Russ..., you're absolutely right. Things are changing but our society still has a very long way to go. Racism is just as bad as it was years ago.., but it's just not as "in your face" as it used to be and more have gone to keeping their feelings in their closets (due to the times).

Parents are still teaching their children to hate..., and being in this war clearly hasn't helped the overall view of the middle east. To date I still get very negative racist things said to me about middle easterners.., and I'm not even remotely close to being middle eastern!

Sad sad indeed.


[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 10-07-2008).]

You're right, Squeak, and I will have nothing more to say on the matter. However this presidential race turns out, I am happy to know that there are still a sizable number of fair-minded people in this great country. I wish the percentage were a little higher on this board since it's made up mostly of my favorite segment of the population, musicians. I'm guessing it would be if our members belonged to a younger age group. It's sad that age seems to harden our attitudes rather than allow us to benefit from the wisdom that age affords us. Anyhow, we'll all be dead soon and the only thing that will matter will be how we're remembered. Okay, I'm done with it.

chas

I feel sad when I hear the party line spouted... Remarks like ' We have lost the sense of righteousness, virtue, pride of being an American' confuse the hell out of me.

Is that the sense of righteousness that committed genocide on the Native Americans, and broke nearly every treaty we signed with them? Is that the virtue of slavery? Is that the pride of segregation? Or do you believe in the Norman Rockwell vision of America, of a time that only existed for a few lucky ones, who would never have achieved their middle class goals if the rules that strictly govern the rapaciousness of unfettered capitalism hadn't been imposed by Roosevelt and others in the twenties? That idyllic vision would never have occurred without strict regulation of our nations financiers, and we would see the serfdom that is our direction nowadays.

Has the largest shift of money and power from the middle class to the ultra rich (which, I GUARANTEE not one single zoner is a member of) since the twenties over the last few years taught us nothing? Has the deregulation of our financial system to profit the few at the cost of the rest of us taught us nothing? Has the politicization of corporate news coverage, and the loss of objective reportage taught us nothing?

It IS the United States of Amnesia...

Me, I'd rather have a 'tax and spend' Democrat president, than a 'tax CUT and spend' Republican (anyone care to comment on this one?). It's just a shame John McCain's middle name isn't Adolf. Then there wouldn't be ANY mudslinging about names! If we can't rise above the petty, the sloganism, the unresearched belief in anything your candidate spouts, we DO deserve what we get.

Oh, whatever.... If you can forgive and forget the last eight years (about the only way you COULD vote Republican), you can forgive and forget MY opinions, too, can't you..?

Diki 'Satan' Ross

Kingfrog,
you are of course entitled to your opinion, but for me, from the total of your LAST 2 big posts only those few lines quoted above are connected to reality, and I congratulate you for:

1) having the brains to save for a rainy day, and
2) for realising that a large percentage of American citizens do not seem to posess enough brains to do the same.

Other than that, I don't agree to anything you said. Things like that are heard over here also (I don't live in the US) from the mouths of the far-right politicians. The same "deregulate", "moral ruler", "God fearing", "Should attack before we are attacked" mentality, that seems to find eager listeners among the poor, maybe unemployed, lower education population, that seldom judges thing with a clear mind, instead votes what their families voted, because it is "tradition". Of course, these voters do not possess enough brains to realise that once "deregulated", the economy will "correct itself" in favor of those who can understand how it works, and they will be even poorer as a result. Go figure.

From my (neutral, I believe) point of view, neither of your candidates will change anything INSIDE THE U.S. once elected. Certainly not the "inexperienced" Obama, nor the "Pass me the AP rounds, those muj are wearing body armor, that 'll teach 'em" McCain.

But I secretly fear that McCain will want to actually participate in a war in which he will surely not be a POW again, that this is his chance of proving he can do it. And a new war, or the continuation of the current ones, will only bring bad things to your country as well as any country in the world, including mine. So I would choose the lesser of two evils. Who knows, maybe "Hussein" will talk to his dark coloured friends down at the Middle East and oil prices will drop. LOL.

[This message has been edited by trident (edited 10-09-2008).]

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Zero-Dollar-Bill/ss/events/bs/100808zerodollargilb

This will help for sure

If you and HankB quit adding to your music stores, it will be the Great Depression II.

Got to have something coming in before you can spend it... I presume all of you in the North are expecting fuel to drop in price? Don't count on it. As soon as demand goes up (first cold snap) back up it goes.

Perhaps the big city guys are doing better on this, but I can say for certain in my smallish resort area, things are getting VERY slow. People are still coming here, but they are spending less. A large portion of our community went crazy with the real estate bubble, and many are broke or soon to go there. Local banks will soon be going broke, that leveraged themselves to issue loans for inflated price houses (that no-one EVER thought would lose value!) and now no-one can afford the mortgages.

And, before the ultra-right patsy's trot this out again, none of these people were poor lower income people trying to get their first house. Most everyone round here is pretty well off. Or at least WERE, until they started trading homes around like playing cards.THESE are the folks that precipitated this crisis. Middle class America. The vast amount of debt is owed by them, not some inner city working mother... (grow a heart, you bastards )

Perhaps for now, the retired city OMB is going to be insulated from all this. But don't bet on it. Your retirements are often tied to mutual funds... anyone taken a hit, already? Rampant inflation is already being predicted by some cautious economists (reputable ones, that is), and that won't do any of us any good. This is a large economy, and it takes a lot more time for problems to surface and impact the average Joe Six-pack. But it takes longer to fix, too...

Joe is going to have to give up his micro-brews and start drinking Schaeffer Light pretty soon.

And he's far more likely to use an S900 than a T3 if he's got any sense or keep the arranger he has already got. But maybe this could be a good thing... Just imagine how much better as a PLAYER he could get if he wasn't counting on the arranger to make any improvements for him Imagine how much better as a player he will get by practicing rather than just working out the technical details and talking endlessly about what the NEXT über-expensive arranger is going to do for HIM...

"Ask not what your arranger can do for you... ask what YOU can do on your arranger"

I wholeheartly WELCOME every single LEGAL immigrant to this great nation!
And I would help them in any way to become an American!

The rest need to be shown the door out!
I don't care which country they broke our law to come in from.

It IS part of our problems. Ask the hospitals, police departments etc.

Seems like neither candidate has said much about it??

Lee

Yep... blame it on all those illegal Mexicans running hedge funds, blame it on all the illegal Europeans running Fanny and Freddie, blame it on all the wetbacks in Washington at the Capitol Building and the Fed who deregulated the system...

Hey... what about the Jews and the blacks? Surely you can find a way to blame them too? I mean, this crisis couldn't POSSIBLY have been precipitated by greedy white Americans, could it? If it wasn't for the mud people, this country would be Paradise on earth by now, wouldn't it...?

Guantanamo got us off on the path... might as well build a few MORE concentration camps now that we need a scapegoat for our leaders' incompetence... Some of our troops have already been desensitized to inflicting torture, I bet they'd line up round the block to show poor Paco the error of his ways, or Washington Jr. his 'place' in society.

I've been to Germany... those guys don't have horns coming out of their heads. Pretty much like us, to be honest. They simply show how easy it is to get people to do ANYTHING once their basic freedoms have been given up (as a response to terror) and their economic system ruined by incompetence and greed...

Don't think for one minute it can't happen here. Look at Guantanamo, at 'rendition', at waterboarding, at attorneys being fired for their political views, at the 'Bush doctrine' (if you know what this is, you are smarter than your vice presidential favorite, wink, wink!), at the 'bailout'...

It already has...

Diki..,, they aleady tried to blame the mortgage crisis on us There were reports going out saying this mortgage mess is due to low income minority families when in reality the number do not reflect this.

Many minority families who bought homes didn't go out and buy a freakin $350-$400,000 home that they could not afford. So much of the mess was caused by middle class families buying really expensive homes with adjustable interest rates..., then living WAY outside of their budgets. Charging this, charging that..., then when that mortgage payment went from $800 one month to $1200 the next (and kept climbing) things really got ugly.

It pisses me off that everyone wants to blame the lenders soley (although they were a part of it), but so many of those buyers who made very poor financial decisions don't want to accept responsibility for it.... My wife and I pay our bills on time.., have NEVER been late on any bill, have NO debt, have credit cards but use them wisely..., live within our means.., yet we gotta use our tax dollars to bail out everyone else.