I'm not sure I've ever assimilated into the hive mind as you put it and I've been here about 7 years. I've never been to a meat, but feel I know most of the people here well enough to count them as friends people I frequently talk to on the internet.

I do live in Yorkshire though, so maybe I'm foreign enough to be excluded. :J

However, though I don't post a huge amount here, I do read the threads every day, so something keeps pulling me back, and it's not just PB's profile picture.

I think it's the honest, easy going nature of people here. Also, it's a great place to throw a question out and get an answer back without the barrage of trolling that happens elsewhere. Plus, people are helpful. Mostly. Well Milko once showed me a picture of his bike. I was disappointed it didn't have spokey dokes.

Drawings n' that

I've found it a bit different in the political realm, but perhaps given the membership that is to be expected. We are coming at things from different mindsets.
 

That is true enough. Technically, there are many here who are extremely well-versed with things electronica, etc.
 

His bike, eh? Is that what you're calling it? Lucky dog, then. ;-P

 

 

Did you ever see such a messed up situation in your whole life, son?

Hate? Pretty strong assumption on your part.

Quote: 

What does a disrespect for freeloaders have to do with either of that? Were I a failure, I'd be right in with the freeloaders, I'd expect. But I think one's view of success or not has to do with what they view as being important, and what they had set out to do. Freeloaders choose to do nothing, and I have certainly never done nothing. That means I and many other Americans have to pay for them.

No, I was always taught that whatever one does, one always gives it their all, the best they have. I find it hard to believe that one's best is nothing, sans illness or infirmity; in either of those situations, that is totally different.

Failure? I hardly think so. Maybe you'd think so, but yours would be as unusual definition.

 

Did you ever see such a messed up situation in your whole life, son?

What evidence, pray tell, is that? I haven't seen any "evidence" that anyone here has proffered regarding anything, unless parroting stories from sources akin to the National Enquirer.
 

I can't believe I am arsed to discuss things with many of you. You have your heads so far up your ass I am surprised you haven't expired by now. Maybe you're just restin'.

 

 

Did you ever see such a messed up situation in your whole life, son?

Oddly enough, or perhaps coincidentally enough, this is pretty much how I feel about you lot. Once again, I will ask: what credible source did I dismiss out of hand? What facts did I dismiss in "usual pantomime way"?
 

I agree that extremes of either are not well-served in politics - although I am not sure that there are many, if any, who currently serve in U.S. politics who are interested in making the world better and want to improve lives. Our Congressional Approval Rating should bear that out.
 

Interesting. Although I'd have to say that rigorous beliefs are held quite widely here, and by you. So apparently we feel the same way about the other, except from opposite sides.
 

Sure. Yeah, I just became Republican because my daddy was a Democrat. Or something like that. No, I actually took the time to read about and study what Democrats traditionally believe against what Republicans believe and stand for. So, I believe in personal responsibility, am not afraid of hard work; we were taught to get the work done first and play later. One always does his best. That we accept a hand up, but not to settle for hand-outs, assuming we are capable of self-sufficiency.

Speaking about limp insults, I think you are one-way on that. It is OK to criticise the American, dismiss any statements out of hand and fail to indicate where the American has run afoul of facts or sources. Brits are quite accomplished at seemingly pleasant speech meant to injure, which has been done many times in the past.

I suspect the "rigour and honesty" bit is subject to your interpretation at all. Do you think you have a lock on that? Seriously?

Just so you know, I have a lifetime of rational thought on my positions. I have "had a think about it" more often then you might imagine. When it comes down to it, I think you are just annoyed that I don't come around to your way of thinking. Well, I likely won't. We are two different minds, yours tends to be left of centre, mine tends to be right of centre. We will possibly find common ground somewhere in the middle, but on what I am not sure.

I think you are basing most of your assertions on my not providing to you links for facts on obamacare. I explained why I did not, but of course in your haughty way you find fault. I did not want to appear to be cherry-picking results, and the data is a tough slog, being as there are so many angles. Obamacare is failing:

Earlier.

The way obamacare was set up, it seemed there was no way for insurance companies could lose, because there were built-in bailouts - that taxpayers would have to pay for - in case the exchanges failed. Well, we already experienced that in the financial and automotive sectors. Insurance is a business, and government has no place in business because it creates nothing, produces nothing except taxes. Our government is incredibly inefficient at doing anything at all - haven't you read the news? We waste, tax and pork-barrel ourselves to death, and you would wonder why I am Conservative in mindset?

Waste
 

I knew that would be in there, somewhere. Thanks, your sentiment is a shared one.












 

 

Did you ever see such a messed up situation in your whole life, son?

In the classroom he doesn't have the choice of pressing a button to making whining go away, though perhaps he does at least have the consolation there that some of them might learn.