7 people in Cali plead guilty to providing support for Mujahedin-e Khalq-e

[Jocassee]

Freedom Lover,

I hope you get yourself to a good Liberal Arts university and take lots of speech, philosophy, and history. It will develop you a good deal and I do not mean that negatively.

[freedom lover]

Did anyone else read this post, look at the nick and start laughing hysterically?

What the hell is a nick?

Not sure what you mean by 'pandering to third world dictators'.

I mean that I am against appeasing and being nice to people like Ackmedinajad and Chavez. I believe in the use of force in foreign policy. I meant nothing more.

Unfortunately, the whole flogging thing is un-Constitutional.

I realize that. Nevertheless I still believe criminals should be punished.

I hate to say this, but I'm rather glad you are not the dictator.

You and everyone else. These are just my ideas about a temporary utopia. It would probably never work. I realize that a government with that much power would turn on some of its own people before too long, grow corrupt, and probably come to resemble the Soviet Union before it fell and something much worse took its place. Humans are extremely fallible.

People get the government they "deserve". The system that has worked best in practice is the American republic, however we are no longer a nation of self-reliant farmers. Their system does not work well in modern America, with people who are so reliant on government. The best way to get our country to work well is for our culture to become more like it was back then, vice versa for the government.

I agree with the founders on some ideas and not on others. I like the idea of a Constitution, I don't believe in the concept of rights, I dislike the idea of big government. You must remember that my ideas are highly theoretical. I am not yet old enough to vote, and when I do I plan to vote for people who share some of the founder's ideas. I suppose that in practice I am a republican with conservative leanings. I got too damn much out of Heinlin's  Starship Troopers.

My fantasy is the product of an overactive imagination combined with my new beliefs. I wish I had a better way with words. 

[Balog]

"Nick" is "nickname" ie your posting name on the forum. A "freedom lover" espousing super dictatorial, authoritarian measures is ironic in the extreme.

While your (some) of your ideas are indeed far worse than a lot of the things Obama and Co are doing, at least you admit they are bad ideas. How you can reconcile "these are bad ideas" and "this is how it should be" is a bit of a puzzle to me.


Also, I'm not %100 flogging is necessarily cruel and unusual per the Constitution.

[Regolith]

Freedom Lover,

I hope you get yourself to a good Liberal Arts university and take lots of speech, philosophy, and history. It will develop you a good deal and I do not mean that negatively.

Heh.  Someone still has faith in our education system?  How quaint. 


Most of my intellectual growth in college was fostered through my own curiosity and exploration.  Very little of it came from my classes, despite taking a lot of those liberal arts classes you just mentioned.  At best, the college courses pointed a way down a path I had to take myself down.

Although, that's life for you.  Point is, you have to walk that path yourself.  College professors can't drag you down it, and very often they get lost in the wilderness themselves.   Someone who isn't willing to walk down that path (to stretch an already tortured metaphor a little further), isn't going to walk down it no matter how much prodding they get, and someone who is willing to walk down that path doesn't really need college courses to do it, though they can help.

[freedom lover]

Maybe I shouldn't post any more political things for a while.

[AZRedhawk44]

Maybe I shouldn't post any more political things for a while.

Only if your ego is particularly fragile.

Who knows... it might help you to develop your perspective a bit.  We're a tough bunch.

[freedom lover]

It took me an hour but I have figured some things out. My more "developed"  political perspective will be posted in a new thread.

[Regolith]

Maybe I shouldn't post any more political things for a while.

Eh, don't worry about it too much.  A lot of us were about the same when we were younger.  Hell, I'm positively embarrassed by some of the things I believed back when I was in high school - and that was only five years ago.  

You don't need to worry unless you entrench yourself into that way of thinking.  At that point you've lost.  So long as you can look at your views honestly, spot the flaws in them and modify your thinking accordingly, and continue to hone your beliefs through logical discourse and reasoning, you're making progress.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

too my shame i was a socialist. or at least talked loud about being one.  working and moving out on my own cured me

[makattak]

too my shame i was a socialist. or at least talked loud about being one.  working and moving out on my own cured me

And this is what makes me frightened for the future.

Too many "children" have been allowed to continue to be "children" well into their 30's.

Without having to take responsibility for himself, man will EXPECT to be taken care of.

(I must point out, that this last statement is gramatically correct. "Man" in this context means any random person, male or female.)

[Nick1911]

You don't need to worry unless you entrench yourself into that way of thinking.  At that point you've lost.  So long as you can look at your views honestly, spot the flaws in them and modify your thinking accordingly, and continue to hone your beliefs through logical discourse and reasoning, you're making progress.

And honestly, the best way to do that is through debate with intelligent people.  APS makes a fantastic forum to do so.

The Roundtable in THR, (and later APS) substantially influenced how my political views formed.  Additionally, I improved at typing and writing! 

[freedom lover]

Eh, don't worry about it too much.  A lot of us were about the same when we were younger.  Hell, I'm positively embarrassed by some of the things I believed back when I was in high school - and that was only five years ago. 

You don't need to worry unless you entrench yourself into that way of thinking.  At that point you've lost.  So long as you can look at your views honestly, spot the flaws in them and modify your thinking accordingly, and continue to hone your beliefs through logical discourse and reasoning, you're making progress.

Thanks. I hope I will always be able to do that.

[Balog]

And this is what makes me frightened for the future.

Too many "children" have been allowed to continue to be "children" well into their 30's.

Without having to take responsibility for himself, man will EXPECT to be taken care of.

(I must point out, that this last statement is gramatically correct. "Man" in this context means any random person, male or female.)

Yup. "Childhood" extends into college, "young adulthood" (a rather silly concept imho) extends to the mid 30's. Such a silly idea, one wonders how it became so common.

[freedom lover]

Yeech. I hope I grow up some more by the time I'm in my 30's.

[ilbob]

Does it bother any of you that there has been a rash of terrorists pleading guilty?

What possible beenfit is there to pleading guilty?

They get a whole lot more out of making a mockery of a public trial, with much the same result.

Gotta wonder what they were promised.

[AZRedhawk44]

I smell a US/Iran diplomacy link in this somewhere.

Bush left them alone since 2000.  Iran hates us.

They get prosecuted and tried in the first 3-4 months of Obamania and Iran backs off a bit of its rhetoric (or at least the media carries less of it recently).

It's also interesting that the UK, France and the UN deliberately changed their status in the last few years so that they are no longer considered a terrorist org to those three entities, but used to be.