Life is generally good here, even for the poor. Its not India, where you have to shit outside and wipe your hand with your ass. Or Sudan where kids with AK-47s ride around killing people all day.
That would be a neat trick But I get it. Stupid Iraqis were the same way. Use their hand to wipe their assessment then clean their hand with the paper. Smdh
I swear you can't make shit up sometimes even if you can wipe it with your own hand. "I identify as black,” although she comes from a white family. When Matt Lauer of NBC’s “Today” show asked, “When did you start deceiving people,” Ms. Dolezal did not concede that she had done so. “I do take exception to that, because it’s a little more complex than me identifying as black, or answering a question of, ‘Are you black or white?’” she said. She said her identification with black people went back as far as when she was 5 years old. “I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon, and the black curly hair,” she said. But when shown a picture of her as a teenager with fair skin and straight, blond hair, she conceded that at that time, she did not identify as black." I suppose she was still feeling white when she "sued Howard, the historically black university in Washington, D.C., that year, alleging Howard discriminated against her by blocking "her appointment to a teaching assistantship" in 2001, rejecting her application for an instructor position and denying her scholarship aid as a student. " This is either funny, frustrating, stupid, or opening up endless possibilities. So on the one hand a man identifying as a woman can take hormones, grow tits, get their junk cut off and wear a dress, appearing for the most part to be a woman. Just what does a white person do to appear black other than the hair and tanning salon? Any black folks interested in identifying as white? Michael Jackson had the money for total skin bleaching but that was an epic fail. Can all white people claim to identify as a minority now and "check that box"?
Even our poorest people live like kings compared to central Africa where you can mind your own business making $2/day and you never know when half your neighbors will die of Ebola within a week. Hutus will come through your village hacking people up with machetes or Procol Harum will steal your 9- year-old daughters and make muslim wives of them. Americans take public safety for granted. In most of the world you have to bribe the police and the politicians to get any help at all. French farmers still plow up live WWII artillery shells. In much of southeast Asia, the middle east, and Africa, you can lose a leg to a 30-year old landmine while walking to the mud hole to get a pail of water. Even Europe, Japan, Russia, China and the other advanced modern countries have all been invaded, had cities carpet bombed, and had their economies crushed by wars in living memory. And this is the pattern of most nations throughout human history. Cycles of war, famine, and plague. We sit in our wonderland, un-invadable behind vast oceans enjoying the finest network of natural ports and navigable rivers on the planet. It hard-wires us for success in an global marketplace. We have vast natural resources, plenty of open spaces, an educated population, and few old-world legacies like ancient class struggles, turf wars stretching back millennia, and no natural boundaries between countries. Our geography is unmatched for economic success, human sustainability, and military defense. World War II ruined most of the advanced countries on earth. America suffered no cities bombed, no invasions, no domestic civilian deaths and a fraction of the military casualties suffered by other major combatants. We lost more people in our own Civil War than in the largest war in history. America's response to World War II was the most extraordinary mobilization of an idle economy in the history of the world and it made us a Superpower. We have a lot to be proud of and to be grateful for. America sucks unless you compare it to any other place on the world in any time in history under any circumstances. "It's good to be the King." -- Mel Brooks
It's a very slippery slope. DNA testing reveals much about us all. Mainly that we actually are a melting pot in America. Ethnicity is just a matter of degree and everybody draws the "pass" line at different points. But DNA can draw a valid line. Is a snow-white Anglo-American with 1% African heritage entitled to Affirmative Action? So why is an off-white African-American with 25% African heritage eligible? How long can one claim race-based scholarships, legal status, etc. by a self-check box on a form? How long until they hand you an minority cholarship application form along with a cheek swab? Lawyers are licking their lips at the potential cheddar here. If it illegal to discriminate against a transgender person, how can we discriminate against a transracial person?
Well said, Red. I had lunch on Saturday with a friend from India who I taught with here in Plano in the late 90s/early 2000s. She has since moved back to India to run her father's automobile factory in Chennai. Over the years, she has made derogatory comments about the way that Americans see themselves as superior, and even on Saturday, she noted that India is becoming much more of a true player in the world economy. Now, of course, she is at the top of the food chain in India, coming from a Brahmin family, so her experience has been much different than those of many of her neighbors. I have never argued with her over her views on the US because I find others' viewpoints interesting and because people are going to believe what they are going to believe, based on their unique perspectives. But...she was in the US to take a countrywide tour of colleges with her daughter, who is a senior next year. Nivi will not be going to college in India. She'll take a spot at one of the universities she is visiting--probably Brown, Northwestern, or Standford, her current top picks.
With a few remarkable exceptions, most of the foreigners I have met that complained about Americans were either . . . 1. Here taking advantage of everything that America offers. 2. Had their hands out for American money. 3. Were trying their best to get a green card or citizenship here.
