Well now that the election is over...

[karl k]

I wasn't looking for a fight either, the overall thoughts I posted were a genuine attempt to answer what I thought was the question.

And you did. Due to the initial apprehension of responding to the topic, I suspected most thought I was just looking to start something... or the topic was immaterial.

One wise man I knew said: "Every time 2 people talk there's actually 6 people talking. On each side: the actual person, the guy he thinks he is, and the guy the OTHER guy thinks he is".

Probably talked to himself alot as well as in his sleep! I can see how confusing that can be... but I can't! LOL!

Topic? What topics?

Ya, there aren't many, and it's been awhile, but they do exist. Look and see. Maybe I'm just sensative.

The only real accountability we'll ever have is the next election.

By accountability, I probably meant credibility. It's one thing to state a means to achieve a goal, it's another to really expect the means to achieve that goal. The only way we'll really know is when the end game has been achieved from BOTH sides. Hopefully, we as a country will not have to see that day,(the day we can say we've tried and achieved both ideologies) for that may be the day we acknowledge as a people we really don't know what we want.

Regardless of what's being said, most Iraqis think it was immoral of us to desert them after Gulf War round one and would be horrible to do it now.

If we made a promise... you bet it was! And yes it would be horrible. No qualms with that here.

Yep I'm cynical about the love-fest, too - hate and fear each other (the election commercials) - love and respect each other - yeah that'll happen!

For me, it was more than that... it's like maintaining a view(like everyone does at sometime) and then saying my view has no rellevence.

The one thing that stood out was Kerry saying to stand together in Iraq.

And he meant it, in the context that we need to get the troups out as fast as posible without sacrificing the mission at hand... getting the Iraqi people on their feet and on their way.
That story (I wish I could remember the name!!) was supposed to be an example of what can go wrong with democracy. Fact is, people are NOT equally endowed. Any attempt to force that will only screw things up.

Wait a minute! "...all men are created equal. Are endowed by their creator certain inalienable rights... life, liberty, pursuit of happiness." What have I missed here? just kidding!

At the risk of being called a flip flopper, back peddling, or other sort... the only thing I have preached is equal treatment, equal oppurtunity... not to have someones thumb on my head like it was as a kid! I am also a big fan of the idea that everyone has their place in the picture and we can't all take up the whole frame but we can all be in the same picture, taking up the same relative space in the picture... if we have the desire and the means. The constitution is the means, and all we lack is the will. Really is a shame when the constitution has to be used in that fashion... shows something about us.

Well, we're talking about equality and the like, I thought it interesting that within a couple of decades, with current birth rates, whites will constitute less than 50% of the general population of the US. No one race will control over 50% of the vote. Thus, the first multiracial democracy in the world, curtesy of the US.

Hopefully, the current minorities will have more wisdom than we have shown. At least, the whities will finally have a dose of what it feels like to potentially not get their way. A little humility can go along way if properly administered...don't you think?

If you reread my writing on reading you will see I did not judge the nonreader. I simply stated a fact.

Oh I got you alright! I only dispute the fact you cite. That one should/would be more economically or otherwise valueable than the other. Still disagree that to be fact. Yes, tools will only take you so far... reading is a tool, just like a wrench. Think about it. It's more a case of which is more valueable... having tools or understanding how to use them. Comprehension along with responsibility should determine a persons value. You can put that blueprint in front of an illiterate and get the same result as putting a wrench in the hand of one who can read. Either one can be taught to do the others job in most cases and one can't live without the other... in most cases.

And now... to pt2(tomorrow)