The Glade 4.0

19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.

However, in political discussions, it's like a switch gets flipped and callous disregard for death and suffering gets worn like a badge of honor while compassion is dismissed as bleeding-heart liberal nonsense.

PAUL: That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody --

(APPLAUSE)

BLITZER: But Congressman, are you saying that society should just let him die?

PAUL: No. I practiced medicine before we had Medicaid, in the early 1960s, when I got out of medical school. I practiced at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio, and the churches took care of them. We never turned anybody away from the hospitals.

(APPLAUSE)

PAUL: And we've given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves and assume responsibility for ourselves. Our neighbors, our friends, our churches would do it. This whole idea, that's the reason the cost is so high.

The cost is so high because they dump it on the government, it becomes a bureaucracy. It becomes special interests. It kowtows to the insurance companies and the drug companies, and then on top of that, you have the inflation. The inflation devalues the dollar, we have lack of competition.

PAUL: There's no competition in medicine. Everybody is protected by licensing. And we should actually legalize alternative health care, allow people to practice what they want.

(APPLAUSE)

Yes, the timing of the applause was after the comment about personal responsibility within the context of a discussion about whether or not to let an uninsured person die. You can't gloss over that context. Or rather, you can, but doing so is exactly the moral failure I'm pointing out.

Or maybe it isn't a moral failure....

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why any of you would waste your time arguing with a self-righteous ******* who, after many years of reading your well thought out arguments, could only deduce that you wanted people to die.

My post was about the Republican base, not necessarily anyone here. In fact, I don't think that description fits many Gladers.

Your posting history here would seem to indicate otherwise.

Again, why do you believe this view you've put forth describes the Republican an base. I think if we talk through this rationally you'll be able to let go of this anger.

Fine, maybe you don't think it's a moral failure; I do. I think cheering in response to a story about a 30 year-old uninsured person being denied medical care in the name of "personal responsibility" (the weasel-words about mandatory emergency care came later and are entirely inconsistent with the personal responsibility premise anyway) is a moral failure. I think cheering the prospect of executing 200+ people is a moral failure. I think cheering for enhanced interrogation techniques torture is a moral failure. Yes, I think it's a moral failure to cheer for those things, regardless of whatever abstract concepts those things supposedly represent to the people doing the cheering.

RD are you trolling or is this a sincere fight against your own strawmen?

RD are you trolling or is this a sincere fight against your own strawmen?

I don't think most Republicans (which is who I'm talking about, since I don't think "conservative" is really an appropriate label for the Republican base anymore) actually want people to suffer and die, and I know that in their personal lives, the vast majority are obviously decent, reasonably generous and compassionate people. However, in political discussions, it's like a switch gets flipped and callous disregard for death and suffering gets worn like a badge of honor while compassion is dismissed as bleeding-heart liberal nonsense.

Yes, the timing of the applause was after the comment about personal responsibility within the context of a discussion about whether or not to let an uninsured person die. You can't gloss over that context. Or rather, you can, but doing so is exactly the moral failure I'm pointing out

Ya know RD - those people applauding weren't any of us. Instead of applying the traits of the few to the whole - why don't you ask those people why they applauded or shouted "yeah"? We have no freaking clue why they did and if it isn't evidence now let me be absolutely clear. We (self identified conservatives of the glade rebooted) are not them.

This is what's wrong with the Republican base....

...Republicans (which is who I'm talking about, since I don't think "conservative" is really an appropriate label for the Republican base anymore)....

...My post was about the Republican base, not necessarily anyone here. In fact, I don't think that description fits many Gladers.

Liberals seem to assume that, if you don't believe in their particular political solutions, then you don't really care about the people that they claim to want to help. Dr. Thomas Sowell

I see both sides as somewhat reprehensible. The liberal thinks government should mandate equality in some way, ignoring individual responsibility and effort and talent.

I'm for NAMBLA ...