One is to acheive the position through diligent pursuit of principles that are a credit to their resume.

The alternative is to push those around you down so as to appear taller.

To date I have not seen a single political ad that gives me cause to think anyone is actually head-and-shoulders above their competition. What I have seen is a flurry of negatives that degrades the competition rather than statements of fact concerning one's actual credits to hold office.

I believe that we are slowly evolving into a "laughing stock of nations" when we carry on in such a manner and it's really doubtful anyone of us knows what or who we're really going to cast our vote for. Deceit has become the master of politics. Both campaigns would be hollow if the words "CHANGE" and "MAVERICK" were removed.

I can live with whoever wins because my days are numbered but I really feel sorry for the younger set who will have to pick-up the pieces left by reckless politicians whose only goal is their personal status; appearing taller than their constituants by pushing their competition down.

I wonder -- how many, if any, really care about the fate of a nation over egoisms that exploit that nation.

Now that both sides of the aisle have labeled their opposing candidates as no-good-sonsabitches, I am hard pressed to decide which no-good-sonsabitch to vote for.

Today is Sunday. I love Sundays. Don't you? Too bad we have strayed so far away from the original meaning of a day of rest that was once the foundation of American family values. Our present-day ratrace, a 24/7/52 meat grinder, has robbed us of the joy that came by frolicking with loved ones in a world that, except for emergency oriented businesses, was what brotherhood was all about.

Gramps

When the kids get their act together and take an active part in the politics of America, then I'll feel sorry if they get screwed. Until then, they're screwing themselves by not taking care of basic responsibilities.

CBK

Hopefully you don't mean "all" kids with "the" kids reference. I know lots of younger folks who are interested in their futures. Perhaps we are to blame for showering them with luxury and I will make no excuses for that. It seems that kids who don't care stand to the forefront as examples of their entire generation and that just isn't a fair call. I have fifteen grandkids, nine of who are old enough to vote and all of who participate in the system. They aren't out in the steets waving signs of dissatifaction but are, rather, workers who hold jobs or students who attend college. One who turned 18 this years is "thrilled" to hear her explain her first opportunity to vote. It was JFK who last stirred youngsters to participate and many of those, who are becoming oldsters today, still are very active. And I see a surge of young folks again taking-up the cause and it's gratifying to note they're "getting their act together." But if some are so disillusioned that they don't take part who can really blame them? The examples set by their reps aren't exactly anything to write home about. We're in an era of scrubby politicking that could turn people away. The latest mis-representation of the electorate was a "bailout" that couldn't pass muster without a bunch of perks tacked on. If the plan, in general, was fit to pass on its own merit why, then, did they not give it the nod of approval originally? This is just another example young folks have to base their opinions on.

Gramps

You are so right....all we are fed on the ads, from both sides, is a hodge podge of negative history about the other candidate.

None of which to a single thing to make us feel like the current atmosphere in this country, and the huge problems, are 'worth addressing'.

Of the two however, I believe that the McCain campaign has pulled out all the stops and set a record for reaching the slime in the bottom, much faster than has the Obama campaign.

It has to be hard for the latter, who honestly tried at first to stick to their message of change, now NOT to respond to the lies and charges filling the McCain ads.

And by the way, the McCain campaign ads are so full of Obama negativity, that they leave absolutely no room for telling American what their 'plan' for the country is....no doubt deliberate and a useful tool as well. The less they hold their 'hand' close to their chest, the less they will have to explain at some future time, should Americans be duped into voting for them.

It's self preservation practiced to a fine art.

Gramps: Ahhhh how true. But I feel our problems go much deeper than the present two politicians. I know that you and I are old farts and most persons here think we are sour grapes. Recently in a discussion with my older brothers, I made the statement that we had lived through the best time of this country. They thought about this and they agreed since they were all older than I.

Much of our present problems have come about, I feel, because many decisions were made that were decisions that were ok at the time, but have since shown to be very wrong.

We moved inmass away from our places of employment to live in the suburbs. I worked for a nursery where we did much new home landscaping back in the late fifties. Ranch style homes were "In" then and scrubs and spreaders were planted around the foundation. Large trees were used as accents out away from the back corners of the homes. Now it is a know fact that large shade trees planted on the south and west sides of homes can significantly lower inside termperatures in the house. But energy was cheap then and AC could keep the house cool.

Both of those decisions were ok then but both have come to bite us in the ass. I recently saw on the evening news that because of high gas prices families were trying to move back closer to their shopping and work places.

We continued built bigger and more square footage homes even though family size declined. Of course even with added insulation the air still needed to be modified inside and had to be cooled or heated. Again it was a idea that seemed to be ok but has hence come back to bite us. And it has been found that the air inside these heavily insulated homes are much more polluted than outside air. Now a few persons have seen the hand writing on the wall and are moving to much smaller homes.

I have a neighbor who is living in a house made of concrete blocks. His son loaned him a nice travel trailer. He decided to try living in the trailer and happily told me recently his utility bills had dropped dramatically. I too have said that a travel trailer was avery good way to eliminate many of the present problems we face today. And using small wind generators to charge the 12 volt batteries these units use would make them very green indeed.

Gramps I really feel that the two Presidential contestants are simply like most of America. That being, we want somethng that is really unatainable. Our American dream has turned out to me, our American nightmare. Think, if we want this ever expanding lifestyle, can we expect other countries to not want the same? Does the earth have enough resources to furnish all peoples more today than they had yesterday?

An honest answer of course would have to be no! Population of the world keeps growing larger and resources by neccessity keeps getting less. It is just simply not doable.

Of course another major factor has become greed. Greed consumes this country as witnessed by the fact that when we de-regulate sectors of the economy, the greedy wolves move in and usethe oppurtunity to enrich themselves and their friends. Basic needs like energy, finiancial etc. can't be left up to the American free interprise system. Mainly because these companies keep consolidating and are controlled by fewer and fewer person.

Can any of the present persons running for office or even any in Comgress find a solution? No, mainly because instead of cahnging our lifestyle they want to find a solution that will keep the so called American dream alive.

You and I will not be around when many of the problems that are surfacing now come to a head. Energy, Global Warming, suffecient usable water for human consumption and irrigation, disposing of nuclear wastes, just keeping the world populations from starving, etc. I might add that starving people in this day and age know who has the food and they will do anything to keep their families and theirselves from dying. Can you blame them?

I don't think their is a single person alive today who could lead us to sort all these problems out.

Unless we move to a dictatorship, there isn't a "single person alive today" who could sort all this out.

In a Democracy, and with opposing ideals, even easily solvable things can't be solved.

To wit, nuclear waste disposal.

There is a "solve" for this that has been worked out over decades. But it can't be implemented because of our rules of Democracy.

You have 15 grandkids? I know 1500 high school students who aren't worth the powder to blow them to hell. I can count hundreds everyday walking around with their pants down past their ass and their hands in their crotch. They hang out around bus stops and malls panhandling and trading drugs. So keep your portrait of Shirley Temple and her dimples.

The greatest generation did a crap job of raising the next generation. Now we have a bunch of know-nothings who have another generation of know-nothings that the working class has to support.

Anecdotal evidence is just heresay.

CBK

....but we all take part a little in the responsibility for what is to come. I note you have already admitted to that.

How many of us have heard about what are considered sins, either where we worship, or on a practical, universal basis, yet many if not all of us have fallen to temptation and in many ways have participated in at least one sin, that of gluttony. In varying ways and degrees some of us are perhaps less guilty, but on an overall basis, just being American, we cannot excuse our part in consumerist gluttony. It is great for us and our lifestyles, but it is not sustainable and it is becoming a cancer upon the earth as our consumerist influence spreads around the globe. Nature has a way of expunging that which threatens, simply by its own unique design, allowing the out of control to eventually control themselves via their over consumption. To put it in more understandable terms for those than have a hard time grasping relatively simple concepts (not talking about you Gramps), overgrazing by exploded deer populations eventually cause deer to starve because their numbers are more than the food source can maintain or something happens to the food source that cannot sustain the new exploded populations. Nature's mechanism is to seek a sustainable balance

That seems someone else's long off in the distant concern,until we think about it happening to our progeny, our loved ones or their loved ones down the line. In consideration of our part in their suffering, the thought of leaving our accountability and responsibility to nature, knowing what nature will do, is irresponsible and morally corrupt, yet "success" in our nation is measured by conspicuous consumption that cannot be sustained, especially as more and more people might achieve it. We then become like out of control cancer cells upon the earth, consuming it, if not merely ourselves, out of house, home and existence.

And we are not deer who are (supposedly) merely subject to their instincts, we (supposedly) can rationalize, think and act with a free will separate from or in conjunction with our instincts.

Prudentius outlined the "Battle of Souls" in his poem "Psychomachia" by accounting seven vices that could be "cured" by seven virtues.

These are the vices he listed:

Greed

Lust

Envy

Gluttony

Pride

Sloth

Wrath

Which of the above have we NOT indulged in on a national or individual basis? Sloth, it might be argued does not fit our GDP or GNP, but in what nation in the world do people have time for sloth on a general basis?

I think the following in some ways sums up where we have been going and it continues because "we the people" buy it. We've sold our souls to "win".

“I think the McCain folks realize if they can get this thing down in the mud, drag Obama into the mud, that’s where they have the best advantage to win,” said Matthew Dowd, who worked with many top McCain campaign advisers when he was President Bush’s chief strategist in the 2004 campaign, but who has since had a falling out with the White House. “If they stay up at 10,000 feet, they don’t.”

It dooesn't much matter what camp intitiates dragging it into the mud, it is the dragging things into the mud to "win" that is a comment on our society.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday Gramps and continue to care and pass your caring on. Humanity will only survive because of the humans that care about human beings more than strictly the bottom line. That does not mean that looking at the bottom line presents a conflict and a need for triage and tough choices as well as sacrifice required by all for the survival of all, but there have clearly been excesses by some that throw off the balance of sustainability