Posted on 06/11/2006 9:24:07 AM PDT by hope
You don't sound like you've ever had to run a business. You need to interact with federal, state, and local bureaucrats on a regular and frequent basis: zoning requests, various licenses, building permits, food-handling inspections (if you serve food or drink, which many branches of Barnes & Nobles, for example, do), taxing disputes, etc, etc.
A powerful political establishment has the power to make life difficult for a business owner if they choose to
What business owner would like to risk "informal" (and unprovable) retaliation over a few hundred dollars (at most) of profit margin?
Dude-ette, if you are not part of the conservative movement, both physically and philosophically, you are not a true conservative but merely opportunist.
Clue to you: the blessings of American conservatism are the outworkings of Judeo-Christian morality and ethic put into practice. Cauterization morality forms the basis of true American conservative philosophy.
As a Buddhist, America is pleased to provide you with a free environment in which you may equally and along side others freely practice your brand of religion, be it Hindu, Buddhist, I-Ching, Pantheism, B'hai, or pompous-assed evolutionism. Throw in those who practice atheism there too, but they're only kidding themselves anyway, and in America, atheists are free to kid themselves all they want.
None of those religions, however, philosophically form the basis of American conservatism -- and American conservatism is true conservatism. As a Buddhist, who believes they are evolving to a higher state of existence through a series of re-incarnations, striving for Nirvana has no resemblance to the Darwinian evolutionary premise. You of course are welcome to hold both positions in spite of their mutually contradictory stances.
You are not in either case a true conservative, because philosophically you cannot be a true movement conservative and at the same time hold to pseudo-scientific evolutionary philosophy. You are merely acting in your own self-interests, which happen to coincide with some of the goals of true conservatism, even as many libertarians do.
Now I sound like I've never run a business because I believe in the First Amendment for even slimy politicians.
Free speech is messy isn't it.
Let's cut to the chase.
Do you or do you not think that a politician has a Constitutional right to be a vocal advocate of a nonlegislative boycott?
Whimpering, now are we? I knew there was something going around in that intellectual bath house of yours over at Darwin Central, but those self-validating ego rub downs you guys treat each other to have clearly infected all of you with full blown AIDS (Acquired Intelligence Deficiency Syndrome).
A shame, for some reason I thought you were above smears like that.
That statement sums it all up in a nutshell. They love freedom of speech as long as its "approved speech". They also believe in human rights as long as it isn't a leftist dictatorship or communism.
You don't have to believe in reincarnation to follow the Dharma, and I don't. That would take faith I don't have.
Buddhism is not as exclusive as Christianity in that way.
I am a Gnostic. I believe that I have an immortal soul and that God exists because it was revealed to me as such. I don't take any man's word for what happens in the afterlife.
Conservatism is based on logic, not on creation. Logic lead me to conservatism. I'm sorry, but since the conservative philosophy is inherently logical, you might have people who don't follow your particular religion on the same political side as you, distateful though it may be for you.
ToE has nothing, absolutely nothing at all to do with the state of my soul. You are confusing matter with the spirit.
And a Buddhist too? Seems that you've invented a kind of mix 'n' match religion for yourself. Still not anything upon which American Conservatism is based.
Conservatism is based on logic
Hitler's brand of conservatism was also based in what he considered to be "logic" too, but that brand of conservatism does not define American Conservatism.
American Conservatism is certainly logical, but it is so because it is based in Judeo-Christian ethic; and on that basis American Conservatism is the logical choice -- even for Gnosto-Buddhists like yourself.
You use it for what it is good for, and have chosen to do so in your own self-interest. That however does not define you as an American Conservative
READ "Significantly, however, Mr. Churchill's and Ms. Coulter's comments drove more people away than they convinced"
this was a quote from another poster I disagreed with. Your forgiven.
Are you sure that Churchill's comments drove anyone away from his side? It seemed to me that it made him a hero of the loony left.
Again that was a quote from a previous poster I disagreed with. Your forgiven.
Suuuure. That's why they show up on the talk shows, 9-11 Omission Commission etc. bashing the President and the war.
Just repairing their shattered lives...protecting others....suuuuure.
"this was a quote from another poster I disagreed with. Your forgiven"
Apologies.
A politician has a Constitutional right to to be a vocal advocate of a nonlegislative boycott.
To the same extent that a local crime lord has the Constitutional right to publicly say "You know that FreeReign character? The world would be a better place if he was dead, you know what I mean?".
Even better, it was Mother Sheehan.
Darn, I hate it when that happens!
A politician has a Constitutional right to to be a vocal advocate of a nonlegislative boycott.
U-bet.
To the same extent that a local crime lord has the Constitutional right to publicly say "You know that FreeReign character? The world would be a better place if he was dead, you know what I mean?".
I know New Jersey RAT politicians are pretty sleazy, but I'll ask you this?
If the local crime lord said "that the world would be a better place if the doofus SauronOfMorder were dead, you know what I mean", you would equate the risk of bad intentions from that remark similar to the risk of bad intentions if (let's say) a local politician solicited you and your business on the phone for a campaign contribution??
>>>>Embarrassment? Those 4 women rode their husbands caskets to wealth and fame. They CAMPAIGNED for John Kerry. The b*tches are pure sleeze and Ann Coulter was DEAD on. These shmucks are no better then Cindy Sheehan.<<<
WELL SAID!
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