The State Of The Union

[Guest Travis]

Disclaimer:

People will either dismiss this topic and not say anything (ignorance is bliss) or it will turn into a very controversial topic. People from all nations are welcome to discuss as what America is and does affects the entire planet.

 

Please keep the hate to a minimum. Use constructive criticism, which means if you have an issue to raise, propose a solution, don't just rant on hate endlessly.

 

This is a very real and serious issue that has been growing for the past 50 years. It has now come to a point where it is blatant and is affecting the health of us humans globally. Yet, it being so obvious is still somewhat new so people are still able to pretend to ignore it hoping it will smooth out. This doesn't smooth out. It only grows exponentially. It is up to us, WE THE PEOPLE, to stand up and declare what we feel is right and fair. I personally think we need to take our government back from the corporations that now run it.

 

It seems daunting when looking at it as a whole, but in reality, where do these companies get their money? The answer, of course, is from our support. So we are supporting the tyranny. We are allowing millions of innocent civilians being terrorized and bombed. We have allowed the radiation from our ammunition to plague a nation and enter our atmosphere to be spread throughout the world. We have allowed corporations to take the money we give them and buy the politicians who, in all, only care about themselves.

 

Better health care? Better education? Lowering the poverty level? Not profitable!! Growing tobacco in irradiated soil giving us cancer, engineering seeds to not reproduce forcing farmers to have to buy seeds every year from the same coporation, using serious toxins in every day products ... all of this is done for the companies best interest. For the profit of the key individuals who run the company. Yet, we reward them by filling their pockets with our hard earned money.

 

We support the initiative that has made the human mother's breast milk poisonous. Prove me wrong. Interested in alternatives? Interested in solutions?

 

 

Watch this video from comedian George Carlin and discuss what his message means to you. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Why?

 

How does it make you feel?

 

What do you think we can do to solve this growing crisis?

 

Thank you for participating.

 

 

 

[Deanne]

I could rant a long time on this topic. I just finished watching a show on pollution, and it is mind boggling.

 

Ultimately I think people have to say No.

 

No Im not buying that junk.

No Im not eating that junk.

No Im not listening to that junk.

Edited April 26, 2008 by Deanne

[Dodge]

Politics isn't one of my strong points and I just want to say ArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrGh.

The sooner the Australian troops are out of Iraq the better.

The sooner my neighbours learn to recycle I'll feel better.

If smokeing was banned tomorrow It would be ok with me, Id hang out like the rest of the smokers.

The sooner the Japaneese stop shooting whales In the name of science I will feel better.

Sometimes /me like lots of ppl think "The Issue Is so big and I'm only one person, what can I do about War, my neighbours, tobacco farming, whaleing, global warming".

Let alone our prime minister.

Now this one Is a doozy. The last one was real quick to jump Into bed with bush. The new one ( Kevin Rudd ) speaks mandarin chineese and no doubt If you live In Australia or America you may have seen when Bush and Rudd met.

The G5 summit just finished with not much hope of reducing carbon emmisions cause of the Global Tradeing Emmisions Scheme.

The point of this rave Is Take It To The Top. Get leaders that are what they say they are.

Clinton and obamma are a joke. and a sad joke at that.

[Guest Travis]

Well it's a shame. I had hoped techgear patrons would participate. Guess you all drew the ignorant card. Let us hope you are the minority...

[err0r]

While I do love his comedy there are several flaws in his ideas.

 

Let's start with education. Education isn't going downhill. Nowadays they expect kids to learn faster and more and at earlier age groups. For you old folks out there like me, ever tried helping your child with their homework and thought wow this is pretty advanced for his age. Kids are subjected to so much more these days and are able to process more and more information. I think the problem of education is not with the students but with the school boards and teachers. In my home state there is a ridiculous amount of school districts with superintendents for each one making a killing. Money wasted on them that could better be used in classrooms. Teachers that are more concerned with state mandated curriculum than wondering if what they are teaching kids is right.

 

Continuing on the subject of education. Does having a college education make you smarter than someone who doesn't? Because you hold a masters in history does that make you smarter than someone who doesn't? Who decided knowledge in certain areas and not in others automatically makes you superior or inferior.

 

He talked of big business wanting to keep people stupid so they could get over on them. Because you take a job that requires more manual labor than mental brainpower doesn't make you any less beneficial to society. The world needs ditch diggers and i'm sure there are some pretty smart ditch diggers in the world. Many times in this world we do what we have to do to make ends meet. Not everyone wants to spend their life in the pursuit of money and power. Many people focus on other things such as family. Happiness comes in all forms and how dare someone think less of a person's intelligence based on the job they hold.

 

You want to talk about knowledge equating to how far you go in school. How bout we look at these college and pro athletes that can barely form a complete sentence. They are getting a free ride through some of the best educational systems in the world yet when you hear them give an interview you wonder how they got out of highschool.

 

I'm pretty sick of people thinking money, power, and status somehow makes them smarter than other people. Not everyone strives for or has the opportunity to get those things.

 

And onto this america this and america that crap.

 

Don't people realize that America is made up of every country? Is there a group of people anywhere in this world that are not represented in vast numbers inside the usa? People keep mistaking the American govt for the american people. What they don't realize is that we are not anymore happy with our govt than they are with it. It's so corrupt that it's basically unfixable at least in the short term.

 

My country isn't perfect but it is the most important country in the world. Everything we do has world wide consequences both good and bad. We have forgotten that our country isn't people like george bush. It's normal people that are just trying to live the best way they know how. And it's a very sad day when you let someone make you think less about being an American. I for one am proud to be from the U.S.A and while george is a very funny guy you may wanna think twice about listening to a person talk about how smart people are when he has made some pretty stupid decisions in his life. So i guess smart people can make mistakes too. I do find his comedy funny as hell and do agree with some of the things he says but remember he is just one of those poor souls that didn't go to college so big business has him right where they want him right???

 

 

on to other things:

 

yes it's true that our money has done all those bad things but you seem to be forgetting all the good things our money has done. How many american companies has advanced healthcare or technology. When you start naming the most influential inventions and products in the world today most of that came from right here. Using our money. Money is the root of all evil and a more correct quote has never been made. Money is like a gun.. In the wrong hands it can do great harm to many people. But in the right hands it can protect those same people. The thing is there is evil in this world. No i'm not getting all religious on you. but almost anything good can be used for evil given to the wrong person. You can't just focus on the bad things and ignore all the good things. You have to acknowledge both. I see people talking about freedoms they lose here in america and injustices they see. I tell you want. If you have never left america then you haven't seen true loss of freedom. You haven't seen what injustice really is. While things here aren't great they are a far cry better than most others have it. But just because we have done all these great things doesn't mean we can rest on our laurels. We let the govt get to where it is. And only we can change our future. If we leave it up to all those smart guys in washington the U.S.A will never be what it should.

 

[Deanne]

Let's start with education. Education isn't going downhill. Nowadays they expect kids to learn faster and more and at earlier age groups. For you old folks out there like me, ever tried helping your child with their homework and thought wow this is pretty advanced for his age. Kids are subjected to so much more these days and are able to process more and more information.

 

I agree.

 

I also know that schools and many of the modern teachers have made a tremendous effort to instill a spirit of questioning and critical thinking into children, in order to prevent at least some degree of mass brainwashing.

 

Much of the school system now teaches and encourages children to question, critically think about, and even reject information given by authority figures. This caused alot of friction with old style teachers who simply wanted to transfer traditional knowledge, rather than teach thinking skills. I think the last of those old style of teachers have about retired now.

 

While alot of our history has been based on teaching people what to think, rather than how to think. Our school systms are now making a conscious effort to teach children how to think - and that was a conscious change in teaching strategy that happened quite a number of years ago.

Edited April 29, 2008 by Deanne

[Guest X-Fusion]

Well it's a shame. I had hoped techgear patrons would participate. Guess you all drew the ignorant card. Let us hope you are the minority...

Can't say I see how you can say we drew an ignorant card. Some of us have realized that talking about this is useless. So, we'd rather save our breath (or typing fingers) on something we can either talk about reasonably or something we know about.

[Shagman]

Can't say I see how you can say we drew an ignorant card. Some of us have realized that talking about this is useless. So, we'd rather save our breath (or typing fingers) on something we can either talk about reasonably or something we know about.

 

I think hes right about a lot of things (not all things)... I think it is true the "Owners" do not want well informed citizens.

 

Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. This applies to the world, and people will remain ignorant of the big gigantic "rhymes with chick" being rammed up their @§§.

 

George nails it on a lot of things, not everything but a lot.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oboyox3L_MI

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u6lCBnRoHQ

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pow5_UYKaJ8

Edited April 29, 2008 by Shagman

[err0r]

being well informed and being well educated is no where near the same thing. There is no excuse other than simply not caring when it comes to getting information

 

I agree with you shag that there are a lot of people that just do not care. That's our biggest problem.

[Guest Travis]

I think you misunderstand the rant about education. I think it's great what he is saying about education. We are lowering our standards. Here in Washington they have and are doing exactly what he is talking about. We have a statewide test that every student takes which shows the level of our kids. Well the majority of the kids have been failing it. A slight majority, but still ... (Too much tv/video games ..hehe) Instead of saying, "ok we have a problem here we need to address!", they simply lower the test requirements.

 

The issue was you needed to get above a certain test score to graduate from high school, but too many kids weren't passing and parents were complaining. So their answer wasn't to address the education issue, they lowered the requirements. So we are sending out dumber and dumber kids. Highschool graduates with very poor english, horrible spelling and 6th grade reading level.

 

I think this is pathetic and embarassing. Someone is dropping the ball here. (Parents allowing their kids to be slackers is what I think.)

 

Anyways, this is what his rant about education is. People don't care about education much. Americans know very little history or geography for instance unless they are really into it and take it to college level. It amazes me the amount of spelling and grammatical errors I find in the professional world. Math? Yeah right, what do I need math for! I have a computer/cell phone calculator.

 

I'm not saying I'm perfect by any means, I'm saying we are lowering the standards for education.