Patriotism

[Elphaba]

Originally Posted by rameumptom

But America the Beautiful explains in poetic imagery . . . .

It's also a heck of a lot easier to sing.

Elphie

[Palerider]

Originally Posted by Elphaba

It's also a heck of a lot easier to sing.

Elphie

then lets get it changed......

[Elphaba]

Originally Posted by rameumptom

Come, come, Elphaba. We both agree on more than just this. We both agree that green eyeshadow works great for you.

True.

Additionally, we both know you can get snitty sometimes. HA!

Elphaba

[Elphaba]

Originally Posted by Palerider

then lets get it changed......

You do it.

Elphie

[Godless]

Originally Posted by rameumptom

I fear we have lost much of that dream, and replaced it with capitalism and materialism. There's nothing wrong with capitalism, per se, except that it is not a reason to praise our nation. It is freedom and self-responsibility that promote capitalism, and not the other way around. Otherwise, China would be a very free nation today. But we've lost the dream of heroes, pilgrims, and patriots, and replaced it with encouragement from our nation's leaders to "go shopping" in the midst of a national crisis. What the heck kind of priorities are those???? Where is the sacrifice that creates true heroes, rather than football players and movie stars that can't keep out of jail for our children to emulate?

Seems we need some serious re-prioritizing here. Thank God we're about to get a wake up call. I'm just not certain that Americans are going to awake to the reality of their choices and choose, as Pres Uchtdorf taught us, to "lift where we stand."

Great post. I agree 100%. Free markets and unchecked corporate greed have run this country into the ground. As much as I pity those who have lost so much in the last several weeks, I must admit that I've gotten a small amount of satisfaction from watching our system of free market capitalism begin to self-destruct. I just hope that our leaders make the change that is necessary and don't just set the system up to fail again.

Originally Posted by a-train

I think the LDS people are waking up, but much of the nation will go on in drunkenness to destruction.

Personally, I try to avoid drunkenness as much as I can. But today's my birthday, so I'll probably be making an exception tonight.

[Truegrits]

Godless:
But today's my birthday, so I'll probably be making an exception tonight.

Happy Birthday ! ! ! ! !

[Godless]

Originally Posted by Truegrits

Happy Birthday ! ! ! ! !

Thank you!

[Fiannan]

Great post. I agree 100%. Free markets and unchecked corporate greed have run this country into the ground. As much as I pity those who have lost so much in the last several weeks, I must admit that I've gotten a small amount of satisfaction from watching our system of free market capitalism begin to self-destruct. I just hope that our leaders make the change that is necessary and don't just set the system up to fail again.

That's like saying that if you train to be an exceptional runner, and accidentely twist your ankle, that you should radically alter your routine. What the solution to this mess would be is to allow these big corporations to collapse -- the same way that little mom and pop businesses do everyday. Yet these corporations are allowed to benefit from socialism while middle class people have to live by the rules of the free market. Maybe it's because some of these questionable corporations donate so much money to politicians which is the concept that Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations warned against.

Remember, Robin Hood was no socialist -- he was an anti-government militia organizer.

[Over43]

Originally Posted by rastler000

I am a huge fan for what Bush did in the days after 9/11. I am a huge fan of what originally went down in Afganistan. Heck, I was even cool with taking Saddam out. But after that it has been a mess.

Does saying this make me unpatriotic?

No. I think the wheels came off President Bush's cart a couple of years ago. But, that is the new warfare. It's not about two armies facing off at Stalingrad or Kursk. It's a small group of extremists who can cause chaos, affect market economies, take out 10 square city blocks with a suitcase bomb. (See Ian Fleming- Moonraker, M's dialogue) Terrorism is the new warfare. "Big" countries: the US, Russia, China probably (notice I said probably) won't square off and disintigrate each other. As long as the West refuses to cut the ties with mid-Eastern oil (easier said than done), the exremist groups that are being funded there will continue to thrive. To fight them won't take "armies" but well gathered intelligence, elite anti-terrorist units that might consist of no more than 20-50 individuals (or less, even single assassins), and the understanding of the American people that we need to be as ruthless towards them as they have more than willingly showed to be toward us.

Where's Bond when we need him? Or Nicholai Hel?

But we in the US are allowed to express our Patriotism in any way we choose. Cindy Sheehan, most of us regard her as nuts, but she lost a son in the mid-East, and now is an activist because of it. Is she unpatriotic?

O43

[Bookmeister]

There was a toast we used when I was in the army a million years ago, and it went this way.

"My Country, may she always be right.

But right or wrong, my country!"

I still feel that way.