The Pub Discussion Board

1) We have become a culture where our boys have been feminized; raised by single mothers who, granted, may have done their best but they still were NOT fathers. Chivalry, while maybe not dead, is certainly in severe decline. Ask a teenaged boy if he's a gentleman and he'll say yes because he thinks all the word means is that he is male. The ancient and expected gender roles, those concepts of the differences between men and women have been so pounded on over the last 40 or so years, that there is practically no difference nowadays between what is expected of men and women or what is their proper place in society. This isn't the right message we want our children to get.

2) The sexual revolution happened and - I honestly think we all lost.  Women in the sixties decided being a wife, homemaker and mother was not an important enough job. So none of them did it anymore. Because of this, everyone nowadays has two income households and we've all gotten used to living at that standard. Because Mom and Dad are always at work, they're never at home to spend time with their children so we have generation after generation of "latch key kids" who do as they please and usually, eventually end up in trouble - drugs, drinking, pregnancy, gangs, running away, ditching and/or flunking school - and then Mom and Dad feel so guilty that they're never home, they ease their guilt  and spoil the kids but not with love, affection and attention though, instead they buy them video game systems, flat screen TV's, the latest and greatest in computers and eventually a brand new car for the kid to wrap around a tree. And, because they feel guilty, Mom and Dad stop setting boundaries for kids. They don't make them do homework, do chores around the house, get an after school job or even take care of the stuff the parents are buying them.

3) We have also become a much more litigious (We sue a lot) society. It's become where if someone wrongs you in any way, shape or form, whether by accident, on purpose or even just because it happened on their property, we go to court. We even sue our neighbors, friends and family members. It's gotten so ridiculous that Judge Wapner has become a cultural icon. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we now put trailer park trash suing each other on TV and apparently it's very popular because they keep making more of them.

4) We have doctors, who are so worried about being  sued for malpractice, that they don't even bother to check a kid anymore. They just listen to what Mom/Dad/Grandma or the teacher says and say, "Okay, that's what wrong." We have drug companies who are making medicines for anything and everything they can dream up. If it's a problem, they've got a medicine for that -  whether it's hair loss, a soft cock, a wild child or nail fungus. Since the drugs are available, the doctors prescribe and Make Mom's life a little easier.

5) We also have a government that is so big, and so invasive, that they are now legislating parenting. We aren't allowed to spank a child anymore and hitting them with a switch is, without a doubt, abuse. We're being flooded with information about what is good and what is bad for us and for our kids, even though, they usually reverse themselves a few years later. They've forced McDonald's to change the kids meal. They're doing a complete make over of school lunches. The old standard light bulb is going the way of the dodo bird, who cares that these new light bulbs are poisonous, they contain mercury. We just got lead out of the paint and asbestos out of our HVAC and now the Chinese are putting mercury in our light bulbs. Wonderful!

6) I won't get into the problems with the public schools. They are huge and there are many. The biggest of which, for this particular discussion is that parents think of school as as baby sitter instead of an education. Then there are the teachers unions, which started off all noble and great but is no longer worried about education children, the teachers unions are now only interested in making money and getting power and who gives a damn what happens to those bratty kids.

We are a society who has forgotten how to parent and because of that we seem to be surrendering that job to the government.

Congress has said that the old time Thomas Edison Created bulbs won't be manufactured or sold in the United States. I think the ban goes into place at the beginning or end of 2012.

The CFL bulbs, the cute little curly bulbs, which by the way, are ALL made in China, says right on the packaging, that the bulb contains mercury and gives instructions, that should the bulb get broken, you should open all the doors and windows and evacuate the area for 10-15 minutes. I don't have to make this up, we have the packaging here at the house. We have CFL's installed all over the house.

You say mercury has always been in light bulbs. I never saw that warning on the old fluorescent bulbs created by Thomas Edison.

Last edited by Jefferson (2011-09-08 21:20:14)

Hey Jefferson... when you were little and needed your temperature taken, what kind of thermometer did you use? Most likely a glass one, with *gasp* mercury in it? I still have one and it's a damn sight more reliable than the ones running on battery.

I can't bring myself to comment on this anymore. Have a good day!