More on open- (or closed-) mindedness

It makes no difference to me if my next-door neighbors are male/female, male/male, female/female. If they love each other and want to commit for a lifetime, why shouldn't they get married?

I do not see what possible impact the marriage of same-sex couples could have on male/female marriage. (And before you go "quoting" the Bible on me, be sure you want to abide by all those other things that are abominations. Like seafood.)

Look inside yourself & see if you can find any real reason to be opposed.

With all due respect to Shakespeare ...

... the more pertinent question is "How ought we live?" That's the question all us political philosophers like to debate.

Today I'm thinking about the current talking-heads noise over Paul Ryan's budget plan and it's implications to Medicare. Lots of opinions on that these past couple of weeks. So I come to the question (of the day): do you want to live in a society that takes care of its people, or just leaves them to their own devices? Although I love political debate and welcome all comments, I ask only that you look inside yourself for the answers. Do we want a government that ignores those less fortunate than us? (In this instance that would refer to those that would have no access to health insurance if Medicare became a voucher system.)

Never being one to keep my opinion to myself ... the idea of "each man for himself" makes me think of corrupt countries with corrupt dictators who show no mercy to those who are unable to take care of themselves. Those dictators do not care if their fellow countrymen are suffering as long as they can continue to be in power and live in the lap of luxury. Besides - seems to me that the good ol' U.S. of A. will come in and provide for the suffering. So why are we against helping our own?

Is the system broken? Hell yes. Any system that has been around long enough gets its share of bad apples. But it seems to me that saying we should turn it into a voucher system does nothing to fix the "brokenness"; it's kind of like saying we should all be in jail because some people commit crimes. Maybe if we had socialized medicine ....... just saying.

Dialing down the vitriol by looking inside ourselves

A couple of days ago I read a story about a 16-year old being threatened with rape for daring to criticize Michele Bachmann. (see story here:

http://www.politicususa.com/en/sophomore-threatened-with-rape-for-criticisms-of-michele-bachmann )

I'm not naive about the level of vitriol in our political discourse but I am now way beyond disgusted. Can you imagine the hate it takes to threaten a 16-year old?

I make no secret of being a liberal and no secret that I therefor disagree with a lot (but not all) of the politics of the conservatives. I wish them no harm, however!

Something about Barack Obama has really set off the right, though. There was the Birther issue (now resolved by the publishing of the long-form birth certificate, although there are those that still will remain unconvinced), the "czar" issue (as if this president were the first to appoint a "czar"; he was not. President Reagan created the first drug czar, by the way (although this still was not the first time the term "czar" was used)), and, for many, anything that comes out of Obama's mouth.

The Obama-haters should, in fact, look at the similarities between our current President and President Reagan (who is a demi-god - or maybe just a god - to the right). Many of Obama's ideas echo those of Reagan (leading this liberal to wonder if Obama is a secret Republican :-). So here's my question of the day: do you disagree with the ideas of Mr. Obama, or do you just disagree because it's Obama? Did you disagree when a Republican president proposed the same idea?

In my own small attempt to put some of this vitriol back in the box, I would ask you to look inside yourself and see why you disagree with Obama's ideas. If it's because you have an intense dislike for him, fine: at least admit it to yourself. But if you dislike the idea because of the idea itself, ask yourself if you disliked the idea when a Republican presented it. At least be honest with yourself. I know not everyone can look into themselves this way but I hope at least some of you will try. Maybe then the future voters will not learn to be afraid of voicing their opinions.