conservatives

1 John 3:17-18

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

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So, after the deplorable acts of recklessness of this week, do "our" demonstratively heartless Governor and his rich, freedom-fried buddies in the NC House and Senate claim to be Christian? Can they do something in the interests of the people of North Carolina they are supposedly "serving?" All I've seen them do for their fellow man is to limit and deny care to the sick and the poor.

George Will’s editorial today in our Star-News about the evils of taxation and income redistribution almost had me. As Mr. Will said, government often gives our monies to those who neither need it or deserve it. He correctly states our monies often go to powerful interests but fails to identify those parties until the end of his editorial. Reading along, one thinks he’s talking about billions in tax subsidies to already highly profitable oil companies or capital gains tax breaks for the wealthy, bail-outs given to unethical banks and investment houses, and so on.

Reflecting on my "evolution" comment of last night, I thought "That was over the top...I ought to apologize." I thought about it some more and decided, "No, I'm not going to do it. "This stuff about conservatives positioning themselves as the hardworking virtuous trying to save the country from the lazy and wasteful who want to redistribute wealth to their own advantage, and conservative's supposedly basing their decisions on logic as opposed to decisions made by liberal bleeding hearts...has come down to war. And, it's personal. And I'm going to fight...and don't really care if I insult some folks.

Up front, my wife and I are blessed. We don't have worries about how we're gonna pay the monthly bills and so on.

This item is cross-posted by Kevin Rogers at Action NC

Had I known nothing about economics or governance before watching last week’s Republican debates, I would have thought that destroying government was the only way to save it. I would, of course, be wrong. To quote Woodrow Wilson, “A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks - mostly sits.” While these particular conservatives were standing, it was clear that not much thinking was going on either.

George Lakoff has leaped into the breach one more time to remind us that conservatives (right wingers) actually do think radically differently than those on the left/liberal and left/moderate sides of the block. And that set of differences is one reason we cannot communicate, even if the right wanted to.

From Truthout-Lakoff: The central issue in our political life is not being discussed. At stake is the moral basis of American democracy.

The individual issues are all too real: assaults on unions, public employees, women's rights, immigrants, the environment, health care, voting rights, food safety, pensions, prenatal care, science, public broadcasting and on and on.

It seems that many of those who are regular guests of this space are committed to a worldview based on some degree of reason and rationality.

That's a handy thing if the "Covert Alarm Locator Apparatus" in your Isaac Daniel® Compass Global 1000 GPS sneakers should happen to fail and you need to find your way back to where the rest of us are; sadly, not all voters are equipped with such a helpful worldview.

Luckily for them, there are lots of conservative "mouth organs" ready to fill the "information gap".

They send out lots of emails every day, spreading their Word, and as a public service I receive several of them; this to help keep track of just what's out there, exactly.

If you ever wondered why otherwise normal people believe some of the craziest things about "Obama's Secret Death Care And National Virgin Sacrifice Program", have a look at some of the things I get every single day, and it might all make a bit more sense.

Funny stuff this week coming from the American Enterprise Institute, that smarter, older version of North Carolina's very own Locke foundation. Follow the link to a full-fledged treatise on questions about the intelligence of conservatives, ending with a certain conclusion that intelligence doesn't matter, except when it comes with a decidedly libertarian slant.

Good for a laugh.

There are weeks when it is embarrassing to be from the mountains, or maybe even from North Carolina when Virginia Foxx is discussing Health Care Reform. This is one of those weeks! She was actually at this rally. I wonder if she talked about frying squash for her husband again.

(cross-posted from The Progessive Pulse)

Question: If you are conservative, what do you call your government's future obligations?

Answer: Unfunded Liabilities.


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