OT "Coming Apart" and bubble test.

I'm not distraught over my own life, for the most part I like that just fine.

I'm distraught over the fact that overall America does not, on average, live up to its guiding principles nor its potential. And that there are people out there suffering needlessly when ideally they should not have to.

It all seems a terrible waste.

I'm reading Bell Curve right now. It's fascinating, and seems both real and humane. If anybody hates it, it's probably because they don't like the realities described. I haven't got to the chapters on race yet.

One of his points is that, as far as success goes, IQ dominates everything else, including family wealth.

The stratification of our population by IQ and education and city-of-residence is something this society should deal with.

Old men calling for young men to be sent to their deaths to ally their own fears? Obscene.

Hmm, Well I haven't read "Coming Apart" which I think is where he came up with this (admittedly) rather silly test. From my brief reading there is no attempt to shame anyone. He is observing what is out there. How did our country get into the state it's in. And given that what could we do to bring it back together. Put more meaning in everyone's lives. There's been a weakening of the moral fiber in our country, less feeling that we are all one. That weaken is most apparent in "fly over country". I see some of that where I live.

Anyway I have to read the book first.

Try reading some of what he has written. GH

I stopped by a meeting of MENSA once, it was just millionaires as far as the eye could see.

LOL

Pandemic. Take out 15% of EVERY age group. "Gee, my age/income/zip code/etc. didn't protect me!"

I think it would be great if someone told Americans that most of the important things to having meaning and happiness in life are under one's own control. It has little to do with taxes or what political party is in power. It really is a free country in the best possible way, and that's a gift, not a bug.

I think many Americans are so busy bickering over their disputes over what they want America to give them that they don't realize the potential that freedom offers that's sitting there barely touched for the most part. Fish doesn't notice the water, can't see the forest for the trees.

Right, "Coming Apart" seems to be about that too. (I ordered it after reading a news article about Murray being "demonstrated out" of Middlebury college before he was going to give a talk on the book.)

I love that I can make some clicks and a few days later a book arrives at my door.

George H.

A _really_ choppy read, but with lots of amusing anecdotes...

"Old School, Life in the Sane Lane", O'Reilly/Feirstein

Loss of moral fiber is what it is all about... we're quickly heading to be just another Venezuela if the leftist succeed with their anarchy.

Tidbits from the O'Reilly/Feirstein book...

"You're a snowflake if you graduated with a degree that contains the words _comparative_, _ethnic_, or _studies_."

You're a snowflake if you can't understand why that degree did not prepare you for _any_job_at_all_..."

"You're Old School if you know how to drive a stick."

"You're Old School if you can remember when you could look under the hood of a car and still have some idea how to fix it."

Guess which I am ?>:-} ...Jim Thompson

Clearly we're in need of a Kent State repeat... repeat as necessary... until freedom of speech is restored.

bitrex sure is one sick puppy. ...Jim Thompson

Nonsense! I was a member of Mensa from ~1971-75. I found it full of ne'er-do-wells whining about how they should paid according to their IQ, not according to their productivity.

I found these people to be predominantly Democrat/leftist/pansy /snowflakes of dubious-sexual-orientation (pardon the redundancy :-)

So I bailed. ...Jim Thompson

Yes, that was the joke. LOL!

Whatever they are, they don't seem smart enough to heed Groucho Marx's advice.

I don't work for the government, I can call it whatever I want.

Well, when someone can come up with a "solution" that doesn't involve people dying (who aren't them, naturally) please drop a line.

The guardsmen at Kent opened fire on kids, whether they were protesters or not.

How would killing students promote freedom of speech?

Did the book ask the most important question of the reader, namely "Who gives a shit?"

You have said that you were bullied as a child.

You have said "Then I adopted my signature defense... grab 'em by the throat and not let go... I don't know how many punks I turned blue before some adult neighbor intervened... probably lucky for me, or I'd have gone to prison"

In other words, as a child you used violence to get your way, and presumably you saw that as the only solution to your problems.

Well, most *adults* don't think that way and don't have to resort to violence.

Any adult that thinks killing kids promotes freedom of speech has a truly bizarre view of the world.

Any adult, such as yourself, that wishes violence on kids is sick, bitter and twisted.

Gosh, I wonder why.

Just took this quiz. Got a 28. Funny my dad was in a union, but me, no.

Too bad they didnt have questions like, Can you rebuild a auto transmission?

Cheers