Free speech be damned --- Curt Schilling fired

[Bronx Yankees]

People have fond memories of the past not because it was so great, but because it's great to be young. That's what people are really romanticizing when they get nostalgic.

Best post of the lot...life has always been tough, Its not just you and your generation. We're miles ahead of where our grandparents were. Being about to talk about social issues freely, gasp..over the interwebs, is a luxury our farmer ancestors would kill for. Let alone on a board dedicated to a trivial hobby.

I don't take exception to much, but this post is the exception. Fantasy baseball is NOT a trivial hobby! I am way too invested in my teams to think of this as a trivial undertaking.

(Just to be clear, I am kidding that I took exception to this post; I am not kidding about fantasy baseball.)

Mike

[Driver Love]

Very good post driver. Bottom line is, this country is definitely different than when we were kids. Some things have improved, some have gotten worse. My biggest issue with today's America is, we have gone from "Land of the Free and home of the Brave" to "Land of the randomly censored and home of the easily offended."

BK mets,

I appreciate the kind words. Some may have seen the post I made on the first page talking about if I "identified" as a Velociraptor and did surgical and other treatments to myself to be more like a Velociraptor should I be allowed to force my fringe needs onto the masses? I laughed out loud when someone posted a pic of a Velociraptor in a later post. Where does it end? When you mix the internet with a culture that is progressively less and less capable of socializing without machines and electronics you can end up with some pretty bizarre places people can spiral into in their psyches. Are we going to allow everyone's individual want and need to be to be shoved down the throat of the rest of the country? Everyone can find a way to be offended by almost anything now and anyone who stands up for a view or belief that challenges the fringe gets branded and attacked. That has to stop.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Joe Blanton is beginning to worry about this thread.....

[Gekko]

How about these...

today I feel like a 70 year old (despite being under 50). I should be entitled to the senior citizen discount

Today I feel unemployed (even though I have a job). I should be entitled to receive state unemployment benefits

Today I feel like I'm 16 (despite being over 40) and thus it magically becomes legal for me to sleep with all the 16 year old girls at the local high school!

[Gekko]

Driver Love - "this has to stop". LOL. This is only the beginning

[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg - I try not to think about it too much. This thread brought it out of me.

I'll leave you with this...
1. I've been telling my teenager that there is no good reason whatsoever to get a credit card. Ya, I know, "build your credit". F that shit.
2. Go to college only if you can get a quality education AND graduate with no school loans. This requires my kid to actually work at a job.
3. Don't trust the government (or most people FWIW)

Bought into all of them and i couldn't be more proud

I can't help you anymore. You are beyond repair. These are easy solutions:

1. Get her a checking account and tell her she can only buy what she can afford.

2. Unfortunately, in today's world the parents have to plan ahead and help pay for some of this. As I tell my kids, my parents put me through school and I'll help them as long as they promise to do the same with their kids.

3. It's okay to distrust, but if you never trust anyone you live every day in disbelief. That's not for me.

Now get off my couch. I've done all I can do for you.

[Driver Love]

How about these...

today I feel like a 70 year old (despite being under 50). I should be entitled to the senior citizen discount

Today I feel unemployed (even though I have a job). I should be entitled to receive state unemployment benefits

Today I feel like I'm 16 (despite being over 40) and thus it magically becomes legal for me to sleep with all the 16 year old girls at the local high school!

All fair points.. where does it stop? I made those arguments or similar ones in another discussion about this. I am over 40 but I identify as a 15 year old. So I want to go to high school again. Putting on a dress, wearing make up, taking hormones, wearing a wig, getting breast implants and even cutting off your junk does not make you a woman. You are still a man pretending to be a woman. Science says so. I feel bad for people so conflicted they go to this extreme and in a free world it is their right. However, I do not believe they should be able to force that onto others and anyone who challenges this notion should not be attacked as hateful or a bigot or lose their job. It is a very slippery slope.

[Yah Mule]

If anyone believes we're more easily offended as a culture now, I urge you to go to Youtube and listen to some Lenny Bruce. His act from the early 60's, which is extremely tame by today's standards (and really not very funny, IMO) got him arrested on obscenity charges multiple times in this country and barred entry to the U.K. as an undesirable alien. Listen to 20 minutes of Bruce and tell me we're more thinskinned today than we were 50 years ago. Even George Carlin was getting arrested back in the early 70's and he would later became a beloved cultural icon. Ironically, after his act became way more political and pissed off.

People want to blame this all on a changing culture, but it has way more to do with the way corporations control every aspect of our lives now. People were outraged when even Jerry Seinfeld's lame schtick about losing his socks in the dryer was offending a couple kids at some colleges, but a handful of unhappy kids rarely affect any change. What happens is the administrators get angry phone calls from the parents paying their ever skyrocketing tuitions each semester and then they sit up and take notice. At the next meeting someone says, "Why are we paying this Seinfeld guy 20 times more than we could pay that handsome multi-ethnic young man who came in a told us jokes that we kind of liked but nobody could remember five minutes later?"

Corporations care nothing about cultural progress. They care about profits and keeping consumers just satisfied enough to not look elsewhere for their services. This is also why grade inflation is rampant now. Nobody wants to pay $40,000 a year in tuition to find out their kid is not a genius.

https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/3735

http://www.alternet.org/education/how-o ... ng-centers

[Roger Dorn]

How about these...

today I feel like a 70 year old (despite being under 50). I should be entitled to the senior citizen discount

Today I feel unemployed (even though I have a job). I should be entitled to receive state unemployment benefits

Today I feel like I'm 16 (despite being over 40) and thus it magically becomes legal for me to sleep with all the 16 year old girls at the local high school!

All fair points.. where does it stop? I made those arguments or similar ones in another discussion about this. I am over 40 but I identify as a 15 year old. So I want to go to high school again. Putting on a dress, wearing make up, taking hormones, wearing a wig, getting breast implants and even cutting off your junk does not make you a woman. You are still a man pretending to be a woman. Science says so. I feel bad for people so conflicted they go to this extreme and in a free world it is their right. However, I do not believe they should be able to force that onto others and anyone who challenges this notion should not be attacked as hateful or a bigot or lose their job. It is a very slippery slope.

Any examples of how you've been forced to deal with this? Besides feeling uncomfortable.

[BK METS]

How about these...

today I feel like a 70 year old (despite being under 50). I should be entitled to the senior citizen discount

Today I feel unemployed (even though I have a job). I should be entitled to receive state unemployment benefits

Today I feel like I'm 16 (despite being over 40) and thus it magically becomes legal for me to sleep with all the 16 year old girls at the local high school!

All fair points.. where does it stop? I made those arguments or similar ones in another discussion about this. I am over 40 but I identify as a 15 year old. So I want to go to high school again. Putting on a dress, wearing make up, taking hormones, wearing a wig, getting breast implants and even cutting off your junk does not make you a woman. You are still a man pretending to be a woman. Science says so. I feel bad for people so conflicted they go to this extreme and in a free world it is their right. However, I do not believe they should be able to force that onto others and anyone who challenges this notion should not be attacked as hateful or a bigot or lose their job. It is a very slippery slope.

Any examples of how you've been forced to deal with this? Besides feeling uncomfortable.

My daughter should not be "forced" to be in the same bathroom with a man who thinks he is a woman.

[Roger Dorn]

My daughter should not be "forced" to be in the same bathroom with a man who thinks he is a woman.[/quote]

Equally concerned about my son in a bathroom...no bathroom is safe

[BK METS]

My daughter should not be "forced" to be in the same bathroom with a man who thinks he is a woman.

Equally concerned about my son in a bathroom...no bathroom is safe[/quote]

The difference is, I can go into the bathroom with my son.. I cannot go in with my daughter, but another man is allowed. I agree that no bathroom is safe as we had an incident in New York this year, as others can tell you.

[Gekko]

Greene - just feel like (identify with) a woman the day your daughter has to use the public restroom and you're in!

[Driver Love]

If anyone believes we're more easily offended as a culture now, I urge you to go to Youtube and listen to some Lenny Bruce. His act from the early 60's, which is extremely tame by today's standards (and really not very funny, IMO) got him arrested on obscenity charges multiple times in this country and barred entry to the U.K. as an undesirable alien. Listen to 20 minutes of Bruce and tell me we're more thinskinned today than we were 50 years ago. Even George Carlin was getting arrested back in the early 70's and he would later became a beloved cultural icon. Ironically, after his act became way more political and pissed off.

People want to blame this all on a changing culture, but it has way more to do with the way corporations control every aspect of our lives now. People were outraged when even Jerry Seinfeld's lame schtick about losing his socks in the dryer was offending a couple kids at some colleges, but a handful of unhappy kids rarely affect any change. What happens is the administrators get angry phone calls from the parents paying their ever skyrocketing tuitions each semester and then they sit up and take notice. At the next meeting someone says, "Why are we paying this Seinfeld guy 20 times more than we could pay that handsome multi-ethnic young man who came in a told us jokes that we kind of liked but nobody could remember five minutes later?"

Corporations care nothing about cultural progress. They care about profits and keeping consumers just satisfied enough to not look elsewhere for their services. This is also why grade inflation is rampant now. Nobody wants to pay $40,000 a year in tuition to find out their kid is not a genius.

https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/3735

http://www.alternet.org/education/how-o ... ng-centers

Ya mule,

When I talk about how our culture is changing and how obsessed we are with PC and how easily everyone is offended I am not talking about professional comedians and what was or was not deemed appropriate material. However, if you want to see a clear view of how our society is more perverse and has socially or culturally deteriorated use your own example. Look at what was deemed cringe-worthy in the past and look at how far that line has been pushed to where it is today. In some ways you made my point for me.

But when I (and I assume others) bring up this topic it is more about how fringe groups of the public now decide what their personal agenda is and whine incessantly about everything. Have you seen the efforts on major colleges around this country to squash free speech? Have you seen the invented grievances that thanks to social media mobs can be created to stomp their feet and cry over some idiotic issue? What happened at U of Mizzou this year was a national disgrace. These mobs are often joined by or even driven by professors who spew this nonsense and indoctrinate dope kids. The over sensitivity on some of these matters in our culture now is dangerous in the opinion of many. The broader question is this. Is America getting better on all these fronts or is America getting worse. No one is saying America was ever perfect.. but are we on the right trend? I would argue no.

[Driver Love]

How about these...

today I feel like a 70 year old (despite being under 50). I should be entitled to the senior citizen discount

Today I feel unemployed (even though I have a job). I should be entitled to receive state unemployment benefits

Today I feel like I'm 16 (despite being over 40) and thus it magically becomes legal for me to sleep with all the 16 year old girls at the local high school!

All fair points.. where does it stop? I made those arguments or similar ones in another discussion about this. I am over 40 but I identify as a 15 year old. So I want to go to high school again. Putting on a dress, wearing make up, taking hormones, wearing a wig, getting breast implants and even cutting off your junk does not make you a woman. You are still a man pretending to be a woman. Science says so. I feel bad for people so conflicted they go to this extreme and in a free world it is their right. However, I do not believe they should be able to force that onto others and anyone who challenges this notion should not be attacked as hateful or a bigot or lose their job. It is a very slippery slope.

Any examples of how you've been forced to deal with this? Besides feeling uncomfortable.

Roger,

That is the point. We haven't gotten to the point YET where many of these things are rammed down our throats. I think logic based people try to address issues before they become a massive problem. Though I will say I did have to explain to my son why a man was dressed as a woman last year when we were out one day and that was an easy conversation to have.. but those who are uncomfortable with the idea of men using womens rest rooms because they just decide they want to be a woman are not wrong to feel strongly about it... The fascinating thing about this is the group that pro-ports itself to be tolerant and inclusive are the absolute opposite of that because they will not respect or give value to the views and feelings other people are expressing.

[Gekko]

Although abortion, discrimination, gun rights, etc all seem like important issues, they mean very little when people are bankrupt. The folks in charge love when people talk about those issues and NOT about the highway robbery of the US health care industry, pensions and retirement accounts all linked and dependent on an ever increasing stock market, slavery never really being abolished (we just offshore it now), etc

This weekend I will post a "Gekko's guide to making it through the upcoming financial tsunami"

[Donacion]

My mother who will be 96 in a few weeks spent a few weeks visiting. God bless her soul she is still independent. She just recently stopped volunteering at her local day care she was helping 3 days a week with preschool kids. She has seen it all and we were talking about all the changes she has lived through. She likes the state of things versus some of the trials she lived through, the Great Depression, she lost her parents at a very young age and several siblings apparently people didn't live very long 100 years ago. World war 2 took another toll on her family. She was telling me when I was young we didn't have a lot to eat, no money and few choices. I will say this she is a remnant from another time and is a proud survivor from the greatest generation. It's fun watching her navigate her way around.

[DOUGHBOYS]

There is a sitcom I really enjoy watching. It is called 'Last Man Standing'.
There were some lines in that show that reminds me of some of the talk on this thread.
I'll paraphrase because I don't know the lines exactly...

Husband: Oh Man! Who can believe that!

Wife: Believe what?

Husband: How are we supposed to believe that 50 bad guys were shooting at Matt Damon and all misssed?
And they had bigger guns!
Yet, when Matt Damon shoots his little gun all 50 bad guys drop! WITHOUT RELOADING!
If I had a gun like that in my store, I'd sell out of it.
Just ridiculous!

Wife: And still, you bought the dvd and watched it twice more.

Husband: I like getting angry.

[BK METS]

There is a sitcom I really enjoy watching. It is called 'Last Man Standing'.
There were some lines in that show that reminds me of some of the talk on this thread.
I'll paraphrase because I don't know the lines exactly...

Husband: Oh Man! Who can believe that!

Wife: Believe what?

Husband: How are we supposed to believe that 50 bad guys were shooting at Matt Damon and all misssed?
And they had bigger guns!
Yet, when Matt Damon shoots his little gun all 50 bad guys drop! WITHOUT RELOADING!
If I had a gun like that in my store, I'd sell out of it.
Just ridiculous!

Wife: And still, you bought the dvd and watched it twice more.

Husband: I like getting angry.

I hear what you are saying Dan, but some, including myself, are directly effected by what is happening right now in America and it is not about getting angry for nothing... It is a legit failure in the system and a twisted culture that is bearing down, not only on me, but my children as well. You can say this is just nonsense or not important, but it is. The new health care system, while apparently fixing the problem, has caused even more problems, as Greg directly showed in his family.

With all of the crap Trump spews out, one thing he isn't is a politician. He is a moron, at times, even most of the time, but maybe the lying, fake politicians are what we need to eliminate in this country.

I am angry for my children and their future... as I have every right to be.

[DOUGHBOYS]

I've never been one for politics.
When it comes to America or world events, I've followed two rules.
1. This too, shall pass.
2. The world will take care of itself.

What I do believe in is the American spirit
(enter fife playing 'God Bless America')
What is being described is all fixable. We just need the right folks to fix it.
Unfortunately, with our two party system and the outright laughable candidates they have provided, those fixes are not on the horizon. Politicians, so bad that some are pinning their hopes on a blowhard who has celeb and money and little else.

I bank on the American spirit because I've seen it work every generation.
We've overcome Korea.
We've overcome Hitler.
We've overcome Russia and the Cold War.
We've overcome Vietnam.
We've overcome outside threats from terrorists.
We've overcome the mortgage and market crash.
We've overcome bad politics and bad political decisions.
All, in just 70 years.
That's a lot in just 70 years!
Whatever else the world wants to throw at us....go ahead....We'll kick it's ass too.

Each generation predicts impending doom.
It's a waste of time.
Remember the days after 9/11?
I do.
There was a bonding between each American I had not seen before.
We were mentally holding hands with each other, together, knowing that if somebody wanted a fight, they were going to get one.
We can rail about things that come up.
It seems to be a good exercise for some.
As for me, I'll bank on the American Spirit and if things get too far out of hand, be it our politicians, their policies, or outside intervention, the American Spirit, in time, will kick its ass too.
(fife playing 'God Bless America' fades)

[Gekko]

Yes, some people will say "everything will be okay" and go about their lives. Nothing wrong with that. Wonder if they know their (avg american) standard of living has been on a steady decline and shows no sign of stopping. Of course we've "overcome" all of those things mentioned, America is still here. Short of the planet Earth being destroyed, how wouldnt America in some way, shape or form NOT be here. LOL

When the too big to fail banks were about to go under (due to Fraud amongst other things), it wasn't the "American Spirit" that came to the rescue, it was America's Taxpayer-funded bailouts, ie credit card, ie decreased standard of living for us, our kids, their kids, etc

[Yah Mule]

If anyone believes we're more easily offended as a culture now, I urge you to go to Youtube and listen to some Lenny Bruce. His act from the early 60's, which is extremely tame by today's standards (and really not very funny, IMO) got him arrested on obscenity charges multiple times in this country and barred entry to the U.K. as an undesirable alien. Listen to 20 minutes of Bruce and tell me we're more thinskinned today than we were 50 years ago. Even George Carlin was getting arrested back in the early 70's and he would later became a beloved cultural icon. Ironically, after his act became way more political and pissed off.

People want to blame this all on a changing culture, but it has way more to do with the way corporations control every aspect of our lives now. People were outraged when even Jerry Seinfeld's lame schtick about losing his socks in the dryer was offending a couple kids at some colleges, but a handful of unhappy kids rarely affect any change. What happens is the administrators get angry phone calls from the parents paying their ever skyrocketing tuitions each semester and then they sit up and take notice. At the next meeting someone says, "Why are we paying this Seinfeld guy 20 times more than we could pay that handsome multi-ethnic young man who came in a told us jokes that we kind of liked but nobody could remember five minutes later?"

Corporations care nothing about cultural progress. They care about profits and keeping consumers just satisfied enough to not look elsewhere for their services. This is also why grade inflation is rampant now. Nobody wants to pay $40,000 a year in tuition to find out their kid is not a genius.

https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/3735

http://www.alternet.org/education/how-o ... ng-centers

Ya mule,

When I talk about how our culture is changing and how obsessed we are with PC and how easily everyone is offended I am not talking about professional comedians and what was or was not deemed appropriate material. However, if you want to see a clear view of how our society is more perverse and has socially or culturally deteriorated use your own example. Look at what was deemed cringe-worthy in the past and look at how far that line has been pushed to where it is today. In some ways you made my point for me.

But when I (and I assume others) bring up this topic it is more about how fringe groups of the public now decide what their personal agenda is and whine incessantly about everything. Have you seen the efforts on major colleges around this country to squash free speech? Have you seen the invented grievances that thanks to social media mobs can be created to stomp their feet and cry over some idiotic issue? What happened at U of Mizzou this year was a national disgrace. These mobs are often joined by or even driven by professors who spew this nonsense and indoctrinate dope kids. The over sensitivity on some of these matters in our culture now is dangerous in the opinion of many. The broader question is this. Is America getting better on all these fronts or is America getting worse. No one is saying America was ever perfect.. but are we on the right trend? I would argue no.

Blame capitalism. The universities make all those decisions with the bottom line in mind, which I noted in the post you quoted, but may not have read too carefully. Also, try thinking of fringe groups as collections of human beings and it's much easier to understand their motivations.

[Yah Mule]

My mother who will be 96 in a few weeks spent a few weeks visiting. God bless her soul she is still independent. She just recently stopped volunteering at her local day care she was helping 3 days a week with preschool kids. She has seen it all and we were talking about all the changes she has lived through. She likes the state of things versus some of the trials she lived through, the Great Depression, she lost her parents at a very young age and several siblings apparently people didn't live very long 100 years ago. World war 2 took another toll on her family. She was telling me when I was young we didn't have a lot to eat, no money and few choices. I will say this she is a remnant from another time and is a proud survivor from the greatest generation. It's fun watching her navigate her way around.

Great post, Donacion. Your mom sounds like an amazing lady. My mom turned 81 last August. She has spent most of her life helping people, too. We were always taking in kids with nowhere else to go when I was growing up. My brother adopted a German Shepherd last year who spends half his time curled up in her lap.

[Yah Mule]

Remember the days after 9/11?
I do.
There was a bonding between each American I had not seen before.
We were mentally holding hands with each other, together, knowing that if somebody wanted a fight, they were going to get one.

Those were an amazing 30 days. We really did pull together against a common threat. Hard to believe we've been at war ever since October 7th, 2001. It really doesn't seem like it, does it? Unless you have a loved one in combat, our wars have never seemed more remote or more business as usual.

[Gekko]

Blame capitalism??? LOL

College (tuition) is a anything but capitalism. this thread gets more hilarious with each post!!!!!