pureau79

Back during the 1990's (as I recall), nearly every day in Houston Texas we heard of car-jackings where the victim was often beaten without mercy as they resisted having their property stolen. Very often the victims were killed... Then, in the late middle 90's eleven (11) states enacted concealed carry laws. The crime rates did not sharply increase. To the contrary, the rates of violent crimes plummeted... fell like a stone... reduced dramatically. One could conclude that, suddenly the criminal element had a new found respect for the fact that they no longer knew who would, or would not be packing some heat. Imagine that. It doesn't take a doctorate to understand why violent criminals became docile. My old buddy .45 ACP is very persuasive. Good post. Absolutely my kinda gal. You go girl! I really admire a beautiful lady with a quick wit and a sharp report... if you know what I mean.

The qualifier here, however, is whatsoever YOU do... NOT Robin Hood or the Federal government. It is NOT one's duty to give unto Caesar that which is theirs so it can be redistributed by an enlightened federal employee... The Almighty ONE only expects ten percent for the "storehouse", where do sheeple get the idea that a government entity has the right to tax and spend without limits?

I had to weigh in on this... Yes. It seems that it is a conflict of interest. However, this as with all things is a very small piece of the puzzle. Not all, who are on the government dole, are deadbeats. What you suggest here is another regulation with no constitutional basis. The left regulates its agenda. The right regulates its agenda. Pretty soon you have a government run amok. HEY... you'd have present day America. The real solution to this issue seems to be the one less favored by Americans in general. Get involved at the local level. Fulfill your civic responsibilities. If the shoe doesn't fit, don't be offended by it, but don't think another regulation will solve the sins of government. Until individuals and neighborhoods get a grip on the local politicians what is happening at the national level will never change. You cannot get more out of something than what is put into it. Politics begins with mayors, judges, councilmen, tax assessors, school boards and all manner of individuals who are clamoring to get a cut of the big pie. Build the foundation correctly so the house can endure. The Constitution Of The United States Of America is a very good place to start. It is NOT a living document, but an ENDURING one. It should not be changed with the wind of whimsy. Welfare is UN-Constitutional. It is an emotional issue that few wish to handle. No one wants to push grandma over a cliff, but if the FAMILY was doing what families have done since the begining of time and taking care of grandma welfare wouldn't be needed by her. Churches and communities could do more. Look at the Mega churches everyone wants to be a part of... where do the millions go? Do they really need a Gulfstream jet? Was a billion dollar sports arena and Monday night football more important than families and neighbors? Why do we send money overseas to help the poor in preference to the poor in our own neighborhood? How can we solve the world's problems until we get a grip on our own reality? When I was a young boy many years ago, my grandmother's neighbor would bring bushels of fresh peaches to share with us. Grandmother processed and canned or dried those peaches along with other produce for later use. We shared from our garden and from our apple trees. We fished and hunted for food, not for sport and another head to hang on a wall to collect dust. There was always something good to eat and welfare didn't provide it for us. I would go to the garden to hoe and pick when I was five years old. I was taught to cook for myself. If I didn't have enough clothes to make a load, but had a preference for something to wear, I washed it by hand. I learned to iron and sew my own buttons. It didn't hurt me a bit to have responsibility. I would get wood for the fire and sometimes my brother and I would find a snake, but we were ready for one because we were taught that snakes could be in the wood-pile. Many modern day parents have abdicated the responsibility to teach their children because our grand and benevolent uncle has persuaded many that the government can do a better job. Then we scratch our asses in wonderment when we get a poor result and try desparately to find anyone other than ourselves to blame. So what do we do? I know... Let's find another suitable regulation. That will fix everything. While we're at it, let's elect the most attractive person because surely attractive people couldn't be narcissistic devious. I don't intend to condescend with this diatribe, but it amazes me wants to put a bandage over a festering sore and never really deal with the pain of killing the infection. Our people have become lame and crippled while believing lies. Class warfare is dividing us and a divided house will not stand. The truth is that life is hard. It can be very harsh. There have always been rich people and poor people as there have always been charlatans, carpet-baggers and other criminal elements ready to exploit any sign of weakness. Regulation will not dilute the poison our government is pushing toward us, but truth will make us free. Education will not free us any more than practice will make perfect. TRUTH in education will free our minds just as PERFECT practice will make a practice perfect. Hard work and perseverence will help us to overcome. Honesty with ourselves and others enables us to comprehend lies when we hear them and neighbors loving neighbors will help us through lean times. If necessity is the mother of invention, there needs to be more necessity and less regulation. The regulatory side should be such that if you are hungry and prefer stealing from your neighbor's garden then your punishment should be that you are required to hoe and pick for your neighbor until you know how to hoe and pick for yourself. If you kill someone in cold blood and are caught with certitude, you should be swiftly tried and then hang from a tree until you are dead, dead, dead. The horror of this should be televised for all to see. If you want to take the risk for yourself, you should know without doubt what the possible outcome will be. Standing on the street-corner waiting for the check from uncle Sam should simply end and punishment for defending your family and livelyhood should go away. There will probably be riots. It will probably result in civil war. Eventually enough law abiding citizens will band together and decide that they've had enough of the terror they feel everytime a child gets out of their sight or every time they turn their backs on the things they've worked so hard to acquire, and something good will come from something terrible or we will simply take a much shorter path to where we are no doubt headed... enslavement by the ruling class. Federal Judges who regulate by UN-Constitutional decree should be fired, but the people are too busy keeping up appearances to deal with substance. Politicians who line their own coffers with the blood and sweat of their constituents should be impeached, tarred and feathered, and then run out of office on the point of a goad, but no one wishes to discuss politics in public because of lies and division. The truth is that people wish to effect policies that favor them. There are many things that SHOULD happen, but we content ourselves to live an irresponsible, knee-jerk reactionary existence having its basis in feelings and emotions never really solving problems while we run each other off the roads to be first to get somewhere. Who did you cut off or run down on the road today? Okay, take away welfare, it is the one true option, but stand ready to help those who need help. If you are a fisherman, teach them to fish. If you are skilled, teach them a skill. Do NOT expect anything other than chaos if you are not prepared to stand in the gap to fill a need... Most would rather just b**** about welfare recipients than do something to help them overcome their poverty mentality. Poverty is a spirit and it seeks to possess all who are weak enough to fall victim to divisive rhetoric. Be part of the solution and not the problem.

Absolutely, positively one of the greatest renditions of a song (any song) that I have ever heard... ever. Fantastic! Impressive! Vibratory, it resonated with every fiber of every cell in my being. Wow.

I believe it is: "Running around like a chicken with it's head cut off"... People who were raised on farms, having had chickens will understand this.

You know, I had a litany of comments regarding your previous post and then deleted it because I felt that it would be viewed as confrontational... but this one I can't pass on. You are talking about a nation filled with people who shop at Wal ****, K **** and T*****. These companies and their political power-broker representatives have driven countless, untold numbers of small businesses out of the market place because they cannot compete. Nearly every item in every one of these stores is manufactured some place other than the United States. Couple that with the entitlement mentality that dominates the minds of many Americans and they absolutely do NOT want to be troubled with boycotting any business that makes their lives more convenient. After all, you can go into most of these stores now and fill some need for almost any aspect of daily life. The companies are not bringing factories and jobs back to CONUS until it becomes advantageous for them to do so, and there is only one thing that will make that happen. Get Washingtonian bureaucrats out of the way. The excessive regulatory compliance burdens and excessive taxes on business is the primary cause those jobs and factories have left the country. I agree with the premise of applying pressure, but until Washington gets the message nothing else in the economic outlook matters.

The Iraqis must have a viable and valuable currency. Whatever the terror groups want to do will not prevent the GOI in moving forward with economic plans. It may delay the departure of U.S. forces... I highly doubt it will delay Iraq in coming online with the rest of the world.

According to all I have read and researched over the past couple of years, unless you have sheltered yourself, it will be taxed as ordinary income. I know. I know. There are those who will want to castigate me for what I just said, but these are the facts as I understand them. If anyone can point me to the verifiable documentation that proves I don't know what I'm saying, please... prove me wrong. I want to be proven wrong, but I'm relatively certain that I am not...

A battle to the very end, in overtime. It pains me to concede the loss, but in my list of favorite teams LSU is second, so... maybe next time. GEAUX TIGERS (back home! Get out! See you next time...)! ROOOOOOOOOLL TIDE! YEEEEHAW!

Someone neg'ed you, so I evened you out. Yours is a fair question. No sir. I would not suggest an 1895 education as much of it is no longer relative to our society. What I do suggest, however, is a return to emphasis on those things that are universal. The ability to read, for instance... there are an alarming number of graduates who simply can not read at anything more than an elementary level. Why? The United States of America is lagging in mathematics and science, falling behind a growing number of nations. Why? What is a common thread in this travesty? I believe the answer to this question is relative to the changes made in the education system with the implementation of federal government funding. The "No Child Left Behind" Act sounds great, but it was never practical because it was another regulatory debacle. Anything that takes a teacher's attention away from the student is one more nail in effective education's coffin. Why was phonetic reading abandoned for word recognition programs? Phonetics actually was effective in elevating one's ability to read and comprehend. Many graduates can hardly spell simple words, or use them in the correct context. Syntax as a practice is virtually non-existent in education. I look with wonder at a number of poster's on this site, who presumably are adults and yet have trouble with basic words. An example of this is the word "lose" which, is commonly misspelled as "loose". The list goes on and on. I'm not picking on anyone here and I have not been the grammar police, but it is troubling to see the systematic destruction of the American dialect of the English language. Mathematics and science are important. The "arts" and atheletics are electives, yet now a child must obtain a number of elective credits to graduate. I suggest a mastery of basic concepts at the primary school level. Secondary education can address the arts and such. Develop trade related programs and teach specific to those programs. Teach skills not theories... And yes... The original topic was a teacher involving students in a protest. That is not the teacher's right or responsibility. That teacher should be disciplined immediately. It is behavior such as that, which is why our education system is not effective. Teachers should not be allowed to share their personal convictions with children... especially at the primary school level, but this too is a symptom of the problem I suggest.

Until a majority of parents in this nation realize that the public school system in the United States of America is more than a convenient daycare system, little will change. Parents today are too busy keeping up with the Jones' to notice they have lost influence in the hearts and minds of the children. Not all parents have lost the attention and respect of their children, but it is frighteningly obvious that most probably have. The third and fourth generations of America's youth are being raised on television and educated in failing systems by a huge percentage of people that infect them with their wrong ideas. It's insane. It will not change until a groundswell of grassroots involvement says ENOUGH! Enough! We cannot continue doing the same things day after day, year after year and expect a different result. We must return power to the local school districts and local administrators and parents. The Federal government has dumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the school system and the only thing that has gotten better is the appearance of the buildings. It is time to end social experimentation with our children and return to the basics of education. It is not, nor has it ever been the right or responsibility of federal bureaucracies and teacher's to direct the social lives of children. That right belongs solely to the parents of a child. Consider the following: What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895... Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895? This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA . It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal. 8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895 Grammar (Time, one hour) 1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters. 2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications. 3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph 4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,''play,' and 'run.' 5. Define case; illustrate each case. 6. What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation. 7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes) 1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. 2. A wagon box is 2 ft Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare? 4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000.. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? 5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per inch? 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods? 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes) 1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion. 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe? 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865. Orthography (Time, one hour) [Do we even know what this is??] 1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified? 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?) 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup. 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication. Geography (Time, one hour) 1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend? 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ? 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean? 4. Describe the mountains of North America 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U..S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth. Notice: I know many of you will jump directly to Snopes (trusting that they are the final word to all arguments) to bash the concept, but I didn't live in 1895, so I cannot argue the validity of this. I do however, know that the education system is failing our children and they are losing critical thinking/reasoning skills at an alarming rate. Do you even know who Snopes.com is? What makes them the "authority"?

Halftime bites!!!

Roll Tide! I-20/59 was rockin' today. It's gonna be a full house tonight. I can hardly wait! Down to minutes now...

That is precisely my point. We agree. People are the problem, but we cannot remove the human element from the grand equation... Furball

Please don't take my words out of context. I said I love the ethereal way Pink Floyd reaches into my soul with their music. I have been a fan since I first heard Us And Them, but they were wrong. Roger Waters or whichever one wrote the lyrics to Money (and I believe it was Sid Barrett before he tripped out) was wrong. The author was wrong. Money is NOT the ROOT of all evil. It IS the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil. It is not WHAT one has, but what one DOES that is evil. Money is simply a medium for exchange. It does NOTHING. It is the condition of ones heart...

Yes. All good points, but The United States does not equal greed, and our society is not morally bankrupt. You and I are engaged in this dialogue...

Uh uh... I still have it and I suspect you do as well... but I do agree that many a spoiled brat has. I've raised my children to have desire and initiative. I hope enough others did as well. Maybe we can get this ship back on course. The opposite of greed is 1Cor.13... Love. Love is not self seeking. There is no envy, malice, rage, jealousy or greed in love. Love seeks to do good for others.

I took time to read several of your posts before "bashing" you. Obviously I mean that rhetorically... You seem quite intelligent. So, what gives with the "Greed = United States" post? Certainly there are greedy people in America, as in all other nations. America's financial system was designed by greedy men, but America is not greed. If you feel that American ideals are rooted in greed then please, read the founding Father's writings again... a little more carefully this time. Many of them gave nearly all they had to ensure that America did not follow the path Western Europe was on. Thomas Jefferson was able to create legislation that outlawed the creation of a central banking system. He among many, knew it to be a corrupt system as it was modeled on the central banking systems of Europe. If you are not familiar with the Jekyll Island story, please research it. America is my home and I am proud of it. There are things wrong in America today that need changing, but a socialist system is not the answer. Socialism (and all the other "isms") will not succeed. People are the problem, but if you really feel America is the problem, why don't you look for a country that has a perfect system and simply move there?

The best example of wealth and greed, in my estimation, may be found in the parable of the talents. Yeshua made the point that achieving greater wealth with what you have is proper. However, what we do with that wealth is a reflection of what is in our hearts. Think about this: having wealth and hoarding it unto ourselves, never giving to the needy and downtrodden is greedy behavior. Having two coats is wealthy by some standards as some have none, but does it make you greedy? I doubt it. Some are poor because they have a spirit (attitude) of poverty, and others are poor because they can't believe their creator really wants them to prosper. Some are poor because that is all they have ever known... Like an elephant that could easily break the chain that binds it, but believes it cannot overcome because that is all it has ever known. Having wealth is not evil. Not using it for good is evil. Having an apple tree and not pruning it is not the best practice...

Just when we were getting along so famously... I love Pink Floyd and the ethereal way they reach into my soul with their music, but I couldn't disagree more. They were wrong then and the principal is still errant. Money, in and of itself, is only a medium for exchange. It is the love of money that is the ROOT (origin) of evil. When one, as some have said here (and you have agreed), has an inordinate desire for money and associates material wealth and power with a sense of self worth, then that one is out of balance regarding money, but the money itself did nothing. Mankind has the capacity to do great good, or great evil (paraphrased) with its resources. The resources are merely objects we have assigned value to. At one time seashells were used as a medium for exchange, then copper, silver and a host of other materials until some smooth talking alchemist persuaded a king that gold was more scarce and few could possess it. The love of and lust for power and wealth have driven people to war, not the mediums themselves. The key to overcoming greed is in the heart of a man...

I live in the area. My job just keeps me on the road a lot (about ten months a year...).

Thanks littlefeet. It just seems obvious to me. Two thumbs and a +1 back at ya'.

Howdy neighbor! I see the San Jacinto monument everyday. I'm working in Deer Park for about another week.

I'm not nit-picking you but do feel the desire to expound on the money thing. Money itself is inanimate and neutral. Greed cannot have it's origin in money. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. That is the basis of greed.