A Landslide

Can supporters of same-sex marriage and those protesting the Mormon Church's involvement help me with something?

President-elect Barack Obama won the election by 6.5 percent nationwide. This is being described as a "landslide" and a "mandate" by the media, Obama supporters and other prominent democrats.

Conversely, the legality of same-sex marriage was on the ballot in three states, two of these states won by President-elect Obama. Of the nearly 20 million votes cast in these three states on the same-sex marriage issue, legal same-sex marriage was defeated by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent. An 8 percent margin of defeat, larger than Obama's margin of victory.

Should logic not command that this result be defined as a mandate against same-sex marriage? If not, why not?

And instead of blaming "confused" Black voters and the Mormon Church, why are supporters of same-sex marriage avoiding the real culprit? Barack Obama!

Yes, the head of your ticket, leader of your party, savior and generally recognized genius and messiah is an ardent and enthusiastic opponent of same-sex marriage. Always has been! And so are Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and the majority of elected Democrats nationwide.

You can't convince Barack Obama and Joe Biden to support same-sex marriage and you blame the Mormon Church for your electoral failures? No disrespect, but that's pathetic.

As long as President-elect Obama and other prominent Democrats continue their adamant and enthusiatic opposition to same-sex marriage, the Mormon Church and "confused Black voters" are the least of your problems. - John Watson,Phoenix

JUST "SIN TAXES"

Whatever you tax, you punish. Why would you punish people for working
and making money?
Remember that I am not saying that the government should collect any
more money. Just that we should eliminate the income tax. In order to
replace the revenue loss each city, and state will have to decide
which usage fees, and "sin taxes" they will use to replace the income
tax.
Republicans have good principles, but they rarely follow them. One of
the good principals that republicans talk about, but never seem to
follow threw is the principle of rewarding good behavior and punishing
bad behavior. We should lose taxes that tax good behavior, like income
tax and increase sin vastly increase sin taxes.

The Republican Party is typically seen as your father's party. The
democrats are like your mom. They care about your feelings, but the
republicans have tough love, and tell you to stop feeling sorry for
yourself, and get to work. Parents tend to learn, that if you do stuff
for their kids all the time, the kid will never learn to act by
themselves. Sure, the government can help people who need help, but do
you really deserve help from the government if you skipped class,
didn't do your homework, and never graduated from high school? Our
compassionate side says yes, but our republican side says that to some
point help is a reward for bad behavior.

It should be self evident, and even democrats should realize that if
you reward bad behavior, you are going to get more of it. But what are
some practical ways that we can reward good behavior and punish bad
behavior? Can we really raise the cost of cigarettes and booze any
higher?

I think there are lots of "sins" that we could tax. But I don't want
people like me choosing those sins. I think economist should, or just
the city clerk should determine the true cost of government services.
This might not be a practical idea, but it is something we deal with
every day and serves as a good example : what if the garbage man
charged you buy how many bags of garbage you left? What if someone
walked around and charged every home $20 that didn't have a compost
pile? What if we replaced the income tax with increased energy taxes?
That would put steroids on any motivation there was to insulate your
home.

POSSIBLE "GREEN" SIN TAXES

No compost pile.
Too much pavement.
Too much garbage.
Not enough trees.
No solar panels.
No wind turbine.

POSSIBLE HEALTH SIN TAXES:

Smoking (charged per pack)
Drinking (charged per can)
Marijuana (charged per lb.)
Prostitution (you know how it is collected)
Being over weight

POSSIBLE EDUCATIONAL SIN TAXES

Not knowing geography
Not knowing math
Not knowing specifics about those running for office.
Not knowing a 2nd language
Not having a college degree

POSSIBLE FAMILY SIN TAXES

Not visiting your kids
Not paying child support
Your kids doing poorly in school

Obama is wrong to say that we should "slow development of Future Combat Systems."

Reasons to agree

1. We live in a world were millions of middle-age minded people would like to destroy America. We could throw away all our weapons, and fight them with bronze spears. However diverse modern populations, with equal rights for minorities, that promote civil rights, a free press, the rule of law, and invests in education, health-care, etcetera... these societies are going to have a technological advantage. Those societies that work hard, educate their public, that work efficiently, and allow their women to be productive members of society... those societies that embrace science, reason, law, and education... these societies are the best care-takers of the future. Human histories are full of war. We live in a time when dictators still build statues to themselves, and enslave their populations. Therefore it is important that modern societies have modern weapons. 
2. Societies that use irrational extremism to motivate their geneses to build weapons for them will never be as stable as multi-party democracies, with the rule of law. Hitler forced a lot of scientist to work for him, and they built some very cutting edge plains. They almost beat the free world to building the nuclear bomb. If they had succeeded, we would all have been speaking German. But in the long run, many of these scientist wore forced to work for Germany. Those that could escape to the west (like Einstein who fled Europe when he saw the Nazis come to power) fled to the free world. In the long run, good modern societies, are going to have smart people want to be a part of them. This is part of why our immigration policy should be used to recruit the brightest people from all over the planet, and try to get them to stay here in America. 
3. Patriotism, love of democracy, and the desire for peace are not the only things that would inspire smart people to build great weapons. Religious fanatism can also motivate smart people to build new weapons. Perceived injustices, nationalism, money, and misinformation perpetuated by a state-ran media, can all be used by power hungry governments to motivate their scientist. But scientist who are stupid enough to be manipulated will never build weapons that are as good as the scientist who are willing to work for the causes of freedom, democracy, equality, and a pursuit of rational justice. 
4. Evil people are going to develop future combat systems. If we enjoy life, and want our children to be free, we have to build better weapons. 
5. Evil people don't build weapons because good people do. But good people have to build weapons because evil people do.

Movies that disagree

1. Iron Man's main character, Tony Stark, closes his weapons business before he found out how evil that one guy was. 
2. Almost every movie today disagrees. The 2nd Batmat had an evil weapons dealer. Their was that movie "Lord of War", with a guy just like Tony Stark who was a weapons dealer. 

Obama is wrong to say that we should "slow development of Future Combat Systems."

Reasons to agree

1. We live in a world were millions of middle-age minded people would like to destroy America. We could throw away all our weapons, and fight them with bronze spears. However diverse modern populations, with equal rights for minorities, that promote civil rights, a free press, the rule of law, and invests in education, health-care, etcetera... these societies are going to have a technological advantage. Those societies that work hard, educate their public, that work efficiently, and allow their women to be productive members of society... those societies that embrace science, reason, law, and education... these societies are the best care-takers of the future. Human histories are full of war. We live in a time when dictators still build statues to themselves, and enslave their populations. Therefore it is important that modern societies have modern weapons. 



2. Societies that use irrational extremism to motivate their geneses to build weapons for them will never be as stable as multi-party democracies, with the rule of law. Hitler forced a lot of scientist to work for him, and they built some very cutting edge plains. They almost beat the free world to building the nuclear bomb. If they had succeeded, we would all have been speaking German. But in the long run, many of these scientist wore forced to work for Germany. Those that could escape to the west (like Einstein who fled Europe when he saw the Nazis come to power) fled to the free world. In the long run, good modern societies, are going to have smart people want to be a part of them. This is part of why our immigration policy should be used to recruit the brightest people from all over the planet, and try to get them to stay here in America. 


3. Patriotism, love of democracy, and the desire for peace are not the only things that would inspire smart people to build great weapons. Religious fanatism can also motivate smart people to build new weapons. Perceived injustices, nationalism, money, and misinformation perpetuated by a state-ran media, can all be used by power hungry governments to motivate their scientist. But scientist who are stupid enough to be manipulated will never build weapons that are as good as the scientist who are willing to work for the causes of freedom, democracy, equality, and a pursuit of rational justice. 


4. Evil people are going to develop future combat systems. If we enjoy life, and want our children to be free, we have to build better weapons. 


5. Evil people don't build weapons because good people do. But good people have to build weapons because evil people do.

Movies that disagree

1. Iron Man's main character, Tony Stark, closes his weapons business before he found out how evil that one guy was. 



2. Almost every movie today disagrees. The 2nd Batmat had an evil weapons dealer. Their was that movie "Lord of War", with a guy just like Tony Stark who was a weapons dealer. 

A great article from Michele Obama

This is a great article by Michele Obama.

It is unfortunate that we have a double standard. If a republican woman was to say something like that, they would be looked down upon. People would call them Stepford Wives. But it is great for Michele to say it.

Exit question: What would you say to someone that Michele Obama (a democrate) is a more devoted mom than Sarah Palin? Does it matter how much time Mr. Palin spends with the kids?

A great article from Michele Obama

This is a great article by Michele Obama.

It is unfortunate that we have a double standard. If a republican woman was to say something like that, they would be looked down upon. People would call them Stepford Wives. But it is great for Michele to say it.

Exit question: What would you say to someone that Michele Obama (a democrate) is a more devoted mom than Sarah Palin? Does it matter how much time Mr. Palin spends with the kids?