I need to vent

[Brian]

Originally Posted by mapes9999

Maybe it's just all the bike helmets, crosswalks, modern medicine, air bags, hepa filters...etc that are negating the process of natural selection.....Therefore leaving us with too many bottom of the barrel citizens?

Our whole society/country spends way too much time trying to make things idiot proof.

We'll never be successful because they just keep breeding better idiots.

[Brady]

Originally Posted by mapes9999

Nope wasn't going for that, was afraid to even post that just cause I worried you or someone else was going to take it out of context....I'm done now:wave:

No, look at the post they are gone. I was censored.

[mapes]

Originally Posted by teamair2k2

No, look at the post they are gone. I was censored.

Oh whoa....gotcha now, you sure were:lol:

There are probably better places for that discussion anyways

[daveb]

Maybe it's just me, but deleting a post in a thread about our freedoms disappearing is bad form.

[mapes]

Originally Posted by daveb

Maybe it's just me, but deleting a post in a thread about our freedoms disappearing is bad form.

:lol: :lol2:

[Hatch]

Dress code (read: uniform khakis): the reason some schools (should be all schools) have to have this is because nobody exercises common decency and common sense anymore. Young girls with boobs hangin' out and belly buttons showing while they dress like Brittany Spears and that Aguillera(sp?) girl IS a distraction at school, IS disruptive, DOES interfere with good order and discipline. But since everyday students (and parents) come up with a new way to do something stupid that hasn't been specifically banned, all you're left with as an administrator or school board member is to publish the short list of what they CAN wear, rather than the long list of what they CAN'T wear.

I say this knowing full well that every high school during homecoming week has goofy dress-up days like "Hawaii Day" and "'50s Day" etc.

Life is full of rules. It's best our kids learn it early.

Life is also full of failures AND successes. Unfortunately, our kids don't know how to deal with failure (except those with parents who set a good example).

I'm a high school educator and I have kids that went through public education.

[schipperchick]

Originally Posted by rondmc

i've been following this thread, :lurk: - and man it's interesting! i agree with many folks' thoughts on the original post that not allowing kids to wear costumes to school is a pain. it seems so minivan drivered! i agree that we are taking away too many things that were a big part of my childhood memories.

i also agree that sometimes decisions need to be made to protect people. however, sometimes those decisions are bad in my opinion, because they seem to only protect an individual or group of paranoid weenies who are afraid they'll get sued. (school administration in this case.) my wife's a teacher, and i could type pages about the idiocy she has to deal with in the classroom. lack of respect for teacher? yep. deadbeat parents? yep. wanna hear something ludicrous? her 4th-graders are not allowed to play basketball at recess because they fight. what the heck?! whatever happened to letting boys be boys (kids) and getting some stress out? we work them to death all day long, make them eat lunch in silence... crap! i'm just worried about how they will do one day when they go to college, get a job, get married... how are they going to handle conflict when they get old if we don't train them in the right way to settle issues now? the list goes on... what would happen if people quit whining and took responsibility for their own decisions? or maybe took responsibility for raising their kids themselves? that's a whole other can of worms, i guess... </rant>

however, sometimes i have to make a decision for myself and my family that i don't like. i'd love to let my kids trick-or-treat in a group of kids with no adults. but that's not gonna happen. i'd love to let them ride their bikes all over town or walk/ride to school every day. also not going to happen. there are too many sick idiots out there that i can't trust. sometimes i have to do what's best, even though it's not popular or maybe not my favorite. that's sad, but that's life.

now this discussion has taken turns toward politics and religion, and i've sensed some passionate voices! (!!!) i love reading this kind of stuff, as people fascinate me - i believe everyone has a really interesting story to tell. from reading these posts, and just from paying attention as i live life, i know that lots of people have grown up the hard way. many have felt undue pressure from the political arena (read: decisions being made FOR me... i hate that too - i'm pretty anit-establishment), and many have gotten a bad taste in their mouth from established religion. i get that, too.

so here's the deal: i can't really speak to the political stuff much, since i don't have a dog in that race. but as to religion, i just want to say "i'm sorry." i grew up in a Baptist minister's home, and i'm now a Baptist music minister myself. i know the crap that is attached to the word "Baptist", and i'm pretty ashamed of it to tell you the truth. in fact, it makes me angry because when people ask me where i work and i say "First Baptist Lewisville", i can usually count on one hand the number of seconds it takes for them to make up their minds about me. so hopefully you won't judge me too quickly because i just revealed that about myself! :) but i'm sorry and i want to apologize if i can for any way that "the church" has shafted humanity. and i believe it has. i know that i personally didn't have anything to do with books being banned from schools, or costumes being censored or prohibited, or any other number of things that step on people's rights or privileges. i just hope that somehow, little by little, i can help clean up the mess. ;-) i hope that people will someday understand that religion really has nothing to offer to our society; but Christ does. (as an earlier poster said, only 2 entities have ever died for you... Jesus Christ and the American G.I...) i am usually very slow to describe myself as a Baptist because of the baggage that brings to the table. i much prefer to be labelled as a Christ-follower. i think it's a much more accurate description.

anyhoo, all that to say, yes this world is screwed up in so many ways. yes lawyers and politicians and hard-nosed ministers and other losers have forced their agendas and ticked lots of people off. i've felt it myself, and i agree with those who are turned off by all that crap. i feel sad that our kids can't grow up innocent and still have their fun! i hate that parents can't parent without making sure the blinds are closed. i hate that people with "democrat" bumper stickers get flipped off. it ticks me off that the world seems to think that "tolerance" or "diversity" means "anything but Christian values". and i get why that is - some "Christians" are very intolerant; and like in most other arenas in life, the vocal few screw it up for the rest of us! i also hate that we send our best and brightest off to war for us, but then protest, demonstrate, and run our mouths off about what bad people they are to do a good job for us. i tell you what, i'm proud of our troops, and my hat's off to every one of them!

well, that got long - sorry about that, and thanks for "listening" to a new guy. if i stepped on any toes, give me the benefit of the doubt or post up and i'll try to apologize! it's cool to me that everyone has an opinion, and they all seem to be different. i love seeing the different angles people come from, and i hope that what i have to say doesn't rub anyone so wrong that we can't keep talking.

looking forward to hearing what you have to say, and maybe we can keep hashing it out around the campfire in hot springs while we enjoy an "adult beverage of choice" and a bowl of pipe tobacco...

:wave:

Sir,you are evidently from your words one of the few of the spiritual nature I admire.Spiritualism is a wonderful thing. Most of the time, organized religion is not.I compliment you greatly for not being one of the many that insist on trying to cram "personal religious beliefs" down others throats.Wonderful post you put up.:)

Zilla(Steve) here,I just realized I was logged in under my wifes(Lisa) name...sorry,I've got tiredhead.

[DJFriar]

Well, I'm sure I could fill the post buffer in this topic, but I'll just shoot off a few points of my own.

First, the crime thing is a mainly a perception issue. Crime has consistently been down the last 20 years. The difference is we have instant access to news and media, and "if it bleeds, it leads." Overall, violent crime is down a lot in this country.

I don't intend to start a Bush v. Kerry v. Joe Schmoe debate, but I fully agree with daveb that certain people in power are taking advantage of a situation to pull off stunts that were unimaginable 50, even just 20 years ago. Steve (zilla) had a thread up about missing the 70's; so those of you who were there: do you think the continuing erosion of our rights and freedoms would have been taken as lightly then as it is now. Why are we fighting terrorism in the first place, it already won. It won as soon as those building collapsed and our freedoms began being ripped away one new law after another. I have no fear of the Taliban or Saddam or any other middle eastern group; they are much less dangerous than the poltical powers stripping our freedoms and turning democracy into imperialism.

While I understand the want to point to lawyers as the cause of a lot of these problem, I think a lot of people are missing the fact that those outcomes are decided by juries. A "jury of peers", so again, it comes back to all of us being responsible and having the intelligence and common-sense to see that stupidity is not a handicap. We look at lawsuits (and I know the hot coffee one is a favorite, but actually it wasn't as bad as its believed to be, PM me if you want details) that are frivolous and blame the lawyers without even giving a second thought to the jury that decided its outcome. I'm not trying to defend lawyers, but I don't think its as much them as people want to believe. (as an aside, if you like reading about frivolous stuff, www.thisistrue.com is for you).

I won't even go into the BS in public school systems. Sam & I have had a few long conversations and we highly doubt we will be putting our kids into the public school system. Its just too broken. And I come from a family of educators, my wife and I both went through the public system, and we both are quite away of its udder uselessness. I don't even have a diploma or GED (actually had more credits than required, but was missing a required credit that I didn't feel I needed), and the sad thing is, my lack of either has never once harmed me. Obviously its not that important. I see public school more as free daycare than an educational system. Teachers can't teach freely without fear of offending someone, teachers are paid crap, people who have no teaching background set the rules and policies that teachers have to follow, its stupid.

Anyway, I feel like I rambled more than I meant, I but be much more tired than I thought.

[Brady]

:deadhorse:

[Hatch]

Originally Posted by DJFriar

I don't even have a diploma or GED (actually had more credits than required, but was missing a required credit that I didn't feel I needed), and the sad thing is, my lack of either has never once harmed me. Obviously its not that important.

You are the exception, not the rule. You're making a dangerous generalization.

I have a 4yr degree, my brother (2 yrs younger) does not. He works a much more back-breaking job than I do, but I take home more than twice the cash he does in a year. [But he does have fewer gray hairs than I]

Education is the key to a free and prosperous society.