Zack

Because you don't like it. It makes it entirely worth it just to know that.

Originally, it was exclusive to ebonics. But it's really popular now, so the distinction is breaking down.

No, but I do speak with similar vowel sounds, pacing, and some words (i.e. all of my gerunds sound like -in' instead of -ing). I taught science labs at inner city middle schools during my undergrad, and I guess it stuck. To be fair, it is becoming quite common amongst Midwesterners, Southerners, and even West Coast types as well, just not amongst Bostonian accents.

You're too quick to be a teenager!

Me too. He can't help but be condescending and a total prick in practically every reply.

It's one thing to strongly disagree and get carried away, it's quite another to be a permanent jerk. I'm glad I finally got him to put me on his ignore list - I am absolutely sick of debating him (though I never tire of attacking him). It's not that I can't handle an intense debate, he's just such a jerk all the freaking time.

I'm giving you a digital high five over to quoque right now. \o/

Moar substance!!!!

Fair point. I suppose you could argue that "X" is good, although I think you'd probably agree with most of my non-economic criticisms (I imagine you support gun control as well, but I didn't mention it here.)

I don't know, I consider private property to be a good thing and so I consider government intrusion on such to be at best a necessary evil and at worse a bad, unnecessary evil. I could probably construct a defense of those principles, but I can't really do so on the fly. Let me think more on it, but for now let me just say that those are my values. I value individual choice over optimal efficiency (If government is indeed the most efficient method anyway, which I think it sometimes is but sometimes not.)

I'm not delusional enough to think we can cut government to 10% of its current size overnight of course. While I do think we can absolutely withdraw from world policing tomorrow (And let the rest of the world deal with whatever consequences us not constantly taking care of them can bring) I wouldn't have any intention of ending, say, social security tomorrow. People are dependent on it and I want to phase it out responsibly. (Social security is in and of itself a bad thing both because it enforces fiscal responsiblility, which I don't think is the government's place, and because contrary to myth people don't pay into it to collect, those who are still working are actively subsidizing the old.)

Well, we'd disagree on what things are good. I don't necessarily think more social welfare is always a good thing.

However, while I think it is theoretically possible for government to do good, I think it only very rarely happens.

And I don't want them to not exist. I just want them to be far smaller than they are.

I don't want 40% of my paycheck going to Uncle Sam for whatever inefficient things he may deem it good for. I want to be able to keep as much of my own money as possible. And so when I vote based on economics that is what I'm going to vote for.

There are other issues I care about of course. I don't like Republican neocons, and honestly, I dislike them even more than I dislike social democrats. I'm not really firmly on the Republican side. But on the economics I will side with those who want the ruling class to take as little as is humanely possible.

Oh, and if we completely ignore the coercion argument, while people like you might do good sounding (Even if inefficient, again, ignoring the coercion) things like give people healthcare and a social safety net, there are other people who would use those same big government powers to arrest American citizens without trial, bomb innocent civilians, and fight wars on drugs.

Basically, I personally don't consider most of what the government does, whether it is ruled by conservatives or liberals, to be good. I think its good that people don't watch porn, but I don't want to use violence or the threat thereof to make anyone comply. That would also be immoral. I don't like drugs but I don't want to use force to prevent people from using them. That would be immoral. And while I see no good reason for people to possess personal fortunes in the tens of billions, I think this too is not any of the government's business to enforce, however.

If you want social justice, you should be able and willing to use means other than government force to attain it.

I know you aren't going to agree with that reasoning. I can't convince you anymore than I can convince some of the older guys in my church that blue laws are a crappy idea (Yes, I seriously had the idea mentioned in a favorable light in sunday school today). But that's my reasoning.

Its wasteful, inefficient, and most importantly, coercive.

I want people to be able to be as free as possible, free from the coercion of other people.

Believe it or not, both the American left and the American right use religious reasoning. The right uses religious reasoning to impose social mores, while the left uses it to impose social justice. There are exceptions to these fairly broad brushes, of course, but the reality is that its not really the religious Republicans against the politically secular Dems. If you said the Republicans were more directly motivated by religion I might agree, some parts of some Republican beliefs can only be motivated by religion (I don't think any atheists want to ban porn, but some would certainly mandate redistrubiution of wealth to the poor.)

To be continued.

What was the context to that quote of mine in your sig?

I noticed! That replaced the spotted dick quote before it.

Thanks!

''"I would sure as hell never sleep with a woman" - GhostWriter16''

Where is this quote from?

I can do one Saturday night.

I only spend the day at the church because it's a lot of gasoline to drive back and forth, we don't have services for 8 hours.

I don't update on Sunday. Kinda hard when you're at church, and there is no internet.

. obviously that's more of a parent oriented type article, since few engineers actually care about the friendliness of everyone, but video is nicer. Although the job market does look very positive and consistently ranks like top 3 (behind petroleum engineering) in starting career salary on payscale and such. Though that's not a reason to be interested.