"Profound, Gamechanging Questions That Have Needed Answers for Decades".

[joninliverton]

Going back to US drinking laws, I think imposing such draconian laws like 21 for drinking will only encourage under the counter sales to "minors". Although calling an 18 year old a minor when the guy or girl can probably join the US military and fight for their country, is rather silly.

London Bridge history for Miss K:-


"A bridge has existed at or near the present site over the period from the Roman occupation of the area, nearly 2,000 years ago. The first bridge across the Thames in the London area, probably a military pontoon bridge, was built of wood by the Romans on the present site around 50 AD.

Around 55 AD, a piled bridge was constructed, and the local Romans built a small trading settlement next to it—the town of Londinium. The settlement and the bridge were destroyed in a revolt led by Queen Boudicca in 60 AD. The victory was short-lived, and soon afterwards the Romans defeated the rebels and set about building a new walled town. Some of the 2nd-century Roman wall has survived to this day. The new town and bridge were built around the position of the present bridge, providing access to the south-coast ports via Stane Street (the A3 route) and Watling Street (the A2).

The bridge fell into disrepair after the Romans left. As Londinium was also abandoned, there was little need for a bridge at this point, and in the Saxon period the river was a political boundary between the hostile kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex. With the impact of the Viking invasions, the reconquest of the Roman city by the kings of Wessex and its re-occupation by Alfred the Great, the political conditions arose for a Saxon bridge crossing to be placed here. However, there is no archaeological evidence for a bridge before Aethelred's reign and his attempts to stem the Sweinian invasions of the 990s. In 1014, according to a much later skaldic tradition, the bridge was pulled down by the Norwegian prince Olaf, as he was aiding King Aethelred in what, if true, was a successful bid to divide the defending forces of the Danes who held the walled City of London plus Southwark, thereby regaining London for the Anglo-Saxon king. This episode has been thought to have inspired the well-known nursery rhyme "London Bridge is Falling Down".


Sale of Rennie's bridge to Robert McCulloch

Rennie's Old London Bridge during reconstruction at Lake Havasu in March 1971In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London placed the bridge on the market and began to look for potential buyers. Council member Ivan Luckin had put forward the idea of selling the bridge, and recalled: "They all thought I was completely crazy when I suggested we should sell London Bridge when it needed replacing." On 18 April 1968, Rennie's bridge was sold to the Missourian entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for US$2,460,000. The claim that McCulloch believed mistakenly that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge was denied by Luckin in a newspaper interview.[11] As the bridge was taken apart, each piece was numbered to aid re-assembly. The bridge was reconstructed at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and re-dedicated on 10 October 1971. The reconstruction of Rennie's London Bridge spans the Bridgewater Channel canal that leads from Lake Havasu to Thomson Bay, and forms the centrepiece of a theme park in English style, complete with a Tudor period shopping mall. Rennie's London Bridge has become Arizona's second-biggest tourist attraction, after the Grand Canyon.[12]

 

[Jayman01]

Jayman, is there anything you can't find? You are THE Broke Straight Boys Superman.

There are many things I cannot find at this time. It doesn't stop me from looking. I know I will find everything I am looking for in the last place I look though...

 

[underwear fun]

Superheros

Thanks Jayman, although I'm usually not into muscle men, I'd like to have some fun with the reclining demi-god on the beach. Can you send him over on some pre-text? Afterwards, we could shower together and I could remove every square inch of paint from his body, hoping it is edible paint!

Undie

 

[Jayman01]

Thanks Jayman, although I'm usually not into muscle men, I'd like to have some fun with the reclining demi-god on the beach. Can you send him over on some pre-text? Afterwards, we could shower together and I could remove every square inch of paint from his body, hoping it is edible paint!

Undie

I will get right on that...

 

[jasonaz]

Heavy Mystery Time

Is God so all powerfull, He can make a rock so big, He Himself can't lift it?
-George Carlin

 

[carking1]

You don't need a parachute to skydive. You need a parachute to skydive twice.

 

[Ms. Kianna]

If you put a chameleon in a room full of mirrors, what color would it turn?

 

[carking1]

In the United States, why do we chose from 2 people for President and chose from 50 for Miss America?

 

[tampa24]

You don't need a parachute to skydive. You need a parachute to skydive twice.

When a skydiver pulls the cord to his chute and it fails...and then he pulls the cord to the reserve parachute and it fails.. What's the last thing to go through his mind?

 

[tampa24]

His feet.

 

[raysvq]

I wonder how much better the design of the NASA spacesuits would be if the engineer who designed them was force fed hot chillies, zipped up in a suit & shot into space for 5 days.

 

[carking1]

Always borrow money from a pessimist. He doesn't expect it back.

 

[Ms. Kianna]

If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

 

[raysvq]

If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

He is an individualist

 

[carking1]

Are armadillos really opossums on the half-shell?

 

[SGVBOB]

ok, yet another where I 'open up' myself to vulnerability....(speaking from personal experience)...Why does it take someone who is not visibly disabled, yet has several problems, (including epilepsy), NUMEROUS years to get Disability, yet those that are drug addicts, and/or alcoholics, to the point that they cannot work because of their 'choices', get on it right away?

whew....enuff of my ranting!!

 

[clock12]

ok, yet another where I 'open up' myself to vulnerability....(speaking from personal experience)...Why does it take someone who is not visibly disabled, yet has several problems, (including epilepsy), NUMEROUS years to get Disability, yet those that are drug addicts, and/or alcoholics, to the point that they cannot work because of their 'choices', get on it right away?

Since the Reagan Administration, the disability system in the US (SSDI/SSI) is designed first to deny any claim. They will assume if you do not make a second claim, then it wasn't that big of a deal. Oh, and they will deny the second claim in most cases, also. (I have seen people with profound disabilities denied over and over, including one case of a mother trying to get her child with cerebral palsy on disability, since she had to stay at home to take care of her. She was eventually approved after four successive applications, each taking at least six months to be decided. Unfortunately, by the time the forth one was approved on appeal, it was over a year after medical bills forced her into bankruptcy and the loss of her home. She and her daughter now live in a boarding house paid for by SSI voucher. This is just one of many sad cases I could write pages about that I know of personally.)

To get a disability claim approved, you have to really work for it -- paradoxically, since the heart of the claim is an inability to work. Or, you have to have people who know how to navigate the almost impenetrable bureaucracy on your behalf. Many people in drug/alcohol rehabilitation have access to just that kind of support. If your condition requires even occasional hospitalization, then you can often find some assistance through the patient advocacy rep (at least some phone numbers).

The best option, however, is to hire an attorney specializing in disability claims. Yes, they will take a big cut from your disability as payment, but this is better than the nothing you can typically expect. I know a paraplegic gentleman who had to hire a lawyer before he was finally approved (it took three years for him, the last of which he spent homeless, which is where I met him -- but the lawyer got him approved within a few months. He told me he was stupid not to have gone with the lawyer right from the beginning, mistakenly thinking that the wheelchair and lack of limbs would be convincing enough.) The sheer amount of paperwork, redundancy, and bureaucratic ineptitude is astonishing. For people with certain mental disabilities, the application process alone is overwhelming, yet the system has no method of helping these people, so they end up swelling the homeless population. (And if it weren't for religious-based charities, most of them wouldn't even have food to eat. In the richest country in the world.)

If you are alone, dealing with a serious disability without the support of friends/family that can assist you during the applications, informal hearings, formal appeals, and the endless bullshit agency runarounds, then you are screwed. And God help you if you don't have ready access to transportation. An attorney is about the only option, unless you are fortunate enough to get a judge during one of your appeal hearings who has not yet become so burned-out that they would actually see you as a fellow human being. (Good luck with that.)

 

[Jayman01]

Clock, you hit the nail right on the head with the whole SSI and SSD process. It is a night mare. Here is one for you. My brother was born with Hydrocephalus or water on the brain. It crushed the right rear quadrant of his brain and severed his right optical nerve. He finally received his SSD when he was 22. He continued on it until he was 33. He went through the sheltered workshop experiences and eventually he went on to a full-time job with job coaching. He worked there for 15 years before being laid off. Then he was denied three times again before being approved. Any way I digress. Two months after he was hired full-time, the social security office declared that he was no longer disabled. They chased me and my brother every 6 months for 2 years before I got angry enough to involve a congressman. For all of the money to be paid back that he received while on SSD. My father was his payee before me. I had only been his payee for four months. None the less they tried to hold me accountable for a little over $38,000.00... It was just a loop hole in the system.

 

[clock12]

Clock, you hit the nail right on the head with the whole SSI and SSD process. It is a night mare. Here is one for you. My brother was born with Hydrocephalus or water on the brain. It crushed the right rear quadrant of his brain and severed his right optical nerve. He finally received his SSD when he was 22. He continued on it until he was 33. He went through the sheltered workshop experiences and eventually he went on to a full-time job with job coaching. He worked there for 15 years before being laid off. Then he was denied three times again before being approved. Any way I digress. Two months after he was hired full-time, the social security office declared that he was no longer disabled. They chased me and my brother every 6 months for 2 years before I got angry enough to involve a congressman. For all of the money to be paid back that he received while on SSD. My father was his payee before me. I had only been his payee for four months. None the less they tried to hold me accountable for a little over $38,000.00... It was just a loop hole in the system.

Jayman, this is difficult stuff. Not many people could do what you and your father have done for your brother. The fact that he was able to work for 15 years is a testament in itself of the support he had from his family (and his own strength of character), as I am somewhat aware of the incredible hurdles that must be overcome with such a disability. It is heart-wrenching to hear of these families that have tried everything they can, only to be put through the ringer by the Social Security Administration -- the very agency that was chartered and funded to assist your brother. I am glad to hear you got the matter resolved, even if it did take the intercession of a congressman. Hey, that's one of the few things they are actually useful for. If you can get one to pay attention long enough to read your letter.

The specific rules that determine how and when the government will assist a disabled person are hopelessly broken. The whole "safety net" is a cruel joke. I used to volunteer at a rescue mission in Los Angeles, helping people fill out forms for Food Stamps, Medicaid and SSI. The things I have seen, both leading up to me being a volunteer (from being a "client" myself when I was 17) to dealing with the same system in a rural community, well, I could write a book, but it would just be too sad to turn the damned pages.

This world needs more people like you, Jayman. Your outlook is unflappably positive, and it doesn't surprise me in the least that you are a nurturing person taking care of his brother. I fear I have grown too cynical to be as helpful as I could otherwise be, as I used to be when I was younger and more forgiving of what I thought was a system run by good people who just didn't have enough resources. But I've gotten to know too many of the actual people involved, and it turns out they actually couldn't care less.

 

[Jayman01]

Jayman, this is difficult stuff. Not many people could do what you and your father have done for your brother. The fact that he was able to work for 15 years is a testament in itself of the support he had from his family (and his own strength of character), as I am somewhat aware of the incredible hurdles that must be overcome with such a disability. It is heart-wrenching to hear of these families that have tried everything they can, only to be put through the ringer by the Social Security Administration -- the very agency that was chartered and funded to assist your brother. I am glad to hear you got the matter resolved, even if it did take the intercession of a congressman. Hey, that's one of the few things they are actually useful for. If you can get one to pay attention long enough to read your letter.

The specific rules that determine how and when the government will assist a disabled person are hopelessly broken. The whole "safety net" is a cruel joke. I used to volunteer at a rescue mission in Los Angeles, helping people fill out forms for Food Stamps, Medicaid and SSI. The things I have seen, both leading up to me being a volunteer (from being a "client" myself when I was 17) to dealing with the same system in a rural community, well, I could write a book, but it would just be too sad to turn the damned pages.

This world needs more people like you, Jayman. Your outlook is unflappably positive, and it doesn't surprise me in the least that you are a nurturing person taking care of his brother. I fear I have grown too cynical to be as helpful as I could otherwise be, as I used to be when I was younger and more forgiving of what I thought was a system run by good people who just didn't have enough resources. But I've gotten to know too many of the actual people involved, and it turns out they actually couldn't care less.

You said a mouth full about people who could care less within the system. Like you I could write a book about the insane stuff that happens within the system...