Summations Only

Hey CS, it's no longer Halloween already....

Congratulations on helping make it a clean sweep of the fact that wherever Mitt Romney chose to spend time in the USA (Michigan, Massachusetts, California or New Hampshire) that NONE of them liked him enough. They all went Obama.

Well, as caffeine pointed out, that's not what's happening.What has happened is that the right has continuously shifted the goalposts to the extent that if I suggested that we should have the same top tax rate as we had under Nixon, I would be a Marxist Class Warrior, whereas back then I would have been a staunch conservative.Same with Obamacare. When Newt Gingrich advocated it, it was a conservative solution. When Mitt Romney implemented it, it was the sensible compromise of a moderate. By the time Obama got round to implementing it it was a socialist solution that involved "nationalizing our bodies" and Death Panels!!! and would Destroy America!!!The nation has hardly moved towards "Bread And Circuses", nor towards the left except socially (i.e. they now hate gay people less, hooray). However, conservatives have moved so far right that they are now condemning as "Bread And Circuses" (and the consequent destruction of the Republic) the same things that were once the planks of their own manifesto.Also, this is fucking stupid: If Heinlein thought that the Roman Empire was a democracy, he was an idiot. But if he knew that it wasn't, and still used this as his historical analogy --- then he was still an idiot.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

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And on a side note, Colorado just brought tears to my eyes legalizing recreational use of marijuana.

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Yet another reason to look me up when you come to Denver. I'll even let you blast the gangsta rap!

Coyote - first, thank you for being so civilized. I am used to a far fouler discourse elsewhere on these internets and I am always appreciative of your calm and measured posts. You are a valuable elder from my rookie's viewpoint. And, of course, your scientific background in this group has been extremely good. But.... Maggie had it wrong. The possible trouble she imagines that could happen with socialism is not running out of "other" people's money. It's running out of "our own" money. It's a difference of perspective.Currently there seem to be 2 extreme camps:1. This country should maximize the opportunity for everyone to live as comfortable a life as possible, even if it means that a few individuals may not be able to acquire an incredible amount of wealth. This has been stated as "We're ALL in it together." which is an exaggeration.2. This country should maximize the opportunity for a few individuals to acquire an incredible amount of wealth as possible, even if it means that not everyone will be able to live a comfortable life. This has been stated as "Every man for themselves." which is an exaggeration, of course.Please rephrase in your own terms, if you disagree.

Me?I am from Minnesota. And we've been doing the right thing for decades

Well in this case, the incumbents won both the electroral college and the popular vote.

Yea, I jumped the gun a bit and said that when The President was still behind on the popular vote.

Neither you or Heinlein know a damn thing about the history of Rome.Heinlein was a good science fiction writer. Nothing more.

The exact opposite has happened and is still happening. The top 1% have used their money to influence government so that they pay proportionally less in taxes now than ever before in the history of the nation. In an era where public schools go hungry for funds, where the poor suffer or die for lack of health care, where middle class couples require two wage earners to almost afford a house, where our infrastructure of roads and bridges rusts and erodes for lack of attention, Romney was poised to reduce the tax obligation of the rich yet again.There is both an evil and a cleverness in this greed that somehow garners so many of the votes of the poor and disenfranchised. These are the practices of those who hide in walled enclaves away from the poverty and mayhem of their own creation. Heinlein's words should be reformulated thus: --PercyEdited by Percy, : Grammar.

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For when the plebs discover that they can be tricked out of their own bread without limit then there shall be rebellion, and the plunderers in their castles shall find their barricaded doors and their usurped government to be no match for the ravages of the mob.

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Right on, bro...For those of you without signatures, you could do a lot worse than adopting this Percy quote.Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

I hear you. Looks like I jumped the gun on VA. My son held the fort.

Repeating something I said in another thread, I thought Romney was a good governor in Massachusetts. He tried to institute universal healthcare. But he became so enamored of the presidential office that he sacrificed his integrity and said (and probably believed) whatever was necessary to get elected. Like Caesar he succumbed to ambition.Look at this absurd electoral map: The red states have something very much in common. Here's a very interesting table I just put together. I started with a table of education rankings by state for math and science. States rated highly for education tended to vote Democratic in the presidential election. In fact, the top 8 states all went Democratic, while 10 of the last 12 states voted Republican: This evidence indicates a strong inverse correlation between the quality of education and vulnerability to being hornswoggled into voting against their own best interests.--PercyEdited by Percy, : Nevada was R, should have been D, fixed now.

"Rational libertarianism" - surely that's an oxymoron.

Typical pro-choice liberal nonsense I'd expect from a Gozerite, "You get to choose the form of your destroyer".C'thuhlu has had a consistent destruction of all mortals policy throughout his campaign: non-believers will be eaten first, believers will be eaten last. What's the motive for being a believer with Gozer?You have clear choice this time round, do you want your world destroyed by an androgynous 80s model opposed by slightly overweight New Yorkers, or a millenia old OCTOPUS-GOD opposed by sexually frustrated New Englanders?Remember the world can only be destroyed once.Edited by Son Goku, : Removed inter-dimensional tax cuts discussion and edited some typos.