An essay on free speech and political extremism by Carl Cohen, Professor of Philosophy at the Residential College of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A reply I made to a guy living in Florida who thinks I'm a pawn of the Liberal agenda, that evolved into an article I decided to post:

Go on thinking that, Richard in Florida-809880 - I'm not the one living in hurricane alley... :) (jk - stay safe, last year was a break, this year might be back to the norm)

As for being a pawn, lol, I weigh the information, check all sides of the story and choose my options carefully... and the facts I see are that this administration has accomplished in a little over one year what the previous 20 years of US administrations have not - regardless of which party has been in charge.

We are getting out of Iraq, and Afghanistan has a tentative timetable too. The economy took bad hits from years of off-shoring, down-sizing and unfair free trade agreements, coupled with irresponsible financial practices to get in the condition it is today.

Our foreign relations fared no better during those years. We supported some at the expense of others. We played countries off on each other and exploited the ones who had the resources we wanted while ignoring the plight of the ones who have problems, but no economically advantageous reason for us to help them.

Do you know why we play nicey-nicey with China? Here is a huge country controlled by a Communist government well known to have a history of treating their citizens like slaves, AND they don't have to worry about the cost of environmental regulations over there either, because there isn't any!

Oops, I just answered my own question.

Our corporations re-discovered how profitable it is to use slave labor and not have to pay for regulatory compliance! Ahhhh, the American way. We did that up until the Civil War then saw the light of equality and made some changes... To sweeten the corporate deal with China, they don't have to worry about the cost of environmental regulations over there either, because there isn't any. No matter that the air pollution produced blows this way and the products made from toxic substances are shipped to our store shelves... It's all good, because it's a free market, baby!

The fact has been aptly demonstrated, over the past decade or so, that

"Economic advantage at the expense of American labor is part of the Conservative's answer to a free market economy."

You can quote me on that.

Ummm... it didn't work out so well for most of us, did it? (except the 2% who made out like rich plantation owners, that is.)

So, lets try something else...

Now, I'm not saying lets trash the whole system! Oh, please let's not do that!

I like some Conservative beliefs, and I do hold them dear. I don't want a heavy-handed Federal Government. I like my freedom of choice in everything from speech to uncensored information, but I don't mind paying a little more to ensure my kid isn't eating poison and that's what Federal Regulations are good for; to ensure that all corporate entities and citizens of these States of the Union are operating under a set of agreed upon standards to ensure, or at least, have some expectation of general health and safety while we go about being the most productive country on this planet. (and the band plays on)

But... Can we just tweek it a little so we can have a better economy for MORE of us, not just the elite few?

Ignoring, or shelving an on-going problem with excuses of cost, trouble for some, and the idea that change in the status quo is not good is not the answer.

Change and the willingness to move out of our comfort zone is what brought us from a bunch of colonies clinging to shores and harbors of a new land (filled with Native Americans to exploit and overcome, but we won't get into that right now...), to a country that is arguably still the lone superpower that all other countries look to as THE world leader.

But, if we don't make some positive changes soon we may lose that position... greed has got to be brought under control!

Associations with strange bedfellows has to be handled with consideration to how it affects all of our citizens, not just the few benefiting from the warmth of a Chinese bed.

Pardon my shifting of gears... griind, clank, clunk (grrrr, stupid Japanese car!)

Some problems cannot be fixed overnight, others take going through a little pain to implement a solution. If you don't like the job the POTUS and staff has done so far it's likely because you are swallowing the rhetoric of people like Limbaugh who stated "I want him to fail" - the day BEFORE Obama and crew even began their term! LOL

Now, is that how we treat an incoming President who won the election fair and square? The actions and ideologies of certain Republican politicians and pundits are similar to what George Wallace was like when he was a political contender, and HE was a Democrat! Racism is not the domain of just one faction, anyone can be one.

Although certain factions this time around are capitalizing on all the pawns with racist tendencies to do their dirty work for them, but that's just dirty politics as usual...

So really, is one party better than another? They seem to take turns being the class clown and sometimes everybody is jammed inside that little clown car all at once.

So please don't label me anything but a person who believes in Larry the Cable Guy's sage advice:

"Git 'er done!"

Further, party affiliation and beliefs in either the Conservative or Liberal philosophies don't guarantee a firm position on the side of right or wrong. There is no totally right side, nor is there a totally wrong side, (unless you happen to be trying to push me off my side of the bed... ;)

'nuff said there...

What matters is the accomplishment of tasks that have gone far too long sitting on the back burner. If it takes elements of a little of this and that ideology to solve a problem then, so be it. As long as something is tried it's better than letting things slide into a total mess like they have, don't you think?

I do agree with you, we need to wait long enough to see how all this washes out, and if it doesn't work out, then it can be changed again. Just like they did back when the prohibition amendment was repealed after they realized all it did was grow and nurture organized crime and make it dangerous to walk the streets with all those Tommy gun toting hoodlums running around.

Anyways, take care, and buy some plywood before the price goes up, facts tell me nothing about the weather, but my intuition is saying something about a hurricane fun filled summer for the folks on the southern side of my home in the mountains.

A chart marking the first anniversary of the stimulus package makes a case for the Obama administration's effectiveness at saving jobs.

On Wednesday, Virginia's House of Delegates passed a bill that forbids companies from forcing their employees to be implanted with tracking devices, a move likely to be applauded by civil libertarians.

Potatoes, carrots, broccoli, green beans, onions, apples...

They each have a fairly aerodynamic shape and will serve nicely as a substitute for tomatoes. Heck, even a watermelon will do if you have the arm for it.

If you take just one sentence out, Barack Obama's speech on Afghanistan last week was all about focusing and limiting the scope of America's mission in that country. His goal, he said, was "narrowly defined." The objectives he detailed were exclusively military—to deny Al Qaeda a safe haven, reverse the Taliban's momentum, and strengthen the Kabul government's security forces. He said almost nothing about broader goals like spreading democracy, protecting human rights, or assisting in women's education. The nation that he was interested in building, he explained, was America.

The video speaks for itself, but the comments following the article speaks for anyone who sees through Glenn Beck's unethical charade.

NEW YORK (Nielsen Business Media) - Some of the nation's biggest advertisers are distancing themselves from Fox News host Glenn Beck after he called President Obama a racist during a July 28 broadcast.

Since the United States, and much of the rest of the world, plunged into a recession last year, the most frequently used argument in favour of legalizing marijuana has been economic: if it were taxed, the revenue would help stimulate economic recovery just as a gusher of dollars in fresh tax revenue from alcohol helped the United States pull out of the Great Depression after the 1933 repeal of prohibition.

The Iranians have a cloaking device... go to Red Alert!

This is a good reason for Sarah Palin to drop out of politics.