The Nation's Pulse
Governments Fostering a Nation of Ninnies, Commonwealth of Wimps
The state can’t protect children from imaginary violence — or real competition.
In the majority decision in Brown v. EMA, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors, Justice Antonin Scalia touched on several points only peripherally related to the case but warranting deeper analysis. Although it may be in the state’s power to protect children from maltreatment, Justice Scalia argues, the government cannot impose laws restricting what is arguably “objectionable,” such as video game violence.
Scalia cites numerous examples of death and gore in children’s literature, from the attempted poisoning of Snow White to the incineration of the witch in Hansel and Gretel. He also discusses the violence in Homer’s Odyssey, Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and Dante’s Inferno, the blood and gore in each more considerable than the last. Many of these books are read and analyzed in schools as an inseparable part of the core curriculum.
Since the birth of our nation, American children have been exposed to violence during their childhood. Scalia’s examples may be a bit outdated — I don’t see many modern preadolescents drawn to fourteenth-century epics — but many more instances of violence permeate deep into our cultural fabric.
Before video games, American children had other ways of amusing themselves that were much more violent than the digital bloodshed of today. The adolescents of yesteryear were hunters and sportsmen, gutting fish and skinning elk. American sports such as football, boxing, and hockey are all violent, bloody, battles in which participants repeatedly bash into each other in pursuit of some objective, often injuring themselves in the process. What Thanksgiving Day would be complete without such an event?
Certainly, all this violence was for a purpose, to put food on the table or to win a game. But so is the majority of violence in video games: to accomplish the mission, to complete an objective. Games with excessive and arbitrary violence are a minority.
Those in support of laws restricting the sales of video games, such as state governments and parent groups, ignore the fact that Americans have always been highly competitive and aggressive. Perhaps it is our highly competitive nature that manifests itself as violent tendencies. In the words of General George S. Patton:
When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.
The recent efforts by the nation’s schools to downplay competition, to deemphasize the distinction between “winner” and “loser,” are especially troubling. Increasingly, schools and organizations allow only games and activities in which no winners or losers are identified, in which the goal is solely to complete the “competition.” Toys emulating violence are taken off the shelves, and “violent” commercials and television programs are forced off the air in an attempt to foster a more “nurturing” environment for children.
In a similar attempt to create a more “inclusive” environment, schools are doing away with time-honored institutions such as valedictorian status and honors societies. This apparent “leveling” of the playing field, however, harms students at both ends of the academic spectrum by holding back high achievers and providing a false sense of security for those who need extra help.
Such measures do the nation’s youth a great disservice, softening up generations who will find themselves competing with people from societies that instill into their youth principles of discipline and fierce competition. A ferocity and thirst for liberty unknown to the world in 1776 are what made the United States the great nation it has been.
Calls for stricter controls of what children can do and see are raised again each time a new means of entertainment becomes popular. Overreaction is inevitable, but the unfortunate result —overregulation —is not.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (51) | Leave a comment
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astorian| 7.12.11 @ 7:06AM
As a kid, I was precisely the kind of lousy athlete that well-meaning parents THINK they're helping when they create soccer leagues that don't keep score. That's how I KNOW that such things don't help.
Trust me on this- even if you don't keep score in a soccer game, EVERY kid on both sides knows who won and by exactly how much. A terrible player KNOWS he's a terrible player, no matter how hard you try to shield him from that knowledge.
Old Soldier| 7.12.11 @ 7:19AM
Exactly!
Many times I've been at my kids' games and not paying much attention - walking the dog, talking to other parents, etc... At the end of the game, every kid coming off the field knows the final score.
Darling| 7.16.11 @ 9:10AM
We should demonize these losers...Asotrian you should kill yourself because you admit to being a loser...you make me sick
Appleby| 7.12.11 @ 7:19AM
Competition cannot be legislated away. People just naturally want to be better than other people at various and sundry things.
Parents naturally encourage their kids to compete although they dont know it -- who doesnt want Junior to do stuff before his cousin or the baby next door?
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 7.12.11 @ 7:34AM
Well, the Supreme Court rejected a nanny state in one sense.
I wonder if they will apply the same principles to the environment, i.e., we can't be separated from the reality of the climate, it changes and there is nothing we can do about it. That's nature.
Or could they apply it to affirmative action? That is, we can't be separated by artificially government induced laws which denote winners and losers based on the color of their skin or their gender?
It's too much to hope for I know, that the Supreme Court and the government may come to their senses and all at the same time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07.....higan.html
A federal appeals court on Friday struck down Michigan’s 2006 ban on the consideration of race and gender in public-university admissions and government hiring in the latest round of the decade-long fight over the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policies.
Mark Shepler | 7.12.11 @ 8:13AM
"Well, the Supreme Court rejected a nanny state in one sense."
The mother-of-all tests for all-time comes when Obamacare reaches their court.
Melvin| 7.12.11 @ 7:34AM
As a society, all of us cannot be stud muffins or the Adonis types. We are all handsome or ugly in our own way. Some of are Alpha Males, and some are not.
All these perfections or imperfections is what makes a society tick. Either in a good way or a bad way.
Ever since the dawn of time when we crawled out of the primordial ooze or descended from Adam & Eve, it's your choice man has had a violent streak. It's is in our DNA. When pushed far enough we explode into violence.
It is how our parents mold us and teach us to control and not fear these primal urges.
My son challenged me when he was fifteen, to be the Alpha Male of the house when he decided to curse his mother. A few quick flying lessons without an aircraft curbed that challenge.
Even today, he is a father in his own right, I still give me gentle nudges, on his interactions with his four boys.
We don't need legislation to protect our children from the boogey man, we need parents to teach our children that controlled violence is sometimes a necessity in life, and not to be used excessively.
Marie| 7.12.11 @ 9:46AM
Melvin, You are a good father and a wise man. Wish there were more of you. God knows we need you bad in today's society with educated (without common sense)teachers and administrators in our country's schools.
MM| 7.12.11 @ 10:59AM
Truer words were never spoken.
Today, our society and current generation of parents suffers greatly from a lack of men. Despite there being plenty of males.
Shelly| 7.12.11 @ 3:51PM
Melvin, you are so right. We don't do ourselves any favors by making our kids into fragile 'teacups' that could break at the slightest tap. Kids can see past all of those attempts to put them in a false light of greatness. There is a bigger correlation between high self esteem and criminal behavior than there is between high self esteem and character.
R Martin| 7.12.11 @ 7:42AM
The effort to downplay competition in schools simply reflects the leftist philosophy which has infested all levels of education. Do those leftists want the non judgmental wimps they are trying to develop to become our future fighter pilots? Those who earn the right to sit in the seat of an F-18 are selected by a long, intense competitive process which includes how well your bed is made, what others think of you as well as your physical skills. Competition drives everything--not just in flight school, but in life.
Mike D.| 7.12.11 @ 8:39AM
In the schools I attended as a youth in the 60's we played dodgeball a lot. I wasn't a great player with a cannon arm, not a bad one either but I greatly enjoyed taking out one of the popular "everything to everbody" joe cool types. I remember one of the kids was what we would call the dork of the class. Rubber band arm, no balance, coke bottle glasses, the whole stereotype down to a T. It was down to him and the big jock who every girl fawned over. The jock throws a bullet hits the dork, ball goes up up the air and the dork makes a leaping catch. Dork wins. The moment of glory that kid bathed in probably still stays with him 40 years later. Priceless. That feeling comes from being the best even for just a few moments. We played sandlot baseball all summer, again, beating and playing local bands of kids who challenged us. Football in the autumn. Hockey in the winter. Winning was the only option and the reason we played. Taking the competitive edge away from a human being is dehumanizing and un-natural. Dodge ball, a simple game was what came natural for us kids now banned by the edu-elites as "advocating the notion of promoting superiority of some over others" which is "unfair" Ask the Dork if he would trade that one moment for any artificial leveling and equealizing of results. I think not.
Melvin| 7.12.11 @ 11:28AM
Yea, buddy, I graduated in 1976 and still have red welts on my back. For what I lacked in strength and agility playing dodge ball, I more than made up with treachery.
I think allot of this junk stems from having educated Liberal Women in government run education. Not so much in the classroom but in the administrative areas.
We have administrators with college pedigrees as long as ones arm, and they know more know about the fundamentals of dodge ball than a man in the moon.
Dodge Ball is a great stress reliever, and burns off excessive amounts of energy so when it was time to go back to class, we were settled down and tired.
But instead, today to relieve stress and energy, the school pushes mood changing drugs, such as Ritalin and the like.
I don't know about the rest of you, I'll take the dodge ball over drugs any day.
MikeBee| 7.12.11 @ 11:40AM
Melvin,
You're absolutely right! My wife teaches in a public school district. The principal there will not let the children go outside to play, even with a new playground out there. Many of my wife's students would be far better behaved if they had a couple of breaks in the day to play outside, but no. Instead, some of the children she teaches are on mood-enhancing drugs, to quiet them down.
Drunken Sailor| 7.12.11 @ 12:15PM
and I am almost willing to bet many of them are overweight. It amazes me that liberals whine and wonder why our kids are fat after they take away their recess, the running, any physical activity and then reduce, if not eliminate the P.E. class.
sanjuro| 7.12.11 @ 12:55PM
Mike, MAN! your comment took me back to my Jr. High days in the late 60s, early 70s. I had a similar moment as the one you related against a jock during dodgeball. He was an aggressive player always charging into our zone. I suddenly realized that muscle boy and his bunch was counting on fear, on us clinging to the wall to be picked off. I also noted he was not watching his flanks or back. I suddenly charged forward and approached him from his right. When I was close enough not to miss, I called his name and when he turned I put the ball square in his face, knocking him backwards to the floor. There was shocked silence for a moment, then a roar from my side as team mates started leaving the wall, picking up balls and chasing the jocks to their side of the court. It was never the same in that gym class again. I was never the same again. I'm 54 and remember that day like it was yesterday. We are denying our kids, especially our boys and young men the chance to grow in character and spirit when they aren't allowed to face the unpleasant things in life without some kind of buffer or equalization of achievement .
Mike D.| 7.12.11 @ 1:18PM
Sanjuro,
Everybody who grew up in that era had their "dodgeball moment". The guy the dork in my story took out had one more bonus added to his humiliation that day. He made the mistake of dropping the F bomb right in front of the whole class and the Sister Ann Raymond. In Catholic school, there was homicide, arson, armed robbery and then there was dropping the F bomb in front of a Nun or Priest. He got a trip to the Principals office, a Nun we politely called "hawk" and received one of the feared "white conduct slips" you had to take home and have signed by your parents. I never forgot the look on on the dork's face after he caught that ball. He almost couldn't believe what just happened, he won fair and square and like your moment, I doubt he ever forgot it.
sanjuro| 7.12.11 @ 6:57PM
HA! Your story just gets better and better. Thanks for sharing Mike.
John Navratil| 7.12.11 @ 9:17AM
R. Martin,
You touch on a point by picking on the competition in schools. The lack of competition begins with the fact that there are public schools to which you are assigned by address. I know there are magnet schools, but entry is almost the luck of the draw, the curriculum is better - not great, and they remain primarily for the unions.
In England, years ago, schooling was "streamed" with the 11+ exam (which could be taken each year, although with greater difficulty) determined the schools you could enter. Within schools the classes were stratified by performance. That was all too vicious for the modern educator and was dismantled. It's a shame as it was a mirror of life; one where the parents, through their efforts, could support and cajole their children during their formative years and leave them at the University level with a real understanding of who competition works in a FREE world.
To do this today, you pay your taxes to the teachers unions who guarantee an unending supply of warm backsides, and put your private school tuition on the table in the competitive academic environment.
It's a system.
POST American| 7.12.11 @ 8:23AM
---AGAIN, culture is ALWAYS engineered,
handed down and directed from ----the capstone
top.
The ever sinister Rockefeller Foundation(s)
(they are IN FACT all, entirely linked and
coordinated) in league with the at large EUGENISTS
of industry, governments and the culture creation industry,
and with much, much, much brilliant and able
assistance from the Frankfuhrt School types.
Of course KEY was the centuries old agenda
of the destruction of GENUINE religion, family
and culture. This really is central, stated,
ON RECORD and beyond dispute.
The hyper programmed, 'Sex n' Dope Liberation' op
of the past 5 decades is a good place to start in
deconstructing the mess.
AGAIN, pornography, fornication, adultery,
divorce and sodomy are, one and all, capstone
'cultural innovations'. Absoutely NONE of it is by any stretch of the imagination 'grassroots'.
While touting 'Liberation' they, one and all,
amount to cultural takedown and 'Elimination
via Sex' ---ie EUGENICS.
Of course the stripping
away that goes along with it fits nicely with
that other 'fave' of the capstone --standardization.
Understand, the Gobalists, the 'Big Boys'
work inter-generationally. They've been
working on these agendas quite literally for
centuries.
To say this is just 'innovative social engineering'
belies the religious, occult aspect ---which is
the only way to account for the spot on, and
deadly, 'continuity of agenda' over great spans
of time.
FURTHER, the chemical angle -the bishenol A
leaking from everything in our plastic saturated
'engineered' enviornment ----etc.
Somehow NO ONE on the full-spectrum Rockefeller Left or
Right dares call out this particular issue even
as steriity and cancers -------soar.
MikeBee| 7.12.11 @ 8:40AM
Competition is where we learn about ourselves and about life. As a young child, I learned that I was, at best, a mediocre athlete. I also learned that I could stand above many intellectually. Everyone's strengths and weaknesses exist; one of the things children must learn is what their strengths and weaknesses are. Then, they can follow their strengths into a career, while acknowledging and working on their weaknesses.
Strengths and weaknesses also change. A weakness can be turned into a strength simply by working on it.
Finally, it is in competing with others who are stronger and weaker than we are that we learn to get along with others. We learn to compliment the strong, while admonishing them if they become too proud, displaying a weakness. We learn to compliment the weak on their efforts, while attempting to build up their weakness. We learn to stand with others, to work with others, to pick up where others fall, and to be picked up when we fall.
If everyone must be the same, then no one will improve his weakness, nor will anyone discover his strength. Nor will people learn to get along with other people. It is no wonder that today's children are severely lacking in people skills, with the schools deemphasizing competition.
Tenn Slim| 7.12.11 @ 9:25AM
Again, I refer you to the Leftist Sites. READ the blasted agendas. LEVELING in all aspects of the Nations society is and always has been one of the prime objectives.
WITH WINNERS, come Losers!!! DUH. With knowledge of what is being advocated comes dissent, a reply that the 1930s Leftist simply cannot deal with. COMMON Sense always evokes cries of bias, bigotry and hate from the Left.
What we see today is the culmination of YEARS of angst, trying desparately to evoke thier agendas. FINALY, they are making headway. And we are alarmed???? get a grip. The Leftists have been advocating this Leveling for years. Now they get to see the implementation.
Unforseen consequnces, like a whimpy nation. Who cares, the left certainly does not.
end
Tenn Slim| 7.12.11 @ 9:32AM
Reviewing some of the posts.
I recall my old sand lot days. WE ENJOYED the game, the arguements, the competivness. This ENJOYMENT is what drives the angst of the Left, in my opine. To see some one actually being happy, doing what to them, seem abhorrent, is simply too difficult to stand. Happyness must be leveled. We must all be as down right miserable as the Left actually is.
To effect, this, damper kids play, damper school educators sense of fairness, infect the courts to uphold that level of misery.
We reap what we have sown.
end
DC| 7.12.11 @ 11:10AM
TennSlim, as of course you know, the left's crusade for absolute equality is a sham and a gross, malicious fraud, masking their true goals: to make them the winners and freedom-loving folk (us) the losers. Just as Lenin did in his grand leveling of Russia; who but the "vanguard," the "revolutionary elite" could possibly come out as the winners, despite all the bullshit rhetoric. The (sometimes uncomfortable) truth: the Left fully intends to win, to install themselves as the rulers, over and standing on the dead bodies of us and our families. Exactly how they get there and how long it takes--that's what they don't care about. But they are as relentlessly committed to winning as they have been for over a century now, and we'd be wise to understand and see through their smoke screen. Their worldview is actually much more competitive than ours, because their world is a zero-sum game: there are only winners (the rulers) and losers (everyone disfavored by the ruling regime). There is no in-between. There is no "joe six pack" going about his business, raising his family, bothering nobody but his neighbors. There is no big city yuppie, patronizing the nice bars and restaurants, minding his own business. There are only those who serve the regime, and those who don't.
Lying, cheating, stealing, and (now) rationing, (eventually) exterminating the opposition, in order to WIN: that's the game the Left is playing. Most conservatives, certainly most Republicans, don't understand that game, and thus aren't even playing on the same field.
Melvin| 7.12.11 @ 11:30AM
Remember all the scars and broken teeth that we wore proudly when we went home and mom would just roll her eyes and hand you the bottle of Mercurochrome and band aids.
There was no motherly hysteria, no speed dialing of the local trial lawyer because we got hurt, we got patched up to go at it again the next day.
Redstateboy| 7.12.11 @ 9:42AM
Go to a Park... observe the kids and note how many are grossly over-weight and out of shape and then curse Liber-ulism. In the coming Armageddon these soft pansies and wimps will not last and they'll fall in the millions.
ghd australia | 7.12.11 @ 9:52AM
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Anommynous| 7.12.11 @ 10:12AM
Actually, we did read read the Odyssey when I was in elementary school, or at least the portion with Polyphemus, which I would indeed consider a rather bloody episode.
calvin | 7.12.11 @ 10:25AM
The author misses the point I think.
The violence of gym class or the sandlot football game taught us our limits and tested us, but also hurt. They were real, and taught us the limits of what we could tolerate, and what was just dumb.
Violent video games desensitize us to other peoples pain. They are played alone. They are not real.
I don't see the logic in equating with HS sports.
Melvin| 7.12.11 @ 11:33AM
Thats where good parenting comes in from Calvin.
I finally broke down many years ago when my boys where at home and bought a Sony Play station. That thing is still sitting in the front room. My wife and I put limits on how long, back then games weren't all that violent.
Todays parents give they're kids these hand held playstations, which are nothing more than adolescent pacifiers.
Drunken Sailor| 7.12.11 @ 12:19PM
Electronic babysitters. My boys complained when we set limits on their playing video games and watching tv. They had a set time after all chores and homework, showers, etc were done. If that only left them a hour so be it. They had to decide how to spend that hour in front of a game or their favorite show. My oldest this year went to a physical fitness style boot camp. He told me the instructor said him and his brother when in much better shape than a lot of the kids his age. I told him your welcome.
Hal G. P. Colebatch| 7.12.11 @ 11:05AM
The cruucial question is context. A healthy culture will not be much harmed by violent erntertainment. A decedant culturewill be. I know decadence is not at all easy to define but we need to start makng the effort.
Petronius| 7.12.11 @ 12:19PM
Are we having fun yet? Since anything and everything can be deemed a "right", we shouldn't. The left does understand winning, and refuses to compete. They run the law schools and the courts who now stand in the place of Mommy. They know they can't eliminate all competition, but they do confiscate and redistribute prizes. Then there is Title IX which dictates who gets to play what based on how much cash there is to spend on sports.
Does anybody ever ask the kids who are not athletically inclined what they want? Any kid wants to do what he believes to be fun. If being a jock isn't fun he'd do anything to stay off of a playing field. And beside lacking ability or interest what does that leave? Imagination of the nature discussed in the previous thread. Think Dudley Dursley and Harry Potter. There are those who do not fit "the template" and never will. TD's and homers don't mean squat nor does any measure of success in a normal sense. And like the liberal "losers" he loathes the triumphalism which jocks revel in. His options are the entertainment industry unless he is super smart, or a meager existence delivering pizza. And the social event of his year is the nearest science fiction convention. His only saving grace is that the levelers of the left have no use for him either.
Never the less: in an academic environment the kids who are always left out, kicked out, kept out, and want to stay out must learn the concept of team work and aiding to eventual success, and appreciating the contributions of all team members to that success whether it's sports , or any other project. If they don't, they join the left and make war on success.
Richard Baker| 7.12.11 @ 1:32PM
When I read of the nonsense that the Baby Boomers have fostered and demanded regarding the destruction of childrens's innocence and forcing them to grow up way too fast, I keep asking myself, "Where are the Americans?" Have we become a nation of pampered brats? The pioneer spirit that carried us to the present has been squandered by the most overly indulged generation in history, those born between 1946-64. God help from ourselves. My birth year is 1952 so please none of this nonsense about how dare I say these things.
Skippy| 7.12.11 @ 5:44PM
Ditto.
Born in '55.
I feel your pain.
Our parents were The Greatest Generation.
We are The Worst.
TheRightIsAnythingBut| 7.12.11 @ 9:48PM
You sad, pathetic whiny little b1tch. Worst? What are you doing to avoid that label - assuming that anyone else accepts your label?
I would think a real patriot, a real American would always feel the best is yet to come in this land of opportunity.
Yeah, go ahead and mock me for my optimism. I'll take over the defeatism and resignation of being self-labeled the "Worst."
Matt | 7.12.11 @ 2:02PM
I agree with Calvin about violence with limits and consequences vs. fantasy violence. Scalia's analogy aside, there is a huge difference between the literary violence of the classics and the lack of restraint and the graphic voyeuristic/sadistic quality of many games. Not all of them are violent and some adventure and strategy games have the minimal violence of old-fashioned John Wayne war movies. My boys play a lot like that. But I think marketing "M" rated games at kids is something that, ironically, wouldn't have been done in a more economically and politically liberterian age. I believe that greater freedom in those areas demands more control (and self-control) in the moral sphere.
cuban pete| 7.12.11 @ 2:18PM
I was born in January 1946 so I am one of the first boomers.
When I was nine I tried out for Little League. I was picked. Many of my friends were not. They did other things and tried out again the next year.
In my first game I was up with the bases loaded,two outs and a twelve year pitcher who struck me out on three pitches I didn't see.
A lesson in coping with failure.
When I was 13 I played American Legion ball-90 foot bases,etc.
Same scenario as my Little League debut. I was struck out by a 6'2" 15 year old pitcher who later got a pro contract.
More failure-more coping.
When I was 15, bases loaded,two outs, I hit a three run triple and we won.
By trying and failing I learned about life and how to keep on keepin' on.
That's what competition teaches you. That's life and I'm blessed I could learn it on the ball diamond.
GENE HAUBER| 7.12.11 @ 2:48PM
LEVEL PLAYING FIELDS PRODUCE ONLY TWO LOSERS
TheRightIsAnythingBut| 7.12.11 @ 2:59PM
That there are winners and losers in life is undeniable. And I have to agree with the tenor, if not the nostalgia, of many of the posters here - the sooner kids learn that very basic fact - even at the risk of a broken arm or bruised ego, the better off they are.
Here's my experience - I was once a county fair 4-H judge. I quit judging because the expectation was that, say out of a class of 20, I would hand out 8 or 9 blue ribbons, 8 or 9 red ribbons, and 1 or 2 white ribbons. And every kid would get a ribbon.
I refused. Clearly, there is a winner or there is not. And the fact was - at least at that time - that a lot of 4-Hers entered as many competitions as they could for the cash premiums that come from winning ribbons. A lot of the entries were obviously just that - placeholders put out for cash.
So I think it's not just competition that you support or reject - it's the end goals of the competition. Competition for competition's sake doesn't make much sense.
Alan Brooks| 7.12.11 @ 3:38PM
Violence was worth it to beat Dixie in 1865.
YOU lost!
Skippy| 7.12.11 @ 5:54PM
Alan the Democrat:
um...you lost.
Lincoln the Republican won.
Michael L. Hauschild| 7.12.11 @ 5:30PM
My grandchildren, now all grown were trained in marksmanship from a very early age. All, with their parent’s permission were given the opportunity to harvest game. Some chose not to, some were not allowed. Those that participated had to consume what they dispatched, they had to work at a reasonable wage to earn the permit fees, they had to clean, dress, and package for preservation the meat. Not all have continued to hunt as they thankfully have jobs, several more than one. They all gained much from the experience and their world view about “where food comes from” is based in reality.
Alan Brooks| 7.12.11 @ 11:05PM
"Lincoln the Republican won."
The GOP was much better in 1865- now it is a shadow of its former Republican Party.
Alan Brooks| 7.12.11 @ 11:07PM
"Our parents were The Greatest Generation."
Funny how the Greatest generation created the welfare state you don't like.
sanjuro| 7.13.11 @ 8:55AM
And which resulted in the total destruction of the American family especially the African American community, further leading to the Americans with Disabilities Act where 40 year old men have a"right" to viagra" and sex change operations, the Endangered Species Act which denies water to farmers in CA because of a fish. The path way to hell.......... Shall I go on troll?
POST American| 7.13.11 @ 12:31AM
---And in al this NO MENTION of the
franchise slum reality of our ENTIRE
food chain being now owned, operated
and CON-trolled by a handful on 'on board'
committed EUGENISTS...
Chase Hamil| 7.13.11 @ 3:15AM
So we have never lost a war? I guess you have somehow managed to purge Viet Nam from your memory.
TrueBlue| 7.13.11 @ 12:42PM
The will to survive, the drive to win, the fortitude not to give up... these are the things behind EVERY major achievement the world has ever seen. No war was ever won by a society that didn't have the will to win it. Nothing was ever created by a person that didn't have the drive to try something new.
Society puts so much emphasis on actors and sports stars, regardless of how you feel about each one, these people ACHIEVE. You think they'd pay thousands/millions of dollars to a guy that can't throw? Actors, no matter how crumby they are, all portay a person with a goal. Even in the sappiest of love stories the people have a goal. That drive is spurred on by our need to win, to achieve, to make something of ourselves, to make our life better. If we continue to prop up mediocrity we are dooming ourselves to a backwards spiral both intellectually and technologically.