20 Questions I’m Not Afraid to Answer…

One of Open Diary’s more bigoted members posted (more like plagiarized) an article from a conservative site that asked a few questions. The person who posted it even went as far as to suggest that certain people (especially from the center or the left) were afraid to acknowledge these questions, let alone answer them.

To prove this person wrong, I am going answer each and every question with a healthy dose of common sense to prove not only how ignorant these people are, but how their bias is clouding their judgement.

The issues stated in most of these questions are not black and white like they would like to think it is. There are layers of grey that need to be addressed and until they are, most of the problems we face today will be very difficult to over come.

So let’s get to these alleged questions I’m apparently too afraid to answer.

Peter

1) A few days ago, we were hearing that the Boston Marathon bombers COULD BE conservative, which proved that the Right is evil. Now, when we know that the terrorists are Muslims, how can the same liberals be saying that it means nothing?

I’m not sure what the liberals were saying, but I don’t consider the motives of the bombers to be a right/left issue. Yes, it’s true that the suspects of last week’s bombings are Muslim, but there are plenty of incidents (shootings and other bombings) where the suspects were Christian. I don’t the problem is politics… it might be religion.

It appears this person is asking the question from the ignorant position that all terrorists are Muslim, which just isn’t true. Timothy McVeigh was a Catholic and his bomb killed over 150 people and wounded over 500. Do you see anyone condemning Christianity because one person bombed a government building in Oklahoma City? I doubt the Irish Republican Army was Muslim either… nope, devout Catholics. Ditto for that mad terrorist that shot dozens of people in Norway, which combined with the other examples I provided proves beyond doubt that terrorism isn’t just isolated with Islam.

2) If you believe we have a “right” to things like health care, food, shelter and a good education, then doesn’t that also mean you believe we also have a right to force other people to unwillingly provide those things at gunpoint?

People have a right to live, a right to be treated with respect. Someone’s right to horde cash and live like a glutton shouldn’t override that no matter how you tried to present the question. People enjoy eating like royalty but seem to be the first to complain when it comes time to pay the bill. Everyone should pay their fare share in taxes in order to have the privilege to live the good life. Romans never cried this much about paying taxes, yet to the average right winger, this is worse than death itself.

Your taxes pay for the military that prevents other nations from invading, for the roads that let you drive to visit family in another state and for the bridges that let you cross rivers safely. Where do you think all these things come from? Taxes! Stop being such a fucking baby and pay your fucking share!

3) How can you simultaneously want a big government that will make decisions that have an enormous impact on the lives of every American while also saying that the character and morals of our politicians don’t matter?

Character and morals of politicians matter, as does their conduct. When a politician places the needs of corporations above those of the people who elected him and takes money from them… that is bribery and they should be locked up for taking them. There is such a thing as too much government but at the same time some is needed to make sure everything works out well.

Am I the only person who finds it ironic that the party that preaches against big government is responsible for most of its growth? That kind of hypocrisy takes the wind out of this question’s sails since the people who protest big government only seem to do so only when the other party is in power…

4) What exactly is the “fair share” of someone’s income that he’s earned that he should be able to keep?

If I were in charge, I would say someone is allowed to keep 70% of what they make. I think that is more than fair.

The government creates the atmosphere in which all these people make their money. They make the roads that allow companies to transport their goods from one state to another. They also regulate industry to prevent corrupt companies (most of the time) from harming the public. They provide services, protection (most of the time) and many other things that make everyone’s life better.

None of this stuff is free. If you don’t want to pay taxes, you can always leave but you can’t take all the things you take for granted with you…

5) Why is it that time and time again, revenue paid to the treasury has GONE UP after we’ve cut taxes?

If you honestly believe that, I have some Enron shares to sell you. Taxes are at their lowest they’ve been in over a century and the economy is in the worst shape its been in since the Great Depression. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

In order to prevent complete economic collapse, taxes need to at least double over the next ten years. In order to do that, all you have to do is restore them to the numbers they were at AFTER the Regan tax cut. That’s how low they are right now and that’s one of the reasons why the nation’s debt is so high.

6) Are you pro-choice or pro-abortion? If it’s pro-choice, do you feel people should be able to choose to have an assault weapon, what kind of light bulb they use in their house or whether they’d like to put their Social Security funds into a private retirement account?

Where do I start with the flaws in this person’s logic?

There are a lot of assault weapons that are banned that are not in violation of the second amendment. No one has the right to own a bazooka, rocket propelled grenades or nuclear weapons. Adding guns with 30-100 round clips isn’t going to end the world or cause the nation to become a police state.

As for light bulbs, using up less power is a good thing. Saving power saves people money in their light bill. Why is conserving power and not wasting it like a drunken sailor a bad thing?

Right now corporations are caught and prosecuted everyday for defrauding the people. This is why Social Security is controlled by the government and even they are not handling it perfectly themselves. Regardless of how bad the government does, Social Security is still better in their hands than any corporation on the planet. Their job is to make money for themselves, not to support the people. This is why corporations should never be considered because they cannot be trusted.
All one has to do is look at what a boondoggle health care is in the US to know that SS should never be privatized.

Now I have a question for the people who claim to be pro-life. Do you support the death penalty? War? Bombing clinics? Do you support the sale of guns to people who are mentally unstable? All these things end life that you are supposed to be in support of sustaining… so why the hypocrisy?

7) If corporations are so awful, greedy and bad for the country, then shouldn’t we be celebrating when they decide to close their plants here and move overseas?

Because those same companies are abusing the system to expand their bottom line and still take advantage of our nation’s tax breaks. If they want to leave, I say let them… but at the same time I’d remove all their tax breaks and tariff their products when the come into the country. If they don’t want to play by our rules, why should we give them special treatment?

8) How can liberal economists like Paul Krugman be right when they claim that our economy isn’t doing well because we aren’t spending enough money when we’re already running massive, unsustainable deficits and spending is going up every year?

Those running, unsustainable deficits were caused by two wars that were waged by a Republican who kept them both off the books for over six years. When Clinton left office, the nation had a surplus. Even with the war off the books, President Larry The Cable Guy managed to plummet the budget into the red in less then two years! Over 75% of the nations debt has been caused by Republican spending, so for the right to gripe and complain about unattainable deficits is hypocritical since it’s their party that caused them.

9) If Republicans don’t care about the poor, why do studies consistently show that they give more to charity than Democrats do?

Republicans only donate to one thing: each other. They’re merely passing the money from one pocket to another and then pat each other on the pack for being ‘charitable’. It’s a kick back con and I for one am sick and tired of it. Democrats do give to charities, but if you actually investigate who gives more to ‘independent’ charities that are not owned by people of politics, I’m willing to bet that Democrats give more away to those kind of charities than Republicans do.

10) Give us a ballpark estimate: If something doesn’t change dramatically, how long do you think it will be until we have an economic crash in this country similar to the one we’re seeing in Greece or Cyprus?

Right now the thing that needs to change dramatically is a congress that apparently unwilling to work with a President just because of his skin colour. That kind of bigotry has caused a lot of good bills that would have helped the people ride out this recession from passing. The very bills that would have helped veterans coming back from the war, which Republicans always say we should support (but they don’t).

11) Since we “all agree” with the idea that our level of deficit spending is “unsustainable,” what would be wrong with permanently freezing federal spending at the current level until we balance the budget by increasing revenue, cutting spending or some combination thereof?

Here’s an idea… let’s try freezing the spending made to the military until the budget is balanced? Unless you’re willing to freeze all programs, don’t even suggest that you really want to get the deficit under control.

Right now the United States spends more on its military than the next twenty five highest paying nations combined… and twenty four of them are allies. Is that really necessary? If you really think that the military doesn’t need to be cut, they you are really not in favour of balancing the budget at all…

12) If we change God’s definition of marriage to make gay marriage legal, then what’s the logical argument against polygamy or even adult siblings supposed to be?

Since God doesn’t exist, why should we even think his/her/their/it’s definition of marriage is legit to begin with?

There are religions out there that actually do support polygamy. If people have a right to religion, why should their rights to marry more than one be defined by someone else’s religion?

This is why things like marriage shouldn’t be defined by religion in the first place… because none of them seem to agree on anything.
As for brothers and sisters getting married… the only reason why incest is illegal in the first place is to prevent birth defects and prevent child abuse. It’s not about marriage but abuse and defects, always has been.

13) In a world where people can easily change states and can, with a bit more difficulty, permanently move to other roughly comparable parts of the globe, do you really think it’s feasible over the long haul to have a tax system where 86% of the income taxes are paid by the top 25% of the income earners?

The top 25% of income earners don’t pay that much in taxes because if I’m not mistaken, they’re the ones how are shipping their money to tax havens and not paying any at all. Thanks to tax breaks and loopholes that shouldn’t exist, most of the top earners pay less than 20% and sometimes even less than 10% in taxes. How is that fair?

If they hate paying so much in taxes, they’re welcome to leave anytime they want. Yet they don’t… because they know these taxes are a small price to pay to live in a nation like the one they reside in.

14) If you win a lawsuit that’s filed against you, why should you have to pay huge legal bills when you did nothing wrong while the person who filed the suit pays no penalty for wrongly accusing you?

No one pointed a gun at your head and told you spend millions on your defense. And just because you won doesn’t mean that you were innocent. There is such a think as ‘absence of malice’ which means if the person believes their cause is just, they are suing to seek justice and not harm you personally. This law to make people pay everyone’s legal fees is just a con for the rich to bully the poor out of suing for their rights. Another con to beat the poor man down…

15) How can you oppose putting murderers to death and be fine with killing innocent children via abortion?

How can you support putting murderers to death and at the same time condone people bombing clinics or murdering children with drones?

Your hypocrisy apparently knows no bounds.

16) A minimum wage raises salaries for some workers at the cost of putting other workers out of jobs entirely. What’s the acceptable ratio for that? For every 10 people who get a higher salary, how many are you willing to see lose their jobs?

Could you imagine how terrible things would be if we had the same minimum wage as we did forty years ago?

In order for people to be able to afford the basics, minimum wage has to keep up with the standard of living. That hasn’t happened over the last twenty years, thanks to Republican obstruction.

Raising the minimum wage has not caused industries to go belly up the last fifty years so it won’t happen now either. These scare tactics are just Republican fear mongering to keep money in their pocket. The truth is if people are not making enough money, they can’t buy things and that will hurt the economy more in the long run.

17) The earth has been warming and cooling for thousands of years with temperature drops and increases that are much larger than the ones we’ve seen over the last century. Since we can’t adequately explain or model those changes, what makes us think we can say with any sort of confidence that global warming is being caused by man?

Wecan’t, but the shit we are doing isn’t helping either. Forget the earth, what we are doing is bad for our health. That should be enough to provoke change…

18) We live in a world where people have more choices than ever before in music, entertainment, careers, news sources and what to do with their time. Shouldn’t government mirror that trend by moving towards federalism and states’ rights instead of centralizing more and more power in Washington, DC?

If the states had their way, slavery would still be legal, black people wouldn’t be allowed to marry white people, people would still be drinking from different fountains and schools would still be segregated. Government is sometimes needed to step in and do the right thing, even if that solution isn’t popular with the masses. That’s called being responsible.

19) If people in the middle class aren’t willing to pay enough in taxes to cover the government services that they use because they don’t think it’s worth the money, shouldn’t we prune back government to a level people do feel comfortable paying for in taxes?

Right now, the middle class pays more taxes than any other group in the nation… so if anyone deserves their services, it would be them. The only think that should be pruned back is corporate cutbacks since they don’t pay taxes thanks to loopholes. Ditto for military spending and other pork projects that are only used by politicians to line their campaign pockets.

Right now the services this person suggest cutting back on doesn’t amount to more than 20% of the current budget. You could cut all of it and there would still be a deficit. That gives you an idea of how much money is being wasted on a military that is in dire needs of a strict audit.

20) If firms can get by with paying women 72 cents on the dollar for the same quality of work as men, then why don’t we see any firms with all female labour forces using those lower costs to dominate the marketplace?

Firms get away with paying women less money because we let them. If governments were to step in and fine companies or take away their tax breaks if they don’t follow the rules… we’d see this problem go away in record time.

I’ll be the first to admit that government and their inability to enforce their own rules is a part of the problem. Corporations will keep acting this way if they think they can get away with it.