What's your most *conservative* (gasp!) trait?

[dolo amber]

I think all children should be forced, at gunpoint if necessary, to be respectful of their elders. Did we have the problems we have now in previous generations, when societal norms demanded children behaved in a prescribed manner in the presence of adults (whether they did away from adults or not)??

No. No we did not. </old coot>

Plus, I'm really tired of choosing between jail and smacking the crap out of kids (or if applicable, their parents) who are horrifically rude and disrespectful in public places. Thank the gods my kids both are receptive to my teaching them basic manners. People often compliment me on how polite they are, which I appreciate...but I have friends who are very well bred and getting their kids to speak at an above caveman level is impossible...


I also quite appreciate young ladies who wear gloves to semi/formal events, for what that's worth. :hi:


</rant>

[Paragon]

1. I hate everybody.

:silly:

[dolo amber]

4. Oi!!

I'm older than you, and I hated everybody first. :P

[Paragon]

9. People Who Hate People Party, come together!

"No."

"But you're our strongest member...you asshole!"

"Fuck off!"

"...damn, we almost had a meeting going there."

/billhicks

[dolo amber]

10. AH!! You suck!!!

:yourock: :bounce:

[fujiyama]

56. I'm not racist

I hate everybody equally.

;-)

[Colin Ex]

2. I'm straight edge.

None of the drugs, the booze, the cigarettes, or the sex for me.

-C

[dolo amber]

6. Yeah, so was I

Until I discovered narcotics at age 15. x(

My 13 yr old is HARDCORE straight edge, hopefully she won't have a friend whose dad is a doctor. ;)

[Colin Ex]

15. Haha. Well...

I've gotten past the stage of "Hey, here's this stuff, maybe I should try it" without actually trying any of it. Been sober my whole life, excluding this one time at a party during Hash Bash when I may have gotten a contact buzz (not sure, exactly).

Best of luck to your kid, anyway.

-C

[TrogL]

3. I "sir" people, even if they don't deserve it

[AlCzervik]

5. That seems more like having good manners, not really conservative

[dolo amber]

8. Well, yeah

It's the "forcing them at gunpoint" that really seals it...;)

[PartyPooper]

7. I think guys / men / gentlemen should remove all hats indoors.

No exceptions!

:-)

[AlCzervik]

12. yes indeed!

i hate seeing someone eating with a hat on.

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. Wouldn't that be nice?

Especially at funerals and in restaurants?

i couldn't believe the number of people I saw wearing their non-military hats at the Arizona Memorial. Maybe I'm wrong, and protocol doesn't say you should remove your hat at a gravesite, but I'm pretty sure that's the proper protocol.

For Jesus' sake, have some respect, people.

[dolo amber]

23. I don't think it's that they have no respect

I'm not sure they KNOW that's what they're *supposed* to do...which speaks to an even worse problem. :(

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. True, I doubt it's intentional

pretty damn sad, though, since it means we're not even doing a good job of passing on the traditions of respect.

And I was surprised at the number of OLDER people who were wearing hats, and who also wear hats in restaurants and other inside places. My mom taught me these things, and I'm not all that old, and always thought of such things as "no hats inside" as somethig that old people do, that it came from "their time". Apparently the teaching of social protocols has been, for the most part, pretty lax throughout history.

[scarlet_owl]

76. YES!

That drives me nuts! I'm glad I'm not alone.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

11. At gunpoint???

:puke:

[dolo amber]

16. Yeah

At gunpoint (IF NECESSARY) <---this is called 'hyperbole'...you should try it, it's fun!! :party:

Reading IS fundamental! ;) :bounce:

[PROGRESSIVE1]

18. .....

:eyes:

:crazy:

[Maestro]

13. Well in all seriousness I guess I have two

traits that are conservative. I believe in a strong military, but we need to use it appropriately and I don't see a problem with not having an abortion unless it is the result of incest, rape or the life of the mother is in question. Having said that, though, I am not for taking choice away from a woman.

[Union Thug]

14. Even though I don't think it's 'conservative'

Many Dems would... I collect firearms (esp. soviet era russian guns).

As my father was also interested in firearms and was something of a radical unionist, I'm not so sure this is truly a conservative trait.. You decide!

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. I think bilingual education is crap, and that people who move here

should learn English, and that we either say English is the official language of the country, or we at least agree that no governmental proceedings will ever be done in anything other than English, and make it officially known that any governmental documents offered in other languages are TRANSLATIONS, and that errors of translation (or one's inability to understand English) are no excuse for breaking the law.

(but I'm not an English purist, in the sense that I'm happy to have the language continue to pick up words from other languages and grow and evolve as it always has, and hopefully always shall do so)

[tigereye]

21. people should treat others with respect

that includes children. I too insist that my son be polite to others, and generally, polite to me and to his dad.

And I suppose the value of a strong work ethic.

Not sure that these are conservative traits per se, though.

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. I think we could also call respect a good, liberal value

it's sad the way that the Conservatives (capitalized) have been able to co-opt all things conservative - preserving those traditions that are good. Such things as respect for others, holding doors, helping out, etc.

Liberals are also conservers.

In fact, in many ways, I'd say the Conservatives are less conservative than the liberals.

And in relation to the post below about being frugal - that's also liberal, since it's good stewardship of one's resources (and also, it's just damned logical).

[kikiek]

38. Not knowing the language is very isolating. We are cutting all school

programs that teach it. Where else will they learn it when many are coming to find a better life and education? I don't see the problem as people not being motivated to learn english, but that we aren't providing the resources for it. In the long run, once again, it will cost us more than providing the education for it. And how about our arrogance when we visit other countries. We don't require a second language in schooling like most countries do. We expect them to know ours.

[Rabrrrrrr]

41. agreement all the way around

I, too, don't see it as laziness - at least for the kids - as it is that teachignin two languages removes all need to NOT be lazy.

And not knowing the language in the country in which one lives means, as you say, one will live at a disadvantage.

So maybe - just maybe - bilingual education is the conservative way, since it guarantees a shitload of barely educated "foreigners" to work in whatever remaining menial jobs there are in the country, and also make ssure they never try to get a hand in the government or anything, and can just be the source of many generations of serfs.

I also agree that foreign language learning should be MANDATORY, beginning at about 2nd grade. Our kids should be leaving schools with at least three languages under their belts, IMO. At a minimum, two (meaning, English and one foreign language).

And bring back Latin, at least as an option, in public schools.

hell, my mother's high school, a little ditty with about 80 students in a teeny little nothing town, taught Latin, and that was in the 40s and 50s.

[kikiek]

45. I would have loved to learn Latin..that would help anyone. Our language

is inner twined with it. Gee you can figure out words you don't know if you know Latin! Doesn't have to be religious.

[Rabrrrrrr]

47. words like, perhaps,

"intertwined"? :p

Sorry, couldn't resist it. The irony was too high. :-)

But you're right, Latin (and Greek) is an essential subcomponent of our language, and it IS very helpful to know it - not just for the history, but also, as you say, for helping to figure out the meanings of words one is encountering for the first time.

[kikiek]

53. That's how I had it and I acquiesced to the spell check!

Actually I like the spell check. When I am wrong I learn how to spell it...usually haha.

[Rabrrrrrr]

58. damn spell checkers!

It also needs a "content checker", to help identify which form to use in which circumstances. :-)

[kikiek]

61. Yes with ability to intonate. Would eliminate misunderstandings

in many conversations.

[Maestro]

65. Bullshit!

Bilingual education empowers kids in two languages. I have fought this fight a long time and it is the only one that puts me over the edge. To say that bilingual education is the conservative way is revolting. Repubes want to gut bilingual education. It all started with the gambling Bill Bennet under Reagan and has continued whenever repubes are in power as in right now. But if you say language learning should begin in 2nd grade what the hell is your problem with bilingual ed? You ought to see the type of kids that leave my classroom. They can read and comprehend in two langauges. How many kids can do that by 3rd grade?

[RhodaGrits]

85. There was a recent study that showed that

bi- and trilingualism was associated with maintaining a more flexible and steady intelligence as one aged.

The old joke about what do you call a person that only speaks one language - "American".

[Lydia Leftcoast]

42. Fussing about immigrants not learning English and at the same time

cutting funding for ESL programs--which already have waiting lists-- seems unfair somehow.

But that's the Republican way.

[kikiek]

46. How true.

[Maestro]

63. Exactly!

Very good post!

[Maestro]

64. Learning language is assbackwards in this country!

And neo-cons love to attack bilingual education based on fear and misinformation. For the truth, visit my website at www.irvingisd.net/~spollard

[Maestro]

62. Dude! You are seriously misinformed.

Go to my website, www.irvingisd.net/~spollard

Bilingual education is to teach English and my children learn English even better than many Americans so can the crap about bilingual education not teaching English. We use the native language in the service of English, nothing more, nothing else. God I am so sick of people thinking that bilingual education is not for English. Kids learn conversational language very quickly but do not learn the academics. Give the children time to learn the academics in their native language and then transfer those skills to English. It takes time though which is what people like you do not want to give them. This makes me furious. Have you ever been in a bilingual classroom or have you just listened to the piece of shit media who love a good controversial story and rarely if ever tell the truth? :mad:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

83. A note on English immersion and bilingual documents

This may work well when you have only a small number of immigrants in a community, perhaps one non-English-speaking child per classroom. If you talk to older immigrants, you might hear, "Well, I didn't speak English when I started school, and I did all right."

One kindergartner surrounded by all native English-speaking classmates may pick up enough English in a year to do all right in first grade. But your typical immigrant child lives in an immigrant neighborhood, so that the kindergarten class will contain 50% or more of children who speak Spanish or Chinese or Russian.

If you force all-English on a group like that, you'll end up with kids who speak broken English, since children learn language from other children as much as they do from their parents. (For example, children of British or Irish immigrants usually grow up with American accents.)

Bilingual education is actually meant to CORRECT the situation in which kids grew up speaking broken English and broken Spanish or Chinese or Navaho. The classes teach formal English, including vocabulary and grammar, while fostering literacy and content learning (math, social studies, science) in the ethnic language. Otherwise, all content learning grinds to a halt for a year or more while the children learn English. Then they have to go into whatever grade, a year or two older than the rest of the students.

If you encounter a child or teenager who speaks poor English, you can't judge them unless you know 1) how long that young person has been in the States, 2) what the family's socioeconomic class is, and 3) what kind of English instruction the child has had.

If you encounter an adult who does not speak English, you should ask yourself, 1) How long has this person been in the States? 2) What is this person's work schedule like? 3) Has this person tried to get into ESL classes and been put on a waiting list? (By the way, having been involved in my former church's sponsorship of refugees, I also know that the process of registering for ESL classes requires assistance from someone who already speaks English.)

I've even seen Americans get bent out of shape because two immigrants are speaking their native language to each other on the bus. It's quite likely that these immigrants actually speak English, but they're simply more comfortable speaking to each other in their native language. Think about it. If you were riding a bus in Mexico and ran into another North American, would you speak Spanish to each other, even if you could?

Now as far as bilingual government documents are concerned, their primary purpose is to get information out. If there is some law or policy or warning that the public needs to know about, you can't have a portion of the population shut out.

For example, the Tokyo metropolitan government issues pamphlets about what to do during an earthquake. In addition to Japanese, they are available in English, Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese (due to all the Japanese-Brazilians who have gone there to work). After all, this is a matter of public safety, and you don't want apartment buildings blowing up because some foreign resident didn't know that you're supposed to turn off the gas when an earthquake strikes. This doesn't mean that they don't want people learning Japanese. Indeed, while Japanese society usually gives Caucasians a free pass about not learning Japanese, it's pretty harsh on non-Caucasians who don't learn Japanese, and the government has a whole agency devoted to promoting "JSL" and Japanese as a foreign language overseas.

I think that a lot of hysteria about bilingual education comes from Americans who don't speak a second language themselves.

In my neighborhood lives a Norwegian couple with two preschool children. They come into the local coffee shop, chattering away in Norwegian, even though the parents clearly speak English well, as most Norwegians do. But I applaud the parents for maintaining their ethnic language at home, and since the parents obviously have an educated background, the children should have little trouble adjusting to an American school environment--aside from the fact that they won't be surrounded by other Norwegian-speaking children in that school.

[Maestro]

66. Go here

for the latest academic, not anecdotal, report that shows that bilingual education is superior to whatever other crap is out there.

http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard/slavin_and_cheung_report.htm

[supernova]

20. I'm extremely frugal

I hate wasting anything, whether it's money, food, or clothing, or anything else around the house that can be recycled into something else.

I wrap pennies and take them to the bank. I buy clothes at thrift stores. I arrange car trips/errands by which the shortest route possible.

I not only don't waste $$$ I save it whenever possible.

[dolo amber]

24. I'm not sure that's the

same definition of conservative, supe. ;)

Look into your genealogy, you may just be Scottish. :7

[Rabrrrrrr]

29. That's just good stewardship

lots of conservatives do the same.

Though you have to be careful, because while they'll agree that it's good to be frugal, and use things well, etc., as soon as you mention "sustainable agriculture" and "sustainable development" and "recycling" etc. then you're labeled an earth-worshiping pagan.

[dolo amber]

33. Goddamit!!

I KNEW there was something I never liked about you, supe...you stinky earth-worshiping pagan!! And I let you near my children!! :o

:P:bounce: ;)

[mike_c]

22. I am the product of my upbringing...

...and appreciate courtesy and good manners, both in public and most especially in private.

[Bertha Venation]

27. I am a prude.

I abhor public displays of affection that go beyond my standard of decency.

Okay:
Holding hands
Hugging
Walking w/ arms about waists
A brief kiss

Not okay:
French kissing
Public groping
Outrageously suggestive language spoken loudly

I don't care if you're straight or gay, folks. I am an equal-opportunity prude. Just get a room.

[dolo amber]

32. I'm with ya

Well, insofar as the groping and all...I can't say I've never drunkenly uttered anything suggestive...but at least it was prolly at 3 AM when no *respectable* folk were about anyway. ;) :D

[Big Kahuna]

28. I run a computer business.

I bought a pentium II system for $15, and sold it for $150 the other day.

Next thing you know, I'll be clubbing baby harp seals, and selling swampland to old ladies in Florida.

[dolo amber]

36. Man, dude

Take it slow...you do this stuff too fast, you end up looking like this:



:scared:


Welcome to DU, btw!! :bounce: :toast:

[madrchsod]

30. i`m really cheap and don`t like to spend money

and i think it`s none of my business what religion and political party neighbor believes in..

[Endangered Specie]

31. Affirmative ACtion needs some serious reworking...

the concept is needed, but theimplementation needs a massive overhaul, I think that is sometimes reverse discriminates.

[Bat Boy]

34. I sometimes "don't get" the music kids like...

Other than that I'm liberal through and through.

Oh, and I think anyone who defaces a flag should be put in jail.

But other than...

Oh, I almost forgot...let's send the Mexicans back to Africa. I'm tired of these damn foreigners taking the jobs our teenagers should be doing if they weren't all goofed up on the crack.

Really those are my only conservative traits.

Oh! Kill the Jews!

</sarcasm>

[Rabrrrrrr]

37. LOL!!

and kill the damn gypsies, too, stealing our children in their drunken filthy bacchanals when decent people are trying to sleep to get up at 3 am and start a decent damn day's worth of work which no one does any more.

[dolo amber]

40. What about those

damn ungrateful Indians?? (Oh, excuuuuuuse me, *Native Americans* :eyes:)

I mean, christ, we like...GAVE them like the whole desert, wtf do they want, the ingrates??

</massive sarcasm>

[Rabrrrrrr]

43. and the bastards AGREED to those treaties, too

Indian Givers. All of 'em.

And don't even get me started on women who work outside the home. Family-hating whores.

[Bat Boy]

49. Forgot about the Gypsies and Injuns...

We gave the Injuns food and blankets...and they didn't even say thanks for the small pox, the ungrateful bastards!

And Gypsies? They eat babies. I won't have none of that around here. Ship 'em back to Africa, I say.

[HEyHEY]

35. My sense of Properiety

Is tha spelled right?

Anyway, I firmly believe in wearing a tie to work and calling elders by MR. and MRS. Plus, I'm very traditional when it comes to many social situations.

[Rabrrrrrr]

39. No, it isn't spelled right

or "correctly". Propriety.

I am a HUGE fan of using "mr." and "mrs." and "ms.", and also "sir" and "ma'am". I use it with children, too, fairly often.

I also like to say "Thank you" when people help me, even when I'm checking out from a store.

[dolo amber]

44. Often in a store

if there's a child in my path, I'll say "'Scuse me, sir (ma'am)" , not condescendingly, but as if I were speaking to an adult...the kids get a kick out of it, but it most always generates confused looks from the parent. Occasionally there will be one who just smiles knowingly...that's sweet. ;)

[fudge stripe cookays]

48. I'm very conflicted about the death penalty.

Please do not flame me, as I am not saying I am GUNG-HO for it.

I know there are lots of people put to death that are innocent, and I feel horrible for them, and I know their cases need more DNA research. This is an established fact.

But then I think of a friend of a friend who was murdered by Kenneth Alan MacDuff here in Texas in 1991. They did not even find her body until around 1999, when the sonofabitch finally told them where she was. Her family FINALLY got some peace.

When I think of MacDuff, or the asshole in California who abducted Polly Klaas, and TAUNTED her father during the trial, I feel horrible white hot fury, and I'm just glad that I'm not the one who makes the laws. Those bastards deserve to die, and I feel no remorse when the state helps them to that final place. That's not very liberal of me, I know.

I honestly don't think I could make the laws that govern this stuff. That's all I'm going to say. I wish there was a foolproof way to figure out if someone is guilty, but we're not that fortunate.

FSC

[dolo amber]

51. If they can PROVE

I mean, I want the person's family history to 1675...PROVE they have the right person...

I have ZERO problem with the death penalty.

If they have even .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% doubt, then no fucking way.


I really don't think that's too much to ask. :)

[Rabrrrrrr]

52. There's a part of me that's happy to execute those who are obviously

guilty of horrible murders, or even some horrible lesser crimes (extreme child abuse/rape, violence toward others, owning a boom car) (okay, that last one wasn't so serious, but dammit, they're annoying).

Guys like Dahmer, etc., who are caught pretty much red-handed, and we know a guilty verdict is based on racism, failed public attorneys who fall asleep, etc.

But on the other hand, life imprisonment without parole is also a great idea, because then they can be studied.

But we have to make sure that "life imprisonment without parole" means what it says, and that some idito liberal legislation 20-30 years down the road doesn't make it "optional".

[Laszlo_Hollyfeld]

50. I'm not sure I've got any.

Maybe a shameful willingness to drink American made beers, and a peevishness with the French which predates the current occupation of the White House.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

54. A couple of conservative attitudes

1. Children shouldn't be allowed to run wild and scream and trash things in adult environments or any place where people are trying to get serious stuff done. I know the little nippers need to let off steam, but that's what the great outdoors are for--It is not what my living room, the library, church, restaurants, classical music concerts, or school classrooms are for.

2. Being habitually foul-mouthed is NOT a sign of being a free spirit or a brave rebel against convention. More likely, it's a sign of having a small vocabulary and an empty head.

3. Yes, schoolchildren should learn about other cultures, but as a former college instructor, I can testify to the fact that they don't even know much about American or European culture. When I gave examples in class, I found that I had to use only pop culture references, because the average student knew nothing else. If I were redesigning the school system, I'd put a lot more emphasis on interesting presentations of history, geography, literature, music, art, and sociology, beginning with the community and fanning out to the state, the nation, the Western Hemisphere, Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa. I'm not talking about preparation for standardized tests but interdisciplinary studies of the cultures that have influenced this country and a historical understanding of where we came from.

4. I'd censor TV and radio for stupidity, not for content per se.

[Guy Fawkes]

55. Look at my summer reading list for july:

1. Slander by Ann Coulter
2.The O'Riely factor (duh)
3.Off With Their Heads by Dick Morris

Ok, that was actually the 1-10... I'm a book-a-holic... runs in the family.

[BlueJazz]

57. I think women should be put in their place.

They can get themselves pregnaut easily enough then change their minds
and expect society to let them kill the fetus.
Years ago when all this "Womans rights" crap was just a dream, women knew
their place and stayed home and took care of the children and were not taking jobs away from hard-working men.

[Rabrrrrrr]

60. That place: High up on a pedestal,

high enough that you can see up their dress.

As Steve Martin said it way back on SNL many years ago.

:-)

[Nikia]

69. I hope you are kidding

I'll just not say what I wanted to because I can't say it in a way that won't get the post deleted.

[BlueJazz]

82. Read Post # 81 :) NT

[Lydia Leftcoast]

79. I do hope you're parodying a conservative there

:shrug:

[BlueJazz]

81. You better believe it Sweetheart!!

Actually, I was parodying an IGNORANT conservative there.

I was for equal rights as long as I can remember..... thanks to my wonderful Mother...who knew her Shit! :)

[ItsThePeopleStupid]

59. I'm kind of for states' rights.

More power for the little guy. At least, in theory.

[bucknaked]

67. I have a few traits that'd probably lead to me being wrongfully labeled.

I love musclecars! I own two Mustangs, and a pretty fast (for an SUV) Jeep with a 360ci V8 in it.

I love firearms too. No, I'm not all NRA, and I oppose conceal/carry (hell, I wouldn't trust myself out there with a firearm, let alone the rest of the jerk-offs I see day to day).

I love eating red meat, fascinated with fossil-fuel burning machinery, I'm as perverted as a male could be, yet I loathe Republicans and their line of BS.

[mdmc]

84. How can we win this election?

You are the kind of voter that Kerry Edwards needs to reach. What talking points really turned you off to Bush? What do you like about Kerry?

[drumwolf]

68. my most "right-leaning" traits

I support the death penalty for certain crimes, although I think that the way it's applied in practice essentially amounts to a legal and modern-day equivalent of the lynchings in the South in the early 1900's.

I also do believe there is something to be said for immigrants to this country learning to speak English and assimilating into American culture. My parents are from Korea and I'm very Americanized.

And I'm becoming convinced that decentralizing federal authority and letting individual states have more leeway in dictating their affairs isn't necessarily a bad idea, considering how polarized this country is. Obviously, it would be nice if the people in every state were more liberal, but let's be practical -- right-wingers and social conservatives are not going away any more than we are, and "states' rights" may be the least bad option out of a whole bunch of faulty options given how much tension there is between liberals and conservatives.

[bloodyjack]

70. I like the Catholic Church and I don't think priests should be allowed to

have sex lives. it's like, wtf, you've been trained to be a priest, you supposed to try and deny yourself the pleasures of the flesh, ABSTAIN FOR GOD'S SAKE

[noahmijo]

87. As a Catholic I have had this theory as to why they can't

Because if a priest were allowed to abstain then how about the rest of us who don't get to? Also as far as marriage goes, if they let priests get married how would the church's leaders explain to the rest of us why they can get divorces but we shouldn't?

[mdmc]

71. I support pro drug war candidates

oh I hate myself so!

[HEyHEY]

72. With the eception of dope I agree

Terrible business.

I don't smoke dope, but I think it should be legal if booze is.

[SmileyBoy]

73. I think all illegal immigrants in this country should be deported.

I said ILLEGAL immigrants, not all immigrants. If you want to migrate to this country, do us all a favour and do it the LEGAL way.

[MrScorpio]

74. I believe that military service is one true sign of patriotism

Unfortunately, those goddamned chickenhawk warmongers who write policy only feel fit to use those of us in uniform for all the wrong reasons.

We haven't been needed to truly defend the country from a real enemy threat in over fifty years.

Things need to change.

[ForrestGump]

75. Women should be barefoot and pregnant

on the beach at Cancun, if they want to, while I cater to their every whim as I read aloud to them from Ms magazine and listening, sensitively, to what they are saying.

I know....I'm a male beast.

Please be sure to send measurements with your expressions of interest -- you know: IQ, number of times you've seen Thelma and Louise, preferred number of 'happy moments' per bout, number of minutes you'd stay with a less enlightened male who's threatened by you making several million dollars a year and forcing him to remain at home and relagated to the role of domestic god and mere sex object...

Sorry. Got a bit carried away there. But, goshdarn it, every time I think of Gloria Steinem getting married I just want to...OOH....I don't know...burn her bra...

[jdonaldball]

77. I think "overpopulation" means

there is one too many of you and just the right amount of me.

[bushisanidiot]

78. I'm conservative with my money. I'd MUCH rather have a SURPLUS than a def

icit. ;)

I also go to church, don't smoke or do drugs and won't let my 12 and 14 year old kids watch R rated movies even though all their friends do (unless I see them with them). Also, certain PG-13 movies like "Scary Movie" are totally inappropriate for middle school age kids to see. Just my opinion..

[GOPisEvil]

80. I wasn't like this until I became a homeowner, but now...

YOU KIDS GET THE HELL OFFA MY LAWN!!!!!

</curmudgeon>

[RhodaGrits]

86. I've thought a lot about this one -

I remember running as a young child through our suburban neighborhood passing through yards with no boundaries. Our world was our imagination and the entire community our playground. We played kickball and "war" and Star Trek, raced bicycles and caught crayfish in the streams. We were supervised by whoever's stay at home mom was closest when we scraped a knee.

I think I realized I was grown-up when I first became outraged by kids trespassing on "my" property.

Children having fun have absolutely no concept of property laws. I try to cut them a break now :-)

Now vandals .... I reserve my full outrage for those little $#%&%@#.

[bookfreak]

94. No kidding!

<"YOU KIDS GET THE HELL OFFA MY LAWN!!!!!">

I've been the same way ever since I got my house. The neighborhood kids are horrible. They cut through the yard on foot, on bikes, even on rollerblades (so good for the lawn -not! ;( ). In the rare event that a parent is actually outside observing them ( I can't call it "supervising" them because they don't actually curb the children's activities) it does no good. The kids just act like hellions anyway.

Our neighbor across the street actually looked on as his daughter banged her bike into the SUV of our next-door neighbor. He didn't come over to see if any damage had been done nor did he say anything to the girl to admonish her. He just acted like nothing had happened. This is typical of the neighborhood. I hate it there.

If I had the money I would move so fast those SOB's heads would all spin off their bodies.

[leftofthedial]

88. limited support for capital punishment

[Reverend_Smitty]

89. I'm conflicted with the death penalty

I think it is overused in some places (Texas comes to mind) and I really want to be against it. But sometimes I hear a story in the news that is so disgusting that I feel that the state has no choice. Now this could just be a product of a sensationalized media and I have never been on a jury of a case like that. I think that if I had been I would know much more about the crime than told in a paper and then my opinion would be different.

9 out of 10 times I will argue against it but sometimes a particular case really gets me.

[Forkboy]

90. I like to fight

sorry everyone,but I like the physical act of fighting itself.

It's something I'm working on :shrug:

[PVnRT]

91. Plenty

Respect for elders and for some of the social institutions that help keep a community together (if you're from a small town, you know what I'm talking about), guns, dress/fashion (how many piercings do you really need, anyway?).

[PVnRT]

92. Plenty

Respect for elders and for some of the social institutions that help keep a community together (if you're from a small town, you know what I'm talking about), guns, dress/fashion (how many piercings do you really need, anyway?).

[Burma Jones]

93. Reduced Government

The Republicans do not believe in reduced government. I am fiercely Libertarian on social issues - legalize soft drugs, ANYBODY is eligible to get married, ANYBODY can be in the military, no Government censorship of media, pro-choice, free speech trumps just about everything and if someone does not have the right to burn the American Flag, then it may be time to burn it. Public institutions are to be free of religion. The so-called conservatives want to regulate every thought that we have while letting the hyper wealthy wheedle and purchase their own personal Government.