Reply #79: Great post. It's not RW propaganda, folks. The tone is one of exasperation, not hate.

[Aristus]

That right there should be a big clue. The repukes can't do anything without injecting hatred into it. For years now, I've wondered with some trepidation how we are viewed by countries and cultures around the world. Now, a recent American citizen gives it to us straight. I was right to be trepidacious. People see us for the whiny, spoiled, clueless, dispirited nation we've become. What happened to our "Can Do" attitude? What happened to our priorities?

I was stationed in Germany while I was in the Army. Everything closed at 1:00pm on Saturday afternoon and remained closed until Monday morning. A person planned for the shop-gap. Sunday was a very quiet day, a day of rest and relaxation. If you went into town, and talked above a loud whisper, a Polezei officer would tell you politely, but firmly to quiet down. Germany's economy is managing quite well without having everything open 24/7. And the productivity and job satisfaction of their workers is much higher than our own. There IS a correlation.

We've been in and out of recessions for decades now, but we have not truly suffered economically as a nation at anywhere near the level of the Great Depression. We need to man up, because bad (or maybe I should say worse) times are coming. Maybe we need a season of character-building deprivation. Maybe that will help us prioritize. Maybe when the rest of the country is out of work, despondant and hungry, we'll not be so quick to judge those who suffer when times are good for everybody else.

What happened to the America we used to know? The America the motto of which was "never say die"? Thanks for asking, percussivemadness. :thumbsup: Maybe we can find the answer now.