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Hmm.. but does that tax refund(just from the school mind) come anywhere near the cost of the private school. I'll use our local private school since it is the one I konw most about. I believe it is 3k to 4k a year to attend(as much as our local college(which is why I remembered the numbers).
The federal government alone pays schools from 4 to 12 thousand dollars per student, per year. (the 12, of course, is an extreme, in the Washington DC area... home to some of the worst schools in the nation. They once tried to drum up support for their schools by painting a van with the slogan: "DC PUBLIC SCHOOLS--IT A BLAST!" (sic) )
And the last time I needed a pair of khakhis pants, I got 'em at Wal-Mart for 12 bucks.
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Speaking of religious intolerance...
Have you read the statements of the terrorists we're at war with?
If these guys aren't practicing "true islam", then why is criticizing them religious intolerance?
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Oh, yes, it's sooooooo caring of you to dictate MY personal life.
I don't remember dictating your personal life, but thanks for letting us know how you stand on the issue.
What I said is that these people need someone to help them, not use them.
And now, the fun part....
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first of all regarding the death sentence. it is writenn in the ten commandments. "thou shall not kill". that is the end of it. it applies to everyone.
God also makes it clear that this doesn't apply to legal punishments. As a matter of fact--do you know what the punishment for killing is in the Old Testament?
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Basicly those opposed to taxes are only opposed to the taxes they don't use. it's the old "it's mine" thing. so the army and roads are okay but helping poor folk out. that's a big no no.
Whoa--you mean us SOB's don't want our money stolen and thrown away? For SHAME!
Meanwhile, I believe I've made it very clear that helping poor folks out is a good thing. However, having our money stolen by a bloated and wasteful beaurocracy for the supposed purpose of helping poor folk out is a different matter. I have just as much compassion as you do--more so, in fact--so you're wasting your time trying to work that angle.
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tut tut tut redneck. there would be no explosion in prosperirty. you said yourself charitable donations should rise. and if all things being equal and fair then noone would be better off because they were spening it on charity and on all the things they would need to buy because the government doesn't do it any more. you know like being educated and literate and all that non essential stuff.
Because we all know that it's far more efficient to let the government do everything. Ask any Russian.
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america is not blowing my country out of the water. it is bigger and more powerful but the economy is weak and falling.
To which it gives me great joy to reply--You Wish.
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where would i have been without all the government aid? well i would be in a private school, the closest one is 50 miles away
Do you understand the law of supply and demand? Look it up.
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i would have had to pay for every time i went to the doctor, had my eyes and teeth checked and treated and for all the prescriptions.
You mean you'd have to pay for what you get? For SHAME!
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my family would not have been able to afford to send me to uni. i would have left school in my 4th year of secondary education and been in a dead end job.
Because if someone else doesn't send you to college, then you just can't go.
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and look at my country's rail system if you want to see what happens when you privatize something.
Why did Britain privatize it, if public management was such a great thing?
And take a look at my country's rail system if you want to see what happens when you don't privatize something.
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yes i am serious redneck.
I was afraid of that. Is that tinfoil hat obscuring your vision?
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it is not god's judgement it is your own.
Wanna see the verses? Trust me, if I'd written the Bible, it would include something about forcing Massechussetts to secede.
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have you ever wondered what would happen if you forced a mother to have a child by preventing abortion? would she love it? take care of it? not neglect it?
Hopefully. If not, there's other options--including adoption. We've got so many more adoptive parents than kids here in America that parents are going to other countries trying to find babies to adopt. (Mind you, this is cool--both for the childless couple being able to adopt and the child who not only has a family now but has one in America--and I don't mean this to in any way be an indictment of the procedure. I'm simply noting that if there was such an overload of babies here in America waiting to be adopted then parents wouldn't be going elsewhere for them.)
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redneck do not be hypocritical. in previous posts you talked about "burger flippers" negatively. now do not turn them into some great career for those who have sinned.
Wrong. In previous posts I talked about "burger flipping" as a career negatively. I've worked burger-flipping jobs as a kid and getting through college. If you're trying to support a family on a "burger-flipping" job, however, you've made the wrong decisions.
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let me explain the water down communism thing. there exists two wings in politics. the left and right. there is extreme and modrate of each. extreme left would be communism. extreme right would be fasicism.
Let me repeat myself. Take any tenet of communism. Weaken it (i.e., water it down). You now have a tenet of liberalism. Despite your attempts to link fascism with conservatives, facism does not 'water down' to conservatism. Nice try, though.
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i cannot ask god and the church to treat me i ask the state to do that.
That says a lot, right there.
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but i some what doubt that some define intervention would cure me.
Cure you? I suppose you figure the state will produce a miracle for you instead? Meanwhile, I suppose some of the people in the church (yes, churches have people in them. Religious people, if you can imagine that. Whole hives of us!) wouldn't help you?
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i don't need that opiate.
No, you need the nanny state to take care of your every need with stolen money. Hell, if you had any guts you'd get yourself a gun and go steal the money yourself--but no, you've got people to hide behind. But your taking the time to reference one of the most abysmal idiots and losers in history was good for a quick laugh.
And this I couldn't wait for....
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redneck we can tell you are a rich man. privately educated, privately nursed, never needed the welfare state. which explains why you cannot see the benefit of the welfare state.
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the only people that do not appreciate the welfare state are those that are too rich to use it. yes redneck that's you.
Normally, I don't think much of the "my life's worse than yours" line. We live in the Land of Opportunity over here, after all, and some of the world's most successful people as well as some of the world's biggest losers have come from the poorest beginnings imaginable as well as some of the richest. But since you seem to have the impression that how much money I had as a child is a vital factor in this debate....
My father was in the Army when I was born, in Ft. Carson. This was before the Montgomery GI Bill was such a huge thing, and before Reagan raised military pay-rates. He made an abysmal salary, despite reaching the rank of Sergeant in three years. It was from Pa that I learned how to float a check, because quite often that's how they managed to get groceries (basically, if you need groceries and payday's a ways off, then you write a check for the groceries. Two days later you write another check. Cash that check and then go to the bank and deposit the money. Your bank account will now read $100 (as an arbitrary figure) because the cash you handed them was entered into your account right away while the check you cashed will take a few days to clear. Now, when the check from the grocery store comes in your account will have the money in it, so your check doesn't bounce. Two days later you do it again, and again, and again if necessary, until payday. I don't know if it was then, but it's illegal now--in other words: don't try this at home, kids.). After his time in the Army was up, Pa took a job as a garbageman. And another job, and sometimes a third, to support his family. He's in his late 40's and has yet to own a new car--among my memories is blowing an engine on the interstate in December on the outskirts of Chicago, and helping Pa put together pretty nearly an entire exhaust system for a Pinto out of bean-cans and worm-clamps. He had a mortgage on a house, but lost it when I was 9 and we had to move to Alabama where he was offered a job managing a cleaning-crew at the mall--and again, at least one other job. We moved back to Illinois after a year (horrible place; I can't stand Illinois), where I remember more than once everybody sleeping in the same room with every sleeping-bag and blanket in the house because we couldn't afford the gas bill. We lived off of Ramen noodles and Macaroni and Cheese. Rarely did I have clothing that was even new, much less brand-name, and I remember taking a lot of flack for it at school.
When I was sixteen, my Pa borrowed money to go to a trucking school and get his CDL. The money was a bit better, but the cost to it was seeing our father on weekends--sometimes--because otherwise he was anywhere from Pennsylvania to Idaho delivering freight. He borrowed more money to try and start his own business, and it failed miserably, leaving him saddled with debt. Not a rich man by any stretch of the imagination--but he never needed the government to provide for his family with stolen money.
When I got out of high school, I joined the Army. Some time in South Carolina, then off to Korea for a year ("Hey, Ma, it's me. I found out where I'm goin'." "Really? Where?" "Korea." "KOREA?!?" "It's this whole other country...." "That's not funny.") where I learned that some people eat jerked squid and that kim'chi is the vilest substance known to man (and that Mama-san will leave you alone if you ask does she have any daughters. I swear, you walk down the street and you have to pry that woman's hand off your arm...). After the Army I took a job driving a cement mixer. That was the summer it reached 115 degrees down here in Georgia, and I drove a truck with a black vinyl interior for 12-17 hours a day... a truck with a center of gravity about six inches over my head, with a liquid, constantly moving load, and bad breaks. DOT regulations say you can't drive more than 70 hours in 8 days. More times than I can count I drove more than 70 hours in 6 days.
After that, college, living in a trailer, in a trailer park where I was one of the only people who spoke English and working in a grocery store to make rent--and yet again living off of Ramen noodles and Macaroni and Cheese. During this time I saw plenty of people on welfare, using the WIC vouchers and EBT card for their purchases, and saw first-hand that these people live much, much better than I do. Got my Associate's degree, moved up to Dahlonega to be near the North Georgia College, and my truck broke down. About $500 to fix and three weeks out of work. Had to borrow money at a fairly exhorbitant rate to cover it, and two months after I finally finished payin' 'em off, it broke down again--for good, this time. Borrowed money for a car, then borrowed money to fix it. So five months later when the car crapped its transmission, I didn't have the money to fix or replace the thing, and couldn't borrow it. I had to quit my job (I'd been movin' up--had a job at a Wal-Mart by this time, for 9 bucks an hour) and pick one up deep-frying chicken--and riding a bicycle 7 miles each way to work.
Currently, I live in a trailer. I have one firearm (I had more when times were good, and had to pawn them to make my bills), an old 4-10 my Pa gave me. I work a job in construction, lugging 80-pound concrete forms in the hot sun, riding a shovel, and swinging a pick all day. I still have no car. I haven't been able to afford any alcohol for the last few months, and I'm stuck living with a roommate who is an inveterate loser pothead, a guy who lets his parents take care of his kid for him so he can put his entire paycheck to weed and continually makes juvenile attempts to cheat me out of money. This is a good thing--I'm getting out of debt, saving money, and getting ready to get back into college so I can finish up, get my Bachelor's degree, and begin my career.
And you're going to tell me that I'm rich? You, who have had everything you ever needed from medical care to college to your house to the gym you go to provided for you with stolen money, are going to claim that my "riches" insulate me from real life?
Get bent.
EDIT: One day I need to come back and read this post because you fascinate me, Mr. Redneck. Unfortunately, direct insults aimed at other members get you banned from this forum. -Murder