blithe nailed it on the first one, though his second sense also applies. here's some relevant mao for you, blithe as to why i havent posted in the private property thread... i just wouldnt know where to begin with most of you and i dont know your personal backgrounds well enough to try and approach you from that vector, nor do i have the easy opportunity/inclination to do so one-on-one the way i would with people i encounter in real life so it depresses me significantly and disinclines me from participating in the thread. its a failing on my part. but i feel vindicated by how often dave and evan have had to (fruitlessly) try to explain the difference between personal and private property. it drives how the linguistic/conceptual gap between the average jcer and a serious discussion of an issue like that. furthermore i dont want to give blithe more ammo for his dossier on me blithe did you make it a jcc thread specifically so i wouldnt have the excuse of boycotting a senate thread?
Oh, thanks for the link. Hey, I tried to distinguish private and personal property in the OP. As for the the JCC vs. Senate thing, I didn't even pay attention to what tag it had when I made it, so I think it just went with the default. The fact that it prevents you from having a an excuse is convenient enough though. But. . . . uhh. . . I'm actually vaguely concerned about that running joke now.
I'm genuinely curious about this, ten. Have you been to Communist or former Communist countries? I wasn't sure if you'd ever made some kind of Stalinist world tour or something
Well, there really is no need to travel to these evil lands Yes, and though the list grows larger you must try to understand Try hard not to be surprised if someday you should hear The whole world is off limits, visit Disneyland this year
Let me know if this shocks any of you. In the words of someone anonymous person on the internets, "Catholics are essentially anti-abortion, anti-gay Marxists."
I have no idea. I support universal healthcare, regulation of private markets (with the continued existence of a free market - a totally "free" market quickly stops being a free market), unions, strong environmental protections, green energy, and so forth. I also oppose war and the death penalty. So, our venerable President and I have quite a bit on common politically. I actually have quite a strong admiration for Hugo Chavez. I also know that this is taboo among most of my conservative Catholic friends, but I also support the legality of gay marriage. My preference would be that only the state have the authority to perform civil marriages (religious marriage, thus, would not have any legal standing). That being said, thus pretty much anyone who wanted to get married should be able to, regardless of being mixed-race, same-sex or same-gender, old/young (within reasonable limits of consent - 18, you know), consanguineous, or what-have-you. I'd also support the legal ability of polygamous or polyamorous persons to form some sort of legal arrangement comparable to two-person marriage.
Last I checked he didn't oppose either. The former, while irritating, is to be expected. The latter is one of my main problems with him. I would probably put Obama about halfay into authoritarian and right on the center.in terms of left/right wing. Maybe a peg to the right. The sad thing is that's based off of his track record. I'm reasonably certain that if he always had his way he'd be a few pegs to the left (and even higher on the authoritarian scale).