Free Republic

“And do we really want the spectacle of armed teachers walking picket lines or negotiating contracts?”

Good point, and also, do we really want armed teachers demanding that we have our homework ready to hand in?

“It’s time for SCOTUS to get off its @$$ and “decide” that the Second Amendment is an individual right guaranteed to EVERY AMERICAN and that it doesn’t have anything to do with hunting or the National Guard. Enough beating around the bush.”

The Second amendment speaks of an individual’s right to keep and bear arms. Are you saying that you believe that all individuals have a right to keep and bear all arms, with no limitations whatsoever, so long as they can afford them?

Can’t argue with you about where we are as a society, but at the same time, I don’t believe in making it easy for a sicko to do great harm. We don’t sell RPG’s at the 7-11’s, nor do I think many people believe we should. There have to be some limits on the degree of dangerousness of weapons that we allow the general public to possess. That’s what I think the coming debate will be about.

Why? You want, you ask them.

“1) Do you really think someone bent on murder won’t go outside this “rights” to obtain a weapon?

2) Would you prefer he enter the school with a 5-gallon can of gasoline and a box of matches?

Evil is evil, and there’s always a method”

So would you sell a fully automatic rifle to someone listed as a suspected terrorist by the FBI and CIA?

“Every day, African American criminals massacre at least a score of our fellow citizens of all races .

Don’t see him shedding any tears over that.”

Yes, seems like every day I read about some African American going to an elementary school and killing 20 kids, aged six years old. And Obama never sheds a tear...Whoops, wait a second! Actually, I can’t remember the last time this happened. What are you talking about?

“Welcome to 1984. You’ll learn to love Big Brother, too.”

This started with the “Patriot” Act, which gave the government unprecedented powers to look into the private affairs of American. It, along with the administration’s claim of a right to indefinitely detain anyone suspected of supporting terrorism, with no right to a trial or even to know the specifics of the charges, was embraced by the country at large.

Surprisingly, most “conservatives” supported this abrogation of our rights, reasoning that the Constitution, and specifically the Bill of Rights, was not a “suicide pact”, and that the dangers of terrorism were such that we should forget about our rights. This is but a continuation of that long, sad period.

It wasn’t a song. It was a comment to the effect that those US troops who were torturing Iraqis should be killed.

It wasn’t a song. It was a comment to the effect that those US troops who were torturing Iraqis should be killed.

What 2004 anti-American song?

What 2004 anti-American song?

Must be a lot of Americans that like this guy. His video for “Gangnam Style” just passed Justin Beieber’s as the most watched video ever on Youtube. A fun video, don’t you think?

“..The “rich” already DO pay more taxes. A LOT more, in fact....”

I think what people don’t like is rich people paying a lower tax rate than middle class people. The average tax rate for the 400 richest families in the US in 2011 was 19%, which is lower than what a wager earner making $100,000 a year pays. Hard to explain why this ia fair.

Right now, neither party has come out with any plan for serious spending cuts. Both are playing politics. I say now is the time for conservatives to come out with a new “CONTRACT FOR AMERICA” much like the conservatives did under Gingrich and propose specific cuts to put the nation on the path to a balanced budget. Here are a few:

1. Cut the defense budget by $250 billion a year, so that it is no larger than the combined defense spending of China, Russia, England, Germany and Japan all added together. After all, we have the world's most effective nuclear arsenal and two very large oceans between us and any hostile nations. We could make do.

2. Eliminate farm subsidies. Let's get away from Soviet style agriculture and go back to capitalism. Save tens of billions.

3. End the crony capitalist medical system we have where an adult citizen cannot buy the medication he needs without getting someone certified by the AMA to give him a license to buy it. This is ridiculous. Most of the world lets its citizens buy 98% of necessary meds at their local pharmacy, without a script. The pharmacist uses his knowledge as an adviser. Go to a doctor if you like, but this would put an end to people having to run to the emergency room and run up a fantastic bill (which the citizenry has to pay) just to get some basic medication. This would also cut down doctor's visits by 50%. Plus, build twice as many medical schools as we have now and introduce (the horror of this word to doctors) COMPETITION to the medical system. Right now the AMA (?!!!) limits the number of medical schools and thus doctors we can have. Finally, put a limit on the extent of services available under Medicare. A person living on social security doesn't get to live like a millionaire, why should he have the same medical care under Medicare as a millionaire. Grow up and stop shrieking about “death panels.” Government has limitations. You don't want them, earn some money, don't go begging from the general public.

4. No retirement benefits to be paid by the government to any able bodied person until they reach 65. Doesn't matter whether they worked for the post office, the legislature, the armed forces....You wait like the rest of us. Why are we talking about raising the retirement age for Social Security because it is starting to run a deficit and not all the other government retirement programs, which are not funded at all?

How convenient for us to blame Obama for the huge deficits of the last four years, as though we had nothing to do with it. I see the deficit chart here, which is very interesting and tells part of the story, but I don’t see a spending chart or a revenue chart. What i have heard is that spending has increased under O about the same as under Bush, but that revenues have fallen mightily. In any event, we seem to be forgetting that O is not a dictator, and that congress has to vote for our nation’s spending each year. It’s convenient to have a bogeyman, but everyone is looking at the wrong one. The real bogeyman is ALL OF US. We demand enormous benefits from our government, freebies, massive military far beyond any major group of countries combined, massive government pensions of all kinds, unlimited medical care, highways, electricity, wars, AND WE REFUSE TO PAY FOR IT. The surest way to get elected in America for the last thirty years of so, or probably longer, has been to promise “free” benefits from the government that you don’t even have to pay more taxes to get. Even better, someone hit on the idea a while back of convincing people that they could get these increased benefits AND a tax cut at the same time, if we just voted for the right politician, because after all, the budget would balance itself anyway. Never mind that it never did. We fed our hearts on fantasy, and we are reaping the whirlwind.

They love their mothers.

“How STUPID must these folks be to think that in this day and age of technology, that they can just ‘hide’ acts of terrorism from the American people???”

What I still don’t understand is why they would want to.

” When Beer Leader got re-elected, and knowing the truth about Benghazi spells i-m-p-e-a-c-h-m-e-n-t for him, perhaps someone ‘recommended’ Patreaus fess up to a fake affair...or else?”

That doesn’t ring true for a couple of reasons. First, considering his personal history, General Patreaus doesn’t strike me as the kind of man to bow down to anyone for anything. Secondly, if you were trying to blackmail him into suppressing information, you wouldn’t first destroy his reputation. You would tell him, “Look, you don’t play ball with us, we’ll reveal (or create) this affair you had.” Now, having already destroyed his career and perhaps his marriage, what do you threaten him with to keep him from singing? The level of threats available to keep him quiet has diminished considerably.

” Sounds more and more like a honey trap and smells more and more like someone setting it up. Is it foreign enemies...or domestice ones?”

What is surprising is that two of our top military leaders could be compromised so easily. I mean, these two are not exactly femme fatales. Are our senior military guys really so sexually frustrated that they’ll risk their careers for flings with these women? Perhaps the CIA should hire some hot babes with proper clearance to service our top servicemen discretely.

“The only positive is that when the collapse comes and we go the way of Greece, the guy most responsible for it will still occupy the White House.”

We won’t go the way of Greece. Greece doesn’t have it own currency. It has to pay its bills in euros.

We can always pay our bills, just rev up the printing presses.