northern virginian

A native born local resident of the Northern Virginia DC Metropolitan area. Northern Virginians are considered Northerners by everybody but themselves. They comprise a small fraction of the small fraction of the native born Virginians that live in the Northern Virginia area. They occasionally ponder the possibility of splitting away from Richmond, taking their money with them and forming a separate state. They regularly tell personal anecdotes about literal run- ins with Maryland drivers.

Billy: " Aren't you sick of being treated like crap by the suits in Richmond?"

Bob: " Yeah, I think we should keep our tax dollars right here."

Billy: " You were born in this area, weren't you?"

Bob: " Yep, Northern Virginian born and bred, baby!"

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dea

Everyone is a critic, but nobody gets it right; the DEA stands for the Drug Enforcement ADMINISTRATION, not agency. It was created as a law enforcement agency in 1973 under the Department of Justice with the purpose of domestic enforcement of drug laws as well as the investigation of drug trafficing abroad.

Previous posters: "I hate the government and all its agencies so I'm going to make fun of the Drug Enforcement Agency!"

Informed respondent: "I respect your right to hold and express and opinion, but if you're going to criticize the organization, at least know what the letters DEA actually stand for."

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liberal

Unfortunately, nobody on here has truly captured the meaning of "liberal." Liberal inherently implies desiring change or reform of the current system, whatever that system may be. Conservative is obviously the opposite; it describes something or someone who wants to conserve the status quo and reject change.
Some people get confused by the notion that the United States differs from the rest of the world in terms of its usage of liberal and conservative, but it does not. The reason it does not is because the economic system in place at the foundation of the US was based in a free market, not a restricted one. Therefore, in the US, fiscally conservative implies wanting to conserve what was originally present, a.k.a free market capitalism. Liberal economics in the US obviously steer away from that since, as it was already pointed out, liberal implies change.
In most other countries of the world, liberal economics implies gradually freeing markets more (becoming more capitalistic), instead of less. To some people (see previous posters), this is opposite the system we use in the US, but IT IS NOT. Liberal economics, a.k.a changing the economic system, in other countries means becoming more capitalistic because they originated from oppressive economic systems.
In summary, liberal means advocating change and conservative means advocating conservation. Those definitions apply EVERYWHERE. They may appear opposite in different places, but that's only because the "status quo," or the situations, in those places differ.

person 1: If JFK ran for office today, then he'd probably run with a conservative platform.
person 2: You're absolutely right, because what was liberal in the 1960s is conservative today. That's because the situations have changed, but the terminology hasn't.

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