Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: Monkeyleg on January 15, 2011, 06:44:45 PM
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During the period that AJDual, Strings, I and other cheeseheads were working on getting CCW in Wisconsin, I found myself more cynical about politics than I thought was possible.
The last few years have made me go from cynical to angry, and now to what I have to think is close to my breaking point.
We have elected officials using unconstitutional and illegal means to thwart the will of the public. Our language has been corrupted and even rendered useless, as words have no meaning or have been basterdized to mean almost the opposite. Our economic house is close to collapse, and DC just prints more money. We face serious threats from North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and other countries, but our leaders seem impotent in the face of the threats.
We can't complain without being shut down through smear campaigns, a co-opted media, or the simple damning word "racist".
The left's use of the Arizona shootings to demonize the right (and the middle) isn't new. They've been using these tactics since Nixon, but they've escalated the use to the point where the public should see the absurdity of the attacks, but a complicit media contextualizes the absurd to seem rational.
Every newspaper in the country has run the same AP story about Republican complaints that the Tucson memorial service was a thinly-disguised campaign rally, and then repeat the administrations denials as gospel. The story repeats the administration's absurd claim that the applause and cheering were part of the grieving process. My mother will be dying soon. Anyone at her service who applauds or cheers will be beaten to a pulp. I also don't expect to see 10,000 campaign t-shirts at her service.
I keep waiting for the public to say "enough", but it just doesn't seem to happen. Only 60% of the public believes that "harsh rhetoric" was not responsible for the shooting. That means that 40% of those polled either believe that the shooting was politically motivated, or they just don't know what to think after saturation propaganda.
I keep waiting for the Republicans to grow a pair and fight back, but they're too genteel to take off the gloves.
I really don't know how much more of this I can stomach. What's even more maddening is that there's no recourse, no place to escape from it, except to throw away the newspaper, turn off the TV, stay off the internet, and play oldies stations on the radio.
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I sympathize ..... I find I am getting very jaded and cynical, listening to the news. The "ink-stained hyenas" of the press and the electronic media moguls manufacture false premises, offer ridiculous speculations, and twist facts, and it goes on and on.
I don't mind it when the author is clearly a editorialist or an analyst but even the "straight" news people are involved.
I didn't see all of the memorial service Wednesday. What I did see led me to believe that it wasn't Obama who turned the memorial into a "pep" rally, and he acted a bit chagrined at the atmosphere that prevailed -- though he did nothing to ameliorate it. This was a college campus and it was the atmosphere of the newly anointed "inteligentsia" that prevailed -- in other words, whacky college kids.
I don't know what to do about it. For the most part I get my news from Fox, which has it's faults but seems better than most other cable channels, and certainly better than the major over-the-air networks.
I pretty much stay away from newpapers (except comics). I try to keep myself abreast of the news because I don't like to be ignorant of what is going on in the world ... but I have to balance it against what gives me high blood pressure and migraines.
A friend of mine who studied media in college (and works in the field) blames the modern media on "pro-active" reporting that, according to him, began in the 1960s. Basically, it evolved when the media opened up to enthusiastic college grads who "wanted to change the world." That isn't the job of a reporter, whose basic job is .... "reporting." You know, "just the facts, Ma'am," as Jack Webb would have put it in DRAGNET.
I wouldn't throw in the towel. I might try to limit exposure to media that drives up the blood pressure.
My standard response to problems brought on by an evil, unfair, slanted world .... "buy more ammo." =D Problem is, I can't seem to shoot it off fast enough. It's collecting. :O :O
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When they take the Superbowl off of TV, fail to produce and new season of Desperate Housewives, Survivor; moron island or America's got Talent, Then the general public might, MIGHT take notice.
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The question is, what will you actually do when you break ???
Except for poking my head out to earn a few shekels now and then, I am pretty much holed up in my "compound" with my wife and dogs and cats and horses and chickens - just waiting to see how civilization burns down around me [popcorn]
I am screwed if I get caught while working temporary in another state =(
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Our language has been corrupted and even rendered useless, as words have no meaning or have been basterdized to mean almost the opposite.
We can't complain without being shut down through smear campaigns, a co-opted media, or the simple damning word "racist".
This. I don't know if it's a breaking point, but there is definitely something going on.
Also, the word is "bastardized." Sorry, but complaints about corruption of the language must be spelled properly.
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The question is, what will you actually do when you break
I don't know, and that's the scary part. I'd like to see states secede, but I know that's a near impossibility.
I've just about had it with conservative commentators taking Palin to task for hitting back at those who accused her of complicity in the shooting. Every conservative should be hitting back. It's how you deal with bullies. What she said hit a nerve because it's true, which is why the ultra left had to go after the term "blood libel" to try to keep her on defense.
As for "basterdized", my eyes are sore from a long day on this machine. I'll try not to basturdize any more words. ;)
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Your not alone.
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I keep waiting for the public to say "enough", but it just doesn't seem to happen.
The public did say 'enough'. We said a great big "No More!" last November.
Things are starting to get ugly precisely because the right is asserting itself once again. The left, the powers that be, they don't like this one bit, and they're starting to get petulant about it. They're starting to get scared.
It's going to be pretty bumpy for a while. Plan for it, expect it, be ready for it.
Be strong, persevere. We ARE winning right now. You wrote up a laundry list of advantages that the left has in politics these days, and they are formidable advantages indeed. But remember that despite all that, we're still winning.
I don't know much about local politics up where you're from, but take it from one of your Hoosier neighbors down south a bit. Politics does work. It's slow, painful, frustrating, but it does work in the end. And it is worth it. I could recount our successes here in Indiana, but I think you know them already. Take my word for it, politics does work. Be patient, persevere, and keep at it.
Take a break if you need it. Rest up. Just don't give up. We have a lot of heavy lifting ahead of us, and we're going to need good men like you.
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Music and reading tend to work for me.
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Your not alone.
Its "You're" =D
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Any of us can get ourselves wound up and high strung as we tune up our own sensitivities to how the political games are played.
Some times a break and time and distance is what you need before engaging with your reps and senators again. And that is if they are on your side.
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Its "You're" =D
It's "It's." :P
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...before engaging with your reps and senators again. And that is if they are on your side.
Oh, I'm fine down here, with Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby, and Congressman Mo Brooks (a freshman). It's the dingleberries in congress and the boobs in the White House that worry me, not to mention those citizens who agree with them.
I can't even listen to talk radio for a few minutes before some head case calls to say that we need to dial down the rhetoric coming from Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity and others. (No mention of Obama, Howard Dean, Paul Krugman, Keith Olbermann, etc). One today called Michael Medved's show. When Medved asked him to cite an example of right wing hate speech, the guy started talking about Hitler.
Last I heard, Hitler was dead, he wasn't a US politician, and he was a socialist. But let's not get bogged down in facts.
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It's the dingleberries in congress and the boobs in the White House that worry me.
Yeah, I don't want a female Pres. either. :lol:
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Yeah, I don't want a female Pres. either.
So it's true. You voted for Hillary.
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So it's true. You voted for Hillary.
Well played.
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Monkeyleg, I'd like to point out the source of a lot of your agitation is media. I won't drill down any further as I think all sides bear responsibility for the lack of civil discourse. Keep in mind media monopolies of the past, as now, are slowly but surely being ground up. The market place is a form of justice that grinds slowly but rest assuredly is grinds thoroughly. For now the left side of the spectrum is suffering the most from market competition. As time goes on we can expect outlets like FOX to swing leftish, as it has, and at some point it, too, will suffer the justice of the market.
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It's "It's." :P
Sew you caught that, huh? ;)
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I won't drill down any further as I think all sides bear responsibility for the lack of civil discourse.
This nation doesn't need civil discourse. It needs blunt honesty.
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I've just hoped for some time that we reach the breaking point while I'm still alive and ambulatory. I'd hate to pass such a thing off on the kid or grandkid without being there to see them through it.
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Thank you Fistful.
Honesty would be refreshing these days.
I have been saying a lot lately that what we need to do is get rid of political correctness, as it's the real cancer on society.
I feel that P.C. is the main cause for people not wanting to do or say what needs to be done or said.
Maybe if we weren't so PC then Lougner might have actually been incarcerated or hospitalised as he should have been.
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I find myself really wanting to tune out politics. Part of that is my own situation, and part is cynical belief that things won't change, either through ignorance, apathy, or corrupt self-interest. The hyper-saturated political spin on the "Tragedy in Tucson" is sickening.
California re-electing Jerry Brown felt like a watershed, a return to the very mindset that created the current problems. I'm feeling a sense of impending, inevitable catastrophe, like a nightmare when you see the outcome and are powerless to stop it.
I'm doing a lot of reading. listening to music, and drinking.
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Maybe if we weren't so PC then Lougner might have actually been incarcerated or hospitalised as he should have been.
A pretty good bet that if Loughner's mommy didn't work for the county supervisors he would have been locked up long ago.
In that case PC stod for either politically connected and/or politically corrupted
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This nation doesn't need civil discourse. It needs blunt honesty.
Blunt
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi40.tinypic.com%2Fse3qcg.jpg&hash=0f8d1f1bd07f702a45c74ee62ac326e08d3ae372)
Honesty
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The sheriff had received complaints that Loughner had made death threats to others. Last time I checked, that was reason to lock someone up.
Roo_ster, that's what I've been thinking, but I try not to go down that road. It sure would feel good, though.
Let me give an example of PC not related to the Arizona shooting.
The last time I was in my doctor's office in Milwaukee, I was at the check in counter, with my usual unlit wood-tipped cigar in my mouth. I've been chewing these wood tips for over three years. It's really helped me keep from going back to my 5 pack a day cigarette monkey.
The woman at the counter told me that the office was a tobacco-free zone. I told her that I didn't smoke it, just chewed on the wood tip. She said it didn't matter, that no tobacco of any kind was allowed.
"It's vegetation," I said, "Just like that plant over there."
Didn't matter.
I mentioned this on Facebook last night to my obnoxious SIL who works at a hospital, and is a rabid anti-smoking zealot. I wanted her to explain it. She said that, if they allowed one person to do it, somebody else might have a cigarette in his mouth and say that he didn't light them. Then maybe (just maybe, somewhere sometime) he'd light it.
It's zero tolerance, the same sort of insane policy that relieves anyone from making a decision when a school girl has a Mydol tablet in her purse, or a kid makes a pencil outline of a gun on a piece of paper.
The only way to escape all of this is to head to Montana as Tallpine has done, and then cut off all contact with the rest of the world.
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It's zero tolerance, the same sort of insane policy that relieves anyone from making a decision when a school girl has a Mydol tablet in her purse, or a kid makes a pencil outline of a gun on a piece of paper
Or the insanity of punishing a kid who dares to get beaten up (and not fight back) right along with the attacker. It's bad enough that defending yourself gets you suspended, but daring to be a victim gets you suspended too!
People have "lost it". The country is broken, the federal government is far, far overreaching, and trying to complain to your politicians or get them to follow their campaign promises is an utter exercise in futility...we no longer have a republic. We have an oligarchy that happens to have a bit of changing membership, but not a whole lot. Soon as the politicians hit Washington, they rapidly go sour and stop caring about their constituents.
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Civil discourse we have. In spades. We have become so civil in our discourse that we refuse to identify the "loyal opposition" as our deadly enemy. We refuse to acknowledge that they are working to destroy our country and our future. No, no, don't say that. That would go too far. That would not be "helpful" or "thoughtful" and would not "advance the dialogue." On the FOX News show this Sunday morning, some yahoo predicted the that the Tucson shooting would force the Republicans to avoid talk of socialism or tyranny, leading to a "thoughtful discussion." The person who would say such a thing refuses to engage in thought, preferring to hide his head in the sand of a world where socialism and tyranny aren't unholy dangers that have enslaved or impoverished millions in the real world. As if it couldn't happen here. As if state control of health care were somehow not socialism, if we can just keep from calling it that.
Yeah Monkeyleg, I guess I'm kinda fed up with it, too.
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The public did say 'enough'. We said a great big "No More!" last November.
Things are starting to get ugly precisely because the right is asserting itself once again. The left, the powers that be, they don't like this one bit, and they're starting to get petulant about it. They're starting to get scared.
It's going to be pretty bumpy for a while. Plan for it, expect it, be ready for it.
Be strong, persevere. We ARE winning right now. You wrote up a laundry list of advantages that the left has in politics these days, and they are formidable advantages indeed. But remember that despite all that, we're still winning.
*snort*
No, Republicans won. There's an old joke. "The votes are in. America lost." You could argue to me that Republicans are 6 or even SEVEN percent better in certain categories. Sure, they blow money in a manner that shame a drunken sailor on his first shore leave in an entire year. Sure, they're socialists that intend on destroying this country. But more slowly, until they have Congress and the Presidency, then they will try their best to speed it up.
Eh. I don't even worry about it. It's going to hit a wall eventually. Sooner, later.
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When the congress is unable to pass a Cap and Trade bill, or other legislation, and the administration does an end run by giving the power congress had rejected to unaccountable bureaucrats in an executive branch agency, we have a violation of the constitution. It's an illegal power grab.
The only ones to complain are the talk radio hosts. The Republicans should be shouting this from the rooftops. Instead we have McCain trying to make nice.
Obama and his acolytes may think they're being cute, but they're setting a precedent. How would they like a future Richard Nixon or--gasp!--GW Bush to have the precedent to bypass congress to thwart the will of the people? How about having the Department of Education effectively eliminate itself? The Department of the Interior? The BATFE? If the Department of Energy can be bent to Obama's will, these other agencies can be bent to the will of another president.
Our elected officials have committed so many crimes against the nation and the constitution over the past few years that I've lost count. And nobody is doing a thing to stop it.
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The only way to escape all of this is to head to Montana as Tallpine has done, and then cut off all contact with the rest of the world.
The problem with that/my plan is that I still need to work some. I'm going to be going to CA (cough - cough) for a few weeks to earn another grubstake.
The mortgage still needs to be paid for a few more years =(
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Dick,
Yes it is happening. The Tea Party is the tip of the spear. America will sustain itself. Be optimistic. I am. I have two word for the leftist dipshits who cry foul at every turn....Turn Left and keep on turning. Eventually they will turn inside out.
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The problem with that/my plan is that I still need to work some. I'm going to be going to CA (cough - cough) for a few weeks to earn another grubstake.
The mortgage still needs to be paid for a few more years =(
TallPine. Do you work in the oilfield
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Grampster, you're a lot more optimistic than I am. It's all show now and no substance. (What did the Dem's call it when Bush was in office? Oh, yeah. All hat and no cowboy).
We've got Senator Coburn planning to sit next to Schumer at the State of the Union address. Wow. Bipartisanship.
If I were sitting next to Schumer it would take every bit of restraint to not punch him in the throat. If it weren't for that slimy POS, Unilever would have dropped Brylcreem years ago.
When I see the public vote the majority of Democrats and RINO's out of office, I'll feel more optimistic.
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Slowly but surely, Dick. The Sleeping Giant is awakening. As long as those of us with something to say, we keep on saying it, it will happen.
The old Chinaman that was building the railroad was asked why he was so happy about the labor he was doing, since he would not live long enough to see the fruit of his labor. His answer was that he was happy because what he was doing would be a great benefit to his grandson. We should look at our labors in the same way.
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TallPine. Do you work in the oilfield
=D Hardly. I'm an aerospace software engineer.
Mostly, I had been able to work from home, but the last couple years have been really lean.
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Go to the range, it's strangely peaceful there.
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Go to the range, it's strangely peaceful there.
Until they make that illegal. :facepalm:
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Go to the range, it's strangely peaceful there.
FTW.
Things are, to some extent, going our way. Heller was huge. Before that, everybody on the opposite side was saying that the 2nd only applied to the National Guard. Now, even Obama has to admit that it says otherwise.
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FTW.
Things are, to some extent, going our way. Heller was huge. Before that, everybody on the opposite side was saying that the 2nd only applied to the National Guard. Now, even Obama has to admit that it says otherwise.
The same Obama that called the constitution "A Charter of Negative Liberties".
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The same Obama that called the constitution "A Charter of Negative Liberties".
Which it is. Thank God. I'm glad that "negative liberty" is actually getting out there. I just wish more conservatives knew what it meant.
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We are in a race between the establishment of a totalitarian surveillance society and utter economic collapse. Which one we will get to first is a tossup.
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We are in a race between the establishment of a totalitarian surveillance society and utter economic collapse. Which one we will get to first is a tossup.
Don't worry. If we get to the TSS before UEC, UEC will follow swiftly.
It's going to win unless this country changes course.
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Most of the American people are still asleep or uncommitted. That will change when the forces that have brought us to this point begin to play out fully. The pre-game warm-ups are going on; the real game itself hasn't begun yet.
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*snort*
No, Republicans won. There's an old joke. "The votes are in. America lost." You could argue to me that Republicans are 6 or even SEVEN percent better in certain categories. Sure, they blow money in a manner that shame a drunken sailor on his first shore leave in an entire year. Sure, they're socialists that intend on destroying this country. But more slowly, until they have Congress and the Presidency, then they will try their best to speed it up.
Eh. I don't even worry about it. It's going to hit a wall eventually. Sooner, later.
That's a shame. Truly.
If you've given up on America, then shame on you.
If you truly misunderstand Republicans as badly as you describe, then that's a simple matter of ignorance. That can be fixed, if you're willing.
If you're not willing, or if you've simply given up and don't care any more, fine. But at least do the rest of us a favor and STFU. Some of us would like to fix things, or at least try. It's hard enough trying to set things right as it is, and we don't need people like you stabbing us in the back with BS like that.
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When the congress is unable to pass a Cap and Trade bill, or other legislation, and the administration does an end run by giving the power congress had rejected to unaccountable bureaucrats in an executive branch agency, we have a violation of the constitution. It's an illegal power grab.
The only ones to complain are the talk radio hosts. The Republicans should be shouting this from the rooftops. Instead we have McCain trying to make nice.
You'd be awfully surprised how much goes unreported, or misreported. To listen to the major news outlets, you'd think that McCain was the only Republican out there, that his ideas were the only ideas being pushed by Republicans, that there were no others. You'd be wrong, though it'd be easy to see why.
I wasn't working very hard on the cap and tax thing, but I was in the thick of it for the health care debate. It's truly shocking how much of the debate the media controlled simply by not reporting what the conservative Republicans in congress were saying on the issue. They were screaming from the tops of their lungs (sometimes literally, right from the the capitol steps) but without media support very few people heard them.
If cap ad tax was anything like the health care issue, then there were all sorts of Republicans complaining. You just weren't given a chance to hear them.
The talk hosts are NOT the only ones to complain, protest, or resist. They're just the only ones you commonly hear complaining, because they're the only ones with their own microphones.
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That's a shame. Truly.
If you've given up on America, then shame on you.
If you truly misunderstand Republicans as badly as you describe, then that's a simple matter of ignorance. That can be fixed, if you're willing.
If you're not willing, or if you've simply given up and don't care any more, fine. But at least do the rest of us a favor and STFU. Some of us would like to fix things, or at least try. It's hard enough trying to set things right as it is, and we don't need people like you stabbing us in the back with BS like that.
Shame on you, HTG.
Did you read the thread title?
Is anyone else reaching a breaking point?
STFU, indeed.
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Perhaps you could explain yourself, because I'm not following you.
Don't confuse my intolerance for further defamation of me and mine with me reaching some sort of breaking point.
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That's right, HTG. The media is selectively reporting, and they need to be exposed on that. How? I don't know. If Sarah Palin made some comments about selective reporting, it would get attention. Maybe we need more lightning rods like her.
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That's right, HTG. The media is selectively reporting, and they need to be exposed on that. How? I don't know. If Sarah Palin made some comments about selective reporting, it would get attention. Maybe we need more lightning rods like her.
Palin is doing a good job on that front. She's another one who is able to speak to the country without going through the media.
And I'm noticing that more and more people are starting to hear it.
I don't have any great answers on this one, though. No silver bullets here. It is one of the bigger failings of the conservative movement that we've let go of the major outlets for spreading the word. We've completely lost the educational sphere. The media is mostly lost, though we do still have some holdouts. Political correctness threatens to drive a stake through the remaining alternatives
One thing we do still have is each other, simple word of mouth from one individual to the next. Internet fora, blogs and the like, these all help us get out the word. Whether on the internet or in person, word of mouth is probably one of the biggest weapons we have. Don't lose sight of that.
Perhaps that's why I tend to get testy when people are misrepresenting and maligning the Republican and conservative causes. Talk like that is dangerous, and even when it's false or malicious, perhaps especially when it's false and malicious, it still has the power to undo a helluva lot of good work.
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Perhaps you could explain yourself, because I'm not following you.
Don't confuse my intolerance for further defamation of me and mine with me reaching some sort of breaking point.
And the 2000-2006 Congresses don't speak for "you and yours?"
Republican House, Republican Senate, Republican President. It was RINO/NeoCon heaven with drunken spending saturnalias, and increases to the domestic surveillance/security industry unparalleled in American history.
2006 was the uninformed electorate trying the old bait-and-switch that used to work... when the Repubs misbehave, put the Dems in power. 2006-2008 showed that didn't work, so the uninformed electorate tried it again with the President. Still didn't work, so 2010 we ALMOST wised up to the game and put the beginnings of a 3rd party into the mix.
The Repubs can go back to their cold-war era practices and regain the trust of the electorate... or they can stick on this new track of spending like the Devil may care and chopping civil liberties apart and become the minority 3rd party to the Tea Party.
But if stuff doesn't get better QUICK from 2010-2012, and blame put squarely in the face of Obama and his pets in the Senate, there very well may be a 3rd party.
Is anyone else reaching a breaking point?
Yep. And so are a lot of other people.
The electorate is PRIMED for a splinter 3rd party, and they have a new name they can trust. If the Tea Party Repubs try to reform things and the GOP doesn't get behind them (or worse: obstructs it)... kiss the GOP good-bye.
McCain, Boehner, Brown, Snowe... take heed. The Tea Party House knows the right response to incidents like the Tucson shooting: we have enough laws, and no additional laws would have stopped this. The shooter broke quite a few laws during his spree.
We don't need "feel good legislation." We need effective legislation that is acted upon, or we need less legislation. The Tea Party knows this.
The GOP appears to not.
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Don't make the mistake of assuming that the Republican Party is monolithic and homogeneous. There's a wide range of ideas and principles within the party and a constant struggle between the adherents of these ideologies.
People constantly assume, wrongly, that when someone like McCain or Snow speaks, they're speaking for the entire party. This is perhaps the single biggest misunderstanding people have of Republican politics. You can't hold up the people like McCain or Snowe and ignore the people like Pence or Bachman. You can't focus on GWB and ignore Reagan. It's more complicated than that. None of these voices speak for the whole, they are, at most, merely speaking for their own faction within the party. Ascendancy of any given faction comes and goes, and the fact that one faction is speaking loudest at any given moment doesn't mean much of anything about the past of future of the party as a whole.
The ultimate goal is to have Republican Party control of government while at the same time having conservative control of the Republican Party. Neither element on its own is enough, we need both, and we need them at the same time. Any effort that maligns either of these elements is destructive and counterproductive, and impedes what I believe to be the only realistic mechanism we have for fixing our country.
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I hope someone else heard the NPR "special" this evening.
It was 100% propaganda. I don't want to make that sound casual as we're often griping about such things. But this was absolute propaganda. Out of all of the specials on MSNBC, ABC, CNN, NY Times, etc.. that I've heard over the years; nothing approached this.
Let me sum up the arguments for banning "high-capacity magazines" from the experts they interviewed on the show, including of course pro-ban NRA members. (They like to get all sides of the story don't-cha-know)
- Cops don't even use "high-capacity" magazines (of course a lie)
- Civilians don't need "high-capacity" magazines for self defense (nor do we need a car traveling over 65 MPH; killing far more people)
- Most weapons held less than 10 rounds prior to the 1970s anyway (??)
- Most NRA members are perfectly fine with the ban (according to one carefully filtered NRA guest)
- McCarthy's husband was killed with a high-capacity magazine (15 round standard capacity)
- Of course police are exempt, as the life-saving qualities of high-capacity magazines only apply to government employees. Yet they "never use them"
- The argument that killers can simply bring 2 guns was dismissed as an "non-real world" example because it didn't happen in this last incident.
- No mention of the definition of standard capacity
McCarthy's bill will be introduced tomorrow attempting to ban the sale or transfer of magazines holding over 10 rounds. While the chances of it passing are remote, we absolutely cannot excuse NPR for that disgusting hit piece. How can they tease Fox News for bias (which has it coming in some cases) and let these guys off with a pass??
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Cops don't even use "high-capacity" magazines (of course a lie)
A fine example of doublespeak...for Cops, they are "standard capacity" mags. For civilians, they become high capacity mags.
The argument that killers can simply bring 2 guns was dismissed as an "non-real world" example because it didn't happen in this last incident
Yep, Cho at VT isn't a "real world example" of a killer bringing multiple guns.
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In retrospect, I think that I reached the breaking point some time ago.
What is broken is my trust that anything in govt is any good, and my faith that working within the system can actually change anything for the better.
Not that I'm planning to do something radical "outside the system" but that I just don't care to be part of it anymore. Sorta getting by out here on the fringes.
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In retrospect, I think that I reached the breaking point some time ago.
What is broken is my trust that anything in govt is any good, and my faith that working within the system can actually change anything for the better.
Not that I'm planning to do something radical "outside the system" but that I just don't care to be part of it anymore. Sorta getting by out here on the fringes.
Same place I'm at.
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Hearing this more and more from people I know.
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Yep, Cho at VT isn't a "real world example" of a killer bringing multiple guns.
It seems like most of the mass murder nut-jobs bring multiple guns.
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Same place I'm at.
Ditto....
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It seems like most of the mass murder nut-jobs bring multiple guns.
Maybe they're just fans of Jim Cirillo and other NY cops. ;)
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Don't make the mistake of assuming that the Republican Party is monolithic and homogeneous. There's a wide range of ideas and principles within the party and a constant struggle between the adherents of these ideologies.
I've heard this one before. I still don't get it. Isn't a party by definition a bunch of people with common ideas and principles? How are all those people with ideas and principals so different from the ones the party supposedly has still part of the party? And what is the point of a party without a common set of principles?
Ascendancy of any given faction comes and goes, and the fact that one faction is speaking loudest at any given moment doesn't mean much of anything about the past of future of the party as a whole.
I don't really care about the past or future of the party. I'd like to know what this means to the future of the country.
The ultimate goal is to have Republican Party control of government while at the same time having conservative control of the Republican Party. Neither element on its own is enough, we need both, and we need them at the same time. Any effort that maligns either of these elements is destructive and counterproductive, and impedes what I believe to be the only realistic mechanism we have for fixing our country.
So, basically, if one does not have this same faith in the party, one should STFU. Nice. Real nice.
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I've heard this one before. I still don't get it. Isn't a party by definition a bunch of people with common ideas and principles? How are all those people with ideas and principals so different from the ones the party supposedly has still part of the party? And what is the point of a party without a common set of principles?
No, that's not the definition or purpose of a political party.
A political party is an organization for influencing government, a tool for obtaining political power. One need not be monolithic, and in fact, the nature of our system is such that they can't be particularly monolithic. They must be as broad as possible, which leads all of the disparate political interests to coalesce into either of two parties.
The Democrat party certainly isn't homogeneous and uniform. Do the unions have the same interests and ideologies as the feminists or the environmentalists? Of course not. Yet they still work together as part of the same party, because that's the way for them to achieve political power.
The Republican party is (or ought to be) the same way, disparate interests working together to achieve their various goals. Problem is, none of our factions seem all that willing to work together. We'd rather snipe at each other.
I don't really care about the past or future of the party. I'd like to know what this means to the future of the country.
Fair enough. I don't care if you know anything about the Republican Party and/or what it means for the country, so long as you're not spouting off about it.
Now, if you're going to hold strong vocal opinions on matter, then I'd reasonably expect you to know a thing or two about it.
If you're going to weigh in sensibly, one of the biggest things you'll need to understand about the Rep party is that it isn't now, never really has been, and probably can't eve become, truly uniform and monolithic. See above.
The name of the game is to have the Republican party in control of government and to simultaneously have the conservative types in control the Republican party. This is the route to small-government, liberty-minded political power. This is the mechanism that allows us to fix things in our country. As such, any effort that undermines either half of the equation is ultimately counterproductive, and you'll probably find me opposed to it.
So, basically, if one does not have this same faith in the party, one should STFU. Nice. Real nice.
Go back and re-read what I said. You seem to have missed the point here.