I'm a Democrat, Liberal, but I'm not a C*******t or a L*****t. I believe charity begins at home and does not belong in foriegn aid with the exception of the Jewish Nation. As a Christian I wouldn't deny aid to the Jews. However, so called conservatives are very liberal with our money abroad while their own go hungry here at hone. Belittling Social Security and other aids to our poor. We should Meier them poor. Like Roosevelt threatened: turn your hoarded money loose and put it back in circulation or I'll mint new money and make you all the same.(as close to a direct quote as I can recall)

Tasine wrote:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Libertarians are the guardians of individual freedoms, not the Republicans and certainly not the Democrats.

Voice of Reason responds in red.

Agreed. However, IMO, libertarian describes both a creed and is a (unfortunately small) political party. Republican and Democrat are political parties, not creeds. Are you using Republican as synonymous with conservative and Democrat as synonymous with liberal?

Having been a Republican for over 50 years I think I know them. I have found that they are not meddlesome people except and until an issue that desecrates their religion comes along and smears their faces with slime - THEN they want to do some controlling, which I find completely normal and right. There's some controlling I would like to do also. And there is some controlling you wish you could do as well, you just don't see it as "controlling". I would love to control the amount and degree of filth that is RISING in the world. I would love to control the amount of k*****g we see in the world. I would love to control totally irresponsible behavior. Wouldn't you like to be able to stop things that are destroying our culture?

Of course there's some controlling I'd LIKE to do (and, yes, I do see it as controlling), but there's a difference between what I'd LIKE and what I actually WANT the government to do. Free speech is a good example. There is some speech that I find quite offensive, and I'd like it to stop. But I absolutely DO NOT want the government to ban it.

Most Christians are conservative - that does not say that most people claiming to be Christian are conservative. True Christians believe in their souls that a******n is outright murder, and their religion forbids murder and champions saving people and their souls. Would you rather they follow the religion that dictates their lives, or would you rather see them be hypocrites and keep their mouths shut? I defend sane Christians. I don't agree with them on everything, but I fully believe that people who think like Christians are the people who are the glue to holding our nation together as a free AND wholesome society. I certainly do NOT support insane Christians, such as those of the Westboro Baptist Church. I believe that a******n after a heartbeat is present is out and out meditated MURDER. If I stop someone's heartbeat, I will be tried for murder. The difference is that the unborn is totally defenseless, cannot talk back, and has no one with its interest at heart except those of us who view k*****g it as MURDER, plain and simple. Our fellow citizens MURDERED 1,000,000 defenseless, totally helpless souls last year. This is beyond barbaric.

You make some good points here, but overall I disagree. I don't think Christians, or any other religious group, have a right to dictate their religious views to others. Remember, most devout Muslims believe in their souls that sharia law is what holds society together. I don't think you'd like having sharia law imposed here. Remember, too, that it was "Christian sensibilities" that were responsible for prohibition. That didn't work out too well.

You say you don't support insane christians and use Westboro Baptist Church as an example. With the exception of the actual members of that church, I don't think there are many people who would disagree that they are insane, but they are an extreme example. Where do you draw the line between sane and insane? Which side of the line would Rev. Wright fall on? Who gets to draw that line?

You say a******n is barbaric and I don't disagree. However, is it any more barbaric than forcing a woman to have a child she doesn't want and will most likely neglect and abuse? It seems to me most pro-lifers place a high value on life itself without any consideration for quality of life.

Finally, IMHO, I think pro-lifers have their priorities backward. I think it would be far more productive for them to work to change the adoption laws and rules. If those were changed to make it less than virtually impossible for those who want to adopt able to do so, then there would be a valid alternative to a******n.

Smoking? I was a heavy smoker for 30 years, and quit when I felt the cost of them was beyond reasonable - $8.00/carton. I think people are crazy for paying the cost now, but I am glad some still do. I see it as retaliation against an overbearing government that was/is determined to control the behavior, the total behavior of its citizens.

Agreed. I WISH they cost $8.00/carton now! Where I live they're literally 10 times that! Most of it is taxes which pay for SCHIP. I wonder what all the anti-smokers would do if everybody stopped buying tobacco and they had to pay for their own kid's healthcare?

Drugs? I say legalize all of them, enforce the laws re k*****g, theft, stealing and let the chips fall where they will. I doubt there will be more deaths due to them than there are with the LEGAL use of alcohol. Government mucks up everything it touches, and if others would join me in calling all "laws" oppressive with exceptions for murder, reckless homicide, theft, breaking and entering, rape, child molestation, we just MAY see some sanity return to America. I see no need for all other laws as they merely are outgrowths of the basic ones I just mentioned.

Agreed. I saw an interview with Jesse Ventura once (before he became a conspiracy nut) and he was talking about when he became governor of Minnesota. He went to visit the state AG. Behind her desk, the wall was covered floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall with bookcases filled with volumes of books. He said, "I asked her what all those books were, and she said they're all the laws." He asked, "All the laws in the United States?" "No," she said, "all the laws for Minnesota." He said, "I sat there thinking 'ignorance of the law is no excuse'...something needs to change."

I am a conservative Libertarian. Being Libertarian makes me want all citizens to have maximum individual freedoms. Being conservative makes me want to protect innocent life.

I am a "small l" libertarian. I agree with most of the Libertarian party platform but not all, especially the foreign relations parts. I want all citizens to have maximum individual freedoms while acknowledging that means some things I don't personally like will be perfectly legal.

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Actually Sadam Hussein had chemical weapons and the makings for nuclear weapons - but remember it was months after 9/11 that we finally went after him..........in the meanwhile, he had trucked all that stuff to Syria before we could get over there. Had we immediately attacked, we'd have found all that we KNEW was there. Hussein did exactly what Syria is currently doing - trucking the telling evidence to a neighboring country, Iraq. I watched the conga lines of trucks headed to Syria on TV back before we got Hussein, but it was eventually erased from the public's collective "minds" so that jesse jackson could chant "Bush lied, people died" for years upon end. The media who had covered it, conveniently forgot all about the truckloads headed out of the country.