ronaldvandevender

We have gotten into a bad trend on this site which is disturbing at the least. There is one member who seems to bring out the worst in all of us. The personal attacks no matter what is said by anyone if it is a little different from theirs.

I want to personally appologize to all who use this site for any part in the banter with this person in which I have taken part.

Any more personal attacks against me by this one individual will be ignored. This person is not worth the time it takes out of my life to type in a response to such childish behaivior.

I know it is easy to come back with a flip remark from time to time, but I am not speaking of those. I do belive that anyone who has spent time on here lately knows who and what I speak of. I invite and challenge all members to join with me in setting things straight. IGNORE the personal attacks from this person. DO NOT LOWER YOURSELF to this persons level. Repond to this persons legit comments my all means. Those comments deserve to be responded to.

I feel that all on here are big enough and mature enough to do this. Let's get some integrity back here.

To some the title of this would warrent treason. How dare I say that about our President! Last time I read the Constitution of this country (today 6-22-08)I have the right to voice my opinion.

With No Child Left Behind, he has stolen the hope of the future away from our kids and this country. We should be increasing the standards we expect out of our kids and teachers. Not lowering them.

He has stolen our right not to be arrested and held without being charged.

He has stolen out of our pockets in many ways with his game playing in His war on terror. 1) Lives of Americans wasted in a region where there never has been, nor never will be peace. 2) The lives of many families effected by the loss of a seviceman or woman. 3) Our sense of security. He talks about terror, when we live in terror of our own Government. He uses fear and terror himself in order to get us to go along with his wishes. 4) Building Matterials started Up in cost, Because he was sending as much as he could overseas to rebuild something he ordered destroyed. 5) He has stolen billions and billions of tax payer money which we desperately need at home in order to pay for the war effort. 6) Oil prices going up. The war is responsible for the bulk of this. 7) He has stolen our right to control our Government, by not listening to the people and getting our troops home.

He has stolen food off our tables and money from our pockets by paying farmers not to plant their fields. (congress and our senate are guilty here too)

He has stolen our privacy, with HomeLand Security.

He has stolen the pride from the American people in our Government.

He has stolen the faith many of us once had in our system, even with it's flaws, we still had faith.

He has stolen the hope we once had that our Government would be here for us in case of disaster.

He has stolen our right to be informed of the truth. This is the most manipulative controling administation ever. All Government agentcies say what they are told by the White House or else.

He has stolen help from each state by sending our National Guards overseas, instead of leaving them at home to be of service to the people of their state.

He has stolen our dignity.

With his actions since 9/11 he has essentially put us under Marshall Law, and does not even have the back bone to admit it.

I have noticed many comments within PB where the writers are very emotional in their responses. It is good to a point for us to feel passion for the things we believe in. Yet for the sake of trying to fix problems of a nation like ours, one that is so diverse we must for the sake of all concerned learn to leave our emotions out of it. Our emotional feelings are just that feelings, NOT FACT. We must base our thought patterns on fact if we are to make progress. Base things on fact, and we do right. We might not like it but we atleast be right. Base choices on feelings and in most cases we will be wrong.

When I post comments or Blogs on here, the thought pattern given may not be in line with my personal "FEELINGS", For they are not revelant to finding answers. They are done in order to spur conversation and to get the thought patterns flowing. We must be able to open up and look at issues from many angles if we are to stand a chance at finding an answer. To not do so is to remain stagnant, small minded, and petty.

Which way I am personally leaning on any issue discussed, I will never tell.

History teaches us that we can not be emotional when dealing in politics, many of the worlds worst mistakes have been made by those in power being emotional in their choices. There have been countless wars, killings, and injustices done to the people of the world due to emotions. You can be very passionate about something and still remain in the world of fact.

As I see it the Marriage laws in this country are a big joke. We want to keep a ban on same sex marriages. So what let them marry. They are going to be together either way. And for those who want to toss out there the Biblical aspect I say "don't go there". Not unless you truly practice a biblical marriage yourself. We even ban polygomy which is as biblical as it gets. Even evangelist like Pat Robertson will tell you this. Our laws on the marriage issue seems to me more of a financal wind fall deal more than anything. We cry and fuss over so many moms raising their kids alone and the financal hardships. We cry because they turn to the government for help and so on and so on. Let's see if I can point out another way to look at this picture.

First of gays. Not allowing them to marry, we keep them in the higher tax bracket of single. To let them marry they now bennifit from the countless tax breaks and or deductions. Loss of money for the government - we can't have that now, can we?

Next Gays and or polygomist. Here is a man paying for a house, and a couple hundred dollars a month for lights, then we add cable TV, Insurance. I'm sure you get the picture. Then we have 6 women each one paying for the same stuff individually. Now let's add child care. All these people when you combine their spending for these things adds up real fast. Now let's let this same man, have 5 of these women as wives. Now what do we have. Two houses instead of 7, 2 light bills - not 7. Once again on and on. Even when you adjust for the larger house, groceries, lights, ect. the adjusted amount still nets this same group of people a great amount of extra spending power and a means to improve their quality of life. Child care is not needed, the divorce rate comes down, (divorce lawyers may need to find a second job, Taxes for these people drop. The only ones which would not gain from this is power companies, land lords, insurance companies and the like.

We have people taking care of each other as they should, and not needing government assistance. I'm sorry that remark is almost treason isn't it.

And for those who want to toss the Bible into the mix, this is very Biblical, even in the New Testament.

We need to keep the government out of the marriage business, and keep our noses out of the business of our neighbors. We as a whole in this country are to quick to point out how others must live and act, when we can't even keep our own lives in order. Let these people marry who they want and the rest of us get down to the real business of this country. Jobs, Inflation, taxes, infrastructure, education, and our health care system just to name a few.

First let me point out, I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church. I can also read. I know the Bible backwards and forwards. Yet I find it hard to see how America can claim to be a Christian Nation. In the first place that means we MUST live and act as the bible states. Last time I remember, in the name of progress (which I do agree with) we have changed things to where women and minority races have rights. I also do not remember the second coming or "God" saying he was changing things.I do not see women as second class people, yet the bible (even in the new testement) forbids certain thing. It does not say do things this way until the United States passes the Womens lib laws. Then we can't wait to jump on people who do dress and act as the bible teaches. How nuts is this. We do not function as a nation of "Christians". Let's face it we do not have a "Christain Nation", We are a nation of "Santa Clause Christians" as I have seen it refered to as. Simply put, we practice the parts of the Bible which make us feel good. Anything else we toss out.

This issue is about a no brainer. The constitution is straight forward about it, we do not need the courts to tell us what it means. The Government cannot set up a state run religion, nor can it support one religion over another. Nor can they ban any religion from being practiced. Also the church(any church)can not control our government, as it does in many countries. This is nothing more than an emotional hot topic for the sake of keeping us off guard on real issues. Our government is horrid at the act of stepping on our religous freedoms. Our laws do not tread on our toes here, they stomp the life out of us. Marriage laws (which are said to be "Biblical") are anything but. They are an adulteration of Biblical teachings. Not all of us even use the Bible as a religous basis. We are only free to our Religous Freedom if our Religion agrees with the powers that be. And don't dare practice your religion as it teaches, this will cause problems. Prayer in schools or other public places is not the government pushing us on religion. It is within the rights of all to do so. No matter how you pray, or to whom or what. If you don't want to, you have the right not to participate. In order to honor our constitution we have many laws which MUST be removed from our legal codes. Both Fed. and on the state level.

After spending years of study in the field of history, I do have questions, or at least question the motives of some world leaders, ours included. I know there are problems around the world - the middle east inparticular. Should anyone have stepped in? Should it have been us? We have appointed America as the protector of the underdog, so we are looked at when troubles arise. Yet these troubles in the mid-east have not just arose. This region has been in the middle of conflict for thousands of years. It is all religion in base. By their belief, religion runs things. We tell them they can't run their countries based on their religions and beliefs, yet we have those in this country who try to shove their moral codes on the whole of America based on their belief. People around the world see the U.S. as a bully, who tells them how to live, act, believe and run their countries, then do just the opposite ourselves. They also see Americans as not living the religion they claim to believe in. These are just a few things which make it hard for us to be productive in the region. They also see the many flaws in America which we post for the world to see. This underminds us even more. I will say that I was appauled by the 9/11 attacks on our soil. Did I want to see something done? YES!!! Do I think after looking deep within that it could have been avoided? YES!!! First off we must clean up our own back yard before we start telling the rest of the world how to act. That would give us credibility. Then they will listen. After all, who are we going to listen to, someone who says one thing and does another, or someone who lives what they teach? I hate to say that the actions of those in the mid-east remind me of myself and many others in my teen years. When the bully was pushing us around telling us how it was going to be, what did we do? Did we stand toe to toe with them? NO!!! Did we strike back? YES!!! How? We would wait til we could take it no more, catch them with their guard down and take a cheap shot with any means availible. I ask - being we are seen as the school yard bully by much of the world, was their actions anything other than what countless Americans have done to each other? NO!!! As I said, it's not something to be proud of. Am I saying we directly provoked the attacks. NO!!! But it does as stated before bring forth the question - Could it have been avoided? I believe so. I also feel we MUST change our ways if we want to avoid this kind of thing in the future. We must gain their respect. We will never agree on how to believe or how every detail of our governments are to be run. Americans can't agree with each other on this, How and why do we think everyone in the world will agree with us. I plead with the American public to pull together for once and let's clean up our act, before we try to push others so hard to change their ways. Let's try our best to avoid this type of thing in the future.

I am pushing in the state of Montana and hopefully on the national level as well for no income taxes for singles making $50,000.00 or less and joint filers making $100,000.00 or less. For those making over these amounts, set a flat 10% rate with no loopholes. We talk alot about tax breaks for the lower income levels and boosting the economy, well it's time to do something about it, besides just juggling the books.

I invite everyone to join with me on this matter, and let's make a national issue out of it.