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Thom,
Of course we have to cut education. How else could we afford the military empire.
http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2009baseline.pdf
click on "Total DoD Inventory" and see the size of this monster. (DOD-94 is the final tally) With better and quality education of the voting public the military-industrial-congressional complex might not survive.
(note the sarcasm above)
Thom, Bill Moyers after his speech said there are guests who conceal instead of reveal. You have many guests from the GOP who conceal. He felt that guests needed to reveal their minds. His best guest was Jimmy Carter and his worst guest was Henry Kissinger!
I had time to listen to Bill Moyers speak at UC-Santa Barbara on January 23, 2011. He knows!!! Violence sells in America! More guns are in the hands of people and the killing has increased. The NRA is wrong. We are a culture of cruelty. Our country is sinking around me. The sinking of the Titanic is happening in the United States. Our country is coming apart. Our politics does not help us live in cooperation, love, sympathy, and connection. We are living in the law of the jungle. We are living in predatory capitalism. CEOs are comparing human beings with animals, survival of the fittest. America is a wasteland and we are being torn apart. By 2043 the United States will have income inequality like Mexico. America is not a pretty sight. Americans do not have the purchasing power to keep our economy going. Equality makes societies stronger; inequality creates more problems and it also creates lack of sympathy and we see more sociopaths. The eyes see it with feeling. The rich are insulating themselves from ordinary people. Our political system is creating a system that accumulates more wealth for the rich. The rich are dividing and conquering over ordinary people. THE GOP STANDS FOR GUARDIANS OF PRIVILEGE!!! One percent of Americans controls fifty percent of the wealth. It is the winner takes all. Both parties want money and so they vote for the money lenders wishes. The middle class is no longer relevant in America. Businesses do not have a problem in finding workers. The workers are from foreign countries. WE CANNOT PUT OUR FATE IN PARTIES; WE NEED TO PUT OUR FATE IN OURSELVES!!! THE RICH SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO BUY A DEMOCRACY.
To clarify. Ron Paul is not for public school privatization or vouchers. But rather tax credits if anything, as is explained on his site.
@2950-10K & dotymed, I commented on your posts on Thom's blog for June 13, 2011, the numbers are 26 & 27!
Privatization is the Smurfiest word for fascism.
THOM!!! I urge you to spend a little time looking into ALEC.ORG . . . They are the fount of evil pre-producing all the recessivist legislation being dumped on every state.
JUSTICE.ORG dishes on them at: http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/15044.htm
Thom, I know why you have these right wing blowhards on - but they're really hard to listen to. When they can't hold their own in the conversation with facts and intelligent dialogue, they resort to shouting, filibustering the conversation and talking really really FAST.
They're bullies - plain and simple.
The Republican Field as of the Last Night’s Debate:
Mittens the Job-Killing Kitten appears to be the de facto Republican candidate to beat. On one side, Romney made is $400 plus million striping American manufacturers and off-shoring American jobs. Romney was the most successful Governor at privatizing (the Smurfiest word for Fascism) of legitimate governmental systems into the private sector (Romneycare). On the other side, Romney has good hair.
Herman Cain is an anti-Muslim CHICKENhawk in the sane vein of the Sith Lord CHEENEE and the only thing he has ever been able to sell in a convincible manner is Americans should be fatter.
Tim Pawlenty (Read “mass murder who wants to go serial killing mass murder through lack of bridge maintenance in all fifty states”) is running for Romney’s Vice President pick.
The serial wife-recycler and slimy amphibian impersonator Newt Gingrich is >>> NOT <<< running for President; he is running to increase his speaker’s fees.
Batshi* Bachmann and Ron Paul are insane wackadoos who want to disassemble the country in the name of ‘god’ (Backmann) and sociopathic Objectivism (Paul).
“Google my last name and click on the top link” Santorum is . . . well . . . Santorum.
When we decide what bills to pay...we don't have to actually cut off the sates voting NO. Just enforce a rule saying all states are limited in how much they are allocated based on their previous years contribution to the federal treasury in taxes.
Augustus implemented the same family values tactics as the Republicans employ today. And for all the same reasons. Having saId that, I don't think we should be so hard on Ayn Rand. She lived through difficult times in Russia and after all she is only one person. I do admit, her Objectivism is alluring to those who chose or are disposed to polarize towards (what they would consider - good) selfishness. In the end, this form of selfishness must disavow faith in God whom they see as the ultimate "other". Their enlightenment comes the same as all others. When they realize that we...are all One.
I heard this wisdom once, posed as a question. "Are you riding the wave or getting beat up by it?".
It seems we didn't learn our lesson from Vietnam when the military lied to the President, the President lied to the people, and young folks got killed in the thousands while money that could have been much better spent went to the military industrial complex. Those who don't learn the lessons of history ......etc. We should never have been in the middle east at all and the sooner we disengage from this expensive and deadly boondoggle the better.
On the Ayn Rand comment from a listener who suggested that E. Kant was the philosophical bases for liberals:
I can't imagine a generalization like this standing up regardless of how "accurate" the description of the philosopher might be. Kant was wedded to generalities -- his Categorical Imperative was based on a "no exceptions" approach. Your conservative caller did not present a particularly good explanation of Kant and (from his comments) it sounded as though he has had little substantive experience with actual liberals. I would characterize Kant as leaving little room for nuance in his approach to morality. His approach is an "either/or." If it's wrong...there are NO excepations. I am a liberal/progressive because I DO believe that the world is full of nuance and our ability to do good (find the moral path) is dependent on our ability to see beyond a simplistic black/white approach. This isn't what conservatives condemn as "situational ethics," but is is, in fact, contextual ethics. Without context, how can we possibly decide what is moral?
That is the essence of my problem with Ayn Rand's objectivism -- she eliminates the nuances of context. Her path is actually the "easy" one. You just need to decide on a rule -- do what is best for you -- and follow it in all instances. I would not damn all convervatives by suggesting that this is the basis for their political approach, but it is, unfortunately, the approach embraced by many. Some of my conservative friends -- while not Ayn Rand followers, per se -- are comfortable with Kant's approach because they don't like to "do nuance."
I would argue that the philosophers you mentioned are much better aligned with the liberal/progressive approach and I would add another: John Rawls. His argument that we should strive to be "fair" even when equality is unattainable seems closer to the progressive goal...and it draws a clean line between a progressive agenda and socialism/communism as MIS-understood by many conservatives. Rawls focused on emphathy. I find that an incredibly helpful concept when determining the moral approach to a complex issue like health care or tax policy.
Just a thought! Thanks for your daily efforts to bring a little civility without sacrificing your passion for "the good fight." You are always an enjoyable (and educational) listen!
Cathy
Hi Thom,
One quick question:
If these guys do not understand the role of Government then why did they run for public offices and why are they are running for Presidency?? This is hypocrisy.
With our rigged elections from various sources the conservative crazies will never lose in our devil incarnate nation.
Americans will get what they deserve! Have you noticed that minority rules and not the majority in our Anti-Christ nation. Privatization of our entire nation is not the answer for our many problems!!! Americans are buying a pig in a poke from the Anti-Life Party. Are Americans really aware of how they are being screwed by the right? We must never believe that the right is a moral party. The right is committing mortal sins every minute as they take control over you and me.
A fifty-nine minute video!
Bill Moyers knows!
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=133163
The Twain Report
All The News That Mark Twain Says He Would Report If He Was Alive Today
Washington DC- In an interview with the Twain Report, leaders of the DNC today indicated why they have chosen to prosecute Anthony Weiner for sending women photos of his, ah... weiner, and they also revealed why they plan to prosecute other democrats. Here is the DNC's statement:
"The prosecution of every democrat is on the table. Of course to do this right, we will have to take turns prosecuting each other, with select members, so to speak, of the Democrat Party being released from prison so they can facilitate the prosecution and imprisonment of other members even if they have not sent strange women photos of their members. We believe that by sending all of our members to prison- including members who do not have members, and including every member who currently holds, has held, or may at some future time hold public office, we are setting a bright and shining example for the republicans, who have assured us that once every democrat has begun serving life in prison without chance of parole, the Republican Party will prosecute every republican who has violated his or her oath of office, engaged in ethics violations, or had sexual relations with circus animals, as long as the republicans in question comply with the process by pre-emptively providing absolute proof of their own guilt, along with full, notarized confessions."
We here at the Twain Report can only applaud this long-overdue but brilliant political maneuver, which was designed by leading Democrat strategist Nancy Pelosi, who as the hard-nosed architect of the non-impeachment of George Bush, struck fear into the hearts of republicans everywhere.
It is our duty as Christians and as American Patriots to get the job done, no matter what it takes, even if it means breaking all ten of the Commandments and going against everything that Jesus said. You always have to obey the Bible, but don't let that distract you from going against the Bible whenever the government tells you to. Oh, and one more thing: when you go to foreign countries, butt into their sovereign affairs, murder people for no particular reason, imprison and torture other people for no particular reason, destroy their culture, destroy their water and food supplies, bomb their electrical generating plants, hospitals, and schools, and steal everything in their museums, just remember that what you are doing is called service. Yes sir, it's service to our country. You are not murdering people, you are serving. You are not destroying countries, you are serving. What a noble thing you are doing, serving your country by doing those things. So make us proud: go on over there and kill some people.
Maybe the government thinks that if they "nanny-state" everything that they will be able to fix the immigration problem.
If we are not an attractive country then nobody will want to come.
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Why do most Americans relate with Michelle Bachmann? Bachmann is ignorant as are most Americans! BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER!!! Most discerning Americans have known for some time that the United States is in a toilet. Is Bachmann the GOP's hopeful for being America's toilet flusher???
Please, I beg and plead with you to go to the antiwar.com website for June 14, 2011 and read some articles. Yes, the Anti-Christ nation is an evil and a sinfull hell-hole!!!!!
A must read article!!!!!
http://original.antiwar.com/tom-mullen/2011/06/13/the-founders-were-antiwar/
WE MUST NEVER FORGET THAT THE UNITED STATES IS THE DEVIL INCARNATE NATION!!!!!
The United States of Mortal Sin's demise is well on its way! Biological and Chemical warfare! Old nuclear plants contaminating the air and water! Depleted uranium lives for four billion years and deformed human beings are brought to the surface! Endless wars! Yes, living in our Anti-Christ nation is truly a glorious experience and time! My prediction of the United States of Mortal Sin's demise is on schedule for 2065!!! With our demise and possibly the world's demise we hope to see happier days in heaven for persons who have made God the center of their life!!!!!