Taken from another angle and I find that senator’s comments interesting: http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/Father-of-soldier-fighting-tobacco-ban Ken

Where’s old “Fighting” Joe Mccarthy when you need him? He would never have allowed those yellow dogs in congress to trample on our rights with this socialist PACT dribble. Too bad he got offed by the spooks at Bethesda Naval Hospital just like James Forrestal.

McCarthy is 6ft under, where he belongs. I think his response to it all would have been to down a fifth of Vodka then go on some tirade, yelling so hard that his sweaty hair is flapping around and spit is coming out of his mouth, coating the camera lens.

A law protecting the large tobacco interests doesn’t sound all that socialist to me.

Carol, will “Capitalist” work for you?

Fascism is merely one of the varieties of socialism, like Communiterianism (warmed over 1920’s European Socialism) , Progressives, National Socialism (NAZI) and Communism. All are merely variations on the thems of Centralized planning, control of production and distribution, and of course increasingly rigid control of the populace by a wealthy and privileged elite class. And all are noted for their antipathy toward mosrt religions, there can be no laws or rules taking precedence over those espoused by the rulling elites and their minions. Don’t get bogged down by the semantic hair splitting, word parsing and the revisionist history taught in the Government schools since about 1920. Please forgive any poor sentence structure and spelling mistakes, I’m in chemotherapy and with the side effects it’s difficult to get anything out. Unfortunately, this thread has taken a turn that I felt deserved an accurate response. Probably sounds more curt and argumentative than I mean it to be. BTW, FWIW, the released KGB files following the disentigration of the USSR, vindicated "tailgunner Joe McCarthy’’ in the main, Washington was filled with communist agents and ‘useful idiots’ from the State Deopartment , Defense, the Pentagon, and everything else on down. MSM reported on it at the time but the stories were ‘old news’ and promptly went to page 37 B. One of the biggest problems with the D day invasion, was keeping the information away from the American Embassy in London, filled with NAZI agents from Joe Kennedy on down the line, And Everyone knew it. Kennedy was a huge contributor to FDR’s campaigns, that’s usually how you get to be an Ambassodor. If this is too far off topic, then moderator please move to appropriate location … or delete if deemed proper. I’m sure I’m not the only one who logged on to this thread see if there was anything new on the PACT court case. Not to engage in bumper sticker political jabs. Though I have been called a curmudgeon … often. Regards.

@ gbrhys: You’re completely off base. I think you’ve been reading some bad information, or perhaps effective right wing propaganda. True socialism has nothing to do with those ideologies. Green politics and anti-war, anti-globalization movements have much more in common with socialsm than those totalitarian regimes. Socialism will not have a privleged or elite class. We’ve had this conversation before here, its best not to get into it. You felt the need to correct misinformation, and so do I. PACT, by the way is nothing about socialism, but it also hinders capitalsm. Everything in the world does not have to be one or the other. I would simply call it ill-imformed policy and possibly a corrupt policy made by corrupt officials who have a greater love of money than they do ideology.

Is there any news on the hearings into PACT’s being unconstitutional that were supposed to start on July 7th?

German-Style “National Socialism” was no more socialist than the “People’s Republic of China” is a republic.

Agreed Carol. The Nazis put “socialism” in their name to get the working class to go along with it. They locked up the true socialsts.

Fascism is actually at the entire opposite end of the political spectrum from socialism, gbrhys. It’s one of the more common misconceptions about the two ideologies, that they’re both just one hair away from each other. Just throwing that out there.

In defense of Spyro, his comment was meant as a joke, that is all. He was just trying to lighten the mood a bit. I took it too seriously, which is why I edited my post to more or less poke fun at McCarthy.

Yes, Fascism is a decidedly right-wing ideology.

This is something fun for political stuff, measures ideologies based on both social and economic axes: The Political Compass You can take a little test and compare yourself with known political/historic figures. Its unbiased and easy to use. It will dispell any misconceptions about which names should be applied to which ideology. I will say no more on this issue.

That test puts me somewhere around (-7,-7).

Yeah, I’m somewhere around there, -6.8, -6.5, something like that.

I’m right over there with Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

I took the test my score is Economic Left/Right: -1.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.92

me too carol.

Sincere thanks to all who corrected my erroneous concepts. Nice to know I can still learn at my age! I’l clearly have to invests in some new dictionaries, text books and Encyclopedias. Maybe audit a few local College classes and ‘catch up’ with the 21st century. Learning isn’t too bad, it’s the unlearning things you already know and lived through that’s the tough part! Clearly I have a lot to do to catch up with 21st century ‘Truth’. I still can’t recall any of the named variations that didn’t have an elite privileged class, but that’s probably just Alzheimers or my Meds are out of whack. Thanks again for the corrections, I’ll certainly not touch this subject again until I can contribute in the approved main stream manner. BTW, getting back to PACT in and of itself it is flawed, unworkable, clearly un-Constitutional in at least three areas and a possible fourth) and overreaching on many basic levels, but if allowed to stand as written, extends the Gov. and the FDA’s authority beyond past limits. Opening the door to similar action on other ‘evil’ products. We won’t like that very much. Best regards to all!

I believe the problem really is… that if your children decided to have a productive idea and leave the computer for a while and open a lemonade stand to make some extra money, the parents would have to be rich. First the permit to construct the stand and that it comply with current standards…in Florida…it must withstand a 130 mph windload for 30 mins i believe, then, of course the zoning would have to be commercial, a minimum number of parking spaces must be availible, then the occupational license and fees, fire inspection and fees, approval from the health department, have a listing of the ingredients that made it, have an analysis done to be capable of listing the nutritional value per serving, form a limited liability corporation so that the parents could not be sued if it was too cold or if someone was allergic to it, aquire insurance, and the list goes on. That makes for a 10 dollar lemonade. Then, if by the grace of god, they made 100.00 profit, they get to pay 39% (health care bill raises it from current 31%)of it to the government in the form of corporate taxes. All that for 61% of the profit… Regulations and costs from state, local and federal government has made it nearly impossible for a young person with the dream of owning a business, or make their innovative ideas improve the lives of others. I don’t believe there is a real name for what is going on…capitalist, socialist, marxist, etc…It is just plain stupidity. People are passing regulation, laws, and taxes that have never been productive members of society. It is just wrong. Besides, I am pissed I can’t have snuff mailed to me! lol…oh, I guess I forgot the legal disclaimer…: the previous statements and opinion are those of an anonymous, disgruntled snuffhead, and do not reflect the opinions of the owners of this blog, or any normal or reasonable person, living or dead and are not intended to offend anyone, either living or dead. The comments are for entertainment purposes only. Please do not attempt this at home.

At risk of derailing another thread with this discussion, here I go. You seem to mix up socialism and dictatorship under the guise of communism rather badly. Do some googling, read a news paper, or consult an encyclopaedia that was published after World War II. You’ll be displeased to notice that in addition to being some of the most socialist nations in Europe, the Scandinavian countries tend to be ranked as some of the best to places to live, the most free countries, and the most democratic nations. The Economist actually list Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland and Denmark as all being more democratic than the US in their democracy index from 2008. Snark and sarcasm about how misguided people of today are is all well and great, except when you’re basing your position on flat out falsehoods and incorrect definitions of terms. Then it makes you look a little silly. Do the countries I listed have an upper class, an elite? Yes, of course. But they don’t have the authority to send less rich people to jail for thought crimes. Same in the US. Nominally, Stalin, Mao, and all communists (although whether they really are is another issue entirely), not socialists. I mean, damn, look at Canada, Scandinavia, and Western Europe! They aren’t exactly totalitarian hell-holes, an number of them are even coming out of the recession better than the US is because of their socialist elements. This isn’t something new. Making the distinction between socialism and tyranny is a problem I’ve only ever heard Americans have, because they hear socialism, and short-circuit the thought process to wind up screaming “Kill them Soviet animals with their socialism. It’ll be the end of the world if the red menace spreads.” On topic, while I agree with you about it’s flaws, I still don’t trust the US court system to strike it down as they should. Too much money and power behind the bill.

Interesting. Took the test and I’m nearly off the scale at -8.4 and -7.8. Seems that Mandela and Gandhi are total fascists compared to me :o) On the final page it was most depressing to see how close Gordon Brown’s views are to those of Thatcher and Bush.

Amazing how center-right our “socialist” president is.

Economic Left/Right: -7.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.82 I figured I would be a little more extreme than this. Now to figure out a way to bypass the new law here in Iowa so I can get another roll of snus and a couple more tins of snuff. It would be nice if I didn’t have to drive to Des Moines to buy General. I wish there was a b&m in Iowa City that kept snus. Grr…

Hmm, figured I’d be more Authoritarian, and more Left Your political compass Economic Left/Right: -5.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.26

Economic Left/Right: -3.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.10 Guess I’m playing short-stop?

Can we reserve this thread as an update?

Can we reserve political arguments to the off topic category? I come here to read about snuff, not misguided attempts to convert the unbelievers.

I scored -7.62 on Economic Left/Right and -3.03 on Libertarian/Authoritarian scale. Sunday opening hours of businesses was missing in questions, I’m firmly opposed to those both on religious and social grounds.

@Alexander Ghaffari: “Economic Left/Right: 10.00” Awesome, dude ! Although with a score like that I suspect you’re not the kind of bloke who uses words like “awesome” and “dude” :o)

Thanks. Closed