http://gaymuslims.wordpress.com/2006/06/27/are-gays-perverts/

(2) The conservative mantra appears to be “do what we say or else, think how we think or else, and live like we live or else.” Or else you will be denounced. This sounds to be like conservatives have become aplogists for Communism.

(3) BTW, I actually grew up as an American in the Muslim Middle East so I know what I am talking about.

Leftist millionaires like John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, and Teddy Kennedy rant and rave, for instance, about how poor people need healthcare. Let them pay for it themselves, if they think it’s so important.

Rich Democrats like George Soros could fix nine-tenths of the problems that they rant about if they were willing to spend their own money. But instead, they want to tax the working class.

I kept waiting for those like Ian S to start a groundswell against all those “Support Our Troops” yellow ribbons by sporting something other than fading Kerry-Edwards bumber stickers… how about “Screw the US and the WOT” or a red (for all the blood of innocents we’ve shed in these false policing actions) ribbon “We’ve killed 1/2 the World; Who’s Next?”.

Come on, Ian S. Drop by the local Democrat Party HdQtrs and encourage them to make a visible protest against American hegemony, colonialism, and rape of the world’s resources… they gotta have a bumper sticker for your moped.

As for it being a patriotic duty to conserve energy… we don’t have a particular shortage. We have an annoyance. If we had a *problem* we could do all sorts of things to solve it including domestic drilling and nuclear power… but the “problem” isn’t important enough to overcome the resistance to those things… still, it’s important enough to impose coercive laws on your fellow citizens?

We aren’t being asked to go around with our little red wagons asking for iron to make tanks or being asked to go without panty hose to make more parachutes or being told it’s our patriotic duty to grow a victory garden.

Not enough misery for you?

This war, like any, is a learning experience and the only people saying that our troops aren’t able to handle it have been saying that since day one… nothing new, no progression to “beginning to show”, same old BS.

With, one might add, approximately 1/150th the casualties.

The current military was not designed for these multi-theater protracted wars and it’s beginning to show.

If this were Clinton’s military, where a destroyer can be crippled and nearly sunk by two men in a dinghy, you would be right. But over the past five years, the military has received additional funding and support, as well as the freedom to shoot denied it by the Democrats. All of those have made it far more effective.

Furthermore:

Yet you refuse to even consider the mildest proposals such as the President declaring it our patriotic duty to conserve energy or closing the CAFE loopholes for SUVs and light trucks!

Or:

I fail to understand why the President has not badgered the American people that it is their patriotic duty to conserve energy.

The President has both proposed new CAFE rules and harped on conservation. Your point?

Well, large SUV sales aren’t doing all that well and the original large Hummer is ending production. CAFE standards worked well. Just because there was a loophole for light trucks and SUV’s doesn’t change the underlying fact.

You conservatives all wax poetically about how we are in a monumental clash of civilizations where the very future of the West is threatened. Yet, aside from clicking away at your keyboards and attaching the odd “Support Our Troops” magnet on your SUV, I don’t see any of you actually wanting to put the country on a real war footing. Bush has stated that Iraq – and presumably Afghanistan – will be something for his successor(s) to deal with. Meanwhile he toys with the idea of attacking Iran. This September, our troops will have been fighting in Iraq for longer than it took us to achieve victory in Europe in WWII. The current military was not designed for these multi-theater protracted wars and it’s beginning to show. Yet you refuse to even consider the mildest proposals such as the President declaring it our patriotic duty to conserve energy or closing the CAFE loopholes for SUVs and light trucks!

That sounds about right.

Of course you love it: it works.

No, it doesn’t Ian. Or else why do we have all those SUVs today that you denounce in #29? LOL

What works is the market. Like when market forces produce higher gas prices and THEN people (another market force) start wanting higher-mileage cars.

As Dale said: No government bureaucrat’s decree, in all of human history, has ever put food on someone’s table.

God may have created the Universe ex nihilo by decree, and liberals and bureaucrats may in turn believe they are God and can also create things by decree, but that just shows how unbelievably fucked up lhe left-liberals are.

The only time government laws saying “There shall be cars getting 30 mpg” or “There shall be no child labor” and so on, ever work, is WHEN and BECAUSE the REAL PEOPLE and REAL ECONOMIC ACTORS out in the world ALREADY are going in the decreed direction. (Little-known historical fact: government laws against child labor were largely passed AFTER child labor was already 90% eliminated in the economy and on its way to being 100% eliminated.)

In all cases where real economic actors haven’t already gone (or would otherwise refuse to go, if the government wasn’t holding them at gunpoint) in the decreed direction, the government / bureaucratic decree doesn’t work. We know that situation by its name, Socialism.

As for laws about gas mileage, I’ve read some really good arguments that the whole SUV epidemic is the side effect of early regulations about gas mileage. The laws made station wagons undesirable and created a market demand for a passenger vehicle built on a truck frame, since those had different rules. Yes, I’m iffy on the details, maybe someone can set me straight.

Still, they didn’t used to *have* SUVs and now they do.

Of course you love it: it works.

The fact that you’d do so —[admit to reading The Advocate -ed.] and admit it in public — says more about you than all of your bed-wetting liberal nonsense.

Bed-wetting? You have odd fixations. You must into “Water Sports”.

Liberal or Conservative, prior to the internet, national and international level gay and lesbian newsmagazines were essentially non-existent. There have been of course many great and not-so-great local and regional papers.

And there are still standard newspapers in the USA today that refuse cover gay and lesiban issues, unless its to denigrate them as sexual deviants.

So if you wanted to find anything out about whats going on nationally concerning gays and lesibans, your choices are very limited. (much less so now of course).

It’s sort of like TV before the advent of cable. So get a clue you doddering old buzzard.

A: You got it. And they were also wrong to fight with racially segregated battalions, such as Japanese-only and Black-only. And Lincoln / the Union Army were wrong to conscript, i.e. immediately re-enslave, the ex-slaves. Just because a war is a good cause or a step forward, doesn’t mean they did everything right. Forced conscription is slavery.)

Then let me fill you in.

First – it isn’t anyone’s patriotic duty to conserve energy. The production, consumption, and price of energy just “are what they are”. As production goes down (due to, say, refinery restrictions that we’ve had in the U.S. for 30 years now) and/or as worldwide consumption goes up (due to Chinese, Indian, and Latin American economic development), the price naturally rises and people conserve (or not) accordingly.

Second, as liberals in general are so fond of noting when it comes to stuff like abortion or sexual abstinence, it isn’t the President’s duty to badger the American people about anything to do with their lifestyles.

Third, if you really feel it is our patriotic duty to conserve energy – then why aren’t the Al Gore, Barbra Streisand and Yearly Kos-attendee types leading the way? Last time I checked, they had absolutely no qualms about flying jets (often private ones) everywhere. If you are part of that political persuasion, you should start by badgering them to set an example.

“ANWAR drilling and other touted efforts off the US shore offer no solution whatsoever.”

Wrong answer. They offer the chance to greatly increase U.S. oil production, and so make us independent of Middle Eastern oil. In the medium term. I agree that in the long term, we need to get other technologies (solar, nuclear, you name it) to the point where they can effectively substitute for nearly all oil consumption.

“I also would like to see a revenue neutral gasoline tax imposed to prod us all into saving gasoline.”

Again, no need: market forces (rising prices due to rising Indian and Chinese consumption) will be forcing us all to do that, slowly but increasingly as time goes by. – But if you really believe in a gas tax – then again, talk to the Kos crowd and see if you can get the Democrats to run on it for this November. P.S. I am grateful you said “revenue neutral”.

“Bring the estate tax back…”

Why on earth??? So the Soros, Rockefeller, Streisand, Gore and Kennedy families of the world can continue to escape it entirely, while successful and productive small (million dollar) business owners are further screwed over? And that’s part of fighting terrorism? No way dude!!!

“The poor and middle class are sending their kids to fight…”

Voluntarily. No one’s being drafted – thank you, Richard Nixon!!

“We need to patch up our tattered alliances as best we can. I’m not sure we can do that with the present arrogant gang in control…”

That’s another of your great canards – that the Bush Administration has somehow been “unilateralist” or “not maintained our alliances properly”. Fact 1: Every single thing the Bush Administration has done in foreign policy, they have done with allies and multilateral policies. Fact 2: Every single thing Kerry proposed in this area in the 2004 campaign, the Bush Administration was already doing and continues to do – with the sole (and proper) exception of turning control of our fight against terrorism over to the French.

“Does anyone really doubt that the calculations in Pyongyang and Teheran after the fall of the Taliban – and especially if we had nailed bin Laden – would have been quite different if we had not got tied down in Iraq?”

What are you talking about? That’s a ridiculous statement! The factor holding us back with North Korea is China; nothing can be down there unless they want it. And did you happen to notice that Iraq and Afghanistan border Iran, meaning we can pressure them from 2 sides now? If Saddam Hussein were still in power, Iran’s mullahs would be even more secure, evil and reckless.

“Quite frankly, the events since 2001 have raised serious questions about whether we can fight a protracted “war on terror”…”

Because of all the hatefulness and misinformation of the Vietnam-hypnotized Left; I agree.

“…with a volunteer military.”

Nope. The volunteer military is far more professional and effective than any military – read: DRAFT military – in our history, and has been doing just fine.

“If this truly is WW4 that is going to engaged worldwide for decades, then we really need to consider bringing back the draft.”

Notice how this idea always, but always, comes from the Left? (The volunteer military was, again, a Republican creation.)

Again, Ian, if you really believe in the idea of the draft (which I don’t – I find it reprehensible betrayal of fundamental Western values), see if you can talk the Kos / Democratic crowd into running on that idea for November.

I want to make clear that I want us to be independent of conventional oil period. It does us no good to put only ME oil off limits because there is insufficient conventional oil elsewhere middle to long term to do us much good. ANWAR drilling and other touted efforts off the US shore offer no solution whatsoever. We have to get off oil as an energy source period.

We can get pretty fast results with conservation. I fail to understand why the President has not badgered the American people that it is their patriotic duty to conserve energy. Seeing “Support our Troops” magnets on gas guzzling SUVs makes me sick. After 9/11, we should have put more stringent fuel economy measures in place especially for light trucks and SUVs but we must do it now. I also would like to see a revenue neutral gasoline tax imposed to prod us all into saving gasoline. It would have been nice if we had done that when it was $1.50 a gallon but we still can do it now. The tax would be offset by some kind of credit/rebate, the logistics of which would have to be worked out. Bring the estate tax back and reverse some of the tax cuts for the very highest earners and have it earmarked for helping to pay for our escalating military costs. The poor and middle class are sending their kids to fight, the least the Paris Hiltons can do is pony up some money to ensure our soldiers get the best equipment.

We need to patch up our tattered alliances as best we can. I’m not sure we can do that with the present arrogant gang in control but our travails in Iraq have shown the rest of the world that we are not invulnerable. Iraq was a terrible miscalculation that has given NK and Iran the opportunity to become real nuclear threats. Does anyone really doubt that the calculations in Pyongyang and Teheran after the fall of the Taliban – and especially if we had nailed bin Laden – would have been quite different if we had not got tied down in Iraq? So back to treating our allies with respect rather than contempt.

Quite frankly, the events since 2001 have raised serious questions about whether we can fight a protracted “war on terror” (especially if it involves invading and occupying other countries) with a volunteer military. If this truly is WW4 that is going to engaged worldwide for decades, then we really need to consider bringing back the draft. Many here claim the survival of Western Civilization is at stake. If this is true then we really need to be on a full war footing and that includes a draft.

I’ve read just about every issue of the Advocate since about 1983.

The fact that you’d do so — and admit it in public — says more about you than all of your bed-wetting liberal nonsense.