Ah, see this is why I was loathed to enter a political debate... :(

Yeah…well I immediately felt the love just oozing when I first started reading this thread. In fact, I was so overwhelmed with that exhibition of love that it made me decide to post. Doesn’t it make you feel just fuzzy all over? :wub:

I’m not particularly fond of Bush and don’t approve with everything he’s done but I feel he hasn’t been fairly treated either especially through the media. It didn’t take me long to realize that BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) had struck the Bryce forum as well. Bush Derangement Syndrome (or BDS) first coined by columnist and psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer in 2003 as the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency -- nay -- the very existence of George W. Bush. It is a loss of the capability for rational thought. This loss is often displayed over a period of hours, days or even months and years. The sufferer in all cases blames President George W. Bush for any and all types of disasters, human maladies, etc. despite abundant evidence of contrary causal effects.

You can’t have a one sided debate. It’s like talking to yourself and getting a response. 

I hope I'm not adding to my troubles.

  Suggestions to discuss sensitive matters

1)  never make it personal...
    Just keep to what was said.  
    don't call anyone nasty names

2)  never assume what was said reflects in reality  who the speaker actually is like..
   example..they posted something stupid then you assume they are stupid
   Try to address what was laid on the table and not attack the speaker..
   don't confuse the messenger with the message...!

I'm thinking of more suggestions.. please contribute if you like..

I have a suggestion: practice what you preach.
Keep your blind hatreds and intolerances under control.

You make statements like this: 

Quote - ...and this goes for your rabid  friend as well...

Where have I made even one single personal attack in this thread?
The "personal attack" that makes me "rabid" is that I don't agree with your communistic rhetoric. It's not my fault that liberal socialist policies are absolute and universal failures; I'm just simply pointing out the fact. Doesn't make me rabid.

How about, instead of slandering me with vicious personal attacks (which don't really bother me); you give me an example, from anywhere in the history of the planet, where socialistic centralized government control has done anything but cause misery, poverty, famine, and worse?
North Korea? Cambodia? Germany (c.a. 1930s and 40s)? Stalinist Russia? Cuba?
I don't mean revisionist history either. I'm talking about reality, not some Ivory Tower pipe dream that never happened.
I'd even accept an example of any one facet of socialist society that is a clear benefit for the citizens: education? health care? employment? law enforcement? military?... just name one.

What exactly are the benefits of concentrating all power and wealth in a tiny minority, while everyone else is taxed to death (a lot of times, literally) to support them?

Oh I think we've gone just about as far as we need to on this.
Thread locked.