The Next President and NYC

[holden125]

Originally Posted by texags02

As far as your comments about letting the confederacy win, I can't tell if that's a slight at people like myself who are from the South. Honestly, it sounds like you're implying that we're less intelligent and/or the values of the two parts of the country are so different that they should be separate. Clarify that if you get a chance, because I hope it's not the former.

It's meant mostly in jest, but it is definitely the latter. It's a question of the values and the culture, certainly not any suggestion that people from anywhere else are less intelligent. It's meant more as a joke than a slight. After the last presidential election, the Times had a story in which a woman said New York is "an island off the coast of Europe" and I find that true in many ways. In the time I have spent in America outside of the NYC-Boston-DC corridor, Chicago, and major west coast cities, I've felt as if everything was alien to me.

[texags02]

I'm from Houston and I feel the same way when I go to podunk little towns. I've lived in D.C. (only for a summer) as well, and loved it. And it better be in jest, because I know where you live

[Carbro]

Originally Posted by texags02

Of course access to oil is always a very big concern for us, and it should be.

But had we paid half a mind to Carter in the '70s, we could have lessened (but obviously not eliminated) our dependence on it. We should by now have converted more of our energy production than we have to renewable sources. It's a national disgrace.

I don't think we went over there to "secure access" as that implies something that I don't think was the idea. A better way to word it would be that a part of the reason we went in was to ensure that we weren't cut off from that resource

That's all I meant. I don't know what else is implied by "secur(ing) access."

Still, as holden so eloquently pointed out, while 20 terrorists wreaked havoc on us, broke our hearts and enraged us, they were exploited as an excuse to invade a country with which their group was not (then) associated. And given the conflicting intelligence -- yes, there is evidence of WMDs/no, no trace WMDs to be found -- we could have poured our resources into routing out bin Laden and not squandered lives; national stature; trillions better used for healthcare, education, mass transit, alternative energy; the whole economy (am I leaving anything out?) on this uncalled for and, for the most part, ineptly conducted war.

Apologies for that last sentence. I've made myself too angry to edit it.

[LauraC]

You'll be paying more with either one.

[Carbro]

We're always paying more, either collectively (as a city/state/nation) or individually. The ratio may sometimes work for you, sometimes against you. But to the degree that we can spread it around, it impacts each of us less.