[JohnE]

Or more correctly, the United States of America? Rick Santorum is "Fighting to make America America again"...but I would assume that is only the 'mrka that he envisions, the rest of us can go pound sand. So what is it anyway? Who has the right vision for this place? You ferriners, you can opine here too, just dont expect us true blue types to pay too much attenshun. (SARCASM FONT: ON)

Whaddayathink...

 

[Westy]

Making America 'Merica.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

*Shrug*


America is #winning...

 

[insanitylevel9]

 

[kidwoo]

Or more correctly, the United States of America? Rick Santorum is "Fighting to make America America again"...but I would assume that is only the 'mrka that he envisions, the rest of us can go pound sand. So what is it anyway? Who has the right vision for this place? You ferriners, you can opine here too, just dont expect us true blue types to pay too much attenshun. (SARCASM FONT: ON)

Whaddayathink...

The freedom to outlaw gay marriage. The freedom to ban abortions. The freedom to screw poor people out of health care and education......AND what little money they DO earn. The freedom to destroy foreign countries for natural resources. The freedom to tell you what drugs you can and can't put into your own body.

All about freedom really.......

 

[Westy]

The freedom to outlaw gay marriage. The freedom to ban abortions. The freedom to screw poor people out of health care and education......AND what little money the DO earn. The freedom to destroy foreign countries for natural resources.

All about freedom really.......

The freedom to be any kind of christian you want and maybe a jew if you live in a big city.

 

[kidwoo]

Somebody's gotta run the media.

 

[stoney]

When a man sees his end... he wants to know there was some purpose to his life. How will the world speak my name in years to come? Will I be known as the philosopher? The warrior? The tyrant...? Or will I be the emperor who gave Rome back her true self? There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish... it was so fragile. And I fear that it will not survive the winter.

There was once a dream...

 

[Serial Midget]

This is my America - not a bad place to be if you don't take yourself too seriously.

 

[MMike]

 

[demo 9]

 

[Toshi]

Don't forget these:

 

[BurlyShirley]

Guess Im not old enough to remember the post-war, Leave it to Beaver / Andy Griffith Show "good old days," but Im highly skeptical that depiction is an accurate portrayal of the lifestyle of the average person in that period, particularly if you were gay or black or poor or something. Nevertheless, that seems to be the "real America" people want to get back to.

The irony is the ones that are bitching about it (boomers) let it all go to hell in the first place. Their predecessors may have been the greatest generation, but apparently they were terrible parents. Wanton materialism and wastefulness proliferate. Lack of any kind of compassion for their fellow man or ethic toward the land or environment... and all in the name of Jesus. Greed is good and god helps those who help themselves. Modern conservatism can essentially be boiled down to "I got mine, f*ck the next guy" as perfectly demonstrated by recent calls to "reform" medicare... but not for those who are on medicare now and are calling for the reforms, of course. They claim they want to cut spending, but aren't willing to make any personal sacrifice, so they're just pulling up the ladder behind them and screwing everyone else. Real nice.

I'm sure the invisible hand of the free market will care as much about my health as the invisible man in the sky who helps those who helps themselves.

Im rambling. The point is the "good old days" are a myth, and the people who want to go back to them are delusional, greedy, self-righteous fvcks.

So... what is America then?
An embarassment of late.

 

[KavuRider]

Guess Im not old enough to remember the post-war, Leave it to Beaver / Andy Griffith Show "good old days," but Im highly skeptical that depiction is an accurate portrayal of the lifestyle of the average person in that period, particularly if you were gay or black or poor or something. Nevertheless, that seems to be the "real America" people want to get back to.

In their vision of the "good old days", those people didn't matter.

Half of my family thinks this way.
This might sound cruel, but I can't help but laugh as they watch their "real America" fall apart around them.

 

[JohnE]

Thats the biggest problem. Most of "real America", the land of promise and freedom, is underlain by a massive vein of selfishness. I got mine, screw you, my right to mine is greater than your right to yours is the rule of the land. We tell other countires how to run their business, but do the exact opposite. The ideals, words and veiws of the Founding Fathers have been twisted and distorted so much that they do not resemble the original intent in the slightest. Jefferson would lose his mind if he heard what went on today in his and the others names.
Yet people still want to come here...

 

[jonKranked]

I wrote a slogan for his campaign:

"Rick Santorum - Making America White Again"

 

[dante]

^^^^^^^^What Burly said. All I have to do is compare my grandparent's generation (the greatest) to my parent's. My grandparents grew up during the Depression and take "New England Thrift" to an entirely new level. Cut through an extension cord while trimming a hedge? Repair it with some electrical tape. Lamp stop working? Take it apart, rethread wires through it, and it's good as new. You bought tools for a lifetime's worth of work, and you were willing to spend a little bit more so that you could save a lot of money in the future. You kept cars till they literally fell apart. My grandparents voluntarily paid into SS (they were farmers, so technically they didn't have to) so that they would have a pension when they were older.

They kept that thrift all through their lives, and even now when they have a decent amount of money in the bank (they sold 95 acres of farmland in Milford, CT in the early 2000s, some of which was converted to housing stock), they still act the same way. They eat London Broil if they have steak as opposed to Ribeye/NY Strip. They don't buy things that they don't need. They've got a 10 year old car, and up until a couple years ago they still heated their home primarily with wood that was cut down on their property. They also used to (up until ~3-4 years ago) grow a lot of their own food on a 3/4 acre garden plot, freezing vegetables over the summer for consumption year round. They even still use the refrigerator that they got as a wedding present ~60 years ago (as a secondary place for storage, NOT their primary refrigerator), although I shudder to think about the money that could have been saved with a more efficient refrigerator purchased 10-20 years ago.......

NO ONE from my parent's generation is like that, including my parents who are more responsible than most of their age. My parents talk about about their coworkers/friends who still have massive mortgages on their homes thanks to refinancing during the boom, or continually buying new cars and rolling the old loan into the new one, or expecting several grand in tax refunds to go straight to paying down a credit card, etc.

These are people with almost NOTHING in their 401(k) / 403(b), very little saved otherwise, etc. Even my parents who, while ordinarily are relatively responsible (have IRAs, house is paid off, buy cars with cash, little to no debt, etc) have very little in post-tax savings. When they were worried about having to take the minimum required distribution in 2009 (when the market was WAY down) I advised them to just sell what they needed to out of their IRA, and invest the money in a normal, post-tax account. The idea that someone would have a stock/bond fund OUTSIDE of their retirement account was completely foreign to them. I would be shocked if anyone else among their friends/ coworkers had any post-tax funds either...

If anything, I see people in MY generation far more like my grandparents than my parents. Focusing on long-term costs (or cost-savings), driving older, paid-off cars, saving money for a rainy day, etc... Then again, maybe that's just wishful thinking.

 

[stoney]

Concur with BS and Dante. I think we're going to see a lot more people moving back to a savings focused lifestyle. This is already *common* in the mid-west, but not in the urban/suburban area.

 

[Toshi]

Concur with BS and Dante. I think we're going to see a lot more people moving back to a savings focused lifestyle. This is already *common* in the mid-west, but not in the urban/suburban area.

I think we're going to see nothing of the sort. I think we'll continue to see net negative savings, overreliance on credit, and shortsighted decisions as long as it's profitable for the banks to enable this lifestyle... and god forbid we ever did anything to make the banks unprofitable. Not going to happen.

 

[stoney]

I think we're going to see nothing of the sort. I think we'll continue to see net negative savings, overreliance on credit, and shortsighted decisions as long as it's profitable for the banks to enable this lifestyle... and god forbid we ever did anything to make the banks unprofitable. Not going to happen.

I'm referring to after the bottom falls out. Still seriously debating buying a cultivatable and partially wooded land well away from a large urban center. Small house that can be off-grid and I'll be happy as a clam.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

I'll be happy as a clam.

Your Subaru just unzipped it's pants...

 

[jimmydean]

I'm referring to after the bottom falls out. Still seriously debating buying a cultivatable and partially wooded land well away from a large urban center. Small house that can be off-grid and I'll be happy as a clam.

Plenty for sale in Southern Oregon. If it wasn't for the crazy rednecks, I would head there myself.

 

[sanjuro]

I was walking to lunch with my old boss who was a Naval officer. A military jet was flying over and he says, "that's the sound of freedom". I said the sound of freedom are the chants from a protest march.

I think we are both right.

 

[stevew]

this generation...."the generation whose sh!t doesn't stink"

 

[KavuRider]

this generation...."the generation whose sh!t doesn't stink"

Yeah, and who taught them that behavior?

 

[syadasti]

 

[stevew]

Yeah, and who taught them that behavior?

their professors?

certainly not their parents ....they've already thrown them under the bus.

 

[stoney]

Yeah, and who taught them that behavior?

The Fourth Turning

 

[JohnE]

I was walking to lunch with my old boss who was a Naval officer. A military jet was flying over and he says, "that's the sound of freedom". I said the sound of freedom are the chants from a protest march.

I think we are both right.

You both are.

 

[Silver]

I was walking to lunch with my old boss who was a Naval officer. A military jet was flying over and he says, "that's the sound of freedom". I said the sound of freedom are the chants from a protest march.

I think we are both right.

Only faggots walk to lunch. This is America. If you ain't burning oil, you hate Jesus and the troops.