Azalin
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Posts posted by Azalin
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and that's the point. much has changed in the party since 96. who is in a better position to judge hostility directed at him; this writer or powell himself? and ya'll don't seem to think he should have a place at the repub table. perhaps the hostility is real?
much has indeed changed.....in '96, Newt was still Speaker and congressional republicans were decidedly more conservative than they are now.
and to use your metaphor, there's plenty of room at the table for Powell, but if he doesn't like anything on the menu, why not go somewhere else?
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You see, Joey is really a Republican, but embraces Libertarian views if they fall in line with far out left wing policies. I think he's about five beers short of his screen name.
ah.....gotcha.
dammit....now I need a beer.....
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If it wants to be an industry leader, there's certainly things to be done.... But I don't think you can expect a city to be everything to every industry. Such is life on this one.
I've been gone from the area a long time, so this is a sincere question....how many different industries are thriving nowadays in WNY due to support of the state & local governments?
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The libertarian states rights ideal really shows its weakness on something like gun control.
ummm......that's because Liberatarians don't embrace the concept of gun control to begin with.
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....some of those kids would not get a meal that day if not for the school lunch programs. A kid cant concentrate on learning when they have gnawing hunger. Not all programs are bad.
is the food stamp program somehow tied to the school lunch program in San Diego? I often wonder about arguements such as this, because if the families get food stamps, then why is it that their childrens' only oppotrunity to get a nourishing meal is at the school?
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if you consider the culture and climate of the time I was growing up (I am now 55), this article is 100% pure irony.
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/28-12-2012/123335-americans_guns-0/
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Homosexual behavior - while not "normal" in the sense that it is the most frequent form of sex - is perfectly natural and is routinely witnessed within many species other than homo sapien.
comparing human and animal behavior isn't always make for a good arguement - parents attempting to devour their offspring and incestious mating are also perfectly natural and routinely witnessed within many species other than homo sapien. monkeys & dogs eat poop. I wouldn't really have a problem if a son or daughter of mine was gay, but if they did any of the other stuff, I'd personally see that they were locked away for their, and everyone else's safety.
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Post more. For crying out loud!
count on it!
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Holy crap! Where the hell have you been?
oh, I've been around....lurking, as it were. I guess I wasn't content keeping my big mouth shut after all.
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When you fail to elect a leader, you fail to get leadership.
This is what America wants.This is what America voted for.
you are exactly right about that, but I don't think that anyone who deserves to will actually receive any blame a few years from now. instead, it will be blamed on the republicans for not raising taxes on ALL of those top wage earners (400K & above instead of the original 250K per year)when they had the opportunity to do so, causing a revenue shortfall and driving up the debt. of course that's total BS, but that's what will happen....just wait.
if I had been in charge of the house republicans, I would have mounted an aggressive campaign for LOWERING middle-class tax rates, forcing the dems to defend a pro-tax on the middle class stance. it might not have worked, but at least I'd know that I stood for something I believed in as I went down in flames.
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Today the estimated unfunded total is more than $87 trillion, or 550 percent of our GDP. And the debt per household is more than 10 times the median family income.
it both astounds and depresses me that things could have actually come to the point where debt like this does not seem to concern most americans. seriously...how can this even be a partisan issue anymore? the populace is blinded by simple ignorance, but to those that pay any attention at all, regardless of party affiliation, why is there any debate on this? Alexander Hamilton believed that a national debt was good because it gave the voting populace a vested interest in the affairs of the state, but I'm willing to wager he wasn't thinking in terms of 87 trillion dollars.
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whether or not people think certain types of firearms are or are not necessary isn't the point. like it or not, there is a constitutional guarantee of private gun ownership:
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be INFRINGED.
note the caps. the word 'infringed' refers to action by the federal government. they can not contstitutionally pass any laws that restricts gun ownership of the general public, especially when our own military has the devastating weaponry that it does.
personally, I see no real need for most people to own automatic or semi-automatic weapons, but that is just my own opinion. I have no right to try to superimpose my own beliefs over the rest of society. nobody should want any part of the bill of rights tinkered with for any reason whatsoever.
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If you want to have some fun, pop a Viagra before you fly.
awesome....there's the 2nd good laugh of the day!
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Well for all of their sakes I hope it wasn't a trigger finger get jammed up there.
thank you......that was my first really good laugh of the day.
I was going to add a sure-fire method of avoiding a cavity search: enthusiastically volunteer for one whenever you get pulled over. it works at the airport, too.
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Not if you want to politicize it and really make it about gun control.
yeah, that kind of thing still happens a lot around here, doesn't it?
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And that is the point Azalin. We have rational minds trying to find a rational cause. It is never going to happen... All we can do is our best to find some kind of closure.
then how can you make statements like 'Totally wrong... He wanted to die by his own hand. Why are we failing to miss that point?O bviously, he had a very sick "mission" to carry out first' as if it were fact? I would agree that none of us can truly get into that guy's head and make any kind of sense of what he did, and I would include your statement to be supposition as well.
all I meant to say in the first place when I tossed my opinion out there was that I do not believe the big issue in this tragedy is guns, but rather serious mental illness. can we not all agree on that?
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Watching CNN yesterday, at one point they showed pictures of some of the victims. I couldn't bear to look.
it's one thing to hear that 20 children were slain, but it really drives the point home when you see a photograph of each one. putting a name and a face to the victim adds back an essential element of humanity that is too often missed, imo.
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Or was it short term preservation in order to kill more people?
you very well may be right. the obvious difficulty in trying to make sense of any of this is in trying to find logic or reason in such a hideously warped mind.
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The big problem I have w/Azalin's argument is that it forgets one critical element. The guy was suicidal. No way he takes out so many children and kills himself w/out a suicide bomb vest.... BUT, the sicko has to get into the building first. I simply don't see it happening unless he is high on something like drugs or religion!
wasn't it reported that he was wearing a vest or some type of body armor? how suicidal is a person that would take steps for self-preservation?
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There is no way a baseball bat could have killed 20 children before somebody knocked the dude down. The children are not going to just stand there like bowling pins.
I an not saying the baseball bat is or can't be deadly... Your argument is just plain silly. Two adults lunged for him first.
you are incapable of chasing down 20 helpless children cornered in a classroom, or taking out two adult men using a bat? the details in my example may not be perfect, but you have to ignore the point in order to not see it.
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Specious. I've heard this argument in numerous forms - He could have had a knife, planted a bomb, etc.
The school had security in place to deter unknown visitors. Lanza blasted his way into the school. Without ample firepower, he wasn't getting in.
And about the baseball bat - I agree with "any one of us here...." But I bet you didn't say "Lanza could have killed those kids with a bat" for a reason. Have you seen pictures of him? His arms were so skinny he could barely pick up a bat, much less swing one. The ease, skill and detachment of the lethal violence he was able to dole out with his mother's guns is what's at issue here.
as I'm sure you'll continue to hear this same arguement play out over and over as more of these tragedies occur. some people believe that banning or restricting guns will prevent things like this from happening, others believe that if more people carry guns, less of this would happen because someone would be able to shoot the gunman before he could rack up so many kills. I happen to believe the latter, but I have no way to prove it......and neither does anyone else.
and for the record, I used 'baseball bat' as an example right off the top of my head. I could have said pipe-bomb, un-lit molotovs, or even knitting needles and made the same point. it's presumptious of you to to say 'But I bet you didn't say "Lanza could have killed those kids with a bat" for a reason'. what if I would have suggested that he could have used a knife to kill so many children?
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Uh, I thought your ballwashing of EiI was sarcasm. Wow, just wow. There's actually someone else who agrees with him?
oh, hell no.....I couldn't possibly disagree with him more. your presumption of sarcasm on my part was 100% accurate.
for what it's worth, my take on the subject is that any one of us here could have walked into that school full of little kids with a baseball bat and killed just as many of them as this maniac did. to argue guns as the big issue here is wrong imo.
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Wow! WOW... Azalin! You live!
indeed. only nowadays I tend to read and think a bit more, and shout and argue a bit less.
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Why? You guys wanted a free-for-all PPP forum... Now you are acting like a bunch of pussywillows when children are slaughtered. I didn't say nothing bad. Stop the carnage.
this is only the second post of mine in the last 8 or 9 years....instead of remaining active, I like to come by here and read the back & forth between everyone, especially while taking my lunch break. I must say that this is the first time in quite a long time that I felt compelled to say much of anything, but I just had to jump in here and tell you how much I enjoy reading your posts. they are easily one of the highlights of this forum. please, do not stop....you are proving to me that PP&P can be even greater than I had hoped.
bravo, sir
A tough commentary about Buffalo (sorta Bills-related)
in Politics, Polls, and Pundits
Posted · Edited by Azalin
well, it wasn't intended to be as loaded a question as I see it is in retrospect. I grew up outside of Buffalo, and lived there until I was 24. I remember an awful lot of industry closing when I was a kid.....steel mills, chemical plants, textile factories, etc. it was getting to be pretty damned difficult to get a decent paying job anywhere around there, and having no formal skills at the time, I finally moved to North Carolina in 1982. I remember my parents and grandparents complaining about how incredibly high the property taxes were in the town of Amherst....which seemed to me to be just about as bad as anywhere else in Erie County.
one thing that seems apparent to me after having lived in North Carolina for 8 years and now Texas for 24 years is that quality of life completely depends on what kind of opportunities are available where you live, and that the amount of opportunity available directly depends on the climate for business. if regulatory restrictions and taxes are relatively light, it's much easier for businesses to start up and to stay afloat. the more regulation and taxation come into play, the more difficult the business climate becomes, and the less profitable businesses become. I have no formal education in economics or business....this is based wholly on my own personal observations and experience. I think it's sad that WNY, and especially the city of Buffalo have been through so many years of difficulty.....despite the ungodly winters there, I still have many wonderful memories of the place, and I would love to see the city turn around and thrive once again. instead of just dismissing the idea outright, why not compare New York's tax codes and regulations to those of Texas, see what Texas is doing that maybe New York could adopt themselves? there's obviously SOMETHING working for Texas. people study successful businesses in order to develop a winning strategy or model of their own, so why would this be any different?