Mel states the following ways to know you are a liberal was posed as a joke

I took offense since conservatives try to control discourse by controlling definitions, and responded below:

Mel rejoined as follows: I think that Cliff’s comments are, for the most part, marginalized by using peripheral examples to make an argument to refute the reality. 

Cliff responds:

What does Mel mean by marginalized?

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.

I’m against capital punishment based on testimony of jail house snitches paid by the prosecution

I am concerned about Capital punishment despite the fact that I agree with it.  In the present system the review of capital cases is so extensive so as to give every possible outlet to the innocent. 

I am personally opposed to abortion for myself and family.  Having said that, I do believe in a couples right to choose.  My problem is that abortion is frequently used as birth control.  This is not benign.  There is a small but significant complication rate to abortion, including death and infertility.

Thus 17 innocent men we executed in Illinois.

2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

I’m in favor of competitive free enterprise, not monopolistic lasses faire.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean communists.

I’m pissed that Bush has let the North Koreans get 20 more nukes.  The Chinese got their nukes under Eisenhower and Nixon.

I don’t think private citizens should have 50 caliber machine guns or that youth gangs should have MAC-10’s.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding.

This on is really dumb.  Most of the art before the 19thy century was sponsored by governments and the church.

Now the GOP would have government censor art.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical documented changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.

I agree with most scientists not funded by oil companies that global warming is a problem and that reducing CO2 and methane can reduce the melting of rate of the Greenland ice cap and the ice on Antarctica.  I am also concerned that the coral reefs are being decimated by higher water temperatures and fertilizer run-offs.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural.

Tell that to the Log Cabin Republicans and Cheney’s and Ginrich’s children.  But the Islamofacists agree on your point.

7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

AIDS is spread by unprotected sex.  Abstinence-only programs are documented not to work.  Condom use and needle exchanges are documented to work BUT the religious right hates sex unless they’re having it with whores.

The gay lobby has had a very significant effect on our society because of AIDS.  It is insane not to have every person admitted to a hospital tested for AIDS.  In the past all hospital patients were tested for syphilis.  This gave a very good basis for population statistics and availed those with secondary disease to be treated to avoid tertiary disease.  It has also taken a very large, disproportionate amount of research dollars away from other basic research at our many institutions.  A great deal of this research has been clinical which is not nearly as valuable, in the long run, as basic research.  At the University level, funding of approved grants has fallen from the 70th percentile to the 85th percentile being funded.

8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th-graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

Unqualified teachers are the result of low incentives to become teachers.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists who have never been outside of San Francisco do.

Some of the hunters you love shoot each other, let camp fires start forest fires and litter the forest and fields with beer cans and candy wrappers.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

Liberals believe in meritocracy while conservatives believe in legacy and inherited wealth.

11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make The Passion of the Christ for financial gain only.

I demur.  What’s does this have to do with anything?

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

The NRA goes overboard in wanted every gangster to be armed with MAC-10’s thus forcing housewives to arm themselves THUS making lots of money for the arms industry who pays for the NRA.

Just as an aside, making concealed weapons legal in parts of Florida markedly reduced crime in those areas.  At the same time, the ACLU has gone off the deep end on many issues.  Remember that almost every citizen in Israel is armed.  Gun violence of Israeli to Israeli is nil.

Please provide real data on Florida crime rates.  You must demonstrate that the crime rates are lower than similar states with limited concealed carry laws.

Please provide similar Israeli data.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

Taxes are too low if we go to war with too few troops because we can afford to pay for the right sized military.  Taxes are too low if our borders are porous because we can’t afford fences and sufficient Border Patrol.

As one example, the present tax cuts raised Federal revenue beyond all expectations.  John Kennedy understood this very well when he instituted the largest tax cut ever.

It would follow that zero taxes…

But you didn’t respond to my points.

14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Thomas Edison & A.G. Bell (Canadian!).

You left out Teddy Roosevelt, who would laugh at you and your dumb remarks.

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

Liberals are in favor of standardized tests.  Your buddies are in favor a whites-only board rooms and blue eyed quarter backs.

16. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton is normal and is a very nice person.

So you fear the Clintons and FDR and any other liberal who understands power.

17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.

Liberals are not collectivists.  They believe in a square deal for everyone.  You’re still pissed of that TR broke the trusts.

18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and a sex offender belonged in the White House.

Which conservatives tell the truth?  Not Cheney, Not Bush, Not Condi Rice.  Cheney still says Iraq was behind 9/11.  Rice still says no one could have anticipated crashing planes into buildings.  Tom Clancy wrote a book on it in 1994.  The FAA ran exercising on it.

19. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag, transvestites, and bestiality should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

Manger scenes on private property are legal.  Macy’s Christmas parade and Hollywood’s Santa parade are legal.  What is illegal is using government property to promote religion.

In addition, Gay Parades are government "sponsored" since they require permits and significant government paid police protection.  They are neither free nor private.

Thus all parades are government sponsored.

Actually a parade is a 1^st Amendment right.  “The right of the people to peaceable assemble shall not be abridged.”

20. You have to believe that illegal Democratic Party funding by the Chinese Government is somehow in the best interest to the United States.

No I don’t.  I don’t like Bush family members being on the Chinese payroll or the Saudi payroll either.

21. You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right wing conspiracy.

Since you got all these lines from right wing talk radio and they get their talking points from a daily email, YES I do think you’re a right wing dupe.