Only if you assume one person’s proposed legislation is supported by everyone. Which it isn’t. Anyone with a modicum of sense or cooking experience can see how ridiculous the bill is. It’s not going to get passed, it’s just one loony. Chillax, dawg.
Eh, I can’t see the “little steps” argument being particularly overshadowed by the “big leaps” one. Sure, it’s easy to creep something up on someone, whether that’s your goal or not, if they’re willing to define down to the last degree. But if you think entirely in black and white, once you’re convinced, that’s it, you’re done. It’s an on/off switch. In both cases, you’re pretty much reliant on your own personal judgement, and society in general to the judgement of all (and it’s not necessarily good judgement that’s key), but in all honesty, I really don’t see a vast amount of practical difference between dozens of easily flipped switches and one tricky one. Honestly, I don’t see why responsibility should be laid at the feet of the grey-seeing to any considerable extent greater than the black/whiters.
As a general point, are these two statements not somewhat problematic?
I mean, so far as I can tell, the first would imply that you see the populace, in general, wising up to how lefties work and what their ideals are and mean. And, on the other hand, the second statement would tend to imply you see inevitable failure of righties and general acceptance on behalf of the populace of those lefty ideals.
It doesn’t seem particularly fair to hold up the “horrible lefty triumphant future” and “lefty ideals seen for what they truly are” cards at the same time. Surely it’s one or the other?
It just boggles me, that such a thing would even be thought of.
It’s indicative of a trend, and that trend is toward increasing government supervison and control over our lives. It is indeed a slippery slope and it needs to be resisted firmly every time it rears its ugly head, whether people think this or that element of it will pass or not.
Yes, I do see the populace wising up to how lefties work and what their ideals are and mean, but that’s a short term thing and can’t be counted on long term. For example, how much effect is the Republican revolution of 1994 having on the politics of today? The long term trend in this country has been toward increasing government interference in and supervision of our lives. This is apparent when you look at John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech, where he said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”, and contrast that with the election of Barack Obama, who said in effect, “Vote for me and I’ll take from the rich and give to you…and oh, yeah, I’ll make everybody pay for your health care, too”. And this shift has taken place just in the last forty-five years, so you can clearly see the trend.
Then look at the incredible arrogance of today’s Congress, where you have things like the so-called “stimulus” package, which was little more than a giant pork bill, and the UHC effort, which most of the people in this country neither trust nor want, and Congress and Obama are determined to cram them down our thoats whether we like it or not, even if, as Nancy Pelosi has said, it costs them their jobs.
And once things like this get implemented, they’re almost impossible to get rid of.
So you have a situation where the government is doing things that increase government power over our lives, and once it’s in place we’re stuck with it even if the bums get thrown out come the next election. And it’s that kind of thing that is taking us inexorably down the road to government-as-parent that I foresee as becoming ubiquitous over the next fifty to one hundred years.
No, that doesn’t seem reasonable, or at least, requires a bit more qualification. That would imply that the populace isn’t wising up to lefty politics, but rather, to the particular government of the day. Or that it isn’t fully wising up, since that would mean they’d simply keep lefties out of government as much as they can for however long those entrenched problems need to be removed.
It still doesn’t work. Essentially your argument boils down to, as I see it, “People are wising up - but not quickly or effectively enough to actually effect any meaningful change”. Which doesn’t really seem all that impressive or noteworthy.
Seriously? Do you cook? Do you realize that baking is pretty much dead in the water without salt? Ever had, say, a focaccia without salt? Lemme tell you: the first time I ever made it, the recipe said to add salt after beating the dough. I forgot to do so. It was a mouthful of…nothing. It had a vaguely yeasty flavor, but nothing else. It didn’t even taste like bread. It was awful. So what are you gonna do? Ban salt, and then ask patrons to salt their own freaking bread at the table? It wouldn’t even have the same effect.
I’m with you on iodization, but there are a few good reasons to limit GM food, including ecological (potential competition and outcrossing with natives), economic (patenting the seed bank? Really?), and health (no long-term studies have ever been conducted on the potential long-term effects of GM-derived pesticides that are genetically introduced into plants).
…this, as a matter of fact:
In fact, that quote about Obama’s “America Serves” project has often been explicitly compared to JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”" speech:
And I remember that when Obama gave that call to action consciously echoing the JFK theme of service to the nation, all you raving loons on the moronic-right part of the spectrum were practically shitting your pants over the alleged “fascism” and “totalitarianism” of this dreadful concept. “Obama’s creating a new cadre of Brownshirts!” “Obama wants us all to sacrifice our individual freedom for the glorious collective!” :rolleyes:
And now a year or so later here you are, complaining that Obama ought to be more like JFK saying “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.
I swear, do you representatives of the moronic-right simply have no ability to remember what you were saying last year? Or is it that you imagine that we have no ability to remember what you were saying last year?
In politics, nothing is certain. But in this country there’s a constant push from one end of the spectrum and constant resistence from the other end. The push is always toward the liberal. Sometimes one side wins and sometimes the other does. But the thing is, when the liberal side wins the country gets pushed further left. When the conservative side wins, things pretty much just stay as they are. So in effect things are either remaining static or they’re moving left, and, given that each side wins some of the time, the result is an inexorable move to the left, with occasional hickups when the conservatives win.
And then in addition to this phenomenon, you have the fact that to a large degree government social programs and oversight are large self-perpetuating. People become used to them and heavily vested in them financially, and young people born into them grow up with acceptance of them as just the normal way of things.
And so one social program begets another, which begets another, and so on.
So I guess you could say I’m encouraged by the fact that many people in the country are becoming insensed by Democratic government overreach and that a large conservative hickup may well occur, but I still expect that in fifty to a hundred years from now this country will be in the hands of a nanny-state government that controls and dictates most areas of people’s lives, and it is that type of government I’m happy I won’t have to live under. People love their parents but they can grow up and move away to live their own lives. When the government becomes your parent, you don’t have that option.
I mean fluoridation, of course. :o
Well, in the first place you didn’t see me shitting myself and hollering about Brownshirts.
In the second place, people can call that speech anything they want; it doesn’t make it so. John F. Kennedy didn’t run around seeking election by promising to pull our troops out of Vietnam, tax the shit out of people making over $240,000 a year and creating a huge government healthcare program…all of which Obama did.
And for that matter, Obama himself never said he was going to do much of what he’s done, like the huge pork/stimulus bill, bailouts and virtual nationalization of the American auto and banking industries, and this colossal healthcare cluster fuck of a bill that no one, not even the lawmakers themselves, knows what’s in it. If Obama had done in his last year of office the same things he’s done in his first year he wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance of getting reelected, and he well may not even now.
the chef’s name is “gareth blackstock” and the series is “Chef!”
I think this is the one you mean
Well, you’re certainly correct that Obama didn’t launch his campaign on a platform of proposals for massive recovery efforts to cope with the Bush Administration’s infliction of the most serious economic disaster since the Great Depression. But that’s because nobody knew at the time that the Republicans were going to screw things up quite so catastrophically.
The bailouts, of course, were begun under Bush, and the phrase “virtual nationalization” is so ridiculous that I don’t think you yourself could explain what you meant by it.
Real Americans ™ don’t even know how to pronounce focaccia, let alone make it. Problem solved.
That ain’t nothing. Wait until they put bacon sniffing dogs in every airport terminal.
Thats the guy and the show was freaking hilarious
Health in the US is often a function of lifestyle, and if the government pays for your health care, they are going to tell you how to live your life. The basic right in America is the right to tell the government “this is none of your fucking business”, and that right is suffering the death of a thousand cuts.
Regards,
Shodan
Banning trans fats is a good thing. Banning salt is a bad thing. There are incredibly good reasons to ban trans fats, and incredibly good reasons to not ban salt. There is no reason one should lead to the next.
This will not pass, you fucking alarmist idiots. It is one lunatic, one outlier, who isn’t setting or even continuing a trend.
Although I think I’m pissed more at that retard Ortiz for giving whackjobs a new conspiracy theory to latch onto. It’s not like we need more hysterical nutbars deciding a revolution is in order.
Ah, that’s frakking hilarious! Thanks for that one!
if you think that’s hilarious, do yourself a favor and watch the whole series… and if you can’t, just watch season 1 episode 5 “fame is the spur”