You would be wrong about that.
And about that.
And about that.
And about that.
Cool! A fourfecta of ignorance! I haven’t seen that since the last time Hector posted…oh, wait, his was only a trifecta. You win!
Siege, check out that book Mr. S cited a page or so back. It kinda helped me understand that mentality of “betray your child to prevent blackening the family name”.
See, my brother-in-law is like that. My husband has broken free of that mind-set, thank Og.
Then you need to start hanging out with less dumb-asses. Most people I know my age and younger are quite articulate. Of course, I work for a publishing company, but still - most people have always been “sloppy” with language. It has nothing to do with politics. I bet you’d get different readings on how literate college graduates who majored in English Lit were compared to those who majored in Business. Does that mean the business majors (who are generally more conservative than English majors) are responsible for turning this country into dipshit illiterates?
I think you missed one - post #347, breech rather than breach.
He said, “Once more into the breech…” I think he meant that - he was explaining the source of his impairments. There must have been some sort of complications at his delivery.
Born backwards, losing ground ever since.
Shakespear, baby. 
Lots of fun lines in that.
Yes. 1953. I’m aware. The Hell’s Angels were founded in '48, you know. Back when things were more ‘civil’.
Don’t blame me, blame Google. I thought it didn’t quite look right at the time so I Googled it. Look at the top listing.
And now, back to the kitchen…
Yeah, Google was much better back before the hippies fucked it all up…
I’ll cut you some slack on that one. Most folks seem to get it wrong. I probably only notice it 'cause of all my work with dams.
Drugs.
Remember Opium, SA?
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1950/narcotics_arrests_show_sharp_ris.htm
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1950/youthscrossing51.html
How about some heroin, instead?
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1950/bigsnag.html
Crime. Birth of the Mexican Mafia, the Italian one being in full swing. (Don’t worry! Hoover insisted they didn’t exist!)
Homicides are a good measure of crime, right? 5.1 per 100,000 in 1960, 5.6 per 100,000 now. Of course, population is a little more dense now. But it’s the fall of civilization despite that.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/tables/totalstab.htm
Oh, but you’re going to point at the hump between 1960 and 2000? That’s fine.
What about the one between 1900 and 1950?
Hm. Okay, let’s look at percentage of population in jail for various things. We’ve gotten better at catching crooks…
Weird. Seems about even.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/viortrdtab.htm
Does seem to have been a spike in the 70s, but it’s coming back down and has been for a while.
So, misery due to drugs and crime… no.
Not to mention, of course, the vast increase in reportings of crimes to A: the police, and B: from the police to a central location, between 1950 and 1970.
Promiscuity! Hey, that’s a good one!
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2008/06/your-generation-was-sluttier.php
STDs spiked in the 50s. Promiscuity was higher… but people weren’t sicker for it.
That’s right. For the last twenty years, people been less promiscuous than at any time since the 50s. Clearly, civilization is declining.
As far as abortion… Clearly, they didn’t do that in the 50s.
Or maybe they did.
But, surely there was Federal legislation passed outlawing those biker gangs, since there were no liberals in power to oppose such things?
CMC +fnord!
The Wild One was inspired by a real life biker “riot”.
That was just uncalled for.
And if you think I’m a liberal, SA, you’re so sickeningly wrong that is becomes highly amusing.
I’m a paleoconservative. I disagree with specific issues of my fellow paleoconservatives, because I view the past slightly differently than they do. For example, I believe that throwing the government the hell out of my house is far more important than preserving the sanctity of marriage. I know exactly how weird certain things were in the past, and they worked just fine that way.
I also think that this country was built on the backs of immigrants like my Irish ancestors that came over in 1700, following Increase Mather. I know exactly what sort of hell they raised, from rebelling again (Whiskey Rebellion) to being nearly hung as witches (Increase’s son and my grandmother’s family, after being founders of New Salem… hell, my great something grandfather’s house is still standing there, reconstructed as a founder of New Salem. I tell you, his court records are fun to read.) to fighting for our country’s freedom, again, and again, and again, and again. And for the freedom of other countries, in ways that wind up being too bizarre to explain. We been horse thieves and millers. I’m even the descendant of one of the first US Marines, who went and raided England under John Paul Jones. (And my Irish blood is amused to hell by that.)
But the one thing my study of family history has told me is that things were not better back then. Or worse. It was the community that made it so. A sick community makes for a sick country, and a well community makes for a strong one. We’ve had sick communities before. New Salem being one of them. And it’s something that’s repeated in America, time and time again. The McCarthy Red Scare. The 1990 Satanic Cult Scare.
That’s something that ain’t worth keeping. So, I say to you, mister lightweight, take a damn good look at what you say is better. Take a damn good look at what you say is responsible for the decay of society. Cause if you think the real Hell’s Angels cut their hair neater than Marlin Brando, and if you think The Wild One was a patch on the real shit that happened in this country, you’re just damn wrong.
I’m a conservative, all right. But that doesn’t mean I’ll approve of the Alien and Sedition act just because it happened a long time ago. It means that I want to look at the past, see what made this country that I love great, and keep it strong.
You just want to curl up under a blanket and let Mr. Government protect you. Sounds like a liberal to me.
No way! What’s my prize? I mean gosh, you’ve been such a fountain of wisdom on providing cites for your strawmen. Eh, engaging you intellectually as an honest debater is an excercise in futility, sorry so much for mocking you.
You know it’s funny, I remember engaging Mr. Svinlesha in an honest debate about the use of atomic bombs on Japan as one ‘liberal’ to another on opposite sides of the issue way back before the SDMB went to pay to post. I seem to recall that we actually moved each other’s views on things by actually providing and being willing to read each other’s cites. Funny how actually backing up your position can do that.
Oh yeah, just to prove to you that I’m left of right, you’re a total fucking moron. Rome and all that.
You win the thread and you didn’t even make a funny. Seems… wrong, somehow.
Keep in mind that the things that make a country great can also lead to its destruction. Japan’s pride, industry and military valor won her an empire. Got her nuked, as well.
If by “great”, you mean living up to and honoring a revolutionary heritage of democratic equality for its people, that can be done with the budget of Belgium and the military might of Costa Rica.
I fully expect to depend on my fellow citizens for my general security, as I fully expect them to rely on me. I fail to see how that weakens either of us. Quite the opposite.
Dissonance:
I remember that!
I learned a lot over the course of that discussion.