YamiB

As far as the income tax goes, the average tax rate PAID by the top 1% of earners was 23.27%. The average tax rate paid by the bottom 50% of earners was 2.59% The top 25-50% paid 6.75% on average. In other words, the top 1% of earners paid almost 10 times the tax rate as did the lower 50% and almost 4 times the rate of folks who made $33K to $67K (top 25-50%).  Yea. I like how everyone blames rich people instead of the hilarious amount of money the government spends. Taxing the rich more is not going to solve this problem. And they will take their money elsewhere if the government tries.   How about the government starts by cutting it's defense budget, which is around 62% of the total govt spending. Fuck people are stupid.

Political parties seem pretty inevitable and in an ideal system would be somewhat useful in that they could provide a general idea of what policies you could expect form any given politician belonging to a particular party.
 
Unfortunately in the US we were trapped in a system where two parties hold all the power while supporting many of the same policies, mainly differing on how rapidly they want to sell of our country to private interests.  There are probably ways that we could correct this, but with the Democrats and Republicans both benefiting greatly from the current system and holding massive power it seems nigh impossible to actually change to a better system.

@mylifeforAiur said:

@BubbleBobble said:

@mylifeforAiur said:

@BubbleBobble said:

@mylifeforAiur said:

@BubbleBobble said:

@InternetCrab said:

Why can't we all just get along?

The Civil War wasn't like WWI. There was no reason for WWI, but the Civil War free'd slaves. WWII however stopped the extermination of 12 million civilians. I'm not justifying the Civil War. There should've been another way around it, but what happened, happened.

I seriously think that you're simplifying the World Wars a bit drastically.

Sure politics played their roles as usual, but in the end, WWII stopped genocide, & The Civil War freed the slaves. Those were the good things that came out of them. But of course the Civil War could've been avoided. WWII, not so sure

I'm not American, but I'm pretty sure that the American Civil War stood for more than just the abolishment of slavery. You're being a tad bit glib.

It also stood from the secession of the South, which would've split the USA into 2 nationalities. And don't insult me, I created this thread as a tribute

No need to get defensive. I called you glib -- that's hardly an insult.Also, saying that "There was no reason for WWI" is a pretty damning blanket statement. War is always a complicated beast; the acknowledgement of the inherent depth would be of greater tribute.

Wasn't WWI played out because Princip killed Franz Ferdinand?

@MariachiMacabre said:

@example1013 said:

@MariachiMacabre said:

@mylifeforAiur said:

@BubbleBobble said:

@mylifeforAiur said:

@BubbleBobble said:

@InternetCrab said:

Why can't we all just get along?

The Civil War wasn't like WWI. There was no reason for WWI, but the Civil War free'd slaves. WWII however stopped the extermination of 12 million civilians. I'm not justifying the Civil War. There should've been another way around it, but what happened, happened.

I seriously think that you're simplifying the World Wars a bit drastically.

Sure politics played their roles as usual, but in the end, WWII stopped genocide, & The Civil War freed the slaves. Those were the good things that came out of them. But of course the Civil War could've been avoided. WWII, not so sure

I'm not American, but I'm pretty sure that the American Civil War stood for more than just the abolishment of slavery. You're being a tad bit glib.

This. Slavery was a major part of it, but it wasn't the only part.

Slavery wasn't even a major part of it. The Civil War was fought over state versus federal government. Abolition of slavery--in the south, because it was still legal in the Union--was done to undermine the Southern economy and help disable the war effort.

WWII also didn't stop genocide, it prevented it from spreading. 6 million people still got gassed, and the United States knew about the death camps in 1941. WWII could have been avoided if the League of Nations and the Europeans had had some balls and stood up to Germany. Hell, it could've been avoided if the Alliance hadn't tried to pillage Germany economically with WWI "reparations". WWII was actually a direct result of WWI in every aspect.

Many of the Southern states seceded because Lincoln was elected and was known to be vehemently anti-slavery. Many of them knew that if he was elected, he would abolish slavery.

He would abolish it at the national level. Still state vs. federal. Also many of them seceded once he was elected because he wasn't even on the ballot in those states. I'd be pretty pissed if I guy I didn't even know was in the running, and who had completely opposite views on government from me, were elected President. Most southerners didn't even own slaves. Plenty of rednecks fought for the Confederacy. Why? Loyalty to their home state. There were even slaves and emancipated former slaves who were willing to fight. Slavery was the issue this was all based off of, but slavery itself wasn't the cause. I hope that makes sense.

@example1013 said:

@MariachiMacabre said:

@mylifeforAiur said:

@BubbleBobble said:

@mylifeforAiur said:

@BubbleBobble said:

@InternetCrab said:

Why can't we all just get along?

The Civil War wasn't like WWI. There was no reason for WWI, but the Civil War free'd slaves. WWII however stopped the extermination of 12 million civilians. I'm not justifying the Civil War. There should've been another way around it, but what happened, happened.

I seriously think that you're simplifying the World Wars a bit drastically.

Sure politics played their roles as usual, but in the end, WWII stopped genocide, & The Civil War freed the slaves. Those were the good things that came out of them. But of course the Civil War could've been avoided. WWII, not so sure

I'm not American, but I'm pretty sure that the American Civil War stood for more than just the abolishment of slavery. You're being a tad bit glib.

This. Slavery was a major part of it, but it wasn't the only part.

Slavery wasn't even a major part of it. The Civil War was fought over state versus federal government. Abolition of slavery--in the south, because it was still legal in the Union--was done to undermine the Southern economy and help disable the war effort.

WWII also didn't stop genocide, it prevented it from spreading. 6 million people still got gassed, and the United States knew about the death camps in 1941. WWII could have been avoided if the League of Nations and the Europeans had had some balls and stood up to Germany. Hell, it could've been avoided if the Alliance hadn't tried to pillage Germany economically with WWI "reparations". WWII was actually a direct result of WWI in every aspect.

Many of the Southern states seceded because Lincoln was elected and was known to be vehemently anti-slavery. Many of them knew that if he was elected, he would abolish slavery.

@MariachiMacabre said:

@mylifeforAiur said:

@BubbleBobble said:

@mylifeforAiur said:

@BubbleBobble said:

@InternetCrab said:

Why can't we all just get along?

The Civil War wasn't like WWI. There was no reason for WWI, but the Civil War free'd slaves. WWII however stopped the extermination of 12 million civilians. I'm not justifying the Civil War. There should've been another way around it, but what happened, happened.

I seriously think that you're simplifying the World Wars a bit drastically.

Sure politics played their roles as usual, but in the end, WWII stopped genocide, & The Civil War freed the slaves. Those were the good things that came out of them. But of course the Civil War could've been avoided. WWII, not so sure

I'm not American, but I'm pretty sure that the American Civil War stood for more than just the abolishment of slavery. You're being a tad bit glib.

This. Slavery was a major part of it, but it wasn't the only part.

Slavery wasn't even a major part of it. The Civil War was fought over state versus federal government. Abolition of slavery--in the south, because it was still legal in the Union--was done to undermine the Southern economy and help disable the war effort.

WWII also didn't stop genocide, it prevented it from spreading. 6 million people still got gassed, and the United States knew about the death camps in 1941. WWII could have been avoided if the League of Nations and the Europeans had had some balls and stood up to Germany. Hell, it could've been avoided if the Alliance hadn't tried to pillage Germany economically with WWI "reparations". WWII was actually a direct result of WWI in every aspect.

Economic Left/Right: -7.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.95

@YamiB: A couple paragraphs down from the one you copied says:
 

Responding to the charges in a CNN interview, Paul denied any involvement in authoring the passages. Additionally, Paul's campaign claimed through a press release that the quotations had come from an unnamed ghostwriter and without Paul's consent. Paul again denounced and disavowed the "small-minded thoughts," citing his 1999 House speech praising Rosa Parks for her courage; he said the charges simply "rehashed" the decade-old Morris attack.
... 

Paul had given his own account of the newsletters in March 2001, stating the documents were authored by ghostwriters, and that while he did not author the challenged passages, he bore "some moral responsibility" for their publication.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul#Newsletter_controversy

Well he believe lots of crazy things and has radical policies that would have awful effects.
 
As for the racist stuff.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul#Newsletter_controversy

Controversial claims made in Ron Paul's newsletters, written in the first person narrative, included statements such as "Boy, it sure burns me to have a national holiday for Martin Luther King. I voted against this outrage time and time again as a Congressman. What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day." Along with "even in my little town of Lake Jackson, Texas, I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense. For the animals are coming." Two other statements that garnered controversy were "opinion polls consistently show only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions". In an article titled "The Pink House" the newsletter wrote that "Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities."

I go with black coffee, tea (usually green) or a bloody mary when I have some stuff to do with school.  Occasionally when I'm doing some late night writing on an essay I might also go for an Irish coffee.