University Students SUCK
 

Let me say that I am very disappointed in my fellow University students. I know that I am not exactly attending a prestigious institution (My University's motto is "We Take Anybody!") but, JEEZ! You should hear these whippersnappers in my PolySci class! Granted, its PolySci 200, so we're talking Gen. Ed. here and everybody has to go, so you get a lot of 19-20 year olds. And, brother, let me tell you, these kids have zero compassion, zero tolerance for anything but Bushie and the Religious Right, zero feelings of responsibility to anyone but themselves and THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR GOD. And everybody else can go screw. They are sickening. One guy said, "this country was founded on Christian-Judeo principles and if you don't work, you don't eat." That is a Christian-Judeo value? Since when? Did I misread my Bible? Did Jesus say, "Those who worketh the holy overtime shall inherit the Earth," or, "If thou brother doeseth stumble and fall, be sure to trample uponeth him and finish him off" ??? Did I miss that? These little snots haven't worked a day in their life (ok, maybe they worked at DairyQueen last summer) walk around with their cell phone stuck to their faces, drive new cars and surely believe their enviable position of full-time, non-working student with a credit card came to them by virture of their superior chromosomes. The bum in the street--tough shit for him. He obviously deserves to be there. That's how young, middle-class American college students are thinking. They deserve Bush. I think I'm going to see if I can transfer to Antioch in Yellow Springs...you see how upset I am. It's four-thirty in the morning and I can't sleep I'm so angry with them all! I swear, I feel like an outlaw and they all give me the evil eye because I CAN'T HELP MYSELF and I speak up on some issues. I hate these kids.

That sounds pretty horrible. If you're really transfering out, I hope you get a better environment there. But please don't give up/overgeneralize on university students. We're not all like that.

Young, middleclass, or even monied, American college students aren't socialists or collectivists or communists! Cool!

Rejoice and be glad. It's really only the capitalists and entrepreneurs who know how to make money and wealth anyway.

Capitalism plus ethics is the only way to fly. The other roads get you shafted in a big way.

"Bushie" is doing more to BREAK and RUIN totalitarianism than any President in recent memory but Reagan. Clinton didn't, Carter couldn't hack it. That counts very heavily in Heaven, Brianna -- Bush-hatred is every bit as misplaced as it is unproductive as it is stupid. You aren't going to college to be stupid.

DID YOU HEAR ME???? THEY'VE NO FUCKING COMPASSION!! AT ALL!

oh, yes, in RepublicanWorld that IS the way to get into heaven. Supply-side economics my ASS!

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits, UG. You people make me sick.

if something bad happens to you--I wonder what you'll do? Kick yourself in the ass? shoot yourself and save us all the bother of having to help you? sickening.

Yes UG, and it's not just the college students here. I have become quite comfortable with the lack of BS liberal themes running rampant through this entire society here in Ohio.

Sure, they need to lighten up their gun laws, but overall this is no Massachusetts.

And as for no compassion, that may be in Bri's case but people in this area from most all backgrounds not only get along but also help each other in small or big ways. This is particularly surprising to me since I have heard for years that there is a lot of racial tension here.

Nothing could be further from the truth from my experience.

Liberalism is not rampant here. Every single fuckup that a person might make in their life is not somehow my fault or my responsibility to fix.

I DIG that man! :)

I do so hope your magical exsistence continues forever and ever. What about stuff people have no control over? Car accident-boom-head injury. Yeah, tough shit man. Shouldn't have run out for a jug of milk, ya asshole.
Wait, though. You're young. Life does seem to happen even to the most smug and self-satisfied of you.

And a lot of the people who need help are children. But, screw them, too. I didn't bring them here--they should have been born to better parents. Wow. It must be nice to have all the answers. Let's just tell little jimmie to get a shoe-shine job and save his pennies!

Hey Bri-- Don't let the kids (here and at school) get you down. It's a pendulum. 30 years ago kids were liberal and the old folks said they didn't work a day in their life how could they know anything? Now the kids are Bushies and the old folks said they didn't work a day in their life how could they know anything?

What's still true is that the 21 yo kids still have no clue. They need to get kicked in the teeth a few times.

Taken to an extreme, the conservatives would have no community support and each person for himself. Taken to an extreme, the liberals would build a commune for everyone to share.

The middle ground features capitalism, entreprenueship, personal responsibility, social safety net, education, and fairness. A progressive tax structure is a fairness component of the incentive-based Free Market Game. I made a couple of million dollars a few year ago and paid half of it in fed and state income tax. I didn't make the megabucks by my self in isolation, my taxes support the system that gave birth to my wealth.

I ran a business and played by the rules. If a company is illegally unfair to employees, I want that company punished by the Labor Dept. It's not fair to my business to let that go on. Actually, I took a sabbatical from my company to work elsewhere. After I resigned with a month's notice, they took me off of payroll and my last paycheck never came. I argued with them about this, then took them to the CA Labor Dept and easily won my case (no cost to me).

So, I've been there, done that, in no particular order: Student, Employee, Jailmate, Capitialist, Entreprenuer, Employer

Some of my business colleagues think I'm a flaming liberal. All of my liberal friends think I'm a capialist pig; they almost turned white when I told them of my Oil & Gas Partnership investments. As if I was crossing ever deeper to the dark side.

Moderates will win the day!

I find it disturbing that some people think if you don't want government to provide heathcare, retirement, education, charity, or other things that they don't belong involved in, that you have no compassion, that you are against the poor, elderly, sick, or uneducated.

Anyone with compassion would insist that government immediately cut off all social programs like medicare, social security, public education, and welfare. That way these people can get MORE help, better education, actual charity, better retirement, etc.

I feel like these morons would say if I'm against government feeding everyone, it means I don't want people to eat.

As far as Bush goes, he's a tool and anyone who likes him is an asswipe. Bush has done more to bring totalitarianism to America, more to violate the Constitution and the principles that built America, and more to wreck the reputation of America than all previous presidents combined.

Brianna,

It's no secret that the American brand of Christianity/capitalism is as far removed from the teachings and practices of the Apostles as it can possibly get. That fact is obvious to any semi-literate twit who reads The Acts of the Apostles and takes it at face value. We can take some solace in the fact that if there really is a hell, 99.99% of the self-serving, self-deluded so-called Christians in America will end up there in due course, right alongside all the mealy-mouthed do-gooding liberals whose actions do not match their stated beliefs.

In days of old, when Knights were bold……..well, not that far back, but before the government got into the social welfare business.
If you were sick or hurt, it was rough, but your family, neighbors, congregation, provided for your minimum needs.
If you died someone would take in your children.
Someone would give firewood or a pig to the poor widow Jones.
When social programs began to grow, people started backing off saying let the government take care of it.
Unfortunately the government doesn’t do a very good job of it, giving some too much and some too little or nothing at all. And always at too high a price because of waste, graft and stupid regulations.

In many ways we were better off without the “safety nets” because they have too many holes in them and too many people have come to expect too much from them. A “safety net” is not there to maintain a particular standard of living…..only to save your life.
When that helicopter plucks you off the roof of your house its job is to get you to a safe place, not take care of you once you’re safe.
That is a different department/agency/organization/charity.


On a more personal level…..at Christmas I always sent out dozens of gifts. Nothing expensive, just funny or strange stuff to make people smile.
This year, however, a friend at work had his esophagus removed this summer due to cancer. We have a very good benefits package so the medical bills (over $200K) were paid and he’s getting a small weekly stipend.
But the fact remains that he’s going under financially. I have to do what I can to make sure he doesn’t drown.
I can’t sit by and hope somebody will do something or say that’s too bad, glad it ain’t me. :headshake

You're a better Christian than many of the ones I know, Bruce. My family's standard response whenever I'm in trouble is "don't they have charity hospitals where you live?" and "I'll pray for you". Can you guess why I speak to the bastards maybe once in a blue moon?

Transfer to Antioch if you can, Brianna, you'll get a better education and be surrounded by people who have actually have two thoughts in their brains that they can rub together!

Yes, once upon a time, a community would take care of its own, but in the the big impersonal cities, it didn't happen even back then and it sure won't happen now. In Colorado, anyone with half a brain to look around them could see that the elderly and handicapped are getting no help. The evening news on TV regularly features some tragic story of old people and disabled people going without food or having no place to live thanks to state budget cuts in social services.

The low income person with no health insurance is thrown to the dogs here in Colorado. There are newspaper articles and TV stories about that, too. Colorado tax payers refuse to pay for ANYTHING and the state legislature takes up all its time each assembly with deciding which will go next. Let's see, highway repairs or Elder Abuse Protection? That's covered on the news, too.

Do the generous people of Colorado dig into their pockets for local charities since they are refusing to pay hardly anything in state taxes? HAHA! Not the good Christian Focus on the Family crowd whose motto is, "let 'em die on the streets!"

Isn't Antioch the school where you had to specifically ask "May I touch you on the shoulder?" "May I stroke your hair?" "May I fuck you like a dog in heat?"

I don't think that's a ringing endorsement of the school or it's administration.

The students in your class suck, Bri, because they lack experience of the world, and only know what their favorite bloggers tell them about it.

As long as he asks nicely...

...of course, you guys are right. It's really due to the fact that they are kids and (most) have been through very little indeed. I feel better. Level heads prevail and all that!

And, just curious, Radar---if you don't want a welfare state, what do you propose as an alternative? Who cares for the elderly and the kids without parents? Foster kids recieve Medicaid to cover their medical bills (and here in Oh. they want to nix their dental benefits--perfect!) so--who takes care of them?

Strange...my kid's Medicaid was cut back recently, yet no one has come knocking on the door to offer to pick up the financial loss. Using your logic, if he loses something, something else will come to replace it, but it hasn't happened.

Did I miss the mail-in or something? Is there a website for applying for this new font of charity and assistance? Do I just call the Libertarian Party and ask for the Help Desk?

I would agree that there is a certain segment of society that has figured out a way to do as little as possible and live off of the teat of social programs, and that's certainly their prerogative if they have no higher aspirations than that, and are able bodied and not mentally deficient. Our current social programs keep people from living as though the USA was a Third World Country, but not a lot more.

And this fact alone makes you so much better than most people, Bruce. While I'm sure most of us give to some worthy cause, either a big one or a personal one, you embody what is best about human nature, and those who know you are fortunate to count you as friend. :) Mrs Elspode and I always make a point to share what we've got. Sometimes it is very, very little, and sometimes it is okay. Either way, as long as we've got a place to live indoors, no one we know will go homeless, and as long as we have food, no one who asks for a meal will go hungry. That being said, we couldn't begin to feed everyone in Grandview who might need a sandwich, and we can't provide support for all the people who want to work, but who are unable to do so effectively.

My son *wants* nothing more than to have a 8-5 job in a boring office somewhere...but his brain injury won't allow it. Therefore, he works as hard as he can in the only job he's been able to keep for more than a couple of months. That job isn't enough to keep him in a slum apartment by itself, and we aren't always going to be around to help him.

A civilized society supports its needy to a reasonable extent. When the historical pendulum swings to the Right, big business is given breaks and the needy are shoved aside to help give it to them, since those businesses are going to create more jobs and therefore more money for everyone (well, in India and China, anyway). When the pendulum swings to the Left, we tax the rich and feed the poor. Robin Hood would be proud. And it probably *is* highway robbery.

There's not a perfect answer, but I know that my son's standard of living got lowered by about 15% beginning September 1, and there's not a damn thing he can do about it. He simply isn't capable.

From Antioch's Web Page:


Who Attends Antioch College

Antioch College students are unique individuals who come from all over the world to participate in our distinctive educational program. It is hard to typify who our students are, but the data below might give you a better sense of the kinds of students who come to Antioch.

ANTIOCH COLLEGE - FALL 2005
Profile Of New Entering Students

New Students 70

Entry Type
First Year Students 71%
Transfer Students 29%

Gender
Female 53%
Male 47%

SAT Scores (middle 50%)
SAT-Verbal 620
SAT-Math 550
SAT-Combined 1170



Top Academic Area of Interests

English Literature 14%
Visual Arts 11%
Communications 8%
Political Science 6%
Undecided 5%
History 4%
Philosophy 4%


Comparative Institutional Research Program (CIRP)
Higher Education Research Institute - The American Freshman 2004
Item Antioch College 4-Year Highly Selective Colleges

General

Travel more than 500 miles to attend college 55.9%
Have both parents alive and living with each other 48.3%
View themselves as being compassionate 86%
View themselves as creative 75.4%
Had the school in which they enrolled as first choice 79.3%


Year before coming to college

Attended religious services 57.9%
Discussed religion/spirituality with friends 51.7%
Participated in organized demonstrations 81%
Were likely to discuss politics 77.6%

Objectives in going to college

Becoming accomplished in one of the performing arts 27.1%
Becoming an authority in my field 51.7%
Influencing the political structure 58.6%
Influencing social values 74.6%
Being well-off financially 22.4%
Writing original works (poems, stories, novels) 46.3%
Creating artistic work 50%
Becoming successful in a business of my own 24.1%
Becoming involved in programs to clean up the environment 44.8%
Developing a meaningful philosophy of life 84.2%
Participating in a community action program 58.6%
Keeping up to date with political affairs 70.7%
Becoming a community leader 44.8%

Reasons for deciding to go to college

To get a better job 51.7%
To gain a general education and appreciation of ideas 82.8%
To make me a more cultured person 70.2%
To be able to make more money 27.6%
To get training for a specific career 36.2%
Plan to go on to obtain a Ph.D. 29.4%

Sounds like the "may I fuck you like a dog in heat crowd" to me. :eyebrow:

A long time ago, we had no government welfare programs. Schools were privately funded from within the communities they served. And people in need would rely on their friends, family, neighbors, churches, or private charities. Back then they got MORE help than they do now, and they had more incentive to stand up on their own.

Government is like King Midas, but instead of gold, everything government touches turns to shit. The "war on poverty" resulted in more poor people. The "war on drugs" has resulted in more people using drugs, and now the "war on terror" has resulted in more terrorism.

If you genuinely care about something, you should never let government get involved. Private organizations are more efficient and get more help to those in need 100% of the time.

Government keeps 85 cents of every dollar marked for social programs as overhead and only gets 15 cents to those in need. You can reverse those numbers for private charities. Some people stupidly claim that people wouldn't give to charity if they could keep what they own. The truth is more people would give to charity if they weren't convinced that government programs actually help people, or if they had more money to give.

If we elminate all the unconstitutional parts of government, we'll have more money to give, more people will give because they know Uncle Sam is not looking after their loved ones and others in need, and less people will need help because with more people keeping what they earn, we'd have more businesses created, more jobs, and more opportunity for people to take care of themselves.

If 1/3 of the money stolen from people at the point of a gun were collected, those in need would have MUCH MORE help than they currently get from government. Those who were not responsible and did not prepare for thier retirement, healthcare, etc. would serve as an example to others to be careful and to be responsible.

People are not owed anything based on their percieved "needs" or desires.

I would also give people and businesses a dollar for dollar tax credit for any money they spend on social programs that government is currently is involved in (all of them are unconstitutional). This means if you wanted, you could choose to send poor kids to private schools where they'll get a better education. You can choose to give money to a shelter, to a retirement home, to handicapped people, to charities that give a stipend to those in need, to food banks, etc.

Every dollar you spend would be a dollar off of your normal tax burden. It would give people the choice on where their tax money goes. Rather than having money stolen from you at the point of a gun, you can have some control on where your money goes. If you don't want your money to fund an unconstitutional war of aggression, an insane drug war, etc. you can make sure it's spent on those who need it and owe no taxes at the end of the year.

The thing about charity, is you have to ask for it. They generally don't go door to door asking if you need something.

Ask yourself if all medicaid, social security, medicare, welfare, public education, etc. were totally and completely cut off immediately, do you think people would be more apt to help you? My guess is yes. Right now many people don't donate to charity because they are under the mistaken assumption that government programs (funded with stolen money) are actually "helping" people. If everyone knew that there were none of these programs anymore, and they got to keep 100% of what they earn, they'd be more apt to give to those in need. And if they didn't get to keep their own money, they'd at least be able to choose where their money went..... if we were using my system.

Keep in mind, you are not owed money because you have a sick kid. You are not entitled to the money of other people based on yours or your kids needs. Forced charity is not charity; it's robbery. If someone puts a gun to my head and says they want my money so they can spend it on orphans and elderly people, it's still robbery. The fact that they are going spend it on those in need does not make it any less of a robbery.

I'm sure Antioch College is a fine school.

The first thing I notice here is that the Freshmen only make up 70% of the incoming students. The rest are upperclassmen who are transferring in from elsewhere. For them to be transferring in, that would normally mean there have to be vacant slots for them to fill. How many open slots? Well, normally we are talking about sophomores when we talk about transfers. Each year, after spending their first year at Antioch, apparently 30% of the students can't wait to get the hell away.

Ah, the good old days, when men were real men, and women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. Kids these days just don't understand. Back in my day...

Poverty went up as a result of Reagan's supply-side economics. Investor's didn't invest in the US, they invested in Mexico, India, etc. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer and it's only getting worse. This country has lots of money--it's just all going to Cheney. I wonder--how much money does he need? All of it?

Then what?

I glanced at the stats for my alma mater, the University of Colorado. About 29% of their new students are transfer students each year. Maybe they lost their 29% to Antioch. I believe an attrition rate of 25- 30% is fairly normal - kids drop out and work for a while, tranfer to other colleges, whatever. No biggie.

This is compleat fiction. These rose colored glasses were developed in the '60s, now fashionably worn by a new generation of reactionaries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionary

I was already tired of hearing that baloney about 30 years ago.

A long time ago, people got sick and died. Shit happened and it was ugly.

In the 1830s, the entreprenuers of the day ripped up each other's train track, treated workers like slaves and floated phoney stock to fleece the public. They called these guys Robber Barons for a good reason. More bullshit hits the fan in 1929. Now, government regulation of the financial markets is now taken for granted. Labor laws protect employees.

Today's "Welfare Reform" now "Workfare" puts already working mothers on a second job, bussed 25 miles out of the city for something that barely covers the extra child care costs.

Actually, Brianna, transfer to anywhere to get away from Dr. LovesHimself. You are in a comprimised situation at school. You should transfer and get a clean slate; where the faculty don't know you from Adam or Eve. Out of Dayton is best.

Robber barrons had nothing to do with capitalism. They were criminals, and the only difference that would happen with these criminals under socialism is that instead of being wealthy criminals, they'd be wealthy members of a totalitarian government.

What about the stuff that people DO have control over? That's my objection. And the fact that many of these people feel that somehow I am totally responsible for all their sorrows.

Those people can simply fuck off.

For many others, I'll help in one way or another. Many times I'll actually enjoy doing so. Those cases arent the fucking useless eaters that demand my money and effort though. Those that insist that I OWE them something for something that happend to them or their family.

They WERE Capitalism. Some of their names are still with us today. Carneige Hall, Carneige-Mellon University: Andrew and Andrew. They were not the worst, but they had a spotted record. The american industrial revolution did great things for this country, but it was not without it's otrocities.

Jay Gould was a real sleaze ball.

Legacy

In his lifetime and for a century after, Gould had a firm reputation as the most unethical of the 19th century American businessmen known as robber barons. He routinely tested the boundaries of the law, finding ways to turn a situation in his favor when other businessmen might have settled on breaking even. He pioneered the practice, now commonplace, of declaring bankruptcy as a strategic maneuver. He had no opposition to using stock manipulation and insider trading (which were then legal but frowned upon) to build capital and to execute or prevent hostile takeover attempts. As a result, many contemporary businessmen did not trust Gould and often expressed contempt for his approach to business. Even so, John D. Rockefeller named him as the most skilled businessman he ever encountered.


List of businessmen who were called robber barons

* John Jacob Astor (real estate, fur)
* Andrew Carnegie (steel)
* Jay Cooke (finance)
* Daniel Drew (finance)
* James Fisk (finance)
* Henry Flagler (railroads)
* Henry Ford (automobile)
* Henry Clay Frick (steel)
* Jay Gould (finance, railroads)
* Edward Henry Harriman (railroads)
* Collis P. Huntington (railroads)
* James J. Hill (railroads)
* J. P. Morgan (banking)
* John D. Rockefeller (oil, the Standard Oil company)
* Leland Stanford (railroads)
* Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroads, shipping)

Note: I have role played Jay Gould at GameCons using feeder RRs and skilled insolvency to win games of 1830. "RS sells all shares of the New York Central and gives up presidency."

If people would play more RailRoad board games, they would learn some relevant 19th century history lessons.

The main problem with this country is the polarized arguments. Black and White. You're a capitalist or a socialist. You're left wing or right wing. You're religious or atheist.

That is bullshit. You're radar is broken because of passive aggressive listening. I've bought and sold companies, stock options, stock, real estate, Oil & Gas Partnerships, ...

Where in all that do you read socialist?

I really don't want my assets nationalized as they did to people in Hungary and other Soviet Sattelites.

????????

You make no sense.

Hey, one of my uncles went to Antioch! Let's see, last I checked he works as a... oh yes, a security guard. Real world-changer, that one. Pride of the family.

Antioch IS a serious place.

Actually, I don't think we know what you are talking about.

Antioch College, founded in 1852, is part of Antioch University, which includes the Antioch New England Graduate School in Keene, New Hampshire; Antioch University Seattle in Washington; Antioch University Southern California in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara; and Antioch University McGregor in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

I'm guessing you are not moving to New England.

Antioch in Yellow Springs,OH--not Antioch-McGregor. That's kind of a spin-off thing. The name is attached, but nothing else.

I hate students too. in fact, i hate most everybody. i don't hate cellarites, though.

course, that doesn't bode well for my ability to get along with NORMAL people.

George W. Bush graduated from Yale. The last I heard, Yale is still a good school, though.

Your names and your claims are laughable. You clearly don't do too much reading, but if you can find someone to read something to you and then explain it to you, check out...

The Myth of the Robber Barons by Burton W. Folsom

I must agree with Rush Limbaugh on his belief that most college students are "young skulls full of mush", and that unfortunately a large number of college professors don't remedy that situation very well

They will eventually have life experiences that actually count for something, they'll grow, age, and mature. In the meantime, you're just stuck with them NOW and that's gotta be soo frustrating!! Remember, they won't learn from our experiences or mistakes They've just gotta get there on their own
For your sake - I hope sooner rather than later!
Good Luck! Don't let 'em get to ya! Just hang in there!
(YOU know the truth!!)

They were men who used the blood sweat and tears of immigrant workers to gain huge sums of money for themselves, and in the meantime thrust our country into widespread industrialization. But it was at the cost of many lives, and the suffering of many more. How many tons of steel, how many barrels of oil, how many miles of railroad track is one human worth? How about 10 people, 50, 100?


And Bri, if you have questions about transferring schools lemme know, I just went through that whole ordeal a couple weeks before classes began.

I frequently get very, very perturbed by things like this ... folks like Els son who has a very real and very documentable medical illness gets cut, and my worthless bottomfeeding crack whores and heroin junkies continue to get the goverment to subsidize their drug use.

I can only speak from my own experience of my patients and their families who are on public assistance. They all seem to have TVs and most of them have cable. There is usually at least one vehicle in the household. They have Section 8 housing, electricity, gas, running water, and no real incentive to get off public assistance. I honestly think that it would do these folks good to SEE the third world and find out what poverty actually is.

I'm not talking about the seriously mentally ill here ... "my patients" represent a very broad range of folks ... teens to seniors, some worried well, some just plain bad, some junkies, and some pretty much regular folks who have run into a bad patch.

I think Rush must have stolen that from Professor Kingsfield.

~~~

This is the Antioch Code that I was referring to in my earlier post.

I agree that the social services system in this country is hopelessly broken. I know of a woman who was released from jail after serving a sentence for running a meth lab. The first thing she did when she got out was to get pregnant and continue on a career of petty crime. The child's father vanished and this woman has a lovely home in a decent part of town coutesy of the tax payer. Just when she would have had to get off TANF and go back to work, she got pregnant again - this time with twins. Again the father (a different one) vanished, and this woman was rewarded by being given an even larger house than before. She neglects her children to go out and party. She is intelligent and able bodied and should have the common sense to use birth control. She has the cleverness not to. I know of a man who makes a very good income and just got a sizeable inheritance. He uses the low income energy assistance program to pay his heating bills and boasts of it. People like these make me sick and enraged.

By contrast, there are the disabled folks I met in line last summer waiting for a precious housing voucher that so far not a one of them has been issued. They suffer because of the excesses of people like the two above. It is my feeling that the current situation exists because of under funding rather than over funding. There simply are not enough people in the social service agencies to do proper oversight and allocate funds to those who really need them, rather than those who don't.

I just finished reading the annual report from the director of the State of Colorado's Adult Protective Services - the agency responsible for the prevention of financial and physical abuse of the elderly and disabled. In the first paragraph, the report states that the legislature has refused funding for Adult Protective Services for the fifth year in a row, and they are unable to staff any offices full time outside of 3 people in the Denver office. The rest of the state goes underserved or unserved completely. Three staff members for the entire city of Denver hardly makes for much of a watch dog outfit there, either.

The tragedies I witnessed on Colorado's Western Slope in the poverty stricken little towns far from the ski resorts or big cities of the Front Range are nothing short of unspeakable. These things shouldn't happen in a country like the United States. Meanwhile, meth girl continues to reproduce, and everyone else pays inheritance boy's heating bill. :mad:

I don't know. But I know the number must be finite. Or people would never get a damn thing done.

Well said, Rock. A voice of sensibility.

Didn't read much of the thread, but that won't keep me from running my mouth, of course. Why doesn't liberal "compassion" extend to individual, personal charity? Why, when a liberal feels compassion, does it always cost ME something?

I am a sucker for helping people out, and I'd be willing to bet that I've given more food and money to homeless junkies on the street than 80% of the people in here. Donate clothes and furniture, etc. etc.

So, it pisses me off a little when a group of people who have never met me say, "You are Republican and don't care enough. We are going to take the money you have made and distribute it to people we think deserve it more."

How about, NO YOU'RE NOT. :headshake

Awww, it's so cute how children emulate their parents and pretend like they're experienced in this world! It is simply adoreable when a nineteen year old that has their room and board paid for by mummy and daddy tries to talk politics on campus.

Just ignore it or at least try to find it entertaining. Regardless of what viewpoint they spout, let 'em go. You're listening to kids that have little more experience than what they learned in high school. You can at least take pleasure in knowing that, eventually, life has ways of coming along and ripping those little white, iPod earbuds out of their ears and removing the delusion. They've had everything handed to them, all the way back from the ziplock bag of cherrios when they were sitting in the Eddie Bauer carseat of mom's SUV to the pre-paid meal card they're swiping at Starbuck's, today. It is the nature of the majority of any university population, liberal or conservative, and it will be the same four, eight, and thirty-two years from now. Every generation has them, every generation does it.

Smile when you hear them debate about a society they've never truly been immersed in. Giggle when you hear them try to tell others about their model of how the world should work. Laugh when they talk about world politics and religion. Cry yourself to sleep at night, knowing that they'll be in charge, soon.

I sense much resentment in your voice kitsune.. I guess you've forgotten your days as a 19 year old. Maybe try layin off us kids because unless i'm mistaken, we're young and you're old and that means we haven't been around long enough to share in your infinite wisdom. Maybe if you know so much more then you should be so kind as to share it with the rest of the class. There's better things you could be doing than ripping on a select group 19 year old kids and applying your little stereotype on the rest of us.
We're not all idiots, some of us are actually trying to make a difference in people's lives.. what have you done like that recently? Give to a Hurricane Katrina fund? Or did you go down there and help clean up like some of my peers have done.
:lame:

Bullitt, I don't think he's making a blanket statement. I know the group he's talking about, my generation had them too. Stupid, but rabidly expounding their views as the one and only panacea for everything. :)

You're right every generation has them. I just want to see why he's choosing to single out and whine about my generation even though it is no worse than the previous ones.

Maybe it's because your generation is the one that's currently occupying the time slot under discussion?

Speak up, I'm 26 and my hearing isn't so good, anymore! Those days are so faint, but I'll try, very hard, to recall them...

I was exactly the same as the people I describe. I walked campus without any cares, all my bills were paid, and my biggest complaint is that I had to eat ramen three meals a day. My biggest struggle was forcing myself out of bed to an icy dorm room floor to go to an 8am class that I usually fell asleep in. Despite this luxury, it didn't stop me, or any of my other classmates, from debating both in and out of class about how the world should be, how people should live, etc. Every generation previous generation does it, the current one does, and the future ones will.

Muha! Not this morning, there isn't! I'm even pushing aside work to gripe at you and you get to read it! Nyaah-ha!

Actually, I housed, fed, and took care of some friends for several weeks that lost most of their belongings after their apartment took damage in the historic area of NO. But, really, that has nothing to do with what I'm trying to tell Brianna, nor does it change what I'm saying about a large percentage of the full-time college population. And I'm not implying that anyone in college is an idiot. In fact, I'll even assume that they're pretty damn intelligent since they made it that far and that they're probably going to do quite well in life.

...but, for almost all of them, they have little or no responsibilities outside of classes. Most of them have no families to worry about, no financial problems other than scraping together some food money, don't have to worry about paying taxes, and really haven't experienced any hardships in life. And, if they do, mummy and daddy will always accept them back into their homes or be more than happy to bail them out. They are luxurious, fat years for most students, but that doesn't prevent a fairly large group of them from speaking out quite loudly about how they think the "real world" should work and that they think they are suffering.

I still attend classes, I still walk campus, I still sit in on talks and lectures, I still listen to student debates. I'm impressed with their concerns -- concerns I never had as a full-time student -- and I'm really pleased that a lot of them are interested in government and politics. A lot of their arguments are well stated and have firm foundations.

...but a lot of them, the people that often have the loudest voice, like to argue about how they *know* the world should be run when, really, they haven't even stepped outside, yet. I'm simply telling Brianna that most of these people will change once they actually have to support themselves and find their own way in the world instead of having nearly everything handed to them. It is a normal transition.

Not all college students do it, not all live in a dorm (or, today and where I live and go to school - $1200/month apartments off campus!) that they don't have to drop a dime for, and not all of them are so cocky, but walk any campus and I promise you'll hear them loud and clear. None of them will hesitate to tell anyone how to live their lives, how to solve their problems, how everything should be. Their entire world is restricted to what they know, which is an entire world of people that had the money to attend college and get an education. Most of them know absolutely nothing else.

My favorite, recent discussion took place in a classroom that had mostly undergrads in it that would eventually go on to graduate with a four year degree in psychology and would not advance to seek their doctorate or master's. When they were polled on how much they expected to make at their first job right out of college, the overwhelming response was they fully expected no less than six figures. When it was carefully, gently explained that this might be a somewhat unrealistic expectation of them and that they might want to set the bar a little lower, an argument broke out about how much the students felt they were worth and that all the years of education they endured should get them something more than "a mere $75,000/year!" Several expressed their outrage when they were told that graduate students were not even expected to earn that much and one very red-faced girl began to complain that college, perhaps after all, wasn't really worth her time and wasn't worth her suffering.

Poor baby.