Why We Shouldn't Talk About Gay Marriage

     There is a very good reason why we shouldn't talk about gay marriage. This is compelling, to say the least. In fact, I would say this is the definitive argument you should use when people bring this controversial subject up.

     The reason you shouldn't talk about gay marriage is because you have absolutely no right to stick your nose into the business of private individuals. What possible argument could you have against people who feel strongly enough about one another to want to make an exclusive, documented commitment. Whether it's a man and a woman, man and a man, woman and woman, or whatever combination works for those individual human beings is none of your business. It is their personal decision, and your opinion is not necessary.

     Homosexuals, like heterosexuals have been around forever. Because I am attracted to the opposite sex does not make me any more normal than my current or past friends and acquaintances that are attracted to the same sex, or even both sexes. Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals don't choose their primal attractions. It's not like picking a team in gym class, and if you think that's how it works you're incredibly ignorant. You aren't just part of the problem, you are the problem. You don't choose who you love, even if you think it is that simplistic. Maybe you should watch some nature shows and see how often same sex encounters happen across hundreds of species. The big difference is, the other animals are smarter than people, they realize this is a normal behaviour and don't attempt to be superior by shaming or attacking their own species for their sexual behaviour.

     Normal. Everyone is the judge of normal. People don't look in the mirror when they are alone and tell themselves they're totally screwed up and everyone else is normal. Unless one suffers from mental illness, the person in the mirror is the measuring stick we all use to judge how normal others are. People who do things we would never dream of, we see them as not being normal. We never think of the possibility someone else's behaviour, opposite our own, could be perfectly normal and we are the oddball because of our self serving desire to believe we are the model of normal. We reinforce this, consciously or subconsciously, by ensuring we surround ourselves with like-minded friends and acquaintances who have reactions and behaviours similar to our own, thereby enhancing the mentality we are the normal ones. But replace your hetero group with one of equal size and opposite sexual orientation and I will guarantee they are every bit as normal as you.

     I consider myself lucky to be interested in the psychological makeup of the human species. I confess to a huge interest in primal behaviour because it is what is the basis of being human really is. As primitive as any autonomous action we all engage in. All those behaviours we have no control over. Breathing. Heartbeat. Our fight or flight reflex in the face of danger, and a wide range of emotions including, but not limited to, anger, excitement, comfort, happiness, joy, pride, love, hate and sexual attraction. These are predetermined things we are born with, they are not learned behaviours, they're nature as opposed to nurture.

     You don't learn sexual attraction. There is no KKK of sexual deviants secretly training the next generation of gays. Gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender people walk among us at all times. They transcend almost all occupations and every sector of society. Some are very successful and some are utter failures, they're human beings, whether they are one of your loved ones or someone else's loved one. What you desire to do in the privacy of your bedroom has no bearing on your dedication to make society better because you're a police officer. No one asks the firefighter saving their family who they sleep with. The nurse that grandma loved, the one who lovingly held her hand and comforted her when she slipped away, did it affect your life negatively if she went home to another woman? Whether you or anyone else disagree with the way other human beings live their lives, those people will still exist in the same numbers.

     Who are you to deny the right of people who love each other to try to live a happy life. They are not asking to hurt you in any way. They won't be going door to door in your neighbourhood to recruit your family into the gay lifestyle. Chances are, they'll get up and go to work, and on their days off they will do work around their home or get away for the weekend and unless you make it a point to either speculate or pry into your neighbour's lives, you'd have no idea whether they were married or not. You shouldn't care, it doesn't affect you just as your marital status/sexual orientation is of no importance to them.

     Unless you are having a same sex marriage, or attending the loving celebration of one, you have no personal interest in the situation. Let others live their lives with an equal right to be happy.

     We shouldn't talk about gay marriage. It shouldn't even be an issue. Marriage isn't between you and people who want to judge you, it's between you and the person you love.

     Stop hurting people.

The Gutless, Brainless Right

     We need people with a social conscience to stop complaining, and to stand up and fight back. I've decided I've had enough. The name of the post is deliberate. I truly hope it will piss the so-called "right" off enough to actually read this. I welcome that, and comments on my blog are open to everyone, whether you agree or disagree it's a forum to speak up.


     Not all of us socialist libtards are shrinking violets. Not all of us will continue to just put up with your insults and ignorance and walk away, knowing we're right, and you're uninformed. Yes, some of us are willing to come off our high horses and get right down in the gutter with your type.


     Am I calling you names? Why yes, I am! Since you feel the absolute right to call me names, I too have the right to reciprocate (I hope you don't have to look that word up, but feel free).


     In a previous post, I asked a few simple questions to Canadian voters of the conservative persuasion. It's telling that only one person had the guts to mention it to me and I applaud him for at least not being a coward. He didn't come back to the blog to post his defense to this blog post asking conservative voters to explain their support for certain things we learned before the last election, but at least he didn't hide.

     This particular post applies to the right, or, as I am now naming you, the anti-socialists wherever you may reside. I know this is absolutely true because many of you call me a socialist (which is explained here) and I know from your various attacks and opinions that you are pretty much against everything I stand for. I feel, considering those facts, I can freely refer to you as anti-socialists. Fair is fair.

     Now lets talk about some of  your favorite issues. Why not start with your biggie. Your raison d'etre, as it were. The economy. I watch you yap and flap your gums about being fiscally conservative and how only conservatives can run an economy and on and on just blowing smoke out your ears and your ass when you actually don't have a clue what you're talking about. When you need services from the government, you want them, no matter what the cost, but you want to pay less taxes. I shouldn't have to begin to put this into a child like statement, but in my truly magnanimous spirit I want to reach out to you, speak to you on a level you understand. Wanting services while paying less taxes is exactly the same as quitting your decent job to work for minimum wage and still living the same lifestyle. That word deficit is another jackass smokescreen, it's additional debt that has interest charged on it, like your mortgage/car loan/credit cards, it's not like being a quarter short for a burger.

     While anti-socialists believe capitalism is a form of government, the rest of us are acutely aware that it's just an economic system which really doesn't work to the advantage of the majority of people but I don't want to get way over your head here. You're willing to believe almost any of the crap they feed you, my own feeling is you are far to busy worrying about me, me, me, than actually taking the time to think this crap through. That would be hard, and you probably have some cage fighting to watch, or you're an activist, vigourously fighting to repeal the imposition of seat belts on freedom loving anti-socialists.

     No one in their right mind would argue against better pay, more humane working conditions, better benefits, and more attention to health and safety...but this is how I know you people are not in your right minds, because you're vehemently anti-union! I've heard it a million times, how greedy union workers are responsible for just about every ill that happens in the economy. Of course it makes perfect sense to you that no blame for anything should fall on the millionaires, multi-millionaires, billionaires and multi-billionaires who own and run these corporations. They deserve to get richer and richer but joe nobody who works to create that wealth for these select people is greedy because he wants his family to have a decent life, a place to live, food to eat, and maybe some enjoyment. You're not okay with having a middle class that has some rights and a miniscule share of the massive profits raked in by corporations every year, but it never crosses your mind that 75% of the entire wealth of the world is controlled by 200 families. More money than those families could ever spend in a million years and there are people who are homeless, starving to death, tens of thousands of children die from having diarreah, but that's their problem according to scum like you.

     There's more than enough money to allow rich people to be rich and everyone else on the planet to at least be able to have basic food, shelter, security and health care. The minute anyone suggests the way things are being run you go on the attack, but your arguments are based on ridiculous rhetoric that can't even stand up to  any level of scrutiny and doesn't reach the lowest level of what should be considered human decency. You're all for them because anti-socialism appeals to the lowest common denominator. It makes the selfish in you somehow justifiable, and you like that. The great thing about you anti-socialists is watching how easily distracted you are by shiny objects. You're so cute, believing all those blatant lies just because they are repeated to you often enough. Well, it worked with the easter bunny, and the tooth fairy, and Santa Claus so it's good enough for the conservative movement. All the crap you believe about the right way to run the economy is merely a byproduct of a steady, unquestioned diet of bullshit, which you happily eat by the shovelful, denying that there could possibly be anything that might taste better. Get out your team towel, stomp your feet, and chant some catchy taking points, stupid people never care how stupid they look.

     Yes, I'm being nasty. Too bad. I've taken it for far too long and now it's your turn. I'm playing your game and I'm not uncomfortable with that. If I hurt your feelings, too bad. The kind of politics you support leads to nothing but misery, but as long as that misery doesn't badly affect you, you don't really care who suffers.

     It would be in the best interests of you anti-socialists to pay attention to the change in my tone when I talk to you. Where I used to attempt to reach out and reason with you, we've gone beyond the end of my patience. I'm far from alone. You ought to take notice of something outside of your tiny world. People are angry at the attitude and they're starting to show it all over the world. The common human being is damn sick and tired of having to always bear the brunt of the excesses of the few. The outcome of the conservative vision (available only in braille) is the loss of hope from the majority of the world's population.

     Without hope, socialists everywhere are turning to anger. Without hope, many people are willing to take to the streets. Without hope some of them are dying in the streets at the hands of government. While you push to make life worse for people who already have marginal existences, you are unwittingly joining a minority who will either change, or suffer the wrath of the disenfranchised.

     We're sick of the right and their blatant anti-socialism. If you want to support economic war against citizens, go ahead and cast your ball in that court. If you want to continue to hate on women and people who have different skin colour or different customs or you believe there is a normal sexual orientation and all the others need to be cured, just keep on thinking like that, it's oh so Hitleresque of you. Oh, you don't like being compared to the thinking of Hitler? Even when it's true? Boo freakin hoo, suck it up princess.

     I'm going to take on all of your false beliefs. Anytime, anywhere. I'm calling you out because for all your bluff and bluster, you people are no more than a bunch of idiotic playground bullies. I don't take crap from cowardly bullies, and if others are a bit too shy to tell it like it is, and they let the likes of you bully them, I am here to get right in your face and stand up for them.

     I'm not your garden variety shrinking violet. Feel free to expound your feeble vision of why you think you're right. I'll always happy to tear a conservative a new asshole. You anti-socialists never were too good at learning from your own history. For a while you were smart enough to compromise just enough to placate us social justice human rights loving peaceful folks. Now, because you are actually dumb enough to believe your own publicity you have no idea what's coming soon to an unjust society near you.

     While old white guys like me will attempt to tell you the truth about the path you so desire, it's the young, the poor, and the racially and sexually oppressed that will finally reach the breaking point. I was hoping I'd never have to consider such a thing in my lifetime. We've come to the 21st century equivalent of "Let them eat cake" and more and more people are ready to see heads roll.

     You're a bunch of foolish Neroes, fiddling with your talking points, unaware the time could be short before Rome burns down around your ears. You encourage the rape of the environment. You favour greed over compassion. You back the factors that have led to the fall of many a "great" civilization and I'd sure rather we could work together for the betterment of people, but I don't think you have it in you.

     I don't hate anyone. But I sure don't like you much.

     Bring on your best, you gutless, robotic, anti-socialists. I'm ready.

   

What conservative voters cannot explain

     I guess I can chalk this one up to entertainment purposes. I have questions I've been trying to ask conservative voters since the election writ was dropped, so far, not one of them can come up with any kind of suitable or sensible answer to any of my questions.

     I hope some of you will crawl from wherever you're hiding in shame and provide your explanations of my few questions below. But hope and a buck fourty will get me a medium coffee at Tims.

     Let begin my variety of things I want conservative voters to explain. I suppose conservatives don't have the nads to read this, so perhaps my usual readers will have a few more questions to throw out when they too are under attack by trolls.

     First, I'd love for you to explain your view that your party is good for the economy. I call it clueless to go from a 16 billion dollar budgetary surplus with a sustained pattern of making actual payments on the principal of the national debt to running the largest deficits in history. You call it good management. Explain that one, or perhaps this is how you handle your personal finances so it's normal for you.

     That's not the hardest question I have for you, my dear conservative voter friends. That's merely a test to see how one can wholeheartedly support lying to oneself. If I've learned anything, it's that conservatives have no time to be bothered with facts.They have too much on their plate studying rhetoric and foolish talking points. I also have to give honourable mention to their vocabulary when it comes to name calling and swearing when one attempts to introduce facts into the conversation. Bravo.

     So...tell me how you look in the mirror every day knowing your choice of Prime Minister is widely known to be a control freak who rarely opens his mouth to do anything but lie. You idolize a man who surrounds himself with criminals (Bruce Carson, Top Aide in the PMO and a 5 time convicted fraudster). That's not enough, the slime continues with his fundraising senators, 2 of whom have fraud charges pending. No suggestion they step down, not even so much as a suspension. You must be proud of that! Talk about the moral high ground! Since you think it's fine to blather about being tough on crime without a clue what that even means, even if we could pretend Harper didn't know Carson was more than a tiny bit crooked and engaged in dangerously looney behaviour with women of questionable character, someone had to have given him very high security clearance for his job. Even when the lurid details were publicly revealed, no call for an investigation how these serious crimes could be overlooked. No heads rolled for whoever cleared him, which also wasn't revealed no matter how many times the questions were asked. Plenty of staffers were thrown under the Harper bus during the election, but they were all low level functionaries. The obviously provided traction for the supporters of people of such high moral fibre.

     Let's discuss outright theft from taxpayers. Don't tell me you don't know or have never heard of the "In & Out" scheme. I suppose you're fine with a political party stealing money from taxpayers, or, your party stealing it (you're still indignant about Adscam but that was a different party). I guess that's acceptable to tough on crime conservatives. Now if you don't understand in and out, it's basically the same thing as going to an ATM, making a deposit with an empty envelope then withdrawing cash. I guess only good conservative citizens engage in this type behaviour, I know I'd never do something like that. They may not have defrauded banks, but they claimed illegal subsidies for local advertising to the tune of 1.2 million dollars, tax dollars, from your pocket too dummy. I guess that's the conservative "cost of doing business"

     Now if you're going to support a crew of thieves, you might as well shred all of your moral fiber and cheer on the misappropriation of 50 million tax dollars for one riding, Tony Clement's Muskoka riding. Aside from presenting parliament with a request for dedicated money to improve the speed of border crossings (which is actually very important for business) and taking a 50 million dollar chunk to spend on Gazebos and portable toilets and beautification ideas like signs and fancying up the areas where the G8 leaders never went, the spending itself was decided by politicians alone, with absolutely no paper trail or consultation with senior civil servants as has been the practice since confederation. I admit I don't understand how you could possibly be ok with this, but you are. I'm not, not with any party.

     It only makes sense that you support pesky little things like altered documents and tabling in the house of commons a document which contained two blatant lies, using the words of highly respected individuals (former Auditor-General Sheila Fraser, and Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page), taken from other documents or interviews about other subjects and using them to give the official impression these two watchdogs were praising them. That's more fraud. To be kind, it is encouraging plagarism which will earn you a quick exit from any university, and cost the Dean of the U of Alberta medical school his position just recently. I guess your kids will grow up with no values either, what with your wholehearted support of such activities.

     I have plenty of other things I'd like to know, as soon as you answer to these.

     You condone criminal behaviour, you're ok the theft of taxpayer money, you are 100% fine with people who lie, who are vindictive and try to destroy the lives of innocent people (Helena Guergis for one), you don't mind if they fritter away billions of dollars your grandchildren can't afford to pay. You are open and accepting of outright fraud. Hell you must be a swell group of people.

     Glad you aren't my people.

Spare me your outrage

     I tend to say a lot of things people don't like. Generally, the reason they don't like the things I say is due to the fact it's the truth. Everyone professes to want the truth, however, when it's delivered to them on a silver platter, rather than be grateful for getting the gift of truth, usually they get outraged.

     Although that doesn't see to make sense to truth loving people everywhere, it is, alas, also a truth. Those who generally speak the truth will know this is a fact, and only because those receiving the truth only really want the truth if it matches their particular belief (or opinion). Try it for yourself. The next time you happen to see or hear a friend or acquaintance going on about a topic and you can make a truth delivery, feel free, but brace yourself for the reaction. Sometimes it's nasty. Usually it degenerates into something that would leave you mindful of the first grade and one of those "Oh yeah?" "Yeah" scenarios. I get it all the time.

     So, as is my lot in life, I am sure I'll get flamed for this post, but it's true so I'm going to get it out there. I'd ask you to spare me your outrage, however, I know there are plenty of people out there who won't be able to look past the end of their nose on this.

     What sparked me to write today's post was an article in my local newspaper (Moncton, NB, Canada) regarding a dog being found dead, overheated in a car in Burnaby, BC (on the other side of the country a few thousand miles away). Don't get me wrong, I love animals and whoever didn't know better than that deserves whatever the law sees fit. What bothered me is this was even taking up space in my local newspaper. A dead dog, unless he died saving someone's life, is news to the owner and associated family and friends, and perhaps in this case, a matter for legal authorities and an opportunity to educate other slackjaws its a bad idea, but it isn't newsworthy at all. It's part of the reason important news and issues are never discussed. We have to make room for this crap.

     It made me think about how much media time is wasted on issues of minor consequence, just because they evoke some strong emotion. It's easy to get angry about some moron leaving a defenseless animal to suffer and die while they were off tending to things they figured were vitally important, like shopping. How many times are you bombarded by animal shelters that have too many pets and "may have to put some down" or a half page story about the recluse who devoted his life to collecting 396,423 unique matchbooks.

     So here's some truth for you. I'll be happy to acknowledge the validity of crap like that when the media ensures that not only are we aware a dog has been murdered 4 time zones away, but that every 3.6 seconds of every single day there is a child who is starving to death somewhere on the planet. This is not unavoidable. There are children being sold for sex, orphan children who care for entire families, children who live in cardboard boxes or less and forage in dumps for scraps of food. There are literally hundreds of millions of people who live every single day with no access to running water, or even clean water for that matter. They have never seen a doctor, nor will they. Every minute of every day of your life, somewhere on this planet, innocent men, women, and children are "collateral damage" in any one of the many wars being waged at any given time. I don't apologize for believing if people were relentlessly reminded of the problems of the world we'd do something to fix them.

     That's why you're only reminded of these things in passing. You might demand some of the real problems get fixed. That couldn't happen as people make lots of money off the misery of the world. So it's dead dogs and bottlecaps for you, who cares if starvation or current wars or any really serious things become more than a passing issue.

     Most important, get your pet spayed or neutered.

     Priorities.

Why they call me socialist.

     I went most of my life without ever having been labelled a socialist. It's only been the last decade or so that partisan politics, which used to be fought over policy differences, has fallen to the level where people no longer have a point, they have an ideology. They don't want to hear your ideas because theirs are always right and you are stupid because you don't realize. So since you don't agree with idealogues, they resort to name calling.

     More than any other tag, I have now largely been labelled as a socialist. Don't feel bad for me, I can defend my positions very well. If I couldn't I would not have a firm position. I thought I'd run through some of the reasons I've been called a socialist and I'll allow you to decide what label you want to put on me, if any. I actually have a name, you're welcome to use it, or call me whatever you wish, that's out of my hands.

     The first time I was called a socialist, I remember well. I had been engaged in a discussion at a party, a group was discussing a fundraiser for local food banks. I join in, since I've seen this stuff first hand and if I can help I will. In the course of the discussion, I remarked it was too bad food banks exist and I wish we could use all our energies fighting to ensure no one needed a food bank. One of the participants looked at me and said: "You're a socialist. It's because of people like you we're in such a mess. The government can't take care of everyone.". I was taken aback. So I replied, "If government is not for the people, all the people, aren't we going against the exact thing government is supposed to do?" . The answer? "Government isn't for all the people, just the winners. You can't make everyone happy.".

     I immediately withdrew, in order to avoid what surely would have become a nasty disagreement. I'm passionate about what I believe to be right and I don't wither under any attack, intellectual or ideological. I am as comfortable in a fight for the moral high ground as I am in a knock-down drag-out gutter brawl. If you choose to lock horns with me, I have no problem with whatever tone you set. Bring it on, may the best person win.

     This was my first experience in Canada with what I prefer to call the "republican" attitude. I've watched it in the states for a long time, it's a very mature process there and was actually picked up on by Harper and his backers a decade or more before I was first called socialist.

     Here, for your own judgement, are some of my core beliefs. If you wish to label me that is your choice. If you identify with me, great, I'm sure we'll be great friends. I don't mind if people have different views than I do, that's how we are supposed to learn from one another. Happy reading. I really appreaciate those willing to comment below, it helps me improve this blog. Again, thanks for reading.

     These are things I believe in:

     I believe in justice for human beings. Not just criminal and civil justice, but social justice as well. Not because I need social programs for myself, but because I recognize there are people who are neither as lucky as I am, or those, for whatever reason, who are either unable or unwilling to care for themselves. I am not here to judge others, whether it is due to their success, or their failure. That is not my place.

     I believe in the equality of all people. I do not believe any person on this planet is any better or worse than myself. I bow to no one, nor do I ask anyone to put me on any kind of pedestal above any other human being on this planet. We all have our own merits and demerits, some similar, some different, but in the end, If you cut any human they will bleed. If a human loses their mother, almost universally they will feel pain, and they will cry. We all feel happiness, sadness, love, and the myriad of emotions that make up the human spirit. These are the unalienable ties that bind us all, regardless of skin colour, country of origin, choice of personal beliefs, sexual orientation, political views, Language, religion, none of that matters for one simple fact. One truth. There exists only one race, that is the Human Race.


     We live in an incredibly wealthy country. On an annual basis, in the 21st century, we still allow people to suffer on the margins and in poverty. We have continually watched our own lives go from liveable to the point where we need to obsess over our personal spending in order to maintain our standard of living, not luxurious by any extent. Meanwhile, we don't realize that just considering the staggering amount of annual profits for only the top 50 companies in Canada, a portion of those funds could be used to give every Canadian a better life, a better education, better health care, better infrastructure, and most of all, a better future.

     I am not anti business, I am not against wealthy people. I have no problem with those who are successful, however, very few business or wealthy people succeed alone. Business' depend on workers, on consumers, stars of stage, screen and sports depend on fans. I'm not asking anyone to give everything up, just to share enough so no one is in need and so we all have a better society.

     I believe if people weren't abjectly poor and uneducated or under-educated we would have less crime. That if all of society, people, business, and government, were kinder and more considerate of the feelings of the lesser among us we would be more peaceful. I believe if we wanted to we could easily have a better society, not utopian, never totally equal, but one in which everyone is secure in the knowledge they won't go hungry, that they will always have some place to live, that they don't have to worry they won't have heat or electricity or clean water, that they have a right to an equal education, and should they desire to improve themselves and our society by furthering their education they should not need enter working life saddled with debt. That no one person is more deserving of the opportunity to enrich all of us than any other, regardless of social standing.

     I believe proper health care is a basic human right, applicable to every man, woman, and child residing on Canadian soil. If we set our priorities for the betterment of society, for a better Canada, we will make the biggest contribution to mankind any country ever has in history. We could prove that people can still get rich without the misery of having people who are poor. The more we educate ourselves and our children, the higher standard of contribution we give to the future of our country. If we could change the mindset from whoever has the most, wins, to something more kind and rational such as I have more than I need so I can give up a portion so others don't need to suffer. It's still capitalism. There will still be the rich and very rich, successful and very successful, but by taking an edge off that to go toward building a better society with a brighter future, we become the capitalism we should strive for. I truly believe this is possible, and rather than hurt anyone, it will help everyone and society will actually advance. Others will see the sense of this approach, as happier people are more productive and cause less problems to society.

     I just want to leave with a bit of an example. You can check published sources for the profits of the top 50 or more Canadian corporations. I know the total was actually higher, but for my purposes, I'm going to use 100 Billion dollars as the profit number for last year. Knowing how economies work, let's say it's fair to assume some years in the last decade they made less, others they made more, so I'll say in the last decade, corporate profits in Canada have been one Trillion dollars. An impossible number to grasp in your head. I see nothing unreasonable in saying to corporations, as you have the right to do business in Canada, you too have a responsibility to share with citizens a portion of the profits for the betterment of society. In return, you will receive more educated, healthier, happier, more well adjusted people working for you. Threats to your person or business will be greatly reduced when people are not angry or hungry or unable to get the medical treatment they need. We, as a society, want just 25% of what you take from society after all the bills are paid. You still get 750 billion excess dollars, and society has 250 billion to invest into the health, education, and the well being of an entire nation. This year alone, corporations could have taken 75 billion dollars in profits, and what benefits to society could have been had with 25 billion dollars to take care of health and education and ensuring at least basic dignity for our fellow man. The rich still get rich. The only difference between rich and super rich is the numbers, there are a few on earth who could never possibly spend all the money they have in 1000 lifetimes. They accumulate wealth neither they nor their families nor all their friends will ever need yet people starve to death ever day. It's wrong. Rich people are people too. People run corporations. The shareholders who demand ever more profits are people. We need to appeal to the humanity that exists somewhere within all humanity. Only then will we truly move forward as a species.

     If those things make me a socialist, or any other label you want to put on me, so be it.

     I'm comfortable with who I am and will die with few regrets.