FrankJL

1 or 2?

Poor pitty me...I can't think of anything to even add here. Life is going rather swimmingly for me now :)

Something else too...kinda expensive though.. Camelbaks...some units are issuing them now, as someone who has been on 3 deployments, I can tell you they are one of the best things you can have over there.

Either have thick skin or be able to delete threads, I've seen both methods employed here.

No of course not. Even if all the EVs did come together on the issue. The EVs have been steadily losing political clout since the 80s.

That would explain a lot

I don't really agree with this, I think many (if not most) of the EVs would go for an outright ban. I have even heard EVs refer to our church as a "liberal church" because our leaders have said abortion is ok in some (albeit rare) circumstances.

How so? and who defines immoral. If the vast majority of people think that abortion is immoral then the service would be outlawed and there would be no need for the service. Though this is starting to stray from economics into group dynamics and democracy vs theocracy. Looking at it from a political angle though, it has never really been an issue that motivates many voters, so I wouldn't expect to see too much movement on it. Especially seeing as it looks very likely the next two people running in the general presidential election will be pro-choice anyways.

That I don't know....the Arabic I learned was only a few key phrases like: get out of the road stop or i'll shoot you I don't have any more candy ect...

Who exactly defines what fair is though? The government or the marketplace? No matter what job you do, most people think they should be paid more, regardless of if your making 20k or 200k a year. \Our economies has been on a global scale for some time now, its called globalization. Tom Friedman has an excellent book on this "The Lexus and the Olive Tree", read it. Perhaps if logic will not work on older more mature people, it would only make sense to indoctrinate them when they are young and more malleable.Why stop there..here are some other great things we could teach our kids: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat, "Surplus Value" Economics Superstructures Historical Materialism Labor Vouchers Commodity fetishism I really don't know anyone that would not like a good nursing staff when they are in a hospital. Just because they get paid what the market demands for their job doesn't mean we don't like them. If we didn't need their services they wouldn't be in demand. While I don't know that exact time or circumstance which your father in law served, I know it is much different with military that retire now. My father just retired from 30years in the Army. His (and his families) health care is covered for the rest of his life with retirement benefits. It may have been different back then I don't know. Our military has come a long way in how it treats its soldiers, but there is still much work to be done. Seeing how flaws our VA health system is though, seems to me to serve more appropriately an argument against government run health care. It is interesting you speak of palliative care, then speak of dogs. I don't think a whole lot of palliative care goes into animals, they are just put down. I assume no matter how bad they treated him, he wasn't simply put down, so your comparison is specious at best.

Perhaps they have developed half of each one. Too smart by half?

PC I thought the saying was: If your young and not a liberal you don't have a heart If you old and not conservative you don't have a brain?

Actully "Allahu Akbar" is shortened form for "God is greater then everything"...and what we was told to look out for when the Iraqi's with big chests and skinny legs started to chant it.

That was an interesting site. He has a lot of well throughout articles on it.

I don't think so, IMO. For every one person that does commit suicide, there are many more with the same, or even much worse problems that chose to handle them in a more appropriate fashion. I think those that chose suicide are taking the easy and selfish way out. Selfish in that they are thinking too much of themselves to conceptualize how that choice will effect others.

Move to Cuba then. They don't care for capitalism either. After all hasn't Micheal Moore shown us all the wonders of Cuba's health care system ps...didn't you just say a few posts ago you are glad to pay higher taxes to support you NHS?

Basic economics. Supply and demand, scarcity of services.

Oh the sarcasm I hope thats sarcasm at least I know you deserve a better answer, but I need at least a few hours of sleep...Sacrament meeting starts in 3 hours So I'll have to take a rain check and delve into this tomorrow.

No I have not had any need for government programs, I have my own health insurance, and it has served me well so far. I have not even used any federal/state grants for school. I've paid my own way through school. Charity and benevolence is not the job of government, as stated by Madison in Federalist paper 43. I really do doubt that you would be homeless and dead if it wasn't for these programs. Charity does exist in this country (we give more to charities per capita then nearly any other country in the world). Specifically in reference to medical access, our government has become a major bottleneck in getting medical advances to the public to lower cost and improve effectiveness. Getting a new pill to market takes an average of 5 years and 250 million in funding, we have let China and France get ahead of us on advances from stem cell research because of a few religious zealots here, and doctors still need to pay 5 or 6 figure payments for malpractice insurance because of out of control ambulance chasing lawyers like John Edwards. Some may need the services, very few probably do though. Some better management of personal finances, and people coming to realize what are true priorities in life would do them a lot better then just getting sent a check every month, or waiting for the 15th for your "Access Card" (what PA uses for its EFT benefits) to be updated. As a joke my advisor (an Al Franken type liberal), thought it would be and "educational experience" for me to do one of my summer internships at the local welfare office, in hopes that I would see the hardships these people go through, and come about in my thinking. If anything this experience only bolstered my opinion that many are scamming the system, with the encouragement of the people that work there. For two weeks, day in and day out I watched the workers in there guide people into how to "correctly" (i.e fraudulently) fill out the forms. Once I even heard a lady tell a couple not to get married because they could collect more, if they each filed separately. Nearly everyone that came in had a cell phone. The cars in the client side of the parking lot looked better then the one in the employee section of the parking lot. So i did learn a lot from that little experience. Children are the responsibility of their parents, and that goes back to what I said earlier about personal priorities and responsibility. The choice to have children in itself is choice that the parentS (it does take two people to make a baby, so this is not just a woman's issue) make. If you know you are in an impoverished state and can't afford kids, then don't have kids. Don't use the excuse either that poor parents can't afford birth control, planned parenthood (a private organization) gives depo shots to poor women for free (or at least they do here in PA) If you do though, don't expect to burden others with the results of your choice. Children if anyone should not be worried, they are covered by so many programs its unreal, and we are adding another one now CHIPS, which defines children as being up to 25

Fortunately, we also do not live in a laissez faire system either. Many people think it would be a good thing. Many people would like to see complete nationalization of various private enterprises. I think both are wrong equally. Both are equally stupid. You want to flush those without the economic blessings you have down the toilet, continue supporting a philosophy that is anti-poor. Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of survival of the fittest-for animals. But when we have been commanded by the L-rd to throw off the natural man, that includes this kind of domination based thinking. Libertarianism is a elitist philosophy just as national socialism in the US has become. Both are wrong. Both are worth spurning as one would a pedophile or rapist. :)

If laissez faire and capitalism doesn't work, can you name me one (just one) country with a centrally planned economy that has a higher standard of living then we do? Google "rinkonomics" by Daniel Klein it will explain it for you. edit.. Directed at ogre, Elph you posted right as I was

Like the girl on the front of the old Everquest packages?

Involved with Alan Keyes, that does say a lot. I don't see how anyone could support that carpetbagger.

From you, that would be quite a compliment, so I'm going to take it as such. Elphaba What I do? (how do like that as an English major?) Remember I'm a libertarian so on political topics I can stir the pot from all angles. Take this oft repeated abortion debate. I'm clearly pro-choice, and for whomever said they want to smoke pot too, go for it I have nothing against that either. Libertarians are all about personal choice, so long as your choices do no harm to another's person or property. Then again, I would completely disagree with you on the need to fund all these silly programs that have very little positive results to speak. All FDR's "Great Deal" plan did was make sure that our nation would never get out of debt and provide incentives for slothful behavior. See us Libertarians also believe in a true smaller government. When we say limited government we mean real limited government, not the tripe that modern Republicans and quasi-Conservatives peddle. Medicare part d prescription plan, NCLB, Patriot Act, "guest" worker programs, FISA, etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseum. No wonder the old school real conservatives, like Thomas Sowell are dismayed at what the great political movement they founded has devolved into.