moderateamericain

i wont pretend i know a whole lot about metaphysics but heres a quote from a smart cookie who does. aka AYN RAND Metaphysics Metaphysics is the first philosophical branch of knowledge. At the metaphysical level, Rand’s Objectivism begins with axioms – fundamental truths or irreducible primaries that are self-evident by means of direct perception, the basis for all further knowledge, and undeniable without self-contradiction. Axioms cannot be reduced to other facts or broken down into component parts. They require no proofs or explanations. Objectivism’s three basic philosophical axioms are existence, consciousness, and identity – presuppositions of every concept and every statement. Existence exists and encompasses everything including all states of consciousness. The world exists independently of the mind and is there to be discovered by the mind. In order to be conscious, we must be conscious of something. There can be no consciousness if nothing exists. Consciousness, the faculty of perceiving that which exists, is the ability to discover, rather than to create, objects. Consciousness, a relational concept, presupposes the existence of something external to consciousness, something to be aware of. Initially, we become aware of something outside of our consciousness and then we become aware of our consciousness by contemplating on the process through which we became aware. Rand explains that the metaphysically given (i.e., any fact inherent in existence apart from the human action) is absolute and simply is. The metaphysically given includes scientific laws and events taking place outside of the control of men. The metaphysically given must be accepted and cannot be changed. She explains, however, that man has the ability to adapt nature to meet his requirements. Man can creatively rearrange the combination of nature’s elements by enacting the required cause, the one necessitated by the immutable laws of existence. The man-made includes any object, institution, procedure, or rule of conduct created by man. Man-made facts are products of choice and can be evaluated and judged and then accepted or rejected and changed when necessary.

haah thats quite a broad definition. i think whats happend in the united states is that both parties are spreading further and further apar (ie. more socialist more fascist.) that is why i call myslef moderate Americain because i believe that we need to vote out these extremist like bush or like hilary clinton or even ted kennedy. and get in the much more moderate candidates, ones that are more willing to sit down and listen to both sides and not filibuster on every thing. I consider myself a fiscal conservative, in other words i dislike government spendings. I understand the need for SOME welfare, and i support abortion. the point im trying to make is it is possible to be a conservative and not fit into a mold. you can vote for a conservative president and not be a KKK member. Ive seen alot of the world, ive been to Isriael and japan and china. ive seen alot of the world out there. but i love my country and theres no other place id like to call home. i love that we are all fat and watch too much cubs baseball on TV. i love that i can go into downtown detroit and have the owners of two restaurants fight over me and tell me why they should eat there coney dogs. i love that i can turn on the television and see infomercials on the latest butt master or a commericail on how to keep my stick hard for hours. this is america the land of opportunity, we survived the revolutionary war, the civil war, the war of 1812, the spanish american war, world war 1 and 2, vietnam, korea, gulf war, afghanistan, 9/11, and the current iraqi war, we will survive passed this as well. Americans are free spirited people, we work hard and we play hard. not everything in are culture is good but some things are. everything has a balance in this country for everything that canadians hate theres something to be admired here. we put out some decent Hockey from time to time eh . getting back to the point here, bush really isnt a conservative in the traditional sense. hes more of a "light facist" something in between conservative and facism. i think he trully does have good intentions i think hes unduley influnced by that religion he partakes in, and by oil companies. if only we could get a moderate conservative to run, hed have my vote in a heart beat.

im not sure thats really anti-americanism, as much as it is anti commericalism. and thats really an overstatment at that. its a simple matter of preserving nature or not.

what can you say to something like this? my deepest regrets to that family of italian. what can i say or do it this situation as an American, not a whole lot, just grit my teeth and say dont give up on us yet. I believe journalist should be allowed into combat zones. I think its important for the world to know what is going on. i would want to know that our country was setting up interment camps or executing prisoners so i could immediatley vote out whoever was in office on the next election. with that being said, when you enter into a dangerous area such as that, you do take risk, and in that risk you have to know that war is an indiscriminate killer.

so individual journalist took payments from the republican party, thats not government sponsored journalism thats bi partisan politics. HUUUUGGGEE difference. the fact is there is no proof that the US government sponsors biased news media, the owneers of the different news outlets, all private citizens, influence their companies the way they see fit.

im still waiting to see a factual post showing how the US news media is funded and run by the US government. this is the kind of insinuations that are made that make me frown, you cannot justify the killing of a journalist by saying american journalism is run by the US and not back it up with something proving it.

exit polls are such BS, lets see lets do an exit poll and base it off 1000 voters who live in San Fransisco, dang ya think thats gonna be scewed just a little bit? the fact is not a single one is accurate. for the whole country.

o wow did anyone see what bush said about syria? ummm wow. talk about sabre rattling.

i find whats happening in Lebanon exciting news for that once beautiful country. anyone think its a direct result of what america is going over there? im not really sure, but i do know that the lebanese people were previously arrested for mass demonstrations of any kind, the braved jail to assemble in protest. i think thats a shout for freedom of syrian opression if you ask me.

i havent seen a single shred of proof showing that the United states federal government influences are media, most of are media outlets are owned by private corporations. and not funded by the government....

"Those that forget the pass are doomed to repeat it" tell that to my cousin who lost her husband in that building, please explain to her why 9/11 didnt matter, by all means explain why your haterd for george w bush led you to believe that those who died in that building dont matter. tell it to there 9 year old son, who cried himself to sleep for a week. I forgive you, because it wasnt your country and it wasnt your friends or family that died there, its easy to distance yourself from something that didnt effect you directly. Last time that many americans died, it woke up a sleeping giant, it forever effected the way of american life, and the global community. america went from a basically isolationist country to a world wide player because the country of japan attacked our fleet in pearl harbor. it lead for america to basically fight a two front war, one of whcih lead to the death of millions of soldiers in europe and millions more in the pacific. It changed the world as we know it. Now ask yourself again, why do we still talk about 9/11?

You mean the ones fishing illegally or over fishing???? Quotas are used for many things; there are even quotas on milk; how much a farmer can ship. Quotas are worth money; if a fisherman sold his quotas for a fast buck; that is his problem. Quotas are used to allow every fisherman the right to catch a fair catch and control the number of new fishermen. You need a quota to fish, I presume. could you source that for me, id like to find some data about that.

i think your assesment is correct, however if America wants to stay the greatest nation on the planet (im talkiing economically here) then we would have to shift are demands to europe rather than asia, i believe in 10 to 20 years when the communist hardliners die out, china will evolve into some sort of middle ground between communism and democracy, the reason i think this is, growth in any country does not promote socialstic or marxist ideals, when people see the potential to grow and raise there standard of living they no longer have the desire to stay at status quo with there peers, instead the human desire to excel takes over. And China is growing VERY fast.

only differnce is, if i called you anti-american you prolly did something or said something off color to deserve it, i dont think ive made one anit-candian remark on this webforum yet, i dont have to, because i have the intelligence to realize that what a few elected officials or radical screamers say or do does not a country make. bashing america will get you nothing but ignored. just like bashing any other country. an effectiver debator will not tell you why your are wrong, but why he is right. anything else is just an expression of being unconfident.

its always intresting to see how the world views the united states, unfortunetly most of the interpatations that this collective website have about american society are cleary wrong, and i think it has more to do with ignorance, and not do to any purposeful malice. I dont make judgements about any canada based on meeting one or two or even three canadians, so anti-americanism is to me just foolishness to roll my eyes at, just like anti-muslim attitudes are in america.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,148875,00.html Its always such a good ole time when the Republicans drop in on their friends a t Fox.... id like to see mccain run, hes always appeared as a very thoughtful, intelligent, moderate republican. ive seen him stand up to bush on more than one occasion.

nuclear fuel in not nuclear weapons, at least last time i checked.

always intresting to see what other countries feel about the united states. I think what maybe many of you dont see is that we are alot more divided philosophically than you think. there are many advocacy groups out there then the Republican and Democrats. I trully love how some of you who from past post that i have read, have never lived in the united states but yet can snap up are culture at a whim. I dislike your presumptive nature, and snap judgments about all people in this country. But to each his own, i wont sit back and judge canada based on my time in Montreal and Toronto, because i know that there are other provinces that i havent experienced. I voted for Bush, and i would not allow a fascist government to take control of are country without giving my life first.

I think the referenced quote brings up an interesting dilema. While it is not a personal attack, it is an attack upon something I take personally: my country. To respond to such a dittie, I have to attack the country the poster is from in a vicious way, or the poster himself. The forum rules do not allow personal attacks, so then I guess I am supposed to viciously attack Canada and its citizens. Is this the idea? the problem with that is, you make no point to anyone when you attack them, their culture, or their country, i appreciate your zeal however by lashing out you only feed into there generalizations that Americans are all gun toting, footballwatching, beer drinking, cowboys. (which i happen to be) however if you really wanna make a point, use your brain, think it through and find an answer that actually has a point. I know you can do it

But he has had support for his "initiatives and requests".......Are you suggesting that the likes of the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Japan etc are irrelevant? Or were they bribed and/or threatend? If yes, can you prove it? Now again, the countries that you claim feel that GWB is irrelevant to are themselves irrelevant to United States and it's coalition. Now this begs the question, which one of these "sides" is the most relevant to the world itself? The one that achieves it's objectives, or the one that fails. The proof is simple.......who's end game was acheived? Starting to get the picture? couldnt have said it better myself.

Of course, they do. The American government is a conservative one; only concerned with big business and let the consumers pay the price. That is the same type of government that many on this forum support. Well, I am a middle income consumer and I am tired of making the rich richer. If the government is going to grab my money, anyhow, I would prefer that money be spent on health care that all require and to assist those who are handicapped or have health problems( be they mental or physical) that prevent them from making their own way in life. However, I would not want to go so far as to support those who do not take the initiative to work; particularly those who believe they are too good to take a minimum wage job and work their way up. If that is all that is available to them; they should take the position until something better comes along. i can agree with that because of what you said at the end, only thing is, any time you take a job unless your working directly for the government your always making someone money

No, we don't but we do look at politicians lying to us and endangering the world for revenge or oil. (am I the only one who laughed out loud reading this?) -kimmy no i did laughed at this as well.

Huh. what kind of American are you? You talk of the President of the United States as an enemy. Perhaps these kind folks will provide you with emigration papers. i forgive you for misunderstanding what i was saying, that expression is not meant to be taken litteraly, its one that is basically saying to you if you dont like someone you dont ignore them, you pay close attention to them. and notice that i said BASED ON YOUR FEELINGS, which would indicate not mine. becareful that you think things through b4 your post

something that ive been thinking about for a while now. a few things that im fairly certain would occur if we A. pulled all are troops back, and B. stoped foriegn aid to other countries and cut off United Nations. 1. Isriael would be slaughterd, the muslims would over power the jews in numbers 2. NK would invade SK 3. the enconomies of Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Japan would all take huge hits with the removal of the permanent american bases there. 4. China would never get favored trade status revoked. only good thing id see is increased business with canada.

You just made an excellent point that i would like to touch on. seperation of church and state. First off, let me say that I did vote for George W. Bush, (lesser of two evils) with that being said, I do not appreciate, in fact i downright dislike that the religious fanatics in this country have the presidents ear. To me that is no better than IRAN or any other religious fundementalist country. Seperation of church and state is an absolute must for a country with different religions/cultures to coexsist peacefully. TO date, that is one reason why America has worked so well, the federal and state governments have done a fairly good job of leaving religion out of the government, and i credit that more to liberals than conservatives. BUT, as applies to the conversation we are having, take a country like iraq, which has 2 deeply religious culutres and one secular. i worry that while in the short run the system they are establishing will work, i fear that in the long run it will eventually succom to one religious group or the other, and thatis BAAAAAD. throught history religious control of a country has promoted irrational action. (ex. crusades, ex. Iraq, ex. checnya, ex. congo)