What produces RUTHLESS DICTATORS?

Heaven forfend - I only meant for him to stay away from this thread until his health improves. The thread does seem to have deleterious effects on some posters' mental balance, not all of them leftists, either!

Hey, who you calling 'aboriginal"????? Besides, it's spelled with "a" not "e" - or at least has been so spelled since Sempach, considering the Austrians never returned....

Excellent scholar that Mr Sowell might be I don't need his confirmation that Hitler was a leftist.

Get a grip, as in call a medic for an appointment pronto - your mental confusion is getting worse. I never claimed he misunderstood it, I said, and proved, he deliberately tried to mislead innocent readers. Take a hike if you won't see a medic - fresh air may do you some good. And if you plan to continue with barrages of words on subjects on which you know less than nothing, I will regretfully reach the same conclusion about you as I did with OE - quoting Robert Gentel who more than once lost patience with your filibustering and called you flat-out "Liar".

We don't know that this was indeed Sowell's conclusion, Spendius, we only know that was Okie's reading of it.... Awaiting clarifications on that one.

You, at least, have an excuse for being mentally confused - how many pints at the pub today?!

I have it on good authority (robert welch) that DD Eisenhower was a communist sympathizer.

None yet. And only two when I get there in about 20 minutes. Maybe 2 i/2 if there's a good band and the wrigglers are at it.

I came home from the pub last night with about 10lbs of damsons and the same of baking apples off a pal who has a large orchard. I must have looked a bit silly.

The damsons are now jam and what jam. I'll get the apple pie making machine going tomorrow.

Based on all information posted in this thread and elsewhere on the internet, it is now clear that right-wing conservatism breeds fertile ground for producing ruthless dictators. Our last conservative president (a ruthless dictator) placed himself above the law, engaged in wars of aggression based on lies, imprisoned alleged enemies without trial, ordered torture, ordered warrantless surveillance of electronic communications, and channeled billions of dollars from our treasury to his minions and corporate cronies.

I thought both houses voted overwhelmingly for it and had they voted against there would have been none of the other stuff so I presume the other stuff is what they voted for.

Or else they are stupid. Once you start a war it goes a bit of its own accord. Everybody knows that.

Please don't mind Debra, she's a classic example of this darling animal cartoon:

The vote was mostly along party lines, with some Democrats voting for it.

Cycloptichorn

This is the same group that impeached Clinton about sex.

Sorry for delay, I've been gone a few days. I heard it on Rush Limbaugh show, interview by guest host, Walter Williams, wherein they discussed this and were both in agreement as I recall. I think you can hear the audio on this link but will need to be a member of Rush 24/7, which I am not. If you don't believe me, you will have to become a member of Rush 24/7 and listen for yourself. Go to the following link and click on the Thomas Sowell interview audio next to the Walter Williams photo.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_090409/home.guest.html

It was an excellent show by Walter Williams and an excellent interview of Thomas Sowell.

And my case stands strong with the evidence that I have presented here that Hitler was clearly a leftist, in context with how we judge right and left in today's world. I think the evidence is clear and abundant. If Hitler was to run for president of the United States in today's world, there is no doubt in my mind that his appeal would be to liberals, not conservatives. He demonized capitalism and trumpeted the idea that government could solve any problem, including of course universal health care, so what is so different from many of his policies than the current liberal policies?

Duly noted here that leftists love to accuse the opposition of the very things they are in fact guilty of and want to to do more of. Actually, the channeling of billions from our treasury to his minions and corporate cronies, sheesh, Obama makes Bush look like an amateur, but that whole picture is based upon semantics anyway. Bush gave a tax break to oil companies, that is probably what Debra here would refer to as channeling money to corporate cronies, but Obama simply gives billions to whoever he wants to give it to, he doesn't worry about tax breaks. Obama buddy and fellow traveler, Van Jones, developed the art of funneling government money to his cronies, and isn't it interesting he also helped write the stimulus bill, probably to funnel even more billions to his cronies, how convenient is that? If that isn't corrupt totally, what is? We are talking Billions with a "B".

Meanwhile, the oil companies actually produce something using tax incentives, which is common to government tweaking production since the dawn of the income tax system, so there is nothing sinister or even wrong about that. Funneling money to inner city programs that produce nothing but more of the same corruption and problems, or to ACORN, now that is something totally different. Example, the Chicago neighborhoods that Obama funneled money to are still just as lousy as they always have been. It has been a waste of money.

Sorry, okie, but that's again one of the most stupiest things you've written here.

Since health care is a topic in the USA: did you know that Bismarck introduced mandatory health care in Germany? As Reichschancellor - but 50 years before Hitler became Reichschancelor?
And since a couple of countries have an even more "state owned" health insurance than Germany has and had - are those governments/parliaments/heads of state even worse or more than Hitler?

In a critical economic situation like today, many governments are "trumpeting" that only they can solve the momentarily situation - are the UK's, France's, Germany's, etc government following Hitler as well?

Walter, it isn't stupid at all. What you seem to fail to be able to differentiate are the actual policies of Hitler apart from his sheer lunacy and cruelty. When I compare Hitler as a leftist, I am not claiming that all leftists are cruel and inhumane, I am simply arguing that Hitler's political tendency was big government, powerful government, government solutions over personal responsibility and freedom. Put simply, he was a Statist, a collectivist, not to the extreme of pure socialism or Marxism, but he advocated a watered down form of socialism, which had capitalism mixed in with it, but the capitalism was largely controlled and directed by the government. This is a leftist idealogy, this should be as plain as day it seems to me.

I have never claimed that Hitler invented universal health care, nor have I ever claimed that universal health care necessarily leads to the insanity and cruelty of the Hitler government. I am merely pointing out the policies that are leftist in nature. Not all leftists are cruel and inhumane. The UK, France, and Germany do have leftist policies, socialist policies, just as Hitler leaned to the left as well. Do I compare Hitler to the political figures of those countries today, no I do not, I am merely comparing some of the political tendencies and policies.

So, Walter, here in the United States, we have not been considered a socialist country, but FDR was able to institute some socialist ideas, such as Social Security and Medicare. Many will argue that those programs are beneficial, and they do have benefits, especially short term, but they also have long term pitfalls and debts to be paid. There is no free lunch. Now, I believe Obama wants to and is actively pushing and even instituting more socialist and some would say fascist policies, similar to Hitler's. The mistake you make is that you must separate Hitler's policies and politics from his cruelty.

The bottom line to all of this is that I believe a bigger and bigger government, as it grows more powerful to the extent necessary to institute and manage more socialistic programs, this comes at the expense of personal and individual freedom and responsibility. I think it becomes increasingly unAmerican, and I also believe that the circumstances that provide a higher possibility of a bad dictator increases, along with more loss of constitutional freedoms and rights. Such a scenario is possible for anywhere in the world, including Europe as well. History does repeat itself. And freedom is hard work. Lazy societies tend to fall back into old pitfalls and they will look for some messiah type personality to take care of them. That is what I am here attempting to warn people about.

okie, You never are able to absorb new information/facts even when they are explained to you in elementary form. Your beginning premise begins with the wrong assumption that Hitler was a "leftist." You are a hopeless idiot.

Okie, I would opine that you do indeed serve an interesting function here on a2k (an obviously liberal forum) in that in comparison you make foxfyre and ican appear well reasoned. That is quite an amazing feat.

I would requote what you just said, the salient phrase that tells it all, dys:

"..I would opine ..."

I think your opinion is wrong most of the time, dys, so nothing new in your post at all. We disagree. I am comfortable with that, very comfortable. It doesn't make me lose any sleep, and I hope you can quit worrying as well.

Okie, the only thing I worry about is that you breed.