religion and I had a total, nigh immovable belief in it. Even the preacher I used to listen to believed in evolution. I just suddenly stopped!

Now, I would only go to college if someone paid me... a lot! I make quite a bit of money as a truck driver and I have a lot of options in the industry too. In another year, I can drive local, be home every night, and be with my little girl and wife who mean the world to me.

I'm very happy with everything in my life, I'm pretty much harmless as a person, and I really don't see a need for me to change my ways.