No politics - just reality - if the shoe fits....

[Randal Stevenson]

What do you want to focus on? Ultimately, it is your choice.

AND responsibility. Some people grow up on their own, others are forced into it by situations (how many of the "greatest generation" would have, if not for WWII?). No matter what, it still, in the end comes down to the individual, not what their parents/teachers/etc told/taught/shown them.

[Eric DeSilva]

The points Nancy described are now acceptable and, indeed, accepted.

I don't believe that for a minute--look at the bullets again. I see one bullet with behavior I'd call acceptable--working out at Curves then rewarding yourself with a muffin strikes me as being a possible step in the wrong direction if you would have had the muffin anyway. The reference to men raping women in the same bullet is in no way, shape or form comparable, and putting it in there is a cheap linguistic trick. In the next two paragraphs I see absolutely no conduct that anyone would defend as acceptable--same with the last two.

That leaves only the paragraph on judgment and taste, which is a bunch of value-laden assertions and judgments (none objectively supported) that sound an awful lot like an old fogey saying "that rock-n-roll stuff is crap, music has been on a decline since the big band era." It amounts to saying "my taste is better than yours."

I don't buy that this kind of behavior is acceptable, and I don't see it around me. What I do see are decent people around me -- a colleague who was just explaining his allowance system for his daughters, which involved setting aside a percentage for savings and a percentage for charity. People working on a massive charity event for next week. I also see people that work *harder* than generations before--I work in a business where, if I compare the output to 20 years ago, I think prior generations had a walk in the park. Three martini lunches? No way. Document turn-around times of days because of the latency of revising and editing typed materials duplicated with carbons? Relaxing compared to the capabilities of the tools we have today and the acceleration of document turns to hours. The demands are much greater in my line of work than they were 20 years ago.

And, the reality is also that 20 years ago, it would have been pretty hard for the women working in offices adjacent to mine to have the jobs they do. Or heck--even me having the job I do, given the fact that I'm not a WASP. I occasionally get dragged into watching Mad Men with my wife. You can cast stones at how people are treated today, but think a moment about how women or minorities were treated then.

While there are individual behaviors I will readily condemn, I'm not willing to say that society as a whole has hit the skids just yet.

[Dennis Peacock]

Darned nice, darned tough, and the lined ones are soooo warm.
I'm accepting donations for my next pair

If you find some nice'uns like that? PM me so I can get you my bib size. I'd LOVE to have a pair of bibs just like those.....nice, tough, and lined.

[Dennis Peacock]

back-woods mountain folk.
.

Now Mitchell.....you have entered into my neck of the woods. Come on down for some real home cookin'.!! We can put ya on a purdy good feedbag.!!!

[Mitchell Andrus]

.... While there are individual behaviors I will readily condemn, I'm not willing to say that society as a whole has hit the skids just yet.

Well said.
.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Now Mitchell.....you have entered into my neck of the woods. Come on down for some real home cookin'.!! We can put ya on a purdy good feedbag.!!!

I'll bring the 'Dew. YEEEE - HAWWWW!

[Gregg Feldstone]

Nancy,
Look up "infantilization" and "infantilism." There's also "social infantilization." Maybe all of these describe what is happening. One gentleman spoke about the elevated business ethic he observes in his job. Why than is there a 20/80 percent chance that one will be treated rudely, unprofessionally, incompetently and with utter indiferrence when speaking to just about ANY businesses customer service or sales personell today?