That rather hurts because it's such a lie.

Liberals believe that education has intrinsic value to the individual. Some kids understand that instinctively, some kids need a little encouragements, some kids won't get dessert a few times because they don't know their times tables (and some poor kids will always have trouble and need to be cherished and helped the best of their potential).

Conservatives believe that education is good because it makes for better workers, for more income, for a better consumer. They believe that education can be poured into you like oil into an engine and if you don't accept it raw then you are a defective part and should be discarded as such.

Other people here have written very movingly. Just stop by any means necessary. If you must steal, please find a way to steal from evil people, not from your friend and mentor, I feel sick at the thought.

(A shout-out here however to Cary for his excellent book ad in there... "Don't Steal This Book." :-D)

OF COURSE people are generally not going to change their minds, with our without a Google search!! Sheesh.

The question to ask is: of the minority who changed their minds, did more of them change towards the truth or no?

"I'm in my mid-30s, and with one exception all my jobs lasted for less than 2.5 years. This is the norm for people in my age group."

It depends on what your field is, but in mine (software engineering) it often takes you over a year to really get into stride in a job.

If you're taking a series of McJobs, that's fine -- you can't learn anything from them anyway -- but if you keep taking real jobs and quitting them after two years, you're never going to really accomplish anything. Worse, you're going to burn a lot of bridges as you leave, just when people start to trust you.

If I were thinking of hiring you, this would be a black mark against you.

"Why do you all complain about Fox News? You're not paying for it. No public funds support it. No state universities are hosting Fox stations. Nobody gets tax deductions for making pledges to Fox News."

Considering that Fox "News" (/me spits) was a driving force behind the Iraq war that has consumed some trillion dollars of our tax money, why, we are paying for it, every day, in huge measure.

Indeed, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of Americans have paid the ultimate price for Fox News's lies.

Anyway, I don't quite see what "paying" has to do with it. If my next door neighbor plays his stereo too loud, the argument that I'm not paying for it is irrelevant. If I see someone getting short-changed in a store, I'm going to complain -- even if I'm not the one paying for it either.

If a news source constantly prints destructive lies, you have every right to complain, whether or not you pay for it.

it's your last chance. Don't vote for a permanent war. Obama's not a real pacifist but he isn't at least wanting to spend MORE money on the military like Hillary.

I don't think this will work. I've pretty well given up on this country. But I'll miss it or at least my illusions about it.

...and we are sick of war.

She wants to spend MORE money on the military. She's unwilling to talk to Iran (as if we need another war!)

She says, "All options are on the table," meaning that a nuclear first strike on Iran is a strategy (and if you don't believe you meant that, you have to explain why she refused to clarify when asked by Mike Gravel if that was what she meant. What else would that mean, anyway?) That she's already willing to commit crimes against humanity for strategic purposes is enough that I could never, ever support her for dogcatcher.

Clinton was very competent but didn't change anything. Hillary is offering us the same. Things are screwed up. We need a serious change or the bottom will fall out.

Hillary is a hawk. I won't support her. I wouldn't go so far as to support McCain but I wouldn't exert myself to see her elected.

If the Democrats again fail to field an electable candidate, perhaps the party will collapse and we'll get something we can support in 2012. The next President is going to look terrible after dealing with all the problems the chimp caused, perhaps we need to wait another four years for real change.

You aren't getting it.

We cannot go on like this. We can't go on spending more and more money on the military, money we *don't have*, much of which *is stolen from us by corruption*.

We cannot afford to be in perpetual war. And even if we could, it's morally wrong.

One day America will elect a President who will spend less on the military -- or America will run out of money and collapse. Take your pick.

ezhik2: what you wrote is exactly what I've said privately. I can't disagree with a word it.

BUT of the remaining candidates, Mr. Obama is the least militarist. And he doesn't seem quite so in love with the war machine.

Pending a second coming of Eugene Debs (I'm trying to be funny but it actually hurts... :-( ), Mr. Obama is the best we have, and he's actually got a lot of good points. I can imagine actually convincing him of something using a moral argument.