Old-Farts Never Die - Blog Day Afternoon Posted by Jeff (Tuesday June 17 2003 @ 11:34PM EDT)

There is no pleasing some people. Hand them the greatest beer ever made. They'll take a sip and reply, "That's not bad." If the beer is quite extraordinary it may receive highest praise. "You know, that's not half-bad." If the best label you can affix to something is "not half-bad," then what kind of bleak, pessimistic existence do you lead? Consider the effect of this cynicism. President Bush had gone to great length to demonstrate the immediate and direct threat the Iraqi regime once posed to the United States. Despite this effort, many of you "not half-bad" bastards refused to recognize it. Prior to hostilities, forty-nine percent of Americans polled believed that no Iraqis were among the 19 hijackers on September 11, 2001. This pessimism continued despite military success and a presidential declaration that the conflict represented "one victory in the war on terror that began September 11." It gets worse. Despite overwhelming military success against a foe with an unlimited global strike capacity, cynics continue to shrug and say "not bad." These pessimistic sons of bitches refuse to recognize military success. The war effort was designed to disarm Iraq, to rid the region of weapons of mass destruction. Bush claimed success. Yet according to a University of Maryland poll conducted in the latter half of May, an alarming two-thirds of the American public are not convinced that weapons of mass destruction have been found in that country. President Bush said so. What part of "we found the weapons of mass destruction" didn't you understand? The problem is this: old farts continue to practice what they preach, "Don't trust anybody over thirty." In 1975, only 20 percent of people 18 to 29 expressed confidence in the people who ran the military. Now those young people are old people with young people of their own. The children of baby boomers do not share the attitudes of their parents. A recent Harvard poll found that 75% of young people now express confidence in military leadership. According to Harvard professor David C. King, the young "trust the government, and especially the U.S. military, more deeply than their baby boomer parents ever have." Hence the old-fart conundrum. The only people they can trust -- those under thirty -- are people who place their trust in institutions of political and military power. Old-farts never die. Their opinions just get undermined by those of their children.... Young generation supports the military.

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By The Cowboy (Wednesday June 18 2003 @ 07:24AM EDT)

This is easily reconciled. Don't trust anybody who doesn't remember Watergate!

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By Anonymous (Wednesday June 18 2003 @ 02:37PM EDT) Brought to you by the same people who supported segregation and gave us the Vietnam War. [ reply | parent ]

By Jeff (Tuesday June 24 2003 @ 12:42AM EDT) Anonymous, perhaps you should check Johnson's record on Civil Rights before you blow off further... [ reply | parent ]

By Matt (Wednesday June 18 2003 @ 11:25AM EDT)

People tend to answer polls how the think they should answer, not necessarily how they feel. And students? Maybe they answer how they think the teachers want them to answer? Do you think? All it takes is that first experience with one of the clueless Publik Skool Teecherz insisting on the truth of something incorrect to learn the skill of appeasing the ignorant.

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By RP Ferrell (Tuesday July 27 2004 @ 09:21PM EDT)

If you are putting your trust in government you are obviously disillusioned. The government is going to do whatever it takes to further their agenda,whatever it may be. Be they Democrat or Republican,Independent or Libertarian.If you think special interests are going away you are living in the Land of Oz folks. For the most part,corporations run this country,not we the people. The sooner we wake up and do something about it,the better off we as Americans and citizens of the World will be. I am not a liberal, I am a realist. I believe in the war on terror! I believe the only good fundamentalist is a dead one! I believe in the constitution! I believe this is the best country on the planet! Most of all, I believe that we as Americans need to come together on a policy to end the world of all radical fundamentalists of all faiths and politcal persuasions. God Bless America!

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By RP Ferrell (Tuesday July 27 2004 @ 09:29PM EDT)

correction to last sentence of my comments: We need to RID THE WORLD of all radical fundamentalists of all faiths and politcal persuasions.

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