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You do realize that when he raised his right hand he had no idea what job he was going to get in the military right?
Even the folks who spend there time in the "cushy desk jobs" as you put it still understood that at a moments notice they might have to drop everything, get on a plane and face injury or death. So yes, thank him for what he did.
I served, my wife served. We both got sent to strange places and had to work strange hours, you haven't lived until you are informed that you are going on the midnight 12 hour shift 20 minutes after getting home from working your normal 9 hour shift. I ended up getting medically retired due to injuries suffered while in uniform while my wife was able to serve 21 years. She can no longer lift her right arm straight up anymore due to here job requirements, but she was considered to have a desk job (in the military you had a desk job if one of your work stations had a chair and a phone).
So get over yourself and stop having conversations with people you don't agree with, you seem unable to discuss both sides without getting upset.
The debater in question is ex-military with MY tax dollars paying his pension and health care benefits for life! It's the whole "*********, I have mine - too bad if you don't" mentality.
The debater in question might "have his" as you exclaim, but it's worth noting that he did something in order to earn it. He did his time with a career in the military and now that he's retired he is due his just rewards.
I used to think like you -mostly because I grew up dirt poor. However, as I grew up I watched a lot of the poor people around me make a lot of bad decisions that kept them poor. There's an old saying that the wise learn from the mistakes of others and fools from there own. I joined the Army, got the G.I. Bill and got an education. I certainly don't expect anybody to pay my way for anything.
So, in short and at the risk of sounding like Ayn Rand: why should the productive be made the servants of the unproductive?
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Interesting story...thanks for the link. It will be fascinating to see what emerges from the inquiry. How will the Downing Street Memo be handled?
This is an interesting quote from the article:
[quote] Sir Christopher said the UK believed it was "pointless" to resist US plans for regime change in Iraq a full year before the invasion and speculated that the path to war was set at a meeting between the two leaders at President Bush's Texas ranch in April 2002." [end quote]
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Interesting story...thanks for the link. It will be fascinating to see what emerges from the inquiry. How will the Downing Street Memo be handled?
This is an interesting quote from the article:
Quote:
Sir Christopher said the UK believed it was "pointless" to resist US plans for regime change in Iraq a full year before the invasion and speculated that the path to war was set at a meeting between the two leaders at President Bush's Texas ranch in April 2002." [end quote]
You ever seen a mama bear on the hunt in the river for fish with her cubs? She'll hoard the fish she catches while her cubs beg and whine. On the surface it looks evil, like the mother is too greedy to even feed her own cubs, that evil b****. However the final results are considerably different. In the end the cubs learn they can't rely on mother forever to feed them and are forced to learn to feed themselves. This isn't a unique set of events in history, unless you're only observing humans in today's times.
You see if the mother bear continues to feed the cubs and something happens to her then the cubs are forced to starve to death or fend for themselves. If she does it while they can, as a last resort, take the food from her they'll wean themselves off of depending on survival from their mother.
Now in the case of a detrimental handicap in which the cub couldn't feed itself we, as humans, differ. We have "a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance." Depending on the person that line-in-the-sand can be narrow or wide.
Like I said, I normally just shut things down as I tell him I do not want to argue. He then tells me it's not "arguing." Well, when I end up with my head spinning due to my blood pressure shooting up it is in the realm of arguing. At any rate, I despise this whole mentality and it's enough to make me just not want to have anything to do with him.
Hopefully, someone in this thread can enlighten me as to why it's polite and socially acceptable to expect my money to fund death and destruction, yet I am told to go live elsewhere for wanting my fellow Americans to have the same health care others enjoy. I despise this segment of this population. Just despise.
Pugly, like soooo many from your side of the ideological spectrum you think, "my way or the highway". I bet you think your right about just about everything you think and he is wrong about everything he thinks.
Try this suggestion in you next conversation. Ask some questions of him then when you can write down his responses. Not opinion questions, behavior questions. Like, where do you get your news from? What do you read? What are your favorite books or magazines? Even, right down to where did you grow up? Make up some of your own along these lines. Then pick out a magazine he reads and read it. Watch a news cast he constantly watches. etc.
Then consider this! We are all the sum total of our individual experiences and our inate ability to discern right from wrong, etc. One of the most bewildering questions of my lifetime is how two people can look at the exact same3 set of circumstances using all their senses, and come up with two, sometimes diametrically opposing conclusions?
Personally, I am a conservative that leans toward libertarianism as I understand it. I would probably agree with your neighbor more than I would agree with you. Even when you write, I hear a nervousness to your voice, an uncertainty of your position. I suspect your neighbor is a bit like me and doesn't have much tolerance for the bleeding heart liberal perspective. You probably cast him as a mean spirited person and yet if he opens up his checkbook for inspection you may find he gives twice as much to charitable causes as you do.
Maybe he doesn't have the time or interest to take in that homeless person but on a weekly basis plops a $20 bill ito his sorry hand as he stands on the corner with his please give me money for food sign then disappears within five minutes and reappears crossing the street with something that looks like a bottle.
He also may be a little pissed off that you are recruiting people into the neighborhood that might have easy access to his back door. Which is why he chose a safe neighborhood to reward his 50-60 hrs a week of hard labor to reward his individual rights to life, liberty, safety, and the pursuit of happiness.
Just a few points for you to ponder and you might want to count your inventories on a daily basis and good luck finding your friend a job if thye are looking for a job. Better be nice to your neighbor you may need a refuge.
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