Happy 4th Of July!

[antoniocinisi]

So how many advil did you take this morning?  After 4 I gave up and took 2 Aleeve

only about 20

[NinnJinn]

So his head is pretty bad then huh...  lol JK 

[The Mage]

Our towns local 4th of July celebrations were delayed until the 5th due to weather, so last night we went to the lake for the festivities, and to see the final fireworks.

There were 2 things I disliked about the celebrations.  I thought it was a little tacky for the Pepsi logo to be lit up in fire during the fireworks display.  I have no problem with them putting signs all over the place, but to actually advertise during the fireworks was a little over the top for me.

But I didn't find that as distasteful as the band they hired that performed there.  They were a reggae band, which was fine.  But their last song was about Africa.  They repeated Africa over and over in the song.

I don't have a problem with Africa, (well other then the genocide and attempted genocide going on there,) and probably wouldn't have had a problem with the song.  But this was at an event celebrating America, and they were hired specifically to entertain for such an event.

Now it seemed that nobody there batted an eye about it.  But I am fairly sure that if another country was celebrating the founding of their country, and somebody hired to entertain was singing about America, people would most likely get upset.  (And I wouldn't blame them.)

I wasn't upset as much as disgusted.  I doubt it was on purpose, and think the people entertaining were just oblivious, as were most the people there.  Too many people think Independence Day is nothing but fireworks day. 

[NinnJinn]

Our towns local 4th of July celebrations were delayed until the 5th due to weather, so last night we went to the lake for the festivities, and to see the final fireworks.

There were 2 things I disliked about the celebrations.  I thought it was a little tacky for the Pepsi logo to be lit up in fire during the fireworks display.  I have no problem with them putting signs all over the place, but to actually advertise during the fireworks was a little over the top for me.

But I didn't find that as distasteful as the band they hired that performed there.  They were a reggae band, which was fine.  But their last song was about Africa.  They repeated Africa over and over in the song.

I don't have a problem with Africa, (well other then the genocide and attempted genocide going on there,) and probably wouldn't have had a problem with the song.  But this was at an event celebrating America, and they were hired specifically to entertain for such an event.

Now it seemed that nobody there batted an eye about it.  But I am fairly sure that if another country was celebrating the founding of their country, and somebody hired to entertain was singing about America, people would most likely get upset.  (And I wouldn't blame them.)

I wasn't upset as much as disgusted.  I doubt it was on purpose, and think the people entertaining were just oblivious, as were most the people there.  Too many people think Independence Day is nothing but fireworks day. 

I agree with you 100%,  but yet you are obviously more mature than I am. 

Because if I would have been there, I would have ended up making an golpher of myself, especially when the Africa song started playing.

[mizugori]

This country is getting royally screwed up, but the problem is it's happening because of our own apathy. Most Americans just don't care enough to learn about politics, who the candidates really are, what they stand for, etc, or to go out and vote.

Personally I think we should offer a tax incentive to vote. For example, if you vote in the presidential election, you get an additional 5% reduction in income tax for that year. We could add incentives for many other elections as well, and actually get people to turn out for the congressional elections, and other positions too. Another idea would be to stack these benefits with a requirement that in order to vote, you take a state-sponsored class on politics and government. I realize some people are going to jump up my golpher for saying that, but I intended it only as a way to try to force people to learn, because so many people sadly do not even understand how our government and court systems work. How many times do you hear people saying "why doesn't the president just do xyz" and the thing the person is suggesting, is not even something the president can do, or at least is something he cannot do without the approval of congress.

Or if you think the idea of requiring people to take a class in order to vote is un-ethical, how about offering them a tax break for taking a class. Maybe they could put together several classes, and you can take one class a year, and for each new class you take you get a $500 tax credit. Just an example.

We also don't care enough to study to try to do a lot of the difficult careers anymore; notice how most Americans are too lazy to take up math, chemistry, engineering, medicine, etc? I know some still do but the numbers are rapidly falling - many of those courses of study and careers are now filled by foreign applicants.

And to return to the prior post, didn't it piss you off when schools all over the US stopped saying the pledge of allegiance? When I was a kid, you would get in trouble if you did not stand and show respect during it. Then when i was a teenager, they got rid of that, you didn't have to participate, which I think was ridiculous enough, but at least they still kept saying it every morning. Things like this would not happen if everyone or at least a large majority of the population was educated and well-versed in our legal and governmental systems, and actively participated in them. When the pledge of allegiance was removed from some schools, how many people do you suppose went out and called or wrote to their local representative and said "You know Tim, we're not going to stand for this garbage, what can you do to fix it."

*edited to add the last paragraph*