Apparently, our president can be a total idiot

[ScottW]

Do you not need brains to run this country? Apparently not, since McCain's class rank was 894 out of 899 students. Palin attended 5 colleges in 6 years. I can't wait for someone to get hold of her grades; I'm sure they'll be stellar.

I've always been of the mindset that uneducated, low IQ folks turn to religion to explain everything they experience and then force their religious beliefs onto others instead of turning to science for day to day explanations, that they are closed minded and tend to try to force their personal views (about abortion, gay rights, or whatever) onto other people rather than worrying only about themselves, and that they are quick to use their fists (iraq) rather than their brains to solve conflict. These conservatives sound to me like an unevolved group of closed minded people who refuse to grow and adapt with the world around them, as that world changes and tries to become a smarter, happier, healthier, and more productive place.

And on top of it all, they want to have their cake (govt services, social services) and eat it too, without paying for it. Who cares if we spend more than we pay in taxes - we'll just let our kids kids worry about that! And who needs healthcare anyway, it's every man for themselves - tough luck if you're poor and have a sick 5 y/o, you should have made something of yourself! Melting ice, rising sea levels, species that are going extinct, cities that will be flooded in 75 years, oil that is running out in 50 years, who cares! What an attitude! I don't understand it - not for one second and I really want to try to understand, but it just blows my mind how half our country can be so completely irresponsible, selfish, closed minded, and self righteous. If it all comes from a belief that God gave you this place to screw up as you please, believe you me, he can take it all away from you just as easily as it came as a reward for having such a cavalier "do what you please" attitude with this place and the people here, so that's BS.

Is this the example we really want to be leading our country? Two dim wits? Don't we already have a bad enough image in the world when it comes to intelligence and education? Not to mention that it would help to have some analytical brainpower to process thoughts, and to be open to science, logic, and diplomacy.

[Disley]

A great post.

[RADAR1797]

Here's your sign.

[ScottW]

Originally Posted by RADAR1797

Here's your sign.

I didn't say that I'm too good for McCain, or that I should be running the country. I dropped out of college after two years so I could run my small business. I did happen to build my business into a success (with zero funding, but a lot of help from you guys, loyal site users, to whom I'm indebted), making the Inc 5000 list this year as the 2,885th fastest growing U.S. company out of 20 Million businesses, for 125% 2007 over 2004 revenue growth, being featured in Forbes magazine and the Wall Street Journal. So despite my lack of formal education, I think I did something right and have some smarts, but I'm still not 5% smart enough to run this country.

I'm also a very unlikely democrat, given my higher than average income, and I was actually raised as a republican (and attended catholic school in TEXAS for more than a decade) until I began to see the light in my later teenage years. Democrats are just open minded, socially responsible, well-informed, well meaning people, who want to give each person control over their own lives and who want to help and empower those who can't help themselves, and to me, republicans seem closed minded and ignorant, trying to live under a rock forever and ignore the changing world at their peril. I just don't get it! If I can see the light and convert from the dark side, so can you! The problem over the past 8 years hasn't just been Bush, it's been the whole party and its outright refusal to adapt to a changing world.

[MegalosSkylaki]

Originally Posted by ScottW

I've always been of the mindset that uneducated, low IQ folks turn to religion to explain everything they experience and then force their religious beliefs onto others instead of turning to science for day to day explanations, that they are closed minded and tend to try to force their personal views (about abortion, gay rights, or whatever) onto other people rather than worrying only about themselves, and that they are quick to use their fists (iraq) rather than their brains to solve conflict.

I doubt this has anything to do with "uneducated, low IQ folks". Religion includes some very sophisticated concepts in its theology, and people of all classes turn to it just as they turn away from it.

The Ancient Greeks are considered among the greatest contributors to Reason, yet they also had their Mythology. Both Religion and Science start out with puzzlement and seek to resolve, differing only in the type of explanation they accept. Albert Camus talks about this in his essay Helen's Exile wherein the Greeks could accommodate both Reason and Revelation, while the Modern World can only accept one or the other.

And on top of it all, they want to have their cake (govt services, social services) and eat it too, without paying for it. Who cares if we spend more than we pay in taxes - we'll just let our kids kids worry about that!

Alas, people of both Parties and persuasions want this and that Service ("Why doesn’t the Gov't do something about it?") but don't want the taxes that go with it. Both putative "Liberals" and "Conservatives" have been guilty of this, which is why we have the Deficit Budgets we have and borrowing from our enemy to cover them. This is why I've advocated that Spending Bills must include Payment Bills, and that Tax Cut Bills must include Service Cut Bills.

What an attitude! I don't understand it - not for one second and I really want to try to understand, but it just blows my mind how half our country can be so completely irresponsible, selfish, closed minded, and self righteous.

Half our Country? A tad optimistic, don't you think?

MegalosSkylaki

[RADAR1797]

Read.

You say Democrats are tolerant. Your post does not seem very tolerant of those who have faith in a God. Nor does your post seem to appreciate the hard work of being a small town Mayor or of someone who served their country in military service. You claim to want to support the little guy who wants to raise his stature in life. McCain and Palin are two people who came from humble beginnings to great success.

My question to you...did your success in business come from hard work or luck? Liberals tend to believe people are stuck where they are and cannot do better without the elite's help. Conservatives tend to believe that if you work hard and live a good life, you can move up in life as long as the government gets out their way.

[ScottW]

Originally Posted by MegalosSkylaki

the Greeks could accommodate both Reason and Revelation, while the Modern World can only accept one or the other.

That sounds about right. In which case, to me, democrats on the whole seem to balance reason and revelation better.

[MegalosSkylaki]

Originally Posted by ScottW

That sounds about right. In which case, to me, democrats on the whole seem to balance reason and revelation better.

I don't think either Party --large as they are - balances Reason and revelation better.

To tell the truth, despite their posing to get elected, as a whole they are both captives of a Big Business establishment of Multinational Companies who do not give a damn about the Earth, excepting how much of it they can own.

"My men suffer from a disease. It is called greed from which there is no cure"
-- from Robert Bolt's The Royal Hunt of the Sun

[ScottW]

Originally Posted by RADAR1797

You say Democrats are tolerant. Your post does not seem very tolerant of those who have faith in a God. Nor does your post seem to appreciate the hard work of being a small town Mayor or of someone who served their country in military service. You claim to want to support the little guy who wants to raise his stature in life. McCain and Palin are two people who came from humble beginnings to great success.

Obama will do plenty to support the little guy. We needn't make the local mayor or the military veteran president just to pay homage to them at the peril of our country - millions of hard working Americans will be represented and supported by Obama. I think you're bent towards McCain because of your military background. I understand that, but I'd think you'd want a president that would do everything possible to keep us out of wars, since you've seen their destruction firsthand.

I do believe in a God, a creator of some kind, but I'm agnostic. I don't, however, use religion like a hammer to beat everyone around me into submission: blocking them from the right to choose what to do with their bodies, blocking homosexuals from the right to a peaceful life, blocking science from progressing towards the end of disease as we know it via stem cell research. Science and God are not mutually exclusive.

My question to you...did your success in business come from hard work or luck? Liberals tend to believe people are stuck where they are and cannot do better without the elite's help. Conservatives tend to believe that if you work hard and live a good life, you can move up in life as long as the government gets out their way.

Luck is buying a winning lottery ticket. The kind of success I've had comes from making a smart to do list of 5,000 items over 14 years and executing every last one of them, having more successful projects than failures, and being able to recognize good opportunities and seize them when they come along. That said, I'm in the minority. Most people don't have my business savvy. Many people do need help, but liberals are not anti-free market. Tthey recognize that a free market must be mixed with help for those that aren't making it, rather than casting them aside to suffer.

But that's not why I'm a liberal. I'm a liberal because:

-Climate change is killing entire species and threatens to displace hundreds of millions of people who live near the coasts. That's a scientific fact that even Bush accepts is happening. I think techimo might be the only place where this debate is still going on.

-Women should be able to choose what to do with their own bodies whether or not you agree with them. Their bodies, their choice.

-Homosexuals should have the right to marry: what they do is out of love whether or not you understand that, not out of some disgusting sexual act with which you don't agree, and science will at some point prove that their preference is chemical, not a choice. Your views should be yours, not imposed on them. Marriage is about love and rights for couples, not about making babies.

-Stem cell research is KEY to growing organs, fixing nerve/spinal cord damage, treating neurological illness, restoring lost vision, curing cancer, stopping aging, and must be allowed to proceed unfettered.

-Stupid wars kill people. They kill kids, kids who leave wives, kids, moms, and dads behind. This war was fought for oil. If it were about terrorism, we'd be in Afghan caves, not Iraq, but since Bush lied about WMD's... We shouldn't even care about the middle east - it's a desert with camels. We care because of oil. If we chose to work on the right projects rather than ignoring them, we'd have alternative energy and could snub the middle east. Their region would wither and they would no longer be a threat to anyone once oil demand ceases.

-Our healthcare system SUCKS. Healthcare in france and canada is fantastic. I experienced a french ER first-hand: great care, $0 bill to me or to my insurance carrier. Healthcare should be top notch and it should either be free or nearly so.

McCain is not Bush. He's not as bad about these issues as Bush. But McCain is no Obama, in terms of Obama's forward thinking views. And Palin? She's a clueless and dangerous destroyer of worlds. She would wreck our society, left unchecked.

[RADAR1797]

Originally Posted by ScottW

But that's not why I'm a liberal. I'm a liberal because:

-Climate change is killing entire species and threatens to displace hundreds of millions of people who live near the coasts. That's a scientific fact that even Bush accepts is happening. I think techimo might be the only place where this debate is still going on.

That statement is close minded. Liberal agendists assert the science is settled, it is not.

Originally Posted by ScottW

-Women should be able to choose what to do with their own bodies whether or not you agree with them. Their bodies, their choice.

Rights to choose end when they impact another individual.

Originally Posted by ScottW

-Homosexuals should have the right to marry: what they do is out of love whether or not you understand that, not out of some disgusting sexual act with which you don't agree, and science will at some point prove that their preference is chemical, not a choice. Your views should be yours, not imposed on them. Marriage is about love and rights for couples, not about making babies.

I tend to another choice. Why does the Federal government define marriage? Right now it is only to encourage family building, which is fine, but I prefer this to be handled by the states so long as California does not dictate what Texas defines. It is messy issue no matter which side you fall on.

Originally Posted by ScottW

-Stem cell research is KEY to growing organs, fixing nerve/spinal cord damage, treating neurological illness, restoring lost vision, curing cancer, stopping aging, and must be allowed to proceed unfettered.

To paraphrase Beemer, beware to those who promises require the loss of life

Originally Posted by ScottW

-Stupid wars kill people. They kill kids, kids who leave wives, kids, moms, and dads behind. This war was fought for oil. If it were about terrorism, we'd be in Afghan caves, not Iraq, but since Bush lied about WMD's... We shouldn't even care about the middle east - it's a desert with camels. We care because of oil. If we chose to work on the right projects rather than ignoring them, we'd have alternative energy and could snub the middle east. Their region would wither and they would no longer be a threat to anyone once oil demand ceases.

This war is fighting for freedom. Freedom that the ilk of Osama bin Laden thinks is license in our culture. The Middle East needed a 21st century reset and they are getting it now. BTW, I react angrily to being called a kid. I am an adult who chose to join on my own. I do not appreciate the condescention.

Originally Posted by ScottW

-Our healthcare system SUCKS. Healthcare in france and canada is fantastic. I experienced a french ER first-hand: great care, $0 bill to me or to my insurance carrier. Healthcare should be top notch and it should either be free or nearly so.

Our healthcare system is the best that money can buy. It is also highly inefficient due to its structure. The people who are accountable for the costs are not the people who recieve the services. Make everyone pay their share for the services rendered, the system will fix itself.

Originally Posted by ScottW

McCain is not Bush. He's not as bad about these issues as Bush. But McCain is no Obama, in terms of Obama's forward thinking views. And Palin? She's a clueless and dangerous destroyer of worlds. She would wreck our society, left unchecked.

McCain is not Bush and Bush is not evil. I have not agreed with the President on everything, but he has dealt with what he has been given. Do not assume Fighter Pilots are stupid, they are not. Obama is untested, idealistic to a fault and not ready to deal with the real world. He is the 21st century embodiment of Jimmy Carter.