So just who are you people and why do you think the way you do?

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Whew! This is my first winter with you guys and the heat from Global Animosity is keeping the US snow free far too long![Poll #1810231]

Comments

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Panookah likes when there are a lot of poles around.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

He ain't the only one.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

He should vist Warsaw then. Or Chicago.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

I just thought I'd mention that the US economy is starting to improve right on schedule.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Obviously the economy has a liberal bias.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

A wise man once said "Reality has a liberal bias."

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Indeed. The stimulus spending is over, government employment is stalling, and now we see the private sector kicking into gear. Makes one wonder why we ever tried stimulus again in the first place.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Remarkably, some of us are able to think about politics in terms of something other than pecuniary self-interest.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Surely not!

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Sounds communist.

[prog-expat.livejournal.com]

Bingo! From growing up in a family of five living on a public schoolteacher's salary to being a (at on point, literally) starving college student to doing well enough that I could live comfortably and still afford intercontinental travel once or twice a year to my current status among those living paycheck to paycheck, my politics haven't fluctuated with my current financial situation.

[yelena-r0ssini.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure whether to go with "fucked up and want to go another direction" or "no job, bane of compassionate conservatives". After my shitty monotonous non-living-wage office job relocated, putting me out of a job a couple of months back, I decided instead of looking for a new shitty monotonous non-living-wage office job to go to school for something entirely different. So now I'm an unemployed student.

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I answered the last question wrong, I was using one hand while eating pizza with the other.

[prog-expat.livejournal.com]

Right, eating pizza, that's what you were doing with the other hand.

[curseangel.livejournal.com]

Let's hear it for lefty liberal college students~

[oportet.livejournal.com]

I'm probably way to the right of the average person in here, but where I am (Alabama), I'm way to the left of the average person.

Maybe I just like being outnumbered. Centrists unite! Or don't. Doesn't matter I guess, we'll figure it out later...

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

A toast to my centrist brother!

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

Law students ftw!! Personally, I would describe myself as being a moderate on most things...but I've noticed something over the years. Some people on the left look at my support of Israel, my being pro-life, and opposition to gun control and call me a raging right-wing nutjob. Some people on the right look at my opposition to the erosion of constitutional rights (Patriot Act, 4th Amend. shenanigans, etc.), support of gay rights and open borders, and support for universal healthcare and call me a socialist hippie freak.

Thus, I think I prove that most people can't be conveniently shoehorned into political categories. :P

As for the pursuit of happiness...well, there are many reasons I came to law school. A primary one is financial considerations. I am physically unable to do any kind of labor-intensive job (including being able to stand for nine hours, a la retail...my first job as a grocery store clerk put me in the hospital after three months) due to health problems, and I don't want to qualify for government disability aid because I am willing and able to work, so I had to do something.... Six years of web-mastering/IT support was a dead-end at the company I worked for, and I didn't have the programming skills to be a pro in today's market.

So, I got myself back in college after flunking out of community college years before, and after flunking out of the computer science program I finally hit my stride with history and political science. There aren't, of course, many things one can do with a BA in History: get a Ph.D to work in a museum (I did that for an internship, and enjoyed it, but wouldn't want to as a career, and there aren't many positions available anyway), teach (sorry, don't have the patience for that), or write (I'd love to do that, but it's not a guaranteed source of income after ten years of academic study). So I came to law school. After the first semester I seriously questioned whether I belonged here, but I stuck with it, and now I'm very glad I did.

And you know...I don't care about being rich. I don't want to own a mansion and a slew of fancy cars (I can't drive anyway :P). I don't care about power, either, and wouldn't want to be some power-brokering corporate attorney if given the chance. I just want to have enough income to support Penny and myself in reasonable comfort with a sufficient reserve in case something happens. If possible, I'd like to find work that helps those in need. Just give us a little 3 br/2 ba house in the city somewhere with Penny's choice of auto and enough imported cheeses to keep me functioning, and we'll be happy. :)

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

"OTHER people identify your politics as generally..."

Depends. If I criticize the right, they generally tend to assume I'm a "red diaper doper baby". If I criticize the left, they tend to assume I'm a "right wing nut job". Partisans and their false dichotomies lol.

Both sides also tend to hate me. But I tend hate them right back, so it's all good.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

You're so cool and edgy.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

"If you did NOT answer yes, have you found your consumption of goods/services has decreased?"

I have to "split hairs" on this one, only because 3 years ago I had 3 grand-daughters living with us, so naturally my consumption is a lot less now ;).

However even tho I am living on 60% of what I was making 3 years ago, I haven't really changed my consumption habits; not because I'm rich anyway, but because we have always consumed based on need. What is down is charitable giving and money going into a retirement account.

(OK I consume (smoke) half the cigarets I used to, but that's not because of the economy :D)

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

Three years ago I overworked myself into a health spin. Now I drive a forklift for a paycheck and benefits until I can make coffee for a living. So I'm in-between, but better off now time-wise, if not money-wise.

Compared to last year I'm light-years ahead.

And my politics are more lolbertarian than anything else, at times bordering on individual anarchism until I snap myself out of that, 'cause I'm just getting too old for that shite.

My better self would like to be more Jeffersonian.