No, you are young so there is still hope. Liberal politicians only exploit the less fortunate, however.

With that said - there have been many notable conservative intellectuals in history, as well.

If you really want to talk about celebreities playing piano, there's always Asia Carrera - who supposedly played at Carnegie Hall a few times. Sure, she's not a politician - but she would probably be very persuasive if she were one...

Really? What a concept. I've never associated 'conservative' with 'intellectual', at least as far as social issues go. That is what makes them so dangerous, it's all about hate and intolerance.

You don't have to be incredibly intelligent to be a conservative, but all incredibly intelligent people (who care about other people)are.

If you take a jog through history, you will find many intellectual conservatives, and many liberal conservatives. You can find them in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Ancient India, China, etc, etc. The balance of liberals and conservatives varies according to the culture they are living in, the government, etc.

Religious Right = Taliban. Same concept, different flags.

Far far leftist hate speech, Jason. You need to chill out.

If you really want to talk about celebreities playing piano, there's always Asia Carrera - who supposedly played at Carnegie Hall a few times. Sure, she's not a politician - but she would probably be very persuasive if she were one...

Why would anyone with a high IQ and accomplished musical skills become a pornstar??

I don't know his personal politics, but Rachmaninoff despised both the pre-revolution Russian regime and the far-left Communist regime that replaced it.

As for the United States of America, he said this:



From "Sergei Rachmaninoff, a Bio-Bibliography" by Robert Cunningham.

Is 'money' too obvious an answer?

Hmm, then I guess Einstein wasn't very intelligent.

Nor, going by Damon's account, are most university professors and scientists. Strange world, eh?

That sounds like hate speech, Jason. You need to chill out.

That's a bad comparison, Jason - especially if the only two things they share in common are religious views, and even then they are two different religions.

Christianity has left it's crusading days - they no longer use the sword to gain converts, as far as I know.

Christopher Hitchens is fond of this argument - almost all of his arguments can be boiled down to:
"Terrorism is bad and should be wipe out.
The terrorists are religious zealots.
Religious zealots come from religion.
Religion is bad and should be wiped out."
Sometimes, he adds the argument "scientists are awesome" lol.

You see - that doesn't really work. It's one of those logical examples that people usually work on in school, and laugh because they lead to absurd conclusions.

Given his uneasy alliance with American neocons on the basis of their strong support for the war on terror, I hardly think Hitchens would agree that the Christian right is anywhere near as bad.

It's hard to tell with him - you have a very good point. He might be biting the hand that feeds him there!
Fortunately, it's not just neo-conservatives that believe terrorism should be wiped out. I don't think it's as simple as fighting a war against, say, Germany - and the only true solution is one that would not appeal to the modern mind, but it's something that's easily used as a political poker chip.

I gave up on Hitchens after watching him debate the Reverend Al Sharpton - he had already shown signs that he had basically one argument, but this was the icing on the cake.
The Reverend won the debate quite handily, even though Hitchens never quite understood how he was losing the debate. It just demonstrated his one-track mind and his inability to adapt to a rebuttal he hadn't prepared for - he kept repeating himself over and over, even though Sharpton had demonstrated the fallacy of his argument. It was sadly pathetic. The audience all loved Hitchens, and laughed at the Reverend - but it was quite clear that the Reverned, despite the audience's hooting, had the better arguments.

If anyone can get a hold of that debate (it's easily torrented in a collecion called Atheist Videos), it's well worth watching. It's a wonder that it hasn't been supressed by Hitchens.
It's surprising to me, how well-spoken and reasoned Al Sharpton was in that debate. I had to change my opinion of both men.

AH, thanks alot!

Yes - never are these debates fruitful. At least they can be entertaining on a boring day when there's nothing else to do.

Dunno, but.....look at this!!