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To: meadsjn
Please, don't paint us all with the same warped brush. Ya wanna attack the hippies and flower children, have at it. But, bear in mind, while a lot of them were doing drugs, enjoying free love and protesting the war, others of us were fighting in a futile "police action" our pre-baby boomer government got us into.

You also don't know what it's like growing up with the prospect of atomic or nuclear war at any time. In all likelihood, you never had an atomic bomb drill in school or ever saw a Civil Defense Shelter sign. You may recall air raid drills that communities used to have, but even those are gone.

With respect to the Constitution, not all boomers took part in undermining it. Yes, the liberal fringe had their way with it and I agree that they did considerable damage to the nuclear family; but that doesn't mean that all or most boomers supported it or participated in it.

Rather than blame boomers in general (which you sort of have and sort of haven't - in all fairness, you have focused on the liberal boomers), why not attack the liberals in general without regard to the generational era?

Liberals, overall, have done a lot of damage to this country and if the Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers are more conservative for it, hallelujah!! If it's true, there may be hope for this country yet, but I'm not willing to bet the farm on it. A lot of those more conservative Gen X- and Y-ers are also Dean supporters. that doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling about their more conservative stance that you have claimed.

As for education, how do you think we all got educated in classrooms that averaged 33 - 35 kids each? Today, the teachers are complaining that they can't handle classrooms with 28 kids and the parents are complaining that Johnny can't learn because the classrooms are overcrowded. Boomers didn't start the downturn in educational standards, those were started by the pre-boomer generation which came up with "new math" and "new English". It only got worse from there.

Finally, take another look at the pictures of the guys who engineered and pushed through the space race. When I clean the crap off of MY bifocals, they look a lot younger than the pre-baby boomer crowd you handed the credit to. Their managers MAY have been pre-boomers, certainly JFK who set the challaenge was a pre-boomer, but the guys who built the rockets and blasted off in fragile tin cans were baby boomers.

Yes, there are problems today; welcome to the real world. If you want paradise, strap a bomb to your chest and blow up a supermarket. In the real world, things aren't perfect, just as they are now. And, also in the real world, people have different ideas. When we can't discuss those ideas and, instead, spend our time accusing one another of causing the problems, what do you expect to happen? There was a time when we were the world's melting pot. We were comprised of different nationalities and different races, but we all came together to be part of the American dream. Then, one day, a pre-boomer came up with the politically correct idea of hyphenating Americans.

I might suggest that you take another listen to that song by Mike and the Mechanix about generations. it applies here.
22 posted on 01/25/2004 7:00:17 PM PST by DustyMoment (Repeal CFR NOW!!)
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To: DustyMoment
I grew up in the south well within the expected blast zone of a major military base. I remember the duck and cover drills, and our grade school was a designated fallout shelter. I am considered a Vietnam era veteran even though it was mostly over when I enlisted. The Mayaguez was captured while I was in boot camp, and I volunteered for west coast/westpac duty, but was sent elsewhere. That little misunderstanding was over within weeks anyway.

You are correct that many of the Boomer-aged people have been conservative all along. I count myself among those.

Irving Krystol, who supposedly coined the term "neocon", admitted in a recent article that the neo-conservative movement started when less extreme liberals became disillusioned with some their more extreme comrades. These are the Boomer elitists who wear the Republican label and dominate the RNC and Republican organizations at the state and county levels. They despise conservatives but will tolerate them long enough to get their votes. Their beliefs are slightly to the right of the Democrats but far from being conservative.

GW Bush has done a fine job in the war on terror, and I much prefer him to any of the other possibilities. I disagree with him on the immigration and unfair trade issues.

My point about the Republican party was that there is little to gain from party cheerleading when the party itself is slipping so far into liberal territory. Third parties are no help, but there will be room for another major party once the Democrat machine is utterly defeated. The neo-cons are going to keep a death-grip on the RNC and they will continue moving left.

It is not too early to start encouraging younger conservatives to prepare to counteract those moves, either by exerting more influence in the Republican party or by looking ahead toward a better alternative.

28 posted on 01/25/2004 8:16:24 PM PST by meadsjn
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To: DustyMoment
While I will acknowledge that there are many fine and up standing baby boomers, I am sorry overall as a generation the baby boomers are simply the worst that ever walked the United States and to put it bluntly the world will just be a better place once you are all gone from power.

And don't just blame a few liberal elitist boomers, It wasn't just liberal elitist boomers who had all those abortions, all those divorces, grabbed all those guns, Passed all those health/safety initiatives, Put their careers over their children and latch keyed them and ruined education. With a little exception it was the whole bunch of you.

But, while we made mistakes, we also pushed the envelope with successes in science, exploration, the environment, education, engineering, health, etc., etc

No you didn't, Like everything else the baby boomers have corrupted science for their own purposes. Instead of in the past where they came up with antibiotics and cures for things like Polio today we get useless junk like Global warming, How food from McDonalds is addicting, How smokers are more likely to allow their children to stand up in shopping carts, etc, etc. Not a day goes by that we aren't bombarded with more of these silly studies on how something innocent will harm/kill you and/or make you do bad things. In the past scientist worked on things for the future betterment of mankind, Today Baby Boomer scientist work on things for the future betterment of lawsuits and more regulations. If you baby boomers spent just 1/10 the resources you spent on your junk science on something meaningful we would probably already have a cure for cancer and cold fusion and much more by now.

As for the environment, Don't make me laugh. Baby Boomers are only for saving the Environment when it hurt a corporation or America. Which is why there hasn't been a new nuclear power plant build in the past 25 years and why there is all this protest against GMOs. As for those gadgets, Well it might have been the baby boomers, But not the ones in America but the ones in Japan and Korea(if they have such a designation) that came up with them. When's the last time a TV has been made in the USA.

The internet, Well sorry that's ours. Computers and the internet have existed since the 60's but it wasn't until the new entrapanuer  ial spirt of the Gen-Xers got a hold of them that they became what they are today. And it is this way by bringing computers and the internet into mainstream that Gen-X has already surpassed the Boomers (who have overall been a net drain on the country) in making positive contributions to United States and the world.

29 posted on 01/25/2004 8:42:18 PM PST by qam1 (Are Republicans the party of Reagan or the party of Bloomberg and Pataki?)
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To: DustyMoment
People who have walked on the moon

As of 2003, only the following twelve people have walked on the Moon, each on one mission only. Nobody has walked on the moon since 1972.

Astronaut Profile

30 posted on 01/25/2004 8:46:22 PM PST by meadsjn
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