What is ruining this country?

kazoospec wrote: EDIT: Oh, and maze haircuts. Do you know how confusing those things are?

The trick to solving them is to hammer nails in to the skull to remember your place.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

Wait, I thought we were talking about maize haircuts?

4 pages and no one has blamed flappy-paddle transmissions yet...

Outraged Americans being replaced by Illegal Mexicans

http://www.nytimes.com/live/gay-pride-parade-updates/jewish-group-with-hired-protesters-opposes-the-parade/

Some of the most curious costumes worn along the parade route belonged to protesters. Behind a barricade, a group of men wore the fringed Jewish prayer garment known as the tzitzit and held up anti-gay signs bearing the logo of a group calling itself the Jewish Political Action Committee. “Judaism prohibits homosexuality,” one sign read. But the men were not Jewish. They were Mexican laborers, protesting because they were paid to protest, said one of the men, who would not give his name. Heshie Freed, a member of the political action committee, an Orthodox Jewish group based in Brooklyn, said that the men were supplementary troops, filling in for the Jewish students who would normally be called upon to demonstrate. “The rabbis said that the yeshiva boys shouldn’t come out for this because of what they would see at the parade,” Mr. Freed said. The group was fenced off from the parade, at Fifth Avenue and 15th Street, by the police. Parade-goers tossed open water bottles at the protesters and kissed defiantly in front of them. “It’s been a lot of confrontation,” Mr. Freed said. “Whenever you have emotions, you have a situation.” Late in the afternoon, a fight broke out. Bystanders said the gates separating the Jewish group opened and parade-goers swarmed in. Jasmine Brob, 19, said an Orthodox Jewish man from the committee swung at her friend, and Ms. Brob punched the man in the eye. “I ducked and then I swung at him,” she said. The man, whose skin around his eye was red with a small cut, held his sign high. The group left shortly after.

You can't make this E36 M3 up.

Edit:

I saw this picture Monday and thought that they looked sloppier than normal but it was hard to tell on my phone. On the computer you can see they were just given clothes to put over their own

An over abundance of people.

Not even any particularly douchy or shiny happy, just people overall.

Well, one group even more than most if I'm being honest. Lawyers. Lawyers would sue their own mother over a free lunch and force mothers everywhere to have their children sign a release before each meal. Lawyers are why the world gets dumbed down, codified, sanitized, and generally Bob Costad.

Threads like this are what is ruining our country. It serves no purpose other than to further divide us.

Facebook, automatic transmissions, GM, Dodge 1500 trucks, the info screen in the new MX-5, and donks.

Arrogance, entitlement, complacency. In that order.

People who post serious answers in facetious threads.

Fast food, soda and heroin.

the color mauve, post it notes, and the letter Q....

Swank Force One wrote: Kids. Young people are ruining this country. And Bob Costas.

And they're too young to see it.

Ruining? I dunno, still a pretty fantastic place to be. If I had to chose what is hurting our country the most, I'd say:

** The absence of any reputable news outlets--- none can be trusted, all slant to serve their needs, and the news we need to know about is buried under the heap of "celebrity" bile that gets better ratings

** Citizens United ruling---- our political system is a total farce. Until this ruling is overturned our election system has no validity. When unnamed billionaires can purchase elections with no recourse, our govt. ceases to be a representative republic.

** Parenting--- when I was a kid, if I got in trouble in class--- it was my fault. These days, if a kid isn't performing well, it's the teacher's fault, or the educational system. It's not the fault of the parents that didn't read to their children, or discipline them, or force them to earn their keep by doing chores--- it's the system's fault. Throw some "medication" down their throats if they are acting up, after all it couldn't be the parents to blame-- not after they read all of Dr. Oz's books...... Now children are cosseted, told they are always winners, and babied from the time they are infants. Sooner or later they are going to find out that life is tough.... and it will be harder on those who have been totally sheltered.

** Our society's dependence on technology--- more and more we are becoming useless slaves to our hand-held boxes of wonder. We are losing our ability to communicate, problem solve, and think on our own. While we have access to more information than ever, we spend time posting pictures of cats, or what we had for lunch. Idiocracy is fast approaching.... and Apple will lead the way.

But I"m a glass is half-full kinda guy, so I see more hope than despair.

racerdave600 wrote: the color mauve

You read my mind, so few clients are able to read my mind. They just aren't open to the experience.

If I was talented, I would write some form of an automated program which would reply to this each time it was updated, using the username above, and blame them.

Manually:

"Z31maniac is ruining this country!!"

tuna55 is ruining this country

No, that berkeleying Gary is ruining this country

Damned Homophones are ruining this country:

http://gawker.com/language-school-blogger-fired-for-writing-about-homopho-1613916147?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

A social media specialist for a Utah language school that teaches English to non-native speakers says he was fired for writing a blog post about homophones—words that sound the same, but carry different meanings—because his boss was afraid readers would think it was about "gay sex."

Tim Torkildson told the Salt Lake Tribune that shortly after his lesson went up, Nomen Global Language Center owner Clarke Woodger fired him, complaining "now our school is going to be associated with homosexuality."

"I had to look up the word" Woodger said, according to the account Torkildson published on his personal blog, "because I didn't know what the hell you were talking about. We don't teach this kind of advanced stuff to our students, and it's extremely inappropriate. Can you have your desk cleaned out by eleven this morning? I'll have your check ready."

It seems too ridiculous to believe, but Torkildson's former employer confirmed the incident of homophonia actually happened.

"People at this level of English," Woodger told the Tribune, "may see the 'homo' side and think it has something to do with gay sex."

Torkildson disagrees. He wrote that homophones are "one of the first subjects tackled when teaching ESL," and said his piece about them was very straightforward. The Tribune points out the Nomen blog published another post on the topic in 2011, apparently without incident.

Torkildson, a 60-year-old who enjoys taking quirky selfies, had only worked at Nomen for three months. Although he claims Woodger told him he's only suited for "clerical work," he's now seeking another social media job.

Sounds about par for a world where somebody was fired for saying "niggardly".

What is ruining this country? The fact that you cannot buy a Kia Rondo.
The redesigned Kia Rondo is available in Canada, but not in the US. That sucks. Its arguably sexier than the new Alfa, faster than the new Corvette, and roomier than the new Suburban. The Kia Rondo is the ultimate small family car ever made. Why doesn't the US get these practical vehicles?

If there is something ruining this country, it is a growing divide of people of differing philosophies who refuse to compromise or even understand where another group is coming from. We are so able to limit interaction to only those who agree with us, that we live in echo chambers where our beliefs are not challenged. Everyone who disagrees is wrong and a terrible person who can not possibly see reason, so it is totally justified to not interact with them.

Beer Baron wrote: If there is something ruining this country, it is a growing divide of people of differing philosophies who refuse to compromise or even understand where another group is coming from. We are so able to limit interaction to only those who agree with us, that we live in echo chambers where our beliefs are not challenged. Everyone who disagrees is wrong and a terrible person who can not possibly see reason, so it is totally justified to not interact with them.

Agreed but why, what has changed, can we objectively confirm that the dynamic has in fact changed?

Perhaps our expectation that the future should consistently be better than the past isn’t realistic and people suspect others are somehow stealing “their” great future.

In other words, people may think for whatever reason that things should be better and since they’re not, someone must be to blame.

RX Reven' wrote:

Beer Baron wrote: If there is something ruining this country, it is a growing divide of people of differing philosophies who refuse to compromise or even understand where another group is coming from. We are so able to limit interaction to only those who agree with us, that we live in echo chambers where our beliefs are not challenged. Everyone who disagrees is wrong and a terrible person who can not possibly see reason, so it is totally justified to not interact with them.

Agreed but why, what has changed, can we objectively confirm that the dynamic has in fact changed?

The form and distribution of media has changed. It's the internet and 24 hour "news" channels on the TV and radio.

We are to blame. All of us. People don't like discomfort. Being subjected to ideas that make us nervous and question is not pleasant. We are attracted by fear, sex, and flattery. As the market grows and it becomes easier to target the product of information, people are able to tune in to only the information they want, and tune out all the information they do not. Improved communication widens the scope of how widely you can reach. That's really great when it's a bit of a fringe hobby like motorsports, where you can come to a board like this and be able to pick the brains of people all over the world on how to make a car better or improve your driving skill, instead of just having the 50 people who show up regularly to your local auto-x club. It's very easy to find exactly the information you want.

When it comes to political information, being able to keep yourself full of only the information you want is bad. It means you don't necessarily get what you need.

The internet is ruining this country.