>> ^quantumushroom:
1) USA is not a democracy.


Correct. It is a constitutional republic.


2) Torture is illegal against American citizens and uniform-wearing soldiers of other nations' armed forces.


Wrong. The Bill of Rights does not differentiate between citizens and non-citizens. It only speaks of 'persons'. It embodies certain essential rights common to all men (and women) regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or nationality. True, it only pertains to actions taken within US borders, and against US citizens outside of the US. However, as signatories to the UN Convention against Torture, we have agreed that agents of the US shall not torture.


3) Terrorists fit neither description of #2, therefore legal protections do not apply no matter how badly the ACLU wants them to. The same legal charade was attempted by leftists during WW2, scrambling to give German saboteurs the protection of the American legal process. It failed and the Germs were rightly executed (people had way more common sense + balls back then).



Funny story about them saboteurs--you must be talking about Operation Pastoreus, which gives us the rich legacy of secret military tribunals. The thing is that we would have known NOTHING about the plan, if not for the fact that its leader, intent on betraying the Nazis from the start, turned himself in to the FBI and told them everything they needed to know (he actually had to travel from NYC to Washington, DC to do this, as the FBI Office in NYC hung up on him, thinking him a crank). For this essential service, the leader who had turned on his own people and spared countless American lives was thrown in a cell with the other seven, and sentenced to die. Hoover, director of the FBI, felt that the stroke of luck that had benefitted them in this case didn't play as well in the media as a tireless army of FBI agents, knocking down doors. The leader had been tried separately, and the military judges had been informed about his vital role in breaking the case, and STILL he was sentenced to die. It was only after the details of the case were released that his sentence was commuted. Instead of being treated as a hero, he and another German 'spy' who had turned on their Nazi masters were deported back to Germany, where they were treated as traitors.

So, you know, try another one.


4) While rich in history, most of the rest of the world is quite lame...unstable, squalid, rife with tribal hatreds going back centuries. Other governments' depths of corruption make the USA's look like a school play about tooth decay. Europe is graying and its traditions and culture dying. It would be better off mummified than Muslimfied.


"To save the village, we had to destroy the village." How well did that mentality work in Vietnam?


5) Obama is a laughingstock to America's sworn enemies and is played like a harp by all manner of sociopathic dictators around the globe. He's made America seem as weak as a legless kitten.


Yawn.



6) The USA will never get proper credit or respect for the good it does in the world (at least, not from American liberals). Part of being The Big Dog is being challenged. When China eventually takes over as Big Dog, the rest of the world will long for the good old days.


You know, this is what's so funny about 'free market' ideologues. Their belief that the free market will right all wrongs seems to falter when the market starts favoring an outcome that's much less favorable to them, whether it be the speaking of Spanish, or the growth of non-Christian faiths, or hegemony under a different overlord. Once that happens, the free market must be ignored, and nations toppled.


7) Peanut-head Eric Holder already tried to raise a legal stink about torture and was rebuked. Navy SEALS are waterboarded as part of their training and only 3 of the terrorists were waterboarded, for the purpose of gaining intel, not torture for torture's sake.


Democracies AND constitutional republics do not believe that torture is permissible, regardless of outcome. The ends do NOT justify the means.



Since torture "doesn't work" the logical alternative is to kill all terrorists/insurgents on the battlefield without mercy. Yet this approach is also poo-pooed.


How is this logical? I know--I shouldn't feed the troll here, but I've got some time on my hands.


9) Liberal logic eats its own tail. Dependent on moral relativism to exist, it cannot by its own definition ever claim a lasting moral high ground.


Capitalism eats its own tail. It begets inequities that yield monopolies, and once we have monopolies, capitalism collapses. Communism eats its own tail. In fact, every ideological concept, when taken to its purest form, contains the seeds of its own destruction. The thing about liberalism is that, unlike conservativism, it is endlessly questioning its own relevance and truthfulness. You would, of course, see this as weakness, but like steel, tempering drives out impurities and leads to a stronger material.

There's another one of his on the sift somewhere where he says "In case you haven't noticed, I tell one liners. Funny story how that all started..."

That was good. Didn't like having to read it, but funny story. Like the ending

Heh. No Prob, I was so amused by the video and by the strange way that I ended up seeing it, I felt it needed promoting!

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Thanks for the promote!

In reply to this comment by ponceleon:
*promote

Funny story about how I ended up here... I was at the Jesus Camp video, which led me to the Korean Jesus Camp video, which then had a link to this...

Now I feel others need to gasp in the warm glowing warming glow of this Korean chick's sweaty dump.

Thanks for the promote!

In reply to this comment by ponceleon:
*promote

Funny story about how I ended up here... I was at the Jesus Camp video, which led me to the Korean Jesus Camp video, which then had a link to this...

Now I feel others need to gasp in the warm glowing warming glow of this Korean chick's sweaty dump.

*promote

Funny story about how I ended up here... I was at the Jesus Camp video, which led me to the Korean Jesus Camp video, which then had a link to this...

Now I feel others need to gasp in the warm glowing warming glow of this Korean chick's sweaty dump.

>> ^poolcleaner:
Funny story, true story: I know several of the people in this video.

dude, I told you not to say anything...

>> ^poolcleaner:
Funny story, true story: I know several of the people in this video.


They really know how to stand around in the background.

Funny story, true story: I know several of the people in this video.

>> ^Lolthien:
Ummm.. how rehearsed was that story? Even the band knew when to take a cue, and 'he might take a bra for me?'... funny story, didn't need to be so rehearsed.


The band always does that.

Ummm.. how rehearsed was that story? Even the band knew when to take a cue, and 'he might take a bra for me?'... funny story, didn't need to be so rehearsed.

>> ^longde:
So, does that machine work on scientific principles or mystical ones?

Funny story...it's powered solely by hatred for gays with a dash of Limbaugh's ponytail hair grease for lubricant.

Funny story.

Another scrawny gal though with the undoubted pressures of watching her weight.

Those things aren't very effective in keeping a car safe. Look how many people ignore them?

I feel bad for ya, but that is a funny story.

There's a lot I could say, but I think Blankfist already has it covered.

Regarding unions: If it were simply a more effective way to bargain for salaries, that wouldn't be so bad. Unfortunately, it's not just a bargaining tool when management can't and/or won't give what the union wants, so the union has the employees strike.

It seems to me that unions will use every means at their disposal to hurt the company in order to "help" the workers. Unfortunately when they do their part to put the company out of business via artificially high wage/benefit costs and preventing management from cutting back where necessary under threat of a strike, everyone gets to lose their jobs.

Here's a funny story: A local McDonalds was having a labor dispute. The employees erected a giant inflatable rat on the property adjacent to the McDonalds so as to drive away business and stick it to the man. They never followed that logic though to its conclusion: less business = less need for labor. Out of business = no labor.

Organized labor had its place before there were a dizzying array of labor protection laws. From what I can see now, it does more harm than good - especially for jobs that can be shipped to China.

When in doubt, always remember: some pay > no pay. That, and life's not fair. It never will be, even if we were to completely socialize everything, because humans are corrupt creatures and there is no perfect system.