Favorite US president, least favorite, and why?, Also, favorite ice-cream flavors.

Why thank you grant.

Thank. You.

JFK. He was nice. :3

Banana and Caramel are my favorite ice cream flavors (especially when combined).

Yeah



Also my favorite ice cream is mint choc chip. Childhood associations and stuff.

ITT: Rage bait. That said, **** Reagan.

Favorite: Teddy Roosevelt. This guy kicks ass. The Republican party hated him, but the people loved him, so they shoved him on a position with no real power: The vice presidency. GOOD PLAN RIGHT- anyway as president he went around busting the **** out of trusts and doing stuff cool for the environment. He dug the panama canal, put lincoln on the penny, and didn't even swear on the bible with his oath of office. This man is the greatest president ever.

Least Favorite: Ronald Reagan. As an actor, it was easy for him to get public appeal- even though most people didn't even agree with his policies. But also, as an actor, he didn't give two ****s about most aspects of politics and left most of his planning and everything up to his cabinet. One of the few things he did himself was the SDI- which wasn't too bad of an idea, but in practice its not exactly anything to write home about. He didn't have anything to do with the fall of the Soviet Union, but because he was president at the time he often gets credit for it. Reagan didn't do ****, **** Reagan.

my favorite ice cream is chocolate chip cookie dough. good stuff.

Best: Tied between Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy, FDR, and Clinton. They were all big but it's hard to pick an absolute best.

Worst: W by way far.
There was one president, I forget who, but he was only president for a month, then he died. He gets an honorable mention.

This post has been edited by Parakarry on Feb 21 2009, 01:11 PM

I wonder if anyone actually read what I said about Lincoln - and the external link I posted.

Well, my U.S. History teacher did discuss those same things anyway, so in a way, I did read it.

Lincoln deserves a lot of credit for eradicating slavery, removing such an atrocity that was commonly accepted by society isn't an easy task.

personally though I don't like Lincoln too much because he went after the South for seceding. "A house divided against itself cannot stand"- the south agreed with that so they moved out. Lincoln had to go and chase them to get back his divided house- what the hell man.

but I guess it was for the better- I'd imagine the south would still have slavery or segregation at the very least if Lincoln didn't bring them back.

So, should we now go and corral all the nations of the world that have "institutions" that aren't Good by our nation's standards?

lol his-story

well we do that anyway

I had in mind the people who were still saying Lincoln was awesome even after what I pointed out.



Basically, what I think is that the end doesn't justify the means. The abolition of slavery was definitely a good thing, and needed to be done somehow or other, but Lincoln did it for the completely wrong reasons (he was a racist, and might have even said that he would have fought FOR slavery if circumstances had been different - all he cared about, as far as the Civil War was concerned, was power), and he went about the process in an unacceptable manner also (blatantly unconstitutional, oppressive, tyrannical). I don't really think he deserves much/any praise, in view of his motives and methods. Those sorts of things are what define his character, as opposed to what happened as a result of his actions.

honestly I could hardly care about his motives when he gets rid of something as atrocious as slavery. there's a reason we judge people based on what they actually do vs what their intentions were

The only times when people should really do that is when they don't know the others' intentions.

Again, character is determined by motives and methods, not end results.



There is definitely no evidence that slavery could not have been eradicated in some other way which did not involve breaking all sorts of power limitations and trampling on free speech rights. In other words, it is most likely that there wasn't necessarily only one option; there rarely is in politics.

If Lincoln had sought out a more appropriate method, and if he had actually really cared about the plight of blacks, then he would probably have been an astounding president - maybe even the best ever.

Why should you care about someone's motives if they end up doing what's best for everyone? Intentions are something to consider when electing someone for office, but it hardly matters as an afterthought.

Slavery probably would have been eradicated eventually without Lincoln- but Lincoln got rid of it earlier than whenever that would have been. That makes all the difference in the world to make him be a great president.

abridging free speech isn't exactly unheard of either- sure its not great, definitely puts quite a few notches down on Lincoln's greatness. Pretty obvious that he was against free speech to some extent anyway, people praise him for saying "A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CAN NOT STAND" which pretty much translates to "DIFFERENT OPINIONS AND IDEAS WILL DESTROY THIS COUNTRY"- definitely stupid.

Lincoln was a p. cool guy for contributing to the end of slavery

I don't really hate any presidents. I'm not going to say George Bush; the majority of people who say they hate him are just trying to be trendy

Also, any kind of sorbet beats ice cream x100

William Henry Harrison.