I'm curious

[charliechaplinfan]

Texas is quickly, or, rather, has mostly turned into California. It's a sad state of affairs.

After living in five different cities and visiting most of the Union in my (short) life I have come to the conclusion that Americans are just god-awful people - they are, after all, mostly outcasts from other countries. City, country, rich, poor, cultured, uncultured, and all those inbetween: god-awful. Not that I think the English or French or Chinese or Australians or South Africans or Egyptians are any better. Stupid just plain is. I simply think more Americans possess more of it.

Sorry, this adds nothing to the conversation. Just an observation.

Bryce, I think we're diametrically opposed in our ways of looking at the world. I can see things that I don't like about the world but I have resolute faith and hope in most of mankind. This may be naive of me but I feel you've given up on the majority of people and that's a shame.

I'm glad I started this thread. I'm already learning things I didn't know about America.

[Hollis]

Bryce,

It's funny how a group of "outcasts from other countries" have come to be the one place that everyone else imitates and wants to move to. The last time I was in Texas, in the mid 70's, I was amazed by just how ignorant Texans were about anything other than Davy Crockett (to whom credit is due for being born in either Tennessee or North Carolina, a matter still undergoing debate), Sam Houston, the Alamo, Audie Murphy (God rest his soul, a truly distinguished soldier) or the Dallas Cowboys (anywhere other than Houston). If in fact California has had any impact at all upon Texas, its almost inevitable that that impact was positive. Aside from a handful of musicians (Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, et al) what has Texas really given to the culture of The United States? Oil? (no, it was found in Pennsylvania first), the ten gallon hat? Except for holding more water than other types of headwear, it's just plain goofy looking. Chili ? (although anyone from Mexico will dispute that). So what does that leave us with? I'll tell you. It leaves us with the largest number of people (male and female) in prison on a per capita basis. Which is a fairly good reason for also having the most inmates on "death row" and executing them faster the anywhere else in the country. What was that (in)famous line touted by the Texas Department of Tourism some years back? It goes like this... "Texas, It's Like A Whole Other Planet." And remember one little but significant fact. If the first settlers hadn't landed in Massachusetts in 1620, then who would have ultimately moved West but their sons and daughters and their sons and daughters and so on.

As always, and having worn the uniform of "This Country of Outcasts From Other Countries"

Hollis

p.s. How is it that someone from Chicago (let's boast about Richard J.Daley and the Democratic National Convention in 1968)
has managed to live in so many places and visited "almost all" of the United States in your "short life" ? Couldn't you get along with anyone? As an American (even if you're not proud of it)) then you possess (by your own definition) more stupidity than people from other counties. Could it be that you even possess more of it than the average American?

[bryce]

Hollis,

I'm afraid you are mistaken - the ten gallon hat carries more beer than any other hat. That, Sir, is a gift from the Gods, and is the true origin of the phrase "God blessed Texas." I would turn my nose up to your baseless accusations, but I am currently carrying precious payload, and to lose any would surely land me on death row.

Bryce

[Hollis]

Wrong again Bryce,

Beer was something that also came to these shores borne by an "outcast from another country". It was here long before we became known as The United States of America. And why would anyone want to drink beer from a hat in the first place? Didn't Texans know about glasses?

Hollis

p.s. I find it odd that you're quoting from the gospel according to Neil Young, who happens to have been born in the province of Ontario, Canada. That means he's basically an import, an "outcast from another country", who found his fame and fortune singing to my generation (Sorry Pete, but I had to find the right words from a foreigner).

[srowley75]

I am originally from West Virginia and am currently living in South Carolina.

In case it isn't obvious, when it comes to judging people by their country/state/city, you have nothing to fear from me.

But given the assumptions about my kind, let me make it abundantly clear that I have never used white sheets for anything except bedding.

[bryce]

That's not a bad thing. I love the French. They make great vodka.

Damn, is playtime over? I have to go to work in THE GREATEST CITY (tm) in THE GREATEST STATE (tm) in THE GREATEST COUNTRY... OF ALL TIME... EVER!

USA USA USA!



USA USA USA!



Oops... wrong one. I meant:



USA USA USA!

(More obvious I cannot make this.)

[knitwit45]

come on, fellas, play nice!

[jdb1]

Hey, Knitty --- last night I happened upon our Channel 12 news, which purports to be all-Brooklyn, all the time ("News as local as it gets!"). And what do you think the overly-made-up, overly-lit, harshly blonde, screechy-voiced, little girl newsreader was saying? She was saying that a horse trailer hit a schoolbus (I think it was a bus) in Gardner, KS! And there was about 5-1/2 seconds of video, too! Was that for real? (And I'm sorry to have to say it, but it must have been a really slow news night in Brooklyn last night.)

[charliechaplinfan]

Nancy, Libby wants to know, do you live near Dorothy and Toto? No kidding when I was a child I thought Kansas must be one of the nicest places in the world and I was just dying to visit, I still haven't got there though. One day, when the kids are grown Chris and I are going to hire a Winnebago? and travel around the States. You're such a welcoming country.

[knitwit45]

An 80 yr old woman in the car, no school bus involved, was killed. The driver of the horse trailer was ok, one horse had to be put down, the rest were ok. I only caught the tail end of the news, we were under tornado watches last night, and all regular programming was pre-empted. Since my area was in no danger, I just turned the tv off (BLISS!) and didn't turn it back on in time to see the first of the newscast. That accident occurred within 2 miles of my house, it must have been after "rush" hour, because I hadn't heard anything about it until last night. That area is wide open, I wonder if age played a factor in it?

Actually, Alison, there has been a proposed theme park for years called "OZ", and it's about 10 miles from where I live. Wrangling and legal issues have prevented it from going forward, but I will keep Libby posted if anything happens! If you ever get here, I will be highly insulted if you don't come to stay with me on your journey!

[Hollis]

Hey there Steve,

I'm only trying to turn the weapon against the attacker. I woke up with an empty gun (no jokes please) but the attacker provided me with all the ammo I could ever need ! And while I've never preached from the "America, Love It or Leave It" gospel, I do find it offensive when someone who's never sacrificed a hangnail for his country gets up on a soapbox (which is his right) and starts crowing about how terribly and hopelessly? stupid we are, but still continues to live here himself. It begs two critical questions. First, why does he continue to live amongst such stupidity (isn't he afraid of osmosis and absorbing some of it himself), and secondly, why hasn't he left for France long ago? After all, they make the best copy of a Polish alcoholic beverage (yes, Vodka comes to us courtesy of the Poles, although any Russian would argue that contention) ever to be known by mortal man! And they do it with wheat while the Poles and Russians still distill it from potatoes (how gauche, wait a second, isn't that a French word?) the old fashioned way. Maybe the French don't know how to use a shovel, although the presence of farms there sort of blows that statement out of the water. The whole argument about how stupid we are is, to me at least, a patently stupid one itself ! There's that old demon osmosis at work ! We, as Americans, know of our own folly. We're one of the few countries in the world to poke fun of ourselves and not be afraid of repercussions ! How well would Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert play in Somalia ? or Venezuela? I think the question answers itself ! Sorry Your Honor, i retract the statement, please advise the jury to disregard it even though they've already heard it !

As before (no need to look over my shoulder to see what I'll find, (with respect, but with no royalties to John Mellencamp))

Hollis

[klondike]

Scotland must have had high hopes. In her second marriage she chose Lord Darnley, he was the father of James I of England, the marriage was not happy and he was murdered in a messy attempt on his life. Suspicion turned to Mary and the Scottish bishops turned against her. Mary also made a marriage to Bothwell that made her future even less secure. A confederacy of her Lords waged war against her, captured her, she abdicated in favour of her son . . . I think you're right, it is a grey area, did Elizabeth have the right because she had given Mary protection all those years. I really don't know if it would stand up today in law. I guess that Elizabeth had to tough or lose her kingdom. This is shortly before the Spanish Armada. Even in England itself there were still Lords willing to otherthrow Elizabeth to return to the old faith.

Great overview, Alison; I guess, given all the various factions, amongst whom were those who wanted Mary to reclaim the entire nation for the papal diocese, and those who wanted her to reign {subservient to advisors} in regency for Baby James, and those who schemed to get her re-wed somehow to an English Royal (a union Henry VIII had striven mightily for, and one which his daughter was avowed to thwart) and thus create an equally unified island empire, it's small wonder that many historians started referring to the whole conflict as "The Rough Wooing"!

Elizabeth stabilsied England's position in Europe and the world. The throne she inherited was far from secure and her realm has suffered under the persecutions of her father, brother and sister. When James I inherited the throne he inherited a much securer kingdom.

Very true; I've always enjoyed James I's response to the official request that he arbitrate the disputes between the Anglican bishops in Scotland, and the administrative clergy of the Presbyterian Kirk - he replied that so long as their issues did not involve armies of rioting Catholics, he didn't "give a great tord" what either side said or did to each other, as he had "far greater concerns of kingdom than to play nurse-maid to jealous churchmen".

[Hollis]

Good afternoon,

Does anyone know how true to history "The Lion In Winter" is? Did King Henry II and his wife, Queen Eleanor really have three sons all vying for their father's affection, and hopefully his crown upon his demise? I've always thought that the eldest son bore the right to succession purely by being the first born. In the movie, Richard, the eldest, is pitted against his younger siblings. Could the father bypass the eldest and name another son as his successor ? And the thing I'm most confused about is how King Philip of France could take advantage of the internal conflict to destroy the hated English once and for all. Thanks in advance.

Too lazy to look it all up online, I remain,

Hollis

p.s. Why, except for this film, have I never heard of Queen Eleanor? It seems that history has fallen over backwards with Mary's and Elizabeth's. Am I that memory impaired?

[Hollis]

Bryce,

"Gos blessed Texas" because without his blessing, no one in their right mind would have chosen to live there. The real saying is "For God So Loveth Penn State Football, he made the skies Blue and White". By some chance, why did Augustus Busch start his brewery in tiny little Missouri and not in "Everything's Bigger in Texas" ?

Once more before I head over to (ugh) Mobile and the VA,

Hollis

[charliechaplinfan]

Hollis, my reading of the inheritance of question in Lion in Winter is that Richard had the right as first born to inherit the throne. Henry II planned to claim Richard was a b******, he held so much sway in Europe and over the pope that he could have done it. I don't know as much about how accurate the screenplay is, usually there is some basis in fact. He was speterated from Eleanor.

Don't you think that the performances of Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn were superb and the age difference just wasn't that apparent.

Klondike, It took some composition to remember all the facts about Mary. Elizabeth I is my favorite monarch, can you tell