Conservative or Liberal?

"The oil companies and the drug companies will continue to line their pockets at the expense of those who can least afford it."

Then we need to pass laws to stop them from charging so much to overseas drug and oil users. We have it relatively cheap compared to other countries.

Here are some figures for last year's average prices around the world.

2003
INTERNATIONAL GASOLINE PRICES

Most Expensive


Location
Price Per Gallon

Hong Kong
$5.34
London, England
4.55
Paris, France
4.41
Amsterdam, Netherlands
4.38
Seoul, S. Korea
4.35
Copenhagen, Denmark
4.24
Tokyo, Japan
4.20
Milan, Italy
4.14
Oslo, Norway
4.13
Frankfurt, Germany
4.00

These figures have been converted to US $ per gallon. You see, we pay much less.

all I can say about drug prices here is that there are far more regulations and minimum standards that must be met in the US that aren't enforced in other countries, including Canada and Mexico. Add in the price of research, etc. and you've got an extremely large cost to the company.

Bottom line is, we are not entitled to any kind of medication. People are not under law to give us needed medications. It may be upsetting, but our forefathers just had to die because of this. There is a moral law that says people should give to help people, but the government shouldn't penalize them...especially when they do help people. Would the person/company who discovers a cure for AIDS/Cancer/Alzheimer's not be entitled to a tidy profit for their years of labor in develpoing a cure to same millions of lives?

It may not be right in our own minds for them to take such advantage of it, but how much better off would we be had they decided not to risk all of the "negative" publicity to discover dures in the first place?

Now, if we want to go after someone, it should be the insurance companies. They are much bigger crooks than all of the companies you named combined. I know this from first-hand experience. I have no problem going after a group when they don't provide the services promised...especially when they are dupping us into something that they never intend to pay-off when they promise they will.

Talk bad about them...I won't say a word.

BTW, have you ever thought that if the oil companies lower their prices and such that it might affect our economy? Especially in Texas. We have seen first hand what oil can do when it's not running in our favor. The point is, everyone is taking advantage of everyone else, so we all come out pretty even in the end. When oil companies start losing money, people around here start losing jobs. My mother was a statistic from just such a thing. I know many, many people who have been laid-off from oil companies when their companies began losing money.

BTW, our gas prices are pretty good. If they go way up or way down all of a sudden is when we need to start worrying.

 

"It does seem ironic that if you want to spend money on defense and weapons, you are considered a conservative; but if you want to spend money on health care and education, you are considered a liberal."

I must point out that you are the one who began this thread by calling yourself a liberal. We are just going by what you told us. You called yourself a liberal, so I am more than happy to call you the same.

Now, Terry = Conservative?
(I pick myself up off the floor)

In what regards, may I ask? This is really news to me.

This sounds about like PA Jim saying he's a Republican.

(James ducks and heads for cover)

Good night all. Just poking fun.

Love to all my brethren here, "liberal" and "conservative"...though everyone seems pretty confused about where exactly they fall.

Bro. James

 

As a liberal, what do you think we should do to make the system more "fair" for everyone?

I'm sure you conservatives can rest easy. Bush and his cronies will be in office for another 4 years. I'm 99% certain of that. The oil companies and the drug companies will continue to line their pockets at the expense of those who can least afford it. Halliburton will continue to make money from the war in Iraq. And Bush will continue to brag about his leadership in the the war on terror. [/QUOTE]

Whew. I just got my weekly check the other day from the drug companies. Pretty soon, if they keep this up, maybe we'll be rich enough conservatives to finally get out of our mobile home and move to the rich neighborhood in North Little Rock or Little Rock with all the Democrats. I wonder if I'll change parties when I finally do become rich. I can see the headline now, school teacher becomes rich off of weekly check from drug companies due to conservative policies, moves to Rich Democrat neighborhood, is influenced by the communists there and switches parties. Pricilla, your bitterness is overwhelming and very telling about why Michael Savage calls extreme liberalism a mental disease. Please. There are many conservatives who came from humble beginnings and made their own way. On the reverse side, there are many liberals who are trust fund babies who have never held a real job in their lives. Just go to Massachussets sometime, where John F. Kerry is from. They're everywhere there.

Joseph Botwinick

 

Well, let's see. I think that late term abortion is definitely wrong. I am not sure about early term abortion, but I personally would not choose to abort any baby, except if it involved the life of the mother.

I believe that homosexuality is wrong, and I do not support gay marriage.

There are others, I'm sure, but I don't have time to go into any more issues. It is time to dress for church. See, I even go to church, and a baptist church at that.

 

Yep. And John F. Kerry is one of them. Born into wealth and married(twice!) into wealth. And he claims to be a man of the "common" people.

 

Sorry, Priscilla Ann, but you don't get off that easily. As a point of personal privilege I feel that you have slandered me.

Now, please, either defend your statement about oil companies or else retract your statement.

If you do neither, then I am sorry, but I and everyone reading this thread must assume that you have no basis for your charge and that you were engaging in the unChristian behavior of slander.

 

Thank you.

May God bless you.

 

The price of oil is set by the trading that takes place on the Nymex. The data is readily available. One good place is Commodity Prices .

Less than a year ago oil was about $24.00 per barrel and recently has been pushing $37.00 per barrel.

It is very difficult to gouge on the price of gasoline due to the competition in the market, both on the wholesale and retail levels. If a company's price is too high, then it will lose sales to it's competitors at the terminals and at the gas pumps. If a company's price is too low, then it will get so much business that it's tanks will be sucked dry at the terminals and at the gas pumps. Therefore, the price of gasoline has to pretty much follow the course of the price of crude oil.

 

Let me give my regular post against socialized medicine.

I am old enough to remember that Nixon tried price controls. They cannot be enforced because people cheat and raise prices anyway. Also, I have experience with hopeless chronic illness that depends upon medical research for treatments.

As you all know, here in Indianapolis the dominant corporation is Lilly Pharmaceuticals, a century-old, family company that first successfully manufactured insulin after World War I.

My friends, the pharmaceutical corporations in America have led the world in the discovery and manufacture and delivery of new medicines because part of the price of current medicines is needed for the research and development of new medicines. Socialized medicine or price controls would lead to the end of new medicines worldwide since the whole world looks to the USA.

Why kill the goose that lays the golden egg?

Is there no balm in Gilead?

 

It has been charged that a "conservative" is one who is "...in favor of preserving the status quo and traditional values and customs, and against abrupt change..."

"Status quo" is an ancient Latin term for the mess that we are in now. I for one do not want to preserve the status quo. I want America to be what America once was and not what the situation has deteriorated into now.

Nor am I for "traditional" values and customs. In fact, I am for Christian values and customs.

Am I against abrupt change? No, if it is for the good and a return to past liberty. I am against abrupt change if it is something like same-sex marriage or marriage defined as any one person and one or more animals or one or more other persons of any gender. And I don't think that a large gay population means a high-tech industry success, because Indianapolis has a very large gay population and all that means is a lot of dirty restaurants and dirty coffee houses and dirty bars and dirty hair salons and dirty flower shops.

 

Political Liberals are:

-Pro-Death / Holocaust of the unborn: This is morally inferior to the conservative pro-life view.

-Pro Gay: This is morally inferior to the conservative anti-gay view.

-Pro racist affirmative action policies: This is morally inferior to the conservative view that we should judge people by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. In a sense, I would say that America has gone backwards away from realizing MLK's dream with the liberal's racist, immoral policies.

-Pro Big government handout programs (entitlements) which forcefully takes money from hard working Americans and gives it to those who don't wish to work. Then the people who benifit from these handouts are then manipulated by the same liberal politicians who give them just enough to keep them from starving, but never enough to move up in society into hating the middle class and rich people who were forced to give what they have to them. This is morally inferior to compassionate conservatism. It is also morally inferior to the Biblical model which shows the Church, through the moving of God in their lives, freely giving to the poor and needy and helping those in need. Political liberalism seeks to divide the classes by forcing the have to give to the hav not and then convincing the have nots to hate the haves becasue they won't give more. Compare that to the Biblical model which unites the haves and the have nots.

Pricilla,

You might resent the implication, but it doesn't change the truthfullness of it.

Joseph Botwinick

 

As a liberal, what do you think we should do to make the system more "fair" for everyone?

Joseph Botwinick </font>[/QUOTE]Pricilla,

You never did answer my question. What would you do?

Joseph Botwinick

 

Ken, since you work for an oil company, let me ask you something I have wondered about for years. Why is it that when the price of oil goes up the price increase at the pumps is almost immediate; however, when the price of oil goes down it takes quite some time for the price of gasoline to adjust?

 

Pricilla,

Please come down off your holier than thou liberal pedastal and let's talk about it. As a liberal, tell me what your plan is and I will tell you why I either support it or don't support it.

Joseph Botwinick

 

We probably will not be able to work together because liberalism is moving us toward communism and conservatism is moving us toward more independence and democracy. The two ideologies are at odds with each other. Therefore, they can't just get along, in the words of Rodney King.

Joseph Botwinick

 

Personally, I am all for it using Medical Savings Accounts. Will you support this effort, Priscilla Ann?