Like What Exit?, I believe we should have a strong military.
That military should be housed entirely within the U.S. (including proctectorates). No foreign bases.
I believe that kindness is infinitely more admirable than intellect.
I believe that being overly stubborn is worse than being wrong.
I believe that bad breath is a far greater social disgrace than farting in public.
I would enjoy a separate thread on this subject alone. I believe foreign bases are a major part of a strong military. Especially Navy Bases. Let me know if we should start a GD or IMHO on this?
Jim
You would just love me. 
I’m nice but dumb and meek, I brush my teeth frequently and fart in public!
I believe everyone here will realize that Jesus Christ is Lord, hopefully happily so.
I believe that American conservative politics, libertarian economics & Evangelical Christianity are the worst political, economic & religious ideologies except for everything else.
I believe I ripped that last belief off of a quote by Winston Churchill.
I believe that eventually someone will film Bram Stoker’s DRACULA and do it right.
I believe the same about Ayn Rand’s ATLAS SHRUGGED but I am not expecting it about Angelina Jolie’s performance as Dagny Taggart.
If I have to start doing research during work hours to the “Cite” army, I’ll pack up my bags and go home. IMHO would be better.
Some more:
Some of the wisest things I’ve ever heard were spoken by standup comedians. More of them should run for public office.
American politics needs to revert quickly back to the model I was taught in school. Anyone attempting to subvert these things or extend their powers should be thrown in prison. No more signing statements and the like.
I think more government programs should be self funding in terms of monies collected by those groups should be used only by those groups, ala fishing and hunting license revenue should only be available to spend on DNR programs.
Any public official who attempts the wholesale selling of our National Parks and Forests should be charged with treason.
I think that any company that bids to work on roads and highways should be expected to submit a realistic timeline of completion at the time of that bid, and if they can’t keep it they should be prevented from obtaining another state/city contract for a minimum of 5 years. They should also be held accountable for the quality of the work performed.
Funny, I have no doubt that for most of the population, violent video games and, to some extent, ANY simulated antisocial behavior reduces the urge to commit real violence etc.
[QUOTE=Tanglewood]
[li] Terminally God-boggled fundamentalist Muslims, who loudly take to London’s streets declaiming against Western values with placards like “Exterminate those who slander Islam” should be permanently exiled from the UK.[/li][/QUOTE]
You don’t understand. They’re only calling for extermination because they’re so angry at being called a religion of violence.
You sound quite charming.
Seriously.
If you’d rather be sexy than smart, you and I are soulmates. 
My opinion is simply that children aren’t special, and people who have children aren’t special, and there shouldn’t be any special treatment for people who have children, because they are the vast majority and the default condition for adult humans. Children are just small, immature humans who need to be strictly controlled by their handlers when around other people so they can learn how to live in society. Not an extremely popular opinion anywhere, and one that I don’t feel free to express in very many places in our Cult of the Child society. Heck, I don’t feel free to express it here - I expect an ass-handing for coming clean here.
Did I win?
I believe “just don’t feel like it” is no excuse for neglecting your partner’s sexual needs.
I believe women need sex as much as men do.
I believe the cruelty makes foie gras all the more tasty.
I believe Skilling and Lay should have been executed, but also that some Enron workers were pretty foolish to not to pay more attention to diversification.
Christanity is actually simple stuff, but churches come up with al these “this is evil” and “these are evil” just to control people.
That may just add up to people refusing to do anything at all in circumstances they can’t control. That scares me.
IOW, you’re either a Calvinist or a status qujo apologist. What you’re saying is, in effect, “If you’re a white-collar criminal prick with a shitload of money and three palatial homes, you automatically deserve it, no questions. And if you’re a single mom with 5 kids who has to work the graveyard shift at Squall-Mart and live by a crackhouse, you deserve that, too.”
And Fundamentalist Christianity will be right in there pitching.
And all these newly-ascendant fundies are part of the problem – most all unwittingly, but quite a few cynically, having hidden old tribal war-gods in Jesus’ robes and begun praying to them.
I believe there are a lot more sociopaths than you do, and that they are some of the most resilient and adaptive survivalists on Earth.
And harmful and/or useless to humanity? Put your money where your mouth is.
And you probably also think it has the best drivers, the most livable big cities, and the cleanest government. No? (Here’s a hint: NO.)
So you believe shame and repressed anger are positive qualities that build strong adults?
And the wise are both weaker and more willing than the simple believers in Moral Clarity?
Hey, I think the war is a shameful jack-off exercise myself, but that just sucks.
Who said that was controversial?
That last brings me around to another of my Beliefs:
Marketing has becomes such a powerful force that it now pretty much supports itself. Marketers no longer cater to public tastes so much as shape them to their own preconceptions and the parent company’s bottom line. When Big Business, Big Media, etc., says “We give the public what it wants,” they really mean, “We give the public what we want.”
Status quo, natch. (The status qujo is the status quo’s evil canine partner.)
I’ll meet you halfway.
Yes, there is a Cult of the Child. You can, and have to, take them everywhere these days, and every allowance is expected to be made for them – much more than simple caring and courtesy would indicate.
However. I notice a backlash festering amongst the childfree, and it makes me kind of sick, because I fully expect to remain on of their number. Call it the Cult of the Adult, if you like. This backlash potentially plays into the hands of cultural conservatives who would like to remake childhood into a routine of conformity and punishment on behalf of Elders and Betters, presumably because they hate psychology and think self-esteem is bullshit.
I hope we don’t mkake that mistake. If we do, we’re going to raise even angrier and more self-righteous young people than ever.
I believe the Honda Element is a good-looking car.
Really? What gives you the idea he’s happy about it?
I believe the liberation of children will be the last final and most important liberation movement. Just as the question of the liberation of women didn’t quite reduce to simple black-and-white oppressor-and-victim analyses, that of the liberation of children will be even less reducible, and will be more complicated by several orders of magnitude. And just as the social movement feminism / womens’ liberation was essentially not revolutionary in the “violent overthrow” sense but did heavily involve “political overthrow” in elective offices, laws, and court decisions, that for the liberation of children will not be practical even in those terms, but will depend almost exclusively on “conceptual overthrow”, the changing of how people perceive and behave and interact.
• In broad general terms, children will be treated “as equals” with dignity and rights, but the changes absolutely positively will not, can not, consist merely of keeping all the same laws, structures, conventions, societal roles, etc and then trying to make them all “age-neutral”.
• Although the “Institution of Childhood” is more easily recognized and conceptualized as a social construct, the far-less-obvious Institution of Adulthood will necessarily also be dismantled by this liberation.
• Oppressions previously addressed such as sexism (/patriarchy), racism (/colonialism/caste), class, and other areas of institutionalized inequality will be better understood, and their remaining manifestations better addressed, as we come to understand the ways in which they are manifestations of the adult/child power relationship and how it is codified in social structures.
OK, now that’s just sick.