Paying the bills

[kandrathe]

So really, it's not the "By force" that's your problem with government.

Well, actually, if you don't pay your property taxes they don't kick you out of your house. First, they've made a sweet deal with banks now so that your property taxes are escrowed into your mortgage payments. Second, if you have no mortgage, the only power local government can impose is to place a lien on your property for the amount you owe the government. So, you'd get no permits, and before you can sell you property the liens must be removed.

Rather, it's that what's taken doesn't get spread around evenly.

Thus satisfying the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Remember that "Equality" part of the French revolutions battle cry? So, yes, I believe that you do to/for one, you do to/for all.

Which is clearly a unique attribute of socialists. Or rather, it's an attribute of the lazy, poor, uneducated bums to which they spent some time pandering to.

I agree that all sides are dirty. The tactics of the misinformation and disinformation are rampant in global politics. Exhibit 1: Global warming. No one is interested in finding the truth, but we are told Kyoto is reasonable and it is worth destroying the global economy to attempt to lower global temperatures some fraction of a degree Celsius. Another ignored truth: Carbon Dioxide needs to grow exponentially to have increased influence in climate change. See this scientific explanation to understand how the climate really works. There is no "Gorean" runaway climate model that results in 10 meter ocean level rise. The reality I can see here is that the people selling that soap want to control your life.

Somehow, I think you might find it difficult to link either one with socialism. You know. The economic system.

Technically, I agree. In the my area, socialism as an economic system is intrinsically linked to progressive social liberalism. Whereas, I tend to be an economic libertarian, and social moderate. I don't like the government involved in shaping social behavior in any way towards the libertine or the conservative. I believe they have no business in shaping social mores. We rely on other institutions within our society for shaping mores, and preserving those quaint ideas like "marriage" and "family".

You might have a better chance at linking it with cultural changes and the vile slippery slope that civil rights brought about. :rolleyes:

Again, I instinctively link socialists with progressives here in my area. We've discussed before the slippery slope of government trying to define appropriate "civil unions" and "marriage", which is not a civil rights issue once you start getting into the many to many relationships. I believe it is a legal issue with civil unions, and a church issue with the definition of marriage.

The slippery slope fallacy would be... Why not just declare that everyone is married to everyone else in one big cosmic family and jump to the end game now? By the way, don't you mess up our community property! What's yours is mine! Oh, and our wife would like you to watch our kids tonight. Ok? We both know it could not get to that ridiculous point without blood in the streets. Um, why are Islamists upset with the West again? BTW, not your answer, but their answer. Read what the jihadists are telling their devotees.

What I am seeing, and exemplified by European countries like Netherlands and France, is the quagmire of political correctness and a progressive social agenda, coupled with an increasingly anti-productive socialist economic system. Is that not correct? So, then, how's that going for France then? Maybe those 45% of unhappy Muslims in the Netherlands would also be rioting if they formed a larger minority.

Trying to pass legislature? You get crackpots every day, all over the world, 'trying' to pass legislature. Most of them fail.

Yeah, unfortunately the crackpots are in the majority here. The governor will veto it, and then perhaps there are enough sensible people left in our government to sustain it.