State Your Positions

[John Dibble]

Here goes,

Abortion - Not personally in favor of it, would never have one myself and would discourage it to anyone considering one. No government funding of it. Wouldn't outright ban it because it would just go underground.

War on Iraq - Not a necessary war. Getting rid of tyrants is good, but I don't feel Saddam posed a real threat to us(WMD or no), so I don't think we needed to do it. Avoid foreign entaglements in general - Leave the UN(any organization where tyrants get the same vote power as us is not good).

Tax Cuts - Bad when we have a deficit. Even if the tax system is not fair, we need to be fiscally responsible. Cut spending, then cut taxes, though lowering taxes in the first place would be a better system.

Gun Control - No federal control, and very few limits the states can impose(mainly on assault weapons, which shouldn't be carried outside of the house or shooting range for any other purpose than opposing a tyrannical government, which we don't have, or foreign invaders).

Education - No federal control. Leave it to state and local government. Give a tax break up to $500 to people who directly fund the education of another person's child.

Religion - Officials can believe what they wish, but they can't enact any laws based on religion. No ten commandments official displays in govt. buildings - they are perhaps good ideas but only three of them are actually laws.

Homeland Security - Rework the CIA, FBI, and law enforcment agencies so they actually share intelligence. Create a new form of airport security that acts like the secret service - smart, well trained, and knows what they are looking for - like in Israel's Tel-Aviv airport(safest in the world). Revise the Patriot Act to include probable cause and take out the more ridiculous parts.

Government and Free Trade - Keep government out of it for the most part. Strip barriers to free trade with other nations. Keep some monopoly and antitrust laws, because competition is good and keeps prices down.

Other Civil Liberties -
Restore prisoner's rights to vote after they have served their time.
End the drug war - let people make their own bad decisions.

Gay Marriage - No federal intervention. Allow people to determine the contractual terms of their own relationships, not the government. Government should only enforce those terms.

Death Penalty - In favor, provided there's adequate proof of guilt. When you take away the civil liberties, such as the right to life, you forfeit those rights yourself. While torture and hard labor is not undeserved, these cost money and I'd rather just be rid of the bastards. If hard labor is to be used, ensure it pays the prison costs of the prisoner.

[John Dibble]

Death penalty - only for cop killers.

I'm not quite sure what you mean... is the person who shoots and kills me should die, but who shoots you does not?

I say jail for life for both instead... Why stoop to there level. An Eye for an Eye is an ancient concept.

This post bothered me too - how is my life less valuable than a cop's? Though, I say they should both die - eye for an eye may be ancient, but that doesn't mean it has no merit. You have a murder in your family and I think you'll change your tune.

[John Dibble]

I still think rotting in a jail cell for the rest of their life and then dying alone is horrid.

If that were the case I would agree.

Considering the luxuries afforded to people in prison, I say just kill them. When you violate the rights of others and your guilt is proven, I say you lose the rights you took. I say it's not only a good thing to do to kill a murderer, I say it's moral.

I'd prefer them to either die or work VERY HARD labor for the rest of their lives.

My neighbor has an interesting idea - buy up all the land in Alabama, wall it off, and release violent prisoners into the wild to fend for themselves.

[John Dibble]

Pretty generous with the land as long as it is Alabama, eh? Why not wall off Georgia?

It was a joke. People in Georgia always make fun of Alabama(and as I understand it, people in Alabama make fun of Mississippi).

Alabama has a lower population anyways, easier to relocate people. Of course, how bout Wyoming istead - small population, and it's a square shape, easier to build the wall.

[John Dibble]

I still think rotting in a jail cell for the rest of their life and then dying alone is horrid.

If that were the case I would agree.

Maybe we could reinstate it, just for those lifers-without-perolers

I'd be in favor of that. The guy who killed my father has life-without-parole.

[John Dibble]

Building the wall through some pretty high mountains might be tricky! Put 'em in Puerto Rico!

Better idea - we'll buy one of Canada's northern provinces and wall that off.

[John Dibble]

I still think rotting in a jail cell for the rest of their life and then dying alone is horrid.

If that were the case I would agree.

Maybe we could reinstate it, just for those lifers-without-perolers

I'd be in favor of that. The guy who killed my father has life-without-parole.

I'm sorry *is unsure what to say other than that*)


Anyway, I think there should be a little laughing slot in it so you can laugh at the prisoner's misery and squalor.  Ahahahahah!

No. Even though I think he deserves to suffer, I don't find any joy in inflicting suffering on the wicked and deserving - it's merely something that must be done. To get joy out of suffering would make me no better.

[John Dibble]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Why?
[/quote] Because they stand in the way of equal opportunity. [/quote]

For the life of me I can't figure out why some people would want to end private schools. Equal opportunity - it's an impossibility, get over it. You want to ban private schools, that doesn't give people equal opportunity - the people who can afford private school will hire tutors for their kids, and those who are rich enough will just hire teachers to home school. I suppose you'd like to ban those in the name of equal opportunity? You want to send kids from good schools to inferior ones for the mere crime of having parents willing to spend money on a better education for their children - how selfless of you. We live in a capitalist society - there will always be those who have better opportunities. If you hate those that are well off so much you should move to a communist nation - they're all about equality.

And just so you know, I went to public school.

[John Dibble]

Well, my way of saying it was a bit more cool and composed, but I think cwelsch sums it up pretty well too.

[John Dibble]

For the life of me I can't figure out why some people would want to end private schools.

Because so many private schools suck.

Well, by that logic we should end public schools, because so many of them suck.

[John Dibble]

My school sure doesn't suck, Bandit.

Mine did. In the immortal words of one of my former schoolmates, our school sucked the suckingest sucking that ever sucked.

Care to try an inner city public school?

[John Dibble]

Care to try an inner city public school?

I have.

In the early '90s, when violent crime was supposedly at its peak, no less.

Let me say, it was quite possibly the best school I ever attended.

Guess you got lucky then. Anyways, kids hate school - public or private. You don't have to like it, and you can drop out when you're 16. That's fine with me. What with child labor laws, there's not much else they could do with their time until then.