Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: politics

Excuse me, but did I not list 10 reasons to vote for Kerry without mentioning Bush? Yeah...I think I did.

Craigsub, why is it that you can deal with Hsu fanatics, SVS fanatics, even take personal threats and stay calm, but with nearly every post you've made in this thread, you sound like a very angry man. It's like two different people.

Michael... What makes something funny is when it is based in the truth. Noone here is blaming Senator Kerry for Iraq. It IS a fact that he voted for the war based on the same intel President Bush had.

I hope you also note I refer to him as Senator Kerry... not as "Bush" ... as has been done repeatedly by the left side here...

I usually call him George, GW, or even G. Dubya. Does the lack of using proper titles mean my opinions don't count? Your offended by being described as being on a "high horse" and then post something like that. Wow. I guess you don't even realize it.

My point was simple.. They ALL deserve the respect of the office held. I just happen to be consistent on this belief. If you go through al this, you will see I am defending a man who was pur into a VERY difficult position.

By the left, he has been accused of...

1. Planning 911 himself.
2. Not preventing 911.
3. Taking away our freedoms when he tries to keep a repeat of 911 from happening.
4. And then there are the websites.. "Whyihatebush.com" "killthepresident.com"

If you want to call ME names, fine. I guess more tolerance from the left...

Will, it's not a matter of going to a community college. Sure I could go to some college if I wanted, but the opportuniy to go to a highly respected college where I will get a degree that actually means something in a highly competitve industry is a completely different story. There are people in this country who are extremely bright and intellectually deserving of a quality higher education. A lot of those kids are not in a position to ever get it without some aid. The government needs to find those kids and help them through school. A well educated population is critical in the continued success of this nation in the world. It is at least as important as a strong military and a tough stance of terrorism.

Do you want North Korea to nuke you? Do you want a programmer who went to Chester County Community College working on the software that will run on the radars and interceptors trying to keep you safe? Or would you rather that guy majored in Computer Science and Mathematics at Penn, and graduated at the top of his class?

Do any of you have a relative with a pacemaker? You know those things are programmed right? I doubt you want that software to crash. Or what about the back-end trading software used on wall street? How about the encryption technologies used by our military? I could go on for a while...and this is just one industry out of many with similarly critical systems.

I totally agree. He's been put into a VERY difficult position. I don't think he's handled it very well, and hope he doesn't get to stay in office for another four years. I never said he had it easy.

As far as respecting the office. I respect people, not titles. As far as I'm concerned, George has not earned my respect. He doesn't respect me, why should I respect him?

Ringmir... You make some pretty good points... I would also like to see "merit grants" along those lines... Based on grades, as that is the objective standard...

You get aid for a year... screw up, and you pay... get a 3.5 (or something like that) ... next year is free...

That way the REALLY smart AND ambitious ones are keeping the nukes away..

Although... if the Chester Community College kid plays enough video games, he may STILL qualify...

Spiff... He has never met you. How can he not respect you ? As far as his not handling it well... He has. We have not been attacked again, and the three countries that would not honor their vote from November, 2002 are paying dearly for their cowardice.

I would love to see merit grants. There are some out there but a lot of them are privately funded. All I'm trying to say is that money spent on higher education is money well spent. Sure some of it will get wasted, some of every large buget item the government holds gets wasted. But a lot of it will go to good use, and the majority of the recipients will appreciate it immensely.

Ringmir, The other problem, (of course) is the government is usually pretty bad at judging "merit" ... which is why private funding is usually the source.

That being said, I would prefer to see money potentially wasted on a student than surely thrown away on the majority of welfare programs (corporate AND personal) ...