I'm gonna go with sloth, pride, and greed, respectively.

Same reason Conservatives who think the deficit is killing America continue to deduct their home mortgage interest. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Hecks - The mortgage interest I pay...is *profit* to someone else, and they pay taxes on that profit. It is a business transaction, a business expense if you will - so I see no moral concerns taking my mortgage interest deduction.

How's that?

"sloth, pride and greed"....so self-pleasure comes before any sense of right and wrong to a Liberal? (All these sins are ultimately about pleasing the flesh, yes?)

Also, any true conservative does not say tax revenue is the problem - the problem is *spending* what you don't have. Tax revenue's are as high as they have ever been, and they just keep increasing spending more and more as more sheep suck off the government tit...and yes, more useless, endless wars drain the coffers too

Yeah, yeah, I took the bait.
My point is, you may as well ask, "Why do good people do bad things?" If we were always right all the time, we wouldn't. One works with one's fallibilities as best one can.

And as to mortgage interest being profit and thus non-taxible, that's a tenuous line of logic. Everything you spend is profit for someone else, but you can't deduct your liquor purchases, grocery bill, movie tickets, iPad apps, magazine subscriptions, nor interest on your car and boat loans. Should one be able to deduct *everything* one spends? It would be an interesting way to increase demand for manufactured goods, I suppose. It would be a real bitch as far as people's rate of saving for retirement, though.

hecks - there is a difference between the simple "good people do bad things" and people being openly vocal and often in-your-face about something, and then doing exactly that thing.

Bo telling me energy use is destroying the planet...but he won't do anything to conserve energy after screaming about the evils of energy...that's not just "I stole a cookie". It's just fucking obnoxious hypocrisy of the worst kind.

I don't really feel like refereeing a conversation of he-said-she-said among Webdip members. I already did that last week (on your side, if I recall) with Nigee. But if you're simply saying people ought to practice what they preach, I'm all for that. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go put my computer to sleep, *not* turn off the A/C because we don't have any, and walk (not drive) home. :-P

Actually, hecks, you are wrong. We have a "Standard Deduction" that is supposed to account for expenses...Mortgage is generally above and beyond this.

Not asking you to refereee...I'm using a *classic* example they are found everywhere. Al Gore, anyone? Enough lights in his single home to light a small town? Flies around in a private, gas-sucking jet...but tells you your car is destroyign the planet?

NEXT!!!!

Krellin:

1. What do you think are the three greatest problems facing society today?

2. What are you currently PERSONALLY doing to go about solving each of these three problems?

An individual's adherence to their own beliefs is a matter of individual personal integrity, not a function of their political views. Unless you want to start chatting about the marital fidelity of leaders of the religious right, take your Al Gore beef up with Al Gore.

Exactly Hecks. Whether Al Gore is a hypocrite is a problem for Al Gore, not a problem for environmentalists generally.

(I personally believe Al Gore is a massive fucking hypocrite for going around moaning about problems which he did FUCK ALL about while he was Vice President and therefore actually in a position to take at least some kind of action)

But that hypocrisy on Al Gore's part doesn't invalidate liberals en masse just because Al Gore is seen as a liberal.

Just for Krellin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD5wa7duofo

hey I got an easy answer for you on this one krellin, at least as far as the energy thing goes.... it IS hypocrisy. Just keep in mind that this doesn't mean that all or even most liberals are terrible in this regard - many of us do remember to turn the PC off (myself included, I'm pretty good at this).

So while I agree it can be hypocritical on an individual basis, I think you'd be wrong to conclude that all liberals are hypocrites about it.

As far as women in the workplace goes, I think if you are insinuating that we are hypocrites for not personally ceding each and every promotion and raise to an available female, then you are fundamentally misrepresenting our position on what the government should be doing to promote equality.

I should also be more careful saying "our" since there is as much nuance in thought and opinion on the left as there is anywhere else. It's dangerous to just assume we all feel the same way on a given issue, but since we vote for a single party (much like most on the right do) it's an easy mistake to make.

WHy do Repujblilans wohTHINIK iljlegal immagrents are DESORYING THECOUNTRY hire somany mexians to CLEAN THERE HOUSe?S

"Why Do Liberals who think energy consumption is destroying the planet, never turn off their computer?"

Do they? I believe that most people who *think* energy conservation is a good thing (for whatever reason) do switch off their computer. The other liberals aren't thinking.

In short, i disagree with the premise of your question.

The mortgage rate deduction is horrible public policy. It encourages you to borrow money instead of putting more money down. It encourages you to buy more home so you borrow more as well. The poorest Americans get the least benefit. The richest Americans living in mansions worth tens of millions get the biggest write offs.

Clinton, Obama, Gingrich, Hasset, Harry Reid, Pelosi, and Neither Bush did anything at all about it. The mortgage deduction should be completely eliminated manana!

Abge - I don't think all republicans think illegal immigrants are destroying the country. They provide a lot of labor. I think the general concern is that there are a lot of people that want to come to the country legally, and feel it is unfair that the government wants to simply wipe the slate clean for those here illegally. But there are plenty in the party in leadership positions at this point that have moderate and practical stances on solving the problem.

What's that, krellin? Not everyone in the same political party shares exactly the same views?

Abge, stop putting words in Krellin's mouth. I think you'll find that all he said was, Not everyone in the Republican party shares exactly the same views...

Ahhh.touche, Abge...ALMOST.....only I was referring to a political philosphy (of which not all Democrats would associate themselves) and you were referring to a specific party, which also contains a spectrum of beliefs.

Close, but no cigar...

So...in other words, Abge, are you implying that all Democrats are Liberals, or all Liberals are Democrats?