Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Hanging out here has had a very bad effect on me.

I know what you mean
Tom Brosz — (archived)

At some point, especially with it being an election year, I will probably have to give this place a haitus if I don't want to get some kind of coronary. It's going to get really rough this summer. Besides, I'm supposed to be writing a book.

IMO, you probably get more respect on this board than almost anyone else, and I would not be the only one to say you deserve it. It's hard to argue full tilt with anyone you don't want to piss off, and I'm apparently not very good at that, judging by how many people I do piss off around here.

That being said, I don't think I've said any of the things to you that you are complaining about:

"You can't really be that dumb."
"You put words in my mouth."
"Your view of the world is warped."
"What kind of dream world do you live in?"

I may have said them to some others, but they were probably richly deserved. I try not to get personal. It's hard, and I don't always succeed.

"The Left wants the world to be Communist."

Okay, I'll admit to that one, although they would use the word "progressive." What do YOU think the ultimate goal of the Left is? It sure as hell isn't a free market society. And for the record, I think we established a long time ago that I'm not talking about the run-of-the-mill liberal, or the assembly line worker who votes Democrat every election (although you might be interested in taking a closer look at the president of his union.)

...and an assortment of "I've got mine and to hell with everyone else" economic "theories".

I have done my damndest to get across the idea that giving a hungry man five bucks out of your wallet is not at all the same thing, morally or otherwise, as whacking the rich guy coming out of the restaurant with a blackjack, rolling him for his wallet, and handing five bucks from it to that same hungry man.

And hey! Now I've got enough to give five bucks to ten hungry guys! That's a good thing, right? Best of all, if I'm in elected politics, now I'm a hero to ten guys, and a bastard to only one. Do I win the election or not?

Multiply that by decades of electoral politics, and what kind of government do you get? The one we've got, where almost two thirds of the budget is devoted not to defense, building highways, going into space, the courts, or education, or any other program where one pays out for a real value in return, but simply to the raw redistribution of wealth in return for votes.

The fact that this concept bothers no one and annoys almost everyone shows me that the Robin Hood Principle is burned into the bone of most Americans, and nothing I do or say is going to change that.

Mary Anne, this would be a poorer place without you, and that wouldn't be the first time I've said that either. There are not many others here who have generated posts that I have archived on my hard drive.

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