re: #20 Obdicut

I wasn’t pissed off by you expressing contempt. I was annoyed at you asking why we allowed people to vote who didn’t reach a certain educational level.

OK, opinion duly noted. However, I very strongly believe that voting is a sacred responsibility and a serious act not to be undertaken by those who have no clue. I repeat Churchill and Plato with the simple fact that not all people are responsible enough to handle democracy, and that tyranny of the majority, and tyranny of the stupid was something that the Founding Fathers also understood.

I will put it really bluntly. Because of fools like that, we have no legislation on AGW. We can debate this up and down if you like, but as a direct result, they are voting for the collapse of America and the death of future generations. I do not see their sacred right to express their stupidity in the form of irresponsible and ignorant voting as the equal to or superior of the rights of future generations to have a civilization.

I have contempt for a lot of these people too. I have pity for some. I have pity for anyone who has not gotten the education in critical thinking that they need in order to sort through points of view, to filter fact from fiction. I feel pity for those who were raised believing that religious fervor overrides reality.

OK, I have pity for mental deficients also. That doesn’t mean I think they should be allowed to operate heavy equipment or influence policy.

I’d like to help them. I do think education is the answer. And I do think the biggest problem this nation faces is that those who benefit from this lack of education transform that into votes for themselves, perpetuating the cycle.

Which is exactly what I was adressing last night. There were many nested if then statements in what I wrote about their being a fair and non discriminatory educations system availible to all for at least a generation before even contemplating restricting votes.

And the standards I set were pretty low anyway. Basic history, basic geography, basic math and basic literacy. Honestly, I would be all for making Americans take the same test we make new citizens take to become citizens before they can vote.

I don’t think that prescribing the right to vote, in any way, is the right way to move.

I understand. I was not advocating it either. I was asked if I would be ok with it. Under certain circumstances, that insured fairness, I would be.

I do think that campaign finance reform, including severe limits on corporate donations, are necessary. I do think we need to end the legal fiction that simply because it’s convenient to treat a corporation as a person that it therefore gains the rights of a person.

I agree with that 100%

The well-educated, smart, and wealthy people who are cynically promoting the lies are much more of an object of contempt to me than the people who are hoodwinked by them.

Well in the case of AGW those are the ones I feel should be tried for crimes against humanity, exactly like any other would be mass-murderer.