Where is America?
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I grew up in Scotland in the 50s, and to us the USA was this huge magic place far, far away, where only good things happened. All the crooks always got caught (or shot), the cowboys always won, Disney was making Heaven somewhere, everyone drove big cars, almost everyone lived in lovely, polite small towns, and spent most of their time drinking Malteds. (For years I wanted a malted.. I had no idea what on earth it was, but everyone seemed to love them)
As the 60s came, and I became more aware of the “Real World”, I realised that we lived about 40 miles form the USN/RN Polaris bases at Holy Loch and Faslane. I also became aware of the big bogey man called the USSR. Then I heard about 100 and 500 Megaton Thermonuclear warheads. It was not a happy time, but our big brother the USA was always there. We could rely on them. We (Brits) didn’t always agree with Big Brother USA, but that’s normal in families. You might get upset with things that Big Brother did, but if he was in trouble, you’d always be there for him, and vice versa. The USA stood for freedom, justice, equality and above all, fairness.
This sort of continued into the 90s, and then we had 9/11.
Then we had the Patriot Act.
Then we had the Global Financial Meltdown.(More on this, next post)
I cannot understand how the (then) most powerful nation on earth allowed a skinny bunch of ignorant extremist religious madmen to change you entire way of life.
No, I’m not talking about your Mid-Western baptist bible-thumpers and god-botherers (not this time anyway) but the “Islamists.” Everything that made the USA great seemed to go in the crapper at once. General George S. Patton once said “Do not take counsel of your fears” and that’s exactly what the leaders of the USA did after 9/11. They allowed these militant nutters to change the main paradigm by which the USA has always lived. To an outsider, I’m really surprised that your Supreme Court has allowed the executive to walk all over your constitution.
I know that some have said that the constitution isn’t a “suicide pact” , but isn’t it true, that it was drawn up by folks who had just been through a really nasty and protracted war with the British (Which you won) They knew the things that could happen in war seemed extreme, and terrible things had happened. But these guys, rich in that experience had deliberately set out the limitations of central government and the absolute rights (and obligations) of the citizens. They knew the dangers of fear and the desire for revenge, and they deliberately and consciously created a contract exemplifying everything that was of Prime importance to them and their nation.
It’s not too late. Yet.
I hope.
Bring back the USA of my (and I hope) your dreams.
And can someone please tell me what a Malted actually is, and how you make it?
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I can’t argue with One Fly. This land is full of idiots, and they have their own channel.
The Patriot Act was a poorly thought out reaction to an obnoxious act. We will all continue to suffer the loss of freedoms and gropefests at the airport and Islam has won.
Sometimes it takes an outsider to point out the things we take for granted, which we should be fighting to preserve at all costs.
Hello Robert and welcome.
Sadly,I wouldn’t say that 9/11 changed anything at all except maybe bringing the real America to the forefront.
Those idyllic days didn’t exist for all of us. The constitution so enamored of many counts Blacks as 3/5 of a person. The equally enamored Declaration of Independence refers to “Merciless Indian Savages”.
I don’t mean this to be a diatribe, rather I’m saying the problems go much deeper and have always been there. Possibly as the Empire nears its final decades the rot comes closer to the surface.
Yes we’re still pretty much good people but very stupid. Many of the stupids are proud of that fact. Holte covers it.
About malts-this is serious business. My choice of ice cream pleasure since very early on in life. If you know little about malted milks Robert here are a few things should know.
A shake?? melted cheap ass ice cream-who gives a shit.
It is next to impossible to get a good one and I’m talking chocolate. If you can make a good chocolate malt the others will be good too.
People who sell them don’t have a clue how to make them and most of the time it’s a huge disappointment. I’m a sucker as I keep trying to find the old days a what chocolate malts are supposed to taste like. Spent over 5 bucks on one this summer in Dinosaur and didn’t have the nerve to go back and tell this older guy-older than me anyway that it wasn’t worth a shit.
A while back got into a malt binge but after awhile have to say no to making anymore because they are so hard to say no to.
3-4 teaspoons of Nestles Chocolate Quick
An oz or more of Hershey’s Syrup
2-3 teaspoons of Carnation Malt
Medium priced vanilla ice cream
Whole milk
Blend ’em up in a blender in a way and amount that make you feel bad when these things are about gone. It takes a lot of ice cream as I like them thick but for me this makes something like a 16-20oz pretty thick malt.
I want one now and if I do I’ll have to have one the next day and this time there may be no stopping.
Thanks for the recipe One Fly. I think I can get them all, but I’m not sure about the Carnation Malt. I’ll have to do some more research.
Hope you find a better one than you mentioned.
PS What’s Dinosaur? Never heard of it.
Dinosaur,Colorado is the last town before you enter Utah in the extreme NW part of the state and directly south of Dinosaur National Monument.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
Here are some pictures of the monument and the area.
http://oneflyspictureplace.blogspot.com/search/label/Dinosaur%20National%20Monument
This is where quite a few of the bad guys hung out in the cowboy day Robert.
Seems like everyone who doesn’t live here is an expert on America?
Hi BigHarryH, I’m sorry if you feel I was telling you what America should do. I’m by no means an expert on your country, and I wouldn’t be so arrogant to think that I, a foreigner, should tell the citizens of the USA what they should do to reclaim their heritage.
I am just expressing my saddness about the loss of what was perceived as the free-est country in the world.
. . . skinny bunch of ignorant extremist religious madmen to change you entire way of life.
These madmen are great in number, they are well organized and financed, thanks to the heroin trade and oil. If we pulled out of Iran and Afghanistan tomorrow nothing would change, they want to drive the USA into economic collapse and by threatening everything that flies with ‘mini’ bombs the fear and anger factors are rising. If the USA became ‘Fortress America’ no doubt they would attack any country that has a treaty with us, to try and tempt us out of our shell. The skinny, ignorant, extremist, religious madmen are a force to be reckoned with, they not just a rag-tag bunch of rebels.
America hasn’t changed except naturally. The rapid increase in technology and immigration has changed her face but not her nature. I am convinced that at heart we are still basically good. The eight years of Bush and his gang of Republicans put us at the edge of the abyss but I don’t think we quite fell over the edge.
Gee, I wish we could just talk about malteds… “Hey kids, let’s go to the Malt Shoppe and get a malt! They really know how to make a swell one! Then we could take a ride in Johnny’s convertible…” oh wait, sorry, off topic… Robert, our country is in a bad state, as you well point out. bin Laden predicted that we’d play into his hand and said: “All we have to do is send two mujaheddin […] to raise a small piece of cloth on which is written ‘al-Qaeda’ in order to make the generals race there, to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses.” And it worked. We’ve lost a lot of our rights as citizens and it doesn’t appear that anyone plans on giving them back to us soon. I guess we’re going to have to figure out how to take them back ourselves.