The Mid East is a waste of time and money. They've been butchering each other in innovative and horrible ways for thousands of years. Whole regions have been depopulated and repopulated numerous times. Don't kid yourself. Nothing America does will discourage these maniacs. Even nuclear anihilation would only be a temporary solution. They've been anihilated before. Their whole lives are consumed with hatred and murder and it's been that way since Cain murdered Abel. The smartest thing America could do is concentrate its strategic interests here.

Instead of asking what causes crime, the better question is what is the root cause of poverty? The Bible states in Proverbs 10:4 “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth”. There, I said it. I know it is not politically correct to call poor people lazy or to just state the facts. However, since Liberals want to use the events in Ferguson to focus on crime and poverty, I thought I would offer my analysis. Politicians and pundits have tried to invent new causes for crime and poverty. However, Ecclesiastes 1:9 states “The thing that has been—it is what will be again, and that which has been done is that which will be done again; and there is nothing new under the sun.” In other words, laziness has always been and always will be the root cause of poverty. Idle hands and fatherless homes are the root causes of crime.

http://americanthinker.com/2014/08/poverty_is_not_the_cause_of_criminal_behavior.html

There is no doubt that the Govt has been getting more centralized and more authoritarian since around 1917. Wilson campaigned on the promise that he'd keep the Ss out of the European war, then jumped in. I guess he thought he was gonna reform the world "Make the world safe for democracy" i think he said. (As if his allies England and Russia were any more democratic then germany) But he MADE IT ILLEGAL TO CRITICIZE HIM OR HIS WAR. They kind of got away from that until Sept 11, when Bush became a de facto dictator. Claimed he had the right to torture and murder anyone he wanted to. And Obama does it too. "The land of the free and the home of the brave" is just a song lyric now i guess.
But i would not call the totalitarians of either Party"progressives". I suppose it's a matter of semantiiics but i think of "progressives" as being people *against* totalitarianism of either the Left or the Right.

guess

One of the problems I've discerned with the conservative movement in general is the tendency to lose itself in a forest of single issues rather than on a couple of the biggest ones that all could agree to. We have a huge row to hoe and the more fragmented we are the easier it will be for the g*******t/progressive/socialist forces to marginalize us. If we wish to reclaim the Republic our founders gave us I think the solution will come through local and state levels. Washington is a waste of time at the present.

Love your typical fear and h**e mongering. You seem to ignore the only relevant point: the 1st Amendment. But a question: how big a threat for close to 10 centuries has been the state of Islam? Might these "crazy terrorists" actually have a legitimate complaint? Though it seems unlikely that any of these dedicated extremists are now interested in a peaceful resolution, to be as they are precludes the likelihood, escalating violence or oppression of Muslims here contradicts American ideals and basic rights.

Like so many other useless rantings about Muslims that do not and apparently cannot answer how the US, with our 1st Amendment, can deal with the state of Islam, you only offer another platter of h**e. Sorry, I have had my fill.

So....You play golf! I think golf is a waste of water, so I invent a report that says playing golf endangers the endangered cockroach! Then the developers that want to build on the golfcourses donate to my org. Enough so that I can hire lawyers and lobbiests! But I have a taste of the good life you are enjoying......so I form an environmental org. My lawyers and lobbiests get me GOVERNMENT GRANTS! Enough so I can have a private jet and limo, and of course bodyguards! Voila! I have become an Elite Environmentalist!!! Now I enjoy the fame and money from the believers! Syncophants flock around me, they all BELIEVE!! We start a conference with the NEA, they begin brainwashing all the students into believing! I even sneak out to PLAY GOLF! Next someone discovers I have defrauded everyone??? I have to silence him fast! I accuse him of R****M!!! (If I was the usurper I could have the IRS attack him) Then I have the l*****t media libel him, and the TV media slander him. But he doesn't give up, I can't cover up the t***h, and I have gotten used to living high off the hog! So I hire a "situation manager" from Chicago! He gets the accuser charged with a crime and put in jail.....after all we can't have someone exposing our little s**m....can we? To make more money we branch out, the c*******ts in our little elite club have ideas! The other s**m worked so well we will try another! The c****es tell us that if we shut down all of America's energy...we will save the world (and make more money) We invent the "Carbon Credit S**m!" Wheeee more money! We tell the world "WE ARE SCIENTISTS" and anybody not agreeing with our s**m is a "DENIER" And should be silenced! Now...where do we go from here???

After I managed to decipher your coded message, I think I found what you were talking about. Your great Democrat Senate had 24 months to screw up everything Bush had managed to keep under control. If you are capable, check in search and find out when the Democrats took control of the Senate. It was in the 2006 e******n. So they actually took charge in January, 2007. So that made them having 24 months as being in control of the Senate.

Now go back and see what the unemployment was in January of 2007. Check and see what the price of gasoline was in January of 2007. Check and see what our National credit rating was in January of 2007. Then check these all out again for the year 2010 and see the what the change was before you keep making yourself look a bigger fool than you already have.