My father and his friends went to war 65 years ago. Many were machine-gunned on the beaches of Normandy, or drowned in the waters of the Pacific. They gave their lives to ensure that the people of this country, and the world, could enjoy personal liberty and free-will. They also understood that those gifts came with the requirement that you take responsibility for yourself and your actions. They came home and built a truly great country based on those beliefs.

That country they died for and built no longer exists. Johnny Bigode's quote from Alexander Tyler expresses our present condition perfectly.

Never mind what all the talking heads and venal politicians say. It's all just "talk" that will never solve anything, except to drag us slowly down the drain of history. Make up your mind based on what you see, not what you are told. A personal example:

I have a good job and make decent money. But recently I had a run of very bad luck, because of an accident that occurred to my wife. For five years I could only afford to live in the "hood". And let me say right now, I did not take government housing, or food stamps or other handouts. Every day I got up to go to work, and what I saw out of my window as the sun came up was groups of young men sitting on the doorsteps of their government paid housing.

They were up early because they had been out all night shoving coke and other "stuff" up their noses. They had spent all their mommas' government money they could get their hands on, and were sitting around thinking about who they could rob or kill to get more money for more drugs. They were there then, and they will always be there, because they know they don't have to make any effort to support themselves. The government will rob me at gun point and give them my money to survive.

And in the afternoon, I could count on coming home to little 10 year old girls running around shouting things like "I don't f!@#$%g" care what you f*&^%$g say about f&^%$#g anything". To their mothers. What was really sad was that 70% of them were little bastards, and there were two or three or four in each "family", with no father in sight. And again, there were no real consequences, because they were supported by government money.

Ok, you can make arguments against all of this. That does not negate the fact that these scenes are repeated millions of times a day around this country. Bill, you are right. We are subsidizing sloth, ignorance, greed and self-pity. And that is what most people in this country want. It's the easy way. Until the money runs out.