I'm feeling the need right now to link you something. ;) Here we go... page 35 of my 47 page ongoing conversation with Andy, in which we wrote veritable NOVELS to each other on the subject of kids and whether they are Teh Evulz or not. (Spoiler: they're not. ;)) So if anyone shouldn't feel obligated to reply to elongated ramblings, it'd be you, haha. :P
Ohhh, tell me about it. I defy anyone - *anyone* - to watch more than three minutes of live British parliamentary debate and not come away hating the souls of every single person in that room. Ugh. Just - just LISTEN to each other, okay? And don't always disagree for the sake of it! And be mature, and don't score points, and for the love of Pete, shut UP when someone else is speaking. FFS. This is elementary secondary school debate club stuff. How and why it is not implemented in the actual RUNNING of my COUNTRY... it boggles the mind.
Also, don't worry about offending me! Ever, about anything, lol. If you're going to have opinions, you better get used to other people's, fairly sharpish... and I've got a lot of opinions, haha. This, in particular, I found really interesting:
You're not alone. ;) I don't think there's anyone who can honestly say they understand every tenement of their chosen doctrine, because there are just so many ambiguities, inconsistencies and downright contradictions floating around. What matters (in my worthless opinion) is that you formulate a belief system that allows you personal freedom while not infringing on the right of others to have the same - which you appear to have done, so kudos. :)
Excuse my nosiness, but I'm fascinated! I think I'm correct in thinking that you identify as Christian, yeah? But at the same time, you say that Christian belief is 'inaccurate and incoherent'. So - if you don't mind my asking, and please ignore me if you do! - how do you determine which bits to follow, which bits to ignore, and which bits you need to make up for yourself? :) Iz genuinely intriguing to me. Is it just gut feeling/trust in God?
Well, exactly. They knew their demographic, though that ad was the very *essence* of preaching to the choir. What would be interesting is to see whether Romney and his team distanced themselves from that ad and criticised it and made it absolutely clear that it was *not* a reflection of their views - then I'd despise the ad, not the candidate. Still. I highly doubt he did - though, hey, maybe I'm wrong. I know next to nothing (better make that nothing, on second thoughts) about political advertising - cos it's banned for some reason in the UK. Well, billboards aren't. Or leaflets. But anything televisual is locked away in a great big black safe, burned in an industrial furnace and then dropped into a nuclear reactor. No idea why.
Which I'm actually totally with - up to a point. That's liberalism, though, which is the funny thing - 'everyone has a right to life, liberty and property', and the government shouldn't interfere when it doesn't need it. Yep. We all agree about that. Which makes the constant mud-throwing - the conversion of the term 'liberal' into an insult, ridiculously - all the more surreal.
Or as I like to call it, the 'I'm All Right, Jack' political philosophy. :P I don't get the selfish perspective, to be honest - liberalism > conservatism because opening the gates for massive personal accumulation of wealth is rather less important than making sure that no one then gets trampled in the headlong stampede for it. S'not rocket science.
Haha, you're allowed to dislike them! :P And if you don't like their standards and political positions, it's pretty safe to say that you don't like them as a group. I mean, not *personally*. I'm sure there are lovely Republicans, just as there are hideous liberals. But you're definitely allowed to have an opinion about their beliefs. I, for example, f**king DETEST the Tories. (It's kind of invigorating just to state that. You should try it some time. :P)