The end is more important than the means. This does not mean that the end justifies the means. But it is more important. Thus, beating your child around until he's perfectly obedient, in order to make him into a stronger and more prepared person is wrong. Granted, being a stronger and more prepared person is more important than not being smacked around, but that doesn't mean that it justifies smacking your child around. The childhood pain of your kid is, irrefutably, less important than his adulthood success.

Just because something is important doesn't mean that it justifies us doing immoral things to attain it.

I don't care if we choose total free market capitalism or if we go totally socialist with it; I just want one or the other.

I want one of the two parties to just stop. Let the other party do whatever it is that they're going to do. Don't fight it, don't vote against their agenda, give them free reign to do pretty much whatever they want. Democrats, shut up and let the Republicans do their thing. Republicans, step aside and let the Democrats get a real chance. Because neither side has ever had a real chance to do its work, without facing relentless obstruction by the other party. And this is why the same two parties are never replaced; they're never defeated. When the Republicans have a bad go of it, they can just blame Democrats' ibstructionism, and when the Democrats have a bad time of it, the cause is Republican mudslinging.

Say the Republicans were given free reign for four years. They get a president, and a majority in the Legislature. The Democrats make it well known and public that they are stepping aside and lettin g the Republicans give it their best shot. Then, the Republicans' plan fails, horribly. The Democrats would be able to turn and say, "I told you so", and the Republican party would be effectively destroyed. This would leave a vacuum into which the Democrats could step, and have their four years of control, while a third party rose from the ranks to claim the seat of the fallen Republicans.

Now, say the Republicans' plan, instead, succeeded. How is this bad? If it works, then hey, it works. The Republicans finally get to go "Hey, free market capitalism works!" and be assuredly correct in it.

In the same sense, the Republicans could step out of the Democrats' way, and allow federal health care, and the closure of Guantanemo Bay. If it turned out to bite the Democrats in the ass, then they'd be able to say "I told you so." and would have finally defeated the Democratic party once and for all.

It's like this. If you're playing chess, and your opponent makes a careless move, you can capitalize on it and win. But, after the game, he'll still talk smack about how you only won because he messed up. Now, if you let him take the move back instead, and let him play to his fullest potential, then -still- beat him, he'll recognize his defeat a lot more easily. Do not destroy your enemy, let them destroy themselves.

No. Barack Obama isn't absolutely insane. Mitt Romney is a religious nutcase. Granted, Obama is moving rather slowly about doing what he promised, at least he's moving toward it. Mitt Romney would have been horrible.

As a matter of legality, they should be allowed the same rights and priveliges that married couples are allowed.

However, if a church refuses to marry two people of the same gender, that is their own decision. The right to be married applies only to the legal recognition of the couple having the same legal status as a "Married" couple.

Telling the church they can't reject homosexuality is oppressive. I'm all for gay marriage, but I'm even more against making people do what they don't want to do.

Caffiene is addictive. I couldn't possibly do it. I have an addictive personality.

But seriously, yayo is great for when you have a girl tied face-down. Then you stick a straw in her nose and put it to the line and say "Do it." She does, then you do your line and immediately start hitting it. She's already feeling the yayo, and you get to feel it come on as you're getting laid.

If you did that with Coca-cola it wouldn't be half as fun.

As someone experienced with prostitutes, I can say confidently that the more difficult the law makes it for prostitutes to work (which they will, everywhere, regardless of the law) the more drugs you're likely to encounter when you deal with prostitutes. In places where prostitution is illegal, it shares a very strong link with drugs: they're both illegal. People who get into illegal stuff tend to get into it all. I mean, if you're an illegal prostitute, charging $200 an hour, and someone offers to pay you an ounce of kindbud instead, would you turn it down, knowing you could sell it for $400? I mean, you're already breaking the law, why not break it some more and make more money?

Legalized prostitution doesn't increase child prostitution. If you go to Thailand and ask the prostitutes there, they'll tell you that they don't allow underagers to work the streets. Not the cops, not the people, the other prostitutes. They know that if there were fifteen year-olds everywhere, they wouldn't make any money. So when they see an underage girl on the street, they kick her ass, and tell her never to come back. That's where prostitution is illegal, but not prosecuted. In places where it's legal, the other prostitutes can simply call the police on the underage prostitute, and have her arrested.

The number one country for child prostitution is Taiwan. I'm not sure about human trafficking, but it's probably another country in east Asia. People talking about how the netherlands is a hub for human trafficking are neglecting to mention that the netherlands is a black market hub for all kinds of illegal stuff, because of the ease with which one can conduct illegal business in Holland. It's not because prostitution is legal, elsewise the same trend would show in most other places where prostitution is legal: it doesn't.

Illegalizing prostitution is a direct stab at free-market economy. Nobody's civil liberties are being violated, and commerce is happening. The guy is happy, and the girl is happy. Sometimes, friendships are formed through prostitution. In the United States, prostitutes do their job and leave; the quality is always below what you expect, the time is always rushed, and you have to worry about getting killed by her pimp or her venereal diseases. In other countries, it's much more fun; the girl spends the whole night with you, gets to know you, and if she likes you enough you might just get a visit for free the next day. I know, I never would have believed that unless it had happened to me. But certainly not with American prostitutes. They're not worth the money you pay for them.

Legalization would only make sense in our tanking economy. We're scraping for new markets, and there's one already thriving that we aren't taxing.

When you remove choice you create slaves. In saying that a thirteen year-old has no choice, you're saying that they aren't granted civil liberties. You're effectively not regarding them as a person anymore. For instance, if a fifteen year-old girl gets raped, and knocked up as a result, but doesn't want her mother to know because the mother is a suicidal rape victim with recent trauma herself, that's a good reason not to tell the parents. Or if the girl just simply doesn't want her parents to know she's not a virgin anymore, that's also a good reason. Why? Because it's her choice. When the law forces people to do things against their own choices is when it infringes upon their civil liberties. Forcing people to reveal their secrets to anyone, unless they are of legal importance, is a violation of civil liberties, and simply saying "It's not her choice" is the same argument which was given before the violation of civil liberties throughout history.

Being under 18 doesn't make someone a second-class citizen.

No, no, and no.

As someone who comes from a foster home, let me tell you, teenage girls do not want to have to tell their parents they've been spreading their legs, especially if it's to black men in the south. So what happens when this girl who did just that has to ask her racist daddy for an abortion? She'll make the smart choice: coathanger > daddy kicking her in the stomach until she miscarries.

More food > Less food

Organic farming is a method by which one sacrifices quantity for quality. Granted, we could feed the world with the food we have now, but that doens't matter. The world isn't getting fed. So until it is, I don't think we should pass up the chance to make more food.