This post came from another forum. My responses follow it. Since there has been a lot said about "liberals", I thought it would be a good idea to air it out here:
1. No way.
2. Yes, and there is a huge body of research supporting bilingual education as the best route to competence in English.
3. Yes. The government shouldn't have that sort of power over anyone. How is limiting government "liberal"?
4. Hell, no!
5. ditto
6. Absolutely. Do you have to be a liberal to see that attacking a secular state in the name of fighting Islamic extremism was absurd?
7. Vouchers are a simplistic solution to a complex problem. We do need to allow parents to choose schools, and vice versa.
8. It is neither good nor bad, it just is.
9. Yes. How is my heterosexual marriage jeopardized by two gays getting married?
10. Yes, and there is a huge body of evidence that children raised in gay families are not harmed by the experience. Now, children born to single moms, that's another matter.
11. I'm a strong supporter of Boy Scouts, and the father of an Eagle Scout. so, no.
12. The present tax rates are contributing to the deficit, so no again.
13. How are those two related? What are "American values"? that one makes no sense at all.
14. I'm not sure about that one.
15. No. the UN has potential, but hasn't lived up to it yet.
16. No.
17. No.
18. No. Restaurants should be allowed to have smoking sections if they want. Customers should have the option of a non smoking restaurant. Smoking restaurants would lose the 88% of adults who don't smoke as customers. Further, you should be allowed to smoke whatever you like, as long as it is outdoors and downwind.
19. No. That is not the function of high schools.
20. No way.
21. That's baloney.
22. No.
23. No. There are some backward cultures in the world.
Now, how is it that the above 23 unrelated issues are all lumped together under one label? Somehow, that seems to me to be simplistic, naive, disingenuous, and just plain silly.
Do you believe the following?
1.Standards for admissions to universities, fire departments, etc. should be lowered for people of color.
2.Bilingual education for children of immigrants, rather than immersion in English, is good for them and for America.
3.Murderers should never be put to death.
4.During the Cold War, America should have adopted a nuclear arms freeze.
5.Colleges should not allow ROTC programs.
6.It was wrong to wage war against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War.
7.Poor parents should not be allowed to have vouchers to send their children to private schools.
8.It is good that trial lawyers and teachers unions are the two biggest contributors to the Democratic Party.
9.Marriage should be redefined from male-female to any two people.
10.A married couple should not have more of a right to adopt a child than two men or two women.
11.The Boy Scouts should not be allowed to use parks or any other public places and should be prohibited from using churches and synagogues for their meetings.
12.The present high tax rates are good.
13.Speech codes on college campuses are good and American values are bad.
14.The Israelis and Palestinians are morally equivalent.
15.The United Nations is a moral force for good in the world, and therefore America should be subservient to it and such international institutions as a world court.
16.It is good that colleges have dropped hundreds of men's sports teams in order to meet gender-based quotas.
17.No abortions can be labeled immoral.
18.Restaurants should be prohibited by law from allowing customers to choose between a smoking and a non-smoking section.
19.High schools should make condoms available to students and teach them how to use them.
20.Racial profiling for terrorists is wrong -- a white American grandmother should as likely be searched as a Saudi young male.
21.Racism and poverty -- not a lack of fathers and a crisis of values -- are the primary causes of violent crime in the inner city.
22.It is wrong and unconstitutional for students to be told, "God bless you" at their graduation.
23.No culture is morally superior to any other.
Those are all liberal positions. How many of them do you hold?
1. No way.
2. Yes, and there is a huge body of research supporting bilingual education as the best route to competence in English.
3. Yes. The government shouldn't have that sort of power over anyone. How is limiting government "liberal"?
4. Hell, no!
5. ditto
6. Absolutely. Do you have to be a liberal to see that attacking a secular state in the name of fighting Islamic extremism was absurd?
7. Vouchers are a simplistic solution to a complex problem. We do need to allow parents to choose schools, and vice versa.
8. It is neither good nor bad, it just is.
9. Yes. How is my heterosexual marriage jeopardized by two gays getting married?
10. Yes, and there is a huge body of evidence that children raised in gay families are not harmed by the experience. Now, children born to single moms, that's another matter.
11. I'm a strong supporter of Boy Scouts, and the father of an Eagle Scout. so, no.
12. The present tax rates are contributing to the deficit, so no again.
13. How are those two related? What are "American values"? that one makes no sense at all.
14. I'm not sure about that one.
15. No. the UN has potential, but hasn't lived up to it yet.
16. No.
17. No.
18. No. Restaurants should be allowed to have smoking sections if they want. Customers should have the option of a non smoking restaurant. Smoking restaurants would lose the 88% of adults who don't smoke as customers. Further, you should be allowed to smoke whatever you like, as long as it is outdoors and downwind.
19. No. That is not the function of high schools.
20. No way.
21. That's baloney.
22. No.
23. No. There are some backward cultures in the world.
Now, how is it that the above 23 unrelated issues are all lumped together under one label? Somehow, that seems to me to be simplistic, naive, disingenuous, and just plain silly.