MuchMadness's Comments (214)

“What Mr. Brenner wrote was all nice and swell, but did he offer any suggestions on how to deal with the fact that there are a number of foreign nations that seem to think that attacks on American civilians are OK? He opposes intervention in foreign lands. OK, fine. Then what security measures or trade sanctions would he support?”

“Isn't ELCA regarded as being rather radical, not true to historic Lutheranism like LCMS is?”

“The state should not be permitted to set up its own baptisms or its own communion services using practices and definitions intended to mock the churches. In the same way, if the state desires to have civil marriages, it needs to do so in a way that respects the right of free exercise of religion.

I consider the separation between church and state (more specifically, the free exercise clause) to prohibit the state from taking the institution of marriage, which is deeply entwined with religion in most societies, and redefining its very essence to be something that most religions reject. The state has a limited authority to define civil marriage, but the definition must show a decent respect for the opinions of mankind, and that includes showing a decent respect for the teachings of religious groups.”

“This is an excellent column. Mr. Creamer is absolutely right. Another way that the Democratic Party can stand for right against wrong is by supporting greater restrictions on abortion and by regarding only heterosexual marriages as valid unions worthy of governmental recognition. The Democratic Party needs to be pro-worker, pro-environment, pro-regulation, a staunch defender of the separation of church and state, and a strong supporter of human rights.”

“We must move away from the dangerous idea of an imperial presidency. That is a bad idea when the president is a Republican and when the president is a Democrat.

Read the constitution. It says that the congress has a lot more power and authority than most people think. The president's job is to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. The president may recommend measures to the congress for its consideration, but he is not himself a legislator, so it is completely right for the president not to be involved in the minute details of crafting legislation. He should keep a low profile but let congress know beforehand if it is considering something that would cause him to cast a veto.

As commander-in-chief of our nation's military forces (but not commander in chief of our nation), the president must carry out only those wars that the congress has authorized, and he must take care that the military applies the rules of discipline that the congress has set out in law.”

“Maybe the president's lack of leadership is a good thing. Maybe it will remind the American people that under the constitution the congress is supposed to be an energetic branch of government with its own ideas and agendas and that congress is not supposed to rely on the president for guidance all the time.”

“Would that be the same Hillary whose husband favored NAFTA and signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall? I agree that it is bad to elect Republicans, but why are the Democratic alternatives so weak? It seems that good candidates never get a chance.”

“ESPN is going for a large national audience, so it concentrates on the two really big sports, football and basketball. Versus could be a very good niche network for other sports such as tennis, hockey, horse racing, formula one auto racing, and a lot of other smaller sports.”

“I guess Americans today are just not very patriotic. In the early 1940's many Americans didn't have much money, and most families had just one income, the husband's income, but they found a way to buy war bonds, didn't they?”

“It is good to see someone advocate Americans owning more of the U.S. national debt. When President Obama inherited the problem of a huge national debt due to the irresponsible tax cutting and war spending of the past nine years, it seemed obvious to me that we would need to encourage U.S. citizens to buy U.S. government bonds so that we can shift the interest payments on the national debt away from China and back to ourselves. That would also give us more leverage in trade negotiations, and it would bode well for moving to a truly progressive, democratic society, a counterweight against the forces of oligarchy in places like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China.”

“There are a lot of very wealthy Americans who could be taxed to pay down the U.S. national debt. Or we could call on their sense of patriotism to encourage them to buy treasury bills so that a greater percentage of U.S. national debt is owed to American citizens. We will need higher taxes and a bond drive to finance the continuing and expanding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reforming societies suffering form the negative effects of false religion can be expensive. The financial burden of maintaining an empire is quite high. Let's start selling war bonds, and let's bring on the rationing of food and gasoline, too. That way we can all sacrifice to make the U.S. less dependent on Chinese purchases of U.S. government bonds. And lets pursue a policy of favoring U.S.manufactured goods and goods from the best democracies over goods from monarchies, theocracies, and communist states that have bad records on human rights and workers' rights.

If China becomes less able to depend on exports to the U.S., that will be a good thing for both nations in the long run. Americans will manufacture more goods for Americans, and Chinese workers will manufacture more goods for Chinese citizens. Economically wasteful and environmentally damaging intercontinental trade will be reduced. There will be an incentive for each nation to bring its manufacturing wages into line with the incomes of its citizens, because the workers will also be the consumers.”

“Because it is nearly impossible to tell which corporation is doing what. The corporations can be secretive, and the same corporation that makes a legitimate product like refrigerators can also be making all sorts of weapons and lobbying behind the scenes to keep the wars going.”

“"When the commission makes its report to Congress, which would include huge cuts for these programs along with some tax increases, the report would not be subject to regular Congressional procedures."

Well, what does that really mean? Would such restrictions really be constitutional? Can one congress bind all future congresses to accept restrictions that effectively dictate that the rules for passing certain legislation be different from the ordinary rules or different from the rules in Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution? Couldn't some appeal be made to the Supreme Court on the legality of the restrictions?”

“Why wait until the morning of the protest to post this?
Shouldn't the protest have been publicized weeks ago?”

“The Republicans don't exist any more. The Democrats are in charge. Get busy, Democrats. Quit making excuses and just muscle through some good changes to benefit the nation. That's what we elected you to do. Majority rules.”

“As an American, I completely agree that a lot of things about U.S. election laws are ridiculous. And a lot of American citizens seem to have idealistic views but not a lick of common sense.”

“Is it too much to ask that states get their acts together and set rules that guarantee that all votes are counted in a timely manner and that the U.S. congress is able to know quickly who has been elected. First we had the Minnesota delays in the U.S. senate election, and now the public is supposed to accept that a congressman from NY was seated before a state was able to do its job properly and officially certify results?

Are our elections any fairer or more credible than Afghanistan's?”

“Well, what does constitute a timely result for a special election? Mr. Owens has already been seated as a representative, and he cast a (very good) vote for the health care reform bill. If it turns out that Mr. Hoffman won, would the Republicans have a valid argument that politics forced a rush to seat Mr. Owens?

We recently witnessed a complete farce in Minnesota, where the citizens of that state were deprived of representation in the U.S. Senate for about six months while people argued about which votes to count.

All I am saying is that sometimes good intentions make for bad law when practicality is considered. Theory is fine, but practical wisdom is needed, too.”

“In 1865, a military commission convicted eight people after proceedings that lasted about two months. The records are available, and it seems that justice was done. So we should not assume that military trials cannot be fair.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/lincolnconspiracy.html”

“I do not want to disenfranchise the troops, though I do think it is preposterous that we have so many troops stationed overseas and are such a militaristic nation, and I think it is highly unlikely that the troops have been able to follow the congressional campaign very closely or read up on the candidates' positions on the issues.

I am merely suggesting that all absentee voters should cast their votes in time for them to be counted along with all the other votes. I also think that the motor voter registration law has made registration too easy. When people had to go down to a government office to register, I think they had greater appreciation for their voting rights. Our nation has become so uneducated, and many young people have a real disinterest in government and politics. That needs to change. We need informed voters, not uninformed voters who just vote out of some vague sense of duty.”

“Can't the law be set up to discourage absentee ballots unless the absences are truly unavoidable? And can't the laws be set up to guarantee that any absentee or other mail-in votes arrive in time to be counted prior to election day? Maybe we also need to make it a little bit harder to register to vote so that poorly informed voters will not take the time to register. Go back to the old rules. Our elections are getting ridiculous. Recounts and delays should be very rare. Nearly all elections should be decided by the end of the night on election night. In the interest of expanding voting participation, we have undermined confidence in the credibility of our elections. And are we getting better government? No, we are getting government suited to a not-too-smart electorate.”

“Yes, and when the city government of Washington, DC gave out those contracts, it new full well that the Roman Catholic church disapproved of same sex marriages and that it would probably be offended if the government tried to compel them to offer benefits related to what it would consider an unholy union.
The city can certainly annul the contract, but that would hurt the poor since the city is probably not equipped to do the job itself.

Maybe the city should reconsider the unjust law and its desire to bully a church into violating its conscience.”

“OK, have it your way. We will pretend that those 55 solid Democrats actually exist, and we will pretend that keeping the filibuster is essential. Then we have to decide how badly those 55 Democrats have to debase and degrade themselves and sell this country down the river to get people like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson to go along. Truly, even working girls have higher standards than that.”

“I am not sure that there are 51 Democratic senators who truly feel that real health care reform is an important priority. If there were, then they would make a big enough fuss to force the senate rules to be changed to guarantee that an up or down vote on the legislation could be held.”

“Maybe the problem is that the media tend to focus on dissecting the political spin and sloganeering rather than on presenting a serious (and, to most people, boring) discussion of complex issues. When was the last time you saw a televised prime time program with real experts (from a variety of perspectives) discussing trade policy, fiscal and monetary policy, or working conditions and standards of living throughout the world?

PBS and NPR come the closest to this among the electronic media outlets, but everyone knows that only socialist eggheads watch PBS or listen to NPR.”