Hi Mary Anne,

I too believe in a certain quantity of healthcare, education and resources for all citizens.

These are noble ideals and any self-respecting government should provide these for its citizens.

However...

There is a question as to just how much should be provided, who qualifies for what and just how to finance these services.

I went through a socialist stage in my younger days...and believed that the government should just do everything for everybody.

Then after realizing that the government couldn't afford to do everything for everybody without taxing us all into the poverty zone - I realized compromises were neccesary.

I envisioned a socialist type utopia which could incorporate free-market capitalism - but never really figured out how to get the two to work side-by-side.

Enforced equality always punishes some and rewards others.

So what to do. The safety nets for the masses need be there for the less fortunate or less skilled.

I sadly realized one day - my utopia was unworkable. It would always be unequal and its citizens would be frustrated folks.

The only workable solution was to make a capitalist society - a very successful capitalist society - which had the resources to provide better safety nets without reducing the QOL for a good portion through excessive taxation.

My biggest beef right now is with mergers. Merging companies raise antitrust issues which are being brushed off by the government and leaving joe citizen with monopolies on every block.

Not all conservatives are prejudiced and cold-hearted.

I don't judge people on sexual orientation as my own view is that these folks are manifesting their past life experiences into the present.

If a woman was a man 9 out of ten of her most recent lives - she is likely to be gay. Same is true of any man who was a woman. No mystery from this point of view.

However, they incarnated in this gender in this life, and at this time, for a reason to experience life from a certain viewpoint to learn certain things - and so it is my personal belief that it is best to keep polarity relationships correct. +- -+ and not -- or ++. Energy works best in tandem. I leave all moral and religious issues out of it and go straight to the scientific facts.

I am not a basher as that would be ridiculous, but I do see where in certain occupations - such as the military - this creates problems.

Enforced equality again - in this instance - seems counter-intuitive to efficiency.

I can't speak for Tom, but it seems that underneath all the vitriol, appears to be a compassionate person who cares about his family, his country and most all folks.

Many conservatives are so conservative - they seldom get a chance to speak their views in public for fear of being castigated or in some other way made into a pariah.

The same sort of thing occurs with anyone who says anything against Israel - as they must worry about being labeled an anti-semitic Nazi.

The media has, for most of my lifetime, been a bastion of liberalism, condescending to the unwashed masses who were patronized as barely literate folks, not really smart enough to understand politics or social issues.

Decades of Jennings, Brokaw and Rather had made news watching for the conservative - a experience which was almost painful.

Yes the past ten years have changed much of the imbalance. But at best the major media is now 65/35

Well...for now...I am zonked out...

I'll let somebody else from our conservative thinktank at habitablezone take it from here...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ,

SDAI-Tech1