Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss

Just one more thing.

I've made the following realization also.

Freedom alone is not sufficent for a nation to thrive and survive.

It also takes the intelligence to use it to sustain it's benefits.

What a waste.

True. I'll add to it that along with freedom and intelligence if people don't truly love this country, it's going to fail.

Most people love their freedom, love what they get out of being Americans but do they love the country? See how they vote when the subject is helping other Americans less fortunate than themselves, what they do to help besides helping themselves. Do they actually care about anything beyond what benefits them?

I'm not speaking of anyone in particular but all Americans. I love my country and I like to think I'm patriotic. But I have to ask myself how much I'm willing to sacrifice to make it better.

Funny you say that. I was outside on the balcony smoking (I know, still have not quit), when I remembered my tongue-in-cheek statement "they won't take me alive". Mark of course had to chime in with "they will" or something.

I got to thinking about what would happen if the $hit hit the fan and I was called to serve. I came to the conclusion that I DO love my country and I would follow in my ancestors footsteps and defend her to the death if necessary. I think that's why I'm so pissed about the state of affairs and the slow erosion of our Constitutional rights. I am a patriot, if I wasn't, I'd just shut up and follow the herd like the rest of the sheeple.

I will fight to defend the Constitution, and never obey an order to round up and capture civilians. And if it comes down to the military detaining and imprisoning civilians, as the bill Joe cited allows... and I'm somehow on their "list", they won't get me alive.... That's a promise.

Although I do question your beliefs I won't question your patriotism however

A: People don't always have to make big sacrifices, and in the current health care debate they don't unless this current bill passes, simple changes to current laws will go a long way to fixing problems we may have now not a massive 2700 page bill.

B: Government intervention doesn't make anything better, never has and never will, all you do is move it to a different forum where decisions are made based on politics not what is right or economical. Witness what happened to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Welfare, all started out as small programs meant to assist a small percentage of the public and the end result are bloated programs that attempt to help all, are unsustainable and so large that politicians and the public are afraid to fix them.

I don't particularly care if anyone here believes me or not, look at Great Britain, Europe, Canada, Asia or anywhere else without a limited government and make your own decisions.

Robert, it is you and your beliefs and the likes of you, who I loathe the most. Loving your country is not comprised of giving everything away, without incentive to earn what you are getting. It is that and that alone that has done the most damage to the culture of this nation. The corruption of the work ethic. The idea that because we are a "free" nation that every thing and every person needs to be cared for and maintained at the expense of others who have and are willing to work for what they have. Over the centuries, there is an ever growing faction in this nation that have been negating the natural laws, ......

Survival of the fittest. Don't shit where you eat. Clean up your own mess Produce more than you consume. Those that can't keep up, must be left behind. Don't perpetuate the defects. The right to defend one self If you overpopulate, you die.

What audacity to think that after millions of years of successful evolution that a culture or a species can exists by not continuing to obey the rules that have got them this far.

All these natural laws that the "touchy feely people have negated in the name of "being civilized" when in fact it is the ignoring of all these "laws" that has caused this culture to deteriorate. Since the creation of this great nation, it has become more and more, what YOU would call "giving" and "caring, rather than paying attention to what has been successful in history. And along with that has come more and more serious culrural problems that have only been made more and more complicated by doing more and more of the same thing. As if, for some reason after 200 years, there is no one that can even imagine that NOT giving something to someone who hasn't produced and created their own " social bank account" is a bad thing, and that it has only resulted in perpetuating more and greater demands of "we deserve it", " it is our right" Not one living creature on this planet has the "right" to life, or liberty, or happiness or ANYTHING! They only have the right to PURSUE those things.

All of that has led to what I predict for this nation. What you are seeing now is the half way point to Social and cultural bankruptcy. It's just a natual law, that you cannot continuously give no incentive to be productive and to move forward. You cannot continuously cater to those who would slow you down and thus drag you into their unproductive existance. Call it the trap of the least common denominator, if you will. If a culture or nation relegates itself to waiting for and catering to the laggards, dullards, incompetents, lazy, defects, freeloaders ..... then all is lost. The rewards of the fruits of labor must go to those who have performed the labor. Giving rewards to those who have not produced, only gives rise to more of the same. And as the incentive to do that increase, so do the number of those who don't produce increase. As well as those who get a "free ride", who don't have to work and produce more than they consume, ...... increase. And so to, does the demise of the nation.

Corruption, payoffs, the adoration of demigods and saviours, epitomizing incompetency. You're seeing the results of it happening right before your eyes ...... yet you deny it. You cite it as the cause rather then the results. If I believed in wishes, I'd wish you a