Go Back   I-Mockery Forum > I-Mockery Discussion Forums > Philosophy, Politics, and News
FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Brandon Brandon is offline
The Center Square
Brandon's Avatar
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Migrant worker
Brandon is probably a spambot
Old Feb 26th, 2004, 01:04 PM        A Culture War President
Bush Rouses The Sleeping Dogs Of The Culture War
Filed February 18, 2004

by Arianna Huffington

“I’m a war president,” George Bush told us.

But as the body count in Iraq continues to rise, the president’s approval rating plummets, and the furor over phantom WMD, sexed-up intel, and Bush’s spotty Air National Guard service refuses to go away, it appears Karl Rove is planning a small rewrite for his candidate: “I’m a culture war president.”

Remember that divisive pre-9/11 campaign staple? Well, it’s flared up again — with a vengeance and a rash of new administration actions clearly aimed at shoring up the president’s Christian conservative base.

In the last month, the president has traded in his too-tight flight suit for a revival tent, backing a new anti-obscenity crusade, anti-condom sex-ed programs, a renewed commitment to fighting the drug war, and his attorney general’s efforts to poke around the private medical records of women who’ve had abortions. He even hinted in his State of the Union that he’d be willing to endorse a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

With Silver Starred John Kerry threatening the president’s hold on the high ground of national defense, Team Bush has decided it’s time to switch battlefields and start screaming about Sodom and Gomorrah.

And who has time to talk about the 3 million jobs lost on Bush’s watch when gay couples are trying to make their lifetime commitment legal? Heaven forbid.

You would think the Christian right has more pressing matters to worry about. America now has 35 million people living in poverty, many of them working poor. And Christian conservatives are up in arms about gay marriage?

Maybe they should take another look at the Bible and its admonition that we shall be judged by what we do for the least among us. Indeed, if you removed every reference to poverty in the New Testament, the Good Book would be reduced to little more than a Not Bad Pamphlet. In the words of Rev. Jim Wallis, “The Prophets would be decimated, the Psalms destroyed, and the Gospels ripped to shreds.” On the other hand, there is not a single mention of gay marriage or the need to ban it.

Regrettably, this perversion of presidential priorities is not limited to campaign rhetoric — it extends to how our increasingly limited tax dollars are being spent. Take the administration’s new anti-obscenity push — a blast from our blue-nosed past. Bush’s 2005 budget calls for a boost in funding for government efforts to crack down on the adult entertainment industry — one of the precious few non-terror-related programs to garner a spending increase.

I kid you not: While the White House is cutting back on its housing budget, veterans’ benefits, and the National Institutes of Health, it’s opening up the coffers to make sure you have a harder time downloading the Paris Hilton sexcapade on the Net.

But that’s not even the worst of it. The Justice Department has recently assigned a team of FBI agents to focus exclusively on adult obscenity cases. That’s right, with the war on terror in full swing, our war president is going to have a group of G-men doing nothing but working the porn beat when they could be tracking down — oh, I don’t know — terrorist sleeper cells. Talk about your misguided allocation of manpower. I don’t know about you, but I certainly feel safer knowing the feds are going to be keeping close tabs on Jenna Jameson.

We see the same loopy sense of right and wrong being played out in the Janet Jackson firestorm. Less than two weeks after the shock and bra of the Super Bowl, Bush’s congressional cronies were already holding hearings on the matter. Compare that to the foot-dragging that followed 9/11. It took 14 months — and a candlelight vigil outside the White House by the victims’ family members — before the president finally relented and the 9/11 Commission was created. Now that’s indecent.

For the moral relativists in the Bush administration, the definition of sin seems to depend on whether the sinner can further their political purposes.

So Justin exposing Janet's boob is a sin, but White House staffers exposing Valerie Plame is a win. Profiting from porno is a sin, but Halliburton’s wartime profiteering is a win. Two men getting hitched is a sin, but Cheney and Scalia shacking up in a duck blind is a win. Telling students condoms can prevent STDs is a sin, but lying about WMD is a win. And so, apparently, is GOP staffers hacking into Senate computers and Tom DeLay illegally funneling corporate money to Texas politicians.

The president’s culture war is little more than breasts and circuses. Election-year weapons of mass distraction. Hail to the Panderer-in-Chief.

ariannaonline.com
Reply With Quote
  #2  
mburbank mburbank is offline
The Moxie Nerve Food Tonic
mburbank's Avatar
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: right behind you
mburbank has disabled reputation
Old Feb 26th, 2004, 01:28 PM       
Well, Jeeze, if you put it all that way it comes out sounding bad.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
The One and Only... The One and Only... is offline
Mocker
The One and Only...'s Avatar
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Harlem
The One and Only... is probably a spambot
Old Feb 26th, 2004, 05:08 PM       
Jesus didn't believe in theft.
Taxation is theft.
-----------------------------------
Therefore, Jesus didn't believe in taxation.
__________________
I have seen all things that are done under the sun; all is vanity and a chase after wind.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Perndog Perndog is offline
Fartin's biggest fan
Perndog's Avatar
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Snowland
Perndog is probably a spambot
Old Feb 26th, 2004, 05:57 PM       
Ooh, a riddle! See who can pick out the false premise!

You think about a world without taxes next time you drive on a public road.

And if you'd read the Bible, you'd know Jesus *explicitly* condoned taxes, in the famous "render unto Caesar" verse.

Dolt.
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #5  
El Blanco El Blanco is offline
Mocker
El Blanco's Avatar
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: New York, NY
El Blanco is probably a spambot
Old Feb 26th, 2004, 06:10 PM       
He didn't condone them as much as He said he didn't care. As long as we take care of each other and ourselves, God isn't concerned what we do with the resources.
__________________
according to my mongoose, anyway.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Perndog Perndog is offline
Fartin's biggest fan
Perndog's Avatar
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Snowland
Perndog is probably a spambot
Old Feb 26th, 2004, 07:02 PM       
condone, v.

To excuse, make allowances for, or be lenient with.
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #7  
El Blanco El Blanco is offline
Mocker
El Blanco's Avatar
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: New York, NY
El Blanco is probably a spambot
Old Feb 26th, 2004, 07:27 PM       
My bad, I thought it meant to be in favor of.
__________________
according to my mongoose, anyway.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
The One and Only... The One and Only... is offline
Mocker
The One and Only...'s Avatar
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Harlem
The One and Only... is probably a spambot
Old Feb 26th, 2004, 07:31 PM       
Quote:
Originally Posted by Perndog
You think about a world without taxes next time you drive on a public road.
Irrelevant to the point, and roads could be privatized.

Quote:
And if you'd read the Bible, you'd know Jesus *explicitly* condoned taxes, in the famous "render unto Caesar" verse.
Give me the entire passage.

Condone does not mean favor, either.
__________________
I have seen all things that are done under the sun; all is vanity and a chase after wind.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Perndog Perndog is offline
Fartin's biggest fan
Perndog's Avatar
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Snowland
Perndog is probably a spambot
Old Feb 26th, 2004, 07:47 PM       
King James Bible, Matthew 22:17-21

22:17 Tell us [the Pharisees] therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
22:18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
22:19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.

22:20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
22:21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render
therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.

****
My point was that you get things from society, things that you couldn't get on your own. In return for your privilege to have a road, to have police protection, etc. you pay taxes. If these things were privatized, you would have to pay the private companies that provide them. Ideologically, there may be a couple of sticking points because taxes are not voluntary, but in a practical sense it's the same thing as taxes. That's why instead of wanting to abolish taxes altogether, practical capitalists try to influence what the taxes are spent on.

Is it ever going to start sinking into your head that theories and ideologies are only partially effective when put to the test of reality?
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #10  
The One and Only... The One and Only... is offline
Mocker
The One and Only...'s Avatar
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Harlem
The One and Only... is probably a spambot
Old Feb 26th, 2004, 07:54 PM       
We're talking about Jesus here, not my personal stance.

Jesus felt that Caeser already owned the tribute. In such a case, there is no taxation - merely a claim by Caeser to what is rightfully his.

Anything beyond this is an inference.
__________________
I have seen all things that are done under the sun; all is vanity and a chase after wind.
Reply With Quote
  #11  
mburbank mburbank is offline
The Moxie Nerve Food Tonic
mburbank's Avatar
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: right behind you
mburbank has disabled reputation
Old Feb 27th, 2004, 09:31 AM       
Taxation is theft to you, because it's against your will. You want your citizenship and the protections that come with it to be free of charge, or entirely privatized because you think competition would regulate itself, as opposed to collusion, price fixing and wage slavery.

Taxation is not theft to me, because I pay my taxes willingly. However flawed, I beleive in the state as a joint organization, and government. flawed as it is has the potential to do good for the benefit if it's constituent citizenship.

I think your niave blind faith in the market is influenced by the fact you've never had to find of job or work for a boss. The first time your publicly humiliated by a flathead in a suit you know you're smarter than and have to train someone who got hired from the outside for a promotion you didn't get. Think that's just me being bitter? Take a poll, here or among any adults who can stand talking to you.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Perndog Perndog is offline
Fartin's biggest fan
Perndog's Avatar
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Snowland
Perndog is probably a spambot
Old Feb 27th, 2004, 10:30 AM       
Quote:
Originally Posted by The One and Only...
Jesus felt that Caeser already owned the tribute. In such a case, there is no taxation - merely a claim by Caeser to what is rightfully his.
Just like those little green things that will someday be in your pocket rightfully belong to the IRS.

And we definitely are talking about your personal stance, namely that taxation is theft.
__________________
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

   


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:58 AM.


© 2008 I-Mockery.com
Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.