(10-24-2013 10:57 AM)bigblueblindness Wrote:  

(10-24-2013 09:46 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-24-2013 09:31 AM)bigblueblindness Wrote:  Just a quick note since the conversation is headed toward UVA and UNC...

I know quite a few people from Virginia, and my mother was born in Radford, which is near Blacksburg. The hottest thread on the main board right now about the Fred Glass comments veered toward the culture of Virginia, and it makes me a bit sad that a dirty bastardization of a culture, summed up as "DC", is overtaking it to a point that people are not comfortable describing Virginia as Southern any longer. The "DC" culture is not anything really... it is the lack of a culture created by those that make their careers off of taxes in one way or another. I am not saying anything at all about the individuals in this culture, just the culture itself. It is too bad that this culture has seeped out of the District of Columbia into border states, which I think is exactly what the founders of DC did NOT want to happen when establishing those boundaries in the first place and giving them individual representation.

It is not a North vs. South, Democrat vs. Republican, Urban vs. Rural issue for me. As part of my heritage, I hate that much of Virginia does not consider themselves Southern any longer. However, I would rather them describe themselves as Northern or New Englanders than what they are now, which is just a vacuum culture. As I've said before, I want UVA more to reconnect with the state of Virginia than for any objective improvements in academics, revenue, athletics, or whatever. I think having all of our schools in conference together has helped solidify and advance what we all consider to be "Southern" even with all of the different flavors under that term. That is a big part of why I see the overlap of TV footprints as well worth it in the long run if we are truly working toward the best possible culture. The additions of FSU, Clemson, Georgia Tech, NC State, Va Tech, and Louisville (to some degree) would not likely increase revenue funding per school in pure TV dollars, but keeping one of the few public institutions which are still controlled mostly at the state level pays off in so many other ways. Anyway, this is not a proper rant for the main board, but I figured some of you would empathize.

BBB, the rant is appreciated and I would hardly call it a rant. The simple truth is we are losing our culture everywhere. It is lost in the ridiculous things they teach as culture in our public grade schools, it is lost in places like Oklahoma and Florida when university presidents are procured to plug into the Washington first money and it will continue at all Universities as state funding gets harder and harder to come by and the Federal socialism spreads. The largest employers in most states now are federal and state employers including education. Real Americans creating and performing real jobs have been outsourced, taxed out of existence, and bought out by the corporations that pay DC to do what they do. The America I grew up in is long gone and the American of the 80's and 90's is fast disappearing. When government and state workers and those deriving their income from grants plus the unemployed outnumber the regular work force (and we are damned close) this is what every bureaucracy becomes and in all cultures throughout history it is one of the last stages before collapse. The big problem for us today is that most of the European and a few of the Asian cultures are either in the same stage or nearing it so the next collapse will be global.

Couple government waste and corruption with an out of control global population growth, the resultant pollution and strain upon vital commodities and resources and you have a recipe for catastrophe. Have a nice day! JR

You could not have ended your comments any better, JR

I've talked with you about this before. If there was a country that offered more economic and social liberty than the U.S.A, I would strongly consider moving there. My loved ones, for the most part, would do the same. The problem is as you stated... those places do not exist. Chile, Hong Kong, and Estonia are trying at some level, but each has their issues, just as we do here. All things being equal, this is home, and we have to do what we can to preserve it. In the back of my mind, though, I have to remember that most of us are English, German, Italian, Polish, Chinese, Brazilian.. etc. in blood that came here generations ago to seek what we could not find at "home". Home is where you can pursue your happiness. I hope that can be the U.S.A. and more specifically the South, but we have a lot of work to do.

On the bright side, many in my generation that are part of the non-subsidized workforce that you described above are not ideologically aligned with the government party (I see all of them, in general, as the same party). The downside, again, as you stated JR, is that we are becoming outnumbered. In most things, it just takes 51% percent to make a decision. That old joke to women that they could control the world if they could all just agree on the same thing is lighthearted, but the demographics of where American workers (or non-workers) draw their income is coming very close to that realization.

Very true BBB. Those in power want us to think this is Red vs Blue, liberal vs conservative, Black vs White, Black & White vs Brown, pro abortion vs anti abortion, etc. It's not. It's small business and worker versus bureaucracy. The frugal vs the wasteful would be another way to look at it. But as long as we the people are caught up in the phony divisions we will never unify to defeat our real enemy.

There are only two objectives that we must achieve to restore balance.
1. No corporate contributions for elections. Since a corporation really is not a person, only persons should be allowed to contribute to candidates. And anyone acquiring the requisite number of registered voters signatures should be placed on the State or Federal ballot without having to have 50 grass roots organization to do so especially since DEM's and REP's don't have to do so. The exemptions for the DEM/REP's are only about 20 years old but have fundamentally changed access to office. Level the ground for election qualifications and the DEM/REP party can't control nominations and thereby control elections. And we need to return to a time when media was expected as a public service to cover all candidates for an election. For over a century our elections were essentially free. You could buy advertisements, but your debates, speeches, etc were covered for free.

2. Go back an enforce or reinstate TR's anti-trust laws. They were put into place to preserve the rights of citizens and preserve the government from overt tampering during the time of the first rise of corporations.

In these two objectives are all that we need. Elect enough representatives and senators and president's who are free of the DEM/REP party tag and control and eventually you will reverse the Supreme Court's decision that corporations have the rights of individuals. When that happens you can take back your country. But, in your lifetime you will witness a full court press by corporations to defeat you. Most jobs are now corporate jobs. Any opposition to their total domination will lose their paycheck and find themselves unemployable. Their control over banking, jobs, government, and now their ability to spy on you gives them all the tools they need to dominate. And where there is an entity without a soul and that entities sole reason for existence is profit and it operates without empathy or a sense of order or justice, you have evil in its purest form. Give it the power to prohibit your buying and selling without its mark guaranteeing that you serve it and I think you know where I'm headed. It is not made in the image of the creator, but out of the design of man. It has the privileges of person, but no soul. It is what it is, a beast.