American Exceptionalism Exposed - The Hard To Swallow Truths

Child Abuse:

According to figures released by UNICEF, over the past decade more than 20,000 American children are believed to have been killed in their own homes by family members. That is nearly four times the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and means that America has the worst record of child abuse in the industrialized world.

news.discovery.com...

Originally posted by cartenz


Enjoy those Hershey bars.....

Will do.

I think Heff "exposed" enough......

You on the other hand...



Without any real point to it.

Just sayin. So... What is your point, that hasn't been made already?


How about a cure to it? The symptoms we are aware of.

Originally posted by cartenz
School Shootings!

There have been 31 school shootings since Columbine. School shootings in every other country in the world COMBINED since that time is 14.

www.policymic.com...

this one statistic says so much.

reply to post by cartenz


As we all know "statistics" can be manipulated.

I wonder if there are charts you could put up with statistics on the population in america who are on welfare, food stamps, or are illegal immigrants on some sort of welfare program.

Who is having children in america? Are there charts on this?

Are there charts on literacy in america? Not just high school graduation, but literacy? How can anyone go to school for 12 years and not functionally know how to write or read?

How about charts on how many people are given psychiatric drugs while under the age of 18, and on welfare, in america?

There is so much wrong with america, and no one in washington d.c. wants to bother fixing any of it. They are just lining their own pockets with more lobbying and insider trading to get the hell out when all of it implodes.

How about just securing our borders? Wouldn't that be a reasonable start?

reply to post by bellagirl


And how many of those school shootings have had perpetrators on prescribed psychiatric medication?

And was the medication really needed, or not?

What does the Big Pharma corporations make on these prescription drugs that they are handing out like candy?

reply to post by sonnny1


Some ways to counter it IMO are (you wont like these but it seems to work for the rest of the world):

1. Gun Control (The King of England does not want to come into your home and start pushing you around)
   
2. Health Care Reform (Slowly happening, but not the right way)
   
3. Reduction On Military Spending (More Money to Social Programs)
   
4. Tighter Regulations On Corporations (Grater Corporate Tax Burden)
   
5. Tighter Regulations On Financial Sector (Including dispanding the FED)
   

Just some quick ideas to think on while I find some more examples of where the US leads the world...

reply to post by Hefficide

In my humble opinion there are several things we could do to start the fires burning more brightly again.

1) Make an advanced education affordable once again. The for profit University system is failing us horribly and education is the key to success - today, tomorrow and individually and culturally. Education is the engine of prosperity.

2) Ban lobbying - outright.

3) Impose cumulative term limits on those who choose politics as a career. Service should not be the means to becoming wealthy.

4) Reinvigorate innovation through more ( or better purposed ) grants for research and the sciences.

5) Find ways to remind people that community is basically extended family. Create a culture with a bit less personal ego and a bit more compassion / interest in others.

6) Create a common sense set of laws that effectively regulate business practices and protect employees while also rewarding domestic production and innovations.

7) Have a reality based quorum and dialogue about what "minimum wage" means and what it should be. We are currently engaged in a service industry model that is doomed to fail because corporations aren't paying their employees enough enable them to be effective participants in the economic process. The equilibrium of economics in this country is totally out of whack right now and it's precariously close to toppling over.

8) Find common purpose. The space race is one example, the post 9/11 world is another ( though less positive ) of times when America managed to get focused and made things happen.

Just some off the top of my head ideas.

Thanks for your reply.

They are all awsome thoughts covering commerce, culture, the sciences, innovation, education, politics and the keystone - a common purpose... and just off the top of your head

I'm not so conversant with U.S politics, yet to initiate your thoughts, wouldn't they need to be enacted and/or legislated via congress??

I guess this brings me back to my original question...

Originally posted by Perhaps

So what do you propose that your fellow citizens do to reclaim the perceived freedom of the past??... to keep the tree of freedom alive??

Originally posted by Happy1
reply to post by cartenz

 

As we all know "statistics" can be manipulated.

Im just presenting what I find, you can make your own conclusions

I wonder if there are charts you could put up with statistics on the population in america who are on welfare, food stamps, or are illegal immigrants on some sort of welfare program.

Why dont you try and find some then? I dont think the problems are isolated to minorities and the under-class

Who is having children in america? Are there charts on this?

Women tend to have children, but I could find you some articles on transmen having babies; I dont see how this is relevant?

Are there charts on literacy in america?...

Indeed there are...

Not just high school graduation, but literacy?...

Literacy - The ability to read and write, yes, there are those metrics available...

How can anyone go to school for 12 years and not functionally know how to write or read?

One of the functions of written communication is to convey ideas to the readers, literacy determines its effeciveness... do you get what I'm saying? because I dont get you

How about charts on how many people are given psychiatric drugs while under the age of 18, and on welfare, in america?

If this is relevant then find the data and present it!, dont just give me hyperbole

There is so much wrong with america, and no one in washington d.c. wants to bother fixing any of it. They are just lining their own pockets with more lobbying and insider trading to get the hell out when all of it implodes.

Ok, tell me what you read when you see the words: Government by the people, for the people. Dont blame your government, because you are your government.

How about just securing our borders? Wouldn't that be a reasonable start?

As long as nobody gets out, Im fine with that.

Originally posted by Perhaps

So what do you propose that your fellow citizens do to reclaim the perceived freedom of the past??... to keep the tree of freedom alive??

The obvious answer is to make our voices heard. The system still works that way, despite what many naysayers suggest. Anytime the US population speaks loudly and in a singular voice, change happens.

The trick is for us all to become immune to the divide and conquer tactics being used to fragment us into factions. Right now we are not a chorus, we are a din of cacophonous, disharmonious voices - all singing are own songs of selfishness.

And that's OK. America is wired for us to have that right and it's healthy that we do this.

BUT, the caveat is that we need to be able to put aside our differences long enough to resolve issues that benefit us all, or the majority of us.

Originally posted by Happy1
reply to post by bellagirl

 

And how many of those school shootings have had perpetrators on prescribed psychiatric medication?

And was the medication really needed, or not?

What does the Big Pharma corporations make on these prescription drugs that they are handing out like candy?

well big pharma is world wide. most of the western world have access to the same medicine. this is not an explanation.

reply to post by Hefficide


Sorry Heff. I'm afraid by the time I get back on today, Your thread will be hijacked by those who have no clear answers, by those who will bash The United States, by those who would fundamentally change what our fore fathers thought this nation could become, and by those who are ignorant outright. Good luck though.

reply to post by Hefficide


Here are 3 statistics about the United States of America and its people that blows me away:

1.
Number of Days between 9/11 and invasion of Afghanistan:

Answer: 26 days (7th October 2001)


2. Number of days between 9/11 and signing of Patriot Act:

Answer: 45 days (26th October 2001)


DRUM ROLL...............


3.
Number of days that Americans have refused to protest and overthrow the current Government, NSA, CIA, DHS, TSA, FBI and Feral Reserve (that right....Feral) since OFFICIALLY finding out they have been lied to and spied upon....using American Tax payers dollars

Answer: 80 days (5th June)

we're almost not the most free.

No argument there.

Going by your OP, I'd say New Zealand is the place to live for freedom................

Angry yet?

reply to post by Hefficide

Originally posted by Hefficide

Originally posted by Perhaps

So what do you propose that your fellow citizens do to reclaim the perceived freedom of the past??... to keep the tree of freedom alive??

The obvious answer is to make our voices heard. The system still works that way, despite what many naysayers suggest. Anytime the US population speaks loudly and in a singular voice, change happens.

The trick is for us all to become immune to the divide and conquer tactics being used to fragment us into factions. Right now we are not a chorus, we are a din of cacophonous, disharmonious voices - all singing are own songs of selfishness.

And that's OK. America is wired for us to have that right and it's healthy that we do this.

BUT, the caveat is that we need to be able to put aside our differences long enough to resolve issues that benefit us all, or the majority of us.

Again, thanks for your reply.

... and the above takes powerful, unbending leadership - where is it going to come from??... it seems the U.S is in need of a new age MLK or JFK then??

No.1 For external debt (exceeding even the EU):
en.wikipedia.org...

No.1 For natural gas consumption:
en.wikipedia.org...

No.1 For oil consumption:
en.wikipedia.org...

No.1 Arms exporter:
en.wikipedia.org...

Worst current account balance:
en.wikipedia.org...

Just to balance the sheet on energy--this I did not know, largets wind energy producer:
en.wikipedia.org...

Maybe this will lift the spirits of my neighbour pals to the south:


The USA is numero uno in...

Total Olympic Medals


... now that's something to be proud of (hard work and determination)




I don't think we Canucks are number one in anything except maybe beer drinking, snow fort making, and moose dodging.

In my opinion the fault of what is wrong with America is to be laid at the feet of its citizenry. We have allowed by our lack of involvement in the political process to have our freedoms chipped away slowly like the preverbal frog in the kettle.

We were warned by the founding fathers of what would happen when we were not vigilant in guarding the precious seeds of freedom that they had sown. The tree of liberty grew and grew to the point that the limbs of special interest began to sap the very life out of that tree of liberty. Other parts were dying from lack of concern and others from growing far beyond of where they should of.

The tree of liberty needs to be pruned back, dead limbs need to be cut off, the roots need to be watered this endeavor will be costly the only question left are we the citizen willing to revive the tree of liberty or will we simply leave that to other men and sit back and watch it die?

reply to post by guitarplayer


Well said - in my opinion there is not enough non-criminal, non-selfish people left in america to save it.

And the politicians in charge just want to bring a lot more illegal, criminal aliens into it.

A new mental illness comes to mind while reading this thread which i will name SID. (Seperated Isolating Disorder)

Those who suffer from this mental illness distinguishes and compares him or herself or even the country they live in because they are driven to be better than others.
There is no unity, instead they are opposed to others and the world around them and try to compete.
This can trigger more known mental illnesses like depression, after all competition means to strive, to struggle, battle.
Comparing can be either pleasurable or painfull, pleasurable when one seems to be better, smarter, more handsome, higher educated, richer, mightier, and painfull when the outcome is the other way around.

The second stage is isolation, my believe, my goal, my success, my truth, my well being, my life.

separation focuses itself on mutual differences, discrimination and racism is a symptom for example, in age, in color, in race and so on.

Now that i think of it, this might well be the number 1 mental illness of this world.

reply to post by earthling42


Or, you can call it Greed -

me, me, me, me -

Those would be the symptoms

Frank, in 1966. Sound familiar?

"Trouble Every Day"

Well I'm about to get sick
From watchin' my TV
Been checkin' out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it's gonna change, my friend
Is anybody's guess

So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin'
Hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin'
Every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay
That trouble comin' every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin' every day

Wednesday I watched the riot . . .
Seen the cops out on the street
Watched 'em throwin' rocks and stuff
And chokin' in the heat
Listened to reports
About the whisky passin' 'round
Seen the smoke and fire
And the market burnin' down
Watched while everybody
On his street would take a turn
To stomp and smash and bash and crash
And slash and bust and burn

And I'm watchin' and I'm waitin'
Hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin'
Every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay
That trouble comin' every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin' every day

Well, you can cool it,
You can heat it . . .
'Cause, baby, I don't need it . . .
Take your TV tube and eat it
'N all that phony stuff on sports
'N all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box
Until my head begin to hurt
From checkin' out the way
The newsman say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-so

And further they assert
That any show they'll interrupt
To bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up
They will be the first to tell,
Because the boys they got downtown
Are workin' hard and doin' swell,
And if anybody gets the news
Before it hits the street,
They say that no one blabs it faster
Their coverage can't be beat

And if another woman driver
Gets machine-gunned from her seat
They'll send some joker with a brownie
And you'll see it all complete

So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin'
Hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin'
Every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay
That trouble comin' every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin' every day

Hey, you know something people?
I'm not black
But there's a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I'm not white

Well, I seen the fires burnin'
And the local people turnin'
On the merchants and the shops
Who used to sell their brooms and mops
And every other household item
Watched the mob just turn and bite 'em
And they say it served 'em right
Because a few of them are white,
And it's the same across the nation
Black and white discrimination
Yellin' "You can't understand me!"
'N all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and TV and
All that mass stupidity
That seems to grow more every day
Each time you hear some nitwit say
He wants to go and do you in
Because the color of your skin
Just don't appeal to him
(No matter if it's black or white)
Because he's out for blood tonight

You know we got to sit around at home
And watch this thing begin
But I bet there won't be many live
To see it really end
'Cause the fire in the street
Ain't like the fire in the heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don't you know that this could start
On any street in any town
In any state if any clown
Decides that now's the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right
And if a million more agree
There ain't no Great Society
As it applies to you and me
Our country isn't free
And the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be
Is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns a store
You know that five in every four
Just won't amount to nothin' more
Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poor

Blow your harmonica, son!

and its a damn fine song