31 replies to this topic

[Iron Duke]

stephen simpson said:

longhair, FDR is the president who brought us social security and many believe he saved this country from the great depression with his work programs that built hoover dam among other things. i have to go, President Obama is holding hands with bin laden in the rose garden while the First Lady serves tea and cookies. its on fox news. when you get old i'm sure you'll be thinking of what a rat basterd FDR was while you cash your social security check.

WWII is what "saved us" from the Great Depression, not FDR.  Getting out of the Great Depression cost this country almost 1,100,000 dead and wounded men and unimaginable grief and suffering for parents, wives, children, girlfriends, friends and family.  As to the Hoover Dam, only about 4,000 people were working on that 5 year project, so in a country of about 200,000,000 million it provided little in the way of economical "stimulus."  Social Security has been turned into a huge entitlement "PONZI scheme by our infamous politicians who are fat, greedy and self serving.

[huntingal]

I'll weigh-in and agree wth Iron Duke. I heard my Dad and his WWII buddies talking about it. And Longhair has a good point about Social Security, it's our money we paid in. And I resent some of the illegals who pay in nothing getting SS. As much as I have paid in over the lenth of time I have work, I will need to draw out another life time of SS to even come close to breaking even. And it is rumored SS will run out of money down the years! Go figure. I'm sorry if your sensibilities are struck Stephen, but there are strong indications that FDR ( and he too loved this country) was not as good a president as some historian would like to portray him. Granted, there are two (and more) sides to a debate just as there are to politics. Some are pretty and some not so much even in the same party.

[stephen simpson]

i did a little research on the internet so here'it is: in 1932 unemployment was between 25 to33 per cent. in 1939 it was 15 per cent but re- arming the country played a role in reducing unemployment. i'm sure FDR had major input in that also. there was a lot more then just the hoover dam built with his public works projects, the Tennesee valley authority and here locally lake pymatuning. us population in 1930 was122,775,046. i don't relly know what else was built by the ccc and the wpa but the public works effort was desribed as massive. the wwtwo casualties were estimated at 60 to70 million. if i remember correctly FDR had one hell of a time getting us in the war and if we had not gotten in to it  the nazi'es and the japs would have won. i don't think any one would dispute that. FDR must have done some thing right, he was elected 4 times. one thing that has crossed my feeble mind is without wwone andww2 i honestly believe that we might be very close to being extinct by now due to world wide over population. 60 to 70 million dead world wide in ww2 and another incredibly large number in wwi all alive and multiplying like rabbits, God knows what would have happened. i'm done arguing about FDR. i had  one set of grand parents who threw a party that lasted for 3 days when he died and  on the other side of the family they cried. as far as i'm concerned he was a great president who served his country while it was on its knees. and the presidency probaly shortened his life. every body obviously has there own opinion.

[Ky.Longbeard]

Gonna have to agree with ya Stephen on the popularity of FDR.To be elected 4 times somebody liked him.

[Iron Duke]

My comments were not particularly political, nor aimed against FDR.   More aimed at economics and the unheard of increase in worker productivity and employment triggered by the massive need of man & woman power to supply & fight WWII.  Nor was my Social Security comment aimed at FDR.  Originally SS was set up as a "pay as you go" program ... not a bad idea in my opinion.  Studies have shown almost all savings in a families lifetime are FORCED savings ... not discretionary.  (We have no will power) LOL   Unfortunately, it didn't take too long before the bottom feeders in Washington found ways to get their greedy mits on the mountain of money that was accumulating.  As Scarlett O’Hara said, “Fiddle-dee-dee!  I won’t worry about that today.  I’ll worry about that tomorrow.  After all, tomorrow is another day!”  The mantra of a politician!!!

[huntingal]

I concede.

[stephen simpson]

well, back to the original reason for this thread it looks like the gulf coast is going to be trashed badly and i guess nashville is floating away. the past week has not been kind to the nation that is for sure.i think a prayer might be in order for the gulf coast, if they don't have it capped in a week things are going to get pretty grim down there. it bothers me when we fail mother nature on this big of a scale.

[Ky.Longbeard]

Our nation as a whole needs prayer.We are going thru some difficult times
in America.Like Iron Duke said the politicans have dipped into the social security so many times its about dry.

[Old Longhair]

This is the most credible report on what happened that I've heard yet. It's an interview with a guy that was on the rig when she blew.

It's an audio only interview in two parts.

In the interview, he said that he didn't know what set it off. But it now seems less likely that it was an act of terrorism of any sort. Also that it is a knee-jerk reaction to halt all production in the gulf.

The issue now is how the government and BP are handling it from here on.

[Guide Girl]

I tell ya, that was such a tragic event. Very disturbing. It does happen in the fields and on the off shore rigs but not as much as the old days. Thank GOD. The rigs are really rocking in south Texas right now, so I'm sure off shore is as well. Bless those families who are missing thier loved ones. I feel so deeply for them. We have many friends who work the rigs. One of our good friends lived through two blow outs before quitting the oil fields.

Here's a bit of info though, that everyone may not know. This oil drilling company is owned by a foreign company and drilling oil in the Gulf, right? So are many other foreign companies. China included, and the USA financed it. Now, the talk about the environment and it being bad and the green folks stopping us from drilling thing. Did you know that once you get off shore 7 miles, you are then in International waters? Any country in the world can drill, fish, or whatever as long as they are 7 miles or more off shore.

So, other countries take advantage of the oil right off our shore, but the USA would rather not drill and pay the other countries for the oil it harvested? Make sense? If an accident is going to happen, it's still in the Gulf and affects our shores, no matter what company is doing the drilling.
I pray they can contain the spill as much as possible so as to not devestate the Gulf Shores environment. A sad, sad, day for commercial Fishermen and Pleasure fishermen/ boaters too.
I went to the store and stocked up on 2 lb bags of Shrimp before the price sky rockets in case anyone else is thinking the same way. Yesterday X-Lg were going for $4.98lb.

[stephen simpson]

in this morning's paper it said they have 1 of 3 leaks  fixed. next up is a dome they are going to place over the leak and the oil will be sucked up thru that in to a container ship. i hope it's sealed up quickly.

[huntingal]

Me too, thank you for the update Stephen.