How old are you?

Old enough to still have it fresh in my mind that high-school sucks.

Sixty eight. Old enough to observe the changes in:
1. Weather -- Ozone factor makes sun hotter and more dangerous to be in.
Phenominal increase in frequency of tornadoes.
Ditto for floods.
Ditto for fires
Ditto for extreme temperatures and volitility of same.2. Dramatic shift of world newsworthy struggle and turmoil from other nations to the Middle East (especially Jerusalem) as the Bible prophesies for latter days of the age. I remember when no modern Israel on the map. It was a no man's land of unproductive waste land.3. To remember when in Wyoming where I grew up, silver dollars in the cash registers and watching the silver vanish and the government renigging on silver certificate promisary notes (silver certificates).4. To remember when WWII broke out and we all saved everything from tinfoil (contained real tin) to scrap iron for victory.5. Moral decline. You younguns haven't a clue on that one.6. To remember when people like Abbot and Costello, Spike Jones, Red Skelton, Milton Burroughs, Groucho Marx, Fibber McGee & Molly, Laurel and Hardy, Victor Borg, Phillis Diller, Lucy Ball, Bob Hope, Art Linkletter, etc really provided wholesome clean and funny intertainment. Most are no longer either wholesome or funny.7. To remember when you went the extra mile to save 2 cents on gas at 23 cents a gallon and when prices were fairly stable for decades.8. To remember when cool meant not warm, pot was a container, depression glass came in cereal, and candy bars were 5 cents.9. To remember when every school child sang "God Bless America," and "My Country, Tis Of Thee," America the Beautiful, Star Spangled Banner and Battle Hymn of the Republic" all acknowledging Jehovah God.10. To remember as an Airman, hitch hiking all over the country with little danger of being harmed when on leave.11. To remember when landlords could rent to whomever they wished, employers could hire or fire whomever they wished, and the size of government was a a fraction of what it is today per capita.

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Moral decline. You younguns haven't a clue on that one.

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Please.Elucidate us.(I happen to speak for younguns everywhere. )

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Please.

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Elucidate us.

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Another thread for another time.

*sigh*And another light-hearted, entertaining thread falls victim to the agenda of a preacher....

buzsaw writes:

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Sixty eight. Old enough to observe the changes in:

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5. Moral decline. You younguns haven't a clue on that one.

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Yeah, like segregation, miscegenation, husbands couldn't be accused of raping their wives, gays were considered psychotic, and an accusation of Communism was all it took to destroy a person.

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9. To remember when every school child sang "God Bless America," and "My Country, Tis Of Thee," America the Beautiful, Star Spangled Banner and Battle Hymn of the Republic" all acknowledging Jehovah God.

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You sang all four verses of the Star-Spangled Banner? Wow...the poem doesn't mention god until the final verse. Same thing with My Country, Tis of Thee...no mention of god until the final, fourth verse.By the way, you do know that the tune to which the Star-Spangled Banner is set is an old English drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven," yes?

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11. To remember when landlords could rent to whomever they wished,

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Especially to keep them darkies out of the neighborhood lest they drive the property values down....

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employers could hire or fire whomever they wished,

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Because we all know women don't do well with numbers....

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and the size of government was a a fraction of what it is today per capita.

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And we had massive unemployment and poverty. Would you like to get rid of FEMA and let the individual states handle disasters? How about dismantling the Centers for Disease Control or are polio and Legionnaire's disease things that we can live with? Because of Medicare, the US has the highest life expectancy for people over 65. It was the federal government that banned lead in gasoline, DDT, PCBs, and CFCs. The Bureau of Economic Analysis is what lets our businesses know how the economy is doing. Let's dump the Consumer Product Safety Commission, food labels, the GI Bill, the Interstate Highway System, Meals on Wheels, the National Crime Information Center, and the Peace Corps, all developed in the last 60 years.Yeah, life was so much better then.------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Are you old enough to remember when all the good Christian white folks in the south wouldn't let the black folks vote, and that those same good christian white folks were so filled with hate and fear towards black folks that our government had to call in the National Guard to protect black schoolchildren from being lynched?What about good old Richard Nixon, who gave our country it's first big reason to seriously mistrust our government?How about a time when it was a popular notion that women and girls who were raped or beaten up by their spouses or boyfriends were "asking for it"? The terms, "Marital Rape" and "Date Rape" didn't even exist yet. Remember back then?You are looking back with rose-colored glasses, Buz.

Rrhain, Zephyr and Schrafinator, thankfully folks who think like you people are still a shade in the minority. When the balance tips your way, America, as we know it will be history and you people along with the rest of us Americans can join the multitudes of the planet's majority oppressed, exterminated, imprisoned impoverished and otherwise generally miserable inhabitants of planet earth.

Oh buz, why is that?It seems to me that what has been pointed out is how much things have improved for the oppressed in the USA. Why is this a bad thing?

You might as well include me in the minority there buz. I would have to agree with much of what Zephyr, Schraf, Rrhain has stated concerning our country. Thankfully this country still allows our voices to be heard.

buzsaw writes:

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Rrhain, Zephyr and Schrafinator, thankfully folks who think like you people are still a shade in the minority.

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You mean most people in this country want to get rid of the CDC, the EPA, FEMA, Medicare, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the GI Bill, etc., etc.?If that were the case, then they'd be gone already. But instead, they keep getting re-approved.Are you saying that most people in this country want to prevent people of different races from getting married? They want to return to segregation? They want to return to the days when a man could rape his wife with inpunity?Do you really think that people want to return to a time when the average life expectancy is in the 40s as it was not 100 years ago?

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When the balance tips your way, America, as we know it will be history

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Indeed. That is because our society will be more just. The Pledge of Allegiance ends with "liberty and justice for all."What part of "for all" don't you understand?

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and you people along with the rest of us Americans can join the multitudes of the planet's majority oppressed, exterminated, imprisoned impoverished and otherwise generally miserable inhabitants of planet earth.

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Strange that you say that, considering that the US is the last superpower still standing. And all that as the country becomes more and more beholden to the ideas of liberty. Look at how far we progressed as a country since the 70s when abortion was legalised and homosexuality was removed from the DSM. Look at how far we progressed as a country since the 60s when things like the Voting Rights Act was passed and miscegenation laws were overturned.------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

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Rrhain, Zephyr and Schrafinator, thankfully folks who think like you people are still a shade in the minority.

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You are thankful that people who admit that our history is not a Norman Rockwell painting are in the minority?I wonder if you have ever heard of the adage, "Those who do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them?"

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When the balance tips your way, America, as we know it will be history and you people along with the rest of us Americans can join the multitudes of the planet's majority oppressed, exterminated, imprisoned impoverished and otherwise generally miserable inhabitants of planet earth.

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Um, what?All of the things I mentioned referred to the improvement of people's basic civil and human rights, and the need for us to carefully choose and be constantly vigilant over those we give the power of office to.Don't get surly and defensive just because you don't like to acknowledge your generation's failings.

When I get to the point where I'm reminiscing about tinfoil drives, cheap candy bars, child labor and vaudeville (or on my sixty-eighth birthday, whichever comes first), I hereby demand that you come to my house and hang me from a fucking sycamore.------------------
En la tierra de ciegos, el tuerco es el Rey.

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Rrhain, Zephyr and Schrafinator, thankfully folks who think like you people are still a shade in the minority. When the balance tips your way, America, as we know it will be history and you people along with the rest of us Americans can join the multitudes of the planet's majority oppressed, exterminated, imprisoned impoverished and otherwise generally miserable inhabitants of planet earth.

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What am I, chopped liver? I'm destroying the moral fiber of our nation too, you know![This message has been edited by Dan Carroll, 08-01-2003]

You are downright scary sometimes.--Percy