NightRyder said:
I find Political Correctness to be much more insidious, it stifles real conversation, makes people tip-toe around each other, problems go unsolved because we all hide behind and fear words. Its not just made the world bland, its made it fake, and it permeates damn near everything.
It's only a problem if you let be. I don't tiptoe around anyone. The basic good intentions of PC activists (Essentially "don't be such a racist, sexist, *******") is something we all should have been following to begin with. I can't say it's ever affected my life in any negative way, although I've heard plenty of isolated horror stories. I really only have a problem with PC folk that can't separate fiction from reality, or humor from seriousness. But it's the right that wants to censor everything, not the left. The left just gets huffy and self rightious...the right starts passing laws. I value my right to free speech (see, I'm on topic) above all others, because it gives me the right to complain when they start taking away my other rights. And right now, I feel my freedom of religion is most at risk.
I will admit that recent stories of little ol ladies being detained in searches in the name of not offending anyone is pretty horrible.
NightRyder said:
We survived 8 years of Clinton, we'll survive 8 years of Bush. Neither is the boogie man the opposition makes them out to be.
Bush on his own wouldn't be so bad, but he's surrounded himself with some of the most evil people in history. Well, he didn't even surround himself...they surrounded him. He's just a spoiled ignorant rich kid being used by corporate America.
As far as Clinton goes, I never understood why some people loved him and some hated him. I pretty much had no opinion of him, positive or negative.
I'm registered "no party", and usually vote Libratarian. In fact, until Bush, I never voted for a major candidate. I voted for Gore and Kerry, because Bush was the first guy I considered bad enough to vote AGAINST.
In 2008, I guarantee we'll be far worse off than we were in 2000. Not that it's all Bush's fault. Some will be his fault. Some will be just bad luck. Most will be the fault of our idiot legislature.
I would like to point out that every time I complain about the religious right, someone always trys to defend Bush. I never mention Bush. I'm talking about the Dobsons, Bauers, Donohues,Falwells, Robertsons, ...that's who I fear. Bush is just one of their puppets cause that's where the money's coming from.
Christianity is based on a real nice set of simple rules...be nice to each other and do what's morally right. I believe most Christians follow those rules. For that matter so do most of the church leaders. They are not the religious right. The religious right is a small group of evil scumbags who carry out their evil deeds in the name of God. And Christians...good, nice Christians...follow along because they don't know any better.
Likewise, the GOP is built on sound political principles. So sound, that when I was in high school, I was vice-president of the Teen-Age Republicans. I assumed that what they had written on paper was what they stood for, and I was all for it. The GOP gave me a scholorship & flew me to DC. I stood on the White House lawn and waved a lil flag when Bush Sr came back from Poland in July '89. I had a meeting with Lee Atwater & John McCain (still my hero, and we would live in a better country now if the GOP wasn't so dirty and smeared him in 2000).
And then, I started to realize it was all a lie. They SAID they wanted to cut spending, but really they just don't want to spend it on poor people. They have no problem spending it on people who don't need it (Oh, but make sure the middle class pays most of it.) They talk about "freedom", but all they want to do is restrict our freedom. And they cut the political throats of anyone who dares actually stand for what the GOP is supposed to stand for!
I'm sick of all this red state/blue state crap. It's all a lie to keep us arguing, so they can continue to rob us blind and install a theocracy. I live in a supposedly "red" state. We have a liberal democrat, female, by-all-appearances-lesbian governor...and people love her for the most part. We consistantly vote to relax drug laws (not that it does any good.) My city-council passed a resolution against the Patriot Act. (A pointless gesture, but a well meaning one.) We have never had to contend with a school board that suggests that maybe science is a bad thing. We, for the most part, try to keep our noses out of other peoples sexuality and religion. And yet, we (not I, but "we") voted for Bush. I'm willing to give my fellow voters the benefit of the doubt and say they were bamboozled. For the most part, my neighbors make sense. They usually do what's right. But the GOP pulled the wool over their eyes. So now we're a "red" state. And California's a "blue" state, even though they somehow voted Arnold in. And New York's a "blue" state, even though they elected a mayor who felt he had to SWITCH to the GOP in order to get elected. And Ohio...OHIO is now somehow a "red" state. Ohio is a UNION state full of POOR people. But hey, Diebold is located there, so now Ohio is "red".
Americans will do what's right if you educate them and give them a choice...
...and that's why we need stuff like FSTV.