Glenden,
I think Buttars is a scary old relic and needs to go away. But what word I would decribe him as is not “conservative”. He is an old fashioned bigot. I looked up conservative and no where does it use the word bigot. Now, I know you think they are the same thing. And I know that Cliff says that the “sole reason” that some people don’t like Obama is that they are racists. But being conservative, not supporting Obama and being a bigot and a racist are not the same thing at all.
Just for the record.

‘ The very special orifice of Chris Buttars’

that’s what I read at first, but ‘wow, just wow’ caused me to explore more deeply.

I guess I’m just kinky that way. Should I be ashamed?

Ah yes I see clearly now how there is a direct connection between market deregulation, limited government and intolerance of other races. It is so clear.

Shane, re the study above:

Ex post facto ergo propter heli copter Oh, you know…

Shane, what I was thinking was that it is no more likely that the cringing, whiney kids only grew up to be republics, than that the study was done by a red leaning group who spiked the consciousness of those innocents as an experiment to see just what kind of seeding would eventuate a population of same.

But I wasn’t quite clear on my Latin, my schooling was such a long time ago.

The difference between an ocean and a car: The ocean is vast and turbulent, while a car only has a small, albeit far more volatile, reservoir. The car may also be controlled by Rush Limbaugh.

Joking aside, I’d like to point out that being open-minded is its own kind of bigotry. As my brother said, and I slightly modified, “Being open-minded is simply rearranging your prejudices.” As much as Shane and others like him like to point out the bigotry of others, they are themselves bigots against the so-called bigotry they decry. Each person chooses their method of living and feels that the other methods are inadequate. It’s a liberal conceit to believe that theirs is any more liberating than one of many reasonable alternatives. I’m sorry, but nobody truly lives by the “live and let live” principle; it requires others to do likewise in order to work, and therefore defies the living principles of whole ideologies.

I think the point, however, is that the conservative ideology tends to include a greater share of those people who are too stupid or too lazy to consider other opinions. It does include, of course, many people who have weighed their options and have selected the conservative position as superior. Here we have to distinguish between “conservatives” and those who hold the “conservative position.”

The common American Christian is a “conservative.” He accepts the ideology presented to him because it is (unbeknown to him) socially bound to philosophical concepts he considers to be immutable and fixed. He has been tricked, just as equally as the freshman at a liberal arts college who has been beguiled by the glitz of “new” ideas.

Those who hold the position are more free in their thoughts. They may have explored many positions, either coming from a liberal, conservative, or relatively neutral background, and came to the conclusion that the conservative position is superior.

It should be noted that being “open-minded” may be so simple a thing as being open to ideas that are not currently the social norm. It doesn’t necessarily mean that one is open to ideas that are currently the social norm. The study cited may be more effective at measuring one’s willingness to rebel or to conform than one’s conservatism or liberalism, and it should be taken with a grain of salt–that a willingness to rebel is its own kind of closed-mindedness.

Dwight Sheldon Adams