Precicely why I think that gun control (besides being unconstitiutional) is just a stupid waste of time.

Burt! Why would anyone expect Mr.Potato Head to sign a treaty that would benefit a country that he dispises.If he could give our enemies all our military secrets without being executed for treason i'm sure he would do so. What's really sad,is that far to many of our citizens still think he's a nice guy.And not the"marxist"piece of trash he is.I dread what's coming our way as mr.potato head leads his merry band of czars.Aiming for the total destruction of our Liberty and Freedom............. Semper Paratus.

"If you knew nothing else about this goofy proposal, you could bet that only a liberal would suggest that getting drunk, goofing around with coeds and being brainwashed by leftwing professors is in any way, shape or form, the equivalent of putting your life on the line for America."

Not to mention that the US Military would then be REQUIRED, to become bi-lingual....

"This is nothing new. For years, liberals have proven beyond question that they have no idea what the word "comparable" even means"

The neocommies have trouble with many words. Remember the famous or infamous line "what is, is"? Also, they seem to think equality means equal results, instead of equal opportunities. Oh and my two personal faves; Liberty is confused with licentiousness and freedom with the expression "card blanche" or as we're wont to say "anything goes".

The START treaties, as you have said would be a one way street to disaster.

I tried reasoning with someone who was a big John Lennon fan, on the anniversary of his demise. He was so in awe of this "visionary" and his neocommie anthem "Imagine" Trying to point out that man can never, ever bring about utopia on earth because man is flawed, all I got was this mush about how it could happen if everyone wanted it to happen. Nice thoughts and sentiments, but the key word there is indeed "if" (again no understanding of words), wherein, as I put it simply, as long as someone has a big stick and is very willing to use it, there will be no peace. Evil does not want peace, it wants turmoil so it can control. I had to leave the discussion when it became painfully obvious that there was no reasoning with this individual, as he said, and I quote; "but we can make laws the make people be peaceful"..as if those aforementioned evil people would just adhere to said laws.

This would be end results of a START treaty, the bigger stick being nukes in the hands of those who don't quite see the visionary Lennon's dream of the world.

Burt: "...should be paid the same, they decided to argue that various jobs were comparable to various other jobs."

Same identical jobs aren't even paid the same with the US Census Bureau.

I was a grunt (Field Enumerator) for the previous two years and paid $11/hr. 60 miles east in a more urban area the grunts were paid $13/hr. Further north and east they got $18/hr. And the waste - massive.

I spent 35 years in the private sector before this part time gig with the federal government. I was stunned and appalled at the inefficiency and waste of the entire field effort.

Back to the "Dream" Act: How can any of these fools propose that we stream a whole bunch of "non-citizens" into our military?

I forgot: what exactly is the mission of our armed services?

The distance between insanity

and genius is measured only by

success.---Ian Fleming (1908-1964)

It is hard to believe but both of my Tennessee U. S. Senators, Alexander and Corker, voted with the liberals to advance this treaty. I wonder if they will be two of the 67 Senators required to approve this give-away.

Arguing with liberals, whether it's about John Lennon's sappy politics or the possibility of Utopia, is useful only as an exercise of one's jaw. It is otherwise an exercise in futility.

Burt

Women who complain about the difference in pay were obviously never employers. When a woman is hired, the employer knows that, in many cases, a woman with children will take time off from work if one of the children is sick, etc, so that is factored in. As with the insurance industry, which uses actuary tables, this is applied to all women, and it's not that hard to understand.

As to START, calling it the START Treaty is getting out of hand. It's just START, ATM, PIN, VIN, and VAT, to name a few. Call it A STAR Treaty if that word is of such importance.

There is a 19th-century painting by IIya Repin of a group of well-armed Zaporozhian Cossacks preparing a letter to the Sultan of Turkey in which the most learned of the group (probably a hostage) is seated penning their tauting words while the rest stand around him laughing their heads off in perfect trust of their invincibility. Reminds me of the present-day Russians and their attitude toward Mr. Obama and START!

Have no fear start will pass thanks to the republican leadership (still an oxymorn) and the RINO's and CFR members. The House leadership tossed the conservatives a bone by making Ron Paul the sub chairman of the committee in charge of the creature from Jeykl Island (AKA the FED). Almost all of the remaining committees are chaired by RION's or CFR members.

by

Burt,

The key word in your column, and repeated in your subsequent post, is "utopian". The left always operates with their idiotic utopian view perfectly in focus to the exclusion of all else. Without fail it is their end to justify all of their means, no matter how far from the reality of any sane person it takes them. What liberals are "progressing" toward is the stuff of science fiction which even Heinlein could not have dreamt. This is why it is senseless to argue with them. They live in a dreamworld where there exist no enemies, no right or wrong, no truth or falsehood, no God, no good or evil. A childlike place where ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE. I've been taking a hard look at the world around me, and I'm thinking this is not the time to buy the world a Coke.

Like you, I tried for many years, but now I realize the futility of reasoning with madmen.

Norge: It is futile and yet I keep trying. That is the definition of insanity, isn't it? But that's what comes of having to share space with lunatics.

Burt

Burt, thanks for bringing in your usual common sense with humor, to, if not solve a problem, at least calm ourselves a little. It is best to listen and read all that is out there and use what you see to make the best decisions. Otherwise, you butt your head against impossible odds.

Actually, this whole business of START is nothing more than a magic trick. A con.

In the 1970s, Jimmy Carter muddled together a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). In fact, there were several versions of SALT. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he realized that simply reducing the speed at which we (the USA and the USSR) expanded our nuclear arsenals was not enough. We needed to actually reduce the number of nukes on both sides.

So he threw out the SALT treaties and started work on a Strategic Arms REDUCTION Treaty (START). Negotiations took years. In one summit late in Reagan's second term, Soviet President Gorbachev announced that his country could not sign any further arms treaties until Reagan agreed to shelve the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI or "Star Wars" as the media called it).

SDI was a missile defense system under development that would render nuclear ballistic missiles largely useless. The concept would use killer satellites, lasers and particle-beam weapons to shoot down or disable ballistic missiles from space. The Soviets were frightened of this program for two reasons:

1) rendering their nuclear arsenal obsolete rendered their Communist empire far less formidable or powerful on the world stage. Indeed, much of the USSR's importance in the world stemmed from the fact they could strike our cities with nuclear weapons. This fact peppered their every international interaction with us.

2) since they could not allow us to develop a missile defense system without developing one of their own, our program forced them to conduct very expensive research into space-based weapons. The couldn't possibly afford to compete with us in that arena. They were tottering on the verge of bankruptcy as it was.

Gorbachev demanded SDI be shelved; Reagan refused. He called Gorbachev's bluff. Gorbachev walked out of the summit and the media reported that Reagan had made the greatest blunder in the history of diplomacy.

But in fact, he had scored a huge victory. START eventually got signed anyway, as the USSR simply could not afford the upkeep and deployment costs of their huge nuclear arsenal, and by signing the treaty they would at least get something from us in exchange for doing something they would soon need to do anyway.

But Reagan scored another victory as well. He knew that whenever we signed a treaty with Russia, they always held us to the letter of the law while flagrantly breaking the treaty themselves, left and right. Reagan believed that any treaty with them would be wastepaper unless it included stringent verification protocols. He called it "trust, but verify." Each side would send observers and inspectors to the other, to oversee the dismantling of nuclear weapons by both countries exactly as spelled out in the treaty.

During President Bill Clinton's 8 years in the White House, the terms of START kicked in on schedule and the first nuclear missiles were disassembled and destroyed. Frankly, growing up during the Cold War, I never believed the day would ever come that we would actually shrink the size of our nuclear stockpiles.

This new version of START is totally unnecessary. But the Russians want it because it gives them two things:

1) it requires us to further reduce our nuclear arsenal -- without the "trust, but verify" protocols Reagan had insisted upon. In the spirit of the worldwide apology tour, Obama is simply going to "trust" that the Russians will honor this treaty. If they do, it will be the first time in the history of that country that such a thing occurred.

2) it scraps SDI entirely, and if I understand it correctly commits us to refrain from resurrecting the missile defense at any time in the future. In other words, we're agreeing to throw out the perfectly reasonable, utterly sensible and mighty handy SDI program. Forever.

It is no wonder Obama wants so badly to sign this treaty with Russia. Like every single Obama has done since taking office, it's calculated to weaken America and make the world a more dangerous place. This is terrible deal for America and a great deal for Russia -- which is exactly why Obama loves it. Anything that's bad for America, he's all for it.

Burt and Norge-

Regarding the "utopians," I really don't bother worrying about those idiots, like the ones with the bumper stickers that talk about "schools having all the money they need and the Air Force holding a bake sale to buy a bomber" or however it goes. We'll never be completely rid of idiots. Somebody has to run the health-food stores, and Lennon was a hell of a good singer, if you don't listen to the lyrics, and skip over all the tracks with Yoko.

The problems arise when we let people like that take themselves so seriously that vote someone in who truly BELIEVES that horsecrap, or is willing to use the useful idiots to further more sinister agendas.

I am beginning to worry about those Mayan predictions of the fast approaching "End of the World" on Dec 21 2012. That is two years folks...

At the rate Obama is going - we won't make it until then. I am furious that this SALT treaty is being considered by this rushed lame duck congress. Even if the Socialists here don't think that it will restrict our defensive systems, the Socialists in Russia do! That's why they say they do not want any changes. Shame on any Republican who goes along with this.

With this treaty and the takeover of the internet by our progressive dictators we really are headed down a dark path. Maybe those Mayan's didn't just run out of paper at 2012 after all..

Dr. Timms: While I fully grasp why the Dems are in a rush to get things wrapped up before the new congressmen and senators come to town, I am at a loss to explain why the GOP wants to be complicit in these matters. It's high time that Mitch McConnell began laying down the law to these guys the same way Harry Reid keeps his own fellow creeps in line.

Burt

To agree to own fewer weapons that a known foe, or fewer cartridges, or not wire tap him, or not surveil his activities, is the most moronic inaction a man could ever take. Yet, our so called government thinks this is the way to carry out its defense of America. I love it in the movies when the good guy always puts his gun down at the demand of the bad guy. We know what is coming next. Wait! The bad guy just runs out the door with the bag of goodies! Ask any cop if the would ever give up their weapon to a criminal. Is Russia criminal? Pretty much since the beginning of the 20th century, yes. Do we have the advantage? Not for long, with these stupid treaty approvals. Find out if your rep voted for this stupidity, and inform they they they are now toast, politically. And never, ever surrender your advantage.

Bo--Leave it to a Texan to make sense. I can't believe the Republicans are going along with this. Did those punks not learn anything from 2006 and 2008? Once again, they're playing nice with the Democrats...and this time, with the Russians, too.

Burt

The only problem with the recent election in Nov, is that not enough of these liberals and pseudo-conservatives were up for re-elction. What more is it going to take to for these guys to realize that we have had enough. This unprecendented push for action by a lame duck Congress is shameful, but the left has no shame. Like you I am furious that any Republican would allow these issues to be adressed before Jan 5, 2011. Clearly our work is not done. I pray we can survive another 2 years.

Dr. Timms: January 5th happens to be my birthday. A conservative Congress will be the best present I could possibly receive.

Burt

Every time Obama appears on camera, I keep thinking I'm watching an SNL skit. I think, "Hah hah hah! Great skit! Okay, now where's the real president at? The nation has important business requiring his attention. No, seriously. Where is he?"