Political Meme...

[strredwolf]

80% Hillary Clinton
80% John Edwards
79% Barack Obama
74% Joe Biden
72% Chris Dodd
65% Bill Richardson
56% Mike Gravel
54% Dennis Kucinich
52% Rudy Giuliani
49% Tom Tancredo
44% Mitt Romney
39% John McCain
33% Fred Thompson
32% Mike Huckabee
16% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Ugh. Also,the answers I could choose were questionable.  Here's what I would say to a few of 'em:

5. Death Penalty
    It should be an option for many serious crimes, and it's use standardized.  The business of death should be regulated through all government agencies so the penalty is applied once, and it's done right.  Also, bring back the firing squad.

9. Balanced Budget
   We can't balance a budget right now because our military is engaged.  We should keep an eye on it, but cutting spending when we're already to the bone is stupid.  Taxes must be raised, and the tax system reformed.

12. Illegal Immigration
   We must strengthen our borders, but also lift caps on people who want to legally come in.  Mexico has a waiting list that spans years!  We must also invest in fields that would drive people back to work in those countries, such as corn (which now has a good hold for ethanol production).

13.  Energy and Enviroment
   We must fund not only nuclear energy, but renewable energy to boot.  Oil will run out, and is already at a limited supply with it being $100 a barrel of crude, and petrol(gas) $3 a gallon refined.

15.  Health Care
   A full fledge study is needed on this one.  We should be covering everyone's emergency care, and allowing people to enroll in their own maintance care.

16.  Gun Control
   It should be buried in paperwork.  Gun ownership should require a course in gun operation and safety, and licensed.  The gun itself should also be inspected and licensed for operation.  Ownership without license and certification should be fined heavily.  Operation without certification should also be fined heavily, with nessisary exceptions for on-the-fly protection of yourself ("He was about to stab me.  The gun was there.  I grabbed it and shot him." should be excused).

17.  Overseas crisis
   We must follow an escalating series of steps.  Diplomacy and freezing of assets, with international support first, before sending in multinational troups.

Comments

[bibliophage.livejournal.com]

I openly disagree with #16.

We _have_ a second amendment. It isn't negotiable. PERIOD.

If you want to enable licensing, training, and everything else, you _must_ lobby for an amendment to the Constitution. Otherwise, it's a piece of paper that any government can completely ignore. In fact, they _do_, most of the time, despite the fact that the 2nd amendment protects the right that created all the others.

Health Care - there's a simpler 'quick fix'.

Ban insurance companies from being able to have 'discounts'. One of the problems we have for uninsured people is that they have a terrible time getting care at reasonable prices, because the 'gummint' told them that any 'insurance discounts' must be negotiated off of the price that uninsured people will be charged - so, in order to make any profit, they had to jack the rates up enormously. If everyone paid the same prices, insurance or non-insurance, costs would drop for uninsured people.

(I have personal experience with this. I have a customer and a dentist (two physicians) that refuse to take insurance at all. Their rates are MUCH lower than the 'we take insurance' people. In fact, my crown, paid for in cash to my regular non-insurance dentist, cost less than the 'get a dental plan' rate at a dentist that takes insurance)

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

There's many problems circling #16.

First, the 2nd Amendment hasn't been ruled on yet. The Supreme Court is considering a case that does just that, and is part of #16. Remember, that was when the US didn't have an established military. We now have one. If that fails, the Consitution has failed and it's every man/woman/kid for him/her/hir-self.

Second, we got morons. We got complete idiots. We need a system that weeds them out, and if they're too stupid to be unable to fill out the paperwork, then they're too stupid to use a gun in a proper manner...

...and really should be dragged into the military so they'll learn or get shot.

[bibliophage.livejournal.com]

Actually a standing military is something that could be debated as to whether or not it's even Constitutional on it's own, but I do understand that we have a LOT of equipment that can't be trained on in four to six weeks of a volunteer army.

However, that's not the point. The point is that it does say straight out that it is a right that isn't to be 'modified' and 'adjusted'. It's a right allowed to everyone capable of standing up, seeing lightning, and hearing thunder, so that they can defend themselves from _their own government_ as well as 'invaders'.

(Part of the reason I'll withhold judgement on the standing army is that I believe we had at least a small one prior to the deaths of Jefferson/Franklin/et al, and I don't recall reading that any of them were that upset about it - the draft probably had them spinning in their graves, however.)

The system that 'weeds them out' is often called 'Darwinism'. You can't require a man to read and write, so you can't require him to fill out paperwork. Even the IRS can't force you. If you show up and say "I made some money, how much do I owe", they have to fill out the paperwork for you.

Remember - most of the injuries from the 'cheap' guns are self-inflicted ones. Scale up to big calibers, and you've got something going.