Ah politics… fun fun fun ‘til Daddy takes the T-Bird away, the polarization of America is getting out of hand. Everyone can buy a gun? State religion? No taxes? Unbridled Capitalism? Socialism? Libertarianism? Communism? Extremism! Oh My!
Has everyone lost their collective minds?
We live in a society, supposedly a free society, governed by rule of law… Not rule of “hey I don’t think you should be able to do that so stop it” What any one person or group of people think you should or should not do is irrelevant, doesn’t matter if God is your basis for living or Thor or Apollo or if the fling spaghetti monster rules your world we have freedom of religion which by definition has to include freedom from religion… Yeah I said it now for the part the non-religious won’t like. That doesn’t mean anyone can say that religious displays offend me so you can’t put Jesus or Santa on the courthouse grounds. You do not have the right not to be offended as long as someone’s expression of religion doesn’t include infringing on your rights as an individual (no that doesn’t mean you have the right not to be offended) just shut up and walk past any religious displays you don’t like. This also means that if you are a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim you must give the same amount of tolerance to others you enjoy and yes that includes Pagans, Sun Worshipers, and Wicca.
All you can say for sure is that the Government cannot support one of these over the others so if your local government pays for the Christmas decorations then you have be willing to have the local Government pay for the holiday decorations of the other religions too… If that offends you please see the paragraph above. Just the way it is but it doesn’t mean the government cannot pay they just have to be even handed about it.
Generally, at least in my estimation, it’s best for the government to stay out of these things and avoid wasting taxpayers dollars frivolously but that’s just me.
We seem to want to grandstand on the most silly things, “in God we trust” on our currency? It was put there in the 1950’s in a wave of religious patriotism to show the evil commies how serious we were going to defend “Capitalism?” Hmmm makes it sound a little silly to fight over now doesn’t it? Same for the pledge of allegiance, the under God part is an artifact of the fight against communism not some affirmation of this being a Christian nation. Either deal with it or stop it completely but it’s not worth polarizing the nation over.
Socialized medicine (he said with a sneer) Communism sneaking in by the back door… say it 20 times and see how silly it becomes. We, supposedly the richest nation on Earth, cannot take care of our peoples medical needs? Most other first world nations seem to do a pretty good job of it. Do we really want to let Capitalism get in the way of social programs? If it galls the insurance companies, so what? Do insurance companies rule the government? And speaking of Capitalism… Yes Capitalism “Caveat emptor” do we really want to run a society based on buyer beware? A society where anyone can sell or buy anything, do business in any way they want and let the people who buy from them suffer? And no, corporations are not individuals, they don’t act like individuals, they are not by any realistic measure people and the only reason this is proposed is so they can get around laws that should govern corporations because… they are not people… If you are Republican or conservative or both and think this benefits you then you are either very wealthy or you own a company or both, the rest of us do not gain anything but hardship from corporations being allowed the rights of individuals.
Capitalism needs rules, it cannot be allowed to operate unchained, unchained Capitalism will eventually destroy a society just as surely as communism, all stable societies are a mixture of various philosophies, it has to be that way because as much as we would like to believe it to be true all people do not start out with the same chance as all others and there is no reason to allow some to get to the top just because they had a head start or because they are bigger bastards than everyone else. Without rules Capitalism will fail just as badly as communism did. In fact take a look at China pure communism? Not hardly, they have generous dollop of Capitalism they have in recent decades mixed into their political make up, it made sense, it helped them survive and prosper when other communist regimes were falling like flies. Now pure communist states can be counted on one hand and few of them are places anyone would choose to live, take North Korea… no really take it please…
Libertarianism ah the free breath of a free man, free to go about his life unhindered by the doings of mere mortals, wait, that highway needs repair, who is going to remove that body from the ditch, I need to call the “police” no those privately owned prisons need more inmates to make a profit they might pick me up just to make their quota and the privately owned police work for the prisons… maybe I could use a little bit of restraint as well in my completely free breathing?
As usual no one political system works perfectly, only a blend of various policies can be sustainable over the long haul.
So I have some advice, Atheists stop moaning about religion, it’s always going to be here, never going to go away, you do not have the right to not to be offended all you have the right to do is ignore them.
Theists… ah yes theists, in this country overwhelmingly Christian, can you throttle back a few notches? You do not have the right to not be offended either but you do not have the right to dictate what everyone else does as well. Refer back to that annoying little document called the constitution, freedom of religion, it’s quite a concept, every man free to follow his vision of god… well unless your vision of god requires that you make others follow your vision but refer back to that document called the constitution for further reference… Yes this includes you creationists, you do not get to have your religious views taught as science, it’s not science it’s religion… deal with it but deal with it without forcing your views on others…
Gun control… take lessons… no really, if you want a gun get training, we don’t let people drive cars without training why should we let people have guns without training?
We live in a society that allows people to drive cars, some say it’s a privilege and that is true but it’s one that allows people, very nearly everyone, to drive a car but it also requires that those drivers be reasonably able to drive their cars (I know imperfect system), some people just can’t drive or choose to drive while intoxicated we try to limit the damage they do by requiring training, insurance, licenses, restrictions and we still end killing something like 90 to 100 people a day.
Deaths by guns is comparable and by 2015 they are projected to be very close and this is because gun deaths are going up, abet slowly, while death by car is going down. Shouldn’t a gun owner be expected to be able to show some proficiency at “driving” his gun?
Is a background check to insure a perspective gun owner isn’t bat shit crazy too much to ask? As for ammo clips, if large magazines are illegal then carry more of the smaller clips, seriously that is a small point to dwell on while people die due to people having guns that have no clue as to how to use them.
Sanctity of marriage, we live in a society that allows game shows where several men or several women compete to marry a stranger…yeah sanctity of marriage… I have some severe doubts that homosexuals can screw that up any worse than we straight people have already but lets take the bull by the horns and ask why…
Why are homosexuals second-class citizens? They’re not you say? I call bullshite, in my state they cannot even get a civil union much less get married and why is that? Religion, religion, especially the dominant one here seems to have a special place for homosexuals, I believe it’s right in the center of the pit of eternal flames… ok where does that come from? The Holy Bible… fine let’s follow that Holy book, are we going to stone adulterous women to death as well? How about those unruly teenagers, death for them as well and those horrible abominations that walk around flaunting clothing made of cloth woven from different fibers… get a clue why do you have such an erection for homosexuals?
No one is suggesting that your church be forced to allow homosexuals to marry within it’s hallowed walls where I am sure none of Gods’ rules have ever been broken. Many Churches are already marrying homosexuals… not real churches you say… no true Scotsman???
Birth control, don’t want to use birth control, don’t use it, yes there is a large faction of theists who think it’s their sacred duty to stop the use of birth control, sex must have consequences… right? Hard for me to see their point of view, I can’t quite get my head that far up my ass…
As for abortion, I wouldn’t have one, I wouldn’t want my wife to have one (I can’t imagine she would but it should be her choice) but I know that the idea that life begins at conception is invalid and shows a lack of knowledge of how reproduction works, many fertilized eggs never attach and are shed, in fact the process can go quite far and happen for numerous reasons, are we going to charge any woman who is pregnant and loses a zygote with murder? Involuntary manslaughter perhaps? Stop being unreasonable, read the bible… no really read it don’t let someone else tell you what it says but God sure seems to be fond of killing and yes I mean children…
Jesus came to change all that… read your bible, don’t let someone else tell you what it says or means… read it! (hint: Jesus said exactly the opposite, no I’m not going to spoon feed it to you, read it for your self…)
But back to abortion, if the child comes to term, who is going raise an unwanted child? Your taxes? It seems to me the winning idea here is to make birth control freely available, not to mention sex education, many adults seem to sorely lacking in that area of education as well, in fact birth control pills result in fewer lost zygotes than a woman who doesn’t use any but is still having sex. Should abortion be allowed, I would say yes with some reasonable restrictions but conflating birth control with abortion is insane since one prevents the other.
Oh and by the way, if your church or organization employs someone and you provide health insurance there is no valid reason why you should get to say the insurance can’t pay for birth control, religion has to be voluntary, you cannot force your religious values on others… For reference see constitution… More to the point health insurance with birth control is cheaper than health insurance without birth control…
You live in an amazing country founded by men who were wise almost beyond comprehension (judging by today’s standards) stop trying to change it to suit you personally, let other people live and let live as well…