We have first raised a dust, and then complain we cannot see.
- George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge
- George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge
I'm Growing older but not up.
- Jimmy Buffet
- Jimmy Buffet
So, what I'd really like is a new label. And I'm sure there are a lot of people who feel the same way. We are the Republican Party Reptiles. We look like Republicans, and think like conservatives, but we drive a lot faster and keep vibrators and baby oil and a video camera behind the stack of sweaters on the bedroom closet shelf. I think...
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michael_desade:
FYI, SG Conservatives is an official group now
michael_desade:
welcome
The main advantage of being famous is that when you bore people at dinner parties they think it is their fault.
- Henry Kissinger, 1995
- Henry Kissinger, 1995
Thought:
Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad name.
- Henry Kissinger, 1978
Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad name.
- Henry Kissinger, 1978
gramsci:
Yeah and Kissinger was one of them 
I wouldn't want you to miss my reply to your post before, so here it is:
Whoa! Youre really hitting the big questions!
Ok, its doubtful Im going to break your habit of God belief, so Ill just give you my point of view and you can take it from there.
Firstly there is no such thing as absolute rights. Rights are entirely manmade social contacts. The very idea of universal human rights is a very recent one. It was only ever put on paper in 1948 in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Even the US Bill of Rights was an entirely subjective document. It didnt even apply to a sector of your society that you had previously enslaved a few hundred years earlier until the 1960s. Prior to that is didnt apply to women, or those that didnt own land.
In the past the main connection between God and rights was that of the divine right to rule.
If you where to discuss natural rights, that would be the closest thing to an absolute right. The whole idea of human rights generally started during the enlightenment in Europe. As people shook off the concept of God and started to think rationally, they began to question authority in every sphere of society; relationship between servant and master, men and women, the church and state. Most of the rights that you have today are in spite of God, not because of God.
In political science we separate Rights into two groups; first is Positive Rights, the right to something, i.e. life, freedom, a fair trial, work etc. The second is Negative Rights, the right from something, servitude, violence, detention without trial.
But a right means nothing without society and the rule of law to back them up. Enforcement comes through the threat of State violence, not divine retribution, and since the State has a legal monopoly on violence, rights can only be enforced via a society.
Something off the point:
How can a Republican be a Christian? It makes no sense to me at all. Christianity and the teachings of Jesus are inherently, if not overtly, communist and at the least socialist. The New Testament teaches shared ownership, compassion and to each according to need. Christianity and even mildly rightwing Republicanism are completely at odds with each other in so many ways. Ask yourself if you think Jesus would be a Republican? I very much doubt it...
I wouldn't want you to miss my reply to your post before, so here it is:
Whoa! Youre really hitting the big questions!
Ok, its doubtful Im going to break your habit of God belief, so Ill just give you my point of view and you can take it from there.
Firstly there is no such thing as absolute rights. Rights are entirely manmade social contacts. The very idea of universal human rights is a very recent one. It was only ever put on paper in 1948 in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Even the US Bill of Rights was an entirely subjective document. It didnt even apply to a sector of your society that you had previously enslaved a few hundred years earlier until the 1960s. Prior to that is didnt apply to women, or those that didnt own land.
In the past the main connection between God and rights was that of the divine right to rule.
If you where to discuss natural rights, that would be the closest thing to an absolute right. The whole idea of human rights generally started during the enlightenment in Europe. As people shook off the concept of God and started to think rationally, they began to question authority in every sphere of society; relationship between servant and master, men and women, the church and state. Most of the rights that you have today are in spite of God, not because of God.
In political science we separate Rights into two groups; first is Positive Rights, the right to something, i.e. life, freedom, a fair trial, work etc. The second is Negative Rights, the right from something, servitude, violence, detention without trial.
But a right means nothing without society and the rule of law to back them up. Enforcement comes through the threat of State violence, not divine retribution, and since the State has a legal monopoly on violence, rights can only be enforced via a society.
Something off the point:
How can a Republican be a Christian? It makes no sense to me at all. Christianity and the teachings of Jesus are inherently, if not overtly, communist and at the least socialist. The New Testament teaches shared ownership, compassion and to each according to need. Christianity and even mildly rightwing Republicanism are completely at odds with each other in so many ways. Ask yourself if you think Jesus would be a Republican? I very much doubt it...
Thought:
We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate government.
- Alexander Hamilton, Debates of the Federal Convention, 26 June 1787
We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate government.
- Alexander Hamilton, Debates of the Federal Convention, 26 June 1787
Thought:
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
- Ronald Reagan, March 1977
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
- Ronald Reagan, March 1977
"High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings:
Sunward I ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence: hovring there,
Ive chased the shouting wind along, and flung...
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Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings:
Sunward I ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence: hovring there,
Ive chased the shouting wind along, and flung...
Read More
Thought:
I would remind you that extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!
- Barry Goldwater, Speech Accepting the Republican Presidential Nomination, July 16, 1964
I would remind you that extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!
- Barry Goldwater, Speech Accepting the Republican Presidential Nomination, July 16, 1964
egon:
I have to wonder what you're studying in grad school, as you have well though out political beliefs. I must say tho, that I envy you being in tampa right now. I did my undergrad over in orlando. Even tho 9 months out of the year, I wouldn't trade the delaware valley weather for anything, I do miss those florida winters.
It's funny how you would consider yourself an ultra liberal republican, with almost the same definitian that I would use to describe myself as a fiscally conservative democrat. I think that sometimes it is the issues that concern us the most (for me, it is equal rights for homosexuals, privacy rights, and a true reform of primary education that could actually eliminate the need for affirmative action by actually getting everyone up to the same level before college) that define our party affiliation.
Enjoyed talking in the SOU thread
It's funny how you would consider yourself an ultra liberal republican, with almost the same definitian that I would use to describe myself as a fiscally conservative democrat. I think that sometimes it is the issues that concern us the most (for me, it is equal rights for homosexuals, privacy rights, and a true reform of primary education that could actually eliminate the need for affirmative action by actually getting everyone up to the same level before college) that define our party affiliation.
Enjoyed talking in the SOU thread
Thought:
There is a great difference between the idols of the human mind and the ideas of the divine, that is to say, between certain empty dogmas, and the true signatures and marks set upon the worlds of creation as they are found in nature.
- Francis Bacon, New Organon (1620)
There is a great difference between the idols of the human mind and the ideas of the divine, that is to say, between certain empty dogmas, and the true signatures and marks set upon the worlds of creation as they are found in nature.
- Francis Bacon, New Organon (1620)