While the pace of communication accelerates, it is tempting to impulsively type what comes to mind and send it off. But taking this casual approach to serious business matters could cause you to communicate ideas and attitudes that confuse (or worse, offend) your co-workers and clients. Taking a few moments to carefully draft your messages will project the right image; that of someone with a deliberate and accurate business sense.
Signatures
Using a pre-programmed signature conveniently communicates all your vital stats without having to constantly re-key them (and with no risk of misspellings or transposed numbers). Leave no extra lines between the closing salutation and your name, unless you have the capability of inserting your actual signature. People usually include their full name, title, and organization name. You may also add contact information or a short promotional line or motto.
To program a signature, look under the "Tools" command in your toolbar. Keep in mind that your extensive signature might look a little out of place when sending a short message to a close friend, so you may want disable the signature in these cases.
E-mail written... not sent:
I was thinking about what a friend said about how it really doesn't matter that Bush lied because Saddam is a Bad Guy, implying that the lies were excusable because the ends justify the means. To make sense of situations like this I need to reduce the situation to a personal level.
Lets say this was between you and your next-door-neighbor. First he accuses you of having “Weapons of Alarming Potential” WAP’s… he reports you to the Presque Isle Town Council and the Local Constabulary.
The cops bang on your door and say “Hand over your Weapons of Alarming Potential”
You say “I don’t have any WAP’s.”
The Neighbor says; “Yes he does!”
You say “No I don’t”
So the Cops say "Well we want to search your house."
You say “Not without a Search warrant.”
They say “Well OK” and go get a search warrant.
They
come back with Inspectors and the Inspectors say; "We can’t find any WAPS."
Your neighbor says; “Well while you were getting your Search Warrant he hid them."
You say “No I didn’t”,
The Neighbor said “Prove it”… Now you are screwed, it is impossible to prove a negative if the accuser refuses to accept your word. In other words, you could prove in a heart beat that you had WAP’s by using them, but there is no way in hell you can prove you don’t.
Saddam was on the sticky end of the stick from the git go.
Now, lets say you really were a bad guy, and your neighbor has a right to feel threatened, is it OK for him to sneak into your house in the middle of the night and blow you away? That’s what Bush did.
The concept of “Manifest Destiny” was all the rage in Teddy Roosevelt’s day but those days are gone. Just because the United States has the will, inclination and where-with-all to unilaterally invade and occupy a Sovereign Country doesn’t mean it has the right to do it.
And, If I were the ruler of another country with resources that the USA may someday deem to be "vital to it’s national interest" I would do just what Iran is trying to do… get my self a nice big Army and some Nukes…like the Korean’s, Pakistani’s and Indian’s have already done. Bush has been systematically pushing Iran into a corner, like Israel has already done to Palestine, they have nothing to lose, it’s not hard to create a Suicide Bomber when half the population has nothing to lose, nothing to live for, no hope and no prospects, they are driven to the point where the only positive thing they can do is take a few Israeli’s with them… Kind of like a country full of Postal Workers.
Conservative
estimates put the Iraqi civilian casualties at between 15 and 20 thousand, if you estimate that for every death there is an extended family of approximately 100 then you have between 150000 0and 2000000 really pissed of people now add in the ones that have been put out of their jobs, had their homes and livelihood destroyed and you have a fair estimate of what our troops are up against. If one in a thousand is a person who has lost his family, or her sons and husband and she feels she or he has nothing else to live for then we are looking at 1500 to 2000 potential suicide bombers... Thanks George
Iraq will fight on until the Army (Which did the only thing it could do by taking off their uniforms and melting
away into the suburbs.) surrenders. Have you made note of the fact that Bush just declared the War to be over, even though they never did surrender and their leader is still at large. (I wrote this a while back, now Sadaam is in prison and the war still goes on...)
Are you a little curious why 300 marines with Helicopters, TOW Missiles couldn’t capture 2 men, a cripple and a 14 year old boy, they didn’t even try. The owner of the house and the BBC say that the house they were in was just a house, it wasn’t fortified, all they had to fight with were AK47’s and a couple pistols. (Incidentally, the only one alive when the Marines went in was the 14 year old boy, scared to death, he tried to fight and the marines killed him.) We on the other hand, had access to debilitating gas, Shock grenades, and time… we could have surrounded the house for a few days or weeks and sweated them out… you would think that the psychological advantage of being able to bring those two guys to trial would be worth the wait, not to mention the intelligence that could be gained, like “Where’s Papa.”
Why kill em, the CIA or the Special Ops folks must have their head up their ass, or they weren’t consulted. The Marines only know how to do what they are told… they will shoot first and think later… that’s what they are trained to do. Why aren’t there people there to hold the reins?
Why did we secure the Oil Fields and not the gas, water telephone & Electric companies. Why did we let them loot the government buildings so that there is no record of where anything is or who anybody is, if we were such saintly humanitarians why did we let them loot the hospitals … Bush, and the Pentagon were warned by the State Department and various think tanks what to expect and the military paid no attention. But the Oil Infrastructure is secure, there is no dependable power, water or police but they can pump oil… that doesn’t make you suspicious about their motivation? It makes me suspicious.
I lost respect for Bush when he was Governor of Texas, He took credit for the advances in education that Ann Richards put in place. The thing that I remember best was listening to him on the radio
when he said the kids that shot up the High School in Littleton Colorado were the result of “a wave of Evil sweeping across the country.” Christianity and enforcing “Family Values” are the only thing that will save us.
No one has the right to dictate to me what my moral or religious values will be. As far as I am concerned the scariest man in the world is my cousin George Walker Bush because he is prepared to tell me how to live my life. Next to him is Pat Robertson, and the rest of the Sanctimonious Christian Fundamentalists.
Most time when I try to debate with a Republican Uber-Con I make the sort of statements I made above and the response is inevitably “Well, you’re a fucking Liberal Traitor, I ought to kick your ass”
Terrorism
Warnings
Is anyone else curious
about the rash of Terrorist Threat warnings lately? I really wonder what is
motivating them, if there were any foundation in fact, why hasn't anything
happened? If there were any basis for the intelligence that motivated the
warning why are we advertising to the terrorists that we have a hook into their
organization?
I am afraid that with all
these unfounded warnings and no event to warrant all the tension that the
country will become increasingly blasé with each future warning. Is the
administration just not taking any chances and giving warnings about every
feasible possibility. Are they under the assumption that if they cover every
possible contingency that eventually they will be right and they can say, you
can't blame us, "We told you so"
I still don't believe that
there was enough information to specifically predict the events of Sept 11, 2001
but there is no way they can say they had no warning at all...
Early June 2001
The Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera airs an Osama bin Laden video
threatening attacks on Western targets.
June 13
The CIA is concerned about a possible al Qaeda attack on President Bush and
other G-8 leaders scheduled to meet in Italy in July. Egyptian intelligence
tells the CIA of a plot to use aircraft loaded with explosives.
June 21
Louis Freeh resigns as FBI director.
June 22
• State Department issues a worldwide warning on terrorism.
• U.S. military forces in Europe and the Middle East are put on Force Protection
Condition Delta -- the highest alert level -- meaning a terrorist action against
a specific location is considered imminent.
• CIA Director George Tenet is described as nearly frantic about the possibility
of attack.
June 28
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice receives an intelligence summary
warning a significant al Qaeda attack in the near future is "highly likely."
July 2
FBI warns of terrorist attacks overseas, does not rule out domestic attacks.
July 3
CIA's Tenet sends special request to 30 foreign intelligence agencies, urging
them to arrest al Qaeda figures.
July 5
• National Security Council terrorism chief Richard Clarke convenes a White
House meeting of the Counterterrorism Security Group; then meets with Rice and
Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card; then meets again with CSG plus, Federal
Aviation Administration, FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service. Clarke
tells them: "something spectacular is going to happen."
• Non-essential travel of U.S. counterterrorism staff suspended.
• President Bush asks Rice to find out what is being done about terror warnings.
July 6
The Counterterrorism Security Group meets again in the White House; learns that
targets for attack are located in Paris, Rome and Turkey.
July 10
Phoenix FBI agent Kenneth Williams sends electronic memo to FBI headquarters,
urging investigation of possible terrorists connected to bin Laden enrolled in
American flight schools.
Mid-July
CIA disrupts attacks in Paris, Rome and Turkey.
July 18
FAA warns airlines to exercise the highest level of caution.
July 20-23
• President Bush attends G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy.
• Italian government declares airspace above the summit site a no-fly zone;
deploys anti-aircraft guns at Genoa airport to defend against possible terrorist
attack from aircraft filled with explosives.
July 31
The FAA issues another warning to airlines: terrorists are planning and training
for hijackings.
Aug. 6
CIA's Tenet briefs President Bush in Crawford, Texas, on a generalized terror
threat, including Osama bin Laden and hijackings.
Aug. 17
The INS detains for suspicious activity at a Minnesota flight school.
Early September
FBI lawyers deny request from the Minneapolis FBI field office to search
Moussaoui's computer.
Sept. 4
• Robert Mueller becomes FBI director.
• FBI tells the FAA of Moussaoui's arrest. The FAA does not alert airlines.
Sept, 27
I think I have had my
original question answered... I had heard of the "Rowley Letter" but not the
significance, she is being called a whistle blower. It's a letter from FBI Agent
Colleen Rowley written out of frustration over her inability to get a search
warrant to study Zacarias Moussaoui's laptop PC... I have heard excerpts read on
the radio and will pick up the Time magazine to read it in it's entirety... I
think all these warnings are a direct result of the FBI trying to say that they
are on top of the situation... it's smoke... just smoke to divert attention from
criticism.
"We
may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a
vast amount of treasure and blood ... It has indeed been a trying hour for the
Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and
causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war,
corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will
follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by
working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a
few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for
the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant
that my suspicions may prove groundless."
President Abraham Lincoln
The
passage appears in a letter from Lincoln to Col. William F. Elkins, Nov. 21,
1864.
When you get into politics, you find that all your worst nightmares about it
turn out to be true, and the people who are attracted to large concentrations of
power are precisely the ones who should be kept as far away from it as possible.
Ken
Livingstone, Member of Parliament
Our
government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear -- kept us in a continuous
stampede of patriotic fervor -- with the cry of grave national emergency ...
Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly
rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect,
these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.
General Douglas MacArthur, 1957
"In
Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I
didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me--and by that
time no one was left to speak up."
Pastor Martin Niemoller
I
believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-soaked fingers
out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people,
they will arrive at a solution of their own -- and if unfortunately their
revolution must be of the violent type because the "haves" refuse to share with
the "have-nots" by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their
own, and not the American style, which they don't want and above all don't want
crammed down their throats by Americans.
General David M. Shoup, May 14, 1966
Commandant of the Marine Corps 1960-63,
and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor
MOVIE
BIZ RANT
Though I love their product
I
have absolutely no respect for the Movie Industry in general and the elite cadre
of movers and shakers that run it in particular. They are, for the most part,
slimy, opportunistic, self-serving, egocentric, bullies. (TV People are worse
because they aspire to be slimy, opportunistic, self-serving,
egocentric, bullies) Movie People push people around all day long with their
money and power and don’t know how to stop being elitist jerks when they meet
‘real people’. They have a very low tolerance for irreverence and I really enjoy
jerking their chains, unfortunately I don’t get many opportunities…I suppose I
really have no right to pass judgment but when they inflict their presence on me
I get a bit rancorous.
There are a
lot of movie people up here where I live. Not the movers and shakers though, for
the most part they are nice folks, they’re mostly people that feed off the movie
industry, drivers, cameramen, grips, people that have to be subservient to the
whims of the Power People. They do seem to be very cliquish and are usually in
small groups or alone, rarely do you find them with people who have jobs in the
real world. They are easy to spot because they dress funny, guys with plaid
Bermuda shorts, sandals and Hawaiian shirts. They have too much or not enough
hair on their heads, dramatic excessively maintained facial hair, I have noticed
lately that they are sporting excessive pendants and jewelry dangling from their
faces, and for some reason, brand new Red Wing work-boots. They have stuff
clipped to their belts too, beepers, sometimes two or three, a cell-phone, and
flashlight. Also, sunglasses appear to be de rigueur, usually worn atop the
head or clipped to the back of their neck or shirt, rarely utilized as eyewear,
sort of decorative, like a broach.
The
fundamental reality of the Entertainment Business is that it is totally
irrelevant. No one, to my knowledge, has ever lamented “Imagine what the world
would be like if “WaterWorld” or “Ishtar” or any other movie… had never been
made”. People involved in the Movie Industry have all their conscious energies
focused on sublimating that fact. It just wouldn’t do for them to acknowledge or
for the world to discover that, among humankind, they are basically just a bunch
of organ grinders looking for hand-out and a talented monkey.
Oooo I like the last line…
Privacy
Vs. Anonymity
Part
of an e-mail from a friend;
Go
to
http://www.junkbusters.com/cgi-bin/privacy and
see what they are getting. Maybe you don't care and that's OK for you. I do.
I
read the article, and aside from the fear-mongering tone in parts it is pretty
interesting. After much soul searching and much agonizing… I guess, I just don’t
give a damn about cookies, databases and the like…That probably makes me a bad
person or stupid in the eyes of some, but that’s just too bad. I see nothing
particularly nefarious or threatening there for me…. if I was a criminal,
terrorist, or pornographer I would feel a little vulnerable but, I’m not one of
those, I have nothing I am particularly interested in keeping a secret…(as you
may have made note at my website)…
Lets
see, they know what program I use for e-mail, browsing, downloading music, etc –
ho hum, I don’t see a down side to that… I am using the programs because I like
them, if someone has the means to track that data it will encourage the
manufacturers to keep making it and improving it… They also track the sites I
like to look at, I am not sure there is a down side to that either, perhaps that
will encourage advertisers to support them. I already know that most of the
advertisements I see and get as SPAM are a result of sites I went to and things
I have bought on the net, just like the Snail Mail SPAM I get in my mail box is
a direct result of the stores I go to and credit cards purchases I have made…
it’s just a fact of life… all business are going to use the tools available to
them to stay competitive… you would do it too… so would I… Hey, Business is just
Business… it’s a Republican thing… a fact of life.
"It
may contain information about you such as an indication of your name or e-mail
address, the e-mail program you are using, and the structure of your file space."
They
may get some personal information… and there may be some pervert in a little
room somewhere tracking every move I make, monitoring our e-mail conversations,
giggling at the “structure of my file space” but… I doubt it… and even if
someone out there really gave a shit about whom you or I talk to, why should I
get all paranoid about it?… I am not going to put alarms on my trash-bin, talk
in code on the phone. I am not going to live my life as though there is a cabal
of evil Moriority’s bent on my destruction.
I
am going to presume that BIG BUSINESS has two goals…
1. Convincing me they are making a product I would want to buy.
2.
They will take every cent I have if I give them a chance.
a. Politicians are elected by money from Big Business
With
this knowledge I guilelessly deem myself to be armed sufficiently to get through
the rest of my life. If I find that I need to revise or amend these presumptions
I will.
I
read some of the other pages on this site and though all their information is
accurate I am a little put off by their blurring of the distinction between
anonymity and privacy, as though they are rights. They are not. I have a right
to expect that no one will read my mail (“Snail” or “E”), I have a legal right
to demand that people with information about me will respect my privacy, the
IRS, DMV, Pacific Bell, my bank, the school where I take my kids, my doctor, my
ISP… but to my mind, anonymity is not a right in the civilized world. Anonymity
is the root cause of virtually everything that is wrong with the Internet from
perverts preying on children to flamers, SPAMers, KKK, racists, bigots…
ad-infinitum. It seems to me that everything that is wrong with the Internet is
wrong because it is perpetuated by the fact that the wrong-doers are anonymous.
You have the right to say and do anything in this country, but you are also
supposed to be responsible and accountable for those words and actions. You do
not have a right to say and do it from behind the cloak of anonymity. Why should
the internet be any different? When I get an E-Mail I think I have a right to
expect that it contain the real E-Mail address of the sender, and I want access
to a database that will tell me who the hell he/she is, like Caller ID, Screw
anonymity.
New
revelation:
I
have come to believe that Politicians are Democratic or Republican, not because
of any particular belief, high moral code or ethic, they select the party they
think will get them elected. Like a mirror, they reflect the attitude of their
constituents. The pollsters dictate their “public facade” Big Business directs
their votes, the public is just incidental, a herd that has to be moved from
place to place. Move a politician from Texas to San Francisco or New York and
see how long he sticks with his fundamentalist rhetoric.
Another Rant... Not my own
I love simple eloquence
I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric...
Sunday, April 30, 2000
By SHARON UNDERWOOD for the Valley News (White River Junction, VT/Hanover, NH)
As the mother of a gay son, I've seen firsthand how cruel and misguided people
can be.
Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace
in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good
people.
I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your
allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex
with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys
of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.
My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from
your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was
physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school
because he was perceived to be gay.
He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he
had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was
called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.
In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be
doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure
his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart
out of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue living any
longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he couldn't face a life without
dignity.
You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the
homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children
to despair. I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put
him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave
you brains so that you could think, and it's about time you started doing that.
At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never
happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have
chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to
yours, and you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something
occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don't know. I can only
tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.
If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more
substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given
to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my
own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my
part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it.
For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character
issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I'm
puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than
something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that's not the
case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?
A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by
outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am
heart and soul a Vermonter, so I'll thank you to stop saying that you are
speaking for "true Vermonters."
You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for
this great country, saying that they didn't give their lives so that the
"homosexual agenda" could tear down the principles they died defending. My
83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II,
was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.
He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says
he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and
bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay,and he never
knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That
wasn't the measure of the man.
You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my son emerges from the
hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have
a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the
right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him
or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.
How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very
existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage.
You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings.
There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant.
God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no
sin.
The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures
about homosexual sin and tells us about "those of us who have been blessed with
the benefits of a religious upbringing" asks: "What ever happened to the idea of
striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?"
Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?
Sharon Underwood lives in White River Junction, Vt.
Senior
Citizens
I got this today, I have gotten
it and others like it before and I usually just delete them… but now it just
pisses me off… Just another bit of biased, hateful, division-ist, alienating
claptrap. To my mind, none of it is true, none of it even really makes any
sense, it’s as though some pessimistic childless octogenarian wanted to blame
his wasted life on a generation he didn’t create or understand.. sure you can
find dead beats that fit this scenario but to pretend that this generation has a
monopoly on rude lazy people is to deny reality and to turn a blind eye to the
faults and oversights of our generation and our parents generation… why
circulate something like this, it’s not true, it’s not funny, it’s not even
remotely amusing.
Subject: Senior Citizens
Senior citizens are constantly being criticized for every conceivable deficiency
of the modern world, real or imaginary.
Huh, how about an example of
elder bashing here, got any idea what he/she’s talking about?
We know we take
responsibility for all we have done and do not blame others.
Then exactly what is this
all about then, are not the products of the society of yesterday the
children you see today? If you aren’t to blame, who is?
BUT, upon
reflection, we would like to point out that it was NOT the senior citizens who
took: The melody out of music,
Baloney, the kids don’t own the
radio stations or the record companies the produce the music of today… they are
owned by a bunch of old farts trying to make a buck off children by selling them
a fantasy.
Besides, every
generation has charged their children with destroying “Real” music… My dad
thought “Rock Around the Clock” was the beginning of the end, His Dad though
“Yes We Go No Banana’s” was the first sign of Armageddon. I thought Kiss was
ridiculous, and I am going through it again… nothing has changed…
The pride out of
appearance,
Bull… anyone who thinks that
their parents were proud of their appearance needs only to
remember how they dressed in high school…
The romance out
of love,
(What a hateful thing to say)
Tell your son or daughter that what he feels isn’t romantic, tell your
grand-children that love or romance had nothing to do with their creation.
The commitment
out of marriage,
Again… what sort of crap is that
to say, marriages last longer today than they did during my parents time… look
at the statistics, the highest rate of divorce is among White Baptists, 29% of
all Baptist have been through at least one divorce, cracks me up…
http://www.divorcereform.org/mel/rbaptisthigh.html
The
responsibility out of parenthood,
Excuse me? Who raised the parents
of today, I think the parents of my grandchildren are doing a pretty good job.
The togetherness
out of the family,
I feel sorrier for the author the
further I read… I wonder who he is pointing his finger at, if he is pointing at
me or mine he’s full of Sh*t!!
The learning out
of education,
OK now you’re really out of line
buster… Where do you get off blaming the parents of today for the education
their kids are getting? the “Learning” has been expunged from education by the
laws created by my generation and the generation before it… teaching to the
lowest-common-denominator so as to not overly stress the under achiever is a
product of the new age thinking of the 50’s & 60's.
Besides, the kids are learning in
spite of the obstacles thrown in their path, qualifications to get into college
today are boggling, tougher than they ever were, hell, you need college
eligibility to get into the damn Marine Corps. The kids in the military are
manning computers on the front lines now…
The service out
of patriotism,
Bullsh*t… have you listened to
the soldiers being interviewed after the WTC atrocity… are you living in a
cave???
The religion out
of school,
Good, never should have been in
school anyway…
The Golden Rule
from rulers,
Are you attempting to imply that
“The Golden Rule” has ever been applied by any ruler ever anywhere?
The nativity
scene out of cities,
Where? When? I can find no
instance anywhere that the Nativity Scene
was banned in any city. I can see where they have been taken off City Property
which is fine by me, but saying that it is not allowed in cities is outrageous… where did
this happen!!!
The civility out
of behavior,
Huh, civility is
behavior isn’t it, so is rudeness and tantrums depression. The elderly can be
just as rude as the young, maybe even more-so… they have had more practice…
The refinement
out of language,
Well now, maybe you have
something here… refinement, by that do you mean eloquence or politeness… both
have diminished over the years… I don’t really understand why… some kids today
need to develop a vocabulary beyond “Like” and “Y’know” but most kids can carry
on a pretty good conversation if you would take the time to listen…
The dedication
out of employment,
Business
took the dedication out of employment, dedication is a two way street damn it!…
Companies are dedicated to “The Bottom Line”! After a few layoffs, cutbacks,
mergers, the employee has learned that he damn well better be loyal to himself
because the “Company” doesn’t give a shit about him… period.
The prudence out
of spending,
What do you want to bet the
author of this drives an SUV…
or the ambition
out of achievement.
He’s never met
my son, who is going back to college at 33, or my Niece who fought through Notre
Dame to get the best job available, or the neighbors daughter who worked every
odd job she could find to put herself through nursing school… if the people in
your life have no ambition… that is too bad… don’t paint the world with the your
pathetic little paintbrush.
And we certainly
are NOT the ones who eliminated patience and tolerance from personal
relationships and interactions with others!!
Boy, this guy isn’t having any
fun at all is he… does he yearn for the good old days of the KKK and race riots,
and cross burnings… his perception hasn't been my experience at all, my
daughter has Cerebral Palsy… even the children in her kindergarten class are
patient and tolerant. However an elderly couple got up and left a restaurant and
complained to the waitress on the way out that “People shouldn’t be allowed to bring children
like that into public places” Rudeness, like most bigotries, is a
matter of perspective, they thought I was rude, I think they were more-so.
Impatience and intolerance are a product of the stresses of our Society and
upbringing, there is no way I am aware of to stop it … there has always been
stress and intolerance… I think that, among rational people, compassion and
understanding is becoming a survival skill… I think things are improving, not
getting worse…
Does anyone
under the age of 50 know the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner?
Yes, all of my kids do, every kid
in my town does, do you?
Just look at the
Seniors with tears in their eyes and pride in their hearts as they stand at
attention with their hand over their hearts!
Perhaps if the “Seniors” he
is referring to would wipe the tears out of their eyes and look around
they could shed some of the preconceptions and stop some of the misinformation
being perpetuated by the self serving rhetoric of Jerry Fallwell, Rush Limbaugh,
the writer of this and their ilk.
I can't send it, it was a flyer for music I was doing, then came to my senses, simmered down, decided it was futile/not worth it, & hit delete....
Too bad you didn’t save it…
I had taken several of those laundry-list red-white-blue bitches (which as you state/infer, are ridiculously oversimplified, & in many cases passed along by some spoiled baby born
with a silver spoon in their mouth, & went down the check list....)
Yeah, I have posted my response to several of them on my Rants and Raves page(s) I used to have arguments with a fella up north but it got so bitter and insulting from both sides that we had to stop…
There is no way to be dispassionate when your core beliefs are attacked…actually my stance that ‘there is virtually nothing that is Always right, or Always Wrong for Everyone, and with very few exceptions, no one is totally evil, even Hitler liked dogs and Sadaam loves his Mama’ is not a concept that he can deal with, admittedly I have to really stretch when it comes to cannibalism …
If they come to
America, they should be forced to speak the language here!
- Do we all speak Cherokee? Is it really that big of an inconvenience to occasionally run into someone who is still learning
English? Why the level of hostility, if not prejudice in the background, as many times it is....
gun control,
- comparing statistics with
Canada, Europe
prayer in schools
- reminding folks that’s what a lot of people came here to avoid, & it was clearly on the minds of the framers, who actually seemed fairly religious, etc...
Jefferson was an Atheist, I think Franklin was probably one too… There were a fair number of Humanists involved in the creation of the Constitution…. Thank <Grin> GOD.
Here’s mine… can you improve it?
Now to really stir the pot… I got a nasty little list of twenty items that ridicule Democrats, it’s in blue
I couldn’t resist adding a few comments… I just deemed that the twenty “points” made in this list to be true and assumed that the opposite must be true for the originator (I presume he must consider himself a Right Thinking Ditto-Brain Republican)
(Please note that I consider myself to be neither Republican or Democrat, I just have a hard time with pinhead, brainless diatribes like this)
How to be a good Democrat
How to be a good Republican
1. You have to believe the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.
You have to believe that AIDS is spread by godless sexual deviants so why spend any more money on finding a cure for it.
2. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.
You have to believe that
Sex Education is to be taught in the home and would be proud to raise your
fourteen year old daughters child as your own, besides, teachers are motivated by their calling and are content with their $30,000.00 annual wage as you climb into your $40,000.00 SUV.
3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat, than U.S. nuclear weapons technology, in the hands of Chinese communists.
You have to be able to deem the above is a valid argument for abandoning gun control.
4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding.
You have to believe that the public would have supported Van Gogh, Monet, and Matisse
and that pictures of Elvis on black velvet and dogs playing poker should be
hanging in the Norton Simon Art Museum..
5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical, documented changes in the earth's climate, and more affected by yuppies driving SUVs.
You have to believe that there is no possibility that humanity has any impact on the environment.
Besides, when the last tree is cut down Jesus will return and the Rapture will
begin.... the Bible says so.
6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural.
You have to believe that God defines gender roles in the Bible, and that any lifestyle that doesn’t mirror yours is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord.
7. You have to be against capital punishment but support abortion on demand.
You have to support capital punishment and ignore any consideration that innocent people will be killed, and believe that that a child born to someone who doesn’t want one will be treated well, loved and become a productive member of society.
8. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.
You have to believe that Governments create oppression and Business’s create prosperity.
9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists who've never been outside of Seattle do.
You have to believe that hunting is a divine right and conservationists are all loonies
10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.
You have to believe that making a lot of money has more value than self-esteem
11. You have to believe the military, not corrupt politicians, start wars.
You have to believe that a corrupt military starts wars and Politicians are helpless dupes
12. You have to believe the NRA is bad, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.
You have to believe the NRA is good, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is bad, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.
13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.
You have to believe that debt is good for America and people are stupid, and that they are too ignorant to change banks if they charge them to use an ATM.
14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinmen are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, General Robert E. Lee or Thomas Edison.
I suppose this means that you have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem had no impact on our society.
15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides aren't.
You have to believe that you can certify that what is on Standardized tests are fair and that Standardized tests are a valid indicator of intelligence and the state of our educational system. And that businesses and colleges never looked at the little box that said “Race” when they determined who got the job and who got the scholarship.
16. You have to believe Hillary Clinton is really a lady.
You have to believe that name-calling and ridicule and mean spirited cheap shots are viable political strategies.
17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried, is because the right people haven't been in charge.
You have to believe that pure socialism, capitalism, or communism have ever been tried anywhere and have failed or succeeded in any form…
18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and sex offender belongs in the White House.
You have to believe that conservatives always tell the truth and liberals lie, you have to believe that Clinton is the only president that has ever lied, had adulterous sex in the Whitehouse. Or that somehow, when he did it it was evil and when Eisenhower, Johnson, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan did it it was their constitutional right.
19. You have to believe that illegal Democratic Party funding by the Chinese is somehow in the best interest of the United States.
You have to believe that Republicans get their money from impassioned school children and Sunday school teachers a nickel at a time, and that Big Business has the best interest of the common man at heart.
20. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag, transvestites and bestiality should be constitutionally protected and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.
You have to believe that only you have the right to say what is legal, moral, and American…and what isn’t.
… and that mean-spirited crap like these 20 comments says something positive about you and your belief
system..
