Given my current thoughts on the US government, it actually warms the cockles of my heart to know that so many people such as these somehow manage to avoid having the pledge tattooed into their brain. Hooray for our ineffective brain washing education system!

@enoch

Well, note that the "governs best, governs least" quote IS Thoreau speaking, and although I think it's nonsense (I don't personally want to live completely outside any social structure, I don't think it's practical to separate myself from all of the advancements of society), I DO still think that Thoreau was a brave and noble person for believing in something and seeing that belief come to fruition. That's freedom.

But, when you're constantly putting down a system that you seem to wholeheartedly disagree with, but still support, that's hypocrisy, again, acc to me.

I brought up the issue of taxes because that's what Thoreau did. It's not terribly complicated. He felt that the system of government he was a part of was corrupt and restrictive, so he chose to not participate in it by not paying his taxes. He was jailed because of it, and when his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson bailed him out of jail he was upset. He WANTED to remain in jail because he didn't want to contribute to the social system he disagreed with so.

So when blankfist compared himself to Thoreau: http://videosift.com/talk/Gov-t-stopped-funding-charity-private-donations-surge-500#comment-1185054

I felt, and am reminded every time I see this type of propaganda, that there are a few ways of looking at this american libertarianism and those who follow it:

1) They don't believe in the government, but still support it through taxes.
2) They don't actually believe in the principles outlined in their own philosophy, and that's why they support what they affirm is a corrupt, freedom crushing, system, and that explains their support of it.
3) They believe in their ideas, but want to change things through the current system of government, which seems like a bit of a weird Catch 22.
or
4) They just want to have a theoretical discussion.

I've asked and asked, but he maintains that he's a freedom fighter who supports the government that he hates (through the payment of taxes, etc.)

There are other options I've probably considered along the way that aren't mentioned here, but I really put more thought into this than trying to tear blankfist down. It's genuinely confusing to me for someone to seemingly believe something so strongly and not act on those feelings.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. My first teaching job was in a very rural part of the US. Word got out quickly to the principal that I didn't say the pledge of allegiance in the morning (I have a variety of reasons for this, but the main one is that I am an atheist and don't agree with the phrase "under god"). I was brought into the principal's office after his stooge assistant "stopped by" my room several days in a row before and after the announcements. He wanted to know why I wasn't saying it and the conversation was respectful but went something like:

"Well, I choose not to, and I make sure everyone, including myself, is respectful during that time of the day, but I make it clear to the students that they don't have to as well."
"But don't you think you're setting a bad example for the students?"
"Well, no...? (at this point I knew they basically wanted me to just fall in)"

Long story short, at the end of the year, my job no longer existed. They moved the journalism teacher to another building and my position went from Eng teacher to Eng/Journalism teacher (I don't have a journalism license). Since I didn't have a license for that, I couldn't stay. :-/

It was hard to deal with, impossible to prove, but I'm better off 7 years into my career not being surrounded by those people anyway. They REALLY wanted me to just say the pledge, but it wasn't in my job description that I had to say the pledge every morning, and today, I'm happy to be in an inner city school with a more diverse and understanding population where I don't have to.

That's one BIG example from my life, and I'm no Thoreau, but neither is Blankfist. Now if he would just admit it.

Grover Norquist and Connie Mack, former U.S. Representative for Florida's 14th congressional district (R).

And yes. One of my favorite bits in this, their reactions. It's the same face I make when I think about Norquist's no tax pledge, which Mack signed. Exactly the same. Followed by screaming.

I've pledged way too much money.

But my Retaliator is gonna be SWEEEEEEET.
(I'm sure it will be. Still don't know what it looks like)

Defending the poor is all well and good but that costs money too. If the poor aren't contributing to the economy, who ends up being penalized here? The inherent problem here is with irresponsible people. People who have children when they don't have enough money to support them. It seems like such a simple consideration yet so few seem to heed it. Don't start a family unless you have a steady and secure job that can support one. Think of the long-term expenses that a family entails, save your money whenever possible and make safe investments. If people did all this, both poverty and crime would decrease significantly.

Also, the pledge of allegiance is ridiculously antiquated. What exactly is it supposed to accomplish? Loyalty to the nation? When kids only regurgitate it as a matter of routine at the start of the school day, it holds no meaning. It's not like religion which is ingrained through constant reinforcement and conditioning both at home and in church.

"Chevrolet has pledged to donate 1.5 million One World Futbols over three years"

You did but it's ok, those kids aren't going to buy Chevrolet's any time soon, that's advertising for the people who buy a ball to send a ball.

VGHS season 2 was just successfully funded and is the biggest Kickstarter campaign ever:

10,613 Backers
$808,341 pledged of $636,010 goal

We dont have pledges down here in *Australia.
The best thing I can think of is a house warming party with a dressup theme...

The only words I can come up with are pledge prank?

What the hell? Your wife is mean!

Start a kickstarter. I will pledge $10.

Hamas is a terrorist organization which denies Israels right to exist and has pledged to annihilate Israel. To defend them is madness.

I am surrounded by them too and I agree. They seem to be doubling down. Despite the fact that the Republicans run against everything that Jesus taught, since Fox and their churches say to vote Republican they vote that way, and are convinced they are voting Christian values, and they see this (Obama's win, gay marriage and all that) as an attack against Christian values, and the country is suffering for turning its back on God by kicking him out of schools in the 50s (never mind that we added him to the pledge and our money and are still one of the most overtly open politically Christian nations in the world). I think we'll see them get more and more crazy, and if the Republican party were smart they would kick the Tea Party out, they'll lose Fox, Rush and the Koch brothers money, but they gain more credibility and be able to win again, and the Tea Party becomes, sadly for most Americans, the first 3rd party that might get enough votes to get the much sought matching funds... because when the government gives money to you it is good, but when they give it to the working poor that is bad...

>> ^Boise_Lib:

As someone who is surrounded by this everyday I have to say the madness will not stop.
Baggers are too entrenched for reality to have any effect at all.

Tired of that $2.6 Million Program that Teaches Chinese Prostitutes to Drink?

by John Ransom


Liberty is about a lot of things; it’s a deep topic. But at its core liberty can be summed up in one simple and reciprocal concept. That concept is respect.

You know the 2010 last election was about many things, but it was mostly about respect.

It was about starting to restore the respect that people have in government, by getting the government to restore the respect that they show to you…by taking liberty seriously.

If you are like me, you think that many of our elected officials from both the right and the left truly believe that what they think of you is much more important than what you think of them.

If you’re like me you’re tired of a trillion dollars in so-called stimulus spending that went to mob-connected asphalt contractors rather than the pockets of working families who own businesses and pay taxes and do all the working and dreaming in this country.

If you’re like me, you’re tired of a $2.6 million program that teaches Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly while unemployment soars across the country.

If you’re like me, you're tired of an arrogant federal government which pays out $47 billion in fraudulent claims in Medicare every year while they lecture the rest of us about healthcare economics.

If you are like me, you’re tired of the US Postal service wasting $30 million on a program that pays 1100 employees to do nothing. Yes, today, the US Post Office sat 1100 employees in empty rooms, as they do every day, and literally paid them to do nothing. They can’t play cards; they can’t watch TV, in fact they can’t do anything at all. To the tune of $30 million per year.


Yet this very same federal government comes to us now and proposes to manage our healthcare, our retirement, the education of our children, the auto industry, the oil industry, pharmaceuticals, the mortgage industry and lectures the American people that they are under-regulated.

If you’re a middle American like me, from the grassroots, I bet you know someone who owns their own business; if you’re like me you probably know someone who has paid employees of that business on time every week, but hasn’t been able to pay themselves a dime. Yet these very same people who provide half the new jobs in our economy, who have lost money over the last few years, still owe the government tens of thousands of dollars in taxes every year. People wonder where our jobs have gone? They’ve been crushed by a system that doesn’t honor job creation; by a system that doesn’t honor liberty; a system that gives no respect.

And if you are like most of the voters I speak to, you are tired of insiders from Washington and Wall Street on both sides of the aisle, and their wasteful spending schemes that don’t even propose to solve the very issues facing Main Street and working families.

Let’s suppose global warming is real; I don’t think it is, but let’s say it's so for the sake of argument. Show me please how the Renewable Electricity Standard-- which will cost American families $1800 per year-- please show me how it’s going to lower the earth’s temperature. They can’t because the Renewable Electricity Standard wasn’t created to combat global warming and it won’t lower the earth’s temperature.

Ok, so let’s suppose the issue is carbon emission; that carbon is really bad and we have to get it out of our atmosphere. Show me please how the Renewable Electricity Standard is going to reduce the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. They can’t. It wasn’t designed to do that and it won’t do that.

The government doesn't write legislation with solutions in mind, but rather with power and control of your very lives. And it is inside of your lives where you will wrestle back that control.

I’m often reminded that it’s with readers just like you where many of the seminal events of our country happened. It’s in rooms just like you’re in right now that a small group of patriots in Massachusetts planned the Boston Tea Party; it’s in groups just like you are a part of today that was born the Mayflower Compact; it’s in the free association of our citizens, for the common good and with common respect, that the greatness and goodness of our country will always be found.

And as long as people like you, freely associate for the common good and meet in respect, our country will always remain both great and good.

But ordinary people are paying attention, actually reading the Constitution; people are actually asking questions about the 10th Amendment, asking: What kind of power does Washington really have over us?

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough people who have been awakened to that yet, that’s why readers like you are so important. Each individual reading this is so incredibly important because the job you have this year as a citizen has never, ever, ever been more important. The 2012 election is going to determine what it’s like to live in this country for a long time. It’s going to be people just like you, having conversation just like this, in rooms across America that are going to make a difference.

This is the chance to turn the tide. The chance we have today is to bury that last vestiges of big government in our country; to reclaim our liberty from a new deal and replace it with a true deal.

I’ve been very fortunate because over the last half dozen years I’ve been able to travel all around the country working with grassroots activists just like you. I understand, I think, better than elected officials, what makes the grassroots so special. It's you and your ability to communicate.

We have all these new tools available for citizens to communicate that just a few years ago we didn’t have. A few years ago readers wouldn’t have been as energized and as informed because we didn’t have the ability to communicate as we do now. We have been so fractured and fragmented all around the country and around the nation that we feel like we can’t do anything, that Washington is so big and out of touch that we can’t do anything.

In fact, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Now is the time we really do have the opportunity. For the first time in our history ordinary citizens have the ability to communicate with one another over the heads of the media in publications like Townhall. We are networked on social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter that expose us to thousands of people for free.

But when I was growing up there were three TV stations and two newspapers in every town that decided what the news was. There were probably a dozen people in any town that picked our news for us.

Those days are over.

This election isn’t about voting for the next person standing in a long line of elites who will rule over us; it’s about what kind of country we want to be in the future.

It’s about preserving the American dream right here right now. Because when they mess with our liberty, they really mess with our ability to dream.

I believe that the ability to dream is worth handing down to our kids.

I believe that it’s our dreams that makes us the most dynamic country in the world.

It’s the dream that brings jobs and prosperity to the US.

It’s a dream that treats promises like they really matter.

And it’s the dreams that are the promise of America.

Because when politicians treat the promises they campaign on like they matter, when they are held accountable to those pledges-- by us-- we will restore the respect they owe us.

Yeah, whatever happened to trying to emulate Ultima Online instead of WoW? Seriously! WAKE THE FUCK UP!

If someone came out with an updated game that allowed me to go into town kill some fuck for his ships deed and then take my new ship full of stolen weapons and sail it down the coast to fuel a war on some island it would make shit loads of money!

Or just make a house and sit in baking bread and making furniture....

>> ^luxury_pie:

>> ^ChaosEngine:
>> ^spoco2:
Then I start hearing him talking about people getting paid by other players for their starship designs, and look at the pledge amounts and see they come with certain credits and start thinking 'Fucking hell, another fucking game that has in game purchases'.
You know, I heard that and I thought "finally, my childhood dream of making a living designing cool spaceships could be realised! "
I genuinely don't have a problem with that unless it becomes a "pay to win" scenario. In which case I'll stick to the single player campaign. Apparently, some people are making pretty good money designing stuff for TF2 and I think that's awesome.
aside from the minor problems of my complete and utter lack of artistic ability, design skills and 3d modelling know-how

TF2 is exactly the game to bring up on this topic. As long as Mr. Roberts sticks to this "no pay-to-win" rule. It's going to be fine. Let me shut my eyes and believe already
And I've been waiting for a dynamic MMO where players design/ have an impact on the environment in which they play.

>> ^ChaosEngine:

>> ^spoco2:
Then I start hearing him talking about people getting paid by other players for their starship designs, and look at the pledge amounts and see they come with certain credits and start thinking 'Fucking hell, another fucking game that has in game purchases'.
You know, I heard that and I thought "finally, my childhood dream of making a living designing cool spaceships could be realised! "
I genuinely don't have a problem with that unless it becomes a "pay to win" scenario. In which case I'll stick to the single player campaign. Apparently, some people are making pretty good money designing stuff for TF2 and I think that's awesome.
aside from the minor problems of my complete and utter lack of artistic ability, design skills and 3d modelling know-how


TF2 is exactly the game to bring up on this topic. As long as Mr. Roberts sticks to this "no pay-to-win" rule. It's going to be fine. Let me shut my eyes and believe already

And I've been waiting for a dynamic MMO where players design/ have an impact on the environment in which they play.