we must have gone to the same elementary school..lol.I feel ya man. some of these kids today think it is all about who can be the badist. Wonder where they get that idea from?

Spanking is bad, the death penalty is ok? I believe spanking at a early age as a last resort only. And only if the child is old enough to understand what the should or should not have been doing anyway. And then only in a calm controlled satiation. I never used the word spanking in the OP by the way. The word was chastisement.

I much to often see out of control kids as well. I guess that is what started my thought process about posting this thread. I was at the library yesterday trying to concentrate on my reading. I toddler (about 3 or so) started throwing a temper tantrum about something. This child was screaming and crying out so loud about "but I want that one" that the entire library was listening and watching. (big library, 4 stories) The parent did nothing but kept saying in a soft voice "come on, lets go sugar". After the episode was over (about 20 minutes). I asked one of the librarian's if there isn't some kind of policy about excessive noise anymore in public libraries. Her response was classic. "I can neither confirm or deny that there may or may not be. That is all I can tell you". What a bunch of weenies we have become to allow these punk ass lawyers to screw us out of the right to enjoy the books our tax dollars pay for. Shame on them!

A large part of the most expensive real estate in the country is presently held by foreigners

Here is a way we can for certain not help anyone do anything bad, go be a hermit in the wilderness!

Is the U.S. way of life a Cult?

again, it is the same thinking types of people who are at the actual heads of the retail industry who cause the problems. That is the people who are trying to make the most profit for the least amount of actual physical labor they them selves have to provide. The whole monetary system is so big, I really don't believe we can single out a certain store and fix much, if anything. The people in charge of the money flow will just finance someone else to do their dirty work for them.

Yes they should be. But so many parents are convinced that their little darling child is so perfect that they won't allow them to be corrected for not being respectful. It is the line of thinking that goes along with survival of the fittest stuff. The it is ok to steal if you have to kind of thing. I wish there were easy answer's so we could just all go party and have a good time. But it is not that way. Children who grow up with the influence of no chastisement for wrong behavior do not learn enough respect at an early age to even be able to focus on what is being said to them to the point of understanding. They get the idea that they can just let their mind wonder without any consequences, not a good thing.

this all reminds me of a song by the "talking heads",,,same as it ever was!

nope, exactly my point, the only answer is to get all, and I mean all, of the extremely wealthy to give up there posh lifestyles and pursuit of wealth, and give way with their holdings to the pursuit of wellness. now back to op's original, wal-mart is just a fine example of trying to dumb down the human race.

Ya but, there will be a chosen few who will thrive again when they get back from the space station

ya, but then they would just blow the crap out a us for messing up their economy, like we did to kuwait!

It might help a little tiny bit, unfortunatly the balloon has already popped as far as the U.S. being taken over by the use of money. It is our own fault though. We are the ones who propigated this idea of a Dream life of wealthy living. Guess you really do reap hat you sow!

beethovens 5th

in memory and "ONLY WITH RESPECT", what are some of your favorite "tribo" isms? personally I always liked "peace be with you" {PS. in case he comes back, this thread will self destruct, we can't allow ego inflation on these threads}

"schmuck" you really are from out east. cool!

Fire, arthur brown

what will we do when all these "little darlings" that are growing up today, that have had no or very little exposure to God, And no or very little chastisement for unacceptable behavior are out in the world among the working class. Oh, have you been to an airport lately or a government office building. We are already doing it!

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I'll just leave it at that,

When you take the theory Emc2, and work it without the element of time as a constant, (which it is not, time is a device of measurement, there are no constants), and work the equation backwards, it fails to be absolute. (proven by the top astrophysicists in the world, they do agree however, that it is "close enough" for anything we need to do with matter)