General Music Chat

Glen - when someone or something is "other than American," it doesn't ipso facto mean that it is UN-American.

You have this glorious view of the mythological American state of mind, the legendary American state of being, but they do not exist anymore, & I truly doubt that they ever did exist, as you seem to see them.

You sound like you're 80 yrs old to me, with your completely deranged opposition to everything that could possibly change things for the better for any of us.

On the one hand, you gripe that we can't afford to do anything artistic, & then you try to relate that with your irrational fears about your national health scares, on the other.

Yes, DO look at the math. Kramer can't afford things because of his high health care costs, combined with the difficulties of finding work, combined with the rising costs of living. All of that adds up to some serious financial problems. Bob's band mates can't afford gas because of inflation caused by our gov't's lack of response to our needs as a ppl.

High health care costs are a direct result of our own corporations & "legal necessities" fleecing us, which they cannot seem to do elsewhere, to other ppls. I wonder why. (It's obvious to me that it's attitudes like yours that make it possible for us to be ripped off by our own corporations & gov't so easilly.)

Work is becoming impossible to find here in the US, unless you have had the money to spend on lots of higher education to get some very specialized skills, cuz even a MA &/or PHD in many areas won't get you a frikken job here, anymore, while our "leaders" allow the cut-rate sale of our jobs overseas & the whittling of our retirement funds & health care benefits. They've also allowed our corporations & banks to steal our retirement funds outright, with no last resort to turn to, after we were forced to allow others to handle our retirements, our bennies, our savings.

Our cost of living has risen, due in large part to an unnecessary & mismanaged & immoral war that seemed to have been started with only the second term of the last asshole-in-chief as the ultimate goal. Our leaders also allowed mismanagement of criminal proportions in the areas of lending & borrowing, & our pharmaceutical & insurance co's continue to rip us all off in likewise criminal proportions. We continue to fall further into debt to other countries, countries that don't even come close to our societal & political & humanistic views.

You think it's perfectly alright for ppl to flounder, unable to pay for a decent living, because they didn't have the foresight to "get that specialized education?" You think it's perfectly okay for Americans to only be able to get work at convenience stores & fast food joints, cuz "seeking profits is the American way?" Do you think it's admirable for corporations to charge a 2,000% markup on necessary medicines because they CAN?

I find you to be rather juvenile in your views, bub, & your extrapolations of "taking whatever you want from Philby" to be insulting & even stupider.

You have a 1953 world view in the new millenium, & the crap you continue to spout would destroy us all in mere months, if we followed the sheep-like "America is the greatest" view you hold onto, while failing to address the issues that we face today which are a direct result of that very way of thinking in the past.

You keep posting things on the GENERAL FORUM, yet when ppl from other countries respond with their views, you attack them because they aren't American, & their views differ from yours. Stop this juvie sh*t, man. If you only want American responses, post your tripe in the USA forum. Let others have a view without attacking them for it, & DO try to keep your nationalistic views from taking you over to the point that you find it necessary to insult entire ppls in the future. This sh*t has gotten rather old.

the crap you continue to spout would destroy us all in mere months, if we followed the sheep-like "America is the greatest" view you hold onto,

I agreed with a good deal of what you said, until that.

America "IS" still the greatest country on Earth.

If we were speaking of arrogance though, then I would agree with you. Being the most powerful nation on Earth, breeds arrogance when left unchecked. And that's always a set-up for a fall.

With power comes responsiblity, and while we have exercised that power for good, too many times we have misused it. Supported dictators because it was in our economic interest. Started a civil war in another country so we could build a canal through it. Sent the CIA to South America to teach ruthless dictators how to torture people... people like the Catholic Priests there.

And boy do we know how to switch sides fast...

Noriega was our friend... before he was our enemy.
Osama bin Laden was our friend... before he was our enemy.
Saddam Hussein was our friend.... before he was our enemy.

The good news though, is that while this is not as bad a nation as some here think, and it is not as good a nation as some here think...

It could be.

It could be what we ALL wish it to be. A beacon of light in the darkness. Protector of the oppressed in the world. The hope of those seeking freedom to live their lives and dreams as they choose.

We could be that nation.

We've been that nation before.

We could be that nation again.

We could be worthy of the world's hopes for us.

.

Phil You are totally wrong the only reason we are in such trouble is because people like you keep buying into this crap.

"All tyranny needs to gain a foot hold is people of good conscience to remain silent" Thomas Jefferson . A very smart man from over 200 years ago.

Any one else want to basically say this is a crap country because of the same ideals that made it great. It is ok to make money, to stay in business it is required , quit bashing companies because they keep people employed. When they cant make money any more because the power to tax is destroying them, and promising a govt that will take care of you, I am not laughing .

50s ,no I am going back much farther to the point and principles this country was founded and all those principles go back even farther.

Phil If you dont like our great country any more , leave , Canada is calling.

If I have to fight to protect what I love,,I WILL.

Oh Yeah I wasn't talking about my self ... My concern was about all you guys that are getting clocked and you don't understand why.
As far as money I live by the prosperity law , If you need to make 600 bucks to pay you bills, you are entitled to that. If you need to make 6000 bucks to pay your bills you are entitled to that also ,AS LONG AS YOU DON"T WAIT FOR SOME ONE ELSE TO COME AND BAIL YOU OUT.
Stop blaming the wrong party , for your own mistakes, I dont understand Kramer because if something is not working you gotta change it.
Sucks cause he s a great player but maybe its time for him to concentrate on making MORE money.
Since when has money become such a dirty word? Only when you dont have enough?

Look, America may or may not be the greatest - it's all in your perception - kinda like trying to argue about who's the world's greatest guitar player ever, & it's a useless argument.

America simply IS - & OUR job is to make it the best country that we can.

We all have different views on what makes one place better than the rest, & the result is our current state of in-fighting over trivia instead of handling any of our very real problems.

I was hoping that our present commander-in-chief could bring us together a bit to handle at least SOME of those issues, but it was a rather naive hope, really. No one person could do that, especially after the years that we've spent pitting ourselves against each other over such important issues as gay marriage, drug wars, abortion, drunk driving, or the whatever else some special interest group brings to our national attention.

While these issues may seem important to many of us, there are far more drastic measures that need to be taken on the national scale, for our health, our protection, our ability to work & produce, & to insure that we can continue to contribute to the world as a people. Most of those lesser problems are better handled at the state & local level.

Our federal gov't should not be involved in "drug wars" on the American public, when that same public cannot find suitable work, or cannot hold onto their property because of things beyond their control, When things get that bad for the general populace, they will tend to turn to those reality escapes, no matter what laws are in effect. When things get better for them, they may tend to actually like their existence enough to live it "straighter," to some degree.

Gay marriage? THIS is an issue we have spent countless hours & dollars arguing about, when ppl are being held back, & denied their civil rights & equal standing by our bigotry?

Yeah, as long as they can keep stirring the pot, keeping us at each other's throats over these & other distractions, they can whittle away at our Constitution to gain more & more power over us, & result is that the regular guy loses his home to health care costs, loses his job to some guy in China, & loses his freedom to drive where he can to make things better for himself without being stopped & questioned for his actions...all in the name of someone else profitting from it all...while our gov't becomes stronger & ever more involved in our day-to-day affairs on an individual basis.

When capitalism runs amok, it becomes just as big a problem for the populace as any other power that preys on its people. There need to be checks against rampant profits at the cost of life, limb, & prosperity, & we are at a crossroads where the people can either become slaves to pharmaceutical co's, insurance co's, petroleum co's, & the giant food conglomerates, et al; or we can put stop-gap measures in place to assure the health, welfare, & freedoms of the populace.

We are fleeced by our corporations at every turn. Price gouging for petroleum products occurs at every holiday season. Necessary medicines have a 2,000% profit margin. Banks mismanage our savings. Retirement plans are stolen. Unnecessary & even harmful medicines are loosed on the public daily...

The list goes on & on, & no one is held accountable while our jails fill with "criminals" who have created no harm, our landfills become stuffed with plastics (40% of modern waste comes from packaging?), our forests are stripped to make softer toilet paper, our ppl cannot find work, our small businesses are overtaxed & over-regulated...yeah, this list goes on & on, too.

I have no interest in arguing over whether or not we are "the greatest." That seems a little ridiculous when you think of the bigger picture, & to even claim it seems a little stupid to me. You wanna say you're the greatest? Go ahead. NOW what are you gonna do? Surely "the greatest" can think of SOMETHING to solve these & other pressing issues without dissolving into factions over such stupid sh*t as gay marriage!

It's pretty simple. The globalist powers that be, are this centurys new version of the communist guerrilla. They want men of "free will" to be divided along lines of race, religion, sex, homo / hetero, rich, poor, etc. This how they intend to divide, conquer, and subjugate. That is why this is all you see on TV news and "entertainment". If you mimic that behavior pattern, they have won you already.
Working so to speak "off the books" as Kerry suggests is the only way men of "free will" have survived the onslaught of tyrants for thousands of years. For me the local solution is not a simple task, as I am a passionate man. But I must "congregate" with those whom are of simular mind set. And not waste time fighting with those whom have already lost the will to not be subjugated, and forsight to realise that they have been. I see many aspects of my own life where I have lost liberty "for the greater good" (buzz words, to be avoided at all cost)
Many think that having one world government is the key to eliminating the worlds problems through cooperation. It is a beautifull dream that history has disproven hundreds of times.
A simple demonstration of human cooperation if you will.
The social tradition of the handshake arose when to men would meet to conduct social negotiation. Each would reach out to grasp the forearm of the other so that the weapon (sword) could not be drawn during negotiation. That level of cooperation is all that will ever exist amoungst man in general. We will prey on each other, when we should pray together.

George,

You exhaust me brother. I get motion sickness going up and down the roller coaster with you. I get inspired reading many of the things you post, only to be let down, by the ominous and depressing conclusion you always come to... "It's all hopeless in this lifetime!"

Why?

WHY?

WHY WHY WHY????

Some may have thought it was hopeless for you, before your heart was changed by God's love. Now you are in a praise band... a praise band that plays rock... but a praise band. You aren't singing about "gettin' pu**y" or "killing and torturing weaker beings" - You are singing about love, and salvation and forgiveness and mercy! Your band will probably outlive most of the bands on here too, because you are all involved in it, because of a higher calling. You must laugh sometimes at the secular bands troubles on here, and all the while, you guys probably start your practices with a prayer, and don't feel someone in the band is holding you back because of lesser talent or poor attitude. This is a labor of love. You are operating on faith. What a burden lifted, compared to what most bands play with or play for.

There is an entire group of men who have had changed lives, and you have found one another and worked together for a common goal, a common purpose. Without the changed heart, you all would have likely been doing other things, and less successfully and with MORE pressure involved.

As you WELL KNOW, and every other musician here knows... a band is like a family of sorts. You have fights and ups and downs, but when everyone is committed to the purpose, you compromise and work through the problems.

Love... a great love... the source of love... has brought peace to your heart, brought unity to your band, and kept your marriage going.

This love changed YOU.

That changed your FAMILY. A larger entity.

That same love can change a NATION.

And change THE WORLD!

I want you to consider something...

When you say that the nation or the world cannot be changed, remember a few things...

1) You were changed. You are an individual. A band is just a GROUP of individuals, and so is a family and a nation and the world. If individuals can be changed... and enough individuals were changed... wouldn't those individuals make up families... and nations... and one day, the world?

2) When you hold onto a belief that more people (like yourself) cannot be changed... at least not in great enough numbers to changed cities and nations and the world... aren't you lessening the power of God's love? Aren't you inadvertently professing more faith in the power of evil and selfishness to control the hearts of people, than you are in the faith of God's love to change them? After all, you have no problem BELIEVING the world is evil enough to remain in darkness. But you don't seem to have the same faith that God's love is powerful enough to dispel that darkness. And I mean dispel it with love, not just murdering the wicked.

Have you ever thought of that?

It seems that your faith is absolute... in the power of evil.

And not so absolute... in the power of love.

I doubt you would ever make a statement like that, outright, but when you have little faith that God's love can change the world, and yet ABSOLUTE faith, that this world will remain evil until they are killed off, isn't your heart inadvertently making that statement for you?

Just something to consider.

.

Why?
Because mankind is evil.

I hope your right Craig. Perhaps there is some hope for our world. Perhaps our failing Constitution is not the last vestage of hope in the world.
But you know, I believe in the Revelation, the final battle between good and evil that results in the destruction of evil in the universe.
My hope, my faith, is in the hereafter. I am in this world I am not of this world.
Perhaps I sound totally fatalist to you sometimes. Perhaps I am.
But I allow those thoughts and feelings of my old adam to show me the way of the world, a reverse compass if you will.
I know that if in my moments of weakness I would to kill em all and not care if they get sorted or not.
Then surely those whom do not know my Lord are planning to do the same.
We are not finite beings, death is a change not an end. The "Big Picture" is eternity. To which in comparison what occures in this earthly realm is but spit into the oceans of time.
I know love will win. Christs love, not that of mankind.

I come to the scene with a slightly different view, sans.

I don't believe that all ppl are evil. I believe that we all have the potential for evil or good, just as any god or devil or any other entity.

At least we have souls, I believe. Corporations do not. Nor do they have a conscience. They are simply feeding machines, trying their best to hoard profits, no matter the cost to others. For this reason, I believe it is a HUGE mistake to give a corporation the same rights as a person, but that, in our wisdom, is what we've done, & the results of giving too many rights to the American company are less than beneficial to the needs of the people, as we are seeing, daily. It is way past time to make that change for the betterment of mankind.

Our Constitution is obviously imperfect, or the founding fathers wouldn't have allowed for Amendments. I think it's time to amend it further, to assure that the rights of the PEOPLE hold sway over corporate interests & profits.

All I can affect in this life is what I see, hear, touch, etc, on this plane of existence. To leave it all for others to attend to, while I deal with the spiritual, at the cost of the real, is just plain stupid, imo. Ppl need to band together, despite their religious & cultural differences, & begin to handle the real life problems, if we are to begin to succeed as a nation again.

As things stand now, we are floundering badly, & way too distracted to handle any single issue. Our stupid, stupid representatives keep adding little items of personal or corporate interest to each & every bill of law, allowing the needs of our corporations to outweight the needs of the ppl. I think it's high time to call these morons out for the treasons, the wrongs that they are perpetrating on the American public in the name of corporate profit, as they fill their own pockets with corporate bribery.

Very simply put Phil. Despite as you say "spiritual differences" we do need to band together, not allowing the propagandist to defer our wrath from whence it truly belongs.
I got your back.

Phil, there are no corporations that can succeed unless they have good people working for them. Yes it may seem they are amassing wealth but you might be suprised if you start to run through the thousands of " stock market " companies and start to understand their bottom line responsibility to millions of 401 k share holders counting on them to return a profit and provide a way store away hopes of retirement. These are the same companies that give our govt a viable tax base and provide jobs to 300 million American people that want to work and get paid and in turn pay taxes also and drive world economy, creating jobs and work, REAL goods and services.
WE ARE IN A NEW ERA. We have allowed a new form of govt to emerge that is only hell bent on control. Total jealousy of corporations because it may be the only true form of socialisim that works , any one can work their way up. Many Mc Donalds owners started at the very bottom cleaning bathrooms.

Chippy is having it tough because all the good companies have left Jersey, they cant make enough money to protect their employees or meet the bottom line need of turning a profit ,under the high CORRIZINE tax and spend levels.
Even Obama is jumping in to this one because if jersey goes under, and NY is not far behind. The probability of Declaring emergency and rewriting National emergency laws and the control that follows.

Kill the corps first ,,tax em right out of business. Then you can take control.

Think I'm crazy , just wait , GLENN BECK is a mild liberal compared to what is about to happen, [he doesn't have a clue]

By the way , did you pay your new federal guitar tax, $2.00 for every guitar you own, or $.10 for every string you change.

You are right in a great many aspects of what you have said here Glen.
But, those corporate mogals whom make millions by intentionally leaving thousands of unemployed and broken households in their wake. Well, they should die of old age in prison. Good business is good. Intentionally destroying the welfare of thousands of American workers to put millions of dollars in the pockets of a handfull of execs. That is the same form of evil that infects the corupt socalist systems. Honest profits are good for America. Geed at all cost, destroys economies.
How is it that the executives of bankrupt public companies earn millions in bonuses? They know whom to contibute to on election day.

Sans thats where you dont get it .You guys keep listening to all this Crap. Govt will never be able to provide the jobs Corporations do . And even worse is the Govt pointing there finger at all these super wealthy ceos. The Clintons entered the white house broke , Now 16years later they are millionaires ,how did that happen, gee let me guess Corporations were forced to pay up to stay in business.... How many countless raises went to the Clinton machinery Instead of to the GOOD working people that kept the corporation alive.
Come on Sans these corps would be out of business if they didn't have the most talented people running them and you are basically saying you don' t think they deserve to be paid what they are paid where does that thinking stop detroit auto workers @$75 plus benefits. I am not going to say the unions hurt the auto industry , but if you figure out how much the workers were making the CEOs were A minor expense. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WORK OR DEAL WITH ANY COMPANY THAT YOU FEEL IS UNFAIR. BY LAW YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOUR GOVT. And your choice may not be so immediate or clear.

Glen - I understand what you're saying, & there was a time that it worked. That time, however, has passed, due to the advent of the "age of the super-corporation."

I'm talking about HUGELY powerful companies with vast amounts of resources. These outfits don't ever need to worry about competition, due to the fact that they can afford to take rather large losses in their quest to control the market, in the short run, that their competition simply cannot stand.

This was why the gov't originally tried to stop monopolies & trusts - to maintain a fair marketplace.

Today's market is anything but fair. WallyWorld moves in, & the 5 & dimes collapse due to their inability to take the losses that Wally- & K-Marts & Targets can weather. Lowes moves in, followed shortly thereafter by Home Depot, & your local hardware store suddenly disappears.

Things are great for the consumers when these co's 1st take hold, cuz they're driving proces ever lower, until their competition is eradicated. Then, in a slowly creeping process, to keep things looking legal, prices begin to rise once more, & the super-powers of our new & improved economy can charge pretty much whatever they want.

Speaking of trusts - what's up with those petro-corps & their price-gouging? I thought that was illegal...oh yeah, they own a huge portion of our gov't, now, & they blatantly break those laws, too, right in our faces. Check out the prices on the road signs around Thanksgiving, or Xmas, or Memorial Day, or Labor Day. You can try as you will to give them the excuse that it's the result of supply & demand, but there is NO competition between these co's. There are NO price wars like there were before these co's developed their illegal trusts. Virtually every station is within 1 red cent of the other, & we continue to buy into it like lambs to the slaughter. No one is raising a fuss about it. "Free market?" PPPffft!

Compare Home Depot to Lowes, or Shell to Mobile, or WalMart to Target or KMart...their prices are all the same. Competition? It's a thing of the past, Glen.

Yeah, we live in the "land of the free (super-corporation)," while out gov't gets out of the prison biz, & turns IT over to the private sector.

Well, now! We need to keep these outfits running in the black, ppl! Write more laws! Stop & inspect more ppl on the roads! We need to GROW as a biz! Wiretap the ppl! Have drug-sniffer dogs at every road block! Keep looking at 'em until you FIND something!

Our gov't needs to stop this alarming trend for the welfare of the ppl, but it won't as long as it's owned by the enemies of the ppl.

I'm not asking for the gov't to take over American businesses. I'm demanding that it return us to a free market, where competition rules the marketplace, & not a mere handful of superstores who manipulate everything in every area of our lives in the name of corporate profit.

So yeah - tax the ever-living hell out of the big companies, while you reduce the taxes of the smaller businessman. Even the playing board a bit. This will go a long way toward bringing jobs back to the American ppl, as they can begin to start up their own co's, & grow until they can take on their portion of that huge tax burden, too. Bring back the anti-trust restrictions, so that we can ALL play in the market, & contribute to the betterment of our country.

Until we do, we'll all be slaves to these companies, buying our goods at "the company store," while we'll only have that place in which to work.

Yeah Phil, I hear what you are saying. Most of what you say is right on ,but the biggest monoply we have to be careful of is big govt. Unfortunatley some monopolies are needed just by virtue of the business such as water companies gas companies mas transit etc.
One thing I can always do is choose not to go to home depot or lowes or even Burger King . Funny thing is free market place also tends to allow competition from the strangest places. Around here no one goes to the new ACE hardware because there is a little 100 year old store that allways has what you need.
Sad thing is that all these companies are providing jobs to tax paying citizens.
Right now the only monopolies that scare me are govt owned or govt protected.
And yes big govt has to get off the backs of small busines, for every giant there are 10 times as many small businesses owned by good hard working taxpaying individuals that need to get big govt off their backs, I am one of them. Come and get me uncle sam,I'm not running ,and don't tread on me!