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US Department of Justice to defend DOMA

Probably a little late for commenting on this bit, but...

But you can change your sexuality. I did. Heterosexuality to asexuality. Now, I don't get "turned on" by anything anymore.

If this actually worked, I would've been asexual for several years now.

I was able to stop drinking soda (which some say is addictive, so I should've definitely been a serious addict after 20 years of drinking the stuff) and stop believing in the religion I was raised in for 17 years (which is pretty much embedded into your brain after that long.) But no matter how much I tried to ignore the cute girls, I still like looking at them and talking to them, and I still have sexual thoughts involving them. The only thing that's changed is that I've gotten a little bit better at ignoring them.

So yeah, sexuality isn't "just one of those things" that you can change if you put your mind to it. If there's ever any significant change at all (after puberty, anyway), I'd imagine it would come along with some pretty nasty psychological damage. You've probably just brainwashed yourself to the point where all of those thoughts are repressed way back in there somewhere, just festering in there and waiting to cause all kinds of problems when you're a few years older.
 
So what are you?
I never really think about it enough that it matters. I consider myself "liberal" because I like gay marriage. That isn't saying much, though. This... is South Carolina, after all. No, seriously. This video was aired all over TV (and the audio clip made it all over the radio, too.

I know this was in June, but it's an interesting question, and I think some light should be cast.

Let's explain this in terms of the current healthcare debate.

A socialist approach would be to nationalise medicine entirely (eg. NHS). This would mean that hospitals are funded by the government, doctors are government employees, and medicine and medical procedures are (in some cases) paid for by the government. This is known as publicly-funded health care, and is paid for mostly by taxes.

Now let's look at what Obama wants to do and what is currently in place in the US. Health insurance in the US is obtained through one of many insurance companies; often this happens through an employer, who has a deal with the insurance companies to cover the employer's employees, but individual insurance plans can also be purchased. Insurance companies are free to set their own prices and to deny patients based on their own reasons (eg pre-existing conditions). Hospitals are also privately run.

What Obama wants to do (or at least, what the liberals in Congress want to do) is introduce a government-run plan that would compete with insurance companies by offering health-care plans to those that do not qualify through their employers or for other reasons, and those who cannot afford it. This would also require everyone to have some sort of a health-care plan (universal health-care). In theory, this would cause real competition and insurance companies would have to adjust their own prices and policies.

So we see the difference. The socialist approach is to nationalise medicine and do away with private insurance companies entirely; Obama's approach is merely to create government run and regulated competition in order to regulate the prices and policies of the private insurance companies - a practice which is, fundamentally, capitalist in nature.
Okay, thank you very, very much. If Fox news (only thing ever on the TV in my house, news-wise) would actually explain something in this way instead of going like, "Well, Obama supports it, and we don't, so you shouldn't either." I hate how they seem to never get beyond the point that bleeding-heart liberals cannot sway their deep American roots of capitalism and that Obama is practically going to lead the pitchforks-and-torches rally on equality, justice and everything else America has come to stand for.

If anyone has ever had the feeling to just go up to Bill O'Reilly et al and tell them off I understand.

What's cool about this is that I actually was going to ask what the hell was going on with health care that caused a big fuss. Anyway, moving on.
 
Well, I may not be American ( I'm Canadian) but Obama was not born in America... and Doesn't that go against the Constitution where it says you must be born in America to be the President?
 
Well, I may not be American ( I'm Canadian) but Obama was not born in America... and Doesn't that go against the Constitution where it says you must be born in America to be the President?

He was born in Hawai'i. That's part of the USA.

IMO that clause in the constitution is stupid and shuld be changed anyway, but that's just me.
 
Okay, thank you very, very much. If Fox news (only thing ever on the TV in my house, news-wise) would actually explain something in this way instead of going like, "Well, Obama supports it, and we don't, so you shouldn't either." I hate how they seem to never get beyond the point that bleeding-heart liberals cannot sway their deep American roots of capitalism and that Obama is practically going to lead the pitchforks-and-torches rally on equality, justice and everything else America has come to stand for.

If anyone has ever had the feeling to just go up to Bill O'Reilly et al and tell them off I understand.

My parents even listen to their radio show in the car sometimes. :|

What I love is when people call in to debate them, make a bunch of points that they can't argue against, and the conversation deteriorates into the host trying as hard as possible not to let them talk before finally hanging up on them.
 
So... if I said that Jesus said 'the first rule of Christianity is that you don't talk about Christianity' then you couldn't disprove me, right?

+10000000

fight club references yeah
 
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I never really think about it enough that it matters. I consider myself "liberal" because I like gay marriage. That isn't saying much, though. This... is South Carolina, after all. No, seriously. This video was aired all over TV (and the audio clip made it all over the radio, too.

South Carolina sucks.

Okay, thank you very, very much. If Faux news (only thing ever on the TV in my house, news-wise) would actually explain something in this way instead of going like, "Well, Obama supports it, and we don't, so you shouldn't either." I hate how they seem to never get beyond the point that bleeding-heart liberals cannot sway their deep American roots of capitalism and that Obama is practically going to lead the pitchforks-and-torches rally on equality, justice and everything else America has come to stand for.

Fixed.
 
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