Originally Posted By: martinfocazio



Ah...the classic "There are only two kinds of money, my money and your money" line of reasoning, as espoused by certain economists. There's no "we" in that thinking.

So...how do you feel about the 10 billion dollars we spend in Iraq a month? How about the billion dollars we just spent in Georgia (the country, not the state) to rebuild it? How about the billions we send to Israel? What about the proposed 700 Billion to Wall Street? How about the Trillions of dollars for Medicare? What about Social Security? Food Stamps? You ever been poor? Ever needed help? I have. I know what happens when the Stuff hits the fan, I've been down. I know why we have taxes. I've spent your tax money in the past. I know people who are spending our tax money now to feed their kids. I personally spent some of your tax money on a generator for the firehouse (FEMA grant), a Firehouse that will NEVER send a fire truck to your house (unless you happen to live here in Bucks County in our district). It's OUR money when it's taxes, and that's a special class of money.

Yeah, I don't like to see tax money wasted, but you have to have some perspective. Unless you want a nation where you have to ask the authorities where you're allowed to live, unless you want a nation that requires a person to demonstrate some non-financial qualifications to the government in order to qualify for home ownership (like the Nazi's did), you're going to have people who make bad decisions and you can let them die or you can help them out. I'll just hammer home one point - I think living in New Orleans is dumb, I really do, and I think that if you don't have an emergency plan that includes evacuation, you're a fool (sorry Blast, I read your posts, I think you took an unnecessary risk and you were lucky). I also think that a civilized society does not abandon those who make mistakes, it does not punish mistakes, it goes with pride and honor to help those in need - and does not judge.

I'm not a Christian by any means, but there are some great lines written in the bible on the subject of helping the poor and downtrodden, and also on the matter of pride. "No casting of stones etc." is one of those concepts that is damn near impossible to live, especially when you want to smack the person you're helping in the face for being such and idiot. But you don't. You go above that. You suck it up, take the cost, and you work to educate them to help them not get into the situation again. That's what a civilized man does.


I said we would and do disagree on this and it would swing into a political debate if it kept going. This is why I said I was going to let it go at that.


But it’s interesting that we are not supposed to go political and a moderator is the one that then took it to a political debate bringing Iraq and the war on terrorism into it, the 700-billion bailout, the money we send to Israel, the money we sent to Georgia, The Bible, and several other things brought up that are political in nature and require a politically based response. I thought we were not allowed? (In the past I have had my post deleted for touching on political things, and seen statements to stop a thread direction that was starting to go a bit political.)

Why the double standard?

I’m not trying to give you a hard time, but it looks like a sliding set of rules because I don’t think the same way as you. You seem to think my post look simple minded. And they do without further deeper thoughts being posted, but that requires a much deeper jump into a political debate. It will get my post deleted and build animosity for going to this depth and it will do no good for anyone. This is why I said I was going to let that political debate as it applied to my posting stop there, and I have. This post is just me trying to understand the rules and to whom they apply and don’t apply to?

Please feel free to delete this if you feel the need to, but remember above you called me out to respond by asking for my opinion on several political based things in your post. I’m still not going to go political, the end result of doing so is deleted post because as I stated above we disagree and also political points are not the point of this BBS. I’m trying to respect this.




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You can run, but you'll only die tired.