Ghostbear1111 : I don't believe that all children are as well mannered as your daughter. Often a child needs to be taught how much being hit hurts, especially if they have a knack for hitting others. My gf is also very anti-spanking, but she works at a liberal jewish private school where most parents don't spank their child. She sees that those children love to misbehave for everyone because there is no punishment they fear.

Maguc : Choice to kill isn't respectable or civilized.

Divine Aurora : If they're getting paid under the table and escaping government regulation, why don't you think the problem is with businesses paying people under the table and government regulation?

Immigrants come here to work. That benefits businesses. If it didn't benefit businesses, why would businesses employ them?

The real problem with immigrants is not that they're illegal, but that they're costly. The cost is not really that they cause unemployment or do crimes or don't pay taxes, but that they extract a lot of welfare. The problem with illegal immigration isn't illegal immigration - it screws up our welfare system.

The solutions are obvious. One, reform the welfare system such that they don't get the benefits. Now there is less incentive for illegals to stay here. Or two, remove the welfare programs entirely so that they stop interfering with economics. I favor plan two to a degree. Basically, our current tax system is entirely inadequate. Sales taxes need to replace income taxes for lower incomes. Tax-free commodities will be the means for helping the poor. 

Ghostbear1111 : But I do think violence solves problems. When someone is not open to reason, you must use force. Your child does not want to be grounded? Lock them in their room. That's force. We draw a line at psychology healthy adult people. Even then, I would argue some psychologically healthy adults often operate on feelings and are not open to reason. In rare instances, violence needs to be used against adults too. Officers sometimes need to use physical force, tasers, or even bullets to stop adults.

As far as hitting specifically goes, it is likely totally counter-productive. The obvious examples are when the child is hurting others or themselves and there are no prudent alternatives. I do think it is entirely appropriate to spank a child if they bite another child to force some empathy into their system.

Makalya : I don't hate them. I work at a gay bar. People can be sweet without being gay, but the question was "do you think that homosexuality is something positive?" The fact that the person is homosexual alone is not valuable.

I'm totally pro-life. Thank you everyone else for providing statistics and reasons. If those before me did not convince you that, at the very least, abortion ought to be heavily reduced, you need to do more research. Plenty of bias in the pro-abortion camp, and everyone needs to be able to examine this. If you're unable to examine it, I don't know if there's any possible argument to be had.

Pro-person, pro-human, pro-life.

-I am just trying to start a fight at this point. Please ignore me-

Mold and Crumbs : Actually, we understand the "purpose" of sex in quite the same way. Sex on a base level is purposeful because it creates offspring, but this doesn't seem to be the end of the meaning. In a select few animals, sex is also purposeful because it feels good, but this too doesn't seem to be the end of the meaning. There's big-league chemicals released during sex for humans (many are also released during breast feeding and childbirth) that go into forming trusting and loving relationships. The deep relationship influenced by sex (and perhaps deep relationships drive a person to sex too) seems to be a human highlight: a mixture of instinct, relationship, and reason, all in one.

I think the spot we will disagree is that I still don't think this is the end of the meaning to sex. I think part of the meaning that is missing in homosexual relations is that in heterosexual relationships, the two sexes quite literally evolved together and were molded by each other. In a sense, men were built by nature for women, and women for men. Homosexual relations loses the meaning involved with being made for each other, speaking quite literally.


legacyme3 : If morals do not exist, then of course nothing is wrong with anything. I could murder innocents at will and I would not be immoral. Many people are completely happy killing others, and they often don't because simply because they are scared of the law. Are those people right for being happy?

Perhaps what you mean is that the meaning of life is "greatest happiness for the greatest number of people." That too has logical problems.

Mold and Crumbs : I'm probably a mixture of the two from your position.

Let me ask you this: what is the purpose of sex?

legacyme3 : What is the meaning of living?

Ultrajeff : Human reactive attitudes are well and good, and even the instinctual reactions are the most human things we can do. These reactions must be curtailed by another human trait, reason. Reaction is due, of course, but the kind of reaction must be purposeful.

There is little purposeful in the death penalty. I do not rule it out, especially for heat-of-the-moment situations (self-defense, war, defense of others, political necessity, etc.), but for the large majority of scenarios death does not seem appropriate.

Ideally, punishment should be to rectify the situation. A thief should be giving what was stolen back. Also, it might be prudent to make the thief pay for the court costs or forced to also give interest due on the amount stolen as a further means of discouraging future illicit activity. Jail time for petty theft seems to not have a purpose beyond initial capture.

In circumstances like murder or rape, there doesn't seem to be a way to rectify the situation. You can't un-rape or un-murder someone. However, death doesn't seem like an appropriate response either. If the thief cannot pay back what he steals, we don't kill him. Instead, we do what we can. In the situation of murder or rape, the perpetrator ought to be made to do what he can. There are multiple ways that people can make lives better for others, and these are the things that should be explored to find what is appropriate due to the gravity of the crime.

So Kurapika would do well to not kill those that killed his family for their eyes, but would do better to make them benefit all those that are oppressed. Their deaths end the threat, but often that is not the best possible outcome.

Minuano : What is the purpose of life, according to you?

Mold and Crumbs : Where do I fall in your two categories, based on my response? Am I the first primary rabble that posts and runs, or am I the secondary crazy nonsensical group who simply brandishes opinions?

Sword legion : While we're in agreement that homosexuality is not a positive thing, I still have a question. You say that gays shouldn't be allowed to adopt because women are better at caring for children. What about lesbains?

Also, make sure your words have less hate in them next time. It's hard to call you an ally when you are frustrated and don't communicate kindness in your criticism.

Children do not understand reason or long term consequences. However, as a child gets older, punishments should reflect that. Hitting a child for misbehavior is not wrong. It is usually does not teach them very much, so it is good to discourage.

I work for a gay bar in Houston, and I can tell you that the vast majority of gay guys that I deal with don't believe it is positive.

I'm also a conservative Christian, and so I also do not think it is positive on that sense.

Being gay is not a choice, being gay is the product of nature and nurture. People's brains sometimes are wired to be attracted to those of the same sex. No one wants to be homosexual that is homosexual. It's not exactly the sweet life. As a Christian, what I would simply tell homosexuals to do is find meaning elsewhere in their lives. They know their sexual desires are odd and chaotic, but they also want to express them because having a sexual partner feels fulfilling. But there is (more often than not) no deeper meaning than getting off. Searching for meaning elsewhere is the only way to ground yourself in happiness.

He's not. At all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism#United_States

He lacks a fear of moral relativism, and constantly talks about factual relativism. #alternativefacts

He lacks the economic liberalism (meaning free market) as he tries to raise taxes and tariffs on the people.

He espouses some Christian values, but sorely lacks in other areas.

He's not a conservative.

CPT Axis : I don't really care what you say or what China says, they're not true communist. Communism is what they call themselves, but they do an entirely different thing. I don't want to force an agenda that socialism works, I want to be honest to reality.

You then criticize all sorts of countries for all sorts of reasons, but none of those criticisms mean "failures". They have issues, sure. So what? America has issues. Taiwan has issues. Everyone has issues. Issues does not mean "failure".

Your bias is obvious. I suspect you are simply young. One day, you will hopefully learn to do more unbiased research.

For the record, I am a conservative capitalist. I'm also a nerd and committed to the truth.

CPT Axis : China is not communist, it just says it is communist. It's fascist-socialist. And "oppressed as hell" works for them. Their country is an economic powerhouse, their technology rivals the rest of the world. China does well for itself, even with the oppression. They think the oppression is good.

Socialist countries that are doing fine: Denmark, Germany, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Belarus, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Netherlands..... Would you like more?

Finally, you're wrong about the German economy during WWII. It was really good. Inflation was ended and unemployment was gone. The debt they took on was being worked off and their people were generally proud of how well they were doing.

darthyoda : Yes.

CPT Axis : Obviously Socialism and Capitalism are not failures because there are socialist and capitalist countries doing just fine. You cannot argue results.

janus : To be fair, the poor pay a higher percentage of their *disposable* income to the tax than the rich. However, since it is not an income tax, they do not pay a percentage of their income at all.

And yes, even people like Mike Huckabee (who wants to eliminate the IRS and replace with sales taxes) say that the essential items can be tax free.

My actual idea is hinted at above - make a 5% federal sales tax but decrease income taxes by about 6%. In this way, I've given everyone a 1% raise with a job. I see the taxation of children and the disabled as sad, but I am willing to compensate families through services as necessary. I want to tax the retired. Also, the income tax would not drop for those in the top category (in 2016, the highest bracket was 39.6% if you made $415,050, if you and your spouse made $466,950, or $441,000 if you were "head of household"). This would increase federal revenue by just under 3%, encourage work, and perhaps we can actually begin to pay off our debt.