Please vote tomorrow!

In reply to dculberson:

Tell that to the mostly anonymous people who DECIDED they wouldn't let their humble beginnings keep them shackled and downtrodden.

There are no laws prohibiting anyone from working hard and making something of themselves (unless you include all the government-imposed shackles on small business and individual achievement).

A great example is two Greek immigrants I worked for at just ONE of their several large car-washes: their family moved to America poor and jobless. Their dad was able to find a job and later get his kids into plumbing. They got their licenses and started earning money. Enough money to buy a run-down three-family home, renovate it and rented out the three apartments. They then used that as a means to buy another three-family and another...

They then were able to buy property to build a car-wash on. Then with that income, bought another, then a third.

In a matter of a few years, these immigrants were paying us kids to go Christmas shopping for their families and one brother, as he promised his mother as a child, bought her a brand new Mercedes Benz E-Class. I was lucky enough to be there to see him give it to her.

If they can do it, anyone can. (Unless thy believe Al Sharpton et.al is right about them)

yamaha wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

pinchvalve wrote: In reply to Cone_Junkie: Please explain how many people died giving women the right to vote? I don't recall the great suffrage wars. So women at least, get a pass on that point.

Pinchvalve. I don't see which of Cone_junkies posts you are referring too here. Did I miss something this statement doesn't compute with my reading of the thread.

Back on page 2, and this is one of the rare occurances I'll side with cone_junky. He was referencing that many fellow Americans have died to give him the opportunity to vote, so he does. For some reason, probably too much drinking, pinchvalve appears to have taken a racial stance towards that when there isn't one. Fellow Americans have been dying since the 1700's to give us, at present day, the right to vote. Race and gender have absolutely nothing to do with what was said by CJ.

I was simply pointing out that women were not allowed to vote Nationally until 1920...so most of the fighting and dying that made up the foundation of our country and our constitution did not actually apply to them. At the time in fact, you had to be a white male property owner in most of the country. Except in New Jersey...women and former slaves could vote provided they were property owners. Go Jersey!

But I was just being a contrarian...I take nothing away from all of the brave men and women who have fought to defend our way of life from day one until today. I thank them and appreciate their ultimate sacrifice and sincerely wish that today's politicians treated our government the same way those who died to create and defend it did.

In reply to pinchvalve:

Might want to look into delivery of that view into writing then.....because NOBODY got that out of what you typed on pg 2.

ebonyandivory's real-live story couldn't be more true. There are chances and opportunities are out there waiting for us. Any of us.

My home town liked to consider itself working class, but in reality ALL of the business and ship yards had closed long before. The town was dead. Down and out and on the dole, but HUGE numbers of us kids made it out alive. Mostly through politics, but others because of a remarkably forward thinking school system.

Work, hard or otherwise, is the key to it. Take those chances, make some opportunities and honestly, there IS a way out. There was for me, at least.

If someone has to be "encouraged" to vote, I don't want them voting.

I'll not jump into the political bits.

I will say I'm utterly berkeleying disgusted by the turnout. As always. Everybody has an opinion. But only half will take 10 or 15 minutes to do SOMETHING about it other than piss & moan?

Truly pathetic and disgusting. I heard every excuse under the sun from people I talked to. Usually "I just don't have time." REALLY!? You know you can early vote, right!? Poor planning on your part is not a valid excuse. And then there were three people I encountered that day who laughed and gave a deer-in-headlights look when I asked "So did you vote today?" I then had to give them a Schoolhouse Rock Lite explanation of how Congress works. JFC.

It's no wonder we Americans have the reputation of being fat, dumb, & lazy.

/rant.

I don't want to get too political either, but the amount of people in this country that have no idea how the government works is staggering.

In reply to racerdave600:

They'd rather teach "Praise the glorious leader" than "Government 101".

In reply to yamaha:

Well, as has been stated, I may have been drinking.

Hi guys. How's it going in here?

In reply to Tom Suddard:

Aside from a drink induced post that looked like a tirade, relatively well.

Tom Suddard wrote: Hi guys. How's it going in here?

Given that were all adults (opinionated adults but still adults), I'd say we're doing just fine!

Surprisingly civil so far.

Tom Suddard wrote: Hi guys. How's it going in here?

it's being watched … it's also been amazingly civil …. I for one am impressed … surprised … yes .. but happily impressed

In reply to T.J.: I'm saying that changing the campaign finance laws so corporations can't donate money to political parties and campaigns and maybe a couple more will limit the money so the politicians can represent the people, not the corporations.

In reply to SVreX:spending money is not free speech, even though the Supreme Court made a bad ruling about that.

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: In reply to SVreX:spending money is not free speech, even though the Supreme Court made a bad ruling about that.

I guess you will have to argue THAT with the Supreme Court.

So, the converse would also be true, right? They should be able to LIMIT your spending, since it's not free speech anyway, right?

So, you can't donate to a political party, a charity, GLAD, the ASPCA. the NAACP, PACs, your church, or your local library. You also can't buy tee shirts with political messages, or shop at businesses that take political positions. I guess if you took it far enough, you couldn't buy an American flag, because you might choose to burn it or fly it (which might been seen as free speech, and we wouldn't want spending money to be associated with free speech).

I thought it was an unusual position too, until I thought about it. The opposite is not free speech, it is tyranny.

BTW, the Supreme Court never said spending money was free speech.

They said limiting spending was a restriction to speech.

In reply to SVreX:

I love you!

SVreX wrote: BTW, the Supreme Court never said spending money was free speech. They said limiting spending was a restriction to speech.

Enjoy your system that spends billions of dollars a year on perpetual campaigning. Im glad you like it. Id rather see that money spent on... Virtually anything else.

I can assure you as an outsider looking in, very few people would want that system as the limiting of this "free speech" is directly recognized as a benefit for everyone EXCEPT multimillion dollar corporations.

Its hilarious how hard you shell for the people who do not care about you, your family or society in the slightest. They have zero interest in doing anything for you. Keep going on that capitalistic route though, its working swell for the USA in general.

In reply to HiTempguy:

You're doing a fine job of dispelling any number of Canadian myths.

In reply to HiTempguy:

You're right. Capitalism isn't NEARLY as good a systems as say.... ANYTHING else that's ever been tried.

Is capitalism perfect? Not a chance. Better than anything you can come up with outside of some fantastic utopian society?

You bet your assets!

(I love that for YEARS people have been ripping America and it's capitalistic ways yet can never seem to come up with anything even remotely better)

And even at that, it's a long-proven fact that a smaller government is a better government. Capitalism is the only way that a smaller government is possible.

In reply to ebonyandivory:

Keep in mind that HiTempguy is from Canada, a country that is the geographical equivalent of Hillary Clinton. You know, a socialistic opportunist riding the coattails of and benefitting from the successes of an ambitious and more capable partner.

In reply to HiTempguy:

Why do you assume I am shilling for them?

I never said I agreed.

Understanding the law is significantly different than agreeing with it.

It's been the law of the land since 1976, so the whining about it looks a little fruitless to me.

But blaming the filthy Capitalists is equally fruitless.

I understand it so I can work with it, in it, and around it. I think that is reasonably smart. It has worked pretty well for me and my family.

I think complaining about it is not very smart, unless it is part of an effort to effect change. It rarely is. In fact, on the Internet I would say it almost never is. It's just whining.

Enjoy your whining.