What's up

Hey, what's up, I'm Ted, 21 year old student in Chicago, born in Cleveland, ardent follower of politics, staunch center-leftist (if you can be a staunch center-leftist). I'm here for the politics.

...That wasn't very exciting, but I am excited to be here.

My condolences.

Welcome. I am xotoxi.

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Well, welcome to the playground. Now, go get in the sandbox.

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Owe Bama doesn't really need a teleprompter. He has his head so far up his own ass he can see what he's thinking!

Haha, suck it, X--Cleveland Rocks™

Welcome from Indiana!

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"Sean Payton is the best coach in the NFL, because he has big ones."

I was born in Nelsonville.

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"I am allergic to piety, it makes me break out in rash judgements." - Penn Jillette
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
"The man who invented the telescope found out more about heaven than the closed eyes of prayer ever discovered." - Robert G. Ingersoll

Rickie, Brian or Willie?

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"Sean Payton is the best coach in the NFL, because he has big ones."

You can't be a center leftist. You're just a leftist. Own up to it, swallow it whole, embrace it.

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A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
Thomas Jefferson

Ohio. But I did see Rick Nelson perform once.

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"I am allergic to piety, it makes me break out in rash judgements." - Penn Jillette
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
"The man who invented the telescope found out more about heaven than the closed eyes of prayer ever discovered." - Robert G. Ingersoll

I'm center-left because I'm more in the center than on the left but more on the left than the right. I'm pro-choice, agnostic, black, pro-union, strict-interpretationist, techno-utopian, utilitarian, in support of UHC, anti-DADT, anti-DOMA, willing to pay high taxes etc., but I also support 2nd amendment rights, a large military budget, limited foreign intervention (conversely), limited government (beyond that) and a bunch of other stuff. I guess I'm a bit of a libertarian who wants government to intervene in good ways. How would you classify me?

In American politics, I think we get so hung up on the divide between the dems and republicans that nobody realizes it's possible to stand somewhere between the two spectra of their platforms.

As a wide-eyed neophyte barely out of their teens who hasn't been repeatedly smacked between the eyes with the 2x4 of life enough to realize that they are hopelessly idealistic.

Welcome to the board.

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It isn't that Liberals don't know anything, they just know a lot that isn't so. -- Ronald Reagan

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. -- C.S. Lewis

What gives you the impression that I'm hopelessly idealistic? Having stances at my age? Since when do you have to be old to have convictions?

Edit: Great to be here.

Nope, not having stances. That's fine. Maybe it's this line that kind of crystallizes it for me.

So, maybe you hopeless. But you are definitely idealistic.

The best you can hope from government is that they don't do harm; to expect them to do good is fantasy.

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It isn't that Liberals don't know anything, they just know a lot that isn't so. -- Ronald Reagan

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. -- C.S. Lewis

Hi Ted. I found this just for you to give you that big welcome like I would my own brother Ted at your age.

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Daniel, "Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle."

Thanks RodISHI--

Tech_Esq: What about schools and roads? Maybe this is an instance where you and I differ but I don't trust in the ability of private organizations to provide services that offer no direct profit. I think highways are good and the government does that. Hell, I even think the post office is good--you put a letter in your mailbox and for 43 cents a guy will come get it and it will go to wherever you want in two days!