What makes Obama a "Socialist"?

I've noticed that we do think alike on many issues, ie, we've both had queer cats.

.

 

hey, i had nothing to do with that, bud . . .

[well, at least i had nothing to do with your cats turning out that way]

just looked up waco on wiki, and i am jealous - i am jealous of anyone who lives in a really small town

we considered the south when looking to get out of california, but i'd been there before - in the summer - and that pretty much killed things

if we ever move again, we're eyeing marmarth, north dakota

http://www.slopecountynd.com/marmarth/marmarth.html

no cotton, but plenty of cottonwood . . .

 

I don't even like small towns any more. I actually live several miles from Waco in a private neighborhood in the middle of the forest. We're having a cold spell today, it's only 91 with a heat index of 103, that's down from a little over 100 with an index of about 110. I just stay in for the afternoon and do my gardening in the morning.

Marmarth looks nice, but I'd have to hibernate for the winter, I hate cold worse than the heat.

The nicest thing about my place is when I go outside and look around, I see nothing but trees. The neighborhood is surrounded by paper company property and a national forest, so growth is highly unlikely in my lifetime. You can't see my place for the trees, but here it is.



.

 

very nice

as i don't drive [okay, that's by choice] i need to have some small amount of services within walk/bike distance, and you can get cat food and toilet paper at the marmarth mini-mart [if you can say it]

mrs wica wants to make me get a car so we can live way out on the prairie and watch thunderstorms all afternoon with nary a hill, tree or building in sight

fortunately, we kinda like the winter, there's nothing like 50 below to make you feel alive [for about three minutes]

what was this thread about? oh yeah, people without dictionaries . . .

 

The simple answer would be to start your own food bank, or what ever it is you would like to volunteer your services for.

A Bugatti Veyron is a very expensive automobile, which pleases my eye. Like "one mans trash is another mans treasure", in that humans are not equal in many different ways, it is also true that "needs and wants" are often interchangeable. Sometimes we have to recognize that we have accept what we can get, and not focus blame on others for our own inabilities.

Perhaps you could enlighten us with the law(s) in place at the time the continent was "invaded" which validates our ancestors being labeled as illegal?
Some of my own were brought over as indentured servants, and some others emigrated from Europe and entered legally under the laws that existed at the time they arrived.
Warfare and genocide has existed since humans began settling and migrating to areas around the world. In reality, we are ALL African-(insert nation name here).

Probably the most peaceful people are the African Bushmen, would you like to live as they do? The native(?) Americans, earlier immigrants, were not as peaceful as you might think, and the less that exists to be had makes the appearance of equality much easier to accomplish. Socialism, and it's goal, Communism would be quite easy to achieve in a world where all human wants and needs existed in abundance greater than needed, but the fact remains that most all of human wants and even needs in a modern society are the result of the labor of other humans.

Is Obama trying to take us back to the early 19th century? Perhaps he's just an Owenite?

Each of us has needs and each of us has wants, some quite similar and others quite different. Both needs and wants can and should be procured through our own individual efforts of production of the needs and wants, or production in the form of labor which provides us with the bargaining implement (money) that allows us to purchase them. Short of that, charity exists, which is a personal effort in which some share with others they feel in need. We have government to protect us and our property, NOT to provide a legal means of theft in order to eliminate the need for charity. The best thing government can do for us is to allow jobs to be created, not impede the creation of jobs in an attempt to create a society of equals.

 

backwards political science 101

are libertarians trying to take us back to the early 19th century?

good luck with that, the world has changed a bit since then...

to clarify: obama is not an owenite, nor is he a socialist of any kind

he's just a garden variety republocrat

 

it should be noted that i find this sort of fantasy to be wholly lacking in imagination

 

your description of this as "simple" belies how little you know about either charity or about me

it might have occurred to a perceptive person that one reason i enjoy working for food banks is that i am so often a client of them

we each give back, as best we can...or as best as we are allowed

 

LOL, why does this not surprise me?!!

Allowed?!! You are the only one limiting yourself. Maybe you lack imagination? Intelligence? Motivation?

Socialists in America today do not want that label. Hence, they call themselves progressives. Same old whine. Obama is recorded as saying he believes in redistribution of wealth (health care reform anyone?), hence he is a socialist. I agree he is a republicrat, but almost all of them are socialists too. It's too easy for them to enslave whole generations of entitlement junkies and buy votes that way. Excellent way for them to stay in power. Democratic politicians are some of the most racist in the country (Reid, et al). They want to keep people of color on the plantation. Easier to control them that way.

Then when it comes time to vote, massa points at the opposition and says "it's their fault your miserable and oppressed." If the slaves would only open their eyes they would see who the real oppressors are insteading of voting blindly for them election after election and staying in the same socio-economic shithole.

 

Entitlement junkies don't want simple answers, they want handouts. "Do it for me, don't you dare make me work for it!"

LOL, there you are with those simple answers again!! You keep wanting people to go out and actually make an effort. How racist!!!

My ancestry is Choctaw, Cherokee, British and Scandinavian. None of which are the original inhabitants of America. Native Americans had a habit of killing each other before the Europeans arrived to do it more efficiently. As you said, genocide, wars of conquest have been happening since man started walking the planet. To blame one group is to blind oneself to reality.

The major problem with socialism and communism is that regardless of the concept, someone has to run the show. That someone is a human who is drawn to power.

The American government, as originally envisioned, was supposed to keep checks and balances on power. Unfortunately they forgot to add term limits to congress. So now we have a corrupt, power-addicted ruling class. It's too much to ask congress to vote in term limits on itself, they'd rather vote in higher pay, more benefits and incredible retirement (after 2 terms) for themselves. Not much hope for us anymore. Not unless the American public wakes up and tosses these assholes out on their duffs. But congress knows how to play us. The buy votes with entitlements, pork barrel spending, favors for certain groups and fear. They are really getting good with fear. They are also damn good at fragmenting us into opposing camps so we don't look at them as the problem, but see each other as the monsters.

Divide and conquer. Don't look behind the green curtain.

 

it should surprise you, as you know nothing about me and my circumstances, and apparently think everyone is capable of anything

i find the whole libertarian philosophy to be a bit of overblown self-justification for low-grade sociopaths - you know, used car dealers, insurance salesmen, quack doctors, that sort - so your lack of empathy does not "surprise me" either

did you read my post on this? really? i didn't think so...

 

i've been mulling over the term libertarian as it's used these days

as much as might disagree with them, the libertarians i knew years ago - mike hoy, bob black, adam parfrey - were intelligent people, capable of complex thinking, worthy of respect

the "libertarians" i run into these days seem to be something less; amorality is the only link, now sadly bereft of humor

perhaps we should be calling them something else - "american political fundamentalists", "constitutionalists", "jefferson-botherers"?

you seem to have apologetics websites, just like the religious american taliban, perhaps you are secret cousins?

[btw, i'm getting sick to death of that ben franklin quote - it is all over the internet - and i would like to see some proof]

 

djdude pretty much responded in the same way I would have to your previous responses to me, and NO. everyone is not capable of anything, but I think most people can find something they are capable of doing, and doing well. Not knowing your circumstances I can't venture a guess as to what that might be, but I'm sure you're not without some talents, even if you've yet to discover them.

What, exactly, is it you feel we need to show empathy for? Personally I feel that helping others become self sufficient or find some form of success in their lives is much more empathetic than making them a perpetual dependent upon others. It may be empathetic to give a man a fish, but it would be much more to teach that man to fish. With all the money spent on education in the U.S. you would think it would produce much greater results than it has. The Federal government produces no products and the services attributed to the Federal government could be provided in a more cost effective way by eliminating them as the middleman or subcontractor.

 

Wow, so you say I know nothing about you, and seem incensed that I'm not surprised you're an entitlement junky. But because I don't know you personally I have no right to judge you. Then, with your next breath, you call me a sociopath lacking in empathy (redundant) even though YOU DON'T KNOW ME and don't know my circumstances. Can you say hypocrite?!!

Then, with your flawed paintbrush, you paint libertarians with a very broad stroke .... used car dealers, insurance salesmen, quack doctors, that sort. So you are biased to boot?!!

Yeah, I read your post. Had to clean up the puke afterwards, but I read it.

 

food banks are private charity, so you need not worry

interesting that as you have no idea when or how often or under what circumstances i have visited a food bank, as i have not divulged them to you, that you have decided that i am a "junky"

well, while "circumstances" may or may not be deduced from a brief internet posting or two, psychological quirks and personality disorders often read loud and clear

all kidding aside, i don't know whether you buy the whole libertarian thing or not [i no longer know what a libertarian even is], so i was not calling you anything

better save that, you never know when you're going to be hungry, and since i can only assume that you're a person of principles, you won't be visiting the food bank . . .

 

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

"Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin" Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin -1818

Actually written much earlier, 1775, in notes for a proposition at the Pennsylvania assembly.

Perhaps some history scholar could provide you with information as to where the original sources now exist.

Question: Why would that quote sicken you?

Another, from "Poor Richard's Almanack" -1738
"Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."

 

and this is the best argument against your way of thinking imaginable

 

no, silly person

i meant proof that what franklin said is actually true

for example, i believe he also said:

"early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise"

now, i have always been a very early riser, and since my music career ended some 25 years ago, go to bed quite early as well

i am neither healthy nor wealthy, by generally accepted american standards

wise? the jury's still out . . .

[bf=bs]

 

I admit it was poorly worded, the intent was "Everyone is not capable of just anything they wish...", and I think you probably realized that.

 

yes, and my point stands

understand that i do not believe in competition, and that i do believe that humanity needs to rise above "the survival of the fittest"

[fair, not free]

as far as things like bugattis go, i chalk that "desire" up to elitist/capitalist propaganda, which means that you might be curable