Hi - New Member Here.

[jackvance1985]

hi:

can't say I agree with everything I've read here, maybe 60-70%? not too bad?

anyway, a bit about me - male, white, lds, utah-based, graduate school, married, kid, scout leader, professional...

some of my hot issues/beliefs -

*no income tax for any individual earning less than $30,000/yr and a flat rate of 10% max (state and federal combined) for everything over that (and that's a concession given our defense needs) - the income tax is unconstitutional and the IRS must be reformed so that it can only collect taxes like any other creditor i.e by filing suit in a court of law and providing notice so as to comply with the due process clauses of the federal and state constitutions (it shocks me how many conservatives don't care about this issue - the power to tax is the power to destroy and the biggest and already realized threat to freedom in a democracy)

*there's no such thing as society (just like margaret thatcher said) (see my quote below)

*churches incl the lds church need to either establish or support healthcare clinics where trained doctors can consecrate their talents for free to those in need and which are just as if not more effective than any government-run or privately-run clinics. if our position is that the government should not be in the welfare business and that charity and churches will help the poor, then we need to put our time, talents and money where are mouths are and quit speaking in terms of ideals.

*ideology is dangerous. we need run our lives based on reason, not ideology. ideology is responsible for the carnage of the 20th century.

*the individual is more important than the community, society, empire or whatever we call the collective. nobody should be expected or compelled to sacrifice themselves, their ambitions, dreams, wants etc for the good of the whole. yeh, i'm a big big ayn rand fan (and no i don't care that she was an atheist)

*on that note, i wholly reject darwinism and its logical offshoots - marxism, nationalism, fascism, maoism, socialism, communism, ...ism etc

*the government should be as small as possible and consist of unpaid but duly elected volunteers with short term limits.

*unfettered freedom to contract globally without government repurcussions. employers are not in the social business of providing livelihoods for people, but of making a profit. i support laissez faire capitalism and firmly believe in the wisdom of adam smith's invisible hand.

*russia - followed by china - and their proxies (the biggest one of which is iran) are the biggest threats to world peace and security and should be confronted with boldness (something Obama has failed to do - russia and iran are ecstatic that he just won re-election)

my favorite books/authors/thinkers etc are - ayn rand, cs lewis, margaret thatcher, gk chesterton, ben netanyahu, talmage

later.

[creator]

Welcome to the forum.

Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" is one of my favorite books.

We may not agree on everything but what's important is that we can allow each other to believe what they want and respect each other in the process.

[EmmaLee]

Welcome, Jack! Glad to have you here - jump right in!

[MsEva]

Hi, Welcome!

I look forward to what you share.