Wussy nation: Our view

[Valin]

USA Today:

From Ebola, to university controversies, to North Korea, why are so many so scared?

The Editorial Board

December 25, 2014

 

America has much to be cocky about. It invented large-scale democracy and nurtured its growth around the world. It vanquished fascism and communism, became the world's only superpower. And its entrepreneur-driven economy is again the envy of the world.

 

The nation has also long had more than its share of heroes — people such as Louis Zamperini, whose amazing story of survival during World War II is the subject of the best-selling book, and new movie, Unbroken.

 

Yet to look around the USA is to see fear and anxiety. If you didn't know better, you'd think this was a nation of wimps.

 

Take, for instance, the response to the Ebola outbreak. Millions of people worked themselves into a panic over a disease that has claimed the lives of fewer Americans this year than unsanitary caramel apples.

 

(Snip)

 

Not everyone can be a Louis Zamperini, who spent 47 days on a raft in shark-infested waters living off raw fish, birds and rainwater, followed by more than two years in harsh Japanese prison camps. But it would be nice if more people could at least stop acting like wusses.

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

They really need to get out of the Media Bubble.

[Cyber_Liberty]

They're the nattering nabobs of negativism all year long, then decry the fact people are fearful? Talk about having some cheek....

[Valin]

They're the nattering nabobs of negativism all year long, then decry the fact people are fearful? Talk about having some cheek....

 

 

[Cyber_Liberty]

Yes @Valin, we must do it for the children.

[Valin]

Yes @Valin, we must do it for the children.

 

 

Part of the problem is a lack of common sense.

 

The Baby In The Bucket comes to mind. Back in the mid 90's a young child drowned in a 5 gal. bucket with some water in the bottom. The Nanny state came out with a ruling that all container must have this.

 

 

I was working for Chem-Rex at the time, it cost the company 100's of thousands of dollars to 1. redesign the buckets 2. order huge numbers of stickers 3. hire temps to put the stickers on the buckets 4 a supervisor had to sign off that all buckets were labeled correctly.

[Cyber_Liberty]

 

Yes @Valin, we must do it for the children.

 

 

Part of the problem is a lack of common sense.

 

The Baby In The Bucket comes to mind. Back in the mid 90's a young child drowned in a 5 gal. bucket with some water in the bottom. The Nanny state came out with a ruling that all container must have this.

 

 

I was working for Chem-Rex at the time, it cost the company 100's of thousands of dollars to 1. redesign the buckets 2. order huge numbers of stickers 3. hire temps to put the stickers on the buckets 4 a supervisor had to sign off that all buckets were labeled correctly.

 

 

You weren't forced to employ a QA person to ensure the stickers weren't upside down? Or did that job fall to the Supervisor? Must not have had a union, huh?

[Valin]

 

 

Yes @Valin, we must do it for the children.

 

 

Part of the problem is a lack of common sense.

 

The Baby In The Bucket comes to mind. Back in the mid 90's a young child drowned in a 5 gal. bucket with some water in the bottom. The Nanny state came out with a ruling that all container must have this.

 

 

I was working for Chem-Rex at the time, it cost the company 100's of thousands of dollars to 1. redesign the buckets 2. order huge numbers of stickers 3. hire temps to put the stickers on the buckets 4 a supervisor had to sign off that all buckets were labeled correctly.

 

 

You weren't forced to employ a QA person to ensure the stickers weren't upside down? Or did that job fall to the Supervisor? Must not have had a union, huh?

 

 

 

No union! Actually the supervisor was just the senior guy on the line. A good job, except for the hours 12 on 12 off, 12 days on 2 days off. That's the chemical industry.

[Cyber_Liberty]

Twelve twelves in a row, @Valin? That seems rather arduous...I hope the pay was good.

[Valin]

Twelve twelves in a row, @Valin? That seems rather arduous...I hope the pay was good.

 

Not really. We were around 7-8 dollars an hour under the industry average. Long hours but most of the time was spent waiting, waiting for a reaction to be done, waiting for testing, waiting for the packagers. Got a lot of reading done.

[Valin]

There’s something about Louie

Scott Johnson

December 27, 2014

 

We went to see the film Unbroken on Christmas day. We arrived punctually for the first afternoon showing only to find that it had long since been sold out, as was each subsequent showing until 10:30. They had a few tickets left for that one, but we bought two tickets for a mid-afternoon showing yesterday. It was also sold out. Indeed, although we got there 40 minutes early, a long line inside the theater was waiting to be seated for our showing and the theater suspected some of us of sneaking in with tickets for other movies. As some relative latecomers struggled to find seats just before the movie was scheduled to begin, a theater employee asked all of us who were already seated to pull our tickets for examination. Even before the movie began we had already had a rich theatergoing experience.

 

Like the book, the film tells the utterly amazing, almost unbelievable story of Louie Zamperini, who died earlier this year at the age of 97. The movie is based on Laura Hillenbrand’s wildly best-selling book, now in paperback and in an adaptation for young adults. I wrote about it in “The improbable lives of Louis Zamperini.”

 

(Snip)

 

This is not meant to be a review of the film. It is meant to be a review of the audience for it. I could and should have made this point about the success of the book, which reflects the phenomenon we saw at the theater this week.

 

There is something about Louie. He had something we are hungering for in the the Age of Obama.