Who says kids have no ambition?

[jamespowers]

I have no problem with the existence of Wal*Mart.

Now we are getting somewhere I agree with you.

Jack makes a good point about homogenisation. The towns around here might as well be clones. There is no real character to any of them. They're all the same. No individuality. Is this what we want? Not I!

Again, as LincSong stated, you can blame your local governments for making your city look as it does. I have been fighting that one for decades now. They use eminent domain and the zoning codes to make a city look however their near sighted vision makes them look. WalMart is a store not a government and can't be blamed for the arbitrary and capricious decisions of local government or government in general for that matter.

What kind of owl was it that had nested under the railroad tracks?

If I remember the story right, it was a spotted owl. There was also one found nesting in the K of an abandoned KMart store. Those things nest anywhere they can find food. Where there are rodents there are spotted or other varieties of owls. The problem is that they kill pet animals like my rabbits as well. :rage:

Regards to all,

J

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Again, as LincSong stated, you can blame your local governments for making your city look as it does. I have been fighting that one for decades now. They use eminent domain and the zoning codes to make a city look however their near sighted vision makes them look. WalMart is a store not a government and can't be blamed for the arbitrary and capricious decisions of local government or government in general for that matter.

I don't think i was blaming Wal*Mart for that. Eminent domain is an interesting one. Seems to be one of those useful things (ie. for building railways, highways etc.) that is being totally misused: thinks ... New London, CT. And i don't think we can lay this at the door of any particular political persuasion. They've all got their noses in the trough, so far as i can see.

Is the spotted owl endangered?

bk

 

[Senator Jack]

Well, I don't know what's going on with New London, CT. I know the people downtown are going through a court battle, but as a guy who has spent a lot of time drinking in New London, (while I was in college, my band rehearsal space was there) I know it's long overdue for revitalization. I just hope they keep all the great buildings there, which they probably won't. After all, if they can knock every building with any history in NY down (Thanks, Rudy!) why not a jerkwater town like New London?

I've actually lost my passion for travel over the last fifteen years, because every place I go looks awfully familiar. Before the 90s, at least some towns had their own aura, their own charm. Now the downtown areas are abandoned because of the big box stores that have gone up on the outskirts. Yeah, I guess I don't blame the Waltons in a way. I blame stupid Americans who have blindly thrown their money at them. Gee, they saved a dollar and sold out the very soul of America.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Section10]

I've actually lost my passion for travel over the last fifteen years, because every place I go looks awfully familiar. Before the 90s, at least some towns had their own aura, their own charm. Now the downtown areas are abandoned because of the big box stores that have gone up on the outskirts. Yeah, I guess I don't blame the Waltons in a way. I blame stupid Americans who have blindly thrown their money at them. Gee, they saved a dollar and sold out the very soul of America.

Regards,

Senator Jack

There is in the works a new Wal-Mart store coming to within shopping distance of where I live. A lot of people seem to favor it, but I must admit I have some reservations. I think I can see what you're saying and I think there are several factors that share the blame. Capitalism at work? Maybe, but even capitalism has its down sides and I think in the future we will be reaping more and more of its long term drawbacks. I think consumerism will eventually betray us.

And regarding our ambitious 12 year old:
"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crime from society." ***Benjamin Franklin

 

[jamespowers]

And regarding our ambitious 12 year old:
"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crime from society." ***Benjamin Franklin

Interesting quote from Franklin. Definitely a "do as I say, not as I do" situation there. I wish he managed to control his passions.
Gee, Jack, I think I actually agree with you about eminent domain. Not really about calling New London a "jerkwater town though.":hamburger
If you think redevelopment or revitilization is a good idea, you have never seen the before and after of my home town. They tried to revitalize it,make it like a big city, but instead made a complete mess of the downtown. Now they want to install a history walk where they tore down history! :rage: The fools even want to move in some old buildings that were never there before to create a fake Disney main street look! I find cities move in a circular firing squad.
First they have a historic downtown with older buildings that could probably use a little fixing up. Then they rip all of these buildings out or have a Mysterious fire downtown which does the same thing. They replace the buildings with ugly faceless facades while promising the moon. Finally they realize what idiots they have been and waste millions of local dollars on trying to put it back to a semblance of what it was---using the old plans no less! :rage:
If they just left it alone in the first place and put a little money into fixing it up a little with paint and maintenance then it would have been cheaper in the long run. I suppose that would have been too easy and used less money that way though.

Regards to all,

J

 

[airfrogusmc]

Senator Jack sure you can blaim the Waltons for their business practices. Just like you can blame the execs from World Com and Enron. They have choices to make and they choose to make money no matter the consequence. Execs make over 400 times the average worker. I'm not against big business. I'm against big businesses that have no conscious.

 

[Burma Shave]

Revitalization?

Quote: "If you think redevelopment or revitilization is a good idea, you have never seen the before and after of my home town. They tried to revitalize it,make it like a big city, but instead made a complete mess of the downtown. ... The fools even want to move in some old buildings that were never there before to create a fake Disney main street look!"

I completely agree and understand. The problem with many "revitalization" projects is that they are revitalizing things that weren't necessarily "vital" in the first place. Personally, I love small towns, with squares and Mom&Pops and the whole shebang. And in many larger cities there are areas that feel similar to a small town. When a city's government decides to revitalize, they usually have something in mind that has very little to do with the city's history.

Here in Columbia SC, for instance, there's a downtown area that is being redeveloped, with wide sidewalks, fancy streetlights -- and a lot of soul-less cement buildings. The area is usually vacant. It's sterile and spotless, and boring as heck. Just a few blocks away, however, is an area of turn-of-the-century warehouses and storefronts that is thriving and quite lovely. It has obviously not been revitalized: It's simply vital (full of life) to my eye.

 

[shamus]

...leave it up to the free market. Have any of you who bemoan Walmart ever bought a high-quality vintage suit from an Ebay store rather than going to a bespoke tailor to have one made to your specifications? By doing so, you've helped put all those starving tailors out of work, you know.

Well unless you know of a tailor that has a time machine and goes back in time, makes my suit in 1936, uses 1936 material and styles, then comes back to modern time and sells it to me in his shop... then I'll go with Ebay.

 

[Lincsong]

What is the cause of decline?

There must be a reason why downtowns decline. First of all they don't change with the tastes of consumers. Most downtowns have parking meters and parallel street parking. People don't want to try to parallel park and then have to worry about feeding a meter. They want to park and walk around for two or more hours and not have to worry about the meter maid and that $20 plus fine for an expired meter. Or people want to park get in and get out. The days of strolling out of one's house, stopping for a latte, dropping off the dry cleaning and rolling into the office at nine, stroll back around noon for a 90 minute lunch and then leaving work at 5 are never coming back.
Then the biggest death of downtowns is the overzealous local officials who heap tax upon tax, regulation upon regulation on these building owners and merchants. Want to paint the building? Make sure it goes through the City Color Commission. Want to remodel the toilets? Add in an extra $10k for ADA, low flow toilets and such. Then the buidling inspector wants his little walking around money in the form of ever increasing permit fees.
Strip malls, Wal-Marts go to open space, have big parking lots and make it somewhat easy for people to get in and get out. (The Wal-Marts aren't that easy to get out though.)

 

[Lincsong]

This was back in 1991

What kind of owl was it that had nested under the railroad tracks?

This scenario happened in 1991. I don't remember the kind of owl. But I doubt it was a spotte owl as they live around the Oregon/California border area.

 

[Lincsong]

What about the organic cow?

... they have feelings, they feel pain.

The stuff at Wal*Mart is cheaper, but i dont even want to know what was injected into the cow, lets say, before it was slaughtered. By buying from local farmers you know exactly how the cow was treated before it died. I care about these things. Cows that lived in fields and ate grass are the ones i want to eat. Not from feedlots, eating processed corn stalks and getting injected with G*d-knows what every day. I'd rather not eat that many antibiotics and crazy amounts of growth hormones

What happens when that organic cow eats the home of a field mouse? That cold hearted cow!:cheers1:

 

[shamus]

I take it you don't know much about farm animals. Cows only eat to a certain length on the grass and don't eat every thing in sight. The field mouse would still have places to live. The cow is not a bulldozer that totally destroys the top layers of ground, like a nice big easy to park Walmart parking lot would have.

I like to know what I"m eating. I'm organic as much as I can, but I've been organic since the 70's. There's a reason girls are growing bigger since the 1950-60 than today... growth hormones in food.

 

[LaMedicine]

There's a reason girls are growing bigger since the 1950-60 than today... growth hormones in food.

Oh, yes, and puberty beginning at barely ten years old. It is scary....Medically, psychologically.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

But what? No one thinks that if a colonial 12 year old had the opportunity to slit King George III's throat he wouldn't have done it? The Brits were the enemy and KG their monarch - any sort of Johnny Tremaine patriot would surely have taken a cutthroat to the old madman.

Some kids are born rebels, and not only that, they're old souls who were in some other life fighting the fascists, storming the Bastille, or generally usurping a throne at some time, somewhere in the name of the people. Though we're not embroiled in a physical civil war, there is large portion of the population that feels we're in a psychological civil war. The government, the Waltons, the buffoons like Oprah, are on one side - the people who have had enough of this idiocy are on the other. Yeah, the kid may be dangerous, but I can't argue his choice of targets.

Regards,

Another born rebel,

Senator Jack

I'd prefer he took out the Klintoons, especially the Anti-Christ Hitlary, Cut and Run Murtha, ANY Kennedy, Dirty Harry Reid, Leaky Leahey, Turbin Durbin, Jimmah "22% Inflation" Carter, Jesse "Who's Your Daddy?" Jackson and Big Al "The Liar" Sharpton. Leave Howard Dean alone though, he's the best thing to ever happen to us Republicans. Surely he's a brain washed clone hatched up by that evil genuis Karl Rove. But, I digress. :kick:
DR

 

[shamus]

I'd prefer he took out the Klintoons, especially the Anti-Christ Hitlary, Cut and Run Murtha, ANY Kennedy, Dirty Harry Reid, Leaky Leahey, Turbin Durbin, Jimmah "22% Inflation" Carter, Jesse "Who's Your Daddy?" Jackson and Big Al "The Liar" Sharpton. Leave Howard Dean alone though, he's the best thing to ever happen to us Republicans. Surely he's a brain washed clone hatched up by that evil genuis Karl Rove. But, I digress. :kick:
DR

Gee, I'd perfer that nobody gets murdered, but you know, that's just me. I'm not the murdering type.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

So many nicknames. Some good ones in there ...

bk

 

[airfrogusmc]

Dusty thats all fine but you still never answered my question...

 

[Burma Shave]

To quote Shamus:

"Well unless you know of a tailor that has a time machine and goes back in time, makes my suit in 1936, uses 1936 material and styles, then comes back to modern time and sells it to me in his shop... then I'll go with Ebay."

And you're absolutely right to do so. That's my point. You know better what you want to buy with your money than some modern businessman does. The money is yours to spend as you like (what's left after taxes, anyway), and you have every right to buy 70-year-old clothing. To you, that's the best value for your dollar. The thing is, people who shop at Walmart and other large discount stores are buying what they want, where they want to. They are spending their money as they see fit. Should bureaucrats give Walmart tax breaks or other incentives to bring a store to their area? No way, any more than they should give tax breaks to any other business. But no one can fault Walmart for driving small businesses out of town any more than he or she can blame the "used goods" or vintage buyers for hurting small businessmen by not buying new merchandise.

Long story short, people buy what they want. And that's as it should be. However, all this is a long way from the original post...and for that I apologize to the original poster. Mea culpa, sir.

 

[shamus]

Burma,

I think we're walking the same highway and going to the same place, but we're just in different lanes.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Burma with Wal-Mart its far more insidious than that. They know going in that their business practices are going to devastate some small towns and cost our country hundreds of thousands of jobs but all they care about is bottom line. Because of these business practices I choose not to spend my money there.