So when was America reallly, truly awesome?

Jensenman wrote: Let me put it this way: what is the ONE country on Earth people will risk their lives and those of their families to get to? As far as I can remember, no one's ever made a raft and tried to leave America for somewhere else. Oh yeah, some folks have left to avoid taxes or prosecution for crimes but as far as I'm concerned that doesn't count. Having said that, 1) there are problems 2) there is no other place on Earth I'd rather live. Well, maybe the Australian outback if but only if I can carry a gun to kill those creepy huge spiders. If there is one area I am concerned about, it is the growth of the government (federal, state and local) and the resulting intrusions into our daily lives. We haven't lost any civil or human rights, but I mean other stuff. There are a lot of people who have wormed their way into the process to try to change the behavior of others to suit their view of how things should be, and inthe process some of what I think made America great has died. Example: when I was a kid a bunch of us rode dirt bikes all OVER the place. As long as we were respectful of private property rights we had ZERO problems, we were just kids having fun and not hurting anyone and the people around realized that. Now, just try to do that. There is no tolerance for anyone doing such a dangerous thing; laws have been passed so that some bastige in a uniform is going to tell you that you are damaging some trumped up something or other and that you need to get gone. Such bullE36 M3. I also see a near paralyzation of many other endeavors or prices being jacked out of sight on many necessities due to excessive and mostly stupid lawsuits. No, I won't belabor the McDonald's coffee lawsuit again, even though it is a perfect example of what I am talking about. But nowadays you can't do squat without someone looking over their shoulders for a lawyer who will win a big award and kill a little more of the pioneer spirit which really made this country great. As a perfect example I could mention a recent development here in SC which is a correction of an earlier good arrangement which went bad due to lawsuit concerns and then went good again but to do so on teh int3rweb could create problems which would put us right back where we started, so the J-man's lip is zipped. See what I mean? But still there's nowhere else I'd rather live.

I think that the real reform shouldn't be health care but tort reform. The lawsuits and payouts for some of the most ridiculous reasons have caused some of the issues we all hate. High health care and insurance prices due to frivolous lawsuits, and (to some) the increasing weight of sports cars in the sake of safety. In some ways I am surprised that motorcycle companies haven't been sued yet for making dangerous vehicles

senador, you want a laugh re: motorcycle lawsuits? Just one of many:

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/30/us/man-is-awarded-19-million-in-suit-over-cycle-accident.html

Over this:

In the early '70's, some guy with, IIRC, a CB750 Honda rode off with his kickstand still down. Of course, the first time he wnt into a left turn the stand snagged and the bike did a big old hop. He went down and was injured. So our intrepid rider sued Honda for making a kickstand that wouldn't tell him when it was down. So Honda put this rubber doohickey on the kickstand of every street licensable motorcycle they made. It's designed to pop the kickstand back up in the event it's accidentally left down. See the arrow? That's the wear limit, when it gets there you need to replace it.

So the guy in the story linked above left his sidestand down, he crashed and he complained that the rubber doohickey was defective. He won $19 million.

So now every street legal motorcycle out there comes with a sidestand kill switch. if you start the engine and put it in gear with the sidestand down, it kills the engine. From personal experience, on dual purpose bikes it's aggravating as hell to be riding fast on rough ground and have the sidestand move because it'll kill the engine at the worst possible moment.

Or the 'leg protector' furor several years back:

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:STSb8pWC31EJ:www.mrf.org/articles/1997/liabil.html+dangerous+motorcycle+lawsuit&cd=20&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

The original article is no longer available, only the cached version.

4eyes wrote: 1 9 6 9 You guys have forgotten, then income tax was VOLUNTARY One person in a middle class job could buy any car made in the US, and pay all the other bills. Our currency was backed by gold in Ft. Knox, not (it's worth $20.00 for a 20 dollar bill, just because)

I suppose this was a little tongue-in-cheek.

Average household income in 1969 was $7000; if you spent 6 months salary on a new car you got a Chevy Nova with one of the hotter engine options. It would be difficult for your average earner to save up $15000 for an Imperial.

chaparral wrote:

4eyes wrote: 1 9 6 9 You guys have forgotten, then income tax was VOLUNTARY One person in a middle class job could buy any car made in the US, and pay all the other bills. Our currency was backed by gold in Ft. Knox, not (it's worth $20.00 for a 20 dollar bill, just because)

I suppose this was a little tongue-in-cheek. Average household income in 1969 was $7000; if you spent 6 months salary on a new car you got a Chevy Nova with one of the hotter engine options. It would be difficult for your average earner to save up $15000 for an Imperial.

I earn $22/h. If I spent 6 months of my salary on a brand new car, I could get a fully loaded Aveo (that they are clearing out). That wouldn't even buy me a base model Fit here in Canada!

today. today America was really awesome. thanks poopshovel.

I can take my car to a racetrack. I can go to the store and buy good food and alcohol. I'm not worried that I will be killed or imprisoned for any reasonable thing I might do.

Things ain't perfect, but they're still pretty darn good.

Salanis wrote: Things ain't perfect, but they're still pretty darn good.

Until till you employ a lawyer!

Just adding fuel to the fire.

aircooled wrote:

MCarp22 wrote: Example: Me, the white ginger boy; and someone else of a another race / gender / religion apply for a job. This is not factored into the employer's consideration. = Equality

You apparently have never applied for a Government job. I can assure you it will become a factor then, and probably not in you favor...

I have heard of this happening all my life, and in spite of having many relatives beside me in gov't service I have never seen it happen. I took the test to be a bus driver, scored well, and was hired according to my score. When a promotion test came up, I scored high on the test and was promoted again. The next step up does not have a test, but I have been told to apply when the time came and I'd have a good shot. No one that I know in that job now was taken because they were a minority/woman. A few because they had family high up, but most of them are Irish.

I work in a field that provides a lot of professional services to the government. Frequently, if not always, those contracts come with a proviso that we are supposed to use MBE (minority business enterprise) participation.

There are several minority-owned engineering firms in the area who get tapped for this participation. They all suck at what they do, yet they continue to be used because they are MBEs, even though they repeatedly screw it up. I've actually seen jobs where two engineering firms fill the same role - an MBE to help get the job for the team, and a competent firm to do the majority of the work. It's ridiculous.

BIG NOTE: I am not in any way saying all MBEs are incompetent, and there are plenty of middle-age-fat-white-guy-owned firms around that are ALSO incompetent. It's just that these particular minority-owned firms are kept in business by what amounts to professional welfare, based entirely on their race.

Ironically. the "minority" clause means little in reality. According to the last census, my hometown of Macon is 53% African American, and 12% Hispanic/Asian. That means white folk make up about a third of the population, which sounds like a minority to me. BTW, I'm a honkie.

When can I expect my check?

Today, because of this:

http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/08-24-2009/0005081823&EDATE=

"CHESTERFIELD, Mo., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Lynch Hummer http://www.LynchHummer.com), 7 times the world's #1 volume Hummer dealer, has announced the opening of the world's first combined Hummer and firearms dealership........."

slefain wrote: Today, because of this: http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/08-24-2009/0005081823&EDATE= "CHESTERFIELD, Mo., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Lynch Hummer http://www.LynchHummer.com), 7 times the world's #1 volume Hummer dealer, has announced the opening of the world's first combined Hummer and firearms dealership........."

Big trucks and big guns because you have a small...

When was America really, truly awesome? Easy.

July 20th, 1969

When achievment and ingenuity meant something more than a profit, even if it was motivated by political gain.

Call me crazy, but this is what America is lacking more than anything.

OrangeRazor said: When was America really, truly awesome? Easy. July 20th, 1969

Absolutly right

Capt Slow wrote:

OrangeRazor said: When was America really, truly awesome? Easy. July 20th, 1969

Absolutly right

Times a gazillion!

ddavidv wrote: It's probably boring to most people, but if you don't study history and how the country was founded you won't grasp the reasons people (like me) are very upset about the last, oh, 15-20 years or so. The rate of acceleration towards socialism has really picked up. We've now got an extremely dangerous recipe with a way-far-left president coupled to a far-left democratic (oxymoron) House and Senate that can pretty much ram anything they want through.

You started off making a great point and then you shot yourself in the foot with the partisan comments. Obama is not far left, Hillary is and that's why she lost. Palin is so far Right she will never win either.

I think the spying and monitoring that the Bush Whitehouse brought us is a far greater leap towards socialism than an optional govt. run healthcare system.

It's obvious they cant "ram" anything they want through as they already seem to be buckling under the pressure from the gun toting town hall yelling nutjobs.

On a slight side note, I think the late 90's would have been great to be a 20 something.

There were no good old days. Only selective memories, that forget or belittle the bad.

A family can live on a single salary today as long as you are willing to live to an outdated standard of living. ONE shared family car, eating 95% of meals at home, no daycare, setting and sticking to family budget, mom sews her own clothes and mends clothes that are damaged. Entertainment means family game night at home, or inviting the neighbors over to BBQ. One phone, TV is whatever you get for free. This list goes on forever, our standard of living has improved so much in the past 50 years, people take too much for granted. I love when I hear people complain about cellphone problems, it's a freaking miracle that something so small works at all, and gets internet, and plays music, and plays tv shows, and records videos, etc.... It was hard back in the day to live off one income, and its hard to do today also.

As far as I am concerned these are the good old days. I have no degree, yet my standard of living is quite high. I dunno I guess a rich person would balk at it but I am perfectly happy, have more toys than time to play, and don't really have much problems doing anything I want.

neon4891 wrote: On a slight side note, I think the late 90's would have been great to be a 20 something.

They were. I know from experience.

neon4891 wrote: On a slight side note, I think the late 90's would have been great to be a 20 something.

Nah. The 70s. We didn't have herpes or AIDS, and everybody spent most of their time half naked. Gas was 35 cents a gallon, and you could buy a fair car for a hundred bucks. Draft beer was a quarter a glass. The best rock music ever written was brand new.

OTOH, most 20-somethings (including me) barely made a buck an hour, but you could buy a hamburger for 15 cents. NASCAR drivers had grease under their fingernails. We wore bellbottom jeans with too-wide belts and ankle boots, and paisley shirts with puffy sleeves.

In retrospect, it was pretty strange, but you should've been there.

To quote directly

"That's baloney, man. That's what's wrong with America now. Every time somebody screws up, we tell them it's all right. You don't pay your bills? You can file bankruptcy. You kill somebody? Spend 10 years in jail, and we'll let you out. That's what's wrong with society now, man. If you do the crime, do the time. If you had the guts to do it, have the guts to take your punishment." - crew chief Michael McSwain, telling the Richmond Times-Dispatch he was tired of hearing competitors whining after being caught cheating.

Jensenman wrote: Let me put it this way: what is the ONE country on Earth people will risk their lives and those of their families to get to? As far as I can remember, no one's ever made a raft and tried to leave America for somewhere else. Oh yeah, some folks have left to avoid taxes or prosecution for crimes but as far as I'm concerned that doesn't count. Having said that, 1) there are problems 2) there is no other place on Earth I'd rather live. Well, maybe the Australian outback if but only if I can carry a gun to kill those creepy huge spiders.

Point of order on the one country quote

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h5AS4XvxGRBwdypr7lzzjYYEbc9w

DirtyBird222 wrote: ... Most of Africa? I don't know, I think we have it pretty well here, E36 M3 maybe slipping, but damn it's still better than most of the world...

A friend of mine asked if I wanted to go try African food one day while we were at work. Restaurants in the area of Queens that I work suck.

Anyway, all I could imagine was this.

Does that make me a bad person?

NYG95GA wrote: Nah. The 70s. We didn't have herpes or AIDS, and everybody spent most of their time half naked.

yeah, you had both herpes and AIDS, you just didn't know it at the time.

confuZion3 wrote: A friend of mine asked if I wanted to go try African food one day while we were at work. Restaurants in the area of Queens that I work suck. Anyway, all I could imagine was [dirt]. Does that make me a bad person?

Nope. My friends and I joked about that the first time we went to try Ethiopian food.

"My... what generous portions of nothing!"

In reality, it's really good. Like, Southern cooking crossed with Indian, and you eat with your hands.