Palin steps down as governor of Alaska

[JLM]

"A joke is a joke is a joke and should generally be taken in that context. Since that joke is about people who are no longer around, nobody has been hurt by it and it gave me a laugh, so some good came out of it."

That is not the point, JLM.

This insensitive, crude "joke" is just as offensive to Christians as calling Martin LutherKing Jr. a N*g**r would be.

Or, according to your logic, would that be OK because MLK is dead?

Hey, we supposedly live in a free country, if one person has the right to choose his religion another person should have the right to choose his type of humour....don't you think?

 

[taxslave]

Two points to make:

1. Though I agree with what you say, yu too have misunderstood me. By intellectual in this context I was not limiting myself only to those with degrees, but any of the so-called intellectual working class, those blue-collar workers who do in fact have a brain on their shoulders, degree or no degree, the Tolstoys of the world if you will.

2. Our Ministries of Education are at least partially to blame for this. When was the last time your provincial Minister of Education had gone abroad to consult on establishing common curricula for various trades and professions? What? Are they too busy playing golf? In fact, when was the last time they consulted with the Ministires of Education of neighbouring provinces, let alone foreign ministries of education?

1)Many extremely smart people, especially in business do not have a high education. Same as many with degrees are not real bright or motivated, they simply had enough money to hang out in school for years because it beat getting a job. Recently we were discussing the lack of brains in truck drivers of which we have 9 or more around. Our accountant finally said that yes truck drivers do have a brain, the problem is that they share it and you never know which one has custody on any given day.

2) B.C. and Alberta are working hard to make trades certification and rules the same but as usual the unions are the biggest stumbling block. There is no real difference between unions and the so called professional organizations. They are there to protect their own not for the betterment of society as a whole.

 

[Cliffy]

What is the matter with all you people. All this jabber about Sarah and no hot pictures of her. You guys are really slipping. Get the lead out, eh!

http://www.jackbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/sarah-palin-vogue-magazine.jpg

 

[TenPenny]

Would it have mattered if she'd had a Master's degree from Harvard? After all, that's what Dubya had, and it didn't stop him from saying things like "Is our children learning?" and "Childrens do learn!" Seriously now, 'children' is already a double plural(normally not permissible in English grammar as it is), the first plural being the ending -er, followed by -en, contracted to -ren, and then Bush insists on making it a triple plural!8O

Oh, Harvard must be proud of him!

One can only assume that Ignatief was one of his profs.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Palin/Romney, Palin/ Paul, Palin/Thompson, Palin/Huckabee all sound good to me. The reason the dems put so much effort and money to find dirt on Palin is because they are scared of her. Anything they have dug up has been discredited.

But then aren’t’ all Democrats deathly afraid of all Republicans? That is the conservative argument anyway. During last campaign they claimed that Obama was deathly afraid of McCain.

Of course all the Democrats were deathly afraid of Bush. And let us not forget that Clinton was deathly afraid of Bush (whom he defeated in 1992), of Gingrich and of Dole (whom he defeated in 1996). Now they are all deathly afraid of Joan of Arc (and of Gingrich, Sanford, Romney etc.). It seems Democrats spend all their life being deathly afraid of all the Republicans.

If Democrats won such crushing victories while shaking in their boots, imagine how much more stupendous victories they will win if they stop being afraid. Now supposedly they Obama is deathly afraid of a second rate politician, a right wing extremist, who believes that universe was created 5000 years ago in six days and who has very high negatives among women. May be he is afraid that she will expose him as a Muslim terrorist, an illegal alien (all the right wing extremists know that he is a Muslim terrorist, the rest of the world hasn’t figured it out yet).

I bet you also think that Obama is deathly afraid of Sanford.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

A joke is a joke is a joke and should generally be taken in that context. Since that joke is about people who are no longer around, nobody has been hurt by it and it gave me a laugh, so some good came out of it.

JLM, my experience is that many religious people don’t have a sense of humour. I am an Atheist, but I a perfectly OK with somebody telling an Atheist joke. But people like Yukon are uptight when it comes to their religion.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

By the way, wha6t have you accomplished in your life? What punblic office havu evere been elected? What qualifies you to criticize people whose boots you are not worth to lick?

I beg your pardon, Yukon? What does that have t do with anything? Anybody has a right to criticize any politician. One doesn’t need any qualifications to criticize a politician, that is the privilege of democracy.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

SirJosephPorter, you often use the pejorative "poodle" about people whose views are different from yours.

Did you take your "poodle" - Machjo - for his/her walk today.

He/she will be lonely while you will be gone.

Have safe and enjoyable trip!

Are you for real, Yukon? I am a liberal, Machjo is a conservative, we rarely agree on anything. However, we can disagree and still be friends, a concept totally alien to many conservatives.

You think that anybody who is friendly towards me is my poodle, my lackey (I think JLM has also been accused of that). Well, I know this is a totally foreign concept to you (and to many conservatives here), but posters can disagree with each other and still be friendly towards each other.

I and Machjo usually are on opposite sides of the fence, but we never resort to personal insults, personal abuse and our discussion remains friendly. And that is what you cannot stand, that is your problem. To you, disagreement over issues means resorting to personal insults, personal abuse. So by implication anybody who does not insult me, abuses me is my poodle.

 

[Machjo]

One can only assume that Ignatief was one of his profs.

:lol:

That's a good one.

 

[Machjo]

Are you for real, Yukon? I am a liberal, Machjo is a conservative, we rarely agree on anything. However, we can disagree and still be friends, a concept totally alien to many conservatives.

You think that anybody who is friendly towards me is my poodle, my lackey (I think JLM has also been accused of that). Well, I know this is a totally foreign concept to you (and to many conservatives here), but posters can disagree with each other and still be friendly towards each other.

I and Machjo usually are on opposite sides of the fence, but we never resort to personal insults, personal abuse and our discussion remains friendly. And that is what you cannot stand, that is your problem. To you, disagreement over issues means resorting to personal insults, personal abuse. So by implication anybody who does not insult me, abuses me is my poodle.

Thanks for the compliments, though I'd be curious as to what kind of conservative you perceive me to be. Sure I agree with the Conservative Party on some points, but also disagree with it on others. I doubt many conservatives would consider me conservative. I get the impression that I'm more of a liberal's conservative and a conservative's liberal if you know what I mean.

Socially conservative: approve of death penalty for certain crimes, of defining life starting at conception, opposite-sex marriage only, etc. and adultery should be a fineable offense.

Socially liberal: Though I disagree with homosexual acts, I still think homosexuality itself should not be illegal as gays can't always decide their orientation, and certainly we need to educate people about not discriminating against gays in making friends with them, hiring, etc. Same with racism and religious prejudice, etc.

Universalist foreign policy: in favour of adopting, revising or creating a single official language for international communication as a common second language to be introduced in schools, in favour of incremental steps towards a decentralized non-partisan democratic world federation with a common citizenship, common military force to gradually replace national forces and a common currency, with due respect shown to the UN and international law in the mean time, in spite of all of its flaws. In fact, I'd likely defer to international law even if I disagreed with it. in the end, even a government must submit to higher laws just as citizens do.

Capitalistic domestic policy. By no means dogmatically capitalist, and would certainly agree that the government should provide universal compulsory education to all who can't afford it otherwise, with priority going to the education of girls since girls will be the mothers and first educators of the next generation if the funds are lacking for both, and all workers should give some fo their funds to a local school. I could also support requiring everyone to give a certain amount of their money to the poor, and government ensuring that all have the chance to learn a trade or profession.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Thanks for the compliments, though I'd be curious as to what kind of conservative you perceive me to be.

A self proclaimed conservative, Machjo. Didn’t you say that you took some quiz and came out to be more conservative than Colpy?

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Socially conservative: approve of death penalty for certain crimes, of defining life starting at conception, opposite-sex marriage only, etc. and adultery should be a fineable offense.

That definitely makes you a conservative Machjo. I am sure many conservatives would consider you to be one of them.

 

[Machjo]

Thanks for the compliments, though I'd be curious as to what kind of conservative you perceive me to be.

A self proclaimed conservative, Machjo. Didn’t you say that you took some quiz and came out to be more conservative than Colpy?

Ah yes, according to that quiz. As for my own opinion, I'd say that I'm conservative on some issues, more in my personal life than in my political views, but in my political views too to some degree.

 

[petros]

Who is funding all this?

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Socially liberal: Though I disagree with homosexual acts, I still think homosexuality itself should not be illegal as gays can't always decide their orientation, and certainly we need to educate people about not discriminating against gays in making friends with them, hiring, etc. Same with racism and religious prejudice, etc.

That is not a liberal position Machjo, that is a conservative position, in Canada anyway. The liberal position in Canada is to support gay marriage, which is also the mainstream position. The last poll I saw put support for gay marriage at 60%.

The conservative position in USA is to support discrimination against gays. In the Bible Belt they even want to recriminalize homosexuality (as soon as the Supreme Court would let them).

Perhaps your position may be considered socially liberal in USA, but certainty not in Canada.

 

[JLM]

Socially conservative: approve of death penalty for certain crimes, of defining life starting at conception, opposite-sex marriage only, etc. and adultery should be a fineable offense.

That definitely makes you a conservative Machjo. I am sure many conservatives would consider you to be one of them.

Here we go again!!!!! I'd dare say that if a Liberals grand daughter was murdered by a pedophile, he'd be in favour of the death penalty too. Conservatives think adultery should be a fineable offense........I doubt that very much, unless perhaps their coffers are getting a little low:lol::lol:

 

[Machjo]

Socially conservative: approve of death penalty for certain crimes, of defining life starting at conception, opposite-sex marriage only, etc. and adultery should be a fineable offense.

That definitely makes you a conservative Machjo. I am sure many conservatives would consider you to be one of them.

In fact, many self-described conservatives I've discussed the full range of my views with have been revulted by my ideas on foreign policy, sometimes even referring to me alternatively as either a communist, socialist, or anarchist. Many self-described conservatives are quite adamantly anti-UN, very pro-sovereingty, and in favour of a strong military, our own currency, and, at least among English-Canadians, quite revulted by the idea of proposing a planned language to replace English-language hegemony in the world. I, on the other hand, am ver pro-UN in spite of its flaws, believe decentralized world federation with more power given to local governments, in limited national sovereignty, overall gradual demilitarization through the sharing of a common world military force and a common world currency, or at least gradual, small, incremental steps in those directions. I don't see how this makes me fit into the majority Canadian conservative mold. The left would identify more easily with my foreign-policy views than the right, I'd guess, and even then, perhaps only the more extreme internationalist left, opposed to linguistic imperialism, in favour of putting a few money-brokers out of work, and overall demilitarization. I'd even be in favour of giving workers voting rights in businesses. Hardly conservative traits there.

The only areas where I'm more conservative wold be on issues of personal morality. That's a very narrow field of policy in which I might find myself in the conservative camp.

 

[Machjo]

Socially liberal: Though I disagree with homosexual acts, I still think homosexuality itself should not be illegal as gays can't always decide their orientation, and certainly we need to educate people about not discriminating against gays in making friends with them, hiring, etc. Same with racism and religious prejudice, etc.

That is not a liberal position Machjo, that is a conservative position, in Canada anyway. The liberal position in Canada is to support gay marriage, which is also the mainstream position. The last poll I saw put support for gay marriage at 60%.

The conservative position in USA is to support discrimination against gays. In the Bible Belt they even want to recriminalize homosexuality (as soon as the Supreme Court would let them).

Perhaps your position may be considered socially liberal in USA, but certainty not in Canada.

I'd agree with that overall. Bear in mind though that some conservatives would oppose even an acknowlegement that homosexuality may be beyond a person's control. And again, this falls within the narrow range of social conservatism only. This does not include the areas of foreign, military, and other policy areas.

 

[Machjo]

Conservatives think adultery should be a fineable offense........I doubt that very much, unless perhaps their coffers are getting a little low:lol::lol:

True enough. As far as moral issues go, I'd likely be more to the right of the Conservatives! On that front, SJP certainly has a point. I'm just disputing the general idea that one can be labelled a conservative on that narrow range of points alone. Honestly, I don't think my views are easily identifiable with any ideology, right or left, within Canadian politics. Ironically enough, though, I'd say few of my views are centrist. On the other hand, I have both right and left views, which I suppose might make me look centrist overall in appearance, on the surface. Only once analysed point by point does it show that I'm both right and left but not very centrist.

One possible description could be morally conservatives, domestically capitalistic, internationally progressive, universalistic, decentralist, free-trade moderate demilitarist. Then again, I'm sure many people don't fall into such a neat 'liberal'-conservative pidgeonhole, that being limited to die-hard partisans only, regardless of their political stripes.

 

[Machjo]

Socially liberal: Though I disagree with homosexual acts, I still think homosexuality itself should not be illegal as gays can't always decide their orientation, and certainly we need to educate people about not discriminating against gays in making friends with them, hiring, etc. Same with racism and religious prejudice, etc.

Sorry. Here I was referring specifically to the idea that gays might not be able to control their orientation. That specific point is more liberal, though at least some conservatives will acknowledge that too.