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The Controversial Survey
17 years ago
[01] Do you have the guts to answer these questions and re-post as The Controversial Survey?
Green. Wait, I mean blue!
[02] Would you do meth if it was legalized, and become a strung-out, withered husk of a man/woman you are now?
No chance of that. I know how meth works, what it does, and what it causes. I'd sooner freebase sewage, and keep my teeth. It's one of the few drugs I'd actively OPPOSE legalizing.
[03] Abortion: for or against it?
It's a necessarily loaded question. On one hand, it's not my body - so who am I to dictate what's done or not done to it? On the other, we do need clearer guidelines as to when it's okay and when it isn't. I don't buy the whole 'ensoulment'/damnation/lost potential schtick, or even that God will cry, but I do believe that PURPOSEFULLY ending a life before it's begun (hell, spontaneous abortions happen all the time; and probably 2 of every 3 potential pregnancies terminates itself without anyone the wiser) is something deserving of grave consideration.
When it's a matter of a ball of cells, no problem. Still looks pretty much like a chicken embryo, no problem. Starts looking undeniably human, hm. However, by the time someone who wasn't expecting to be pregnant figures it out, it may be to- or past this stage. That's a tougher nut to crack, and it's why I revile any pharmacist who fails to provide the so-called 'morning after' pill so that we can avoid this conundrum more often. It's really just a bigger version of standard over-the-counter birth control pills, meant to pack enough hormonal punch to make the uterus - briefly - a place that really does not want a fertilized egg, should one happen by.
I won't even touch the subject of partial-birth abortions, which are so barbaric even most pro-choice proponents won't support them. Don't get me wrong: if it's a life-and-death situation, where the mother is going to die, then DO IT - but not otherwise. By the time you start talking partial-birth abortion, you should have already bought baby clothes and had the nursery painted. Better, at that point, to do an open adoption. Those are catching on, and allow a birth mother to not only pick the couple her baby winds up with, but allow her to stay active in the child's life, if she wants to.
Anyway, all-in-all I'm pro-choice...but I disagree with partial-birth abortions and I'm a proponent of open adoptions.
[04] Do you think the world would fail with a female president?
Certainly no further than it's fallen with male presidents.
Come on, people! We're pretty much the only developed nation who HASN'T had a female president yet. INDIA has a female president. Fucking HAITI and LIBERIA have had female presidents!
[05] Do you believe in the death penalty?
Another loaded question, by its nature. To keep it brief, I think we ought to try rehabilitation more. Prisons currently just keep people in holding patterns: they don't really have to learn any new skills that will help them once they're back in society at large. Hell, if anything they learn how to be better criminals - and possibly how to be more cold and brutal - while in prison. Rehabilitation is harder and robs us of that feeling of 'getting even' we love so much (myself included), but it would be better in the long run.
Still, there are DEFINITELY people who cannot be rehabilitated. Sociopaths - think Richard Speck, for instance - have no conscience, no guilt, no desire to change, and they want to keep causing harm. Those people deserve to be put to death: not to punish them, but to protect the rest of us.
[06] Do you wish marijuana would be legalized already?
I personally hate the stuff (the smell of it is - to me - revolting), but I think it's less harmful (or equally so) than alcohol or cigarettes. It's also a fantastic drug to help control pain and enhance appetite, particularly in certain types of cancer. Try to get someone to eat after a round of chemo, and you'll see why the munchies can be helpful.
Sure, they've tried to use derivative compounds to achieve the same effect, but it hasn't worked. There's something about the whole plant that we can't yet synthesize to good effect. So since it's useful and harmless, I'm all for people being allowed to use it just as I can drink (I do) and smoke (I don't) if I choose.
But I do think cigarettes should be illegal, and tobacco executives dragged through the streets and beaten.
[07] Are you for or against premarital sex?
Oh, I'm definitely for it. Placing too big an onus on sex is really unhealthy. We obsess more over something when it's prohibited, and a culture of denial and misinformation leads to terribly unsafe practices. Perversely, when (premarital) sex is most strongly forbidden the STD and pregnancy rates GO UP. The kids still have sex - they just don't know how to do it safely. Add a certain degree of desperation to that, and risk-taking sexual behaviors go up even more. Plus, once those kids have fucked each other blind, AND THEY HAVEN'T ACTUALLY GONE BLIND, the credibility of adults has just been shot - now they may not trust any information from adults, even if it's correct!
Take the pressure off sex, make it not such a big deal, and I think a lot of our self-made problems will fade.
[08] Do you believe in God?
Lots of loaded questions, here. I could write a book on this subject if I were so inclined, and a shit-ton of other people have already. Suffice to say, I believe that if there is a God, then They are so much more advanced than we are that They would have a completely alien mindset. We cannot, by definition, understand God, and there is no guarantee that God - if one exists - could (or would want to) understand us. How many of us try to understand ants, or even try to avoid stepping on them?
[09] Do you think same sex marriage should be legalized?
Loaded! This depends on if you mean a state marriage or religious marriage. States have to follow the Constitution, and THAT pesky little bit of parchment contains the Fourteenth Amendment, providing that
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Also, that whole "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness' bit in the Declaration? There's a reason they picked that order. So long as you're not depriving anyone of their Life, you can have whatever Liberty you can stand in your Pursuit of Happiness. If marrying someone of the same gender and/or sex as you makes you happy, then you should be allowed to do so by the states!
HOWEVER. We exist (supposedly) with the ideal of separation of Church and State. The government doesn't tell religion what to do, and vice-versa. IDEALLY. That does still mean, however, that there is nothing that requires Catholics, Christians, Baptists, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Hare Krishnas, OR ANY OTHER RELIGION to approve of or condone same-sex marriages. That being said, they have to TOLERATE it (no impinging on your Life or Liberty, right?)...but they do not have to like it.
[10] Do you think it's wrong that so many Hispanics are illegally moving to the USA?
This is a hard one to answer. The issue people (read: neoconservatives) like to dig out now is crime. When someone comes into the USA illegally and commits crimes, that's an issue, but it has nothing or little to do with country of origin. I'd have to say that, on balance, most illegal Hispanic immigrants are doing wrong (it IS against the law, after all) for the right reasons: to try and earn money - and provide a better life - for their families that they could not earn back home.
If anything, what is wrong is the amnesty that occurred several years ago. Illegal immigrants that came forward and were registered during that time were fast-tracked to citizenship, assuming no criminal record was uncovered. This was basically spitting in the face of every Hispanic immigrant who had done all of the mind-numbing paperwork and shuffled through the bureaucracy...and who were given no special dispensation after having done everything within the law.
[11] A twelve year old girl has a baby, should she keep it?
That's a decision to be made by the girl and her family, technically. However, at the risk of sounding like MORE of a snob, I'd posit that any family whose twelve-year-old gets pregnant (barring rape) has already indicated itself as unfit to parent.
[12] Should the alcohol age be lowered to eighteen?
Yes. If you can join the military (or be drafted) and get shot at, you should also be allowed to drink. I honestly don't see why this doesn't make sense to others.
[13] Should the war in Iraq be called off?
Tricky question, this. Saddam needed to be removed, no question. He was - along with his sadistic sons - brutalizing his people and anyone else within range who couldn't readily fight back. On the other hand, we went in under blatantly false pretenses. We hadn't yet secured Afghanistan, and spreading our military needlessly thin to settle a Bush family grudge mach was excessively damaging to our nation's reputation. The fact is, we should NOT have gone in when we did.
However, leaving is not a simple matter, either. Our credit in Iraq was already low after Desert Storm. The Iraqis felt like we'd come in, done some damage (to civilians as well), cowed Saddam SLIGHTLY, then booked and left them again without recourse. Right now, they're hesitant to ally with American troops against the insurgents because of that - because if we leave after they pick sides, they're left defenseless with a lot of angry people with guns who they just snubbed. So they're waiting for the proverbial other shoe. And if we DID leave, we'd have to do so with the expectation that we could never go back; the Iraqi people would never trust us to help them again.
[14] Assisted suicide is illegal: do you agree?
Depends. In cases where there's really nothing more to be done - medical intervention is futile and the only guarantees are more pain - then I think being able to choose to get one's affairs in order and to decide to go out as comfortably as possible would be very empowering and far more peaceful.
But then you got a jackass named Kevorkian who showed the potential dark side of assisted suicide. He "helped" people die who were not terminally ill, or in pain - at least, nothing that couldn't be alleviated. He DID kill people who were depressed and might have improved with medication...but we can't know that, because they're dead. In fact, Dr. Kevorkian was a typical doctor-type serial killer; any physician who paid attention to the Hippocratic Oath or had a scrap of ethics would not help a depressed but otherwise healthy individual (or even someone with something else that was treatable) to kill themselves. He used the "dying with dignity" tagline as his excuse for his murders.
If we do legalize assisted suicide, the decision will likely need to require a panel of physicians to make a decision. I'd want to see at least one Phychiatrist and one Oncologist of every such panel, personally.
[15] Do you believe in spanking your children?
Depends on the child, I suppose. I'd rather not, but if all else fails... At the very least, a child needs to be told WHY they were spanked, if spanked they were. Otherwise you can't expect them to learn any sort of lesson.
[16] Would you burn an American flag for a million dollars?
Burn a symbol of a country whose laws specifically protect the right to burn symbols of the country? Cash or check, bitch?
[17] Who do you think would make a better president? McCain or Obama?
OBAMA. Jesus Christ, has anyone been WATCHING McCain? He looked like a senile old man during the debates: he seemed lost, and I half expected him to start pissing in a corner. Add to that the fact that he KEPT ON pointing out how he was "never called Miss Congeniality" as if he were disappointed (but would certainly show them all, after the surgery). He's batshit, and the fact that his own campaign manager has stated that "[McCain] doesn't necessarily speak for the campaign" (or close to that) should have been an OSHI- moment for the nation.
[18] Are you afraid others will judge you from reading some of your answers?
Afraid? No.
Certain and terrified? Yes.
[19] The President has been kidnapped by NINJAS! Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President??
Considering that the current administration is run by PIRATES, one might say the battle was foretold by destiny. I can't interfere with DESTINY.
Green. Wait, I mean blue!
[02] Would you do meth if it was legalized, and become a strung-out, withered husk of a man/woman you are now?
No chance of that. I know how meth works, what it does, and what it causes. I'd sooner freebase sewage, and keep my teeth. It's one of the few drugs I'd actively OPPOSE legalizing.
[03] Abortion: for or against it?
It's a necessarily loaded question. On one hand, it's not my body - so who am I to dictate what's done or not done to it? On the other, we do need clearer guidelines as to when it's okay and when it isn't. I don't buy the whole 'ensoulment'/damnation/lost potential schtick, or even that God will cry, but I do believe that PURPOSEFULLY ending a life before it's begun (hell, spontaneous abortions happen all the time; and probably 2 of every 3 potential pregnancies terminates itself without anyone the wiser) is something deserving of grave consideration.
When it's a matter of a ball of cells, no problem. Still looks pretty much like a chicken embryo, no problem. Starts looking undeniably human, hm. However, by the time someone who wasn't expecting to be pregnant figures it out, it may be to- or past this stage. That's a tougher nut to crack, and it's why I revile any pharmacist who fails to provide the so-called 'morning after' pill so that we can avoid this conundrum more often. It's really just a bigger version of standard over-the-counter birth control pills, meant to pack enough hormonal punch to make the uterus - briefly - a place that really does not want a fertilized egg, should one happen by.
I won't even touch the subject of partial-birth abortions, which are so barbaric even most pro-choice proponents won't support them. Don't get me wrong: if it's a life-and-death situation, where the mother is going to die, then DO IT - but not otherwise. By the time you start talking partial-birth abortion, you should have already bought baby clothes and had the nursery painted. Better, at that point, to do an open adoption. Those are catching on, and allow a birth mother to not only pick the couple her baby winds up with, but allow her to stay active in the child's life, if she wants to.
Anyway, all-in-all I'm pro-choice...but I disagree with partial-birth abortions and I'm a proponent of open adoptions.
[04] Do you think the world would fail with a female president?
Certainly no further than it's fallen with male presidents.
Come on, people! We're pretty much the only developed nation who HASN'T had a female president yet. INDIA has a female president. Fucking HAITI and LIBERIA have had female presidents!
[05] Do you believe in the death penalty?
Another loaded question, by its nature. To keep it brief, I think we ought to try rehabilitation more. Prisons currently just keep people in holding patterns: they don't really have to learn any new skills that will help them once they're back in society at large. Hell, if anything they learn how to be better criminals - and possibly how to be more cold and brutal - while in prison. Rehabilitation is harder and robs us of that feeling of 'getting even' we love so much (myself included), but it would be better in the long run.
Still, there are DEFINITELY people who cannot be rehabilitated. Sociopaths - think Richard Speck, for instance - have no conscience, no guilt, no desire to change, and they want to keep causing harm. Those people deserve to be put to death: not to punish them, but to protect the rest of us.
[06] Do you wish marijuana would be legalized already?
I personally hate the stuff (the smell of it is - to me - revolting), but I think it's less harmful (or equally so) than alcohol or cigarettes. It's also a fantastic drug to help control pain and enhance appetite, particularly in certain types of cancer. Try to get someone to eat after a round of chemo, and you'll see why the munchies can be helpful.
Sure, they've tried to use derivative compounds to achieve the same effect, but it hasn't worked. There's something about the whole plant that we can't yet synthesize to good effect. So since it's useful and harmless, I'm all for people being allowed to use it just as I can drink (I do) and smoke (I don't) if I choose.
But I do think cigarettes should be illegal, and tobacco executives dragged through the streets and beaten.
[07] Are you for or against premarital sex?
Oh, I'm definitely for it. Placing too big an onus on sex is really unhealthy. We obsess more over something when it's prohibited, and a culture of denial and misinformation leads to terribly unsafe practices. Perversely, when (premarital) sex is most strongly forbidden the STD and pregnancy rates GO UP. The kids still have sex - they just don't know how to do it safely. Add a certain degree of desperation to that, and risk-taking sexual behaviors go up even more. Plus, once those kids have fucked each other blind, AND THEY HAVEN'T ACTUALLY GONE BLIND, the credibility of adults has just been shot - now they may not trust any information from adults, even if it's correct!
Take the pressure off sex, make it not such a big deal, and I think a lot of our self-made problems will fade.
[08] Do you believe in God?
Lots of loaded questions, here. I could write a book on this subject if I were so inclined, and a shit-ton of other people have already. Suffice to say, I believe that if there is a God, then They are so much more advanced than we are that They would have a completely alien mindset. We cannot, by definition, understand God, and there is no guarantee that God - if one exists - could (or would want to) understand us. How many of us try to understand ants, or even try to avoid stepping on them?
[09] Do you think same sex marriage should be legalized?
Loaded! This depends on if you mean a state marriage or religious marriage. States have to follow the Constitution, and THAT pesky little bit of parchment contains the Fourteenth Amendment, providing that
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Also, that whole "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness' bit in the Declaration? There's a reason they picked that order. So long as you're not depriving anyone of their Life, you can have whatever Liberty you can stand in your Pursuit of Happiness. If marrying someone of the same gender and/or sex as you makes you happy, then you should be allowed to do so by the states!
HOWEVER. We exist (supposedly) with the ideal of separation of Church and State. The government doesn't tell religion what to do, and vice-versa. IDEALLY. That does still mean, however, that there is nothing that requires Catholics, Christians, Baptists, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Hare Krishnas, OR ANY OTHER RELIGION to approve of or condone same-sex marriages. That being said, they have to TOLERATE it (no impinging on your Life or Liberty, right?)...but they do not have to like it.
[10] Do you think it's wrong that so many Hispanics are illegally moving to the USA?
This is a hard one to answer. The issue people (read: neoconservatives) like to dig out now is crime. When someone comes into the USA illegally and commits crimes, that's an issue, but it has nothing or little to do with country of origin. I'd have to say that, on balance, most illegal Hispanic immigrants are doing wrong (it IS against the law, after all) for the right reasons: to try and earn money - and provide a better life - for their families that they could not earn back home.
If anything, what is wrong is the amnesty that occurred several years ago. Illegal immigrants that came forward and were registered during that time were fast-tracked to citizenship, assuming no criminal record was uncovered. This was basically spitting in the face of every Hispanic immigrant who had done all of the mind-numbing paperwork and shuffled through the bureaucracy...and who were given no special dispensation after having done everything within the law.
[11] A twelve year old girl has a baby, should she keep it?
That's a decision to be made by the girl and her family, technically. However, at the risk of sounding like MORE of a snob, I'd posit that any family whose twelve-year-old gets pregnant (barring rape) has already indicated itself as unfit to parent.
[12] Should the alcohol age be lowered to eighteen?
Yes. If you can join the military (or be drafted) and get shot at, you should also be allowed to drink. I honestly don't see why this doesn't make sense to others.
[13] Should the war in Iraq be called off?
Tricky question, this. Saddam needed to be removed, no question. He was - along with his sadistic sons - brutalizing his people and anyone else within range who couldn't readily fight back. On the other hand, we went in under blatantly false pretenses. We hadn't yet secured Afghanistan, and spreading our military needlessly thin to settle a Bush family grudge mach was excessively damaging to our nation's reputation. The fact is, we should NOT have gone in when we did.
However, leaving is not a simple matter, either. Our credit in Iraq was already low after Desert Storm. The Iraqis felt like we'd come in, done some damage (to civilians as well), cowed Saddam SLIGHTLY, then booked and left them again without recourse. Right now, they're hesitant to ally with American troops against the insurgents because of that - because if we leave after they pick sides, they're left defenseless with a lot of angry people with guns who they just snubbed. So they're waiting for the proverbial other shoe. And if we DID leave, we'd have to do so with the expectation that we could never go back; the Iraqi people would never trust us to help them again.
[14] Assisted suicide is illegal: do you agree?
Depends. In cases where there's really nothing more to be done - medical intervention is futile and the only guarantees are more pain - then I think being able to choose to get one's affairs in order and to decide to go out as comfortably as possible would be very empowering and far more peaceful.
But then you got a jackass named Kevorkian who showed the potential dark side of assisted suicide. He "helped" people die who were not terminally ill, or in pain - at least, nothing that couldn't be alleviated. He DID kill people who were depressed and might have improved with medication...but we can't know that, because they're dead. In fact, Dr. Kevorkian was a typical doctor-type serial killer; any physician who paid attention to the Hippocratic Oath or had a scrap of ethics would not help a depressed but otherwise healthy individual (or even someone with something else that was treatable) to kill themselves. He used the "dying with dignity" tagline as his excuse for his murders.
If we do legalize assisted suicide, the decision will likely need to require a panel of physicians to make a decision. I'd want to see at least one Phychiatrist and one Oncologist of every such panel, personally.
[15] Do you believe in spanking your children?
Depends on the child, I suppose. I'd rather not, but if all else fails... At the very least, a child needs to be told WHY they were spanked, if spanked they were. Otherwise you can't expect them to learn any sort of lesson.
[16] Would you burn an American flag for a million dollars?
Burn a symbol of a country whose laws specifically protect the right to burn symbols of the country? Cash or check, bitch?
[17] Who do you think would make a better president? McCain or Obama?
OBAMA. Jesus Christ, has anyone been WATCHING McCain? He looked like a senile old man during the debates: he seemed lost, and I half expected him to start pissing in a corner. Add to that the fact that he KEPT ON pointing out how he was "never called Miss Congeniality" as if he were disappointed (but would certainly show them all, after the surgery). He's batshit, and the fact that his own campaign manager has stated that "[McCain] doesn't necessarily speak for the campaign" (or close to that) should have been an OSHI- moment for the nation.
[18] Are you afraid others will judge you from reading some of your answers?
Afraid? No.
Certain and terrified? Yes.
[19] The President has been kidnapped by NINJAS! Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President??
Considering that the current administration is run by PIRATES, one might say the battle was foretold by destiny. I can't interfere with DESTINY.
