Well put!?Huzzah--a compliment--open the bottle of French wine!

....Btw, I fully agree with your last post ...

I too agree, with one small bug however. It may be a small point but if we could get beyond it we'd be better for itm IMHO. This (an small snippet) from a handout I used in all my history classes:III. Culture-- confused with "race" & other things:         1. We are all Homo sapiens, sapiens; race a biologically meaningless term.     2. Ethnicity and nationality; while these factors do play a role in our              individual (and collective) culture, they are not, in and of, themselves              the determining factors of that culture and therefore be treated, at first              glance, as visible behaviors that may or may not truly reflect the              underlying values. Neither of these are factors that an individual has              control over.         a) ethnicity-- what some people would consider "races"; based               loosely on physical traits that are old adaptations to environmental               stresses put on our ancestors (their survival insured that these traits               remained in the gene pool). Organisms that do not adapt to such               stresses do not, as a rule, remain a major part of the breeding               population. We will discuss this more fully in class.          b) nationality-- again something the some people consider to be               "race"; in reality, nothing more than where you, or your ancestors,               came from, or what "national group" you or they identify with.               It must be noted hear that the term "nationality" does not               necessarily mean a "country"... confused? Good. We will               straighten this out in class, as well.Race is the Indy 500 and such events... nothing to do with humankind unless we run in them (or against the rats)....

Perhaps it is now that they are wrong about the casues of our problems?  😮

Good point Gerry… lots of dollars wasted to promote something we all should look at like voting… one of our duties. Just count us and cool all the expensive hype.

Works for me!

Or at worst more reality TV (another mental enema).

Being that I rarely lock topics on my forums, I was wondering, what is the criteria for having a thread locked down here? .... I was confused on the Middle Kingdom thread because it seemed like a good running discussion that could have continued on if others had something to add.  Thanks. 🙂

My request was, somewhat, tongue-in-cheek; the thread IMHO had become a laundry list of "Oh yeah? so then...." posts with no input from anyone but willy and me. Neither of us were really presenting anything new and, as you say, we'd reached agreement (or at least a stalemate) on the issue. I had previously asked consideration of spinning the thread off as it had gone far away from the original subject... China. This is likely why there was little other input... not the topic it started out.I agree with the idea of self moderation and thank you all for letting these threads run... keeps it interesting and fresh. I just thought it was time for this one to go... it had reached its pull date, IMHO.Post script: I would liked to have edited my last post in said thread to correct the there / their spelling error in the sentence about being hunted down for doing "their job", in reference to Congress.  ::)

This, as the old CCC, would be voluntary; lists of potential enrollees would come from social agencies (public and private); those on the lists would be invited to join. All others sign-ups like the military. To be organized and administered as the old CCC was. In the words of FDR (1st Inaugural), give them “…simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control, and similar projects. I call your attention to the fact that this type of work is of definite practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss but also a means of creation future national wealth…”.In my perfect world all HS grads would be required to do two years of public service* for a small stiepend and chits toward furthering their education (not payback req'd) to be paid directly to the college or trqade school they attend. No education no $, but no time limit on use... need not be right after term of service.With several options and incentives even your "hard-wards" should find something to set them on a better path.Reality says though... unless society finds a way to motivate the "hard-wards" there will only be more to deal with.*President Obama's New Civilian National Security Force doesn't count unless, I am appointed to the position of Supreme High Commander and Head Fuzzy-Wuzzy.

At about post 14 or 15 this thread might need split. Ya think?  ???