(tabs) wrote:

KevinP (Stabby McShankyou) wrote:All this harping on smoking. Rodimus...aren't you overweight?

eating or not exercizing, whichever you do too much of or too little of, is your choice. shut up about smoking. i don't like looking at fat people.

exactly! you weild a double-edged sword when you tell other people they shouldnt do something.

i dont smoke, but i sure as hell support anyone that wants to. its completely their choice if they want to poison their body--no one else's. the government should never have a say on how you live your life or what you put into your body.

I find that I only smoke after liberal amounts of alcohol. However after working in shop environments for as many years as I have the occasional cigarette is not going to do any more damage than has already been done. I know it isnt good for me and dont really care when I do have one. As you said Ben, it is MY choice.

Based on many things I have seen the so beloved democrats are responsible for many of our relaxed imigration laws along with many other useless laws and regulations that hamper rights and freedoms of US citizens.

Quote:

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) - An Iowa woman has been arrested because she failed to return a library book.
Thirty-nine-year-old Shelly Koontz was arrested Thursday night on a fifth-degree theft charge. She is accused of keeping "The Freedom Writers Diary," which she checked out from the public library in nearby Jesup in April.

Police say the book—which is about a high school teacher's effort to inspire students to write—is valued at $13.95.

Court records show library employees tried repeatedly to contact Koontz by phone and mail. A police officer even visited her home last September.

Officials at the Buchanan County jail say Koontz was released after posting $250 bond. No telephone listing for Koontz could be found in the Independence area.

I'm sure there's more to it than the article lets on, but it still ticks me off. Yes, she was being a class A, Type 1 jerk, but come on! She checked it out in April and the cops were at her house in September? May, June, July, August... 4 months? Libraries usually lend you a book for 3 months or so, which means they began harrassing her immediately and sent the cops a month later.

Granted, I'm annoyed when people don't return stuff too, but this is taking things to a psychotic, vengeful level.

Quiklilcav wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:...As far as immigration, Bush is the one that wanted to let them work here and not kick them out

As I've said in many posts, he's become pretty liberal over the past few years, and it drives me nuts.

This is not an example of Bush being Liberal so much, as it is with him ALWAYS putting the wants of Corporate America first and foremost. That fact has been constant across both his terms so it isn't shocking. Corporate America wants illegal immigrants because they want cheap, easily exploitable labor - if not for themselves then for the company ahead of them in the supply chain (so that lower prices get passed on to them). Of course some companies don't care either way because they already have exported those jobs to China.

Most all of his major policies have had Corporate America's interests at heart all along. The out of control spending(before factoring in the Iraq war - also quite possibly started for corporate interest) is proof enough of this - he was NEVER a fiscal conservative nor a small government conservative(despite his 2000 election talk). And of course the vast majority of his tax cuts where to corporations.

Bush did not change in his second term at all - he "stayed the course" throughout his presidency. It just took some of you until late in his second term to see the forest through the trees. Probably the only thing that did change somewhat in his second term was the media's coverage (both the MSM and conservative media) of his administration. People have been too focused on the "us vs them" nonsense that they mainly look for flaws in "them" while purposely ignoring the flaws of their own guy. Surely you see this flaw in the Democrats who (just for example) defend Clinton tooth and nail?! But you are foolish indeed if you can't see that you suffer from this flaw as well. Its pretty evident in many of you.

It is this logical flaw that has caused you to avert your eyes to Bush's shortcomings for so long... so long that you actually think his style of governing has changed. You would have noticed his shortcomings MUCH sooner if he had done nothing different, but instead had a (D) in front of his name, and the Democrats would have been the ones blindly defending him for years(NO, I do not think for one split-second that the Democrats are smarter than this).

separate thought wrote:

As for the illegal immigration debate - I don't really want them here, but they are here now. Securing our borders is just about the best we can (AND SHOULD) do... realistically. The ones who are here... well they are here now. Its not realistic to actually manage to round them up and ship them out. It sounds WAY easier than it really is. Sure we could eject some of the obvious ones though, all be it we will face enormous resistance from our "corporate masters" if we made a serious effort to do so. And if you actually - against all odds - managed to succeed, then there are problems that will arise from that as well.

First off, prices on many things - ESPECIALLY food prices - will skyrocket. If you think that high labor cost are hurting GM, just consider that the same law applies to the food industry too - alot of that is currently worked by people making near-slave labor wages. Think about it. Second, there will be a critical shortage of labor willing to work the @!#$tiest jobs in America. Sure, more jobs available sounds nice for the job market, but do you really want to get paid minimum wage to clean cow brains off of the slaughterhouse floor...? I don't either. I'm not much more fond of the notion of working all day out in the field picking carrots, beans, and whatever either. Third, while they might send some of their earnings to Mexico(which I still like better than the alternative which is sending it to China by importing the jobs there), they have to spend at least some of that money here on the necessities. Just imagine how much more the already hurting real estate market is gonna be hurt by that many vacancies all at once...

In short, removing them at this point(which again, is much easier said than done) will magnify the current recession many times over. It would be an economic disaster that might just put us back to conditions not seen since the 1930's. Again I don't like them coming here illegally and abusing our safety net either, but they are at this point a necessary evil.

As far as a path to citizenship goes, asking them to pay taxes first is a catch 22 - since they can't legally work here anyways, payroll tax isn't taken out under the table. And even if they reported their income (and therefore had to explain that they are illegal aliens) - well they might as well call INS directly. But I don't support blanket amnesty. I think if they say they love this country enough that they want to be a citizen, let them prove it... with a m16. Let them enlist for 5-8 years, fight and possibly die for this country, defend our freedoms and earn their citizenship. For those who aren't willing to fight to protect the way of life they are currently illegally enjoying... well @!#$ them - let them stay illegals. Our armed forces are shorthanded as is, so that is another benefit. Also, non citizen soldiers get reduced access to privileged information, no signing bonuses, and should be paid less than regular soldiers until they become citizens - and obviously they would be paying taxes on that.

bk3k i would have to disagree with you since you say they should get a pay cut in military service. by signing the paper that is enough proof. to serve. to get a paycut is wrong. for the same service that a Citizen is serving. What makes them so different? most of the enlisted come right out of high school with no previous work record. what have they put in for this country. Other than your Tax dollars on education that in most states has failed. Unless your a Native American were all foreigners but our birth here makes us Americans. So now we have to act so different to those that want the same opportunity as our ancestors? Yeah times get tough and this terrorism that we greatly fear is enough to block our borders. I agree that we should check who comes in and out, but it is wrong to discriminate. From what i see most illegal immigrants come here hard working, but do to some laws its very difficult for them to claim taxes. yes some steal social securities to work and they don't collect the money for the fear of getting caught. I do not know any illegals that come to America to leech of the benefits. you know maybe there are some like that, but not all are.

Knoxfire wrote:Want to ruin a greenies day? Tell them that you support outlawing airports and air travel. Hey, 30% of air pollution is caused by planes and the pollution they DO cause is much worse because they damage the upper athmosphere.
Maybe we all should start a "Stay Home and race your car." campaign?

Hell yeah! I don't travel on planes, but for a completely different reason (engineering classes can bring things to light).

Knoxfire wrote:It's not anything specific, more like a creeping mindset that I've noticed. It starts with making rules upon rules, then about sticking to those rules mindlessly. Then they make up a cute little motto like: ZERO TOLERANCE Sounds good when talking about drug dealers and murderers, but now they're doing stuff like arresting kids who have a hunting knife in their dad's 4x4 that they drove to school. And then when the rules don't work, because they're so godd*mn mindless, they just make more rules.
...
But it's just this sort of bureaucratic nagging that irks me the most. I know it's everywhere now, but dammit... what happened to judging every case differently?

I remember a story where a school was trying to expel a student for having a box cutter in his car (parked in the school parking lot). He worked at a grocery store and wasn't allowed to leave it at work. Punishing a kid for being responsible and having a job...burn him at the stake!!!

bk3k wrote:I wear my seat belt because its the smart thing to do, @!#$ the IL law requiring it. If I wanted to take additional risk to myself, that should be my choice. I have never heard of anyone dying because SOMEONE ELSE wasn't wearing their seat belt. With that condition gone, there is no reason to have such a law.

Agreed 100%, let Darwin take over.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Your comparing apples and oranges, speed limits do not have anywhere near the impact on our health care situation that smoking does. When your doing something that begins to cripple the nation there comes a point where freedom doesnt justify stupidity. Our health care costs are completely out of control and while smokers arent the primary cause they are a good amount of the reason.

Better start outlawing McDonald's...

Rodimus Prime wrote:Smoking has zero benefits.

The money brought in through taxes helps out a bit.

M-1 Erma Jean wrote:Don't forget how malpractice insurance is out the ass.

Nail, meet hammer.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Thank the lawyers for a sue happy society and the even worse spineless judges that let it go on.

Juries. Blame your peers.

Quiklilcav wrote:The last aspect of immigration that needs to be done away with is that you should not be entitlled to everything a normal citizen is entitled to until you've been here, working, paying taxes, for at least 5 years. No unemployment, no welfare, no food stamps, no free medical care. It's enfuriating that people who come here legally can start getting hand outs right away. This is the kind of stuff that increases costs for everyone.

Also, if you have been a US citizen for less than 5 years, and you are convicted of a crime, your citizenship should be revoked, and you get deported, not put in our jails that cost our tax payers.

We're not going to agree on much regarding immigration, but I think we've found some common ground here. However, I'd change '5' to '1', and 'crime' to 'felony/tax evasion' .

bk3k wrote:The ones who are here... well they are here now. Its not realistic to actually manage to round them up and ship them out. It sounds WAY easier than it really is.

Our esteemed Sheriff Arpaio has spent countless man-hours and tax dollars doing just that, such a waste. I'd much rather see that put to use catching our serial rapists.

TOYOTA 24 S wrote:Unless your a Native American were all foreigners but our birth here makes us Americans. So now we have to act so different to those that want the same opportunity as our ancestors?

You don't understand. If the Mexicans all came at once, guns blazing, THAT would be acceptable.




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