Conditioning

[Nebe]

Flap, i agree 100% Its sad, but its true. gheese, what will college cost 18 years from now when my kiddo is ready to go

[Backbeach Jake]

Geeze, you didn't even touch on why we don't have Universal health care in the USA. Health is a slave's chain in this country. Healthcare nails your feet to the boss' floor. If you change jobs, you might get insurance after 90 days. One of my former co-workers was Russian. He saw no reason to pay 150$ every week for Health Insurance. Until he nearly scalped himself at work. Didn't want to go to the Hospital until I explained that it happened on the job and worker's comp would take care of it. He didn't and probably stil doesn't understand this system. Still without Insurance, he became a future father. What to do he asked. All I could advise is "save your money". This Country is forqed.

[ThrowingTimber]

Jake,
Even with universal healthcare, you would still shell out dough for a private doctor. If its free for everyone, EVERYONE will make sure to get a check up etc every months. That gives you X amount of waiting time to see a doctor, which in turns = substandard medical attention due to time/money constraints. Soooo what would you end up doing? uh huh same as most folks in Canada or Sweden, you'd pay for a private doctor(on top of paying for everyone else's doctors in taxes etc). And heaven forbid you have any condition heart etc... and you get a 6-8 month wait to see someone....

The conditioning started with the plastic diaper, continued with the condo (the home with the lawn you dont have to mow) and will continue to grow....

[RIJIMMY]

This is called capitalism, it may not be perfect, but its the best system anyone has come up with.
We all think gas prices are high, but adjusted for inflation, they are less than the 80's.
Flap, look at some of the positves, in the last few years, greedy corporations that inflated stock prices (ENron, World Com) were busted, their leaders, in jail or on trial. Money management firms and insurance firms have been busted for swindiling investors or customers. This is all good stuff for the "common" man.
I totally disagree about the "fundamentalist" chirtian views governing ANY part of American life. Want examples? turn on the tube. Remember 20 yrs ago when Soap was on? It was SOOO contoversial that Billy Crystal was a gay character, what about now? Gay televisions shows are the norm, sex is on every channel at all hours. Look at the biggest cable hits - Sopranos, Sex in the City, Six feet Under....are these christian shows? No way. Yet millions and millins of people are watching. I am not religious at all, but I think American needs a little more return to good values. Kids are exposed way to early to sex and violence.
I guess I don't view the US being such a bad place. There are always challenges for each generation, these are ours.

[Flaptail]

RI Jimmy, I appreciate your comments and welcome them anytime. Capitalism is the best system there is. Lord knows that communism will never work because human nature dictates that though we think it would be wonderful if everyone had what they needed and recieved no more or no less than the next guy, everyone on an equal plane, it can't work because everyone wants to be better and have more than the guy next to him.

I mentioned the Christian fundementalists not for what they control now but what they would like to control and thier "threat", for a better word, is growing. You rightfully pointed out television, radio etc and the sex, language and violence it portrays but that is, however perverted we see it, a freedom of expression as guaranteed by the US Constitution and as such should be only minimaly controlable. I agree that it can get out of hand, but nevertheless, free speech and freedom of expression is a guaranteed right of every US citizen. The way I see it is that only a governmentaly funded television station (PBS) has any chance of being regulated in a more stringent manner than the privately owned national broadcasting companies. I always found it odd that they could show natives in the amazon running around naked on tv but when it comes to white women everyone gets thier shorts in an uproar. Smacks of racism to me.

I believe that Enron and TRW's people being put to the fire was a token gesture on the govt.s part. Just enough to show to give the illusion that someone in the govt. really cares. Pick a couple companies, burn the ceo and top management alive publicly then go back to business as usual. They were sacrificed for the greater good, that being conditioning the public into believing they are serious, which they really aren't. You will never ever see Haliburton toasted like that. Capitalism, or I should say, the theory of capitalism, is a good one, like you say the best we got. But it's full of holes, greed, nepotism and croniesm.

One of the real problems in anything getting done is lobbyists. Oil, drug, insurance and healthcare have them, and pay them big money to see things stay status quo. Hydrogen technology exists for cars to get unbelievable mileage but the oil industry spends billions in thier lobby against it. Very successfully I might add.

Democracy in it's purest form is without party, label or affiliation. It's the right of one human being to say what he thinks and vote his conscience on whatever issue lies before him. Democrats, republicans vote the party line if they are registered as such and woe to them that do not, they are chastised for it. I was once an Independent. Not anymore, they formed a party too! How can you be independent if you belong to a political party? Now I am registered as "non-enrolled". To me thats being true to the democratic ethic. My children are pre-disposed, as research has now found, to vote the same way and that makes me proud.

My proudest achievment as a parent is to have two kids who are independent thinkers. Who think with thier heads,thier hearts and thier conscience and who question authority's course. They are being conditioned to be anti-conditioned. Peace out to you all.

[Raven]

concerning the new play comin out called, "reefer madness"....

QUOTE:It's about the lengths people will go to convince you to think the way they want you to think," he says. " 'Reefer Madness' is a prime example of people using scare tactics to convince people to enact laws against drugs, gays in the military or whatever."
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and if it's not scare tactics.... it'll be another tactic or a different subject
but its the same old deal of either dis-information or warping the information...until it is transformed into a scheme that suits their needs. (thought it applied) _Rav

[Rob Rockcrawler]

I have to agree with jake about universa health care, it is long overdue. RIght now i have a job that sucks and pays a crappy wage but its got bennies, so i feel somewhat greatful, ive turned down many otehr jobs because of a lack of insurance, ot insurance after 60-90 days. Even with my crap insurance it cost me 185 bucks out of pocket for a tetnus shot<damn fish hook>. I dont know what the national average for health care spending per person is but i know it is substantial, i believe it is approachjing 5% of the gdp. If all of that money was in circulation there would be a lot more spending, strenghtening our economy, or put into savings. Our health care system is seriously flawed and i think everyone realizes that, yet nothing gets done. Hillary care is sounding pretty good now. I for one wouldnt mind a flat tax across the board to pay for health care, it would eliminate the cost of the coverage for businesses, maybe that could create a few more jobs. Tons of capitol would be freed up for more investment in industry, and dont forget that americans would have more spendable income to buy the goods that americans manufacture. The medical care i have received in the past couple years wasnt anything to write home about, it already is sub-par, i feel like a number. I dated a canadian for a while and her care was good, i didnt hear her complain at all. When she thought about moving here she was a bit sceptical of our system. Sure Canada, Sweden, Great Britain, and most other developed countries dont have a perfect health care system but it is better than ours in many ways. I can argue this till i turn blue in the face or till my fingers get blisters, im done...

P.S. Thank God fishing season is here, this stuff gets the blood pressure up, glad i dont need meds for it, WOW that stuff is expensive...