The Glade 4.0

False



True



True



False



True



True



False



True



True



True



False



True




TRUE = 8

FALSE = 4

(Those questions aren't as easy as True or False, tho. There are many shades of grey within each.)


Second set of questions:



True -- abortion is murder



False -- Consenting adults should be able to marry whoever the hell they want, as long as the partner is also a consenting adult.



False -- The health and well-being of its citizens should be the top priority of a government.



True -- The agreed upon tax should be applied to everyone. Want more money? Work to improve your current situation.



False -- They are both separate constructs. The individual may choose to make life decisions while in the state sphere based upon religious views, but that should always be a personal choice, and should not be enforced beyond the individual.



I'm going to say False for public education. Public education should be a right. Advanced schooling should be left up to the individual's expense, save for government grants and scholarships.



True -- Your economy will not be healthy and balanced if you cater to the needs of the few over those of the masses.



False -- Capital Punishment = advocating murder.



False -- The government needs to protect its people from themselves.



False -- Left to its own devices, a free, unregulated market would turn nasty really fast.



True -- Tax only for what the country's infrastructure needs to run efficiently. No gouging.



False -- By doing this, you only endanger yourself and those around you.


TRUE = 4

FALSE = 8

(So I guess pretty much a mirror image.)

1. Abortion should be legal for any reason before fetal viability. T
2. Governments should allow marriage between any two consenting adults, regardless of sex. T
3. Universal Health Care should be a legal right. F
4. Taxation should be progressive, not flat (nor consumption based.) F
5. Church and State should be entirely separate. T
6. Public Education should be a legal right. F
7. Ensuring people don't fall through the cracks is more important than Economic Stability. F
8. Capital Punishment should never be an option - we cannot let government have the ability to execute its citizens. T
9. Society and the economy should be planned and structured so as to provide the greatest good to the greatest number. F
10. The free market, left to itself without regulation, is a dangerous thing, and so it needs government oversight. T
11. Paying taxes to support those less fortunate than yourself is both moral and your duty as a citizen. F
12. People's "right to bear arms" is not absolute, and certain weapons should be restricted by law for the safety of society as a whole. (IE. Elmo's basement Nukes). T

6-6

_________________
"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Bah, just ready Taly's post. I refuse to answer this question. How I would want my state to organize itself would entirely be contingent on the people within it. Therefore, as a thought exercise, this is impossible because the answers are completely dependent on the assumptions of the nature of those people.

_________________
"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

True.



True. (bad question. It assumes the government has the athority to restrict it in the first place.



False.



False




True.



Terrible question. I'm not sure how to answer.



False.



True.



False. (Poor question. It assumes that the goal can be met.)



True. (Fraud, slaving, murder for hire, ect.)



False.



True.

_________________

Ezekiel 23:19-20 

1. Abortion should be legal for any reason before fetal viability.
True. Regardless of how others feel… it is not about infringing on anothers rights, it is not about being immoral and murdering a baby. It is up to each individual to decide how they feel about abortion. To tell another what they are and are not allowed to do with their body is bullshit.

2. Governments should allow marriage between any two consenting adults, regardless of sex.
True. This should be a joining of two individuals who wish to be together. It should not have any government interference at all.

3. Universal Health Care should be a legal right.
It should not be a legal right. Americans already stick their damned noses where they do not belong… and if healthcare becomes a legal right and is paid for by tax dollars it makes people think that they have the right to say what others can and cannot do with their own lives. Hell if it comes to pass… Hell if it comes to pass people should file lawsuits against the skydiving and bungee jumping companies for wasting our taxpayer dollars by allowing their customers to engage in a dangerous activity which could directly lead to a waste of taxpayer dollars in health costs… bet you that would get shot down as frivolous pretty quick…

4. Taxation should be progressive, not flat (nor consumption based.)
Let there be a consumption tax, based on the item in question. Extra 10% tax on TVs and Blu Ray players, 1% tax on necessities like toothpaste and hygiene products. No tax on foodstuff. High end luxury cars (75k and over price tag) get an extra premium. Make it a VAT and not a standard income tax. So those who barely make any money still contribute, but do not get hosed, if they spend wisely.

5. Church and State should be entirely separate.
That is not what is in the constitution. Let it be. We know many people in this country have a religious belief. Others have none. And I will keep my invisible friend to myself if you promise to keep your disbelief in invisible friends to yourself… aka: I will be good with my religion if you will shut the **** up at bashing it every chance you get. AKA.. because you do not believe gives you no right to criticize those who do, and vice versa.

6. Public Education should be a legal right.
Up to the high school level sure; but above that… no. Let those who have the desire work for it. Like those before them did.

7. Ensuring people don't fall through the cracks is more important than Economic Stability.
HA! Without the classes in this country, no one would really have any reason to try. Without the belief that you can better your station you really have no motivation to do better.

8. Capital Punishment should never be an option - we cannot let government have the ability to execute its citizens.
I am all about gene pool reduction. If you are willing to let a baby be aborted be consistent. At least capital punishment is for those 18+ who have **** up. But do not pretend it is justice. Capital Punishment is sanctioned vengeance, nothing more.

9. Society and the economy should be planned and structured so as to provide the greatest good to the greatest number.
False. The greatest good to the greatest number is a subjective point. You can always keep reducing the freedom of others under the guise of the greatest good; and keep raising the bar for what is the greatest number.

10. The free market, left to itself without regulation, is a dangerous thing, and so it needs government oversight.
I think I said false before. But I do think that this can be true under certain circumstances. Mainly in those that Rynar pointed out… Slavery, hired murderers, etc. But for the bulk of the free market endeavors… it needs to be left alone.

11. Paying taxes to support those less fortunate than yourself is both moral and your duty as a citizen.
Absolutely False. It is the moral imperative to do all that you legally can to improve yourself. Charity is what should be used to help those less fortunate. Government should not be “
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” Again, that which makes one “less fortunate” than you is subjective. If I am barely able to make ends meet… even if I plan well, but just have shitty luck; how is it right that I should need to help someone who is worse off? Where is my help? This is, luckily, not the case… but it could be for any of us.

12. People's "right to bear arms" is not absolute, and certain weapons should be restricted by law for the safety of society as a whole. (IE. Elmo's basement Nukes).
F for F-ing True or maybe even for F- that…
I cannot determine, myself, where an individuals “ideal point” is on weapon ownership… but I know for damned sure that no private citizen needs to own weapons of mass destruction. A private citizen does not need biological weapons either. I am fuzzy on anti-aircraft or anti-tank weapons too... I can see AP weaponry as there could be some animals out there with hides so thick that the AP is needed. But mortars and RPGs? Does a civvy really need those?


1. Abortion should never be legal except for cases where the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother.
Who are we to decide that? Even if it is a woman saying it… who is she to say that another woman should have no choice in the matter? And how dare we think we can make that choice for others.

2. Governments should only validate marriage between a man and a woman.
Why should anyone be able to decide what type of consenting adults can be in love with eachother? Are straight people really that good and picking a person to love? Is a 3 week marriage really more sanctified than a gay couple who spends 20 years together?

3. Health Care should only be private, government should stay out of it.
I am still thinking on this one.

4. Taxation should be flat. (Or nonexistent)
Taxation should be proportionate to what you spend on and not how much you make.

5. Church and State are inseparable.
They are seperable, but not in the sense that atheists would like. There are many churches, none of them know if they are right or not, but they think they are. Let each person have their own private relationship, but do not force their silence or compliance.

6. Education should be paid for out of private funds.
There should be a way for those who are willing to work hard enough to go to upper level educational facilities.

7. Economic stability is more important than ensuring people don't fall through the cracks.
This. If the economy is stable, those who WANT to do better can. Those who do not try fall through the cracks. If they do not try… what makes them worth anyone else’s time.

8. Capital Punishment should be available for the most severe criminal offenses.
I agree with this.

9. Government should not get involved in social or economic planning of any kind.
At a state level they should be able to, but at a federal level they need to act as an arbiter for state levels. With some overlying principles such as those against slavery and against hired murderers.

10. The free market is the most important freedom we can possess.
Self determination and enlightenment are the most important freedoms we can possess. And in economic stability people are free to pursue enlightenment through self determination.

11. Taxation should be limited to what a government needs in order to protect our rights.
I can get behind this.

12. I should legally be able to arm myself with anything i can acquire -- even weapons of mass destruction.
Please see my last response on this.

_________________
Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No - I'm pretty sure this is impossible to guarantee without resorting to indentured servitude.
4. No
5. Yes
6. No - While I support public education, that doesn't make it a right. This has the same problem as #3.
7. I can't answer that, it depends on how many people are falling through the cracks vs. the amount of economic instability.
8. No - I have no moral issues with execution, one just needs to come up with a tangible benefit from doing it, and not just, "well, they deserve it."
9. No
10. Yes - I don't see how anyone can say otherwise. I can easily come up with scenarios that would result in a free market killing hundreds of thousands if not more.
11. No
12. Yes

Honestly, in my opinion, the original questions don't do a great job of differentiating "popular" liberals from "popular" conservatives. If we want to figure out where one falls on that scale, I would ask questions revolving more around current issues. Some of those original arguments date back to before the founding of the country. I would go more along these lines:

1. Who is more to blame for the housing bubble? The financial institutions who sold mortgages that they likely knew their customers were unable to afford, or the individuals who signed these mortgages either not understanding them or not knowing they could not afford them?

2. Who is more responsible for the ballooning US trade deficit? The large corporations who are outsourcing to East Asia, or the consumer that buys East Asian-made products?

3. Yes or No - If a minority group is shown to be suffering a severe disadvantage due to racism, (Actual racism, not a secondary factor that gets labeled as racism) the government should provide them with compensatory benefits.

4. Yes or No - It is an injustice if a high school graduate whose academic performance was in the top ten percent of the nation's is unable to attend college due to financial issues.

5. Yes or No - The average person has a responsibility to help preserve the environment for future generations.

6. Yes or No - The degree to which homosexuality is genetic is a relevant factor in deciding the amount of rights and privileges we should bestow upon homosexuals.

That's a good start, but it's biased. How about:
Who is more to blame for the housing bubble? The financial institutions who sold mortgages, the individuals who signed these mortgages, or the Government mandates/regulations that "incentivized" the writing and selling of mortgages?
As you wrote it, I'd say the consumer, but with my changes, I'm not sure how I'd answer.

The consumer; I don't see how outsourcing has much at all to do with a trade imbalance, other than mitigating it by allowing the US corporations to attempt to compete in the labor cost arena.


No, the Gov't should be about protecting personal liberty and rights (removing the disadvantage), not eroding them (taking form one group to give to another, no matter how noble the goal).


Yes (depending on how you characterize the word "injustice"), it's sad, unfair and a loss for society as a whole that the high achieving student couldn't find a private institution or benefactor to help them.


Yes, but no just enforcement is possible.


No, "we" can't bestow rights upon human beings, regardless of their sexual orientation, be it wholly genetic, wholly chosen or some combination of the two.

_________________
"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Didn't we already take this quiz?

1. Abortion should be legal for any reason before fetal viability. False
2. Governments should allow marriage between any two consenting adults, regardless of sex. True
3. Universal Health Care should be a legal right. False
4. Taxation should be progressive, not flat (nor consumption based.) False
5. Church and State should be entirely separate. True
6. Public Education should be a legal right. True
7. Ensuring people don't fall through the cracks is more important than Economic Stability. False
8. Capital Punishment should never be an option - we cannot let government have the ability to execute its citizens. True
9. Society and the economy should be planned and structured so as to provide the greatest good to the greatest number. False
10. The free market, left to itself without regulation, is a dangerous thing, and so it needs government oversight. True
11. Paying taxes to support those less fortunate than yourself is both moral and your duty as a citizen. False
12. People's "right to bear arms" is not absolute, and certain weapons should be restricted by law for the safety of society as a whole. (IE. Elmo's basement Nukes). True

_________________

I came out 6-6, does that make me moderate or mediocre?

_________________

1. Abortion should be legal for any reason before fetal viability. False
2. Governments should allow marriage between any two consenting adults, regardless of sex. True
3. Universal Health Care should be a legal right. True
4. Taxation should be progressive, not flat (nor consumption based.) true
5. Church and State should be entirely separate. True
6. Public Education should be a legal right. True
7. Ensuring people don't fall through the cracks is more important than Economic Stability. True
8. Capital Punishment should never be an option - we cannot let government have the ability to execute its citizens. True
9. Society and the economy should be planned and structured so as to provide the greatest good to the greatest number. False
10. The free market, left to itself without regulation, is a dangerous thing, and so it needs government oversight. True
11. Paying taxes to support those less fortunate than yourself is both moral and your duty as a citizen. True
12. People's "right to bear arms" is not absolute, and certain weapons should be restricted by law for the safety of society as a whole. (IE. Elmo's basement Nukes).
True

2 false/ 10 true

Huh, 5 and 7.

Edit - 2nd set:


5 - 7 on the 2nd set *shrug*.

second set

1. Abortion should never be legal except for cases where the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. - False
2. Governments should only validate marriage between a man and a woman. - False
3. Health Care should only be private, government should stay out of it. - False
4. Taxation should be flat. (Or nonexistent) - False
5. Church and State are inseparable. - False
6. Education should be paid for out of private funds. - False
7. Economic stability is more important than ensuring people don't fall through the cracks. - False
8. Capital Punishment should be available for the most severe criminal offenses. - False
9. Government should not get involved in social or economic planning of any kind. - False
10. The free market is the most important freedom we can possess. - False
11. Taxation should be limited to what a government needs in order to protect our rights. - True
12. I should legally be able to arm myself with anything i can acquire -- even weapons of mass destruction. - False

10-2 liberal on the second one.

1. Abortion should never be legal except for cases where the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. True
2. Governments should only validate marriage between a man and a woman. False
3. Health Care should only be private, government should stay out of it. True
4. Taxation should be flat. (Or nonexistent) True
5. Church and State are inseparable. False
6. Education should be paid for out of private funds. False
7. Economic stability is more important than ensuring people don't fall through the cracks. True
8. Capital Punishment should be available for the most severe criminal offenses. False
9. Government should not get involved in social or economic planning of any kind. True
10. The free market is the most important freedom we can possess. False
11. Taxation should be limited to what a government needs in order to protect our rights. True
12. I should legally be able to arm myself with anything i can acquire -- even weapons of mass destruction. False

Still 6-6.

_________________

1. Abortion should never be legal except for cases where the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. – False
2. Governments should only validate marriage between a man and a woman. - False
3. Health Care should only be private, government should stay out of it. - True
4. Taxation should be flat. (Or nonexistent) - True
5. Church and State are inseparable. - False
6. Education should be paid for out of private funds. – False (True at the Federal Level)
7. Economic stability is more important than ensuring people don't fall through the cracks. – N/A (Government cannot regulate this in either sense)
8. Capital Punishment should be available for the most severe criminal offenses. -True
9. Government should not get involved in social or economic planning of any kind. - True
10. The free market is the most important freedom we can possess. – N/A (all rights are related)
11. Taxation should be limited to what a government needs in order to protect our rights. - True
12. I should legally be able to arm myself with anything i can acquire -- even weapons of mass destruction.- True

_________________
"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

I didn't answer the first set since some of those questions are actually two questions in one.

_________________
"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Ah the second set.


1. Abortion should never be legal except for cases where the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. – N/A I leave this moral quandry to the people who need to deal with it- the father, mother and the doctor.
2. Governments should only validate marriage between a man and a woman. - False. Government need to stay in a very limited role in our lives.
3. Health Care should only be private, government should stay out of it. - True. I do not believe it is a right just like I realize that police have no obligation to risk themselves for me.
4. Taxation should be flat. (Or nonexistent) - True
5. Church and State are inseparable. - False
6. Education should be paid for out of private funds. – Funds from a community should go to that community.
7. Economic stability is more important than ensuring people don't fall through the cracks. – impossible for the government to regulate or ensure this
8. Capital Punishment should be available for the most severe criminal offenses. -True
9. Government should not get involved in social or economic planning of any kind. - True
10. The free market is the most important freedom we can possess. – I feel all rights are equal (ie you cant regulate any of them) Putting them in a heirachy just makes me believe that I'm being asked to decide in what order you get to take them.
11. Taxation should be limited to what a government needs in order to protect our rights. - True
12. I should legally be able to arm myself with anything i can acquire -- even weapons of mass destruction.- Absolutly True. And as it stands now does anyone really think that a law against chem/bio weapons would stop a someone who would want to use them?

_________________
A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Have to answer this.

If you don't store a gun properly, someone can get shot. It's a shame.
If you don't store a biological weapon properly, you can kill half the world. That'd be a much bigger accident. I'm fairly sure if governments aren't allowed to stockpile biological weapons, neither should citizens be.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Yes. When things are illegal and difficult to get or risky to produce, costs skyrocket.

Never did the second set:

1. Abortion should never be legal except for cases where the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. - False
2. Governments should only validate marriage between a man and a woman. - False
3. Health Care should only be private, government should stay out of it. - False
4. Taxation should be flat. (Or nonexistent) - False
5. Church and State are inseparable. - False
6. Education should be paid for out of private funds. - False
7. Economic stability is more important than ensuring people don't fall through the cracks. - True
8. Capital Punishment should be available for the most severe criminal offenses. - True
9. Government should not get involved in social or economic planning of any kind. - False
10. The free market is the most important freedom we can possess. - False
11. Taxation should be limited to what a government needs in order to protect our rights. - False
12. I should legally be able to arm myself with anything i can acquire -- even weapons of mass destruction. - False

10 F / 2 T

I don't think he's trying to say they are safe, or even that they should be legal. He's saying that making them illegal isn't going to stop someone who really wants to make one from doing it.

The fact that making something illegal isn't going to stop someone from doing it isn't a reason to not make it illegal. That's why we enforce laws. Similarly, the practicality of actually doing something illegal isn't related to whether it should be illegal.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

As lex points out, making it illegal raises the costs.

Also, someone might not intend to USE it, but as I pointed out, they might keep one, were it legal. The chance of accident (or someone breaking in and stealing it to use it) means we don't want to allow people to hold one.

Lastly, they are useless weapons for self defense. There are legal ways to use a gun in defense. There is no legal or justified way to use a weapon of mass destruction. You can't use it to defend yourself from attackers without killing innocents, nor can you use it to fight your government without killing innocents. Unlike a gun, all possible uses of it are murderous, so why are you keeping it again?

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Your basic biological weapon can be as simple as a dead horse in a persons well. I'm sure I'm speaking in broader terms of what a bio weapon is than you are. I'm not advocating that civilians carry stockpiles of VX agent. However most folks have in their house enough chemicals to make very effective chemical weapons. All it would take it the will and information to use them.



Devils advocate for the pro basement nuke posse.

Elmo having a basement nuke is an excellent form of self defense. People will leave him alone, except for those dumb people who have a habit of tossing rocks at bee nests. It would be a micro scale of what nations do with their weapons.

As to unable to defend myself with it? If it was my only defensive measure I could see your point. I wouldn't detonate a bomb to stop a home invasion, I'd grab a shotgun. If I was being meanaced ala Waco or Ruby Ridge, I'd use a bomb/rocket vs using a shotgun. Right tool for the job and all that rot.

While we've covered the topic to death, it does come down in my opinion, I'm against having a third party limit my options to defending myself. It's just another form of banning, under the false pretense of having a choice.

_________________
A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Most people have the ability to make improvised chemical weapons, not "very effective" ones. Use of Sarin gas on the Tokyo Subway resulted in only 13 fatalities, and the detonation by insurgents of a 155mm shell with binary Sarin precursors (the shell's rotation about its axis during flight is supposed to mix the chemicals and produce Sarin when properly fired) was unsuccessful in producing more than a small amount of Sarin because the shell was not fired in the manner it was designed for.

Producing a chemical weapon that will kill a few people is fairly easy, but to get "very effective" weapons you need properly weaponized chemicals and a proper delivery system, and that is harder to do. The Tokyo attackers had, in fact, given up plans to aersolize their Sarin.



All you're really doign here is establishing that it's useless for home defense. Trying to use it to defend your home would result in the destruction of you, your home, not to mention the homes of those around you for quite some area, and worse, would significantly degrade the ability of the community to deal with the consequences of the emergency. It serves no purpose for home defense when you can get a shotgun, and if it's really a matter of you needing to "defend yourself from the government" you really need to get large numbers of other citizens together with you both in order to have legitimacy and to have some country left to live in when the matter is resolved.

That's the real problem with this entire idea of nuclear weapons (and to a lesser extent biological ones as well). Nuclear weapons are only useful in between nations, where deterrence is meaningful. Their sheer power means that by their vdry nature they threaten the survival of nations, and conceiveably that of humanity in general.

Any attempt to appeal to rights or philosophy at the time of this country's founding, or indeed at any time prior to the WWI-WWII interwar period when people became aware that such weapons might be feasible is inherently disingenuous. It relies on an assumption that such philosophies and views on the right to bear arms would have been thought of in the same way by those worthies had they the knoweldge of the power of atmoic forces and how they could be utilized. This is not a safe assumption at all.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."