OT: US Pres election

[HoneyBadger]

I think 300 has a lot to say about how we view ourselves, and that it says it with irony, and satire.

You'll note one part where the Spartans jeer the "boy-loving" Athenians, and yet they, as a society, were even more guilty than the Athenians were. If you take the whole movie like that, yes in a sense it's nationalist propaganda, but on another level, it questions that nationalism-even going so far as to make the one surviving member of the '300' lose an eye. With only one eye, he symbolizes only one outlook, one side to the story. And taken symbolically as a cyclops (which is valid, since these are Greeks), he becomes larger than life, a drunkard, and an 'eater of men'.

I realize it's somewhat of a stretch to suggest that's what's meant, but who's to say it's not what Frank Miller had in mind?

[Tifone]

Ok, we went far off topic, today's polls said 47% obama, 43 % "potatoes" maccain iirc (10% obviously undecided or third party)

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by Tifone

Ok, we went far off topic, today's polls said 47% obama, 43 % "potatoes" maccain iirc (10% obviously undecided or third party)

That is far too close. It makes half the nation appear completely insane. That is, if we gave them the benefit of the doubt 4 years ago, and didn't declare them insane for putting the Bushman back in. o.O

[HoneyBadger]

Jim, you fail to see that potatoes are nutritious and delicious, full of healthy vitamins, fiber, and powerful anti-oxidants. They've been proven time and again, in a million recipes, as *the* candidate capable of carrying a meal, and our nation, through the hardest of circumstances. They're versatile and handy-a potato makes removing a broken lightbulb a snap-and they're a friend to the working-man: potatoes are the primary ingredient in vodka and fries, popular at any blue-collar sporting event. Potatoes are patriots, featuring in both "freedom fries", and the American Indian invention, potato chips. Unlike Mccain, they were born right here in America-albeit South America.

Potatoes are both earthy and worldly, a boost to both foreign relations and our domestic GNP.
Potatoes are the candidate with the most substance. While McCain may be full of fiber and calorie-rich, he's hardly delicious, and probably tough-requiring an extended cooking time to achieve tenderness and proper succulence, and Obama-delicious and chock full of anti-oxidants though he may be, is clearly too lean and stringy to satisfy all our cravings.

[Ballbarian]

I will be voting for McCain. Am I going to try to convince others to do otherwise? No. Am I going to go into a long tirade as to why? No. Am I insane? Maybe, but I am also quite sure of my opinions and views. In the past, I was a Clinton supporter (Mr, not Mrs), but the Iraq War is the primary basis for my choice in the current election.

I am one of those people that asks to be removed from the list when a poll worker calls with a survey. I have never worked to campaign for anyone and likely never will. I have very little faith in the media and even less in the internet media, and I consider polls to be a joke. From my own little speck on the world map, it looks more like a 50/50 split and I would never be so arrogant as to accuse my neighbor of being an idiot or insane because his views on this election differed from my own.

Feel free to discuss and express your own views and opinions, but please be respectful of the views and opinions of others in the process.

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

Jim, you fail to see that potatoes are nutritious and delicious, full of healthy vitamins, fiber, and powerful anti-oxidants. They've been proven time and again, in a million recipes, as *the* candidate capable of carrying a meal, and our nation, through the hardest of circumstances. They're versatile and handy-a potato makes removing a broken lightbulb a snap-and they're a friend to the working-man: potatoes are the primary ingredient in vodka and fries, popular at any blue-collar sporting event. Potatoes are patriots, featuring in both "freedom fries", and the American Indian invention, potato chips. Unlike Mccain, they were born right here in America-albeit South America.

I'm allergic to potatoes.



And Ballbarian, with all due respect, you are portraying what is in fact wrong with the current paradigm. You lead an insular, purposefully shortsighted (as regards politics) life. I am sure you do so to save yourself undue distress over all of the argument and confusion. However, at the end of the day, you still consider yourself qualified - and deserving of your vote, as it affects many millions, if not billions of people.

Forgive me for the implications here, but when someone expects the right to cast a vote on such enormously important issues, but intentionally reduces their exposure to the facts and realities surrounding those issues - is in some way insane.

Are we all insane? Actually, yes I believe we are, all of us, in our own individual ways. It doesn't make anyone in particular a bad person, that is a product of how we handle our insanity, and how responsible we are in gathering information, and acting upon that information. It just seems wildly irresponsible to me that anyone who is well informed about the state of the union (and the world at large) could consider GW Bush, or McCain to be in any shape or form beneficial in office.


As a student of the world, I find both parties to engage in many shameful acts, and to be gravely lacking in many attributes that are necessary for this nation to progress in meaningful ways, towards a responsible and sustainable future. However, if you placed an arbitrary center point between McCain and Obama, plotting a line would leave McCain as regressive, and Obama as progressive.

Again, the main problems are not the candidates, but the system itself. But McCain loves the system, and wants to encourage corporate feudalism. Obama at least pretends otherwise. But I do not believe either of them are what we really need to survive and flourish.

So, do I think that you are a bad person, Ballbarian? Absolutely not. But neither do I think that you should in conscience vote for president, either.

<3

[Agema]

I just watched Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric, and the idea of Palin being near power scares me. That she clearly knows nothing about foreign affairs isn't a surprise, as she's been plucked from nowhere to be VP candidate. But I was at least expecting her to be able to bull**** fluently to cover her ignorance, and she didn't even manage that.

[lch]

Originally Posted by Tifone

Ok, we went far off topic

Hey, now!

What was 300 again? That movie with the excessive use of blue tint? With the slow-mo camera effect and focus whenever a spear pierces through a chest? Where they construct a wall out of human corpses from their slain enemies? That movie?

[Azselendor]

Originally Posted by JimMorrison

I find it hard to believe that anyone who is well informed about national+world affairs could possibly vote for McCain. I'm not pushing Obama, but the McCain+Palin ticket just seems like an expensive prostitute with large hands and an adam's apple.

My concerns with McCain is that this man has over 1000 pages in his medical file that has not been released -- and we know he's had all 4 types of skin cancer, a foul temper, and half a dozen other medical ailments. If he relapses on cancer, he would be incapacitated outright and for the handful of times Palin did open her mouth, she underscores her inexperience.

The next thing is McCain's military record. Only 17 pages out of at least 630 have been released. The rest needs to be released as his fiction of turning down an admiral's promotion after 2 years as captain needs to be set straight.

His economic adviser, Phil Gramm, despite resigning still advises mccain on economic issues and his part in the current economic collapse cannot be ignored.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Gramm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-Leach-Bliley_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act

As for Mccain being an enviromentalist, looka t his voting record on it. It makes Al Gore stay up at night in his swimming floating wings.

then finally, we have troubling news about Mt. McCain and that he may be getting close to eruption.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1rZBmk0DYU

While I don't care for obama's resume (and mostly lack thereof), McCain was a horrible presidential nomination.

[Ballbarian]

Originally Posted by JimMorrison

*snip*
However, at the end of the day, you still consider yourself qualified - and deserving of your vote, as it affects many millions, if not billions of people.

Forgive me for the implications here, but when someone expects the right to cast a vote on such enormously important issues, but intentionally reduces their exposure to the facts and realities surrounding those issues - is in some way insane.
*snip*
But neither do I think that you should in conscience vote for president, either.

You have misread my post if you believe that I am uninformed or otherwise close minded. Or perhaps it is just that I must be uninformed if my views do not coincide with yours? I wonder if I am misreading your post. Are you actually saying that I should not have a right to cast a vote because you disagree with me? Ever heard of democracy and universal suffrage Mr. Stalin?

Ok, forget the Mr. Stalin crack. I don't think you are a bad person either Jim. But I do think that you missed the point of my previous post. If I had to highlight one thought to get across the point I was trying to make, it would be:

"Feel free to discuss and express your own views and opinions, but please be respectful of the views and opinions of others in the process."

I take my right to vote very seriously and any insinuation that I do not deserve to exercise that right because of my views just flabbergasts me.