California Mountain Snake

Who was that even directed at?

Socialism =/= communism, and look no further than Sweeden for a very successful welfare state. And again, no one is talking about a government takeover of healthcare.

He doesn't have to feign.

Spicy food is awesome. Destiny Hero says spicy food suck. Therefore, Destiny Hero must suck.

Ok you're really going to need to fill in the lines on that one. Please, give some specifics about how this was conducted.

The type of people who will commit genocide or do terrible acts on the part of their government simply because of "obedience" are very rare, perhaps even mythical. As I stated in my first sentence, the assertion made in the OP is incorrect, as is the entire premise. Never has the main driving force behind any genocide or period of ethnic cleansing been simple loyalty.

Tomatoes are fruit. As are pumpkins, squash, corn, and pinecones.

A few of those were a little contrived. Who the fuck puts whipped cream on cookies?

Actually, determining such a thing isn't so far away. Right now astronomers can determine the chemical makeup of gas giants by measuring light which passes through them in a spectrometer. Using the same methods, an astronomer at Harvard is attempting to develop a method of measuring the sliver of light which passes tangentially through the gaseous atmosphere of a small planet like Earth, and determining the composition of the atmosphere based off the spectrometer results, even if that planet is light years away. If a reactive element is present in the atmosphere, it indicates that something on the planet is continuously producing that element in a sustained cycle, especially if the levels do not change over time. Oxygen is a very reactive gas, and if all life were to disappear from the Earth, then all of the oxygen would be gone in a very short time span, possibly just decades. So if you detect oxygen in the atmosphere of another planet, or some other reactive gas that would have disappeared in a few years through normal reactions, you may be able to assume that there's life on that planet. It's fascinating really.

You ever hear a little kid who hasn't eaten for a couple hours and he says that he's STARVING? Now really, just because you're hungry, are you really starving? Yeah, America is not a theocracy.

Did you know that all flowers are hermaphrodites? Good luck ever seeing beauty again.

I've smoked, but not a cigarette.

The assumption that NAZI soldiers killed millions of people in the holocaust because they were "forced" to do it is an erroneous assumption. Most did it because they wanted to do it. Because they felt they had to do it. This still relates to authority however, because of the role Hitler played in it. Like many ethnic entrepreneurs (look at Slobodan Milošević in former Yugoslavia for an example of one in our lifetimes), Hitler's charisma played a crucial part in intensifying the ethnic tensions present within Germany, and using those fears to rocket him to the top of the German government. Of course many other factors were at play, an economic crisis of unheard of proportions, trillion percent inflation like we're seeing in Zimbabwe today, and an ineffective government were all major factors, but Hitler's unique charisma and position also demonstrated the power of individual and how he can command the wills of his countrymen. Fear was the tool he used, creating fear around the "outsider", the slav, the Jew, the Roma (gypsy). Fear was the tool Slobodan Milošević used in Yugoslavia to incite the Serbs to take up arms against the Croats, and fear is what drove the Hutus to slaughter nearly a million Tutsis in Rwanda. And no one in this topic, even me, can somehow claim to hold their head high and "disdain" authority, and say they would never do those terrible things the evil Nazis or Hutus did, because none of us know what it's like to truly live in fear. This kind of fear drove people in Rwanda to kill their friends, their neighbors, their family. Teachers slaughtered pupils. Doctors killed patients. It was true hell on Earth, and history has proved that no one is immune to true fear. Even I, or you, could be driven to kill our neighbors if we were genuinely convinced that they wanted to kill us first, as hundreds of cases of ethnic cleansing and genocide have shown us. The power of authority in the state that gives people like Hitler or Milosevic is fear. It isn't a question of loyalty to the state, or whether a government's coercive power presses you to do something, it's when you feel like you have no other choice but to do what you think will protect yourself and your immediate interests.

Universal health care has many detractors, and contrary to popular belief the president is NOT trying to create a universal health care system, and NEVER said he was going to. He said he will attempt to create a program of cheaper health insurance and subsidies to help people pay for their current insurance. I do like the fact that in America you may have to sit in a waiting room for a few hours, rather than a few months like in Canada. America is also the cutting edge of medical technology, with the largest and most advanced hospitals in the world. It is an observable fact that although government controlled programs can sometimes (rarely) operate more efficiently, almost never do state programs generate ingenuity or new invention. Such a phenomenon is most observed on the private market.

With my hands around your neck.

Well, you were on. So I guess that's one.

For me it is.

Thomas Jefferson would like a word with you. Completely out of context quote and you know it. Again, formal institutions vs. informal institutions. There are entire branches of political science dedicated to just analyzing the differences between these types of institutions. It's not something you can just ignore when it suits you. America is no more "officially" secular than it is "officially" Christian, the only law that exists is one which prohibits any interference with religion (which is NOT secularism). Secular governments usually involve consociational agreements which represent religious groups in proportionality to their presence in the population (like Lebanon) or governments which ban religious bents in their politicians (like Turkey). Neither of these are America, which allows people and politicians to practice whichever religion they damn please with no quotas or regulations. This is not the same a secular government. Now, unofficially, America is a Christian nation (and just because it's unofficial doesn't mean its any less important). It's on our money, in our political and judicial practices, and it influences our policies. Over half of America is Christian, which is a plurality-democratic system like ours, indicates a majoritarian right. Obama is simply upholding one of the longest standing (unofficial) institutions in American politics.

The military used to have a policy of strict racial segregation because some soldiers felt extremly uncomfortable having to share their quarters and entrust their protection on the field to people who were of a different race than they were. Needless to say, in spite of how uncomfortable some people felt, our moral sensabilities won out over what makes us comfortable. As they must here.

Similarly, I notice you're both is Boston as well. Interesting.

I protest!

Sire, I do not troll, nay I revile the word as I elocute it! I seek merely to illuminate the absurdities which dominate this discussion, with an aspiration only to enlighten, my lord.

The niggas. You feed the niggas.