How can someone with Aspergers be left-wing?

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There's no "what if" about the casualties of the Iraq war. Over 30,000 American soldiers were injured and they have needed, and will continue to need care. At least we'll be able to save some bucks on the over 4,000 that have died because clearly saving money is the name of the game.

And information has come out that Saddam was trying to get things together to produce WMDs.

However to put a human perspective into this.

There were stories of Saddam's men torturing children while their parents were forced to watch, including feeding a conscious child feet first to a wood chipper. How many more incidents such as that would have happened if Saddam were still in power today?

And what if Bush had decided not to go into Iraq and the intell about the WMDs was correct and another 9/11 style attack occurred in the US, only this time it was a bioweapon that Al Qaeda purchased from Saddam. How many people would have died from that, it would be at least 30,000 civilians (many of whom children).

It is easy to be an armchair quarterback and use hindsight, but quite honestly I would say Bush made the correct call.

I know that when there is competition, some people will inevitably sink to the bottom. We are not really equal; we should just be treated as if we are. Some people are smart. Some people are not. Some people are healthy. Some people are not. Some people are social butterflies and some people have Asperger's Syndrome. As I don't believe in letting the people who sink to the bottom just suffer and possibly die; I believe in providing them with a safety net. That doesn't mean that I want the government to completely take care of people. I do think that many social programs need to be modified to keep dishonest people from taking advantage of them.

I am not religious, and this keeps me from having many conservative beliefs. For example, I have nothing against gay marriage. In fact, I am gay. Why wouldn't I be for gay marriage? And naturally, as an atheist, I do not believe in having prayer in public schools. Of course, I don't believe in having atheist propaganda in public schools, either. I do not believe in souls. Therefore, I do not think that zygotes/embryos/fetuses have souls, and my criteria for deciding their worth is based on sentience. I am mostly pro-choice because a zygote/embryo/fetus doesn't have sentience for most of the pregnancy. When it does develop a considerable amount of sentience is when I get shaky on the issue. As most abortions take place in the first and second trimesters, anyway, I think that it is safe for me to call myself pro-choice. I doubt that most people are entirely pro-life or pro-choice, anyway.

I think that taxes are a good idea, especially when it comes to funding things that I believe are rights rather than privileges. If we each put a little money into the pot, we can all have the things we need regardless of how much money we each have. For example, I believe that education is a right rather than a privilege. Now, does our public school system have a lot of problems? Of course, and I think that they need to be fixed. But I also think that having a public school system is better than not having one. I am especially thankful for the public school system after hearing that two of my economically-disadvantaged friends are in college now.

These are just a few reasons that support why I am left-wing. I think that they are pretty logical. I don't see how having Asperger's could make me conservative. My political beliefs are based on what I know and what I value. What I know and value led me to be left-wing.

@ Squirrelrat

The problem with the abortion argument of a fetus not being sentient is that you can't say that with absolute certainty. Most pro-lifers biggest reason for being against abortion is you can't say for sure either way, and when in doubt you should choose life.

Many Conservatives think the public schools aren't doing their job which tends to be true in some areas, shouldn't we have school choice in those instances to remove kids from failing schools and put them in schools that can actually teach.

At a late enough stage in pregnancy a fetus can respond to stimuli. But is it a person?

ruveyn

Obama's escalation in Afghanistan is closing in on it pretty fast, though. More Americans have died in Afghanistan in 2 years under Obama than in 8 years under Bush.


Minor correction: Obama ran up as much deficit in 2 years as Bush did in 8. I don't think he's caught up in total spending yet, as that includes what's covered by tax receipts as well as the deficit, though the total spending is certainly up too.

Totally agreed about Afghanistan. The whole situation angers the heck out of me.

On the Obama stimulus, it really boils down to speculation. One could make a strong argument how most, if not all of it saved our country from utter catastrophe. Others say it just dug the hole deeper, and nothing more. Either way, no one can really claim any proof of whether or not it was a good idea, not yet anyway. Time might tell. I do think most experts are in agreement that doing nothing was not a viable option. He didn't just sit around and read My Pet Goat to a bunch of school kids. He at least got off his a**.

Obama didn't "run up" the deficit. For one thing, a huge chunk of the 2009 and 2010 deficit is due to lost tax revenue and increased unemployment insurance payouts. The massive layoffs of 2008 and 2009 began under Bush's watch and were simply inherited by Obama. For another, the stimulus spending will not be an ongoing contributor to the deficit as it expires by 2011. Removing these two factors, it follows that Obama has not run up the long-term structural deficit at a rate any greater than what Bush did during his two terms.

*snort*
Faux news has been claiming that weekly since before the war even started; it has never been substantiated.

As far as Saddam: yes, he was a f*****g evil human and so were his sons. So is the leader of North Korea; so were the leaders of the genocide in Rawanda; So is the president of Sudan, who is wanted in the Hague for war crimes for the ongoing genocide in Darfur; so are the leaders of the 'Lord's Revolution Army' in Congo, who are gang-raping entire villages as a routine. There are lots of evil f*****g people in the world, but we can't afford to be the world's police and peacekeepers.

As far as Obama on Iraq and Afghanistan: yes, I am pissed about that. I want the U.S. out of both places. I'm also pissed that he didn't actually close Guantanamo.

Wrt. zefs and sentience:
you can't have sentience without a functioning brain, and the zef doesn't have recognizable EEG waves until the 3rd trimester. Before that, it's just reflex arcs and the like.

I think the BBC also had an article on a bunch of Uranium the US smuggled out of Iraq at least three years ago...



We've seen how good a job the UN does, they just take bribes from evil people and look the other way.



So you saying we should have just left the Taliban in place after 9/11... Furthermore, you intend to haul a bunch of terrorists to the United States, while it makes for good rhetoric about the Guantanamo abuses, just where do you intend to put said terrorists? And what is to stop a left wing nut of a judge from letting them all go free?



No, if I remember correctly brainwave activity starts earlier than 3rd trimester. Furthermore you can delude yourself about reflexes, the fact is you need a nervous system in order to have reflex arcs.

The Taliban had nothing to do with 9/11. A good deal of the planning was done in Germany. By your viewpoint we should have attacked Germany.

@Sand

The Taliban were giving Al Qaeda a base of operations from which to train people and launch attacks from.

The numbers do not support you. The difference between Bush's 2008 deficit and Obama's 2009 and 2010 deficits is largely accounted for by Obama administration spending initiatives like the "stimulus" bill.

Lost tax revenue due to a poorly performing economy is also increasing the deficit, but it already did that in 2008 under Bush - that's why the deficit in 2008 was so much larger than in earlier Bush years. Of course, Obama's policies preventing recovery have prolonged those contributors to the deficit as well.


When Obama manages to incur 8 years worth of deficits in his first 2 years, his spending doesn't need additional structural deficits to be identified as a problem.

That said, additional structural deficit from Obamacare is substantial. I do agree it's comparable to Bush's structural deficit increases due to his medicare changes.

I wish conservatives would provide real evidence that Obama's policies are preventing recovery. You can't make that claim with any more confidence than I can make the claim that his policies prevented a much deeper recession. What's really preventing recovery is the fact that businesses are now profiting just fine with a smaller workforce and thus have no incentive to hire more.

Conservatives have given more evidence that Obama has. Especially look at the fact his "jobs saved" measurement was pulled out of thin air with no factual information used to come up with the figures.

This troubles me too. Wall Street recovered a little too fast for my taste and they're at it again with the record breaking bonuses. They cut their labor costs and now they're fine. I think we'll be talking about jobs for a long time to come.