A couple of discussion points

First Glenn Beck's GREAT piece of Commentary: What's right with America? Plenty

A couple of highlights:

"What's right with America? Our world-class universities don't require you to have an elite family name or Rockefeller-type wealth to get in. We don't care about your race, gender or nationality. You just have to be smart enough and work hard for it. What a concept, huh?"

"What's right with America? How about the way we treat the less fortunate? With no help from our government, Americans gave a record $306 billion to charities last year alone. We give twice as much as the next closest country and, relative to the size of our economies, we give 1,000 percent more than the French."

"What's right with America? It's not just the wealthy who are generous. Two-thirds of American families making under $100,000 a year give to charity. Compassion is ingrained in our culture like no other."

"What's right with America? How about our supposedly third-world health care system? We spend more on health care per person than Switzerland, Germany, Canada, or any other country you can think of. Do we still have problems? Absolutely, but don't fall for "the grass is greener" crowd; every country has health care problems."

By 'We spend more' Beck is referencing the U.S. government... NOT what comes out of our own pockets..... and what people fail to comprehend is that the individual civilians in other countries pay as much or more, the difference being it comes out of their income in the form of higher taxes and provides poorer coverage and access to care....think wait lists. At least we get to choose how we spend our money on health care, at least we can choose our physicians, at least we can get second opinions, and at least we can still get more efficient service relative to the rest of the world. Nearly every hospital in our country has MRIs, CAT scans, and all of the cutting edge high tech equipment that is needed to provide proper care. It's called privatization, it is capitalism, and it is GOOD, not bad. If anything health care needs more free enterprise to drive improvement and competition, definitely not less!

Right on Glenn!

I found the following troubling: Mother Loses Kids After Sending Daughter to School With Swastika Drawn on Arm

Hatred is an awful emotion and should be shunned. That being said, where do you draw the line on the ability of social services to punish those who brandish this monster? If the children are not being physically abused I personally feel the government has no right to do something like this. A giant can of worms has been opened in Canada... and this will likely be a slippery slope towards increased thought control. I'm sure these tactics will probably only be used on white people as they usually are, because after all only white people can be racist, and only white people can spread the likes of racism.

What exactly does it mean to take children away for a parent's beliefs?

I would totally understand, and find it to be a legitimate reason, if the parents are pedophile-polygamists like the radical Mormon cult in Texas... but because someone is raising their kids with bigoted ideas you are going to take them away? If that's true then shouldn't the government be clearing around 50% (or more) of children in every neighborhood in the industrialized world? As much as I disagree with people who dislike, for example, homosexuals, would it be proper for me to demand that fundamentalist Christians have their children removed? (For anyone who gets uppity and says homosexuality is different than being Jewish or Black...... and that the situations aren't similar... they really are quite alike. People who are prejudiced against homosexuals believe that they are sinning, basically doing evil, one might even argue that is a step beyond the bigoted ideas of other races being inferior. And the whole homosexuality "is a choice" idea has no merit either, basically because there is scientific evidence to prove that in most cases it is not... and so what if it is a choice? RELIGION IS A CHOICE ....(although we tend to be indoctrinated at a young and impressionable age) and I'm pretty sure you'd be against anyone persecuting someone because of this...... which really makes this come full circle. )