Norinco Luger

[lugerholsterrepair]

Jack, Yes..too bad Americans forgot how to sweat. When we get through spending our forefathers inheritance it will be too late. They didn't mind some sweat when they built this country..Now we take it for granted it will always be this way?
No..we fiddle while Rome burns. Give up our manufacturing base..over regulate everything..make it impossible to make a business decision without govt. approval. We have reached our zenith and now we are wasting what resources we have built up in 200 years by driving new cars and watching Entertainment Tonight. We have bred a generation INCAPABLE of working like our forefathers.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

[esbloefeld]

You know, I really wish I could jump in and put up a compelling arguement about that being wrong. How I wish I could prove that to be untrue and to prove that our nation has a generation on deck who can and will restore our national pride. Put those wishes in one hand and all the disappointing youths I run across in the other, you know which hand will fill first.

On the original subject, I'd throw $500 for a brand spanking new Norinco Luger if they were being made today. Why not.

[lugerholsterrepair]

Ever wonder where all the marijuana, cocain and heroin from Mexico ends up? Literally metric tons of it every month? Right here in the good ole USA.

Ever drive by a High School in your neighborhood? See any OLD cars? No..Our High Schoolers are driving cars I only dreamed of when I was 35.

Education is essentially free in this country thru High School and in places like California and NY you can go to a free university. Our young people take for granted they were born into a prosperous society and it will remain so with no effort on their part. Not so.

Ever wonder how the Hoover Dam got built? Some very talented Engineers..and 99% hard labor..but it couldn't be done again today. Some guys actually got killed on that project. With that possibility and the environmental studies..the EPA and OSHA. Forget it. No dam and no electricity for anyone. government would spend billions studying the feasability but nothing would happen.

I don't see a solution..like a train engineer that sees a school bus stalled at the next crossing 2 miles away..even if we hit the brakes right now..we can't stop our forward momentum fast enough to avoid disaster.

[Jack Lawman]

I'm not ready to drink the hemlock just yet. I'm raising three children right now to be part of the solution. They won't be driving new cars and I'll be paying for their University (at least a good chunk of it). I'm not giving up hope on their whole generation. They are getting a lot of things right.

Remember, hope is not like virginity... once lost, it can be found again!

Jack

[lugerholsterrepair]

Jack, You are absolutely correct..We hear about all the bad kids but 99% of them are gems.

I have not lost hope..But I am a realist and pragmatic in my thinking. American soil has not seen real turmoil since the civil war but extreme poverty in what has been a wealthy country could cause..IS causing real problems.

The big problem is that like ants... we were placed on this Planet to mine it. It's what we have..If we are stopped from such a basic life giving activity..we are at a severe disadvantage.

Our problem at this point is broken systems..schools that teach marxism, socialism. Government that is corrupted..growing larger every second with it's boot heel on your children's necks..spending their money they haven't even made yet. One half of our population has no vested interest in anything but getting govt. checks and not paying taxes.
We are broken into bits and bleeding before we start our fall down the stairs.

I surely hope your children and many like them fix all this..at 61 years old I have lived in the golden age of the USA. Built and fought for by my Fathers generation. Can it disapear in only one generation?

[HisSoldier]

Our problem at this point is broken systems..schools that teach marxism, socialism.

Yes, some of us think that replacing the current marxist in chief will solve our problems, but it's too late.
The kids are being taught in public schools that socialism is the answer. How can one new president undo that?

[DavidJayUden]

[B]"The kids are being taught in public schools that socialism is the answer. How can one new president undo that?"[/B]

The way to disprove the validity of socialism/Marxism is to right the ship of Capitalism. Once business is allowed to function without being hamstrung my our own Gov't. at every turn, then even the little skulls full of mush will see which system is really preferrable. Let the way of socialism and Marxism forever be associated with recession, depression and generally hard times, and make people aware that the way to prosperity does not involve more, and more, and more, layers of Gov't. bureaucracy.
So what can one president do? End base-line budgeting, and make every branch of Gov't. show their needs on an annual basis. No automatic 7% annual increase in budget.
An across the board reduction in Gov't. spending. Now I know that everyone, and I mean everyone, has their favorite program, but an even, across the board cut is the only way to go. The only exception I would consider is Social Security payments already going out. Can't hardly yank that rug... But even the military, and I know I'll get beat up on this, can do with less. And if a Leon Panetta or other bureaucratic functionary can't make it work, then find someone who can.
Not lastly, but lastly for this morning (it is opening day of Deer season here and the sun is about to come up), the charters for federal agencies need to be re-written to embrace Capitalism and the business world. Agencies like the EPA seem to believe that they serve to stop the country from moving forward, so a more business friendly re-write is in order.
In short, cut spending and make real changes o get out of the way will allow the wheels of Capitalism to begin moving once again, and that movement will sufficiently refute Socialism, a system that has failed EVERY time it has been tried.
Now I need to go kill something.
dju

[ithacaartist]

Guys, I'd rather listen to scientists than politicians. Science is the best tool we have for exploring reality. How about the reality of finite resources? How about he reality of the global ecosystem? How about the reality of human nature? No, it is impossible to vote one reality out and another in; we're stuck with the one we have. All 7 billion of us cannot live even a "moderate European" lifestyle, bottom line. All the easy stuff has been mined, grown and harvested, and pretty much used up. The earth will likely yield no additional oil beyond what we can squeeze out of shale and sand. Perhaps for the best, as this will slow our headlong race to ecocide. The Easter Islanders did it to themselves, cutting down literally every tree, to die starving and in turmoil. The Anasazi did it, deforesting what was a wooded savanna to create a desert--simply to provide themselves with lodge poles.

I've often perceived humanity as being similar to a biological culture in a petri dish. Yeah, it will grow and thrive for a while in its closed system, but will inevitably run out of nutrients and drown in its own waste. I guess the upside of our using up the last sip of petroleum and the last lump of coal would be that we could no longer produce greenhouse gasses, thereby ending most of the progress of anthropomorphic global warming. The concept one might do well to keep in mind is that, as a species, we are not immune to the process of extinction.

The Platinum Rule says we should do nothing to others that we would not want done to ourselves. The essence of this is one of restraint, not personal, subjective judgment. It eliminates the loopholes left by the Golden Rule.

I would tend to avoid throwing out the baby with its bath water. Bureaucratic entities sometimes have their roots in science and reality. What do we do with those who can, and do, dump nasty crap into the air, soil, and water that does us ALL harm? How about those that imperil the lives and long term health of their workers, simply for the benefit of their own bottom line? Remember, the Chinese had to shut down their industry in order for those attending the games to be able to breathe, or even see the sun. I'm not particularly convinced that the Chinese have hit upon the most effective approach to economics, overall. And I'm not so sure that we Americans have lost much of anything. It's all in how one draws the line, if there really is one, between extremes. And this in itself is very, very subjective.

Education is the key to it all. (NY does not have free university education. SUNY charges tuition and fees, just like any other, albeit at a slightly reduced rate.) Earthlings are as smart now as we have ever been; education gives the tools to begin solving problems. While understanding more about the world around us increases every day, so do our chances of ensuring the survival of the whole deal--the Terrestrial Ecosystem. I should say, "survival as we know it," because after we've poisoned ourselves from the face of the planet, the planet will do just fine, continuing its processes and phenomena without us. The comedian Dane Cook did a short thing, an impression of what the Earth might be thinking: He vigorously brushed his arms and shoulders with opposite hands, saying, "Get this stuff off of me!"

OK, I'm with Jerry, enough for today. Deer season starts one week from today, here in the Southern Tier of NYS.

[HisSoldier]

The earth will likely yield no additional oil beyond what we can squeeze out of shale and sand.

Some geologists believe oil is being produced every day, so the finite resources argument may not work for anything except frightening people into expensive energy that costs more environmental damage than oil does.

Science does not agree about global warming being man caused either, and it's very clear to me that it's being used like a new religion of fear to deprive us of growth.

My "religion" isn't based one what so called scientists say today, which is exactly the opposite of what they said 30 years ago.

Read "Willing Accomplices" by Kent Clizbe, he is a CIA analyst who argues that PC was invented around 1920-1921 in the Soviet Union specifically to destroy America, it includes preaching self loathing (Apologizing for American "arrogance", rewriting history so everything America did was destructive and no mention of all the good American industry and marketing did for the world.) rewriting our hero founders to make them seem evil, teaching socialism in schools and depressing the value of morals instruction. It all hit around 1980 and is in full flower now.

Now, back to Norinco, a true free market believer like me says that supply and demand are the only legitimate arbitrators of who buys what, if we make garbage we deserve to lose market share, and it teaches us to do better so we can compete. But we have to get government out of our way!

[nukem556]

Don't place " scientists" on a pedestal.....40 years ago, the consensus was that a new Ice Age was immininent, and according the that old hack Paul Erlich, we should have all died of starvation sometime around 1990. In this country at least, we have reached the tipping point described by Aristotle that dooms popular democracy...the majority has finally figured out that they can vote themselves a living by taking from the productive. There are parasites in housing projects that are now in the 4th generation of bleeding working people dry...the solution is to take the vote away from those who live off the productive, and sterilizing the bloodsuckers.

[DavidJayUden]

And lately scientists have not only shown themselves to occasionally be incompetent, but also corrupt. I guess the pursuit of the respect of peers and funding for projects and career security makes them into the very whores that we used to place them so far above.
No, particularly in the controversy man made global warming, scientists are increasingly lacking the moral high ground. Not that most politicians can lecture them, of course. Both are fighting with used car salesmen for the bottom.
dju

[DavidJayUden]

On a less contenious note, there was just a very good article penned in the UK media suggesting that we are nearing a tipping point and that things may be looking up here. The author made a good case that jobs would, for various reasons, begin leaving China and returning to the US. Now I'm not going to get into that discussion, but it struck me as interesting that we are all pretty glum about the end of the industrial might of the US, when the solution might be as simple as the pendelum swinging back a bit under it's own weight. The point is that with just a bit or work on our part we can still compete with any nation on earth.
dju

[alanint]

I can tell you that we are slowly moving away from China sourcing in my industry and looking back at the US and Latin American countries for finished goods. Labor costs in China have more than doubled in the last year as have energy and raw materials costs. The Chinese overlords are getting greedy and workers are demanding more and more wages, benefits and time off. They are quickly destroying their own resources and quality of life through unbelievable pollution and a total lack of husbandry of their resources. There is currently no conservation plan in place. They have destroyed entire river systems through pollution and their energy costs are quickly rising. No CHinese company will currently guarranty pricing more than two months on anything.
Don't count them out quite yet, but they are quickly losing their competitive edge and will soon be just on option when shopping for production facilities.

[DavidJayUden]

Maybe if we could export liberalism and political correctness to China, we could expedite things?
dju

[alanint]

I'd be happy just moving them into a fenced off portion of the West coast, then close the borders. There they can live in liberal bliss along with all the illegals they champion. That is, of course, until the money runs out since the rest of us will no longer be around to bleed dry. Then our only problem will be the libs jumping the fence trying to come back.

[ithacaartist]

Ah, yes, I remember the Bush years..their hired lackeys and deluded pundits attempted to alter reality through policy. When researching Lugers, we ask the experts--those who have dealt with the variations and conditions Lugers represent. For the straight dope on climate change, consult climatologists, not Rush Limbaugh! For every issue there will always be denialists. Among those you will not find much in the way of hard fact, or even expertise--just opinions. Just because one cannot believe something to be true does not make it untrue. At this point, the few who have not surrendered to the data are considered cranks. In the early days of this issue, it was indeed difficult to see clearly; but as outlined below, the facts added up. The squabble has its roots in how a person deals with evidence; indeed how a person decides what constiitutes evidence and what does not.

The U.S. didn't fare very well when comparing levels of effective education around the world. We're something like 40th in math. This is not good. Perhaps our grand-children's educations will set them up about as well as a jack knife and a hammer would set any of us up to restore a Luger.

I hold no illusion that I can single-handedly stamp out misunderstanding of what science is and represents, but because I've just witnessed so much of it compressed into a small time and space, I'll do my best to politely dispel some of it.

Science is based on the concept, (Sure, it sounds wacky to some, and you know who you are.) that every observable phenomenon has a physical, material, earthly cause. Applying this is called the scientific method:

Observations are first put through the filters of logic to arrive at an hypothesis, which is a conditional explanation of the phenomenon. At this point, the scientist will already have begun the process of attempting to disprove his own work, which follows throughout.
Then the hypothesis is tested in a way to remove, as much as possible, bias and personal interpretation from the gathering of data. From Dragnet: "Just the facts, Ma'am."
The analysis of what the data means, or the conclusion(s), is made pretty much on the basis of what we already know. The important part is that the conclusions, data, and experiment design are written up for the entire world to see. This is part of the beauty of the idea of science; its tendency is to be self-correcting over time, and an actual scientist has the ability to change his mind if the evidence is compelling enough. Each bit of information has the potential to turn everything we think we know on its head, but usually it's an additive process whereby the understanding humankind has about itself and the universe around us is a stepping stone to the next bit of understanding more, and the next, etc. The body of knowledge concerning climate hasn't been just sitting there since somebody figured out that celestial deities did not, in fact hold responsibility for thunder and lightning. Like any other branch of science, it has been growing and changing. This makes science different from dogma, which does not evolve.

This addresses the idea that science '"changes" . It is not exactly the science that changes, but that the conclusions can change when better data is available. It's really about the body of human knowledge, which is increased every day, now at a pace at which one person is unable to keep up with it.

Paul Erlich's predictions were based on population growth and its effects. The factor he did not foresee was the effect of the birth control pill, which appeared less than a year after the book The Population Bomb. This effectively set back the clock on growth a bit, but it definitely does not negate the rest of it: If we grow too big, the planet can't support it. Any other interpretation of the current data is wishful thinking. Worldwide population is projected to double within less than another generation. Ever set out to do something with an idea of just how long it will take, and have your expectations dashed by doubling your projected time? It's similar to that. It might have taken longer than originally projected, and we found this out by experience and now hindsight, because we now know what made our first estimate be incorrect.

Discussions like this don't often change minds. My brother once described talking to my dad as similar in results to dancing with a telephone pole. Dance your heart out, then step back for a look at how much the situation has changed...

[DavidJayUden]

For the straight dope on climate change, consult climatologists, not Rush Limbaugh! For every issue there will always be denialists. Among those you will not find much in the way of hard fact, or even expertise--just opinions. Just because one cannot believe something to be true does not make it untrue. At this point, the few who have not surrendered to the data are considered cranks. In the early days of this issue, it was indeed difficult to see clearly; but as outlined below, the facts added up. The squabble has its roots in how a person deals with evidence; indeed how a person decides what constiitutes evidence and what does not

So are we now talking about this "crisis", man-made global warming, or the last crisis, global cooling which immediately preceded it? As I recall that one was just as much of a "fact" as this latest hoax. Ofcourse it lacked a champion, enter Al Gore.
And using Dane Cook to make your point?
How about enlisting Sean Penn to promote higher education, Hitler to promote population control, and of course BHO to promote economic salvation?
dju

[alanint]

How do you reconcile the English University scandal where they were clearly caught falsifying data to bolster their claims? Do you wonder why Al Gore has made himself scarse since then?

I don't think any intelligent people out there are denying climate change. What we do object to is the left trying to leverage a perfectly natural earth cycle to further their political ends and shove their reforms down our throats, to the extent of falsifying a number of scientific studies to make the issue seem worse.

Should we be tempering our lifestyle and adapting to changing temperatures? Of course. But it is not evil Americans in their gas guzzling SUVs that are causing this or any other crisis.

[DavidJayUden]

[I]"Ah, yes, I remember the Bush years.."[/I

And they are now being remembered as the good old days...
dju

[alanint]

The people who hated Bush are the same ones who hated Ronald Reagan, but now admire him.
History will be much kinder to the Bush administration than they will be to this present collection of incompetents.