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Monday, February 25, 2008
Burt Prelutsky :: Townhall.com Columnist
The Great Divide, Politically Speaking
by Burt Prelutsky
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After pondering the chasm that exists between liberals and conservatives, I’ve concluded that the differences must be determined by something as basic as their DNA. Just as some people are born left-handed, others, unfortunately, are born left-wingers.

Liberals, as proof that they’re the most intelligent people on the face of the earth, will often point to the fact that most liberal arts professors are leftists. The problem is that while there are undeniably very brainy men and women on university campuses, they are usually found teaching science, engineering and mathematics, not history, English and sociology. Being tenured in the liberal arts building is hardly an indication of brilliance. It merely suggests that one had an abnormal tolerance for being lectured to as a young man and an overwhelming urge to lecture others as an old man.

Liberals also suffer from the delusion that a modicum of talent trumps kindness, honesty and decency. One merely has to note the amount of respect that those on the left had for Hitler’s favorite moviemaker, Leni Riefenstahl, who produced the Nazi propaganda films, “Olympiad” and “Triumph of the Will.”

Or consider the fact that Norman Mailer and several other members of the New York literati used every bit of their considerable influence to spring Jack Henry Abbott, who was in jail for forgery and for killing a fellow inmate, for no better reason than that they’d thought his prison memoir, “In the Belly of the Beast,” was so marvelous. Six weeks after his release, Abbott stabbed 22-year-old Richard Adan to death in New York City. I doubt if anyone is too surprised that the older son of Hollywood lefties Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon was named Jack Henry Robbins in his honor. But even I was taken aback when I learned that young Robbins was born eight years after Abbott killed Mr. Adan.

In a more recent case, Jack Unterweger was a serial killer who left behind a pile of corpses in Austria and America. He, too, was a writer who was granted a pardon because left-wing Austrian intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner, Stalin sympathizer, Elfriede Jelinek, were so impressed by his prose style. Interestingly enough, Jelinek, a fervent feminist, was even willing to overlook the fact that Unterweger’s victims were all women.

Yet another sign of the left’s inability to think straight is their refusal to accept the importance of designating English as our official language. Instead of pushing to have Hispanic kids immersed in English, at the behest of the teachers unions they promote bi-lingual education. What’s more, they refuse to acknowledge that the present system hogties and frustrates young Hispanics, and helps explain why record numbers drop out of high school as soon as the law allows.

It’s not just the teachers, who have bonuses and promotions to consider, who are to blame. We also have congressmen such as Charles Gonzalez of Texas and Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, a couple of race hucksters who could give Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton a run for their money, claiming that the Salvation Army is a racist organization for insisting that their employees speak only English on the job.

Isn’t it odd that Europeans who have no intention of moving to America feel it’s beneficial to learn English, but millions of Latinos living here in the United States don’t? A recent poll disclosed that seventy-five percent of Hispanic immigrant parents have no command of English. That’s pathetic.

One might argue that in the case of most illegal immigrants, they were already adults when they decided to sneak across the border. But how is it that the major leagues are filled with Latinos whose one ambition since the age of eight or nine was to play baseball in this country but never even bothered learning how to say curve ball, slider or free agent, in English?

As you have surely noticed, it’s always the conservative politicians who support the idea of making English our official language, never the liberals. Frankly, I don’t think too many of us on the right were terribly surprised that when a Gallop poll recently asked people about the state of their mental health, 58% of Republicans said it was excellent, but just 43% of independents and only a scant 38% of Democrats.

Finally, I am getting awfully tired of Hillary’s trying to play it both ways. When she’s out there on the stump, surrounded by her fawning sycophants, she wants us to picture her staring down Islamic terrorists and Republican senators, but as soon as a political opponent utters a discouraging word, we’ve got her husband crying “Foul” and throwing a flag on the play, and we’ve got her pretending to be a tender young damsel being bullied by those big mean men.

So far as I’m concerned, the biggest surprise of this political season hasn’t been John McCain’s phoenix-like rise from the ashes, but the fact that in spite of the pummeling Sen. Clinton has received at the hands of Barack Obama, John Edwards and Ted Kennedy, she hasn’t once attributed it to a vast left-wing conspiracy.

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About The Author
W. Burt Prelutsky is an accomplished, well-rounded writer and author of "The Secret of Their Success: Interviews with Legends and Luminaries."
 
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I don't understand them....
either, Burt. 5 stars! As always a good read!

Burt wrote:

"... but the fact that in spite of the pummeling Sen. Clinton has received at the hands of Barack Obama, John Edwards and Ted Kennedy, she hasn’t once attributed it to a vast left-wing conspiracy."

Maybe it was ALL just a left-wing conspiracy from the beginning, and they're all hoping to end up with what they want, which is control of the White House.

I see a lot of poor play acting going on. For example, Hillary's tears, women fainting over Obama (and etc).
*****
Great five-star article!

You cannot believe
...how weary I am of the libs blindness. Do they have to turn 62 before they get it?

Liberals shmiberals
Burt I think you're on to something here, as a matter of fact you should consider publishing scientific papers on the liberal mindset. Your grasp for this mediocre subject is stellar.
You could use for your first case-study mega-socialite turned governor wanabee turned political centerfold Ariana "I talk like Arenuld" Huffington.
Has she posed for playboy yet? You'll see I bet that's next.

Hubris
needs a really big act of God (for leftists and folks on the right too)to really do a cleansing. Folks on the right, who generally want truth, seem more suseptible to such an experience. Folks on the left, who are sure there is no "fixed" truth, generally are harder to reach. The Way, The Truth, and The Life will, however, radically change anyone who meets Him.

Politicized Justice Department


The former Governor of Alabama, a Democrat, is a political prisoner serving seven years. This segment demonstrates why Bush/Rove’s firings of attorneys general for refusing to prosecute Democrats for purely political reasons is poison to democracy.

WATCH VIDEO

http://controlcongress.com/uncategorized/60-minutes-exposes -politicized-justice-department

Burt
So far as I’m concerned, ..., she hasn’t once attributed it to a vast left-wing conspiracy.



Isn't SHE a "vast left-wing conspiracy?"




Maybe she should spend her campaign contributions more wisely. And get Bill off the salami and cheese for a while.

BmanIII
Actually, I think your statement would be more accurate to say:

Hilary Clinton is THE "vast left-wing conspiracy."

I know it's hard for one individual to make up a conspiracy, but after the last time she was in the White House...

Burt
Sorry, but your only gonna get a 4 star from me today. Your use of the word (pathetic) should have been replaced by the word (disgraceful) to describe the far left whackos. If you would have used (disgraceful), it would have been another 5 star perfomance on your part!
Other than that, another good read!

BmanIII
good morning hombre! Did you hear the good news about Al Bores favorite person entering the race? I personally like Mr. Nader. I hope he gets another 3,000,000 votes. He deserves every one of them. hahahaha

The elusive free lunch
I fear that our next president will be elected by those who have no concept of what has made our country great...and the "free lunch" mentality that's bringing it down.

Our news media, unless discussing a disasterous train wreck or damage wrought by tornadoes, is transparently liberal. If a disgraced politician is not identified by party, bet the farm it's a democrat.

"Conservative," meanwhile, has come to symbolize abuse of power and evil, an insult, basically. Where once "liberal" was deemed an insult, the tables have turned and democrats simply aren't identified by party as a matter of course.

One can almost see Americans collectively approaching a rabid dog, cooing, "Nice doggie, good doggie."

We are being ushered into a socialist society (a free lunch for thee, but not for me), while the Constitution is a hindrance to be improved. The left "supports our troops," largely by insulting them and spurning recruiting offices. With "support" like that...

The libs are still working on the God thing, but that pesky "free expression" of religion thing, the very first right clearly "guaranteed" by the Bill of Rights, is being flicked away with the deliberate misinterpretation of the "establishment clause" under the guise of the non-existent "separation of church and state."

Americans used to be Americans and proud of it. Now, we have become a bunch of minorities, each seeking its own "fair" share. Of course, the evil rich will be picking up the tab...until they move to some other country were "capitalism" isn't a dirty word.

Thoughts
On serial killers and mass murderers:
Why is anyone shocked by the idea that the Left supports these people? Does the name Mumia Abu Jamal mean anything to anyone? How about Stanley "Tookie" Williams, remember him? He's the guy who (A) was a co-founder of the "Crips" street gang in LA and (B) was executed a few years ago for killing three people in a hotel in South Central LA and another person at a 7-Eleven. The Left wanted him exonerated. There were movies, websites, protests and all that. The people of Graz Austria protested to have Arnold Schwarzenegger's name removed from a local soccer stadium because the California Governor didn't pardon Williams for those four brutal murders.

On Bilingual education:

Two Points:
(A) I knew a Democrat (American Born) from Southern California who had her children stuck in a bi-lingual school before she moved to the East Coast. She acknowledged that the education system in LA is horrible, and that the bi-lingual system simply doesn't work. It makes sure that no one, American or Mexican, can speak either Spanish or English well at all.
(B) If you live in a country you should be able to speak the primary language. If I ever moved to Germany, I'd make sure I learned German. To expect the rest of the people in a country to accomodate your laziness is just rude.

ON Hillary Clinton:
The woman will play whatever side she can to get ahead. It's like when John Kerry told a group of Jews that he supported the wall in Israel while telling a group of muslims that he was against it. Hillary doesn't waffle so much as she obscures. She shows whatever face she can to get votes from the people she's showing it to.

vox
Unfortunately a great many people want "Freedom" to mean "Government provided." They think that jobs, homes, education, and happiness are all natural rights that the government ought to provide gratis. (Note, I said "Happiness" not the "pursuit of happiness" which presumes work on the part of the pursuer.) It's that same mentality that put Europe in the spot that it's in now (Carter-esque unemployment, massive, expensive welfare state, high cost of living, negative natural population growth, demographic suicide (any growth in population is immigration by Muslims and natural growth from Muslim imigrants.), etc.) We'll be on the same course before too long if we let ourselves be deluded by the leftist vision of things.

Vox, Happy Jake
And that is exactly the path we are headed down. Liberalism has returned with a vengeance and the election of a VERY liberal Dem coupled with Dem majority in congress seems inevitable. Still, you never know. They tend to overreach when things are going their way. After all, several months ago it looked like Hilary's campaign was going to be a coronation.

Too Bad the GOP is Liberal Now Too!
A good chunk of the GOP is now as liberal as the average Democrat was 20 years ago.

There is no more political "home" for Conservatives except as an isolated collective.

Bert
Excellent article.

Burt,
First, Charles Gonzales is an useless idiot.

Second, your take on lib arts professors is on the mark. ALL of mine were shocked to learn of my conservative stance. SHOCKED, I tell ya!

Third, Jelinek now has a nickname, the equivalent of laughingstock, and something about a pig....

Fourth, I worked my back off learning English, and for the life of me, still cannot understand why some immigrants refuse. It is a thrill for me to be able to speak several languages. It adds to my mystery!

Fifth, I would have more respect for HRC is she were to stand up and dish it out, rather that whine about how unfair the men are. It's bad enough she dresses in upholstery fabric, now I have to listen to her squeak like broken springs!?

Sixth, thank you so much for the book plate. Your book is on its third read....!!

And finally, FIVE STARS!!!!

A Liberal Sense of Change ...

Back in the 90's, I used to ask liberals if they could have all the change they desire what would the society look like and how would it operate.

I never got any answer at all because they have no final destination in mind. Liberals are only interested in ever continuing change of everything.

For example, if liberals could tax everybody at 100%, they would have to change that by cutting taxes.

Liberals have no plan or values or truths. Liberals are truely lost souls.

Burt
It should not surprise me that Susan Sarandan and her boyfriend named their first male child after a sadistic killer, but it does. It still shocks me that so many "stars" in Hollywood revere Fidel Castro. I sometimes feel I am living a bad dream, especially now that our chosen candidate is, for all intents and purposes, a democrat.

YLG: You are so right about the Upholstry fabric, but I now have to clean the coffee off my screen. :)

Lynn!!!
Sorry about that!

Wanted to tell you Hubby enjoyed the Male test you sent....Don't know how many were "C" answers, but I'm sure it was more than half!

2 can play this game Burt
Burt, your columns are getting sillier and sillier.

All you've done here is take anecdotes to show lefties in a bad light. It'd be easy to do the same with righties, but also pointless.

I think one reason that righties have a hard time thinking straight is that they seem to put a lot of stock into anecdotal evidence. Anecdotal evidence is the propagandist's favorite tool because it makes it so easy to paint anyone or any thing in a bad light, or a favorable light, whatever you want.

Another reason why they have a hard time thinking straight is that they refuse to criticize their side, or themselves. Look at Bush and Cheney. Those guys never, ever, ever, admit a mistake. I guess this is in the Republican DNA. And let's not forget Ronnie's eleventh commandment: Thou shalt not criticize a fellow Republican.

Imagine scientists thinking like this. Thou shalt not criticise a fellow scientist.

I love how righties think that they are more logical than lefties. I think this comes out a fundamental misunderstanding of what logic is. How else do we explain their overemphasis on anecdotal evidence to prove their points?

Phylo out.

Phylo Se Fiser writes
"Another reason why they have a hard time thinking straight is that they refuse to criticize their side, or themselves"

That may be true inside the beltway, but outside it's whole nother story. I personally don't like the fact Bush is on a spending spree and has caved in on immigration. If you remember it wasn't mostly liberals that got the immigration bill killed last summer it was conservatives. So there are some issues that conservatives don't like about conservative polititicians and we let them know about it



We don't think
we are more logical than leftists, we know we are. We don't live our lives on feelings, we
use the brains God gave us to think, but then for most of the left that's not possible because most of the left burned their brains out with
LSD and other mind altering drugs during their rebellious youth. And we have the dubious distinction of having a majority of those burnouts presuming to lead this nation.
Example: Democrat majority in House and Senate, and the Clintons. Now Obama on the other hand,
is merely (according to Louis Farrakahn's latest
diatribe, billed as a speech) the savior, who will turn America around. I think he even went so far as calling him the saviour of the world..my my..I wonder if anyone told Jesus that?

Yo Phlyo
Have yo ever heard of the Huffington Post? Or the DailyKos?


Bush gets criticized on a regular basis here at TH.
By conservatives, you dolt. So does McCain and a lot of others.

Try reading a little more rather than just being a drive by poster.

You should be happy today. Ralph Nader is baaaacccckkkkk!!!!


sheepdog
good morning to ya!!!


Have you read the latest scandal on D'Souzas's thread yet?

It concerns some gruesome details about wobbie the wonder pilot and Hal D.

Burt
FIVE STARS!

If you want to understand liberals and the left, check my blog (click on my handle) but better yet, bookmark the:

ANTI-LIBERAL ZONE
http://noliberalspin.townhall.com/Default.aspx

Where our main focus of effort is to chop the head off of liberal moonbattery and bury it forever.



Will some liberal here...
...please explain the penchant of so many liberals to lionize psychotic murderers?

To the examples Prelutsky mentions in this article, which are shocking enough, I'll add Walter Duranty's apparent fondness for Josef Stalin, and the Left's continuing unwillingness to acknowledge that Marxists murdered far more people than Hitler ever dreamed of. To this day, the Left runs breathless articles about the wonders of Castro's Cuba, a dunghole run by a tinpot god. Castro, like all other Marxists, is just a common murderer; yet the Left loves him.

And then, there's Mumiah Abu Jamal, cop-killer from Philadelphia, who cannot be defended by anybody who's even read a brief description of the incident, let alone those who have researched it. The Left LOVES this guy.

Why does the Left do this?

(Unrelated to this topic, please visit my political blog, "Plumb Bob Blog: Squaring the Culture," at http://www.plumbbobblog.com. Thanks.)

inkling revival
Why does the right believe that all of our foreign policy goals should be achieved by military force, or threats of military force? And why do righties think it's okay to lie in order to convince the populace to support these wars of aggression? (For those of you still in denial: They lied about ties between Iraq and al Queda in order to convince us that we needed to invade Iraq.)

Huh inkling revival?

Phylo out.


HAHA!
If nothing else, swoop by The Anti-Liberal Zone and get a load of Husseini Obambi with a turbin on his gourd!

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Like Red Nanny Pee-lousy with a veil on her grape in Syria!

Libs, appeasing Islamofascism whenever possible.

Stereotype
Some in this blog say that righties or conservatives or neocons (pick your favorite) do not criticize Bush, Cheney, Republicans, etc. Apparently you haven't been listening. Many of these have been pummeled by columns and talk radio hosts. Pay attention. Why do you think John McCain has the problems he has with the "base".

With all the fuss about immigration, I do not hear anyone within the beltway speaking up for the legal immigrant.

Why is it that many Hispanics do not learn English ? I believe it is because they come here for jobs more than they come here for freedom. Other immigrants from other countries have less of a sense of entitlement and more of a sense of do it yourself. What I have said paints a broad brush. It is not true for all Hispanics, but I believe it is true for most. Are many of them hard working. You betcha ! That doesn't mean they can cut in line ahead of those who are trying to enter the country legally.

Thomas Sowell in his books deals with the differences in world view on what would be termed a "liberal" or a "conservative". There are different visions. He also deals with cultural differences on a world stage and how that culture often migrates with people as they settle in new lands. Are stereotypes true ? Often they are. That is a sore point for many. There are good and bad stereotypes.

If the liberal mindset were to truly work then countries that have had socialism would have left the U.S. in the dust. Even countries in which they've had freedom such as Britain have found that socialism and government programs can stifle an economy. The fact is that it destroys the motivation of the individual.

There are ways that liberals typically think. There are ways that conservatives typically think. We call this stereotypes. I am proud of my conservative stereotype. Are you proud of your liberal stereotype ?

Tibby

Burt, Immersion in English
is crucial to the success of a hispanic child. There are studies proving us right, and the libs wrong on this. Children do much better with the immersion approach.

However, you have leftists who call us racists for backing immersion-like Geraldo Rivera. I have always felt that the longer it took a child to understand and speak English, the bigger advantage my sons would haave over them someday in the workplace. So my backing immersion is not an act of jingoism or racism, I feel it is much more compassionate and sensible than the "Englisn as a Second Language" approach. So who are the real racists? I say the ones dooming a race of children to mediocrity and a lack of competitiveness.

JD's Handsome Son writes:
How many minorities live in Chapaqua New York or Hyannisport, Massachusetts?



The answer is:
However many illegal servants lives in their basments





Good morning GunnyG.

republican justice
Anybody care to wager that we won't hear much about this on townhall.com, or on Salem radio?


Play the video from last nights 60 minutes:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/todays_mu st_read_283.php

Double Haha
Wonder how the liberals manage to think serial killers, gang leaders and prison murderers deserve all kinds of clemency but want Marines who weren't really even that overzealous torched probably without anaesthetic...

ModMark, Concerned about Spending?
Maybe in your small circle of liberal friends. In the real world, even when Bush increases spending to all time highs-in totals and percentages-the left says he is not spending enough. Education being a prime example.

What frustrates conservatives is that we know that no matter how much is spent on a program, the left will come back and say that not enough was spent (except for defending the country which can actually be found in the Constitution). And we know all this liberal griping will be backed dutifully by the MSM. They will run a story on some poor soul who is not representative of the topic in whole, then scream for the implementation of the liberals demand for more spending. Where are the MSM stories on "Big Attorney" or Big Education?" Certainly as self-interested as "Big Pharma" or "big Oil." The difference being that the oil industry and pharmaceutical companies are actually efficient and benefitting society.

60 minutes.....
is still on the air - who'd thunk it.

eeeo
To be fair, I don't think a majority think that way. However, what are we to think when the MSM constantly gives credence and airtime to liberals who do think this way? How about some research on Abu the cop killer, rather than parroting that idiot from MASH, Mike Farrell? How about some stories on Che Gueverra, and the truth on this murderous thug? Oh that's right, his story is complicated, with many layers. Yeah! Don't you just want to rip one of those Che shirts right off any dumb a*s wearing one?

Bman
It is?

GunnyG
writes:
"If nothing else, swoop by The Anti-Liberal Zone and get a load of Husseini Obambi with a turbin on his gourd!"

I kinda thought Obambi looked pretty dapper in the turbin! You?

cookie/BmanIII
I here rumors that 60 minutes is doing soooo poorly that they are gonna have to change it to 30 minutes?
?????

SGGT & GunnyG
30 minutes with 18 minutes of commercials on new light bulbs.

Is Mike Wallace still alive? Or is it Weekend at Bernies all over again?




GunnyG:
Was that Hussein Obama's Sunday Go to Meeting Clothes?

''58% of Republicans''
--
Quoth Mr. Prelutsky:

"...when a Gallop poll recently asked people about the state of their mental health, 58% of Republicans said it was excellent, but just 43% of independents and only a scant 38% of Democrats."


As one of my psychiatrist colleagues might observe, this subjective perception of "excellent" mental health among Republicans might be better explained by lower levels of self-perception or simple denial.

Given the effective "slam dunk" presidential nomination of John McCain, it's pretty goddam obvious that among nominal Republicans, complete denial of reality is a pervasive characteristic.




-----------
"The American political system is like a gigantic Mexican Christmas fiesta. Each political party is a huge piñata — a papier-mâché donkey, for example. The donkey is filled with full employment, low interest rates, affordable housing, comprehensive medical benefits, a balanced budget and other goodies. The American voter is blindfoled and given a stick. The voter then swings the stick wildly in every direction, trying to hit a political candidate on the head and knock some sense into the silly b-----d."

-- P.J. O'Rourke (1991)



Burt
Good morning.

You wrote, "Liberals, as proof that they’re the most intelligent people on the face of the earth, will often point to the fact that most liberal arts professors are leftists."

Speaking as a 38y/o non-traditional university student on the cusp of graduating, I can attest to the veracity of this sentence.

They also had little or no pedagogy.

The best profs? The ones from the hard sciences (even the leftists), and the ones that worked in the private sector for thirty/forty years before becoming professors. They were the best!

The worst?(there were so many...) The ones that started teaching right after earning their phd. They rank somewhere between insufferable and intolerable.

See you Friday.

SSGT!!!
Good morning!!!

You handle changed. What happened?

I thought "pathetic" was appropiate, though. It is a weaker state then "disgraceful" don't you think?

;-)

YLG
"YO" Miss Scarlett! Hope all is going well with you, hubby and the "crumb crunchers".
My guess on the handle thing is that I wiped t r and beastie boy up last week pretty good. I think one of them put the wammy on me. Even though I don't think I was really that bad.
Oh well.

Wow
I did not even notice that the "1" was fone from my new handle, and I'm back to normal. How did this happen? I'm confused (whats new right).

SSGT
Maybe the TH elves took pity, and saw you were justified.

I thought you were, in any case....HAHAHA!!!

It will be a balmy 87* today, and thank goodness, so I can wash my van....

;-)

Burt should go back to college
and take some courses from those leftist English professors and learn how to think. [When I took the Miller's test for graduate school it gave the information that the highest scores were achieved by would be physics and english majors, who scored about evenly].

Burt starts off well, with a premise about DNA and I thought he would surely follow-up with a discussion about nurture and nature and would, of course, include the latest thoughts from neuroscience.

But no. He follows with a littany of hand-picked selections of what he considers outrageous liberal behavior from several liberal writers - turning the logico-deductive scientific method on its rear end - failing to note that not all liberals are writers nor complicit or even interested in what Normal Mailer thinks or does.

One is forced to conclude that Burts own mental prowess burns ever so dimly that it would scarcely make a dent in a totally dark room.

Mark
Two points. First, if libs are truly concerned about big govt spending, why is their universal prescription for social maladies to add new programs requiring more of it? Second, if you use number of human deaths to determine the most evil person, Hitler is #3 with 6 mil(approx), Stalin at 10 mil is only #2. At the top of the list is none other than Racheal Carson. Who is she? She wrote the book The Silent Spring which gave impetus to the movement to ban DDT as a pesticide. Since that ban went into effect, preventable deaths from malaria have increased by over 20 million, but I guess since most of them were starving Africans, they don't count.

Moonbat
Thanks for the history update. I always thought it was six million Jews and another six million of other undesirables, like gypsies, queers, social misfits and others who could not pay their own way.

YLG
87* and sunny huh? Its pretty much that time of year where everyone is getting pretty tired of this dreary stuff up here. We are having a heatwave today (close to 36*). Its been really brutal for the past two weeks. Where is April flowers at. Its time for heat!!!!

People like Prelutsky
\are found in every western society. when the opportunity comes, they find plenty of ways to take care of intellectuals, college professors, composers, artists, writers, gays, --just about anybody who can't be counted on to tow the idological line.

We can just be happy that this is coming from a pompous old man who thinks that all liberals are determined to destroy western civilization as we know it and has no trouble finding an audience of surly malcontents who never find an easy, simplistic POV they don't like.

New bottle, old whine.

Billary
I was just trying to think of some way that Billary could drum up more support. What would I stress if I were in her position. Well, I would try to let my personality, my knowledge of issues and my core values show through.

Hey, I guess that's the reason. She has an awful personalty, never really knows anything about anything and has demonstrated a great lack of core values.

SSGT
HAHAHAHA!!!

Don't worry. The Goron is calling upon his powers as we type....

SSGT
Was "that" person referring to her Oscar Mayer Weiner???


Oh, I wish I had an Oscar Mayer Weiner -

Oh wait, maybe I'll check my FUPA.....
Probably a bun in there somewhere too...

Who says conservatives
don't criticize W? I do it on a regular basis. He's only been a conservative on: tax cuts, judicial appointments, and somewhat fighting the battles of Islam vs the rest of the world.

If the conservatives around here want a dose of a conservative party platform, swing on by The Swamp for my multi-part essay on the 2008 Crawfish Party Platform. Part one is posted, with part two to come out tonight or tomorrow morning.

just factually wrong
burt is just wrong on hispanics and the english language.

i live in san diego and follow this issue closely.

there is a ton of research that says 2nd and 3rd generation hispanics speak fluent english.

the baseball players he is talking about come from countries that basically have no public education so just where are these players supposed to learn english before they come to america.

here is one link

The children and grandchildren of Latino immigrants are just as likely to speak English as descendants of previous immigrant groups, a national study released Thursday found.

The report may help blunt concerns among advocates of immigration limits that the continuing influx of Latin American immigrants is endangering English in heavily Latino enclaves.

Although most Latino immigrants say they do not speak English "very well," nearly 9 out of 10 of their U.S.-born adult children do, according to the study by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center.

By the third generation here, fluency in Spanish dwindles.

Fewer than 30 percent of the grandchildren and later descendants of Latin American immigrants speak Spanish "very well," the Washington, D.C.-based research organization found.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/immigration/stories/PE_News_Loc al_D_english30.2c759e2.html

YLG
ever notice that the Goron is a no-show in the winter months???
haha

Conservative vs. Liberal
I have often wondered if the US could be divided into two sections with liberals and conservatives in each running acording to its principles. Is there any wonder which would be successful? How could the power hungry liberal leaders survive without taxing working conservatives to pay for the votes they get from all those with their hands out? Who would hire the masses, Hollywood? When there are more depending on government than contributing will the US fall into chaos?
Do liberals think this far into the future?
With Obama's socialized programs and mCcain's (intentional capitalization) refusal to control illegal immigation we are headed in that direction. Both parties seem to be blind to the building problem of having to support so many who do not contribute.
America is badly in need of honest leadership.
Sadly none is being presented for POTUS.

Ignorants insulting Conservatism!
edIf Prelutsky and all the self-styled Conservatives were truly Conservatives, the names of Hillary, Obama and also McCain, who in my book is nothing but a refried Hitler, would not be spoken off. Yes, this same fake Conservatives are the ones that are so full of Imperialism that Ron Paul, who is truly the Conservative as measured by the USA Constitution, is sneered at by those ignorants! Yes, get McCain and you will get WWIII as a bonus! Ron Paul is America's last chance to wean America away from Imperialism! Imperialism is the road all previous Empires traveled to their demise, while the British Empire should be a reminder of such, to America.

another example of burts poor research
• Language: According to the 2002 National Survey of Latinos, conducted
jointly by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Kaiser Family Foundation
(Table 6), Spanish-speakers make up most of the first generation. The
second generation is substantially bilingual, and the third-plus generations
are primarily English speakers.

ModMark
you like that little drib from Proud Liberal. I guess its true that
nuts of a feather
flock together
he he he

as usual burt stereotypes
as do many conservatives.

i will continue to maintain that stereotyping liberals as burt does is a disservice to our country and a blatant example of biased conservative media.

exactly how many liberals did burt interview to come up with these results?
what questions did he ask?
did he do a control group of conservatives?

there are milions upon millions of liberals in this country and to try and maintain that they all think and act alike is intellectually dishonest.

just as there are fiscal conservatives and social conservatives and religious conservatives,

there are religious liberals, blue collar liberals, environmental liberals, mainstream liberals, and libetarian liberals just to name a few.

the idea that all these millions of people talk, act and think alike is absurd.

Moonbat Exterminator
Long time no see.

Hope you've gotten a nice body count of moonbat's! They reproduce almost as bad as lib-roaches.

sophie
how you doing?
i see your posts once in a while but you move pretty quick and i can't always catch you.
face it you are a fast woman.


it is so amazing how often some conservatives simply accept what they are told by the biased conservative media rather than do research on thier own.

i have looked closely at this issue and study after study contradicts burt.
of course burt, like some conservatives, is fact challenged, they don't do well with fact based discussions.

notice burt says "a recent poll" giving us no opportunity to challenge his assumptions.

Ssgt-YLG-Bman-GunnyG
Good Afternoon All!

I added late breaking news on The Wobbie Scandal on Dinesh’s Thread!

ModMark
Actually, and not surprisingly, you're wrong about Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" but that's nothing new. You libs LOVE revising history as you see fit.

As usual, I do the research liberal minds seem incapable of and turn it into a gut punch into the flab of the libs.

http://noliberalspin.blogtownhall.com/default.aspx?mode=pos t&g=99c019cd-f1c4-4234-99c4-94b20e07addc

What's next on the revision list? That it was Rush Limbaugh who wished a "thousand Mogadishu's on the US military" and NOT some libvermin?

Georgetwin writes:
Ssgt-YLG-Bman-GunnyG
Good Afternoon All!

I added late breaking news on The Wobbie Scandal on Dinesh’s Thread!

Let me add my greetings to that.

Fact check for Gunny G
Kenya is overwhelmingly a Christian nation. More people as a percentage of the population identify themselves as christian there than in the United States.

So your attempt at connecting traditional Kenyan garments as representing islamic culture is completely specious.

Georgetwin
Georgetwin writes: Monday, February, 25, 2008 12:25 PM
Bman-Nee-Primus-Ssgt
Hal Doofus CLAIMS to spend lots of time with Shrillary, Wobbie is a DEFINITE upgrade! Maybe Hal drinks Wobbie’s Slurpee while Wobbie grabs hold of The Joystick :)!
-----------------
HAHA! Those two are dumber than a bag of old cement.

Hal Doofus is good for nothing but kissing the a**ses of people like Weasely Clark, Hanoi John Fonda Kerry, and Hitlery.

Great post BTW!

Swing by my blog when you get a chance, I posted "How the Left Wages War on Us pt 2" as well as couple of other rips on the morons in the Jackass Party.

Lumberjack7392/Georgetwin
welcome one and all.
I see that sophie still has her little potty mouth running on all cylinders. I wonder what it takes to brush, wire and soap?

Sophie
Wouldn't Ted Kennedy?

GunnyG
Will Do!

Sophie ImAdunbAzzzzzzz
Why do righties have such disrespect
of the rule of law?

If they respected the law wouldn't Scooter be in jail right now?



He could share a cell with Sandy Burglar, couldn't he.

Is Norman Hsu still alive???


Is Ralph Nader beating Hillary in the polls yet?

BmanIII
dag-nab-it!!! And NO, that is not another term for wobbie-da-wonder-wus.
I wish I spoke Spanish. That even sounded cool.

SSGT
Let's just say that the pigs become celibate...

Sophie
spout your mush all you want! No Habla ms. piggy!

Sophie, Immortal... writes:
SSGT
Tu espousa esta put@...

Besa MI cul-o!

Tu ora cloaca maxima es.

BmanIII
thanks, that certainly makes perfect sense to me! hahaha

LUMBERJACK!!!
OMG!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I'm crying, I'm laughing so hard!!!

Sophie, Immortal... writes:
Alright I've exhausted my limited
Spanish...

Let's go back to trading insults in american...

This IS america afterall!

You exhausted your limited intelligence long, long, long, long, long, ago.

Sophie ImAdunbAzzzzzzz
Tell your husband to go back where he came from if he doesn't like it here. And you can go too.


Still waiting in the chat room for you.....

A Liberal-Conservative DNA Component?
Research with identical twins separated since birth does indicate there is a genetic factor. Quoting from an interview with Dr. Laura Baker of the Southern California Twin Project at the University of Southern California … http://www.betwinned.com/archives/category/feature-article s/twin-research/

"In fact, it’s now the case that it seems that just about every realm of human behavior that you look at shows evidence for some genetic influence. Twins have really helped us to understand that very fact. Identical twins routinely are much more similar than fraternal twins on just about everything that you look at, from their actual physical appearance, to their general cognitive abilities, to their very specific talents, whether they’re conservative or liberal, the degree to which they are religious and even their social attitudes."

Obviously this “genetic influence” isn’t absolute – we seem predisposed rather than predestined – and we occasionally switch sides throughout life. I personally believe our tribal nature – to be good toward those within our tribe and harmful to those in opposing tribes – may be a factor. Liberals tend to see Man’s goodness within tribes and conclude Man is basically good and rational, while Conservatives tend to see Man’s evil toward other tribes and conclude Man is potentially evil and irrational. Needless to say, the different underlying assumptions fuel incompatible approaches to solving social problems, and creates the history-long liberal-conservative divide.

An interesting aside: it is seldom noticed by Liberals that Michael Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” is a parody of classical liberal behavior, or by Christians that L. Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz” is a promotion of secular humanism.

Adam Leonard
(Author of “Man by Nature: The Hidden Programming Controlling Human Behavior”)

YLG writes:
LUMBERJACK!!!
OMG!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I'm crying, I'm laughing so hard!!!

I wonder if Sophie, Idiotic recognizes the language.

Lumberjack7392
Doubtful....

She's probably at her PC, looking for a site to translate it.

It would be funny, if it weren't so pathetic.

YLG
theres that "pathetic" thing again. Must be a common word amongst libsquirts!!

religiouslib
Regarding the generational usage of English by hispanics. That may be true in San Diego, but it doesn't hold true in Dallas and San Antonio.

SophieWhatever writes:
Luckily they are just a fringe minority.

Hey Pals,
You suppose she really believes this in her twisted little FUPA?
See Burt, this is how the lib mind really works. She thinks because a bunch of cross dressers crossed over and voted for McQuack, that he really is the GOP choice.
5 starts for picking the FUPA’s apart!

http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=956&title=Vietn am_Veterans_Against_McCain&vpkey=62acaf320c

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.htm l
Free Ramos and Compean
Write in a name folks, it is still a free country! Well, until McQuack comes up with more ideals on how to kill free speech.

Why should all Americans
be bi-lingual?


Just because Europe has so many countries doesn't mean I have to learn swahili or zulu.....



Sophie, Idiotic... writes:
Maybe I'll make an effort to learn Spanish.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Give you a little hint. It's NOT Spanish.

Doc
The GOP primary wasn't fixed. It's just that certain states are too stupid to make it closed primaries.

Had we had closed primaries the results would be much different.

Especially in S.C.


Besides, only in FL could the voters and election reps be sooooo stupid.

I wanted to vote for Al but voted for Pat.
geesshhhh!!!!

BmanIII
No I think if your in GB or Europe, it would be Islamic, the new language of choice. Just look at their chickensh!t priest!

http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=956&title=Vietn am_Veterans_Against_McCain&vpkey=62acaf320c

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.htm l
Free Ramos and Compean
Write in a name folks, it is still a free country! Well, until McQuack comes up with more ideals on how to kill free speech.

Lumber
Is it Ghetto Speak???

SophieWhatever
Don’t blame us because they could not use a ballot that even a monkey could have used, or are you speaking of the military, and others, absentee ballots that you tried to toss out? (didn’t work) 8-P

http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=956&title=Vietn am_Veterans_Against_McCain&vpkey=62acaf320c

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.htm l
Free Ramos and Compean
Write in a name folks, it is still a free country! Well, until McQuack comes up with more ideals on how to kill free speech.

re Nader
Since a couple of people have brought Nader up, I thought I'd share this with you.

I read an article somewhere that said that Nader's effect will be small, given that this will be his third try.

Like it or not, Americans want to vote for a winner, even if the "winner" is the worst possible candidate. This is why so many candidates try so hard in Primary season to get "momentum", to be seen as the "obvious winner." This is probably what shook Clinton's campaign so hard, was finding out that she wasn't as "obvious" as everybody thought she was.

Nader has already twice demonstrated that he can not possibly win. Thus, it's unlikely he'll garner enough votes to make any sort of effect on the race. The more times you try and fail, the worse your prospects become.

He may have cost Gore the presidency, but there's no chance that anything like that will happen in '08.

Left vs Right
I wish we could get over this left v right simplistic notion. Life is far more complex than that. Our notions of government are as well. We need at least 2 axes if we are going to speak intelligently, but of course Red vs. Blue is more to the taste of simplistic MSM and their folks. There are several other systems out there, but so far I prefer Jerry Pournelle's. You can check it at at:

http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pournelle_Chart

Somebody bronze this:

"Being tenured in the liberal arts building is hardly an indication of brilliance. It merely suggests that one had an abnormal tolerance for being lectured to as a young man and an overwhelming urge to lecture others as an old man."

And hang it in the faculty conference room of every university lib. arts department.

doc
just had an election in california and the republicans lost about 75000 votes because they didn't understand the instructions.

Doc
Wasn't it the dems who designed the ballots?

Enough said....

the crawfish
that is a pretty general statement.
i have provided a number of surveys that are national and back up my contention.

please give me any documentation you have to confirm your conclusion.

SophieDaFUPA
Actually, I think I intended Arabic. But it matters little, because to me it always will be NO PRESSING 1

http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=956&title=Vietn am_Veterans_Against_McCain&vpkey=62acaf320c

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.htm l
Free Ramos and Compean
Write in a name folks, it is still a free country! Well, until McQuack comes up with more ideals on how to kill free speech.

A Different Cause
Prelutsky:
" After pondering the chasm that exists between liberals and conservatives, I’ve concluded that the differences must be determined by something as basic as their DNA."

After reading Prelutsky's article, I believe that his 'chasm' is caused, as much as by anything else, when people like Burt Prelutsky write articles like this one.

First he picks some really lunatic fringe behavior like letting letting serial killers loose and presents it as Liberal Mainstream thought. And when he gets to issues that really do require serious debate (ex. English as an 'official' language) his 'debate' is insults, ad hominem attacks, and soundbites.

In a final flourish, he statistically 'proves' that Liberals are mentally unstable.

The Prelutsky's of the world are really too busy digging that chasm wider & deeper to 'ponder' about it.

Sophie ImAdunbAzzzzzzz
#1) It was an example

#2) That is "MR BMANIII" to you

#3) Higene is spelled hygiene - not as in Hi, Gene


got it.....


and you whities. I think that would be spelled whiteys.

Get a dictionary.

You have a husband? Is it tr?

religiouslib
Hey bro, good to see you.

Are you implying that republicans are unintelligent?

Sophie
Wouldn't Bill Clinton, John Murtha and Cold Cash Jefferson be in with Libby?

Georgetwin....
and Barney Frank too

BmanIII
Did Mel Reynolds get out?

hey hank
how are you doing.
it seems i am always leaving when you are arriving.


no i did not mean to imply that, i was responding to doc and his rant about how gore lost because democrats in florida could not figure out the ballots.

i was just pointing out that in the republican primary run by republicans, there were close to 10000 republicans whose ballots were thrown out because they misunderstood the intructions.

BmanIII writes:
Lumber
Is it Ghetto Speak???

Only if the residents of the ghetto were Romans. It's LATIN. Translation "Your mouth is the greatest sewer."

Lumberjack7392
There is only 1 thing I can say to that.

Ell-Way One-Day :)!

English
Why teach immigrants English when teachers don't bother to teach American kids English anymore either?

When we were in line for school conferences last week, waiting for my daughter's French teacher, and the German teacher was waiting for her next parent, we had a little discussion about foreign language and English. I commented that when I took German, I learned more English grammar than I ever learned in English class. Other parents agreed with me and the German teacher said that she's always surprised that when she tries to equate a German grammar component with its English equivalent, the kids don't know what she's talking about.

I was fortunate enough to have a young English teacher in 8th grade who taught diagraming sentences, but it's not in the curriculum anymore. The German teacher said that she uses diagraming sentences to help her students and most of them think it's fun, like a puzzle.

Thinking back over my kids' English classes, they've all been about literature, NOT grammar. No wonder kids grow up unable to read, write, spell, or debate.

Add to that the "uncoolness" of speaking clearly and intelligently and there's no hope for our kids, immigrants or not.

To Spanish Speakers, I Say
Cesar Romero!

Flaming Liberal Multiculturalist
IS THAT YOU DOOFUS? So many libs, so little time!

http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=956&title=Vietn am_Veterans_Against_McCain&vpkey=62acaf320c

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.htm l
Free Ramos and Compean
Write in a name folks, it is still a free country! Well, until McQuack comes up with more ideals on how to kill free speech.

Lumberjack7392
writes:
"Translation "Your mouth is the greatest sewer."

Now I get it Lumberjack. Thats the odor I smell when I read wobbie, tr and Doofus's posts.

Ssgt-LJ7392
Folks thought Wobbie was wearing a Neck Brace, but it was a Toilet Seat :)!

Georgetwin
they make toilet seats small enough to fit that peabrain?

Ssgt
Wobbie is still on one of the kiddie models.

Georgetwin
LMAO!!!

wobbie: mummy, I'm finished!

SSGT writes:
Georgetwin
they make toilet seats small enough to fit that peabrain?

Actually, that less than pea sized brain rattles around in an immensely swelled head. THe real question is, is do they make a seat big enough to fit?

Moonbat, Bleeding Heart Liberal
How about the US Supreme Court under Chief Justice Warren E. Burger? Roe v. Wade has killed more that 40 million children.

Sir Michael
They were scared they were little Republicans!

http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=956&title=Vietn am_Veterans_Against_McCain&vpkey=62acaf320c

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.htm l
Free Ramos and Compean
Write in a name folks, it is still a free country! Well, until McQuack comes up with more ideals on how to kill free speech.

ModMark
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060417/shah

You expect that the The Nation is a credible source? You're kidding, right?

Look a bit more, there are reliable sources out there ...

The DDT ban is a real killer, plain and simple.

your own logo ought to read:
Higene,

Paste this on your SUV bumper:

My other language is Spanish.

Many Mexicans arrive here already bilingual. (Few illegals, OK ?) It's an immense advantage. Spanish is nothing new in our country. In the southwest almost every city uses Spanish place-names, street names; dance steps and food establishment names. It's a grand American tradition. What could be nicer than a Margarita in the evening?

See an old Spencer Tracy flick for laughs. The visiting medico (Spanish lingo, that) sees a Mexican-American boy and asks: What do you eat for breakfast in the morning? Kid replies, Beans and tortillas. Doc: What about lunchtime ? Boy: Tortillas and beans. -- Doc pauses, then : What do you eat for supper every day, Son? Kid answers, "Some beans wrapped in a tortilla."

He couldn't understand. "Look at his beautiful white teeth. He's growing up strong and intelligent. What does this mean ?"

You tell us, Higene. That movie is Tortilla Flats. It's a feel-good flick from before the immigration crisis.

Ssgt
Wal-Mart is looking for a Helo with a potty chair on it to cur down Wobbie's Walking. REMEMBER, Wobbie CLAIMS he has an injured foot.

A Good Topic for a Thesis
would be to compare Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicators with Party Affiliation.

I speak English and hand signals

We’ve visited about 29 different European countries for 968 nights, crossed European borders 227 times, and we never missed a meal, a bed time, or a beautiful tourist sight.

At best I speak English and hand signals, my Sweetie understood and spoke a few words of German. And we never had anyone complain that we didn’t speak their language.

As for learning a language, Thirty years ago we met a family from Poland while we were visiting Vienna. The next year they escaped from Poland, we managed to get them to the US.

The mother could speak not a word of English when she arrived, but after a month of study, she went to lunch with my Sweetie, and they carried on a conversation. I can assure you that Sweetie didn't learn to speak Polish.

When I took the youngest boy to grade school he could maybe say “hello” in English. Within a month he was enjoying all the games at recess, within three months could communicate with the teacher in all subjects, and before he graduated from that class, he was considered fluent in English.

I mentioned this to a Mexican lady who taught “English as a Second Language.” She met the Polish boy and could hardly believe what she was hearing, then said, in the same tone of voice as she would use to accuse me of being a child molester,

“But he was motivated!!!”

Burt

The proverbial nail on the head.

If DNA is not equally, on average, responsible for attitude then it is more than 50%. Education is critical towards thinking, but predisposition is largely DNA. This is a given and applies to almost all human endeavor in spite of what liberals wish us to think. We're od course a combo, but for too long we have been brainwashed to believe that DNA is only apparent in our colors or forms. Hogwash... and plain, blind stupidity, known as mind control of the masses. The brain and it's processes are strongly under control of our D N A.., just as every other aspect of our physical body is.

BAMaddox
"I have often wondered if the US could be divided into two sections with liberals and conservatives in each running acording to its principles. Is there any wonder which would be successful? "

Well, why not try it? (I've asked this before no one ever has the b---s to answer it).

We could divide up the country (we'll take the west coast) or at the very least, Balkanize it. We can have borders with armed guards posted every mile and you guys can have all the guns you want. You can have a different name, so that when you're ready to invade Iran, or Mexico, or Canada, you don't have to do it my name.
You can have your government-issued spy camera installed in every bedroom in our country, complete with sound. You can round up all of your handicapped, aged, and sick and put them on a raft to push from your eastern shore.

Thank about it! A conservative paradise!!!

PS you can send all of your libraries and college professors (except Mike Adams) to us.

JD
"liberals are evil, wicked, petty minded devils. At a minimum these vile creatures need to wear monitors and have red "L"s on their shirts so we know who and where they are. Personally, I'd prefer they all be rounded up and shipped out somewhere."


Maybe you should start finding different friends - you think about spending less time in the local bar, for a start.

But wait!!! In the new Conservative Utopia, we can be totally in Red country, with all the perfect, deep=thinking conservatives like Burt Prelutsky.

Touj
The Central Valley of California. Cowboy Country in Washington and The Upper Williamette Valley in Oregon want NO PART of any Blue State Secession.

SOPHIE

.....WAZZZUP MOMMA??? ...

.....Gunny an da res of da fools on dis site better git jiggy wit it ...what dey mean comin roun here wit all dat moldy jive? ...dose mammy jammas had better back off befo I haf to bust off a cap in der a** ...

.....I'll bet you didn't know that I was bi-lingual .....COLOSSUS

Isn't it odd that...
most countries have an offical language but don't believe they are racists for having it? Actually, not odd at all, quite reasonably in fact.

Dear Mr. Prelutsky
Just a fine article from start to finish. Kudos. Query: Will we be seeing more of your insights into the activities of the Lalaland Left? Great as our overall disdain for Hollywood and California politics in general may be, their effect on the nation, both directly and indirectly, cannot be overstated. Best wishes to you.

ModMark
They were Sheep Ranchers and the movie came out of Hollywood which is lousy with Back Door Girlymen.

Sophie
Fair Enough!

Liberals
Someone posted a comment suggesting that we might get in WW III if McCain was elected. It is my view that WW III was the so-called Cold War (it got rather hot in Korea and in Vietnam). I perceive that we are in WWIV right now with radical Islam. We had our twenty-first century Pearl Harbor on 11 September 2001, although in one sense it started in 1979 with the Tehran hostages being taken.
Both Hillary and Obama want to lose the war in Iraq.
The Democrats provoked the loss in Vietnam, but have either forgotten or suppressed the blood bath that followed in Vietnam and Cambodia.
This is how this conservative thinks about it.
Conservative and Liberal

Government Smaller Larger
Regulation Less More
Economy Rely on market Rely on regulation
Social Traditional Progressive
Nature of man Not perfectible perfectible
Nature vs Nurture Nature Nurture
Taxes Low High
Income redistribution NoYes
Equality Of opportunity Of result
Abortion Limited Without restriction
Marriage For it Permissible with reluctance
Sex, premarital Opposed For
Sex, extramarital Opposed Not promoted, but acceptable
Same sex marriage Opposed Acceptable
Homosexuality Not normal Normal
Progressive taxation Oppose For
Labor unions Not for For
Affirmative action Opposed For
Illegal immigration Opposed For
Multiculturalism Opposed For
Multilingualism Opposed For
“Fairness” in media Opposed For
Drilling in ANWR For Against
Drilling offshore For Against
Nuclear power ? For Against
Private health insurance For Against
Socialized medicine Against For
Tort reform For Against
Class action suits Against For
Protectionism Against For
Softness on Islamists No Yes
Win in Iraq Yes No
Decrease the military No Yes
Out of wedlock births Against Not for, but okay
Education vouchers For Against



We tried to divide the country, but.....

.......the yamn Dankees (liberals) just kicked and kicked until all helll broke loose.

Good try and it would be great until the blues started trying to fool us and claim to be reds just so they could move to a country where things work, that includes people, and we had to kick asz all over again. No, we are not talking about different states, but different countries. We want nothing to do with liberals. They are only good for a comparison with normality.

Yes, our lack of foresight and moral indignation, a liberal characteristic, have produced a country that short of a second civil war is on it's way down the drain. The mealy mouthed liberals would definitely loose this time.


Sophie
Having lived in Chicago for many years, there is no way it could be red, and I'm sure that our first war of seccesion would happen if the Reds tried to take it. But, we can settle - Chicago can be blue, and the rest of the state can be red.

The Travels of jim -- :-)
" we never had anyone complain that we didn’t speak their language. "

Well jim, to be 100% fair, you were there as a tourist spending your money.

Go to those same countries and try to find a job, where they'd have to PAY you money, when you can only communicate via hand signals!

I don't think they'd be quite so accommodating! :-)


THE BEARDLESS PROPHET AND THE OLD GUY
Thinking about McCain and his quest for the POTUS, I could tolerate him better if he were to preach the Republican Platform and convince me he was not a RINO.

As for the young and glowing Prophet who struts about in and about the podium looking for his time and place by declaring to you, if you follow him you can hope for change. Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. Sen. B.O. like liberalism still smells funny no matter what you spray it with.

Hillary, as a FOB, she's already in purgatory.

Liberal / conservative genes
It is stupid to think that our politics are genetic; but the idea that they grow out of our personalities, which are genetically based, is gaining alot of traction. Alot of work was originally done at duke University; now other researchers are exploring this further and finding similar results.

This refers to, but was not posted by Duke:

"Those who scored highly in the surveys on a scale measuring fear of death were more likely to be conservatives, along with those who were dogmatic. However those who showed an interest in new experiences tended to be liberals. Strangely enough, Jost also found that conservatives prefer simple and unambiguous paintings, poems and songs; .."

That just about says it all, but there's alot more if you're willing to actually do some research.

there is a
good article on this subject in "New Scientist.'

I know, I know, anybody with a Ph.D. is a baby-eating, commie, drug-swilling, fascist, danger to American Society.

That was irony, of course, just following conservative genetically-based world views.

Well, not a "normal" tourist


Unca Alby writes: Monday, February, 25, 2008 6:50 PM
The Travels of jim -- :-)

Well jim, … … you were there as a tourist

… … a tourist spending your money.
=========

Well, in a way yes and in another way, no. We always traveled in our RV, and spent 605 nights in the RV, and 23 nights in hotels, and another 300 nights with friends and relatives, and another 25 on ships, over 25 years.

One year after spending 4 months in Europe, we determined our month in Italy, including Sicily, cost us about $15 more per day (including prorated cost of plane tickets and the RV), than just staying home.

We met and “talked” with the real people, not other tourists and the people who take care of tourists.

We found that a clerk in a grocery or bakery in Europe, is thrilled to meet an American. A waiter and a bell hop are thrilled to get a tip.

We remember our friend in France, Brigitte said, “French people don't even like each other.”

It's amazing how many ridiculous, stupid, ignorant, inefficient, obnoxious people we might meet, if we happened to be in a bad mood.

But no problem with language, or lack there of.

Sophie, Immortal Illustrates Issue ....
Sophie, Immortal offers a quote from the Washington Post, "Only about 2.5 percent of American residents speak Spanish but not English. The majority of residents of Spanish-speaking households speak English "very well."

Notice how they confuse facts? They float from total population back to a demographic. If Hispanics are say, 25 percent (close) of America, then over 14 percent speak no English. That is a bunch!

Also, I noticed that the article began, "Beneath the surface of the immigration debate ...". What immigration debate? I know of no such debate! However, there is an "illegal immigration debate". More "3-card-monte" from another Liberal media.

Thanks for showing how Liberals see the world versus Conservatives.

Sophie, Immortal Illustrates Issue ....
Sophie, Immortal offers a quote from the Washington Post, "Only about 2.5 percent of American residents speak Spanish but not English. The majority of residents of Spanish-speaking households speak English "very well."

Notice how they confuse facts? They float from total population back to a demographic. If Hispanics are say, 25 percent (close) of America, then over 14 percent speak no English. That is a bunch!

Also, I noticed that the article began, "Beneath the surface of the immigration debate ...". What immigration debate? I know of no such debate! However, there is an "illegal immigration debate". More "3-card-monte" from another Liberal media.

Thanks for showing how Liberals see the world versus Conservatives.

ModMark
You are SO-O-O-O right! Also, we would definitely take the Cubs, we need to teach our kids to be fans because it builds character.

If Daley thought Chicago would go red, he would blow up Millenium Park, skating rink and all. He would go down in flames.

George Twin
"The Central Valley of California. Cowboy Country in Washington and The Upper Williamette Valley in Oregon want NO PART of any Blue State Secession."

don't count on the Willamette valley, Geroge, there are alot of wineries between Portland and the coast cut-off, and you know wine people, blue through and through!!

George
How about it if we take California, Western Oregon, Western Washington to start, and give you much of the rest in exchange for Chicago and the Cubs? We can sort out the rest over a game 5 card stud, deuces wild, red threes replaced, 25 cent limit.

religious lib to Sophie
"it is so amazing how often some conservatives simply accept what they are told by the biased conservative media rather than do research on thier own."

Good point. I just read about a study that looked at the politics of tenured college professors across the country - the intellectuals-are-liberal-communists is in fact a silly meme that bounces about the right wing echo chamber and is never actually questioned as to its veracity.


Jim
"within three months could communicate with the teacher in all subjects, and before he graduated from that class, he was considered fluent in English."

I'm not surprised - it's a fact that very young children pick up languages more quickly than anybody. A few years ago our close friends were transferred to Milan for almost three years and brought their four kids, ranging from a sophomore in high school down to a 4 year old.

After 2 1/2 years, the parents were still being tutored in Italian, the middle two could get around and the 4 year old, now 6, could speak like a native. In fact, when we visited we took him around with us as our interpreter.

Adam
"Research with identical twins separated since birth does indicate there is a genetic factor."

That was my point in my earlier post, except that it is DNA that predicts personality traits, which predict political ideology.

To repeat: From Duke University Research)

""Those who scored highly in the surveys on a scale measuring fear of death were more likely to be conservatives, along with those who were dogmatic. However those who showed an interest in new experiences tended to be liberals. Strangely enough, Jost also found that conservatives prefer simple and unambiguous paintings, poems and songs; .."

This is hardly counter-intuitive; it's fairly obvious, no?

Mac Moore
"Also, I noticed that the article began, "Beneath the surface of the immigration debate ...". What immigration debate? I know of no such debate! However, there is an "illegal immigration debate". More "3-card-monte" from another Liberal media."

LMAO how is my little Mac tonight? Go to almost any anti illegal immigrant rally and tell me how much of the crowd is made up of neo nazis, white supremists and other similar dregs of society. This issue is the next installment of the god, guns and gays campaign of the fundamentalist conservatives lifestyle of fear. Guess what no one is buying...

The best part is "good grief" Americans might have to learn a second language when we know many cannot learn English.

Bad childhoods
I saw another academic study recently about the differences between self-described liberals and conservatives. The study concluded that there is a statistically significant difference in terms of closeness to one or both parents while growing up and self-reported happy or unhappy childhoods. Guess which group had unhappy childhoods and weren't very close with one or both parents? You guessed it, liberals.

Voxoreason,
Very well said.

Modmark
Interesting. I had never heard about the theory explaining it, but it makes sense, given all the other stuff they are learning about the brain.

I also remember that when this realization about little kids and language started to get real traction, early immersion language classes for kindergartners and first graders were first introduced.

Kids do absorb a language


Touj. writes: Monday, February, 25, 2008 8:36 PM
Jim
"within three months could communicate
------
ModMark writes: Monday, February, 25, 2008 8:44 PM
Touj.
"the middle two could get around and the 4 year old, now 6, could speak like a native. "

===========

When we visited our son and his family in Finland, four year old Joanna (born in the USA) could translate, a little, in both Swedish and Finnish, a skill that was completely forgotten a few years after she returned to the US.

At age 35, she now says she remembers nothing, but I bet if she returned, she would find she remembers more than she can imagine.

My Sweetie’s parents were both born in Germany, came to the US a few years before she was born. As a child they did not want her to speak German, so spoke to her only in English, but talked to each other in German.

We visited her cousins in Germany, and Sweetie was amazed that she understood some, and could speak a little German, just from overhearing her parents talk to each other, 40 years earlier.

Jim
My youngest son's first language was German and he too forgot it. Now 30 he went back last year and was shocked he could actually speak it after a week. He was laughing that words just sort of popped out

Hal Donahue - A Rally Groupie
Hal Donahue offers, "Go to almost any anti illegal immigrant rally and tell me how much of the crowd is made up of neo nazis, white supremists and other similar dregs of society."

I would not know. I will just have to take your word for it.

Hal Donahue - A 2nd Language Is A Must?
Hal Donahue offers, "The best part is "good grief" Americans might have to learn a second language when we know many cannot learn English."

My guess is that one would be hard-pressed to find a country that has zero illiteracy. I doubt the reason is that they "cannot learn", but that they simply do not. There will always be those take pride in rejecting formal education on any level. And, of course, there are those whose parents/family abandoned them, literally or emotionally with drugs and other such distractions.

Without a need or motivation, a second language is not always opted for. English, today, is much like French used to be a long, long time ago. It is the language of the most powerful country on earth, international aviation and business ... and Hollywood. It is the language of the rich people. Clearly, nearly every other country sees learning English as an advantage, a segue to wealth and power.

The next language after English is not so easily chosen. In America, a second language might even be considered a frivolous luxury in many parts.


Robert - Cites ....?
Robert offers, "Mac Moore writes: Monday, February, 25, 2008 9:52 PM ...is really a sack of loonies."

I appreciate that you think of me, but I am not sure of my role in your post.????


The only way to visit Europe


ModMark writes: Monday, February, 25, 2008 9:05 PM
Jim, if you happy and you know it
---
That comment was first published in the Wall Street Journal, on Jan 8, 1985, and several places since. It always gets approval.

================
ModMark writes: Monday, February, 25, 2008 9:11 PM
Jim, travel question

That travel was on 9 trips from 1970 to 1995, and included 6 different RVs. One VW, two Dodges purchased on US Army PX parking lots, a Renault, a Peugeot, a Fiat, only one was rented. Three of them were parked in a garage, or a farmer’s barn for a year or so, one was shipped, along with us, from Rotterdam to Montreal, then we drove it home to Calif.

But the best way to find more, if you care, is to visit

http://www.travel-tidbits.com/tidbits/cat_rv_travel_equipme nt.shtml

During the over 100,000 miles we drove in Europe, we learned a lot about driving there. Here are a couple hints you might use.

If someone says, “Let’s play a game,” the first thing you do is find out which game; chess, checkers, baseball, or football. Once you recognize the game, you now know the rules. Same thing with driving in Europe. Once you know which country you are in, you must now drive with their rules, and their driving habits. Or else.

Most Countries have “Traffic Laws and Regulations.” Italy has “Traffic Hints and Suggestions.”

Around the next curve there will be a little old lady in the middle of the road herding two goats. Drive as if you expect that, and neither of you will be surprised.


Robert - Looking For The Loons
Robert offers as to Bush (I think), "he and his administration with their fear mongering and black/white views have really dragged down American culture to the level of the worst of the far right."

Wasn't the Bush Administration that wanted the more moderate approach to dealing with illegal immigration? This last bill died because the Left thought Amnesty was not on the table, and the Right thought Amnesty was the table.

I do not see where Bush was "black/white" on this issue. I think he tried to roll this one right down the middle. Unfortunately, for him, there just were not enough moderate votes to overcome the extreme influences.

Touj.
I has been 5-6 years since I was there. You folks seem to be most comfortable close to water, so split it up like the 2004 Election Map.

Robert
Did you ever answer Anne's questions on how you do night patrols in Iraq. You know, being a pilot in the Navy and all that?




misunderstandings
the problem is that the biased conservative media has done an incredible job of painting ALL LIBERALS as thinking and acting the same.

to many conservatives are willing to believe the vile and evil discriptions of liberals that i read every day on these pages and hear everyday from conservative talk radio.

rush says liberals are evil.
savage says liberals should be rounded up and put in re-education camps.

and some conservatives blithely agree.

this is simply stereotyping millions of americans.

why do some conservative pundits (and some liberal pundits i will concede) seem bent on dividing and polarizing americans.

americans have always had major disagreements with each other but that is our nature. we are free thinkers and independent minded.

but we must not let either side demonize the other or we are in fact doing more harm to our country than either the extremes on the left or the extremes on the right could ever accomplish.

we are all americans.

just because someone is liberal or conservative does not take away the main concept that we are ALL AMERICANS.

libs deny facts
The leftist posters here demonstrate all of Prelutsky's points.

There is no recoil at the murderous icons that the left embraces, from genocidal dictators to cold-blooded murderers. There is denial that the embracers are representative and yet these self-appointed spokespersons are yet to be booed offstage at any large gathering of leftists (like the Academy Awards). Instead of criticism from the mass media, they and their disreputable causes have been fawned over and so must be taken as representative.

Like the missing moderate Muslims, the liberals who disagree with the public program of trying to free vermin deserving capital punishment appear to be imaginary or a weak miniscule minority afraid to speak up. In the indisputable bastions of liberalism, university campuses, t-shirts of murderers such as Che and Fidel and mass murderers such as Mao are the school uniform!

Which brings us to the other fantasy of leftists on this thread, that conservatives don't criticize conservatives. This is sheer projection. When do Democrats EVER criticize fellow Democrats? What would it take? You can have gay sex with male pages (Stubbs) leave a young woman to drown while you save your drunken self (Kennedy), be a former KKK'er (Byrd), or hide $100 000 in your freezer (Jefferson)and Democrats will re-elect you repeatedly. What would it take for a word of criticism to pass their lips? Meanwhile, Bush took plenty of flack from conservatives on Harriet Miers and illegal immigrant amnesty.

to be more precise
i believe it is incumbent on us as americans to cross that chasm that burt and others on both sides want to broaden and deepen.

our founding fathers went through heated discussions and came to agonizing compromises on some of the most important concepts of freedom and democracy in the history of the world.

they too argued over the rights of individuals in a democracy.

they too argued over the balance of power between the state and federal government.

they too argued over the checks and balances between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

they too argued over our role in the world.

they too argued over who was a citizen.

yet, they unselfishly kept at it until they formed a union and a republic.

our arguments are only an addendum to those great debates.

let us look to their example when we disagree.


Schizoid
Dear Steve: You write like me, say the things that I would say and have the same name. Are you a different guy or have I been sleepwalking to my computer in the wee hours?! Maybe I better start taking melatonin. Regards... possibly to myself!!

Hyperbole
calm.Touj: "People like Prelutsky are found in every western society. when the opportunity comes, they find plenty of ways to take care of intellectuals, college professors, composers, artists, writers, gays, --just about anybody who can't be counted on to tow the idological line."

Yes, just like the Nazis, who went after the same groups. Here, the hack compares liberals to Nazis with this drivel:

"Liberals also suffer from the delusion that a modicum of talent trumps kindness, honesty and decency. One merely has to note the amount of respect that those on the left had for Hitler’s favorite moviemaker, Leni Riefenstahl, who produced the Nazi propaganda films, “Olympiad” and “Triumph of the Will.”


Final Solution
JD's Handsome Son: "Personally, I'd prefer they all be rounded up and shipped out somewhere."

I would imagine you mean to Auschwitz, based upon your previous comments.

Why do lefties disrepect rule of law?
Sophie, Immortal... writes: Monday, February, 25, 2008 12:58 PM
Why do righties have such disrespect
of the rule of law?

If they respected the law wouldn't Scooter be in jail right now?
--------------
Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, Sandy Berger, and the list goes on.

So tell me, Sophie, why do lefties believe everyone should get to murder one woman without any penalties? Why do lefties believe they can run gay whore houses on government phones in Washington DC? Why do lefties believe they can steal classified government archives in their pants and not go to jail for a minimum of 25 years as per mandated sentencing?

Religiouslib and Sophie Immortal
You two give me all I need to keep laughing all day long, you two couldn't wash Burt's Jockstrap. He has more common sense in his little finger than God gave the two of you in total. Troll away from the light, Later, Chuck

PS FIVO, your right on Spot.....
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