"N2EY" wrote

Look at the battle it took to get seat belts in
cars, and how many Americans won't use them.

Another example of the Great Dumbing Down of America.

The world is methodically being dumbed down by government efforts to protect
us from stupid people.

Stupid drivers don't recognize the dangers of speed, so they drive too fast
and kill themselves. The government regulates speed, so now more stupid
people survive.

Stupid automobile passengers get killed because they don't buckle their
seat belts. Government steps in and makes seat belt usage mandatory,
so now more stupid people survive.

Stupid pedestrians don't know enough to not step out into a busy street, so
they get injured and killed trying to cross the street. The government makes
laws giving them the right-of-way, so now more stupid people survive.

Stupid parents don't recognize the value of childhood inoculations. The
government makes them vaccinate their children before entering school, so
now more stupid people survive.

Stupid hams don't know enough to keep their fingers out of 3KV plate
transformers, so they get fried in their own juice. Some would have the
government protect them, and more stupid people would survive.

In the ways of Mother Nature, stupidity was kept in check because stupid
people generally didn't survive to breeding age, thus our species tended to
get smarter over time.

But stupidity begets stupidity, so we are being overwhelmed by a tsunami of
stupidity. The tsunami is triggered by the government protection of stupid
people, which allows them to survive to reproduce.

Ergo, less government regulations makes a smarter populace.

73, de Hans, K0HB

"KØHB" wrote in message
nk.net...

"N2EY" wrote

Look at the battle it took to get seat belts in
cars, and how many Americans won't use them.

Another example of the Great Dumbing Down of America.

The world is methodically being dumbed down by government efforts to
protect
us from stupid people.

Stupid drivers don't recognize the dangers of speed, so they drive too
fast
and kill themselves. The government regulates speed, so now more stupid
people survive.

Stupid automobile passengers get killed because they don't buckle their
seat belts. Government steps in and makes seat belt usage mandatory,
so now more stupid people survive.

Stupid pedestrians don't know enough to not step out into a busy street,
so
they get injured and killed trying to cross the street. The government
makes
laws giving them the right-of-way, so now more stupid people survive.

Stupid parents don't recognize the value of childhood inoculations. The
government makes them vaccinate their children before entering school, so
now more stupid people survive.

Stupid hams don't know enough to keep their fingers out of 3KV plate
transformers, so they get fried in their own juice. Some would have the
government protect them, and more stupid people would survive.

In the ways of Mother Nature, stupidity was kept in check because stupid
people generally didn't survive to breeding age, thus our species tended
to
get smarter over time.

But stupidity begets stupidity, so we are being overwhelmed by a tsunami
of
stupidity. The tsunami is triggered by the government protection of
stupid
people, which allows them to survive to reproduce.

Ergo, less government regulations makes a smarter populace.

73, de Hans, K0HB

Hans,

I have to agree with you! How did we survive the '50s,
even the '70s without socialists like Hilary Clinton "protecting" us from
ourselves? We misbehaved, we got
paddled by a teacher and Dad gave you a "whuppin'" when you got home! GASP!!
HORRORS! We rode our
bicycles and didn't know what helmets were? You're KIDDING! We climbed
trees, fell out, had the breath knocked out of us, got up and kept going.
HUH? Why,
we'll have to make trees illegal!! We sent each other flying high in the
air by jumping on a short plank in a modified game of see-saw; sometimes the
plank skewed
to one side and we broke arms and ribs. Let's SUE somebody! We got up again
with skinned knees, and when it quit smarting, we got back on the board and
did it again. In high school, we drove school busses at 16!
WHAAAAAAAAAAT??????? We even had bus drivers' club! What, that's CRAZY! No
it wasn't. At that time, North Carolina had one of the safest school
bus driver programs in the nation! We drove tractors as
soon as we could reach the pedals and Pop-popped (John Deere) our way down
the highway with no supervi-
sion going from one field to another. YIKES!! We drove farm pickups (off
road) as soon as we could shift
gears, too! HORRORS! GASP! CALL THE LIBERALS! We expect to remain
free, yet we quietly
surrender our rights to the left wingers who represent one
of the greatest threats next to our external enemies. That is because it is
creeping socialism" and slips up on us one right at a time. Like the
seatbelt issue, the liberals couch their agenda in issues that seem to "be
for the good of all".
They know that they cannot suddenly, for example, take
away guns (well, there's that pesky Constition thing they'd
like to get rid of); it would set off a rebellion. They know
that their dangerous agenda can be met if they use issues
that to seem to be "good"----like saving lives with laws such as seat belt
laws.

The thing is, seat belts DO save lives in the majority if cases. And I am
all in favor of them; I never start my
car without putting mine on. BUT! I don't like the idea
of some el-pinko, bleeding heart, drippy hippy relic from
1968 in wire-rimmed glasses telling me what to do, nor do I like it, or
think it should be a law.

We have too many laws now. Down with the Hillary Clintons!!!! LOL!


Jerry

Jerry Oxendine wrote:

I have to agree with you! How did we survive the '50s,
even the '70s without socialists like Hilary Clinton "protecting" us from
ourselves? We misbehaved, we got
paddled by a teacher and Dad gave you a "whuppin'" when you got home! GASP!!
HORRORS! We rode our
bicycles and didn't know what helmets were? You're KIDDING! We climbed
trees, fell out, had the breath knocked out of us, got up and kept going.
HUH? Why,
we'll have to make trees illegal!! We sent each other flying high in the
air by jumping on a short plank in a modified game of see-saw; sometimes the
plank skewed
to one side and we broke arms and ribs. Let's SUE somebody! We got up again
with skinned knees, and when it quit smarting, we got back on the board and
did it again. In high school, we drove school busses at 16!
WHAAAAAAAAAAT??????? We even had bus drivers' club! What, that's CRAZY! No
it wasn't. At that time, North Carolina had one of the safest school
bus driver programs in the nation! We drove tractors as
soon as we could reach the pedals and Pop-popped (John Deere) our way down
the highway with no supervi-
sion going from one field to another. YIKES!! We drove farm pickups (off
road) as soon as we could shift
gears, too! HORRORS! GASP! CALL THE LIBERALS!

You bring back a lot of memories Jer. A poppin Johnny was the first
thing I learned to drive 10 years before I would be old enough for a
drivers license, that hand clutch really made it easy. Ever start it up
without removing the tin can off the exhaust stack first?

We expect to remain
free, yet we quietly
surrender our rights to the left wingers who represent one
of the greatest threats next to our external enemies. That is because it is
creeping socialism" and slips up on us one right at a time. Like the
seatbelt issue, the liberals couch their agenda in issues that seem to "be
for the good of all".
They know that they cannot suddenly, for example, take
away guns (well, there's that pesky Constition thing they'd
like to get rid of); it would set off a rebellion.

We used to take guns to school. Hear that anti-gun liberal nuts, yes,
real guns at school. Even carried them on the school bus. We never had
any thoughts of shooting up the school, and certainly no thoughts of
shooting someone. We would leave our rifles in the prinipal's office
until after school, then walk home through the fields and pastures
looking for varmits to shoot.

KØHB wrote:
"N2EY" wrote

Look at the battle it took to get seat belts in
cars, and how many Americans won't use them.

Another example of the Great Dumbing Down of America.

The world is methodically being dumbed down by government efforts to protect
us from stupid people.

Note that America != world, though I've heard a foreign stereotype
of Americans which suggest that Americans might not always remember this.

But stupidity begets stupidity, so we are being overwhelmed by a tsunami of
stupidity. The tsunami is triggered by the government protection of stupid
people, which allows them to survive to reproduce.

Ergo, less government regulations makes a smarter populace.

While in the past I wouldn't have agreed with this at all, I've heard a
stereotype joke about Americans repeated enough in, of all places, China,
that I'm now not so sure there isn't something to it.

China has a lot of traveller-beware tourist attractions. An example I've
seen is a path dug into the side of a sheer cliff from which the views
are stunning, but which requires one to walk through sections of path
which are 18 inches wide, without an outside railing, over a sheer
drop. Lots of Chinese go. Some take a look and decide they aren't
up to it, but others decide its okay and head up to see the view. Probably
a quarter million Chinese people a year go up to take a look without
a mishap.

The joke I've heard (with respect to myself in fact; this may contribute
a bit to the popularity of sewing Canadian flags on one's backpack and
clothing), however, is that if Americans go up no one wants to stand too
close since, if you send a group of a dozen Americans up, one is sure to
go over the side.

I have no idea what occurance inspired the joke but I know in China
people are almost viserally aware that no one has responsibility for their
safety and well-being other than themselves, and so might have some
difficulty understanding the behaviour of people who assume someone else
is taking care of this for them.

Dennis Ferguson

"JJ" wrote in message
...
Jerry Oxendine wrote:

I have to agree with you! How did we survive the '50s,
even the '70s without socialists like Hilary Clinton "protecting" us
from
ourselves? We misbehaved, we got
paddled by a teacher and Dad gave you a "whuppin'" when you got home!
GASP!!
HORRORS! We rode our
bicycles and didn't know what helmets were? You're KIDDING! We climbed
trees, fell out, had the breath knocked out of us, got up and kept
going.
HUH? Why,
we'll have to make trees illegal!! We sent each other flying high in
the
air by jumping on a short plank in a modified game of see-saw; sometimes
the
plank skewed
to one side and we broke arms and ribs. Let's SUE somebody! We got up
again
with skinned knees, and when it quit smarting, we got back on the board
and
did it again. In high school, we drove school busses at 16!
WHAAAAAAAAAAT??????? We even had bus drivers' club! What, that's CRAZY!
No
it wasn't. At that time, North Carolina had one of the safest school
bus driver programs in the nation! We drove tractors as
soon as we could reach the pedals and Pop-popped (John Deere) our way
down
the highway with no supervi-
sion going from one field to another. YIKES!! We drove farm pickups
(off
road) as soon as we could shift
gears, too! HORRORS! GASP! CALL THE LIBERALS!

You bring back a lot of memories Jer. A poppin Johnny was the first
thing I learned to drive 10 years before I would be old enough for a
drivers license, that hand clutch really made it easy. Ever start it up
without removing the tin can off the exhaust stack first?

We expect to remain
free, yet we quietly
surrender our rights to the left wingers who represent one
of the greatest threats next to our external enemies. That is because
it is
creeping socialism" and slips up on us one right at a time. Like the
seatbelt issue, the liberals couch their agenda in issues that seem to
"be
for the good of all".
They know that they cannot suddenly, for example, take
away guns (well, there's that pesky Constition thing they'd
like to get rid of); it would set off a rebellion.

We used to take guns to school. Hear that anti-gun liberal nuts, yes,
real guns at school. Even carried them on the school bus. We never had
any thoughts of shooting up the school, and certainly no thoughts of
shooting someone. We would leave our rifles in the prinipal's office
until after school, then walk home through the fields and pastures
looking for varmits to shoot.

And I long for those days that will never come back. I just wish my
daughter could see how happy and (WHAT?) free we were We wore the same
clothes until they couldn't be patched anymore. Were we poor? Moneywise,
yes. But we didn't KNOW we were poor.
We farmed, raised our own vegetables, chickens. What
we didn't need for the root cellar, Mom canned and put up for the winter.
We picked blackberries and made jelly for sweets, or Mom made cakes or
cookies from scratch.
For a treat, she would bake yeast rolls----MMMMMM!
You could smell them at the back of the garden and out to the wheat field.
We sold eggs we didn't use ourselves
with a route in town, and frequented the farmers' market.

We knew nothing about pocket games. Computers were something that we
couldn't imagine except those huge Unix things with the multiple tape reels
seen on our black and white TVs. We couldn't believe it when we heard about
Sputnik Do you remember the International Geo-
physical Year?


Toys? We got a few things at Christmas, the rest we scrounged up wheels and
steering wheels to make "go" carts that coasted down the highway--YES! It
was the highway, or rural route, dodging cars or running in the ditch if
they got too close. We carried pocket knives and thought nothing of it! It
was a rite of passage for boys with which we carved whistles--which, in
turn, were confiscated by the teachers who spied them. Which, in turn, we
made more whistles, which..........you know! NO one ever thought about
shooting anyone. We boys had arguments and met out behind the ball field
and duked it out. Afterwards we pouted at our opponents, and gradually
started speaking again. Dads taught their kids how USE a gun, when, where,
and why. Not to murder someone. Never, never, never point a gun at anyone
unless you meant to use it. By 5th grade, I was moving Dad's guns around
the house, FIRST making sure there was no round in the chamber. I was taught
when hunting to break down your shotgun and carry it that way until you
intended to shoot at that prey, or keep the safety on at all times. Because
Dad took the time to teach me to respect the power of a gun and to NEVER
become careless, I never had an accident, and to this day, if I pick up my
Dad's old shotgun, the FIRST thing I do is to break it down and check to see
there is no shell in there. Now kids have to have police roaming the halls
and metal detectors. A girl somewhere was expelled (an honor student)
because she unthinkingly brought a knife to school as part of a school
science project. What has become of us? And the older kids make fun of us
for being "old fashioned". Give back the school's authority to discipline
kids ( yes, corporal), stop dumbing down education, and kick out the
liberals that are slowly ruining this country.

The poppin' Johns? Oh, yeah! Every year, I go to at least one "Old Time
Threshing" convention in my state
just to hear that sound.


Jerry

Hans,

These laws are necessary. We *must* protect stupid people. How else are we
going to fill the ever-expanding number of government positions?

73 from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA