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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'm with Kwicko.

American values are like wanting to live your life as if it was a Budweiser commercial.

American values are thinking that you'll be able to afford that hot car, even tho you can't find a job.

American values are about supersizing your house, with a three-story front entrance that screams I have MONEY!!

American values are all about hustling and thievery, from the lowliest drug dealer to the corner offices of Wall Street.

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Jeez Signy,
Where might you fit into that continuum from drug dealer to Wall Street officer?
Most of the Americans I know are serious about working themselves to death and getting payed just enough to get by.
Most of the Americans I know would never make it into a Budweiser commercial--damn minorities (not for long...)!
Most of the Americans I know are lucky if they have a house.
Most of the Americans I know are too busy worrying about their children to give a shit about Wall Street.
I hate to say it, Signy, but you've drunk the Koolaid on this one. The media and the 1% do not define the values of America. What part of oligarchy don't you understand?

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America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, “It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.” It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: “if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?” There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.

Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.

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Hours after new Duke Energy CEO Bill Johnson assumed his new position following the Duke/Progress Energy merger this week, he resigned his post. But Johnson can still qualify for up to $44.4 million for his time and effort:
Despite his short-lived tenure, Mr. Johnson will receive exit payments worth as much as $44.4 million, according to Duke. That includes $7.4 million in severance, a nearly $1.4 million cash bonus, a special lump-sum payment worth up to $1.5 million and accelerated vesting of his stock awards, according to a Duke regulatory filing Tuesday night. Mr. Johnson gets the lump-sum payment as long as he cooperates with Duke and doesn’t disparage his former employer, the filing said.
Under his exit package, Mr. Johnson also will receive approximately $30,000 to reimburse him for relocation expenses.
The Duke board voted for Johnson’s resignation, and since Johnson was eligible for severance if he quit for “good reason,” he is able to collect his $44 million. Grist calculates that Johnson’s pay package comes out to $5.5 million per hour, if he actually put in a full 8-hour day.
Johnson’s golden parachute after his one day of work is emblematic of the disconnect between worker pay and CEO pay that has occurred over the last few decades. Average CEO pay is now 380 times the pay of the average worker, and CEO pay has grown 127 times faster than worker pay over the last 30 years.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

" Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamination of their women "

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" Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamination of their women "

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
And, as you are an intuitive person whose opinion I respect, what does society do with self-taught sociopaths like rappy?

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Originally posted by Wishimay:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
And, as you are an intuitive person whose opinion I respect, what does society do with self-taught sociopaths like rappy?

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They usually get elected

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
And, as you are an intuitive person whose opinion I respect, what does society do with self-taught sociopaths like rappy?

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

" Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamination of their women "

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So much stupid in one single post. How DOES he do it?


And how does one laminate a woman, anyway?


If you must quote Conan, who stole from Temujin, at least try to get it right.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

" Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamination of their women "

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So much stupid in one single post. How DOES he do it?


And how does one laminate a woman, anyway?


If you must quote Conan, who stole from Temujin, at least try to get it right.

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1 tiny error ( fixed, btw ) is " so much stupid " ? Haha, lighten up, Francis. You knew what was meant. You're just miffed you didn't think of it your own self.

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Miffed? Sorry, but when I think of "America" and "values", my mind doesn't jump straight to raping all the women. Yours apparently does.

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Originally posted by ANTHONYT:
Hello,

Speaking of Wall Street, I think the movie encapsulates American values fairly well. Both with the scheming, grasping, consuming majority and the opposing minority represented by the protagonist's father.

--Anthony

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Originally posted by HKCavalier:
So, what we gotta do with sociopaths is stop voting for them. Stop legitimizing them. Just think: if we could do that on this forum, we would have soooooo much energy available for tackling the RL sociopaths of the world!

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Who on earth thinks Karen Hughes is a Democrat? She's a Dubya crony, and worked for GOP candidates all the way back to 1984, at least.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I imagine it sounds a little crackly and squishy at the same time. Yanno, this quote was meant as a companion to another one, which was edited out ... "No, no, no! How many times do I have to tell you.... rape, pillage, and THEN burn!"

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Originally posted by NewOldBrownCoat:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Who on earth thinks Karen Hughes is a Democrat? She's a Dubya crony, and worked for GOP candidates all the way back to 1984, at least.

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Damn, Kwik, you're right- I just checked her bio on Wikipedia. I had never heard of her, so I accepted Niki's source; and, I have to admit, Niki.

But I get half-credit: see my post above where I said that her attitude on God sounded like Republican fundamentalism.

Niki, I should have asked-- I went back to your original post, there was no source for the 2 quotes-- where did you get 'em?

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Originally posted by CaveTroll:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I imagine it sounds a little crackly and squishy at the same time. Yanno, this quote was meant as a companion to another one, which was edited out ... "No, no, no! How many times do I have to tell you.... rape, pillage, and THEN burn!"

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Total rookie mistake. Pillage, burn and THEN rape. 'Cause it's sexier by firelight. /wiseass

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

I have an unfair advantage, in that that twit Hughes lives here in my fair town, and they trot her out on the dog-n-pony show - er, I mean the "news" - every few months for her "in-depth" analysis.

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Originally posted by Niki2:
Apologies, NewOld: It came from http://ideas.time.com/2012/07/04/what-are-american-values-these-days-2/ . Surprised me too that the supposed Democrat talked about God--I think I might have mentioned that, that it seemed more a Republican stance than a Democrat one. So I guess the whole thing is a put-up job that way; I know nothing of Hughes and the article just caught my eye because of the title. My bad for forgetting the link; I'm tending to forget sometimes when it's just an obvious quote or something short, but I should have posted it for that one. Anyway, it came from Time.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Miffed? Sorry, but when I think of "America" and "values", my mind doesn't jump straight to raping all the women. Yours apparently does.

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And rappy thinks GOP isn't engaging in a war on women? His kind of thinking belongs with the Taliban.

Video: Taliban shoot woman 9 times in public execution as men cheer
www.cnn.com/2012/07/08/world/asia/afghanistan-public-execution/index.h
tml?hpt=hp_t2

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Originally posted by Niki2:
Thanx NewOld; yeah, that's why I thought they represented the two parties, but I didn't read closely enough to see what you did. Essentially, in my opinion, that makes the entire thread null and void. I'll try to be more careful in future.

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

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Originally posted by HKCavalier:
So, what we gotta do with sociopaths is stop voting for them. Stop legitimizing them. Just think: if we could do that on this forum, we would have soooooo much energy available for tackling the RL sociopaths of the world!

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Ain't that easy.

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