Posts Made By: David Cotterell

REMAIN CALM!!!!!!! (you know who you are....) I know that word riles up some people here like almost no other. Anyway, I'd just like to ask, from a purely academic/political theory standpoint, why those of you who approach politics from the right have such an abiding hatred for socialism? The word seems to be used here as an epithet of of the greatest disdain when referring to certain politicians.
----- After all, socialism is already deeply entrenched in all western democracies. For instance, around the world, various taxes collected from "the people" pay for roads, school, police, military, parks, welfare and many other types of things that can only be construed to be "the common good" and which do not have any kind of "user pay" funding.
------Some countries may include a lot more items in this free "common good" (think Sweden here) while others include fewer (like the USA). Some regimes took it to greater extremes by virtually eliminating capitalism and individual initiative (old school Communism, e.g.) I doubt very much that there is any regime in the world where there is no socialism of this kind.
------Certainly the structure of the tax rates as to who pays what and how it is tied or not tied to income varies wildly around the world as well. But I do not think any political entity can be anything but socialist in its most fundamental sense. It's just a matter of degree, isn't it?
------So why so angry, guys?
Dave in Toronto.

The Health care Bill seems to have passed last night. So, class, does anyone have any comments? Now, now now, let's not always see the same hands!!

Dave

I want to convert a lot of my vinyl into iTunes on my Mac. I'm running Snow Leopard and have the iMic input/output device. I'm hoping to take a line level feed from my amp and input to my computer directly. Can anyone recommend software that is suited to this task. I'm not much interested in altering the sound (click removal, etc.) but I want to be able to choose various compression levels or full fidelity. I don't mind paying up to about $100 to get it either..
Thanks, Dave

I was just making my Star Party plans for 2010 and it occurred to me to ask who from this forum is planning to attend any Star Parties this year. I'm going to the Winter Star Party in Feb., The Texas Star Party in May (if their 'lottery' picks me), Starfest in August (my club runs this one) and Okie-Tex in Oct. It might be interesting to put a face to a name, if possible...... Perhaps if we were to meet face-to-face we'd be more inclined to treat each other just a wee bit more nicely here in the future.
Cheers from Canuckistan, Dave

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/health-bill-boost-budget-office/

Surprising, isn't it?


My flight to Chile leaves in 5 hours. They had three more quakes 6.6 - 6.9 today.

Wish me luck.

And BE NICE while I'm gone.

Dave

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-15166-Dallas-Comedy-Examiner~y2010m3d22-Funny-Video-Hitler-reacts-to-HealthCare-Reform-arrives-online-with-video

See image for inspiration.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/?page=4

Research seems to indicate that ALL of us here on the Politics Forum are destined to continue our unending 'dialog' until the heat-death of the universe.

Lets close the forum and get our telescopes out.....

Dave

This speaks to the conscience (or lack thereof) of BP and certainly sheds light on the reasons for their dreadful safety record. They're a bunch of mega-greedy @#%^&&^(*#%^.

http://crooksandliars.com/nonny-mouse/bp-confirms-it-lobbied-british-governm

In the interest of seeking truth and expecting only the most reasoned, dispassionate debate here I humbly submit this:

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/16/ground_zero_mosque_origins/index.html

I'm not saying the article is completely true but I'm quite sure it contains some veracity...

Dave