I don't think this is faked. I think this is a legitimate argument against for-profit interests moving in on public education. (As wonky as it may be.)

Mr Murdoch appeared as part of a two-day education forum sponsored by the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a group chaired by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. It champions school vouchers, charter schools, performance pay for teachers and digital learning.
‘We need to tear down an education system designed for the 19th century and replace it with one suited for the 21st,’ Mr Murdoch said during his morning address.


/www.dailymail.co.uk



Does he mean to design a system for the wealthy to profit from?


The style of the protest was no doubt inspired by the satirical website, http://occupysesamestreet.org/

>> ^aurens:

You envision a world in which people take responsibility for their fellow citizens because they're compelled to do so by the government.
...
One (yours) is a world that places little emphasis on the moral (and social and cultural) development of the individual.

Not at all. I'm asking people to sit down, and decide together to set up some fair and equal structure for identifying and clarifying our responsibilities to one another, and create an incentive structure to help us make sure we are all living up to the commitments morality demands of us.

You (and Paul) want to paint that as something it's not.

>> ^aurens:

Ron Paul envisions a world in which people take responsibility for their fellow citizens because they're driven by their own moral imperative.
..
The other (Ron Paul's) is a world that grants the individual more freedom and, yes, more responsibility.

Right, and if they don't feel like taking responsibility for their fellow citizens, they don't have to. It's your property after all, and you're free to do with it as you wish. People can try to persuade you to voluntarily take on responsibility for others, but if you want to ignore them, we'll make sure your right to ignore that responsibility is defended, with violence if necessary.

I don't really see much promotion of altruism in that.

>> ^aurens:
Before you condemn me for living in a fantasy world, I refer you to my comment above: "The hard part, though, and one of the biggest hurdles that Ron Paul supporters face, is to determine, honestly, whether or not we've advanced enough as a society to handle the responsibilities that his vision entails."

And my original response to that was: "To me it seems pretty naive to think that world is the world we live in, though. It seems even worse to say that it would be the world we lived in if only we went back to our 19th century economic policies.

I too want a world where government is no longer necessary. I just don't see humanity ever getting to the point where we're all perfect moral creatures. I certainly don't see Paul's insistence that "freedom" means freedom from responsibility for anyone but yourself as being a step towards that goal."

A comment which you dismissed as being a "fallacy" that stems from my "misunderstanding" that Paul's policy prescriptions stem from his naive and unrealistic view of humanity.

Me, I give Paul the benefit of the doubt -- I think he knows that this "everyone will take care of each other" thing is a load of bull, so I don't really factor it into my criticism of him.

It's certainly not aiding his case as far as I'm concerned, and it's definitely no answer to my criticism of his political message.

>> ^aurens:

Somewhat tangentially, have you perchance read anything by Peter Singer, maybe One World or "Famine, Affluence, and Morality"? I find it odd that these sorts of debates center so provincially on the United States without acknowledging the moral responsibility we have for people who are far less fortunate than even the most underprivileged Americans.


I haven't read Singer, but I agree with you that we are almost always provincial in these conversations.

But I sorta feel like solving these sorts of issues at the local level is a prerequisite to solving them on a global level. People who aren't ready to accept responsibility for their neighbors probably aren't ready to even start thinking about taking responsibility for humanity as a whole.

>> ^aurens:

The problem with tweezing out individual strands of Ron Paul's convictions and considering them out of context, as this fellow did, is that it divorces them from the social and cultural changes that must necessarily accompany them.

Or...it just points out that implementing his policies would lead to a nightmare dystopia, and that he's not really helping push society in a more compassionate, altruistic direction.

>> ^aurens:
It's true (and Ron Paul would concede the point, I think): asking "our neighbors, our friends, our churches" (as he said in the latest debate) to assume responsibility for the health care of individuals without the means to pay for it

That is what I'm for.

It's called national health care. It's a social contract, that specifically lays out everyone's responsibilities and guarantees. To work out the details, we talk to one another, and try to hammer out an agreement that the majority can agree to.

Paul would call me lots of nasty names for wanting to formalize that arrangement into an enforceable contract, though.

He's not really promoting that people need to take more responsibility for others, he's promoting the idea that you shouldn't ever be held responsible for anyone but yourself.

>> ^aurens:
To me, there's nothing more hopeful or more heartening than the world that Ron Paul envisions.

To me it seems pretty naive to think that world is the world we live in, though. It seems even worse to say that it would be the world we lived in if only we went back to our 19th century economic policies.

I too want a world where government is no longer necessary. I just don't see humanity ever getting to the point where we're all perfect moral creatures. I certainly don't see Paul's insistence that "freedom" means freedom from responsibility for anyone but yourself as being a step towards that goal.

As a former agnostic materialist secular type who has seen both sides of the fence, I would characterize the way the world is set up presently as a type of matrix. I marvel at the grand deception being perpetrated..Satan is truly an unparalled genius amongst all the created beings. On the surface it appears one way, and people who are totally committed to it can't tell there is anything wrong..but people who aren't living for it can see there is something fundementally wrong with the world, and can perceive in some manner that it is a deliberate illusion created by the powers that be. These people are seeking to be liberated from it, and want to know the truth. They are seeking the one who made it all, and controls it all..and that is Jesus Christ our Lord.


>> ^Duckman33:
>> ^shinyblurry:
Yes, the Kingdom of Heaven will be on Earth..when Christ comes back He establishes His Kingdom here and reigns for a thousand years..and after that is the final judgement, called the white throne judgement. When that is finished, Heaven and Earth are remade and established forever.
>> ^luxury_pie:
>> ^SDGundamX:
I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.


So this "afterlife" everybody is eager to have, it's taking place in this world then?


Kinda sounds like the Matrix.

>> ^shinyblurry:

Yes, the Kingdom of Heaven will be on Earth..when Christ comes back He establishes His Kingdom here and reigns for a thousand years..and after that is the final judgement, called the white throne judgement. When that is finished, Heaven and Earth are remade and established forever.
>> ^luxury_pie:
>> ^SDGundamX:
I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.


So this "afterlife" everybody is eager to have, it's taking place in this world then?



Kinda sounds like the Matrix.

Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christians, nor do they claim to be. >> ^SDGundamX:

I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.

Precisely. Christians are called to contributing members of society, and to do good works whenever possible. Not to be isolationists and pine away from the second coming. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, but until He returns our life is here on Earth doing His will.

>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Yes, the Kingdom of Heaven will be on Earth..when Christ comes back He establishes His Kingdom here and reigns for a thousand years..and after that is the final judgement, called the white throne judgement. When that is finished, Heaven and Earth are remade and established forever.

>> ^luxury_pie:
>> ^SDGundamX:
I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.


So this "afterlife" everybody is eager to have, it's taking place in this world then?

According to a recent poll 42% of American Christians believe that Jesus will return in their lifetime. One could argue that 42% is rather a large minority who can't wait for the end time, and that's just in the USA. We need many, many more like Hitchens, Harris, Dennet and Dawkins and far, far fewer religious apologists.

In reply to this comment by SDGundamX:
I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.

>> ^DerHasisttot:

>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.

>> ^SDGundamX:

I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.



So this "afterlife" everybody is eager to have, it's taking place in this world then?

I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.

>> ^DerHasisttot:

>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.

>> ^Morganth:

At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.


Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism

Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.

At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.

Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

I see what you did there. If we disagree with your statement we are automatically "left" and therefore there is room for us to move to the centre.

I would hope that everyone disagrees with the original, satirical statement, but the horror is, there are people who actually speak and think that way, and the majority of them are on the left. Political correctness came from the left side of the aisle. It is the left that has never taken the threat of communism seriously, even though 100 million people have been murdered by communist regimes the world over.

I call poppycock on that, in fact the whole argument of left vs. right is utter nonsense in my opinion, what matters much more is rational thought, a solid moral foundation, and the truth.

From a certain point of view, left versus right seems arbitrary and bizarrely divided. For example, if the left values "equality" then they would demand women and especially the elderly become handgun experts so as not to be victims of larger or multiple attackers. Conversely, if the American Right championed individual rights as much as it claims, hooking and drugs would already be legal for adults.

Rational thought, a solid moral foundation, and the truth? I'm a big fan of all three. Rational thought is too rare to be made national policy and while it's possible for atheists to be moral, a solid moral foundation is still owned by religion. The third, "truth" has very few friends, because it doesn't care who is offended by it.

Regarding this sift, since few will take a stand, I will: islam is not worth saving. It was founded by a gigolo/pedophile warlord, then layered with still-more bizarre interpretations after his demise. islam is "supercessionary", meaning its laws and doctrines "override" Christianity and Judaism. islam offers 3 choices for followers when they meet infidels: kill, convert, enslave. Any muslim who does not do one of these three is also considered an infidel to be killed.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

No nation that wishes to survive should allow more than a handful of muslims to immigrate; they are ill-suited for life in First World Western nations in the 21st century, or the 19th century for that matter. No sane woman should want to see muslims take over, either.




>> ^ghark:

>> ^quantumushroom:
According to leftist doctrine, we are never to judge other cultures by the standards of our own, as all cultural values are equal. The witch doctor and the neurosurgeon are on the same level. Christians proselytize, muslims rape children. Values-wise, there is no difference.

I see what you did there. If we disagree with your statement we are automatically "left" and therefore there is room for us to move to the centre. I call poppycock on that, in fact the whole argument of left vs. right is utter nonsense in my opinion, what matters much more is rational thought, a solid moral foundation, and the truth.

Ten Ways Progressive Policies Harm Society's Moral Character
By Dennis Prager
7/19/2011

While liberals are certain about the moral superiority of liberal policies, the truth is that those policies actually diminish a society's moral character. Many individual liberals are fine people, but the policies they advocate tend to make a people worse. Here are 10 reasons:

1. The bigger the government, the less the citizens do for one another. If the state will take care of me and my neighbors, why should I? This is why Western Europeans, people who have lived in welfare states far longer than Americans have, give less to charity and volunteer less time to others than do Americans of the same socioeconomic status.

The greatest description of American civilization was written in the early 19th century by the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville. One of the differences distinguishing Americans from Europeans that he most marveled at was how much Americans -- through myriad associations -- took care of one another. Until President Franklin Roosevelt began the seemingly inexorable movement of America toward the European welfare state -- vastly expanded later by other Democratic presidents -- Americans took responsibility for one another and for themselves far more than they do today. Churches, Rotary Clubs, free-loan societies and other voluntary associations were ubiquitous. As the state grew, however, all these associations declined. In Western Europe, they have virtually all disappeared.

2. The welfare state, though often well intended, is nevertheless a Ponzi scheme. Conservatives have known this for generations. But now, any honest person must acknowledge it. The welfare state is predicated on collecting money from today's workers in order to pay for those who paid in before them. But today's workers don't have enough money to sustain the scheme, and there are too few of them to do so. As a result, virtually every welfare state in Europe, and many American states, like California, are going broke.

3. Citizens of liberal welfare states become increasingly narcissistic. The great preoccupations of vast numbers of Brits, Frenchmen, Germans and other Western Europeans are how much vacation time they will have and how early they can retire and be supported by the state.

4. The liberal welfare state makes people disdain work. Americans work considerably harder than Western Europeans, and contrary to liberal thought since Karl Marx, work builds character.

5. Nothing more guarantees the erosion of character than getting something for nothing. In the liberal welfare state, one develops an entitlement mentality -- another expression of narcissism. And the rhetoric of liberalism -- labeling each new entitlement a "right" -- reinforces this sense of entitlement.

6. The bigger the government, the more the corruption. As the famous truism goes, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Of course, big businesses are also often corrupt. But they are eventually caught or go out of business. The government cannot go out of business. And unlike corrupt governments, corrupt businesses cannot print money and thereby devalue a nation's currency, and they cannot arrest you.

7. The welfare state corrupts family life. Even many Democrats have acknowledged the destructive consequences of the welfare state on the underclass. It has rendered vast numbers of males unnecessary to females, who have looked to the state to support them and their children (and the more children, the more state support) rather than to husbands. In effect, these women took the state as their husband.

8. The welfare state inhibits the maturation of its young citizens into responsible adults. As regards men specifically, I was raised, as were all generations of American men before me, to aspire to work hard in order to marry and support a wife and children. No more. One of the reasons many single women lament the prevalence of boy-men -- men who have not grown up -- is that the liberal state has told men they don't have to support anybody. They are free to remain boys for as long as they want.

And here is an example regarding both sexes. The loudest and most sustained applause I ever heard was that of college students responding to a speech by President Barack Obama informing them that they would now be covered by their parents' health insurance policies until age 26.

9. As a result of the left's sympathetic views of pacifism and because almost no welfare state can afford a strong military, European countries rely on America to fight the world's evils and even to defend them.

10. The leftist (SET ITAL) weltanschauung (END ITAL) sees society's and the world's great battle as between rich and poor rather than between good and evil. Equality therefore trumps morality. This is what produces the morally confused liberal elites that can venerate a Cuban tyranny with its egalitarian society over a free and decent America that has greater inequality.

None of this matters to progressives. Against all this destructiveness, they will respond not with arguments to refute these consequences of the liberal welfare state, but by citing the terms "social justice" and "compassion," and by labeling their opponents "selfish" and worse.

If you want to feel good, liberalism is awesome. If you want to do good, it is largely awful.