The Water Cooler

Your lack of knowledge of the automotive industry aside, I'm trying to have a civil discussion with you. While you say you started this thread with no intent to "debate", I hate to tell you this, but this is a message board and, well, that's kind of the point. But I'm going to have to agree with Mullet. All of the things you hate about liberals (which I am not, by the way), most notably the curt manner in which they interact with people of opposing view points, is exactly how you are interacting with anyone that isn't coming into this thread and +1'ing you. Quite frankly, I think you're a hypocrite.

Talk about how the current insurance system is perfect and support it with facts and we'll talk about it. I've talked at length about the industry with my father, who is a doctor, at length numerous times. Our health care system is the finest in the world overall and that is because, you're right, it is the product of capitalism. Insurance, however, hasn't worked out in quite the same fashion. It is unaffordable to a lot of people, even hard working people and not the moochers we all hate, and coverage plans from a lot of companies are poor at best. A big problem is that there's not nearly as much competition in the business as you think. BCBS of Alabama has quite a stranglehold on the business in this state.

Then, as we already discussed, you're a fence-sitter, which is the only thing I can imagine worse than a liberal. In fact, you're simply a liberal who is scared to admit it and tries to play both sides...the very definition of a hypocrite. Thanks for butting in on a thread you were plainly asked to avoid, though. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading things from your narrow minded perspective. Sometimes I forget just how clueless the other side really is.

Indeed.

Are we talking theoretical ideologies or realistic ideologies? Because you say conservatives are for less-to-no government control, which is theoretically true, but there are large sects of the conservative population who are anti-gay marriage, which is MORE government control over personal lives, and that's realistically true.

Conservative = "government gtfo of my life and my wallet".

Yes. There is a questionnaire.

1. Do you like big government telling you what to do and stealing money from your pay check while printing fake currency, driving down the value of the dollar, and therefore making your savings as worthless as what they leave in your check as net pay?

For each question above, add 1 for each "yes". Add 0 for each "no". If your total is 1 or greater, get out of this thread. You're a liberal. If your total is less than 1, congrats. You have a brain.

This is getting too close to a debate for my tastes, but I have no stance on gay marriage. I can't have a stance. The government has no right to accept, sanction or recognize any marriage. Marriage is a personal decision between people and their God, if they recognize one, and a government definition of that is not needed. If two guys choose to say they're married, then who is the government to say they aren't...or that they are? Same with two chicks or a dude and a chick. The government has no place here and that's my stance on marriages, gay or otherwise.

No, they aren't. They're not asking the government to regulate buggery; in fact, they're specifically asking government not to sanction it.

Yes.

Just FYI, you giving the government the right to say "yes" is also giving them control. Liberal.

So you know the Board of Governors of the Fed can make monetary decisions without approval of the president. The fact the central bank of the U.S. even has a private ownership dividend bothers me. I'm not a huge fan of central banking to begin with.

Well, in the real world, they have to say something. Theoretically it's all well and good to say, "Well, if we didn't have a federal government, this wouldn't be a problem!" The fact is we do and I can't fight to support a cause which is relevant to friends of mine on a theoretical basis. I have a much higher chance of seeing gay marriage allowed than the U.S. government toppled.