Friday, February 5, 2010

What being a conservative means to me

So, i recently became a "fan of being conservative" on facebook and bry asked if I know what it means to be "conservative". Well, here's were I stand:

I want to be able to purchase firearms and ammo without excessive taxes on my right to bear arms. I want to hoard those guns and shoot animals for sport. Overpopulation of a species is bad for the environment. No amnesty for illegals, bring back prayer into schools and the promise of hell in the afterlife as punishment for immoral living; stop affirmative action, kick the goverment out of private business decisions, reward hardworking AMericans with tax breaks and punish those who mooch off the system by establishing stricter guidelines on government support...am I missing anything? Now, to make things interesting, I do believe in equal rights - civil unions, etc for the sake of creating and supporting strong families, whether gay or straight...strong family values are what will make this nation great and our future brighter. I don't believe the govt has any business determining how healthcare should be distributed. As a server, making less than $25K a year, I purchased my own health insurance. I didn't go without and I certainly did not expect the govt to take care of me. I'm pro-life--if you make a grown up decision to engage in procreation activities but don't want children, you have a responsbilty to keep that from happening so that an innocent life is not cut short--don't believe in birthcontrol? Don't have sex. Biology is amazing, women can figure out when to say no. I believe in corporal punishment under the law...hypocritical, I know as a Prolifer, but if some bastard hurts my family he/she will pay for their actions and it will be painful. Lethal injection stuff is ridiculous, it should be scary and it should hurt. The victims were scared and hurting without mercy given to them... So, yeah, that's what I stand for.

8 comments:

E2 said...

I love this post. I couldn't agree more. However, as a libertarian I believe in the core values of being American. Freedom, liberty, the pursuit of property, these are my values. I think I would be prolife after a certain trimester. The heartbeat begins when?

studies show that abortion leads to less crime, because a child is less likely to grow up in a abnormal family structure (the kind that results in a premature pregnancy without proper preparation).

oh, my word verification is "h-andi"

cute.

Unknown said...

Let me elaborate on my prolife stand--in instances of rape, I will back off and say its "ok". no woman/girl should be forced to carry a pregancy that resulted from a violent act. But, its her right to choose, not the government's right to judge or withhold services. i personally think it's disgusting for a woman to engage in risky sexual behavior which causes pregnancy and have that child aborted because of a bad judgement call. Birth control should be made available to anyone who requests it AND I also believe schools have the responsibility to teach children about sex as early as possible... I did an entire report on this in college. Sex ed can start in kindergarten by teaching children about interpersonal communication and relationship building...and adding on to those lessons as they get older so that girls know that they are valuable members of society adn don't have to give it up to be loved. And, boys need to learn that there are other ways to show love. Yes, i get it...we're animals and by nature like to have pleasure, but we don't spend enough time teaching our kids the safe ways of going about that. Wow, i'm going to open a can of worms with this post. :)

anyway--heart beat begins before a woman knows she's pregnant...so, in my mind, life begins at conception. 10 years ago, I would have said it began at their first breath on their own, but after having two babies, feelign how alive they were inside from early on...yeah, that's life and it's precious.

Bry said...

You opened with violence and closed with vengeance.

So, you're prochoice then?

You apply your religious beliefs to the lives of others. Muhammad let the Jews be Jews. Jesus advised his disciples to keep paying taxes. Moses walked away. Just saying. If the prophets can live and let live, why can't you? What if I don't believe in hell? Should how I live my life be dictated by your Christian beliefs? Or should my rights be generalized so that I am giving fair treatment and fair thought?

I don't believe in Hell. I believe in a judgement day, so I won't say that sin means nothing to me. But I am not one to let the fear of sinning control how I act. I act in a way that takes care of those around me. De facto, that's a sinless (sort of, nobody's perfect) lifestyle.

To clarify, I do not avoid murder because it's a sin. I avoid murder because I do not feel it's my right to take the life away from someone else. Ergo, I find the concept of living your life to avoid sinning or going to hell to be a selfish and self-righteous path. We shouldn't teach kids "Don't kill because you'll go to hell." We should teach kids "Don't kill. Would you want to be killed? Don't kill then."

Oh yeah, that liberal thought there: Jesus said it.

And that's how I live my life (and should have titled my last post):

"Treat others as you would want to be treated." That rule is so bright and shiny, it ought to be called the golden rule, or something.

Jordan Robles said...

On the topic of abortion, I just want to say:

1) If laws end up Pro-Life, the only instances when abortion should be legal should be when the girl's life is threatened. I know it sounds harsh, but rape and incest are not excuses. The principle of 'Pro-Life' is that the child is alive, and it's not the child's fault that they were conceived in a bad situation. It's not your fault you got pregnant, but you're not being told to keep the baby to punish you. Note that there's an underlying feeling among many that the Pro-Life movement is geared towards keeping kids from 'having fun', and 'punishing' them for sexual immorality and loose morals. I disagree with that; but if you're pro-life, you have to be for life. And the excuse in incest that there's more risk for diseases and whatnot, some folks prefer abortion because their children are found to have high risk of something. It's the same thing. If you're going to go Pro-Life, you have to be fair, and if there is any unborn child that should be 'protected', in those instanes, it's not anymore their fault and all the more targeted.

2) If we go Pro-Choice, the choice needs to be fairly distributed to the father as well. I was consistently disgusted in highschool when our health teachers would use the phrase, "It takes two to tango." Yes, it does, and we should be equally represented in the consequences. I think that if either party wants the kid, the kid should be born. If either doesn't, they should have the option to completely dissolve any legal tie or responsiblity to the child. Whenever I hear that proposed, almost instantaneously (sp?) the argument is thrown out with, "If that's the case, then men would just impregnate whoever and ruin lives. They should be responsible for what they're doing!" Bullshit. You're both responsible. If you decided to go ahead and have sex without the condom, control, etc, you consented to this risk. If you consent to sex at all, you consent to this risk. Men should have the same access to parenthood. As for the naturally malicious intent of men, I've heard of and seen more instances of baby factories, especially women taken advantage of young military men. Women like to sleep around just as much as men do; just because it's glorified for men doesn't mean that we can develop the abortion institution to 'punish' (note from before applies here, too) them.

I agree completely with sex ed, and institutionalising better communication and fair treatment at youth. The classes became a nuisance when I had to go through them, but taking them five times in a row, I think, helped me and the others alot. I would just like to see a stronger enforcement of, "Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Get over it." All the nonsense about the 'differences' made more animosity and misunderstanding- even justifying societal norms of 'guys are whores'- and did more harm than good.

Unknown said...

Bry-my children are raised to due onto others as they would have done onto them. They are kind, loving, polite and respectable. They treat others with compassion. I'm not heartless and truly, my choices are making them into good people. They are being taught consequences for their actions and when they chose to not listen to mommy, they suffer for that decision. Anthony's lesson for continually lying and stealing was to learn the commandments as dictated by God to Moses and you know what? It scared him to death to think he was breaking not only my rule by the rules of God. We discussed it as best as we could in terms he could understand that God expects us to live a good life, to be kind and just. And, those who choose not to, will be punished. Either the punishment comes now or later.
I remember being scared to death about the prospect of hell and not being able to get into heaven to see my family members who would be there waiting for me.
We make choices on how we live based on our beliefs. This is the point of this post I think. The bottom line is that the government has no business telling me that my so called conservative overly religious values are worthless and evil.
I don't go on rants on facebook or elsewhere about my overly liberal gay brother's lifestyle being evil and immoral, etc, etc. I don't name call, make judgement decision as you have been doing. You're angry, I get that. Life isn't fair to you right now. But, Bryan, you made the choices you made. When you initially discussed enlistment, Nate and I both told you this was going to super hard and unfair. That everything you believe in might have to be swallowed and kept to yourself.
Stop being angry at everyone else and maybe for a moment think about what you need to do to make things right for you. You have a contracted commitment to the Marines...carry it out then get out.
Stop caring so much about what the general public thinks about gays and muslims. Worry about the immediate world around you--the ones that matter. Take a lesson from Uncle Ellis. Maybe call him and ask him what it was like growing up and being a young adult in the Republican party and knowing he was gay.

Back to the abortion issue - Jordan, I'm prochoice bottom line, but that does not mean i'm pro-abortion. I agree that the choice to abort a child should not just be made by the mom and that the dad should be involved. But, at the same time, you can't force a woman to carry a child they don't want. Pregnancy is a very demanding, selfless thing. It's physically exhausting, it is almost an attack on a woman's body--it changes, it barely ever just bounces back again. All choices for food, drink, entertainment, excercise...all have to be weighed against the harm it will bring to the unborn child. So...you tell a chick to keep the baby, one that she obviously doesn't want in the first place since the topic of abortion came up, then you have to spend the next 9 months worrying about whether or not all appts have been attended, vitamins consumed, no smoking or drinking...in hopes that your child is born healthy. So, on top of that, this woman has to give birth yet. See, this is why it's tough to give a "dad" parental rights on an unborn child. while it's in a woman's body, possession is 9/10 of the law in a way.

Unknown said...

and, Bryan...pick a faith or don't. I'm in no way saying that being Christian is the way to go. I'm a fan of anyone who choses to follow God, Allah, Buddha and lives their lives as directed by their faith. Religion for the most part is not bad and neither are those who follow it.
Our nation is evolving...that is a fact. But, we are still predominantly a Christian nation. God (whoever he/she/it may be) should be kept in mind at all times. One nation, under God...keep it that way. Anyone who has a brain can figure out that there is only ONE God, just several different faiths that follow him and interpretations of him. I'm not arrogant enough to think that my God is a Christian god. The Almighty cannot be defined as such.

I expect you to live a good life, a happy life and responsible life. :)

Jordan Robles said...

Just as an aside, I'm pro-choice in principle. And like you, Andi, I'm anti-abortion. I'm actually pretty antagonistic towards the abortion attitude, I just don't think it's right for government to intervene on choices. It's too complex to just bar it as a whole.

I do disagree with the father's rights, though. I understand it's an extremely personal experience; and I use 'personal' for a lack of any other word. You've been through it twice. You know how globally it affects your life. But that's 9 months. It's damning for the father for the rest of his life either way, especially if the mother decides to keep the child.

You're right; a girl shouldn't be forced to carry a child she doesn't want. This doesn't change my opinion if abortion is made illegal; the ideal that children are alive and should not be faulted because of the circumstances they will be born in covers children conceived in rape or incest just as much if not more. But it isn't possible to control something so damning to a woman's body and life regardless, which is why, again in principle, I'm pro-choice.

I figure the fairest way to handle it is to just offer the 'male abortion' option where he can step out. Although it could hurt the father just as much to have the child aborted, I think it's irresponsible if not disgustingly vengeful to leave a guy helpless in a decision that could just as damningly take over his economic, social, and emotional life.

E2 said...

pro choice. pro education.

pro lifers can be "irresponsible if not disgustingly vengeful to leave a guy helpless in a decision that could just as damningly take over his economic, social, and emotional life."

just as well, statistics and economics can show us how abortion affects society in general. Look at the crime rates in the former Yugoslavia, a country that prohibited abortion. Look at the crime rates in the United States after Roe vs. Wade, they dropped.

We shouldn't force a child to grow up in a bad situation as punishment for their parents risky undertakings. That is not humane.

Proper education and a healthy network of doctors and nurses will allow mothers to be informed as to where, how, why, when they can undergo medical procedures.

Government is to protect our property and that is where they should stay.

Stay out of my home, my faith, and most importantly today: medicine.

Government control of healthcare inhibits freedom.

In fact, government control is why health insurance companies are as powerful as they are, it is a government law that allows them monopoly status and control of costs. Remove the law, allow the free market (the hand of god) to work.