I think Ellie is stunning in looks and talent .

Well it depends on the flavor of the pie

That's how we do it in the South. Then you follow it up with an RC cola and a moon pie.

I love it..late at night.at the beach where it's nice and dark.it's a rush.

My closest friend died yesterday of cancer. It was terrible how quickly the disease took him over. At the end, he was a wasted piece of human being who looked like he had been in a death camp. This is a guy I have ridden many miles with on our motorcycles. His last 24 hours all he could do was lie there and shake. A prisoner trapped in his own body. He could not speak. But I know he could hear me, because I played guitar for him for a while. I am a terrible guitar player, as he has told me many times. And I could tell he wanted to tell me again, because his shaking got quite agitated, until I stopped playing. It was our last laugh together, though I was the only one able to laugh.
A short time later, he was gone. Simply left between one breath and the next. His eyes were still open. I had to close them. I am glad his suffering was over. I know he hated to go that way. We both hoped for a quick death at high speed on some twisty road in the mountains, but it was not to be. I will miss him greatly.
He deserved a better end, but I suppose we all must accept what we get in that respect. His memory will live with me as long as I survive.
No, if you are wondering, we aren't gay. We had many things in common, and a wonderful friendship as well as a love of women. I at least can still continue to ride, in pursuit of women usually. Wish me luck.

i like the pool parties because the water washes away peoples facades...

Sadly, human change happens slowly. Population growth needs to slow in the very places there is little chance of that happening.

I do agree with thinking things over before speaking, but sometimes it also helps to clear the air in a constructive way. So not speaking could even more harmful than maybe speaking up too soon in some cases.

21st Jun is being observed as international Yoga Day.

curious to know how may of us believe in or practice Yoga.

LTme:

I disagree with some of what you've said about China. As for the official subject of this thread, the US, whatever we are talking about there has become rather confused.

I stand by my earlier comment, that the opening post had too much error in it to make it possible to debate or discuss directly. And again, I have no patience with the "let's give up" routine, intrinsic to playing the "It's BROKEN!" mantra.

Instead, I WILL affirm that I also find the U.S. to be seriously off course nowadays. I do think that some of what the OP complained about, are real concerns which need to be intelligently addressed. I do NOT find that anyone in a current significant leadership position has enough things right, that I would energetically want to put them in charge of the whole shebang.

China: I firmly disagree that they "graciously" hosted the Olympics. They did not. They presented the Olympics with a place to compete. But in order to do so, they made temporary huge changes to a single area or group of areas in China. They did NOT allow free roaming by the visiting nations. They had to do a lot of things to make their environment safe to HAVE the Olympics there.

As for China's dramatic economic progress, that's been a very uneven record as well. They still do not permit their people to organize in any way, to decide the course of their local economies, or to decide upon things like safety for workers, or decent working conditions. It's still a top-down society there. They still manipulate the currency markets in order to arrange favorable trade exchanges. They still benefit tremendously from the US refusal to require goods manufactured overseas, to be made with the same standards as we require here. In essence, China has benefited from American refusal to recognize how capitalism actually does and doesn't work, rather than because they have been creative and industrious.

They still steal intellectual property from the rest of the world, in order to cater to the desires of the amoral capitalists who seek only cheap labor, and higher profit margins.

Admiring that nation for these things is a huge mistake.

Not even REMOTELY correct.

I really wish people wouldn't claim to know what's in my mind without first at least reading what I say.

No, the reason I poo-poo every version of "Watch out! It's Just Like the Fall Of The Roman Empire!" crap, is that the people who indulge in that bedtime nightmare story game, know nothing of actual Roman history.

Most obvious, but always ignored fact:

The Roman civilization as an identifiable political entity/state, lasted from about 750 BC, until about 1450 AD. That's OVER TWO THOUSAND YEARS. The United States can only claim to have existed for about 250 years.

If you want to "play tough," and just talk about the Roman Empire itself, that ran from about 27BC, to 1450. Still almost 1500 years.

If you want to play tougher still, and talk JUST about the time it took for the Empire to go from it's furthest extent, to the official end of the Western half of the Empire, that would be from about 200 AD to about 450. That is a little closer to matching the US, but then the US didn't reach IT'S peak, until about 1945, so the comparison is still off by quite a bit, just in time alone.

More important in playing the "OMG Roman Empire" game legitimately, you have to compare like with like, one aspect at a time, AND you have to demonstrate clearly that the particular item you choose to point to, can be shown to have directly caused the "fall" you are talking about. I've never ever seen anyone do that. Instead, they all select something from NOW, which they already don't like, and then say "the Romans did that too, and now they are GONE!!!" Usually, the item they select to point to, actually ISN'T something that the Romans dealt with, so it's silly on it's face.

The history of PLAYING the "OMG Fall of the Roman Empire" game, goes back the beginnings of the peoples who destroyed it, even as they deeply admired it. The reasons why people still play the game, are as complex as the true story of it's decline. Ironically, most of the people who play the game, are actively doing some of the very things that did contribute to the Empire's decline, such as declaring that some significant subset of the current nations populace should be seen as enemies. That, or focusing on one very small aspect of the health of the entity, while ignoring the overall health of it.

What DID kill the Roman Empire? Everything it did. As with individual people, many of the same things which caused the Empire to reach it's zenith in territory controlled, were the things which tore it apart. Egotism of the leaders, greed, the fact that it DID become an Empire, failure to face up to the natural and logical consequences of the methods it chose in order to achieve seeming greatness to begin with. That sort of thing.

As much as I despise our current government and leadership...er uh.... state servant representatives.... some government is needed.

Chaos and anarchy are not good for the people and warloards and usurpers (like ISIS) would rise to power in the vacuum. The people would still lose.

The question is how do you regain control of powers you have lost to a govt that has usurped the power of the people with the very tools they have been allowed or given to "defend" them?

All governments (especially this current one) use division and unrest to maintain power over the people with the very tools and abilities they have been granted for their defense. Fear and division are necessary to keep the people divided and maintain control of the masses by an agenda of hopeless surrender to authority to "cure" the chaos they create to that end

Voting is a joke when choice is controlled, the money, utilities and food chain are under the power of govt or private enterprise of an elite, their lobbies, corporations, and banking system, and the media is for sale to the highest bidder

government is very relevant, wouldn't wanna be w/out it.

But good government should be like a great Waiter in good restaurant: You barely notice or see him working admist the hustle & bustle,




but all of a sudden there's this lovely meal on the table

That's subject to change as we plummet toward the 21st Century.

But I consider mw's:

not merely relevant, but prescient.