The hippies were wrong!

And how many of the unborn cannot be glad to be alive today thanks to the Hippie generation and their position on abortion?

You have the freedom to express your opinions. But beware that you cross the line when you attempt to deny women the Human Right to decide for themselves only what do do with their bodies for the first two tri-mesters. Only the girl or woman decides. The government, myth-based cults, and other persons have no business in the matter.

I just want to take this opp to thank the hippies for steering me in the right direction. I have an awesome life, full of freedom, fitness and great friends and experiences, and it owes much to things like Taoism, diet awareness, free thinking, communal values and other such concepts that you exposed to the mainstream. I mixed these with things like personal ethics, discipline, self-control and basic personal hygiene to become somewhat of a paragon of open-minded yet civil society.

But damn the Grateful Dead sucked monkey balls.

Someone is saying that the reason abortion is legal is "hippies?"

What do they teach in school these days? How many of you were alive for the period in question?

The hippies compelled me to stop smoking.

You don't know what you are talking about.

The hippie movement was not just one neighborhood/Haight-Ashbury, and there was no one unified hippie creed, life-style or set of rules to live by.

Ever see an picture of a young Steve Jobs, or that college drop out Bill Gates? --Hippies.

There is a difference between hippies and stoners, too.

The Horror wrote:

Someone is saying that the reason abortion is legal is "hippies?"

What do they teach in school these days? How many of you were alive for the period in question?

When someone else credits the Hippies with Civil Rights (I guess MLK should thank them for their guidance?) I can take the same liberty and credit them with Roe vs Wade which a previous poster was graceful enough to point out is all about a woman's right to do what she wants with her body...women's rights (a subset of Civil Rights). In fact the Hippies had nothing to do with either. Civil rights were gained by people who did not previously have them engaging in daring civil disobediance. The Hippies were just a bunch of stoned out unwashed losers who have morphed into the "protest anything" crowd we have today. Ironically, we can thank them for pot being illegal today since they have reliably provided a negative image stereotype of the dope smoker when in fact many closet tokers are well-dressed productive members of society.

Regarding abortion I don't want to start that hopeless debate here and I've always maintained a liberal attitude towards it but to say that a woman has a right to an abortion based upon the idea that a woman has a right to do whatever she wants with her body is a false argument. A woman does have a right to do what she wants with her body. Including taking the responsibility to not get pregnant in the first place. I do believe it is a valid issue for the law to decide whether a woman's right to do as she pleases with her body extends to the pregnant condition. There are some interesting legal issues there. To name just two...first, we are not legally allowed to commit suicide, so there are already precedents for things we are not legally allowed to do to our bodies. This can be extended many directions (for instance we cannot put whatever drugs we please into our bodies). Second, on a different tack, why does the father of the to-be-aborted child not have the right to demand the child be born? If not inside the pregnant woman, perhaps transplanted into a willing surrogate (I confess I am ignorant if such a transfer has or can been medically accomplished).

Liberals/Hippies/Etc like to claim the high ground concerning having an "open mind". I challenge all of you to do so yourselves regarding abortion. Carefully think it through from both sides without bias before you fire back with your knee-jerk canned liberal answer about a woman's right to choose...

No need to write back to me since I am not interested in a debate and have already decided how I feel about it...

The Right not to be drafted by the U.S. government and forced to commit genocide was the same struggle as the Civil Rights struggle. Dr Martin Luther King Jr called the Vietnam War "Simply Genocide". Muhammad Ali risked his life by refusing to be drafted into the army by the criminal LBJ regime. American Society made an about face in the 1960s because of the Hippies, Civil Rights, La Raza/UFW, etc.

Obama MUST Stop the War wrote:

The Right not to be drafted by the U.S. government and forced to commit genocide was the same struggle as the Civil Rights struggle. Dr Martin Luther King Jr called the Vietnam War "Simply Genocide". Muhammad Ali risked his life by refusing to be drafted into the army by the criminal LBJ regime. American Society made an about face in the 1960s because of the Hippies, Civil Rights, La Raza/UFW, etc.

Although currently there is no draft and the Vietnam war certainly led to the military reforming itself into a volunteer force, you are mistaken if you think that you have a right not to be drafted. Politicians occasionally threaten to sponsor bills to reinstate the draft (I seem to recall several Dems bringing this up to try to put Bush, etc in a bad light...just political theater in those cases, not a serious threat). But you can be assured that if the country needed you to go to war, the draft would come right back and as a citizen you do not have a right not to be drafted. My wife recently became a citizen and one of the things you must swear to is that you will defend the country in time of need or perform service in support of the nation (don't recall the exact wording but it is pretty clear that you are vowing to defend the nation). Obviously in time of need not everyone is going to be allowed to opt out of combat in favor of some other support role.

I may have come across as an ultra-conservative because of my position on abortion, but in fact I am extremely open minded and really do not fit into a category.

Where I strongly disagree with the Hippies and the whole ideology of that group of people is in their tremendous selfishness. Their logical approach to the world boils down to "If I don't want to do it nobody can make me" or "If I want to do it nobody can stop me". With some issues I could agree with this but they apply it to everything.

Abortions should not be legal just because a woman "doesn't feel like it" (I would accept a better argument if our legal system could present a logical reason why an unborn child should be sacrificed for a woman's convenience). In the case of medical danger or rape I have no problem with abortion.

People should not be able to skip out on war because they don't feel like it (more responsible people give their lives to defend our country and without them we would simply be overtaken by a more agressive adversary). I fully agree that nobody should be above going to war and that it should not be limited to the poor or those without connections. And I agree that we should be able to vocally disagree when our politicians take us into a stupid war. But the time will come when we have to defend ourselves in a necessary war and nobody should be exempt from their responsiblity to fight for the common good.

The Hippies did not believe in our country, only themselves. I am a strong believer in individualism but none of us exists without a land. Part of our responsibility to each other is to defend our land so we can enjoy our right to be individuals. I can understand why Vietnam was a raw deal but that doesn't mean the solution is to abandon each other and pursue only our narrow, selfish aims because once long ago our politicians did something stupid.

Did you serve in an infantry unit ? Or are you just a loudmouth Chickenhawk Coward ? It's fine either way. It's fine if want to commit genocide in Iraq or if you have an opinion about what others should or should not do. But your opinion is applicable to you and no one else, not even your kids after a certain age. That right is what Americans won for themselves in the 1960s. Americans don't have to participate in genocide in Afghanistan because of the Hippies and Black/Gay/Asian/Mexican Civil Rights victory over the repressive U.S. government. Girls/Women can choose what they want to do with their own bodies up to the third-trimester.

Balls wrote:

On the two main issues of the day, civil rights and the war in Vietnam, the hippies were right and the conservatives (of both parties) were wrong.

I should have mentioned civil rights and integration as one of the things that the hippies got right. It did occur to me, but I just forgot to write it. The hippies were pretty much an all-white movement, but there is no doubt that they have to be considered at least indirect allies of the civil rights movement.

I'm not so sure the hippies were right about Vietnam. Look at it this way: I suspect there are a lot of South Koreans who are happy that there were no hippies around in 1950 to protest that war.

You dummy, the Hippies were NOT mainly whites. Kids wanted to get away from the prejudice of their parents. Jews, Blacks, Asians were accepted as equals to the extreme anger of many parents. That's what the 60s was all about. The 60's Hippies and Civil Rights are what made America as free as it is today. The Hippies were a Civil Rights and Human Rights movement just like the Blacks, Mexicans, Asians, Gays, etc. had at the same time. The Hippies and Civil Rights groups had all colors and religions. I know for a fact that the Black Panther Party had Japanese men and Mexican men at it's founding.

Richard Aoki

http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/shoulders-our-freedom-fighters/25972-richard-aoki-japanese-black-panther-not-your-average-asian.html

Mike Tagawa

http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/tagawa.htm

A 100% Japanese blooded man, Richard Aoki, was a founder, and attained the rank of Field Marshall of the Black Panther Party

http://whitewatch.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/remembering-richard-aoki-the-japanese-black-panther-not-your-average-asian/

Obama MUST Stop the War wrote:

A 100% Japanese blooded man, Richard Aoki, was a founder, and attained the rank of Field Marshall of the Black Panther Party

http://whitewatch.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/remembering-richard-aoki-the-japanese-black-panther-not-your-average-asian/

Good point. Unfortunately, you were beaten to that point by ... yourself.

Out of Line wrote:

You have the freedom to express your opinions. But beware that you cross the line when you attempt to deny women the Human Right to decide for themselves only what do do with their bodies for the first two tri-mesters. Only the girl or woman decides. The government, myth-based cults, and other persons have no business in the matter.

Reasonable people can be found on both sides of this argument.

It is quite clear that the unborn child, while dependent on the body of the mother, is not a part of the mother's body. Thus, the difficulty in determining whose rights have precedence and the quite arbitrary trimester based ruling.

Please try to think a little bit before posting simplistic drivel.

Check please.

Hippies and today's youth seem to have a lot in common.

They lay around, do nothing, live with parents until 25, use drugs, expect someone else to do all the hard work. They also want to "check out" of society without actually having contributed anything meaningful in the first place.

Hippies were dirtier, of course.

Overall, I'd probably prefer a group of late-1960s hippies over today's kids. At least the music was better.

"Field Marshall" .....Hilarious!!! Now that's funny stuff!!! Keep it comin Professor Birkenstock.

Obama MUST Stop the War wrote:

Did you serve in an infantry unit ? Or are you just a loudmouth Chickenhawk Coward ? It's fine either way. It's fine if want to commit genocide in Iraq or if you have an opinion about what others should or should not do. But your opinion is applicable to you and no one else, not even your kids after a certain age. That right is what Americans won for themselves in the 1960s. Americans don't have to participate in genocide in Afghanistan because of the Hippies and Black/Gay/Asian/Mexican Civil Rights victory over the repressive U.S. government. Girls/Women can choose what they want to do with their own bodies up to the third-trimester.

You are exposed as a foaming-at-the-mouth brainwashed liberal. Keep fooling yourself with the idea that you have the right to refuse military service should our government find future need to reinstate the draft. Your only "rights" in this regard are the right to renounce your citizenship and thus relieve yourself from your legal obligation to defend the nation. Of course you will then have relinquished your privileges as a citizen and will become a stateless refugee. You may think that your moral misgivings about war confer upon you the "right" to refuse military service but legally you have no such right. The hippies did not gain you the "right" to never have to go to war. They merely highlighted the unpopularity of the draft and pressured the military to choose to go to a volunteer force. In time of need, the Congress can reinstate the draft and the military can come and get you. There is no law or right on the books that will protect you from this.

Your second inappropriate assumption is that I support our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whether or not I do is a moot point since in my prior post I stated that it was a duty of all citizens (and this is a legal duty which one must swear to if one wishes to become a citizen) to defend the country in time of national emergency. This is not my "opinion" but a legal requirement. In the fantasy liberal utopia you might think that there is such a thing as a world without wars but in the real world war is a sad fact of life and sometimes unavoidable. Do you think the French should have just let Hitler roll in and not fought back? Had you been a French citizen at the time would you have sat idly by while your more reponsible fellow citizens took up arms to regain and protect their freedom?

As far as your comment about "Chickenhawk Coward"...that's one of the left's brainwashed codewords for someone who doesn't agree with everything on the ultraleft agenda. Try thinking for yourself sometime. I have not been in the infantry. Not everyone who is in the military is infantry and many brave Americans have given their lives without being infantry. Many who have not been killed or injured in wars have nonetheless made large sacrifices by interrupting their lives to go overseas to an unpleasant environment and support war efforts. I personally have been to both Iraq and Afghanistan but certainly do not consider my time there to have been heroic. I simply fulfilled my job responsibilities. I have had a few bombs go off within 100m of me but do not consider that to be a big deal. I have worked with a few people who have been blown up by IEDs while on convoy (not everyone dies when this happens). I consider those people to be quite brave. If I had been in the situation of coming under attack I'd have put myself on the line to defend those around me. Thankfully this never occurred.

Yes, these wars suck. For better or worse we are in them and we must end them somehow. They don't get ended by sitting at home crying about the awfulness of war and deriding those who accept their responsiblities. You currently have the luxury of not being required to be involved. Let's all pray that it stays that way.

If war was a creation of the right wing, Obama would have pulled back our troops already. Don't be naive and think that only republicans will take us to war. Obama is escalating the Afghan war and there is more and more chatter in the news about a strike on Iran. I don't see how it will be avoided, even Saudi Arabia is hosting Israeli aircraft in preparation. We will inevitably get drawn into this debacle and there could very well be a regional war which will exhaust our current manpower. This is when the draft will get reinstated and your perceived "right" not to go to war will vanish in thin air...

Stop letting the lying media put you on a side in this phony partisan divide. We are all Americans and have the same general hopes and dreams. I want to know that if America is in trouble people like you are going to have my back. I don't want us in any wars but the only way to achieve that is to elect politicians with the courage to bring our troops home. The only one I know of who strongly advocates this is Ron Paul. Who is portrayed as an insane zealot by the left wing and mainstream media. If we all voted for him and like-minded Congressmen, the wars could be over shortly. I wish I were optimistic that the ultraleft could have the courage to vote across the aisle but I am not...

Every older conservative I know hold the exact same sentiment. You sit back and talk crap about a generation that grew up in a world you directly shaped. Our social movements are merely a predictable reaction to the kind of draconian ideals the right-wing and corporatocracy so vehemently hold on to. It's no surprise you are so close-minded that you have no positive expectations for our youth. Sit back and whine, blame illegals and Venezuela while you're at it.